The next morning, Professor Bennett is back to his usual calm and kind self. This is the first time teaching us since Julia left because we had a test yesterday.
“Good morning ladies.” He lets out a huge sigh and pauses. “I need to apologize for losing my cool on Monday. I realize now that it must have scared some of you. As a member of the Culling Board of Directors, I take this very seriously. What you may not know is that not all presidents were properly suited to run our country and the results were not always satisfactory. It has taken a while to perfect the process of the Culling. A lot is at stake here. We can’t afford to have the wrong person at the helm of our country.”
We all kind of look around confused as this is the first any of us have ever heard of this. All four presidential couples have been well esteemed. Until now, anyway.
“You see, the Culling has a lot of built-in tests and precautions we take in getting to know the candidates on a personal level.” He looks at me as he says this and it makes me wonder if he knows about my concerns with the monitoring. “It has to be this way because we have come across some huge mistakes in the past. It will be harder for you this time around than it ever has been before. Why? Because we don’t want to make the mistakes of the past. Madam Johans and President Kane were not very good people. Neither of them cared about the affairs of the country or what state of ruin we were in. They only cared about themselves and the title, essentially royalty. Their power-hungriness was a disaster and almost tore us apart. In fact, the Johans retired only because they were about to be impeached.
“That’s all I can tell you for now, but understand that as in all governments, there are parts of what goes on here that are not known by the general public. You are not allowed to know everything at this point. But please understand that the farther we get in this process and the more we come to trust you, the more you will learn. When you make it to the final eight, you will be sworn in and under oath to not disclose this new information to the public. Punishments for doing so will be of the highest regard. Those so called ‘secrets’ keep our country safe. Those secrets can be the difference between life and death for some of our citizens so we take it very seriously. The only reason I’m telling you this now is because I don’t want you to doubt your country because I lost my cool over Julia’s actions. I don’t want you to doubt this process. We are just trying to weed out the ones that aren’t qualified and find the few that are.” He pauses and runs a hand through his jet-black but graying hair.
“That being said, we are going to fast forward a bit and then go backward. President Maxwell, our fourth post-Trident President, is an amazing leader and man. I would know as I was in the final four of our Culling with him. We could have been adversaries, but instead, I consider him a friend for life. He has served our country greatly. He has made great advances. But, he is aging. We both are as you can tell.” He smiles and gestures to the gray in his hair before continuing, “Running a country comes with a weight of responsibility. Running one such as ours in the condition of the world today is even more responsibility. This job isn’t for the faint of heart. The Maxwells have done their best and made great strides in putting our country back on its feet. The President is getting up there in age and rather than become ill or die, leaving us without a president for the duration of the Culling, he has decided he would like to help find the next leaders with a sound and still working mind. Unlike his predecessor who served until death.
“Today, we will begin learning about the Culling that I was in with President Maxwell and President Kane’s son too. Since I was there, I will be able to offer you an insider’s point of view of the whole thing. I have been in your shoes, and I know it can be hard. Before we begin though, I have one announcement I need to make.” He pauses again and smiles, apparently about to deliver some good news.
“The Fifth State of the Union Candidatorial Ball has been scheduled for next Friday. And yes, that means you will finally meet the boys.” He stops to wiggle his eyebrows and multiple girls gasp or make excited noises. “Some of you have shocked faces, and yes, that means we will be down to 25 girls or less at that point, the halfway mark. The end of the second cuts will be this Friday. We have made enough observations thus far that we are fairly confident in our pool of 25. Many of you will be going home. You should know that you should still be proud of what you accomplished here. You have served your country well. It just takes a special type of woman to run the country.”
He looks up as if remembering something, “Oh, and on the topic of the promotions for your family. We have decided to change the original guidelines and reward your families once if you make it to the final 35, and again at the halfway point so there are still two promotions involved as promised. We did this as it gives a clearer guideline since the cuts are running together. It should give more families overall the promotions. So lots of exciting stuff in the next few weeks. Ladies, ready or not, the Culling is moving forward.”
Gasps are heard throughout the room as he finishes and it sinks into all of us that this is happening faster than any of us ever thought. We are already down seven girls counting Julia. That means 18 of us will be going home in the next week and two days. And we’ve only been here 11 days. I guess I thought it would take more time than that. I miss my family and would love to check up on Agnes, but I’m not ready to leave yet.
I’m a little surprised that I fully and wholeheartedly want to stay, and then there is also the part about the boys. I give myself a pep talk and try to calm down. It’s best not to get my hopes up. I will more than likely be home by next Friday, I just hope I make it to the final 35.
****
“I just don’t understand how they can already know the 25, or 35 for that matter,” Attie says saddened as we sit around chatting at lunch.
The monitors. That’s how.
