Surrogate Code

By Boshra Rasti

Defying the odds, Adriana and Zach have escaped MicroScrep's extermination institutions - Adriana, the Surrogate Colony, and Zach, the Eunuch Colony. They've found the off-grid Scientists committed to destroying MicroScrep and should be happily living in matrimony, but there is a problem: the Scientists d

• Language: English
• Publisher: Boshra Rasti
• Release date: Aug 2, 2022
• ISBN: 9798986238906

Book preview

1

ZACH

Adriana closes the door to the Elder’s office and takes a seat beside me. She lowers her head and covers her face with her hands.

The Elder sits on his intricately carved wooden chair. His ruddy face and large mass are overpowered by the magnificence of the chair that rises like the hands of a mighty warrior, up to the wooden beams of the hall.

Zachary Molten. I suspected you’d be coming around soon, the Elder booms. His voice filled the minimalist, earthy hall.

I sigh and plunk down on a chair across the table from him.

You have insomnia I hear? the Elder asks.

I shuffle my feet, not able to keep eye contact with the Elder. They’re coming, aren’t they? I know it, I can feel it in my bones.

Have you noticed the changing scenery around the dome? he asks. This is our method of protection. The dome that houses our village is programmed to shift locations in the forest when there is intelligence about a coming raid.

As much as the Elder’s words aim to calm me, I can’t get Ben’s scarred face out of my mind. He’s relentless. I know he’ll be back. I know MicroScrep won’t let up until they destroy us. Until they destroy the off-grid Scientists’ village.

I swallow and my voice breaks. Do you know who’s with them?

That information, we don’t have. But we do have our defenses. Trust that we’ve been able to withstand annihilation for generations, and if you are chosen to fulfill a mission for us, you’ll have the necessary technology to assist you. The Elder shifts his weight and crosses his leg, eyeing me suspiciously.

You’ve never been an insomniac, have you? the Elder asks.

No, I mutter.

It’s a shame, but this means something. Insomnia is a psychological state brought on by conflict, the Elder says, brushing the hairs of his mustache with his fingers.

Conflict? I repeat, wincing my eyes.

You are conflicted. It isn’t entirely your fault. Eunuchs are brainwashed to hate us. The Elder lowers his voice. You’ve gone through extreme methods of brainwashing - you were ready to kill one of us a few weeks ago.

—But I wanted to be with Adriana. It had nothing to do with hating you and your people. I rake my hair back out of my hot face. I mean our people.

Hmm, your last sentence wasn’t a slip of the tongue. Zachary, you can’t sleep because you are still fighting your darkness. The darkness you inherited in MicroScrep and which was stoked in the Eunuch Center. The only way to redeem yourself is to again plunge yourself in a battle against MicroScrep. Then, when you have accepted the challenge wholeheartedly, you will be able to sleep.

2

ADRIANA

Sitting in the stillness, the smell of earth and wood surrounds me. This is an unconventional place for a school lesson, but perhaps not one for a life lesson. I take in a deep breath of fresh, forest air. The porous dome has changed location again. This time the dome, that connects to the walls around our village, has dark-green pines around it. The smell of winter, of home and hearth, surrounds us.

It’s unreal, isn’t it? I ask Zach, who is scrapping the flesh around his cuticles. The dark circles under his eyes give him a sad look like he’s a wounded soldier.

I am so tired sometimes I doubt if I am alive.

You’re definitely alive, I comment, staring at his cuticles that have started to bleed.

It’s the only thing that proves I still am, he sighs.

My heart aches for him. He’s struggling here, everyone distrusts him, and he has no friend other than me. I can’t blame the villagers either. If an off-grid scientist were to march into MicroScrep, he’d be ripped to pieces in seconds. Zach is only met by ambivalence at best, and outright fear by some children. Children have no decorum or filter.

Waiting for the children to trickle in, an overwhelming feeling of loss fills me. My school memories revolve around indoctrination about Arthur Mills and the country of MicroScrep; the vilification of the off-grid Scientists; the fear of microbes, and the constant scanning as a form of vigilance against viruses, these were the hallmarks of MicroScrepian education.

