Gendered

Gendered

By Christopher Fox

Ver 1.0

Smashwords Edition by Christopher Fox

Copyright 2017 Christopher Fox

Smashwords Edition, License Notes:

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This novel is dedicated to my Mom. I’ve never said it enough but thank you.

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Connect with Christopher Fox

Chapter One

Until recently, I don’t think I ever had a choice. What I really mean to say is that, I don’t think any of us ever had a choice. We were taught what we were taught, we lived this – I lived this. I’m still living this… Ugh… What I mean to say is…

What do I mean to say?

I mean that… That… Well… Let me just start from the beginning… It’ll help me… Right, so fourteen years ago, I was brought into a strange place – here – Earth. Or at least what’s left of it... You know that animals are still existent, well some, and vegetation is still bountiful. You also know that a lot of vegetation is kept in greenhouses so that it can be controlled. Everything needs to be controlled, we are living in the age of extreme political correctness.

Now… I don’t know if any other humans call it that, but hopefully, sometime in the future, this era is looked at and labeled as such. Because if things got worse… If things got worse, I can’t even imagine what it might look like for so many humans... But there is always hope, there is a plan. At least, I hope. I’m not sure how many others do right now… Things have just gotten out of control, and now they are. What I mean is that things just are, it’s life. But I might be getting ahead of myself.

I didn’t write any of this down, and there’s so much to say… Well… How about I just say everything… No… Well… Just the important parts… Yeah, let me catch you up on the important parts. Some of this you may know, and some of it you won’t. Now, it won’t take long, but I think that it’s necessary. People need to know, someone needs to hear me. Even if it’s just me for right now, it won’t take long, I promise…

Okay – so, the current situation is a slow evolution from fairly recent history. I didn’t live through most of it, but I know it. Well… I’ve been told it, and I tend to believe the humans that told me. They said it started about thirty years ago. With some progressive ideas, for the time, about identity and self. Powerful ideas that traveled around the world. These ideas traveled so quickly that the nations of the world began adapting to them.

The nations had to. People became strong in the position of self and advocated for ultimate choice of the individual and life. My parents told me that the riots were brutal. They never went deep into description, for a few reasons. Did I tell you that my parents told me all of this? That’s important to know, because… Because I trust them. They may not trust me, but we’ll get to that…

Where was I?... O- yeah, the riots… They remained violent until some other humans saw an opportunity. An opportunity to advance themselves and perhaps their surroundings. Everything is for the group, but I’m getting too far ahead of myself again. Let me talk more about the group of humans.

They brought about a new political front, using the riots and recruiting other humans from the same riots. Due to the actions of a few humans, a new political power emerged to settle out the turmoil – In America – the political party was known as The New Collective. In Europe – it was The Respective Right – in what was left of Asia – it was a name I’ve never gotten right, but translates to hope. Nowhere else in the world really mattered because no one lived anywhere else.

I’ve heard in school that people are starting to move back into desolate areas, but that’s a slow process. I don’t even know how those people get selected for the task. The colonization has turned into an almost soft joke that kids taunt their parents with. Things have gotten out of hand, and it’s because of that war. I said there was a war right?

Well there was, it involved the world. It was about resources. That’s why things are the way they are. That’s why the riots happened. That’s why life is the way it is now. You might know it by a different name, but It’s been called World War III by most… We know it in school as the start to the new beginning. I should have started with that, I’m sorry, I’m new to this… And I didn’t plan for this…

Uh – Right… So, not so long after the start of the new beginning an event happened that is referred to as The Birth. That’s when all the parties of the world began to unite under the same banner, the banner of the New Collective. It should be noted that governments are still separate, on the surface, but the truth is that they are not separate at all. It’d be easier to say that there is just one ruling power on Earth, but in the age of extreme political correctness – it’s not so easy to put the world in a box like that.

There’s depth to everything – but it’s mostly surface – my Dad always says, The more things change – the more they stay the same.

Even now, I wonder how right he is… He lived through the war and met my mom. Shortly after they met, the war ended, and The New Collective was born. As The New Collective came into power, social laws were enacted. They were helpful for the time, and mostly based around collection and distribution of resources. Those laws were in response to the purpose of the war.

Because… Well… Because as far as I know, the war had been about resources. It was especially true for the time, and is still true, that the Earth can’t handle another war. Not the way that war was, or the way my parents have described it.

Let me just say that the war itself had been very unpopular and most people lost at least one person. I know my parents both lost a lot, they just don’t talk much about it, and to be honest, I never asked. It always seemed too personal. Plus, I had a growing list of other questions that I wanted answers for. There was just never enough time and well… in the age of extreme political correctness, questions are dangerous things…

Where was I...? O yeah- so the humans that were still alive after the war, felt their voices had not been heard before or during the war. That’s why dramatic change happened... Because those people hadn’t felt that they had been heard.

