"I awoke to the sound of guns," he sighed. It was the End of the World from the moment our eyes met; from the moment the Wars began.
A pause fills the room. Silence leaks into my eardrums. I can't breathe.
"Continue, 647." You can hear the rash in his voice. He, the Lawyer, busily fiddles one of his hands through his balding hair; lips biting together, waiting. Another holds a cigarette. The smoke rolls out of his mouth in waves of white. He leans.
I can't breathe.
The defendant trips over his words. He is tugging at his shirt to aid him of the heat. It is smouldering today. As if it even matters. There I see him standing, with a noose around his neck. He, the puppet stands on the stage. I am surrounded by fans, awaiting the finale. He was once mine. For a moment, he was. I am filled with absolute guilt. I have been this way since morning. I feel as if someone is engrossing the insides of my eye sockets, making me tear up in pain. It feels life they've got my stomach in a headlock, and I'm fairly certain that I'll throw up; As if I have swallowed a rock the size of my fist and it hurts when I try to swallow. This is Pain. This is Heartbreak. I think what hurts the worst is looking into his eyes and knowing this is the last time I will see them.
***
It began when I was awoken in my bed, staring down the barrel of an AK-47. We had heard on the radio earlier in the week that they were evacuating women and children; sending them to Camps in remote locations for safety. Stations everywhere televised "The End of the World" as Idle Viewers watched the bombings of Global landmarks. There were riots. People went missing; children. Entire cities were swallowed in thick clouds of smoke. They had closed down international borders. Churches were destroyed, political leaders were executed.
They burned everything.
I was fairly certain that there was no God. God couldn't exist in a place like this. It was said that people were running and trying to 'escape' the Imperial, but humanity was assured "this isn't the type of thing you can run from." This is when I was taken.
***
But that was before, the time in which we no longer talk about. The government runs a whole lot differently now. After a large amount of the population went missing and a few radical groups were slaughtered while attempting to annex the new government, the rest of us were taken here. Embarrassingly however, I don't know where here is, or what it used to be before the camp was placed here. I do know that this is not home, nor will it ever be. The parks have been replaced with barbed wire fences surrounding the marriage camps, and the blue skies above are now a putrid mustard in the mornings, and turn crimson and grey by eye. There is a stench from outside that strengthens in the day. It is the smell of death, carcasses. Adorning the front lawn of the Imperial; where the government is centralized, there are pits of bodies, roasting in the ever-intensifying heat. Bodies that have been mutilated and diced like ripe tomatoes. There are women's bodies. These bodies are placed here to remind us that of what we are.
What we are? As good as dead.
Women are considered a commodity. They are a service for the Husbands. There is no equality. Women have black ink smeared across their lips, to signify silence, oppression. This embellishment is mandatory, and speaking is forbidden. If either of these rules are broken, our lips are sewn shut. We all wear plain black dresses with a plain while petticoat underneath. Duties include working in the camps, cooking, cleaning. Sewing, and other such Maternal hobbies. Wives do not have sexual intercourse, either. When the time comes to reproduce, a letter is sent from the Imperial, issuing the need for such, and later we are credited to a suitor.
Sex is taboo now. We are told to believe that The Wars were a gift to us, and that they were meant to give our corrupt perverse society a chance to rebuild. We are told the social norms of society-dirty magazines, adultery, and strips joints-are the ways of the Before. Things are different now. Intercourse is Illegal, and for those who are caught must face the death penalty, man or woman. Most men were executed for Rape in the early days of the Imperial, but we don't see much of that anymore. Any perversity has a certain consequence. Although, the penalties are much worse for women, for we are considered the inferior race. While a man is forbidden to engage in intercourse, he is permitted self-stimulation. If a woman is caught engaging in masturbation, the Criminal is punished with the removal of the clitoris. Most women would never dream of doing such nowadays, especially around a Husband.
I was placed as a wife three years ago, to 621. He was a selfish creature with a greasy ducktail and yellow chipped teeth. His breath reeked of stale saliva and despite his somewhat athletic physique, he was covered in scars and old tattoos from the Before. Tattoos and Body Adornment are also illegal, however many can't completely cover up their past lives from the Before. 621 worked with the Imperial.