In contrast, the villagers have a gentle way of educating, giving their children space to wonder and build their curiosities. The natural surroundings connect them to the earth, to the elemental aspect of being human. My sadness is stilled by the sound of children’s footsteps stomping, following their teacher, Anthony. He looks strikingly like Zach. Sadness radiates through me. These days Zach has been detached and weary of me. I know it is his health, his struggle against what he expected would happen after escaping the Eunuch colony, and what the lived experience is. Anthony winks at me and snaps me out of my sad mulling.

This is my third round of interviews this week. It’s part of a process called Restorative Education, where students learn about life in MicroScrep. Also, children who have been affected by MicroScrep’s tyranny are brought in as a way of learning and healing from the trauma. This is in line with their motto: Never Forget our Struggles. It is a way for the off-grid Scientists to teach their children about the tyranny of MicroScrep and the need to be vigilant about their machinations.

In another way, I think it is meant to make Zach and me uncomfortable and make us pay, in a small way, for unwittingly being under MicroScrep’s influence, even if for a short time. The off-grid Scientists are masters of behavioral science. They know how to read us.

Each group of children brings curiosity about the novelty of seeing a real-life former Surrogate, a former citizen of MicroScrep. However, the way they approach Zach is different; they are more suspicious of him. They know Eunuchs are to be feared, even if Zachary is the gentlest Eunuch they’ll ever know.

A group crawls over the simple wooden floor of our hut to Zachary, their eyes wide at seeing another, more feared, anomaly - a Eunuch.

He won't hurt us, will he? I hear one boy whisper to Anthony.

Anthony shakes his head earnestly. No, he says, but the boy glares at Zach and frowns.

Anthony walks over to Zach and explains that the boy’s aunt was killed by Eunuchs in a raid when he was five. The boy interjects, I still remember the funeral and my grandmother’s moans. His face reddens as if he’s fighting to suppress a fire within his soul and it has lit up all over his face. I feel sadness for having to witness the divisiveness that MicroScrep has caused.

I’m sorry. Zach’s eyes drop to the ground, swallowing hard. Zach sits in front of the class and resumes talking about the method that MicroScrep uses to control: The database Harmony which provides algorithms for all major life decisions in MicroScrep. He tells the children that people are paired as Perfect Bonding Pairs. Once Surrogates birth a child off-grid for the Perfect Bonding Pairs, they become Perfect Family Matches. Zach speaks of MicroScrep’s strict adherence to science (the science they deem rightful); and the medicine it uses to dumb down its citizens into conformity. The students sit dazzled and amazed, while some sit stern, fear is written all over their faces.

I hope that my lesson will diminish their natural revulsion towards Zachary, especially the ones whose families have directly been affected by MicroScrep. My lesson revolves around the lies we are told as children in MicroScrep. How we are taught that people before Arthur Mills established MicroScrep, were debased animals. How we were brainwashed to fear microbes and bacteria, constantly scanning and sanitizing our surroundings. How we are told that Harmony’s algorithms never made a mistake. The worst lie I tell them was my belief that if chosen as a Surrogate, to be taken off-grid, we’d live a blissful existence - when in fact we were just used as vessels for MicroScrep, filled with an embryo, and then when emptied, systematically killed off. Some of the girls in the audience hold their tummies as if empathizing with my loss. Other’s eyes bulge out in shock.

So, everything we learn here—like how science and the mind are interwoven, that technology should be controlled by our rationale and empathy, that we should have good and respectful relationships with a person of our choosing—is the opposite in MicroScrep? a girl with dark, curly hair says.

You said that very eloquently. Yes. I smile and a pang of sadness pierces me as I realize I wish I had been raised with the off-grid Scientists.

I finish my lesson quicker than Zach does, and Anthony bundles us across the floor to where Zach is having a more difficult time with the questions thrown at him.

