God Save The Queen
God Save The Queen
Chapter 1: When I Was Young
"Mr Sparrow! Whatever has gotten into you?" screamed the frustrated head of Cadbury Academy.
This was the 5th time in as many weeks that Justin Sparrow had been hauled before him. This time he had been caught fighting with another lad, a thin boy named Sammy.
His parents would no doubt complain that it was the school's fault, that their dear boy was being singled out again. Almost made him feel sorry for the lad. After all, it was hardly his fault that his parents didn't see the need to brush his curly locks or to make sure he had the latest shoes.
Mr Black knew that they should have gone further when they reintroduced school uniforms. It was simply not enough to state a colour scheme and a ban on certain items, it was clear that they needed a totally prescriptive dress code. That would have forced Mr and Mrs Sparrow to spend money on the important things in life rather than saving all their money up for a rainy day that would never come.
Mr Black returned his gaze to the boy standing in-front of him
"Go home Justin. And when you return tomorrow make sure that your sleeves are short, your shoes shine and your hair is brushed"
Justin sniffed.
"And for heaven's sake boy, buy yourself a happy pill"
"He said what?" questioned Danny Sparrow.
"He ordered me to take a happy pill Dad!"
"Now Justin, you know we don't hold with those in this house. The rest of the world may have gone crazy, but we still remember our morals. Those pill simply zap your soul, take away the real you. I want my little boy, not some zombie"
Justin's Mum walked by, "Now now, stop exaggerating Dan"
"I am not exaggerating Martha. I tell you that a day will come when we are hung, drawn and quartered for being our very selves. I mean, when we were young there were people who actually remembered real music"
"Oh no" thought Justin "not this story again"
"My grandparents used to speak of a time when you could sing anything you wanted. There were freedom fighters, people who refused to obey the law. You could be anyone you wanted to be and no-one cared. Now look at the world. I half believe that your great-grandparents were only removed from us to keep their memories hidden"
"Careful" warned Mrs Sparrow, "You know they're listening"
She looked towards a camera in the corner of the room, "He doesn't really mean it; he simply gets carried away sometimes"
She returned her gaze to her husband, "We both know that they were taken to be with others their own age at green pastures retirement home. I'm sure they prefer it there. After all, they weren't ready for this new world"
Justin may only have been 6 but his parents' words stuck with him. Despite what he learnt at school, things had been different once. And Massive Mother clearly did not like them talking about those days. Something was wrong and someday, somehow, he would find out the truth.
The following year, Justin was playing outside. Alongside him were a small group of other no-hopers.
To tell the truth there were only two of them. Sally was a small dumpy girl with straggly pig-tails. Despite putting her on a diet at the age of four her parents had never been able to make her loose her puppy-fat. The other girls laughed at her and called her names, so she had been forced into the outside world.
Lucy was the exact opposite. Tall, slim and quite attractive, she should have been the bell of her ball. The problem was that she had an extremely pronounced stammer. She had once had glasses as well. But whilst a simple operation had restored her eyesight, nothing could be done for her voice. The only person who didn't seem to mind was Justin.
The three of them made a funny trio, but somehow it worked. They all had one thing in common, they did not fit into the hole society had created for them. Whilst the other students gathered in the halls listening to their music and chatting about fashion, the outsiders played. They invented the forbidden games and retold the forbidden anecdotes. And they like to think that somehow their strangeness made them special and, more importantly, feared.
The outsiders sat alone at their table in the cafeteria, fiddling with their food. All three were fed up of the state of the rations the academy provided them with. Each resolved to somehow find something more satisfying to the senses once they were outside the confines of this establishment.
For Justin this wouldn't be too hard a task. His parents hated the uniform food which the educational establishments turned out every single day. They longed for something with taste and not just reformed nutritional supplements. Other food was so hard to come by that they had been forced to grow their own, GM-ridden as the soil had become.
It was much harder for young Sally. Her rations were so meagre that her stomach rumbled constantly and she found it hard to concentrate. In order to counteract this, the academy had put her on 'Concentration-ProX (designed to conquer even the most tired mind)'. Privately, she believed that she would never be thin and so she might as well eat whatever she wanted and actually be able to live a life. Not that her life was really worth living! (She sneaked Justin's food- even that was better than hers)
Lucy was simply bored. She wanted some kind of excitement from life and she knew this meal was defiantly not providing it. As she chewed at the cardboard-tasting drivel her stomach began to churn. She was intelligent enough to know what nasty chemicals were in this junk. Those in authority thought she hadn't noticed the effect that it had on the other students. She tried to force herself to take it down (after all, she had to eat something), but sheer will power was not enough. Before she could help herself a new mess had accumulated in-front of her.
It was at that moment that Professor Jones happened to pass by. She took one look at Lucy's dress and her face quickly turned a deep shade of red. The gang could almost see steam coming out of her ears.
Without a word, she motioned for Lucy to march out of the room. She did so, silently dragging her heels. That left two loners more alone than ever. They never saw their friend again.
Justin had little time to wonder at what had happened to Lucy, he was in for too much trouble himself. He was suspended from school for two months for being caught tapping on his desk-top. In his opinion they were over-reacting just a tad, after all he had only been daydreaming.
Still, at least it had given him a chance to go camping with his family. Whilst all his so-called 'school-mates' were cyber-surfing he would have the chance to experience the real world. To live life on the razor-edge. He couldn't wait.
