Being Amber. Sylvia Ryan

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СКАЧАТЬ breath caught in her throat as her vision narrowed to the underlined word.

       …If after reviewing all accompanying paperwork, you have any questions regarding your designation, please com the contact listed on the back of this form.

       You have been given the job designation of Painter. Your reporting date and supervisor name are enclosed.

       You are assigned to Amber Housing Zone Building 17, Apartment 404.

       Due to your genetic profile indicating the presence of an Automatic Disqualifier, you are to report to the Amber Sterilization Center for mandatory sterilization tomorrow, June 1, 2075.

      Jaci let the page fall to the table in front of her. “Oh my God,” she whispered numbly. Her face heated, and her ears filled with high-pitched ringing. She pulled the rest of the packet from the envelope and leafed through the pages. When she got to the IQ section, she studied the scores for all of the individual testing segments. They were all good. She had an IQ score high enough to be a Sapphire. A slight sense of pride washed over her. At least she was smart enough. But, that didn’t really matter now, did it?

      Jaci clumsily rifled through each remaining page, trying to find the reason why she’d been designated an Amber. Then, toward the back of the stack, she found her genetic profile and zeroed in on the highlighted section.

       …An Automatic Disqualifier was found in genome CD247 indicating a genetic predisposition for scleroderma and probable perpetuation of the disease through offspring…

      Scleroderma. She’d never heard of it but clearly, it was one of the chronic conditions the Gov was trying to exterminate. Information regarding the disease was highlighted but she didn’t read it. She put the papers down and leaned back in her chair. All of the studying or talent in the world wouldn’t have made a difference. There were some genes deemed undesirable in any person, and she had one of them.

      Jaci sat stunned, her gaze unfocused, unblinking.

      Like an animal helplessly looking up at its demise, she experienced a frozen panic. She was road kill, unable to make sense of the unexpected ruin that just hit her. She’d been leveled by the Repopulation Laws. There was no recovering from this.

      Disoriented, she followed a woman to a different cubicle to get her tattoo.

      “Would you like a design or a plain band?” A young man asked as he looked at her paperwork and picked the amber-colored ink bottle from it’s place in the neatly ordered row of class colors.

      “Band,” Jaci said vacantly.

      He paused and met her eyes, opening his mouth as if he was going to say something. Then, his gaze flicked over to the surveillance camera mounted on the ceiling and abruptly closed it, busying himself again with his work.

      As he tattooed the one-inch yellow-orange band around her wrist, Jaci screamed inside. She lost her bearings as the room around her caved in on itself, receded to a pinpoint far, far away. Anger and panic rose within her as she sat rooted in a state of catatonic frenzy. Only the vibrating sting of the tattoo needle marking her wrist tethered her to the reality of her surroundings.

      “Can I have your left palm please?”

      Jaci looked at the man. Had he been talking to her? “What?”

      “I have to give you your code,” he said softly. “Everyone in the Amber Zone has one.” He gave Jaci a glimpse of the code on his palm, and then her eyes traveled to his wrist. He was an Amber. She hadn’t even noticed.

      Jaci gave the man her hand. She didn’t ask what the code was for. She didn’t watch as the sting of the needle pricked the sensitive skin of her palm. She didn’t care.

      When the tattoos were completed, she was ushered to the waiting transport bus that would take her and her duffel bag to their new home.

      The border that separated the Sapphire Zone from the Amber Zone was heavily guarded. Only Ambers with the correct clearance, ones that worked outside the Amber Zone, could pass into Sapphire.

      Being raised as a Sapphire, one class up from Amber, Jaci never had any contact with Ambers before. She’d been educated early that there was no color mixing. Ambers were inferior human beings, weak, stupid, and riddled with disease.

      Now, she was one of them.

      The transport driver had a serious case of diarrhea of the mouth and either didn’t notice or didn’t care that Jaci was barely there. She watched the beauty of the Sapphire Zone disappear behind her while he droned on cheerfully with need-to-know Amber Zone facts.

      As they approached the ugly high-rise buildings of Circle City, the driver’s annoying buzz of words continued to permeate the protective barrier she tried to erect around herself.

      “…twenty story high rise that looks exactly like buildings one through twenty-eight. The buildings themselves were built specifically for housing single Ambers. They form a huge circle enclosing an entire city within the ring. You won’t need transportation. Everything you’re going to need is within Circle City. When you get married, you’ll be transferred to a town house or condo in the Amber Zone, but outside of Circle City.”

      The transport pulled up to building seventeen. Jaci exited, escaping the talkative driver, and walked in. She wove her way through the crowded lobby to the elevator and then rode it up to the fourth floor. The door opened to a congested hallway. She walked through small huddles of people, like a rat in a maze, confused and not quite sure where she was going. Then she stopped short, and for a second, stared at the door of her new home. She tried the knob. It was locked. She stood for a moment longer, having trouble keeping it together while trying to remain invisible amidst the crowd of people. She fought an explosion of tears and frustration as she stared at the metal 404 directly in front of her. Then she sighted the scanner on the left side of the door. She placed her hand on it. The scanner registered the new tattooed code on her palm, and a small click sounded as the lock mechanism released.

      Jaci exhaled the breath she’d been holding, and stepped in. She surveyed her new home, a studio apartment with a small galley kitchen and a bathroom. The entire space was about the size of the family room at her parents’ house. Being a single Amber meant she would be stuffed in and vacuum packed so she took up as little space as possible.

      Jaci closed the door behind her and stood frozen just inside the doorway, taking the room in. White, it was all stark white, impersonal, sterile. One large bed centered on the wall of the living space monopolized the room. There were night tables on each side. Clothes, pictures and other personal items were strewn over the area closest to the large window at the far end of the room.

      A huff of air escaped her as realization dawned in Jaci’s mind. She would not be in this small space alone. Another person already lived there. But there was only one bed. It didn’t make sense. She glanced to the side nearest to where she stood, to what she assumed was her side of the room. She was closest to the exit and the door entering the bathroom was on the other side of her night table.

      A small flat screen hung on the wall opposite the bed, and two chairs were tucked into a small round dining table near the counter that delineated the kitchen from the living space. The kitchen was small and narrow, taking up the back wall of the apartment by the entrance. It contained all the basics, a tiny fridge, a sink, and a two-burner stove.

      When СКАЧАТЬ