Chapter 5: Mark of the Beast by Stephen Simpson
It was chilly, and Jodie blew warm air through his lips onto his fingers. Excitement bubbled in his guts. They were on their way to Island Roison, an island off the upper west coast of Outpost Colstand. After they signed up at their nearest Army base, they were told to be at the end of Walter’s Military Road at eleven o’clock sharp today.
Usually there would be a process to follow when signing up
to join the Army, like seeing Recruitment Officers, having a full medical
examination with physical and mental tests, career discussions, team exercises
and background checks but the government wanted a large intake of able-bodied
boys and girls over the age of eighteen to join, to help control the population
once mandatory barcoding started on Wednesday.
After their surprisingly quick enlistment, they had stopped
for lunch at their local pub, and searched the route they had to follow and how
long it would take them to get there.
Sean had said, “Hey, isn’t that where they filmed that one
season of KI6 Who Dares Wins?”
Riley looked up from his phone. “Yeah. I think you’re right.
It sure was.”
Jodie loved watching the series and he had watched every
episode.
As they drove away from his house, Jodie, sitting in the
back seat of the car, lifted his hand to wave to his mum, standing by the
kitchen window. They drove past Lydia’s house, and he glanced up to the second
floor where he knew her bedroom would be. It was dark in the Murphy house.
He stared out the window to his side, ignoring Sean and
Riley talking excitedly about all the things they would learn, wondering if it
would be like the TV show. He pretended he was sleeping, but his mind was going
a mile a minute.
Liam did not wake up to say goodbye. They were so different,
him and his younger brother. Sometimes he thought his mum had found Liam on a
rubbish heap somewhere because unlike Jodie he was not into football, or
girlfriends, or partying. The only thing he ever did was hang out with Lydia
and tinker on his computer. Jodie thought that was such a waste of a life. He
was not one of the boys, a lad’s lad. Sad, really.
Jodie had no love for his brother. Maybe, he considered, for
a silly second, it was that he was a bit jealous of his relationship with Lydia.
He quite fancied her, in a weird kind of way.
Liam could have got up to say goodbye, though.
He could not believe that on this last day of the year, he
would be joining the Army. This new year would be his best year, ever. If all
of this end of the world stuff had not happened, he doubted he would have ever
had the opportunity. He suspected he would not have passed the mental tests. He
had serious anger issues, which he hid well. Also, there was the assault charge
from when he was fourteen. He did not have to worry about any of that now. Six
crazies made it so that all his dreams could come true.
Eventually, he did not pretend to be asleep anymore as he
fell asleep for real.
He dreamed he stood on a beach. The sand was soft beneath
his bare feet, and he could feel it oozing between his toes. Although the sand
was wet against his naked skin, it felt warm and reassuring, but deep down he
could feel that it was a false sense of comfort. He was facing the ocean, which
was dark except for the luminous white crests of the waves as they crashed to
shore. The sound was loud and thunderous in his ears, drowning out any other
sounds there might have been. The air filling his nostrils smelled salty and
briny.
He saw a darker shape grow slowly out of the water. It rose
so high, he had to look up, and water fell from the shoulders and the back of
the figure like enormous waterfalls.
The large giant walked out of the sea, causing larger waves
to rush toward the shore as its knees pushed forward. When the beast walked onto
the beach, it had the body of a leopard, the feet of a bear, the mouth of a
lion, and the large wings of a dragon.
The beast walked toward Jodie, and they became one. Jodie looked
down and saw people, hordes of people, appear around him. From high up, he
could see they were coming from the north, and the east, and the west, and the
south. All these people were following him.
There were so many people that the, not so long ago, empty
beach looked like an ant’s nest. People kept touching him, and a voice was
calling his name. He turned to look, but all he could see were the tiny people
down below at his feet.
“Hey! Jodie!”
Something knocked him hard against his upper arm. He started
panicking. He did not want all these people to follow him. They seemed mindless,
as if they were all in a trance.
“Jodie!”
Then he was wide awake. One second it was the middle of the
night, and he was on a beach, feeling the spray of the waves on his skin. The
next instant he was slumped in the back seat of Riley’s car, with a cramp in
his neck, looking up at Sean leaning over him.
Feeling confused, Jodie sat up and looked past Sean, who
stepped away to the side of the car, and took in the rugged coastline and harsh
landscapes of the remote Colstand island. He turned to look at Sean and saw
tents as far as his eyes could see. They were set up in neat rows of four. He
frowned and stepped closer to Sean. “What’s going on? I thought we’re going
across the water to the island?”
Sean shook his head. “Riley’s gone to see if he can find out
anything, but it looks like we’re not going to be getting any training. From what
we’ve heard from the others, we’re just going to get the barcode, a uniform, a
couple of instructions, and a gun.”
Jodie turned to look around him. Riley had parked his car as
close to the end of the road as he could. There were hundreds of cars parked in
neat rows across the fields. He could see the shimmer of the early morning sun
on metal all the way back to where the road turned to follow the coastline,
leading to this dead end. He rubbed his hands over his eyes just in case the
light was playing tricks on him. He looked again. No. It was true. There were
hundreds upon hundreds of cars.
