The Red Walls

A Dystopian Short Story Staring a Six Year Old Girl Named Selena. How do we make our society 'Perfect'?

The click of the black shoe heels sounded down the sterile white hallway, echoing, the sound bouncing off the walls, until another step was taken and strangled the previous one, dominating, until it too was murdered.

Selena lifted her eyes from the floor for a moment, observing the woman as she walked down the hallway, and as her reflected clones followed her, mirroring what she did. Selena hated the mirrors though, so she turned to look at the polished marble floor instead.

The woman stopped in front of her, giving a big smile. A red talon came to rest unto Selena’s shoulder, and another one accepted the hand that the woman held in front of her, showing her numbers and identification of her domain.

Selena lifted her head to view the monster standing behind her, watched as it’s large, white eyelashes shifted, reading  over the woman’s domain. Eventually, the beast took off her red gloves, showing her the palm which held her domain. The woman barely read Selena Mothers’ domain, skimming the letters and numbers, pretending to care.

Then , she knelt to eye level with Selena, giving her a large warming smile.

“We won’t be long,” She said, not taking her eyes off of Selena’s, but talking to the creator of the shadow over her. The monster simply nodded, talon retreating from Selena’s shoulder, retreating, another pair of heels.

“Come,” The woman stated, and Selena stood. She didn’t want to, but something in the woman’s eyes and smile begged her to, and thus she obeyed. Her domain must be strong Selena thought as she took the woman’s hand, letting herself be lead down the hallway of clones, staring back into Selena’s eyes when she stared into theirs.

They turned a couple corners, the woman walking not too fast but not too slow, just perfect. Her lab coat wrapped around Selena’s short, child legs, almost as if to restrict her from walking any further.

Finally they stopped in the middle of the hallway. The lady turned to one of the many mirrors, pricked her finger, and dabbed a spot of blood unto the perfectly stainless reflection.

Immediately the mirror moved back to reveal a room with dazzlingly bright white walls, the woman once more taking Selena’s hand and walking her in. She gestured to a table in the middle of the room, and once more Selena obeyed without a comment, propping herself onto the medical table.

With another dab of blood on the walls came shelves filled with containers and jars with all sorts of various ominous looking equipment.

“Are you going to test me now?” Selena asked the lady. She turned to Selena again with her warm smile.

“I’m afraid my domain is more suited towards a social perspective of the medical field, but someone with a new domain will come soon,” She told Selena, all the while smiling, her eyes filled with a strange cold presence.

She then left the room with a clipboard on one of the tables, the mirror closing behind her, leaving Selena in the room.

She hoped she would get second place when she was tested at 10 once more. Second place was good. It was the first placers that were dangerous. If she got first she would have to compete with the all the people in her state, not just in her city. If she got first place there it would continue until she had either won on the national level, gotten second on any of the stages, or--

“Sorry to bother you,” The mirror slid to reveal a man about middle age. He wore glasses, Selena noticed. The doctorate position must have been hard to fill that year if someone with glasses won.

He walked in, nearing the shelves, paying almost little to no attention to Selena, his domain proudly presented on his forearm.

He moved a couple things here and there on the shelf. Finally he turned to Selena with a small knife in his hands.

She had been previously instructed in her first grade class what to do, so she showed the palm of her hand to him, her domain written. He walked to her, slid the knife just under the sticker of the identification domain, but not touching her skin, and then peeled it off, his hands impossibly still as stone. It was time to get her domain, her real one. Her genetic code and possibilities would be tattooed wherever she wished it, if it was easily visible. When she was 10, she would receive an extension to her domain, proudly presenting the career she was chosen for.

The sight of the doctor’s hands startled her back from her imagination. If he lived here he must have gotten second in his doctorate profession, but it was hard for Selena to imagine anyone being more precise. He dropped the identification domain into some weird red liquid that dissolved the peel in a matter of seconds.

Then, pricking his finger, he touched the ebony wall under the shelves, and a white marbled desk emerged from the wall, with a golden keys etched into it. He started typing on the keys, but no holographic screen came up. Yet, the man continued typing nonetheless.