How could you have even contemplated killing one of us, just to get to Adriana? a precocious boy with wheat-colored hair asks.

Well…I…I…I really didn’t kill any off-grid Scientists, my partner Ben did.

"But you helped him, didn’t you?" the boy interjects.

I…I didn’t know any better. I thought you were all evil and wanted to wage war with MicroScrep. Don’t forget, we were brainwashed as Eunuchs. Zach’s face flares a ruddy color. I feel an impulse to stand up for Zachary, but I know that what I would say wouldn’t help him. I am not one of them after all. That much, I am sure. It will take time for them to trust. Anthony warned me about this. He said he’d deal with it more effectively.

Boys, remember about respect, Anthony says, coming to Zach’s rescue. This is a restorative process, and Zach has volunteered to go on a mission to prove his repentance for being a Eunuch. Anthony shushes the crowd, who continue to squirm with questions.

3

ZACH

The light from the window cascades into the bedroom. Adriana insisted she sleep beside me last night. She knows that soon I’ll be called to my mission and she wants to savor our closeness while it lasts. My eyes sting from sleepiness but I blink them, beating away the pain. Adriana is asleep beside me, her chest moving like the swells of the sea. What is she dreaming of?

She murmurs words unintelligibly. Sighing, I feel this is a metaphor for my life—darkness followed by unintelligible mutterings. Why was I so naive to think that the off-grid Scientists would accept me as their own? If I had an ounce of sophistication, I’d have figured that coming here would mean that I’d have to prove myself to them; that I’d again be thrust into an initiation—a mission to prove my loyalty.

I hear an owl hoot, and an eerie sense pulls me up. Adriana sleeps, her angelic features, her curly hair like a crown above her head. She turns on her side, but is still deep in sleep. I crawl out of the bed and tiptoe across the wooden floors.

The crisp, clear air of the village sends a shock of exhilaration through my body. The earth is cold and hard and the lights are out. The villagers are asleep in their simple huts. There are only three hundred families, all united in their mission to stop MicroScrep from demolishing them. They believe, with faith as ancient as hope itself, that one day they’ll defeat MicroScrep. I venture along the stone paths, looking up at the moon above the clear dome of the village following its light to the wall.

I place my hand on the wall, the weathered stone wall that was the first defense against MicroScrep generations ago. The first Scientists who escaped MicroScrep were the ones who created the wall. The dome was erected a few years afterward, the electrical currents sapping the power from the newly formed Eunuch and Surrogate Centers. Although counter-electrical-hacking attempts have been made by MicroScrep, most of the time the Scientists control the electricity, making the MicroScrepian x-ray vision almost impossible to use off-grid.

And now, there is a new technology they’ve developed, although I haven’t been made privy to it. I am not trusted yet—I still have to fulfill my mission.

At the sound of scraping, I look back. A cat has escaped one of the huts, but my pulse quickens as I place my ear to the wall and hear the sound of sawing - as if someone is felling a tree. Then the sound of slithering. I am about to scream out when a hand thrusts itself out of the muddy soil around the wall’s underground tunnel and grabs onto my ankle.

Help, I scream out as I’m pulled down towards the wall and half my body sinks into the tunnel. I grab onto the wall and shout out. For a moment reality blurs and I wonder if I am hallucinating. I hear the flicker of lights and the feet of the village men come towards the wall. I am pulled into the tunnel, dragged halfway through it when a torch lights my surroundings and I see a scarred and albino-white face - it’s Ben!

You traitor! he spits. I knew he’d come to take me. I dig my nails into the earth, trying desperately to cling to the ground, to slow his progress. I am hauled up through the other side. The forest around us is dark, and I weigh myself down hoping the villagers will come out the other end of the tunnel in time.

The Elder’s voice rings clear through the tunnel. Activate the code!

