The Selection

A tale of the tribulations the narrator has encountered in his life in a big brotheresque society

We sit in a circle. All of us cross legged on the floor holding hands watching each other’s chest heave with each new intoxicating breath. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in this position. You never know who will be the next one chosen. With each new month the Selections grow more numerous. In the beginning there was just one every few months even then they’d just pick the nobodies; the estranged, the disabled, the mentally challenged. Today Selections are twice a week and nobody is safe. It could be mommy or daddy, son or daughter. We soon realized even God could not escape them. After the unfit were taken, they selected the priests, the Deacons, even the volunteer church choirs. God wasn’t destroyed he was cast away and with no one to remind us of him he was simply forgotten. We sit in a circle. The Selection has just begun. Our terror is about to start and their fun is just beginning. It wasn’t always like this. When they first took over they promised us everything we ever wanted. Every one would have food on their tables, money in their pockets, and clothes on their backs. So we just let them take over. We sealed our own fates. We were blinded by our own disparity not allowing us to see the fruitless lies we were being fed. As they walk in I can feel my entire body begin to perspire. The person next to me stops breathing, he’s trying to make himself less noticeable; but you can’t hide from them, that’s cheating and when you take away the rules the game is nothing. Soon I feel his hand ripped out of mine. I hear a scream and he is gone. The night’s first victim but not its last. I don’t remember how things got so bad. Eventually they took over everything, all aspects of human life was in their hands. They knew everything about everyone; our societies proverbial big brother, except that this threat was all too real. Some people tried to rebel. My father was one of them. They kept their profiles low, enabling them to stay under big brothers radar but before they could accomplish anything they were ratted out. That’s when the selections began and I never saw my father again. During selection anything goes. They will do whatever they feel necessary to help them decide which lives to distinguish. All you can do is hope you don’t fit their bill. We start undressing. It’s not embarrassing anymore. After the first 20 times it’s protocol. It’s funny I don’t even register what I’m doing. After undressing they do “check ups” on us one at a time. We stand in the middle of the circle and they point out in front of everyone our flaws and our weaknesses. Unlike undressing this pain never eases. It’s happen to me more times then I can count and it still hurts like it was the first. As they check me I start feeling uneasy, their finding more things unsatisfactory about me then I remember. After the death of my father it wasn’t long till all the able body men were taken. Precautionary measures I’m sure. It wasn’t long after that I lost all hope. I remember the exact day it happened. It was maybe a year ago; my 15th Selection. We were almost done and no one had been taken. Then they brought out this little girl, her mother wept in the corner while they checked her. She was almost done when one of the guards noticed something jump from her hair. Head lice. They dragged the girl away into the darkness screaming. Her mother lunged after them. They shot her on the spot. During every selection I hear the girl’s scream ring I my ears. It never ends. I can feel the cold ground beneath me while their hands prod and poke at my body. I am no longer simply perspiring; my sweat is streams running down my body into an ocean of water that has collected on the floor. My anxiety is killing me they have never taken this long before; it’s funny though I can’t hear the girl’s screams. As he says “Take him away.” I am being dragged of into the darkness. I cannot scream. They are covering my mouth, binding me and putting the cold metal to my head. Soon they will pull the trigger and kill me, those RED hands of death.