They felt that what was happening wasn’t working for them. It was a choice then. My Dad told me about the campaigns advocating for the human. He would go to them, he loved them, and I think mostly because he hated the war… He never said how the war stopped, nor have we ever been told in school, but it did. I’m sorry but that’s all I know, it stopped. Maybe if you know, or know someone who knows, you could tell me? All I know is that it was done in a big enough way to scare the world into change.

Well... That and the riots… My parents said in true democratic fashion – the powers in charge at the time of the war were taken out and replaced by extreme polar opposites that advocated for the individual. Which brings us to the initial birth of The New Collective. It’s why we call it that now, the birth.

Birthed through the riots and voted in. Ideas brought about through the campaigns for humans and the individual. Birthed through what was left from an unpopular war about resources… When the New Collective came into power… They had a mess laid out before them.

The new party’s actions started out slowly. I guess they needed to make sure that things could move forward, but, to be fair, it’s also how things had to go. Infrastructure had been badly damaged and most places could not support life. So, the party enacted civil engineering and planning operations.

Financial situations had to be rethought during the rebuilding phase, my parents told me on a number of occasions about money, but I don’t really understand it enough to talk about it.

Cities were changed and daily life was changed during the rebuild. Within a few years of The New Collective being in power, at least in America, the social landscape was something my dad referred to as day and night. Humans worked in greenhouses and technology was not made for war, but for survival.

Things were good but then new laws started to get enacted by The New Collective. This started to happen around the time when I was born. Things were good then, they are now... In places… Or maybe things have just have gotten out of control?

When I was born, The New Collective moved all of the individuals together, to work together. Restrictions were placed on travel. This was for the protection of the individuals. Places damaged by the war were not safe, and during that time, most people had to work for the betterment of every other person. Due to the perceived prosperity, The New Collective was voted back into office under a new face, and the party hasn’t lost an election since.

My parents even voted for them back then. Like honestly voted for them. They told me that what they thought was happening, at the time, was truly revolutionary. All people were entitled to life. All people were entitled to choice. That’s a basic summary of the initial laws – but then those laws evolved into optionally mandatory laws. The evolutions of the optionally mandatory laws were not very popular and gave rise to the birth of the police force.

There were plenty of humans left over from the fighting. Well, enough humans left over from the fighting that stepped up to help keep things in order. For doing so, those humans were given privilege. There was a great fear that things would move back to how they used to be, before the war, or even directly after. That things would be how the riots were, the riots that birthed the New Collective…

When riots began to protest the new optionally mandatory laws, there was a fear… I sort of think that the fear stemmed from the unknown of what could be, but also because there couldn’t be another war.

There just couldn’t be another war, or there would be no more life. So, laws of greater intensity were enacted and evolved. My dad said that things went too far too fast. Aspects of what was happening was good. Social change needed to happen, but he disagreed with how a few of the laws were being carried out. He told me that because of the riots that were occurring, everyone began to slowly lose their choice. The New Collective began to act autonomously, ‘for the greater good.’

One of the few laws that I know by memory was passed during this time. It’s one that everyone knows because it has influenced our current situation the most. You may know it too. My Dad told me that he felt very uneasy about it at the time. I don’t know if it was passed under another name, but it has become known as the Non-Human Identifier Law.

It states: No Human, or Humans, shall name any individual as any gender or naming or naming convention until that human chooses on its own – no color beyond grey shall be worn until color should be so chosen.

It seems weird to say, but I know that the implications of it were astounding. In truth, I’ve known nothing different. I’ve only known grey – and the number 32212. That’s been my name for the entirety of my life. It seems weird to go by anything else... There’s a lot in a name – a lot of choice.

When I said I don’t think I’ve ever had a choice. Well… I lied, I do have some choice. I have choice about myself, just not where I find myself… Up until last week, I had other choices to make too. I’ve yet to choose my gender. Because there are a lot of implications to that as well. It’s easier to not make them yet, because I want to be sure.

I know what my parents always wanted me to be – but they couldn’t say it – no parents can – parents can’t even talk about it without fear their child might report them to the police. It’s easy too, we have a kiosk at school that we, little humans, sign in for the day. There is always a prompt that asks how our parents are. I have always tried to answer as minimally as possible, because I don’t really know them.

That is for both of our protection. They know as well as I do that a lot of children have reported their parents with that prompt. Those children have put their parents in reeducation camps for labeling them as a boy or a girl. There are other reasons too, but gender was the most difficult for the humans of the old ways.

It’s not so hard for us, the new ways, because we have been brought up to know key facts about life. That is, in the age of extreme political correctness – words have power. Power to get anyone placed in a reeducation camps – but it’s mostly parents, the people of the old ways.

From what I’ve seen and heard, kids