He turned, again, to face the tents and this time he could see
a long queue of people snaking in a long zigzag toward a green army camouflage
tent. It was the largest tent of them all. If he had to guess, the other
smaller tents were medical tents. He felt a pang of fear in his guts. Was he
ready for this? Really ready?
Sean was the leader of their pack and had the most boldness
and bravado of the three of them. Riley and Jodie were mere followers. If Sean
was going to go through with this, Jodie did not really have much of a choice.
Riley came back, pushing through throngs of people moving in
the opposite direction to go and join the queue. “We have to join the line.
They’re going to give us a briefing, and then we’re going to move on to one of
the smaller tents where we’ll get the barcode.”
Sean pushed away from the car, sweeping his hand over his
crewcut. He always looked as if he was scowling, and his lips were always
pulled in a sneer even when he was laughing.
Jodie gave Riley a look as Sean swaggered away to join the
large group of people moving like a surge of molasses.
Riley shrugged and pulled his hoodie up over his short,
dirty-blonde hair. His hair was not as short as Riley’s, but it was short
enough and depending from what angle you were looking at him, clearly cut by
himself with a cheap shaver. He had a deep, pink scar across his forehead that
had been there for as long as Jodie had known him. Nobody knew how he had
gotten the scar, though. He pushed his hands in the pockets of his
loose-fitting jeans, and said, “If you can’t win them, you might as well join
them.”
Jodie wanted to correct him but decided against it. Now was
not the time. As Jodie joined the large flood of people, he could not help
remembering a part of his dream. Most of it had faded but he remembered the way
it looked when people were coming from all directions to follow whatever had come
out of the ocean, to follow him, and this felt exactly the same as that. Deep
down there was a niggling feeling that he should turn around and run as fast as
he could in the opposite direction, away from that green army tent but what was
there to run to. Nothing. This was inevitable. Sooner, rather than later, every
single person on Rheta was going to have a barcode and there was nothing he
could do to stop it. Rather be with the people who make the rules, than be one
of the outsiders. This was a lesson he learned a long time ago, when he was
fourteen, and, also, the main reason why he was friends with Sean and Riley.
Together they were stronger than they were apart. Together, they made the
rules, together they were the bullies and not the bullied, and even though
Jodie felt a strange aversion, he knew this was his destiny. This was what he
was born to do.
Jodie, Sean, and Riley joined the long, snaking line.
Whoever planned this affair were good at their jobs. For every hour of their
long stand or slow shuffle forward, there was a stand surrounded by four or
five smiling but mute army personnel who had their berets pulled down low, just
above their eyebrows, and they handed out bottles of water and small snack
bars.
Every now and again they could see a group of about fifty
young people in plain clothes leave the back of the large tent and walk away
toward one of the smaller white tents.
The sun was starting to set by the time Jodie and his two
friends reached the front, and when Jodie looked back it seemed as if the queue
had only grown longer. It did not look any shorter than it did when they joined
it this morning. He did not feel anxious anymore. If there were this many
people wanting to join the good fight, who was he to say it was wrong? Instead
of fear, he was starting to feel excited. This was going to be epic.
Together with forty-nine others he was ushered into the
tent. He was given a laminated card with the number 971234 – 567001, and a
form. There were ten round tables in the tent, and they were divided into
groups of five each.
They stood around the tables in their groups when a short,
stocky man with a full black beard, large bushy eyebrows and dark eyes appeared
and said, in a deep, respect-inducing voice, “Check that the information on
those forms are correct and that the number on the form is the same as the number
on the card you’ve just been given. Then, when you’re happy it is correct, sign
it, and bring it with you.”
Jodie saw it was the same form he had to fill in yesterday
at the Army Recruitment Office. It had his full names, his address, his
postcode, his date of birth, his bank details, his religion, his race. Just the
usual stuff people fill in on forms these days. He scanned it quickly, and then
pulled the pen, fastened to the table with a white cord, closer to him and
signed his name.
He waited for Sean and Riley before he stepped closer to the
flap to get to the other side of the tent.
There were fifty chairs in rows of ten each. They moved to
the front and sat down to wait for the rest of their group to finish signing
their forms and to take a seat.
