Hi, my name is Madeleine Williams. I am what is known as a teenage amputee. It was from my parents' choice, of course but, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself there. Let me explain.
The simple matter of it is that everyone knows that you do way better in life if you have arms that are stronger, perfect in shape and know what to do in any situation. My parents thought it would be best to get my arms and legs early, before I could remember what real arms and legs felt like. Not that there is much of a difference except for that arms and legs can get tired. Prosthetic arms and legs don't, and I guess some people miss that. I wouldn't know, mine were cut off and replaced when I was two.
It's kind of hard to get around these days. Back when prosthetics were considered humanities latest innovative evolution; everyone was going around and getting them. Doctors had found a way to make domestically usable prosthetics so that it cost about as much as a meal. All you really have to pay for is the doctor's time; it's that easy to 'upgrade' yourself. Now the only ones that don't have them are just those that were die hard hippies, their children, and those too poor to pay for the $20 it cost to get them.
I bet those people are laughing at all of us now, though. The hippies had kicked up such a fuss about how it would be considered unfair of their children to be graded and evaluated, even given the same job as someone with prosthetics would be. Even though there are no prosthetics for the brain, just for the arms and legs and so the only advantage would be in gym but, the hippies didn't see it that way. We were now all out to show up their children in their eyes. Any time a protheticsized person would do something memorable, make an achievement with their lives, the hippies only grew more furious.
They sued the government, hospitals, and the parents of the children that got any higher score than their kids did. They would sue anyone, to get what they wanted. And I guess they did get it too. I guess the government was so fed up with all their yammering and grumbling he took pity on them and doomed us protheticsized people.
The new laws that were put into place three years after my prosthetics were put on go kind of like this. A non-protheticsized child is granted a handicap of fifty percent on all grades. That means that whatever grade they got, plus fifty percent. I would just like to point out again those protheticsized children and adults are just as smart, not more so, than regular people.
Another law is that regular teens and adults going in for a job are given higher priority than protheticsized people with the same or more qualifications. Also there were many smaller bills passed in education and artistic places that anything made by a protheticsized person would automatically be worth less than a regular person. The protheticsized community delved into a world of utter darkness.
I grew up in a world where the small group of regular people would sneer at me, I was always considered lesser. I got straight A pluses and it was always my prosthetics that were doing it, not me. The military got wind of the direr straits of these people that were so strong and didn't tire. They gave out an offer; people that signed up would be paid the now legal less than minimum wage for their services and given food and board. Many really had no choice now. Many were laid off or fired after the bills were passed, so many people signed up, including my parents. I guess no one really read the fine print. All property of those in the army is property of the military, and I guess children are considered belongings of their parent until they are of age. This is almost funny when you think about how much fuss had been kicked up before then on individual human rights.
Well, scientists are always looking for test subjects you can monitor and easily acquired samples of human DNA. I was very valuable to them. My marks were great, I had many talents and they were smart enough to know that those weren't gained from prosthetics. I was their favorite test subject, assassin, and spy. Would you like to hear the start of it all? It's kind of scary, not to me though. They, the scientists, realized I was a big cry baby, "stupid female genes" they would mutter. So now I don't get scared at all or feel pain really well or anything, really. I am the first person that now has prosthetic emotions, which are always turned off. No need to have those pesky emotions always in the way of science, right? The scientists would rather their favorite test subject hide her emotions in that wall she still likes to call her heart.
The reason why the military loves me as much as the scientists is because of our country or rather what our country is now. It took me a year, possibly the shortest conquest of an entire continent that I know of. I was twelve years old at the time and they wanted to send me on my first mission as part of the military instead of as just a test subject. My job was to assassinate the leaders of Mexico, the representative of Greenland, and the President of the United States of America; I succeeded wonderfully. I was sent out again after they had gained control to "control" the rebellions. I guess it's a testament to my honour that everyone has been too scared to launch any more in the past five years. So now I'm hailed as the hero of the new empire the Arctic. I find it a really egotistical name, if anyone would have asked me, but that's what it's now called. It's called the Arctic because it was the Canadian military that has control of me and who has ordered everything. The Arctic's really just their goal though, first they want to conquer the Arctic and then spread outward from there. They only have control of North America right now. But, I guess people did use to say reach for the stars, follow your dreams and all that jazz, didn't they?
But, I'm curious. I may have been the first engineered war fighter, assassin, or whatever it is that they have classified me as, but, others must have tried to do the same. There has to be people out there who are like me. People I can relate to and finally be able to become friends with. I even heard some lab coats talking about it too. I keep hearing small snatches of all these quiet conversations that become hushed when I walk by. These tiny, little, conversations that talk about other people like me. I keep hearing little conversations that talk of governments producing their own indestructible fighters. I suppose I should feel bad for these unknown nameless people, all the testing they'll have to go through. But, at the same time, I think I'm a bit excited. I want to get to meet them. More importantly, I want to be their friend.
I'm the hero of the Arctic Empire but, I am just so bored with my current life. Let's go try and change that a bit, shall we?