I glance at Vanessa while Attie is speaking, wondering if she knows what I know. I can’t be the only one in our group that has caught on about the monitors. As Attie continues talking, Vanessa doesn’t say anything but just nods when it’s appropriate. I haven’t gotten to know Vanessa like I know Marcia or Attie, but I still think the world of her. She’s harder to get to know because she has a backbone that most girls don’t. Some of the Denver girls are quite prissy or vain being raised their whole lives to be proper politicians’ wives, but Vanessa is different. Stronger. More guarded. Like she’s in the military herself, though I know that isn’t possible.
Attie ends her rant by getting choked up and saying, “I don’t want to say goodbye to you guys yet.”
“Now, now.” Marcia pats her on the shoulder. “You won’t even have to say goodbye. They don’t do goodbyes here.” She grins.
“Oh. That so does not help,” Attie says stifling a snob but giving her a slight smile. “Promise me you will email?” She takes a moment to look at each of us individually.
Vanessa perks up. “And this is about the time I wish we still had cell phones. Can you imagine how people used to be able to communicate every day to one another using phones while being hundreds of miles apart? There was even this program that let everyone see other people’s pictures and keep in touch with them constantly. Like every day! Multiple times a day even,” she thinks out loud while shaking her head. We all know that she works in communications and is fascinated with both new and old uses of it.
“Well steal us some phones, girl!” Marcia is being typical Marcia and keeping the mood light to help cheer Attie up.
“Even if I could, and I can’t, and I wouldn’t, but even if I could, the signal towers would have to be back into working order and they are definitely not. Do you know how long it would take to fix every tower between our townships? We hardly use them here and it took a long time to get what we do use here up and going,” Vanessa elaborates. “That’s why we use a radio system over Wi-Fi.”
“Vanessa. It wasn’t a serious suggestion.” I look at her smiling. If you mention anything about communications, the normally laid-b
ack Vanessa just rambles on for days.
“Oh. Oops. Well then heck yeah I will,” Vanessa throws her hands up and smiles as she says it.
“Thanks for that, Vanessa.” Attie smiles, getting over her bout of sadness.
“On the bright side, we get to meet the boys in a week and a half!” Renae chips in. “I can’t wait for my attendant. I’m sick of doing my own hair and makeup.”
I shouldn’t be surprised by her statement, but I can’t help but be. I can’t think of a reason why Renae would be here while Agnes got sent home, but I guess it isn’t my place to make those inferences.
“Oh. I did consider that,” Attie smiles excitedly.
“Here’s to making it to the 25, ladies!” Marcia says, putting her soda bottle in the air in cheers. We all put our bottles or glasses up with her and then take a drink.
As we all laugh, Marisol rudely storms away and says under her breath, “Fat chance.”
We roll our eyes or shake our heads. That girl better be going home soon.
****
“So as we have been discussing in more detail than you ever thought you needed to know, some of our DNA is just naturally immune to Trident. It’s even more mystifying than Trident’s complex makeup that some people are simply immune,” Professor Zax explains the next morning in our classroom turned into a laboratory complete with microscopes.
“As you learned the past week, some of the survivors are genetically immune, we call those people the ‘resistant’. Others test positive to Trident, but yet have had zero symptoms. We called them the ‘receptors’. It’s like these people had the virus but lived, except for the fact that they didn’t have any symptoms at all, not from any of the three phases. The virus just laid dormant within their body. And of course, there was the very small population of people that weren’t immune but never contracted Trident either. We called them the ‘susceptible’, meaning Trident susceptible.” Professor Zax pauses, gathers his thoughts, and absentmindedly runs a hand through his mustache.
“Now you should know, as freaked out as everyone was post-Trident, as soon as the scientists figured this all out, they moved everyone around and kept the receptors, resistant, and Trident-susceptible in different Bunkers. Which weren’t underground as the name implies but rather were old military bases. There weren’t as many receptors, so they were isolated in one bunker. The group that was neither resistant nor receptive was also in a separate Bunker, the smallest of them. Please understand that this group of 1,000 people or less were just never exposed to Trident and still ran the risk of getting it. The implications of that were very intense.” He stops and shakes his head a moment before continuing with this information we all have never heard of before.
“There was just wide-spread panic afterward and though most people were finding out they were in fact immune, they were still frightened of it after all the death they had just lived through. Or what if the virus mutated again and they were no longer immune? At that point, it felt like Trident was a permanent fixture.
“You should know that the Bunker segregation was not at all a happy one, especially from the receptors. Their blood cultures looked identical to the resistant and they posed no threat to spreading Trident. They were just as immune as anyone else. Husbands and wives, if they even both survived Trident, could be separated if one was a receptor and one a resistant. Even worse, mother and child. Can you imagine?” He pauses again for emphasis, allowing us all to consider that.
“Now the other group, the Trident-susceptible group, they were even more so the hot topic of the time. What were we to do with a group of people that ran the risk of carrying Trident on? We couldn’t dispose of or kill them after so much death already. We desperately needed them for the gene pool too. Since everyone else was immune, they shouldn’t get sick, but they were trying to choke out Trident, not slowly keep it going.” He stops again. “And if a single one of the susceptible contracted Trident, it could potentially kill them all.”