There were a few moments of silence until Selena asked

“I thought people with blindness were purged,” The doctor chuckled, his first human action since he had came inside the room, and turned around, showing Selena the glasses.

They displayed a mock computer screen, and Selena only nodded her understanding, the doctor turning around once more to continue typing.

He hit two keys twice and two jars emerged from the table, one with a syringe, and another with an empty vial. He first meticulously took the syringe, cleaning the metal with a wet sort of wipe that he received from a container on the shelf. Selena supposed that it was filled with nanotubes.

Once he finished examining the needle, he made the motion for Selena to c**k her head to the side, which she obeyed.

He plunged the needle into her neck, the cold biting her skin, but she had only managed a gasp before he removed it, filled with the distinct cherry color of her blood.

There was only a moment of pain before the nanites that the needle was covered with healed the inner layer of her broken skin, but in those moments the doctor had already turned around, disposing of her blood in the clear vial. He then dipped a finger in the vial, and smeared it on the marble, red staining white.

He stood, his leg twitching in anticipation.

The entire process of the blood disappearing into the marble reminded Selena of a raindrop plummeting to it’s death on the clear window. The blood, once still, separated first in small circles, some unknown force spreading through it until there was only a single droplet remaining, and even that vanished into thin air. An image immediately popped on the doctor’s glasses. He read it shortly, then dismissed it with a wave of his hand.

The doctor without a pause turned to Selena, gesturing for her to step off the platform she was sitting on. The minute her little legs touched the floor the mirror moved immediately, another woman with a warming smile entering, extending a hand to Selena.

“Did I pass?” Selena asked the doctor, but he simply gestured to the woman extending her hand.

“Come with me darling,” She coaxed, smile widening in a friendly manner. Selena nodded, taking the woman’s hand.

As she walked past the mirror back to the startling white hallway, her back to the doctor, she didn’t notice him take her vial of blood and dump it into the trash, wipe his hands, and exit. As the doctor moved out of the room, the lights shut off, the shelves and desk retreating back into the walls, the mirror closing off the room, a single drop of blood still stained on the mirror.

The woman lead her to through multiple turns and hallways until they reached a single door. The woman opened it, motioning for Selena to continue through the door.

The inside of the room was aesthetically different than the rest of the facility. The floor was a clean red carpet, the walls still the same white ebony. There was a single chair in the middle of the room, with an old-fashioned screen hanging on the wall, projector on the ceiling above the chair.

Selena tried to remember what she had learned about projectors in her class, but her mind ran up blank. Instead she looked behind her for guidance of what she should do, but the door was closed, and the nice woman was gone.

She stood there unsure of what to do for several minutes, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. Finally, after no guidance she walked to examine the chair further. It was made out of a cheap metal, rusting at the joints. It faced directly towards the old screen.

Selena’s little feet ached to sit down, and so she did, but the moment she was seated the lights dimmed, a strange humming echoing throughout the room. She looked up to find it was the old projector that was making such an odd noise, and eventually light came out, shining unto the screen ahead of her.

An old film started playing. It wasn’t those really old black and white films that sometimes was shown in short clips in Selena’s class. It was in color, but it wasn’t holographic, and definitely wasn’t as clear as the somewhat old pictures in Selena’s class, so she guessed it came from around 2057.

The picture was of a classroom. A teacher walked unto the scene, blond hair long and straight, with a beaming smile, making direct eye contact with the camera.

“Hello Students. I’m so happy to teach you all about Domains,”

The woman continued smiling and lifted her forearm to show a crude domain

“These barcodes on your arm demonstrate who you are, genetically. Although reading a domain accurately is as complicated as rocket science, throughout your life you’ll find it gets easier and easier,”

The woman still held that superfluous tone and smile, eyes never blinking from the camera.

“Right now you have a temporary Domain, that has, at this point, been taken off,”

Without breaking eye contact with the camera, she took a knife from her desk and slipped it under the plastic domain slip, peeling it off to reveal a white forearm.

“At this point, you’d have gotten your blood tested. At Stage 1, where you are now,” The woman added. “You won’t have to worry about your genetically perfect career yet, however at this point you will get a tattooed domain. This domain will show where you are stronger genetically, and if you’re among the top 90% in your county on your strongest feature,”

The woman gave a dramatic pause, but Selena knew what she was going to say next.