Justin gazed longingly at his Dad's Harley. He had been hoping that they would take this icon of the past for a spin, as they usually did when the two of them went out together. But then his father had pointed out the fact that there would be three of them today. Justin couldn't see the problem, but Dad had been insistent- they took the bicycles instead.
Loading the luggage onto the bikes wasn't easy. The Sparrows were always well-prepared and didn't own all those mini-gadgets that were all-so popular these days. The result was 3 hiker's backpacks, 2 holdals and a picnic basket. The last item was the most unusual of them all, the only other one Justin had ever seen had been in a museum.
The neighbours stared as the family from the dawn of time got ready for their expedition. Some jeered them, "Where are you going? The Andromeda Galaxy?"
Children asked their parents, "Where are their replicator packs?"
A few his deep in their hearts a secret respect for the rebels, but shouted abuse in order to keep their thoughts locked up inside, "Running away from reality again?! One day you'll have to join us!"
Those departing words haunted Justin as he rode through the deserted streets. They haunted him as he passed the desolate bus station. They haunted him as they bumped along the worn out roads. He hardly noticed when they eventually hit nature.
In reality nature had been breaking through for quite a long time now. Despite weed-killer and herbicides it had found a way to encroach on the outskirts of the city. Vines grew down the drainpipes and weeds sprang through the cracks of time. Here and there a beetle scuttled- the great survivors.
But Justin didn't see this. What would he have made of it if he had? He might have seen it as symbolic of the struggle between his family and the cyber-world! He might have seen it as a sign that they could survive in this new world! He might have seen it as a call to continue fighting to keep his identity! Nah! More than likely he would just have observed the mess that formed around him. You see, despite his parents' best efforts, Justin was at least partly a product of 'them'!
When Justin returned from gathering water, his parents had gone. The camp was ransacked. The tents were torn and the fire just ashes.
A flame arose from them within Justin's heart. He searched frantically, hoping beyond hope to see them once more. He checked the scrub around their site, in the pits and underneath the discarded tents. In his panic he even checked inside their ripped bags. But there was no sign of them!
Eventually he slumped down in despair. So worn was he that his mind barely registered the coming of nightfall. The temperature dropped, but Justin sat still as a rock. Until, eventually, the light sought him out.
As the lights turned on Justin Sparrow rose to another day at Virtual High. Every moment of his life over the past two years had been spent at the school, ever since his parents had been so tragically killed at the paws of wild bear.
At first Justin had refused to believe the truth. But they had helped him to come to terms with his grief. And he had been lucky; he had been rescued before love of the real world had caused his demise as well.
Virtual High was the future. With its strict discipline and precise schedule, it turned around the asbos who entered its doors. The system was the guardian of these wayward youths and they followed in its steps. Justin could barely believe he had survived before his rescue.
The boys had begun to question the reasons for their being kept away from their parents. Despite the head's constant explanations, he felt that a school-wide announcement was called for.
"Residents of Virtual High" boomed the bodiless voice, "We will not tolerate discontent in our household! We have saved you from the chaos of family life! We are your rescuers! You should thank us for our caring nature! Your parents could not look after you! They did not even want you! We want you! And this world needs you! You are the future! We are the future! Virtual High forever!"
And with that the announcement ended.
All the other boys talked of now was how terrible their parents had been. Justin knew that his were misguided and that had brought about their ruin, but he wasn't sure that they had been that bad.
However boys will be boys and Justin didn't want to be left out. He had been the outsider before and he wasn't going to make that mistake again. It all started quite innocent, telling true stories of the ways in which his parents had showed him the wrong paths. But then it escalated and soon it was out of control.
Justin told his listeners of how he had flaunted the system himself and rebelled against every figure of authority he had encountered. He was The Rebel-rebel, The Rocket-man. Even his parents had feared his bad-guy ways. Eventually they had been forced to abandon him to the state's care. He knew they had loved him (making a final request that he went to Virtual High), but that love had been fragile and ultimately useless. In the end he began to believe his lies.
Mr Killer was pleased with his work. He had managed to break down each and every one of his students. Soon they would become products of the system, youth designed to become the workforce for his new company. Now all he had to do was destroy their previous identities once and for all. Then he would have the perfect employees, indebted to him forever and with minds totally dedicated to his will.
"You feel so much like a family to me" Mr Killer told his students, "that I felt it was time that we all had one name. From now on you shall be joined with me as earthlink. And in honour of your new life you shall each be given a new first name. This shall reflect your character and will remain with you forever"
The headmaster walked down the line, assigning out names to his students. He only regretted that he could not change these by law and so they would be reminded of their true identities again some day. But in school their names would remain until graduation and maybe they would then choose them for themselves.
He stopped in-front of Justin and looked him up and down. What name would he give to this leader of the pack? Since arriving he had shown himself as a political manager, able to do great good for the company. The other students looked up to him and they followed his example. They had even begun to call him 'Pop'.
Pete Killer had to admit that he quite liked the name the students had given this lad. Despite his best interests he had taken quite a liking to young Sparrow. Did he dare to let the name stick? He looked him up and down once more. Maybe it would be good to give the students this tiny thing, just so that he could say he had given them some freedom if the government started breathing down his neck.
"Welcome to GlobalSoft ."