Less Than Fantasy, More Than Reality – Chapter 1

Ultima66

"Your move," said the policeman, holding a gun pointed right at Mark's chest.

"I told you I'm sorry already! Do you think that I would want to be in this position right now?" he relied, pointing his own pistol back.

"You broke the law, Mark. You're under arrest, and there's nothing that either of us can change no matter what we think. You're going to have to go to jail with me," the policeman relied.

"Maybe the law isn't right. It's happened before, more than once too. Do you really think that the people you have to listen to all day are always right? Aren't they just humans, too? I made mistakes, and they can, too. Sir, if you arrest me, you're going to making a mistake," he said, "Look… I…"

"Be quiet!" yelled the officer. A warning shot whizzed over Mark. "If I don't take you in, then I'll still be making a mistake. The fact is, I'd rather listen to my superiors than you, and if you've got a problem with that, then you can take it to them when you go to court. Let's go."

Realizing that it was no use, Mark dropped the gun and allowed himself to be handcuffed and taken to the police car. It was late at night, and embarrassment filled Mark's mind as people who had been woken up by the sirens and the gunshot began to stare out from their windows at the scene going on below. Mark was led to the police car and forced to get in.

Slowly, he uttered, "Kakuzawa. Why did this have to happen?"

A hopeless question that no one could answer.

The cell was small and dark. It seemed clean enough, but to Mark it was seemed tarnished simply by being a jail cell. He wondered how people could have turned the world into this place. Of course, in this world, it became increasingly hard to even define what made a person any more. The world had changed too much in the last generation.

Kakuzawa was partly to blame, indeed. After his death decades ago, his entire plan came unraveled. When people found out that the one who had said he would try to stop the Diclonius virus was a Diclonius himself they started to become paranoid. Steadily, more and more groups of people began to attack the Diclonius, thinking that they were involved in a plot similar to the one that Kakuzawa had started and failed to spread the virus, and the world started changing more than ever before.

A renewed outbreak of hate began to surge, after so many years of working for a world of equality. Not long after, all living Diclonius started to be quarantined and all other humans were forced to stay away from the Diclonius by law. The world had gone into a frenzy, and Diclonius, parents of Diclonius, as well as suspected Diclonius began to be lynched and murdered and people by the mass began to be afraid of reproduction.

For essentially the first time ever, the human race began to decline. The world population had dropped to 4 billion, and Mark was upset at it all. Without doubt the Diclonius population had risen. Everyone had heard and knew in their minds that at least 30 of the world was infected by the virus by now, but everyone refused to recognize it. Even Diclonius themselves began to hide their horns and take action against other Diclonius in droves. When the Diclonius masses began to turn on each other, they realized that they could gain status simply by turning each other in. All the rapidity of the attacks on anyone accused of being Diclonius led way to tens of millions of innocent people being slaughtered over the years, and things were just getting worse as the birth rates no longer surpassed the death rates.

Underlying it all was the Restriction Law. It made it against the law for anyone to be in contact with someone that they knew was a Diclonius and not report them. This is what had happened to Mark.

"The world is hopeless..." he whispered to himself, "In all this hysteria people just don't even value life any more. Did no one learn anything from Lucy's death?"

Of course not that many people even knew about Lucy's death at first. It was her death that caused Kakuzawa's plan to come apart, of course, but other than that, no one really cared much for it. Or at least, his plan came apart prematurely and not enough people were infected.

"Kakuzawa was just one of them," he thought, "Not caring for anything but himself and his own plans. Even the Diclonius can't help from fighting themselves. All of the human race is imploding in a wave of hate and murder... I can't believe this. Amy..."

He wondered about Amy. Surely she was dead by now. He tried to cry, but he remembered his hate for the world and simply couldn't. He knew he wouldn't live for much longer. None of the people who were found breaking the Restriction Law ever did. The world had fallen to mob mentality, and almost nothing could save it, he thought.

