March City: Rebellion of the Gifted [Book 2 | Complete | Fantasy/Sci-fi]

Chapter 31: Treason and Plot

"Wouldn't be beneath them," quipped Neave. "Human weapons, human slaves... what's wrong with a human generator? Or ten?"

"Because... generators are people! You can't — we can't be permanently switched on! We'll die!"

"Well, not unless you're infected with the splicer virus. I can't say for March City, but all the infected you see outside that are just walking swords and daggers or with impenetrable armour, those are the 'switched on' January Users from our days. As long as they keep eating people and animals, they can continue to function. If you call that functioning."

"It's not extraordinary if Candra is using a few infected Generators to fuel their city," said Keirwin, frowning. "Or maybe they just have a lot of Generators."

"But unless they're literally being fed that stuff they grow in the fields all day, every day, there is no way they can maintain that energy output. It's just impossible," said Cillion. "It's a crazy idea. Not impossible, but pretty damn crazy."

"Normal food certainly can't sustain enough energy output to maintain that electromagnetic field permanently, that's for sure. There are too many variables. You can fulfil the carbohydrate requirement for energy production but the rest of the body system has to be functional, too, and that's a whole host of vitamins and minerals just to keep that body running—"

"Unless their input is exactly what they're outputting," said Ari. Her head felt light. She leant back against the pillar. The world spun around her. She squeezed her eyes shut. She must have hung around Rale too much; his conspiratorial thoughts wormed their way into her mind with ease. "March City... students are purged every year. The underachievers and those who break the law. Not every student inserted into March City in their first year graduate after seven years."

"It's the same for January City, really. Maybe five percent — less? — actually survive the final crusade. We lose twenty percent in the initial touchdown."

"And what happens to the bodies?"

"They just get removed. We obviously never stopped to think during our mission what happens to the dead, not when we have the living to try and save," said Neave, pulling a face. "It's kind of hard to think about those who died when you're trying to avoid a bomb to the face, twenty-four-seven."

"You have to admit that's an awful lot of bodies with every single cycle though," said Cillion. "But considering how much genetic material and resources it takes to grow one of us, it would be more resourceful to actually recycle them."

"We'd hoped by destroying those generators — not the human kind — that would be the end of Project Lunation. There were only two biomes at that point, and that was more than enough. Evidently, we were not successful." Keirwin sighed, sitting down cross-legged. "We weren't produced the natural way like those people were, but we had our own thoughts and feelings and our own lives. We broke free because they refused to release the reins. There should never be another Project Lunation biome. The only way they could justify it as not a human experiment was that we were embryos in a test tube first and foremost. No biological parents. No pregnancy. No family. You should have seen them debating whether or not to even call us 'people' or stick to 'specimens'—"

"They voted for the latter, by the way," added Neave.

"But if March City started after we escaped, who knows — there might be more biomes still out there. More people like us still stuck in virtual realities."

Ari took some time to process the revelation. More March Cities. More students — seen as nothing more than specimens, commodity — suffering needlessly to highlight the best survivors, all for the sake of prolonging the survival of the humans out here. Helpless, sweet souls like Mina; hardworking, selfless ones like Fris and Shon; intuitive geniuses like Lira and Rale — these were very real people to Ari, even if the creators felt differently.