“However, if you sadly don’t make the top 90%, you’ll be peacefully exterminated for the good of humankind,” The woman gave a last large smile.

“Thank you for letting me tell you about your domain, and what it means. And remember, you’re serving the good of humankind by just being yourself!”

With that the screen died and the lights came back on in the room. The sound of a door opening behind Selena made her turn around to see the woman with the kind smile walking towards her.

“In what am I strongest in?” Selena asked.

“Mathematics and Logistical Reasoning,” The woman answered, putting a gentle hand on Selena’s back, urging her to stand up. Selena gave a nod. That’s what her mother said she would be strongest in. Both her parents had very strong mathematical domains to ensure that Selena would pass the initial testing.

“You also are strong in pattern recognition and visualization,” The woman added, taking Selena’s small hand in hers as Selena stood up. “You would have been a great mathematician,” The woman sighed, gently leading Selena through the door, exiting back to the hall of mirrors.

They took a right, walking down the hall, this time in less of a rush than before. The woman kept up with Selena, gently tugging her hand in the direction they needed to go.

Eventually the woman signaled Selena to stop in front of a mirror. She took a needle out of her coat pocket, kneeling to get eye level with Selena.

“This is only going to hurt a little. Okay?” She asked, extending her hand. Selena gave a small nod and put her hand in the ladies. The woman took the needle, quickly pricking Selena’s finger and then placing it on the mirror.

The blood stain on the mirror melted into it, and the mirror opened. Selena tugged on the woman’s hand to enter, but was met with resistance.

When she made eye contact with the woman , she only gave a smile and a slight shake of head.

“I’m sorry. You’re gonna have to go alone again,” She muttered, releasing Selena’s hand from hers.

Selena gave a small nod, entering the room filled with children her age.  

It looked exactly like that old room with projectors, with red carpet flooring, except this one had tons of kids standing, waiting.

She gave a small sigh and headed to the walls immediately, lightly gliding by all the other kids. In a few moments the Domain-Givers would enter and organize the kids in a line. She heard the process of getting your domain was painless, a stamp almost, except it never disappeared.

She stood at the wall, observing the rest of the children laughing and talking. Sometimes she would meet the eyes of another child standing and simply observing the rest. Both would give a slight nod to each other in recognition and then continue looking at the rest of their peers interact.

Eventually a song came unto the intercom, startling all the children into silence as they curiously looked up at it.

After about the second jingle a gentle voice came unto the intercom.

“Hello Children,” The voice cheerfully called. Selena guessed it was a female one from the pitch.

“I would like to inform you all that although each one of you are special in their own way, none of you passed Stage 1 of testing. In a short moment a gas will envelop the room. Do not worry or panic. This gas will ensure a quick, peaceful death in which all of you will drift off to sleep,”

The children stayed, frozen, staring at the intercom in shock, processing what the lady was saying.

“Thank you all for your patience, and know that each of you is serving humankind,”

The voice disappeared from the intercom, a heavy silence over the room. It was a boy with brown hair, cute freckles and dimples, with big green eyes that was the first to move.

Selena could see his eyes widen in panic. He screamed in terror and pushed children out of his way to get to the doors. Soon it was a wave of children trying to open the smooth marble door. Some bit themselves on the finger and smeared it on the wall in a desperate attempt.

Others just collapsed instantly in a ball of tears and snot. The ones who were watching though, all of them simply made eye contact with each other, giving a solemn unspoken goodbye, and resigning to their fate.

It was a strange feeling that Selena experienced. She was not afraid. She knew her small mind couldn’t really comprehend death yet, didn’t know what exactly that would mean for her. Still, she supposed as long as she was dying for the betterment of mankind, that it would be better than dying for nothing.

She stood there, sullen unmoving. And when the smoke-like gas began to filter through the speakers, there were cries of panic and terror, but Selena? She simply lay down on the ground, closed her eyes, and went to bed.

Author's Note

Not as descriptive as I wanted it to be so I do plan to go back and edit and would love any notes on how to make it better :)