THE MOTHER SIEGE: A DYSTOPIAN THRILLER

Chapter 3: THE MOTHER SIEGE: A DYSTOPIAN THRILLER

Copyright (c) 2013 Phyllis Zimbler Miller

All rights reserved.    

     William pivoted his mind from one area of his empire to another – each time statistics on the day’s events in that particular area streamed across his retina implant screen.

      If he had one regret since he had become the leader of the Provisional Government, it would be that he had not required mandatory implants from birth.  But now the removing of all children over six months of age to group homes would provide easy access to placing implants in them.

     And while William used his implant to control his empire, the implants in others could be used to control them.

     His lips moved in what for him passed as a smile.  Yes, he knew that behind his back he was called William the Conqueror, a reference to a long-ago warrior who had come out of Normandy to conquer England.    

     Of course such names served an occasional purpose as William himself had abolished last names in 2035 when he had abolished marriage.  Much easier for mothers to choose first names for their offspring and then the government to issue an identity number as a last name for newborns and to replace the last names of others.

     William shook his head at the thought of his own mother, who he had “pensioned off” to a comfortable way station for the elderly.  Once the medical care of any individual in a way station hit a certain limit – known only to himself and a few others, that person was sent to an elderly “retreat” from which he or she never returned.

     Yes, William had done much to reduce the cost of health care from overburdening his empire.  All sperm in the mandatory sperm banks had to pass rigid health standards screening before being made available to prospective mothers.  And William had made sure that women who did not pass certain screening tests never seemed able to conceive with donated sperm.  Plus he had been lenient, neither requiring women to have children nor “eliminating” women who did not conceive.

     Then, of course, there were the strict protocols for checking the health of babies at birth.  Costs of health care should plummet further as more and more people in his realm were born with good health indicators.

    Perhaps if he had been a woman he might have regretted the newborns that had to be immediately “eliminated.”  But as a ruler with a strong regard for the economics of a realm, he could not be concerned about such things.

     He had been born in 2000, a good sign he thought for the man destined to rule the land mass west of the Mississippi River after the splitting of the country in 2029.  That had not been accomplished without much bloodshed.  But now that period was 20 years in the past, long enough for people to forget the pangs of separation from their families in the eastern zone.

     Although only 29 at the time of the upheaval, as William preferred to think of it, he had been sufficiently well placed to seize the second-highest position in the new government west of the Mississippi.  And then, when six years later the leader had succumbed to an unidentified infection, William had been ready to step into the leader’s shoes.

     His first act had been to abolish marriage.

     Why his ministers had asked?

     Too messy.  Complications over parental rights, property rights, and other rights.  Much better to have an orderly society where individuals appeared to be able to make their own decisions without a great deal of government intervention.

     Yet something William kept from others was that he had never known his own father – and look how well William had turned out!  Although he realized this secret of his own past may have had something to do with his abolishing all marriage, he knew overall it was still a good economic decision for the realm.

     Now the time had come to control more of the population – another good economic decision.  And children were the easiest to control, especially if gotten at a very young age.

     He picked up a steel unicorn from his marble work station.  Unicorns were considered mythical – and that symbol fitted him well.  Future generations would consider him a mythical leader for all the things he would have achieved.

     His finger brushed the single horn of the unicorn.  And what if there were resistance to his group home program?

     His hand gripped the unicorn.  He would crush the resistance – all must bend to his will.    

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If you enjoy reading about the historical past as well as the imaginative future, see my cold war memoir TALES OF AN AMERICAN OCCUPYING GERMANY here on Wattpad at http://budurl.com/TAonWattpad