When all the seats were filled, the same man with the beard
stood in front of them. He said, as his eyes moved from one person to the next,
“Thank you for standing up to violence. Thank you for being here to protect our
country. If we want to break the cycle of violence against the innocent people
of Rheta, we need to build a zero-tolerance approach against terrorism. With
barcoding, there will be no more fake passports, no more crossing borders as
someone you are not. Everything you do, will be stored in your barcode.” He
smirked. “So, when you lose your wallet or purse on a night out, no worries
because you’ll have everything you need with you.” He tapped his finger against
his head. “If you knock your head, and suffer from amnesia, no worries because
everything about you will be right there on you. This barcode is to end all
violence against humanity in all its forms. How often, since Christmas, have
you heard the words: How lucky are we that a bomb didn’t go off in this
country. We shouldn’t feel fortunate, we should be angry. No-one. Young or old,
should ever have to live in fear. The anger across the world must now be turned
into determined action. Together we must stop violence against humanity. There
will be people who rebel. People who say the governments of Rheta are taking
away their rights, their freedom. It is expected. That is why your country
needs you, now more than ever, in these difficult times. As we speak, tents
like these are being erected across the country. On Wednesday, we expect
everybody who is willing to come forward without any resistance. On Thursday,
without any preamble, you will be going door to door to bring those who resist,
to the coding centres.” He paused for a moment to let his words sink in, then
he pulled his beret from his head.
In the centre of his forehead there was an image with black
and white lines of varying width. He said, “This mark contains important
information unique to only me. This is a method of representing data in a visual,
machine-readable form. It is not a laborious hand applied tattoo. It will be
applied by a machine in as little as a second. We all have ours and as you can
see, we have not turned into monsters or zombies. We all still have a mind of
our own.” He gestured to the army personnel standing around the inside
perimeter of the tent. They each removed their beret, and their marks were
clearly visible in the centre of their foreheads. “From here, you will go to
your designated tent. Always keep your card with you, because your own, unique
tattoo will correspond with that number. After you have received your mark, the
card will be destroyed by the nurse who applied your tattoo. You will feel
tired after getting your mark. It is normal. There are beds for each one of
you. In the morning, you will wake, vibrant and alive, and you will be issued
with your uniform, your designated posting, and a weapon. Good luck to you
all.” He pulled his beret on, pulling it down at the front until it edged along
the top of his bushy eyebrows, before he walked to the back of the tent, ducked
under the flap, and entered the front section.
The Army personnel pulled their own berets back on. One of
them moved out of the circle. “Come. Follow me. You’re in row D, all the way at
the back. If we walk fast, we can make it there before it’s completely dark outside.”
The pace was fast, and Jodie was starting to feel out of
breath even though he considered himself to be quite fit. The setting sun was
leaving layers of colours on the horizon where the sky lined up with the sea by
the time they had reached their allocated tent. He was wondering something but
on the walk over there was no opportunity to speak to the soldier.
The soldier stopped at the entrance of the tent and let them
enter one by one. Jodie kept back and was the last to step closer to the
soldier. He stopped and asked, “Ahem… Can you tell me? I thought we were going
to get the mark on our hands?”
The soldier smiled that same distant smile he had seen from
every soldier along the way today, but he said not a word.
A nurse from inside the tent called, “Everyone gather around
me. Quickly now.”
Jodie lifted his eyebrows in a ‘thank you for nothing’
gesture and went to join his friends.
The nurse said, “There’s a bed for each one of you. I want
you to pick a bed. Any bed. It doesn’t matter. Lay down. Put your laminated
card on your chest, and your arms and hands by your sides. Do not cross your
legs. Quickly now.”
They all scurried to find a bed. Jodie was not quick enough
to get a bed close to his friends and was about to knock the girl in his way to
the ground, when he noticed a few more soldiers had joined the first one. These
new soldiers had assault rifles, and they were holding the weapons in a way
that made it look as if they were ready and willing to use it.
Some of the kids were bending down to take off their shoes,
but one of the nurses walking by said, “No need to remove your shoes.” She
raised her voice so that everyone could hear her. “Lay down fully dressed.
Thank you.”
The beds were positioned headboard to foot end, ten in a
row. There was a walkway between each row. Jodie laid down and did what he was
instructed to do. He heard a strange whirring noise coming from the top of his
row and was about to lift himself to look backwards when one of the soldiers
yelled, “Lay down. All of you. Look up at the ceiling.”
His body started to tense up. All his muscles were on alert.
He felt an eminent panic attack threatening to overwhelm him.
A shadow fell over him, and he moved his eyes to look at the
large, robot-looking machine next to him. A metal appendix that looked like a
clamp came down and pinned his head to the bed. A laser beam came from a red
strip of lights in the centre of the robot’s square top half. One of the nurses
leaned over him to collect the plastic card from his chest. She lifted the card
and the laser scanned it. She looked at Jodie briefly as if she, maybe, felt
sorry for him. Another metal appendix hovered over him and with lightning speed
pushed against his forehead.
The machine made that same whirring noise and moved to the
next bed at Jodie’s feet.
Relief washed through him from his toes to his shoulders. He
felt his muscles relax. That was not bad at all, he thought. He felt nothing.
Usually, on the odd occasion when he had to get an injection, it was much worse
than this was.
Then.
A burning, hot poker of fire flamed through the front of his
head. The fire grew hotter, but it was so quick that before Jodie could scream
out in pain he had blacked out.
His last thought was the answer to that something he wanted
to know. He knew now why the barcode was tattooed on their foreheads and not on
their hands. It was easy to chop of a hand, but not so much a head.
All work created and posted on this blog is the intellectual property of Stephen Simpson.
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