That's all it was. Mob mentality. Fear everywhere, and everyone just went with it out of fear. People had always guessed the world would fall to governments that kept people ignorant, or governments that kept people thinking they weren't doing anything wrong. Who knew it could turn into this? Who knew that the world to fall to an extent where all resistance to the public was met with murder? And it wasn't even the government so any more. 95 of the deaths that year that weren't from natural causes were from lynchings. In a world where a corrupt government controls everything, at least there's a hope a public will some day rise up and meet the government with opposition. What could be done now? The public WAS the one that was corrupt. It destroyed all the belief that people were inherently good, and society simply collapsed.

Suddenly a policeman walked up to Mark's cell.

"Someone's here to see you," he said. Quickly the policeman opened the door and a woman stepped through the doorway as the policeman left.

"Janet? Is that you?" asked Mark. It was his sister, a few years older than him, with long dark hair and a complexion that hinted of buried trouble with the world. That same sadness began to spread to more and more people all over the world over the last few years.

"Mark... I heard what happened. I'm so sorry..." she said.

"Don't be sorry. The world is what it is. I can't stop them from doing this to me, whatever that means," he replied, and air of anger around him.

"But why?" she asked, "I never knew you would ever even meet a Diclonius."

"Don't be ignorant. We all know they're everywhere. There's nothing we can do. This world is too corrupt. Janet, I should be the one that's sorry, for putting you through this," Mark said.

"No, you have nothing to be sorry for either. Mark, why didn't you follow the law? Did you want this to happen to you? You know martyrdom isn't going to help," she asked.

"Martyrdom? Do I look like a martyr to you, Janet? I know you're disgusted already at the way the world is right now, but think, Janet. What is it like to be in my shoes? Well I suppose you don't even know what's the worst part of it all: the part that makes me sick more than anything else because I've been through it," he responded.

"Mark, you're going to have to tell me what it is," Janet said, "What are you trying to say?"

"Janet... her name was Amy."

Silence.

After a moment, Janet spoke, "I see... Mark, I've never been in love, but I can understand enough to know what happened. Maybe... maybe they've really created a world without love."

"It's not that there's no love any more. Love just isn't the way to go any more. Love means nothing now. How often do you hear about opium now? It still exists, but other drugs have replaced it. Well, love's kinda like that. Love is all but dried out and everyone's hooked on hate," he said.

"Are you gonna be okay though?" she said.

"We both know the answer to that question, Janet. How can I be okay?" he quickly responded, "Does it matter to you?"

"Does it matter!?" she yelled, "Mark... I know how this world is, but... Mark..." Tears came to her eyes. "You're my brother, Mark. How can I just forgive this happening to you? We've all been through so much, but I'll be damned if you just give up right now. You know how much corruption is rampaging through the world right now. Mark... I really care about you as a sister and a family member. I've seen you grow up from being just a child! We've known each other our whole lives..."

He began to sob as well. "Janet... What can I do now? Whatever happens we'll just have to go along with. We can't fight the public. Janet, I've studied this. This tidal wave hasn't even hit it's peak yet. All the hysteria will just keep growing, getting harder and harder to stop. You think things are bad now? Wait till the crash. This could be the end of the human race as we know it, Janet, and out of the billions, we're the few that know what's really going on."

"That's not true, Mark. Lots of people know what's going on. They just keep it a secret."

"Then what's the point? This is exactly why it's getting worse! Everyone's so afraid of what will happen to them. Well the problem is that this time, it's the public. If it were the government, sure, million, even thousands of people could start a revolution. When we're fighting public opinion vs public opinion, we're going to need a majority. That means more than 2 billion people have to come out and say they want change, all of them at risk of endangering their own lives if they come out and try to make a change. You know how impossible that is?" Mark was yelling at this point. Janet, now crying heavily, ran out of the room without a word, her cries echoing throughout the jail cell.

He sat there, tears still flowing down his cheeks. He wondered how innocence could still exist in a world like this. Everyone had been taken in by the mob mentality. Images of death were rampant on both sides. People had to cope with knowing the world was wrong and still having to live with it, and the Diclonius had to live with a world where no one could be trusted and life revolved around staying alive.

Mark's thoughts trailed back to Amy. He shuddered. "Oh, Amy, what's gone wrong..."

He thought back to that day...