Moments later a villager shoots a dart-like object that swerves past me and finds Ben’s forehead, where a cauterized scar indents his forehead. He falls back, stunned, letting go of me in the process. A horde of Eunuchs run out of the forest and towards us. My body trembles and my head feels light. The villagers grab me and pull me back towards the tunnel. It is then that I see a large vortex expand like a supernova, outwards, engulfing and absorbing Ben, and the league of Eunuchs hurling themselves towards us. I pinch myself. Have I finally fallen asleep? Is this a nightmare? The dirt under my nails, the scrapes on my arms, and my body being dragged back through the tunnel into the village prove that I’m not.

4

ZACH

There is a hollow knock at the door and I jump. Who’s there?

Adriana slides up to sitting in the bed, the covers pulled up under her chin.

Anthony mutters a greeting and hands me an invitation. His freckled arms are like my own, reminding me of when Adriana mentioned that we look very much alike. His fiery red hair and slender features, his green eyes large and precocious. I can’t help a slight sting of jealousy that fills the pit of my stomach. Maybe it’s the words she chose to describe him with, or perhaps it was that she had noticed another man that looked like me, and now I fear that I am no longer unique in her eyes.

What’s that? Adriana gets up and the duvet cover slips down her chest.

Anthony swallows. We have dinner tonight at the Grand Hall. My father, the Elder, would like you and Zach to be in attendance. There is someone special he’d like you to meet.

I look from Adriana to Anthony. Thank you. May we know who the special guest is?

You’ll find out when the time is right, Anthony mutters and then looks down. I’ll leave you two alone now.

Adriana nods and I close the door. Anthony is a personable man, but somehow the fact that he looks so much like me is irksome.

Come sit beside me, Adriana motions.

I smile and forget the jealousy nagging at my core and sit down on the bed where she still holds herself propped up on her elbows.

I feel tonight they’ll finally give you your mission and that we should form a strategy, Adriana whispers. She checks to see whether the door is completely closed, and continues, I want to request that I come with you. That we go on the mission together.

My throat constricts. I know she loves me, but I think she’d be safer here. The dome can shift and move the village to another location in the forest. The portal can absorb enemies and their weapons if they venture too close. Out there, in the forest, who knows what lurks? She’s better off here. I can’t bear to lose Adriana, not after all we’ve been through on our journey off-grid and our struggles against MicroScrep. I don’t think that would be wise, Adriana. Besides, didn't you hear Anthony’s father, the Elder, say that I need to prove myself? I am the one who was a Eunuch, a tool for MicroScrep, and to be honest, even though we know where my loyalties are, if I was in their position, I’d have the same reservations.

* * *

The children are exploring the new surroundings, playing tag on the paths. Some point at the tall pines above the dome and guess our location based on the stars. In the village square, they are barbecuing chestnuts. I feel sorry for myself and Adriana, we’re outcasts. The villagers have little to do with us. Even when I was almost taken by Ben, it felt as if they were proving a point. That they’ll save me, but only if it is against a more hated enemy. I have a feeling that their mission is intertwined with a bigger strategy, or else why would they care about me? Or maybe they were checking that vortex-like mouth that opened up and swallowed Ben and the other Eunuchs. A chill runs through me as I wonder what’s happened to them.

The villagers chat amongst themselves and avoid or ignore us. Last weekend, when the students had finished their research and created a play about life in MicroScrep, we were not invited. We heard the claps and cheers from our hut, and that old feeling of not belonging reared its head. In MicroScrep I was the strange one, falling in love with Adriana. Amongst the Eunuchs, I was the one who wasn’t as influenced by the brainwashing. Now here, I am an outcast again. When will we be welcome?

The intricately carved wooden table sits squarely in the Grand Hall. The scent of the wood clings to the air and refreshes my senses. Despite the worry and weariness, I know that I need to cherish the last moments I have now with Adriana. We walk hand-in-hand until we notice that at the head of the table sits a lady we’ve never seen, seated beside Anthony. She has a ruddy complexion and a cheerful disposition. She must be slightly older than middle-aged and reminds me of my Perfect Family Matched mother in MicroScrep. She looks toward me and smiles. The Elder booms