“So what happened?” a girl named Morgan from Vegas asks.
“After two years of complete and total isolation, the susceptible were allowed to finally join the State of the Union.”
There is an audible, collective gasp in the room at that. “I’m sure that is new information to most of you, that we didn’t just welcome with open arms everyone from pre-Trident, even if they were United States citizens. In fact, the whole situation brought about by fear and tragedy brought out the ugliest in people. It is not a time period to be proud of, but definitely a time to learn from.
“Now. Moving on. Eventually, some crazy person in charge thought it would be a good idea to produce offspring from resistant and receptors. Their line of thinking was that it would double the immunity.” He stops, shakes his head, and I can see a few Vegas girls fidget in disapproval.
“Medically, we know that once you are immune, you have full immunity. There is no such thing as double immunity. But because of this crazy idea from a politician, not a medic or a scientist, they mixed two bunkers and there were babies like crazy because the people wanted to ensure there was no way they would have to see their children exposed to Trident. Some were made in a lab artificially and some…” he pauses and blushes, “Well, I think you have all had biology, you know how it works.
“Also, the Trident-susceptible were required to only reproduce with resistant through artificial insemination regardless of their marital status pre-Trident. This caused more strife because not many resistant women wanted to carry a baby from a susceptible and vice versa.
“So there were babies everywhere and it was a mess. Enter the first President, President Walters. A few short years in, it was becoming quite clear that the Bunker system as it was, was going to lead to a civil war. How could we have a war with so few people and so soon? We were making headway on helping the population increase, but it was a total disaster. Babies were hot commodities but families were becoming extinct.
“So President Walters did away with the rules when starting to create the townships that they would transition to a few years later. He did a trial township of those willing and mixed all three groups. The people in this group couldn’t disclose which group they came from. It thrived. He then slowly started making townships one by one, using mixed groups from the bunkers. He emphasized the family dynamic and did away with artificial inseminating. People even got to choose their townships.
“The almost five years of the Bunkers were rough. Trident left people resentful and scared. Being stuck in the Bunkers for so long didn’t help matters. They didn’t need to stay in the Bunkers that long, but everyone was too afraid to come out of isolation. That and there was nowhere to go and death everywhere they could go. There was not a single city that they could occupy without having to clean up the death and destruction first. Trident impacted us for many years after the pandemic and is still impacting us today,” he finishes intelligently.
“Now. We will be doing lab work today to look at and test your blood to see which of the three groups you have more similarities to. This, of course, is a test because we have documentation of all babies born post-Trident and have the documents for all of your lineages. Please break into groups of three and let me show you how we are going to go about this.” He slaps his hands together excitedly, finally ending his teaching.
We quickly shuffle to our stations in groups. He shows us the tests and test order used that tells us to pour in different chemicals and look for reactions. The more reactions for one way, the more lineage in that group. It is actually quite complex if you have all three in your lineage and your blood won’t respond to many of the tests. We have vials of the different chemicals in front of us, as well as small vials of our blood. They have taken our blood numerous times, so they must have saved some for this.
“Well this is weird,” I say to Vanessa and Marcia that I naturally grouped myself with.
“Totally irrelevant. We are all immune to Trident now. And Trident is gone.” Vanessa rolls her eyes as if
annoyed.
“True, and I think I would rather not know if I have a long line of Trident-susceptible people in my ancestors,” Marcia adds.
“I’m just glad things are more organized now,” I say, shaking my head at this new information.
“So you mean you’re glad you get to bump uglies to make babies the good old fashioned way?” Marcia wiggles her eyebrows and winks making Vanessa burst out laughing.
I blush bright red and am glad when Professor Zax interrupts with more instructions.
A few short hours later, the three of us have determined that Vanessa and Marcia have more receptive in their bloodlines and I have more resistant. We pass another meaningless test with flying colors.
****
Friday, only three more girls have gone home, so that means in a week there will be fifteen more of us leaving. We have another short fitness test at 6 am before breakfast and are told to report to Cullings class immediately after. We all look tired and nervous about the upcoming week. Only five more girls to the 35 mark and that means promotions for our families. And if we survive the next week, we get to meet the boys. It’s exciting but tremendously nerve-wracking too.
After waiting for what seems like forever for class to start, Professor Bennett comes storming in the room wearing full military gear again. I’m immediately nervous. The last time class started late, Julia was forcibly removed from the Culling. The way he’s standing today isn’t quite that intense though.
“Ladies. Cullings class is canceled for today, along with all other classes. You do have a different sort of test taking place. As you know, you have had numerous verbal tests. We will now be giving you another verbal test but this time it will be a lie detector test. As long as you answer truthfully, it should be a breeze. You are dismissed to stay in your rooms until you are retrieved for your test. No socializing. All meals will be brought to you. Unfortunately, you will do a lot of waiting today,” he explains all business.
The Culling: Book 1 (The Culling Series) Page 11