White Labels (443 hits)
Category: NoneLabels: ADD
Rating: 1.84 on 17 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by kaos-king (antius777) (View user info) at 2006-09-04 02:51:50 EDT
For another contest, where it had to be 550 words and we had to choose from titles. I went over by 20 words. Whatever...
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In 2057, everything changed.
Before there were barriers between races and religions, nationalities and the sexes. That's all gone now. Oh, it still lingers in some more primitive areas of the world, but it's barely recognizable. You see, these age old prejudices have gone the wayside, replaced by a new one - one we created.
It was both the fault of the United States and the Chinese governments. In the middle of Cold War II, China accidentally released one of their new biological weapons. Instead of diplomacy, the USA immediately fired back with one of it's own new toys, a radiation pulse cannon floating in space. They thought it would destroy both the foreign enemy and the contagion.
It didn't.
The infection spread over the entire globe in the less than a year. Traditional Haz-Mat equipment was useless against it. The radiation pulse had mutated it in some way, making it even more powerful. It was eventually deduced that it was being spread by actual bio-electrical energy emissions. The "disease" was so deeply rooted in the DNA, that it it effected everything about the body.
And now it's 2079. Maybe only a billion died from the contagion, perhaps two billion. Really not that many, all things considered. Most died from violence in the early days of the infection and we still have six billion some on the planet. You must understand, the Chinese biological weapon WAS meant to kill, but after the US changed it... it changed us.
There are color coded labels, something globally understood, for the different types of genetic sequences that have been given to us. "Black" for those who develop the distinct boils and pock marks the spell an early death. "Purple" for people relatively unaffected. "Blue" for those who have physical manifestations of a positive nature and "Green" for those who have been afflicted with negative ones. "Yellow" and "Orange" work the same for mental manifestations, respectively. "Red" is for those cases that can't be classified under any of the others.
Like the caste system of old India, people are separated by the color coding. Segregated by their genetic code. Held apart by their altered DNA. The worst part is... no one really knows why. It's not as if the governments have dictated this. It's just something that has happened, and it's occurred world wide. Xenophobia on a planetary scale.
And that's why I'm writing this, typing away on my small home computer. When I'm done I will print it out and distribute it through out this Earth to every living human being. No matter what their culture, they will be able to read it, because of how I will affect the physical copies. Each copy will have a directive in it rewriting certain sequences in the genetic structure causing the prejudice to be erased when they read it. Everyone in the world will get a copy at exactly the same time.
You see, in the early days of the contagion, before the hate erupted between the color codes, my parents once loved each other. My father was a "Yellow" and my mother was a "Red." Although they haven't spoke in eighteen years, and neither can stand to look at me, I know the truth behind the Xenophobia. It's fear. It's the fear that something like me can be procreated. As far as I know, I am one of a kind.
I am a "White" label.
User Reviews
Submitted by ghola (user info) at 2006-09-04 19:47:29 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by forensicgirl3 (user info) at 2006-09-04 18:03:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Bubba2341 (user info) at 2006-09-04 17:04:06 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Everyone on Earth gets a printed copy at the same time. 6 Billion people will take
12 Million reams of paper, which will weigh about 36 Million pounds.
The post office will hate you. . . :D
Submitted by Chroniclysm (user info) at 2006-09-04 16:53:06 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Chroniclysm (user info) at 2006-09-04 16:52:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
I always want you to continue with the concepts that you start, but then I read the next one and I realize I'd rather have you continue that one so fuck it.
+1 because you frustrate me with exceptional ideas.
Submitted by St_Jimmy (user info) at 2006-09-04 16:37:07 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Well done.
Submitted by goferforhire (user info) at 2006-09-04 13:45:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Pretty well written but the premise seemed a bit forced
Submitted by UnderOathMeal (user info) at 2006-09-04 10:05:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I got that familiar, pleasant feeling ... you know that one you get from reading good fiction, after reading the last sentence.
Badass. I want a Part 2.
Oh, and Auto +2 anyway for radiation pulse cannons floating in space.
Submitted by awesome_face (user info) at 2006-09-04 09:35:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Good shit. I liked this alot.
Submitted by JoeyG (user info) at 2006-09-04 08:55:25 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I enjoyed it
Submitted by Berty (user info) at 2006-09-04 08:09:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
It's not that awesome. I mean it's nice and all, but it's just a synopsis. You know, like.
Plus it's all a bit vauge and derivative. As good a story as anything else mind.
Submitted by Beano312003 (user info) at 2006-09-04 07:40:31 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by hour_man (user info) at 2006-09-04 05:42:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
What else other than a +2 for these posts?
Submitted by DCWoody (user info) at 2006-09-04 04:55:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Like it.
Submitted by shitfuck (user info) at 2006-09-04 04:15:19 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I'm drunk but that's none of your business.
Submitted by Antioxident (user info) at 2006-09-04 03:14:38 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by DonovanMD (user info) at 2006-09-04 03:00:19 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Awesome stuff. You're an excellent fiction writer.