“This is a public announcement. The hour of arising has come for day workers. Anyone working in the civilian station, report to their stations in exactly one hour. Night workers may end their shifts now…” Jaejoong’s fingers automatically tickled his spouse. “…shifts now. The governor of the 7453rd sector, Kim Junsu, has just informed you of the shift change. Please follow procedures and keep flourishing.” The ending message was chipper and squealish, almost like a dolphin’s voice.

Now awake, Jaejoong was entertained with his routine task of waking his spouse and ignoring the tingle in his throat. “Wifey, time to get up. It’s another day us commoners have to work for the rich to laze around. Wifey, do you want to spend your day like them? Yuri, baby, the health center won’t run itself. Wake up darling.” Yuri swatted his head and giggled into consciousness. Jaejoong greeted his wife with a gentle smile, but it was morphed strangely as he held back a searing cough.

“Jaejoongie, how much longer until our shift starts?” Jaejoong swallowed saliva to ease his sore throat, but the pain was only worse. Yuri worked in the hospital, so if she knew he was sick major things would go on. He gently climbed out of the small and old cot, ignoring the nausea erupting in his body. He wanted to hurl right there, but he had to get to the factory. They weren’t in a good enough situation where they could take off days for being sick and still have food to eat for the eat.

He mustered up all his strengths to say something without the scratches in his voice being any more obvious to his slowly waking wife. “Just a little less that and hour, Yuri. It’s best we eat something before leaving.” That was a joke, inappropriate and mocking to their entire lifestyle. There was never enough food for the couples without children. It was a way Junsu kept the population growing. Unless they were wealthy or had children to provide for they didn’t get full course meals. It was a flaw in their sector and many others.

Yuri wasn’t sure exactly what her husband was hiding from her, but she knew whatever it was would have to wait until a more convenient time. She slid off the cot as well and landed on the loose gravel floor. She didn’t have to go far to be in the kitchen. Still in her hospital night clothes, the pair she secretly ‘borrowed’ for her and Jaejoong to sleep in, she the tap to drink water from a cracking cup made of a strange plastic-like material. There wasn’t any water flowing again this morning.

Jaejoong called from the other side of the small house while changing his clothes. “No water again?” Yuri’s answer was quiet and tired. There had been too many mornings without any water that she had grown used to never feeling quenched. “Should I run to the bathhouse and take some from there?” Yuri shook her head knowing he was watching her back. That water was so nasty and disease ridden she didn’t even dare bathe in it. Every chance she got, she took short showers in the hospital.

Illness was a dangerous thing in their sector. Just as humans had evolved to breathe carbon dioxide, bacteria had gained complete immunity to antibiotics. Humans weren’t any stronger really, their immune systems had gone down from too many years using drugs to cure themselves instead of using their own antibodies. Getting sick meant almost immediate death for most unless they were able to afford the crazy treatments from more developed sectors or if they were the type of people forced into physical labor and actually had strong and healthy bodies.

“It’s fine Jaejoong, but we are completely out of bread. We won’t have anything to eat tonight. Do you think Yoochun will be bringing in the supplies by this afternoon? Or will I have to take something again? Would Yunho be willing to bring in something spare for you?” Jaejoong cringed when he heard Yoochun’s name. He was a very controversial person. He was from a different sector and frankly his supply of food and other necessities was illegal. He was helping out the starving people that couldn’t survive on their own and he tried to rebel against the overpowering rule that overpowered them. To some he was a hero and to others he was a brute wanting to stir up trouble. Jaejoong would take what would be given to him, no matter who it was from, but he didn’t look for the illegal supplies because he and Yuri were already in enough trouble not having kids and all.

“I don’t think he is coming until next week at the earliest. There was another incident in his sector, he is causing trouble and bringing it to ours. I don’t even want to know how he and Junsu get along at the governor meetings.” Yuri smirked knowing that a good number of regions were slowly being dragged into this rebellion. Junsu, their governor, was extremely strict and followed the rules meticulously. On the other hand, Yoochun had a completely set of ideals and thought that the way things were currently running were completely primitive.

“Well we need something to eat. Is there any way we can get some food?” Jaejoong cleared his throat, but covered it up as a sigh.

“I’ll ask Yunho at lunch.” He didn’t like begging one of his only friends for food. He felt pathetic, like he couldn’t even support himself without help. Yunho was a nice guy even though he was blessed with money and education. The man was lucky enough to be free in his choice of marriage. He had the good fortune of being allowed a few extra years without a wife. Jaejoong and Yunho were the same age, 25, but Jaejoong had already been wedded with Yuri for 8 years while Yunho lived a sweet bachelorhood.

Yunho was able to live so comfortably because his family had been able to keep their wealth from the age of technology revolution. When the drive for enhancement was still there his family had taken a niche of being electron experts. Yunho designed many of the circuit boards and programs used in the machines.

Yuri walked over to Jaejoong and wrapped her arms around his neck, a small tear rolling down her face. “Don’t, we can make it. I’m sorry I am over reacting. There are just too many things going on at the hospital. Today is the day they send people out to cure their cancers. Don’t do anything that makes you uncomfortable.” She stood there breathing in his scent, trying to calm her nerves. She hated to work with all the sick patients. She risked getting illnesses herself, but more, she hated to watch as they all slowly died. The hospital had a larger morgue than actual healing ward.

She leaned in to kiss him but stopped when she smelled his breath. It stank, yeah, he hadn’t brushed his teeth in ages, but a different scent wafted to her, the smell of sickness. She pushed him back abruptly to examine him. Jaejoong knew she had discovered his agony. It was a light relief; he was having trouble keeping in his coughs, and sneezes threatened to burst. His growing headache had him close to fainting, but he stayed awake for Yuri. Without her he was prone to seclusion and expulsion into the world that would not allow him to live. She was his only way to live. He needed to be married or Junsu would dispose of him without hesitation.

“It’s just my allergies. Bad ozone and terrible pollen.” Yuri stopped her examination to stare incredulously into his eyes. Who did he think he was playing. The ozone? It was really a foreign word to her, but she knew it was the cause for all the radiation leaking into the atmosphere, other than the nuclear wars. She also knew the it had something to do with the killer heat and all the carbon in the air. There were reasons people lived in domed sectors.

“Don’t play with me! I know the only plants here are the vegetables and fruit growing in the fenced off greenhouse. There is no way we are getting pollen from those things!”

“But the apple trees have buds and they release –” Yuri pushed Jaejoong back onto the cot to relax the swaying man. His protests died out as she continued her observations, anger making her touches a little harsher than was intended.

“Stop acting all smart. Have you been in the Jung Library again? Yunho has been letting you read his history books? I don’t want to know what you do instead of working. I am only concerned about your health.” She grimaced as the word health made her think of the approaching work hour and of Junsu’s policy. ‘Health is good fitness. The fitness of all organisms is determined by the ability to survive and produce offspring. We as humans should show off our superiority and continue to grow in population.’

Thinking of that also made her mind temporarily drift to Yoochun’s policy. ‘We are a developed world, as such we should take a step back and let life continue as how it should be. We should focus on our good education, not letting youths spend their teen years sleeping around. Our education can lead to an increase in technology, not a reuse of poorly designed programs from the past. With better technology we can make living more efficient, even agriculture can be done electronically and quicker. We are going down the wrong path.’

Yuri sighed and stopped her roaming touches. No matter how sick Jaejoong was, he needed to stay away from any sick bay. Word of his illness would get them kicked out immediately. Junsu was mad enough they weren’t ing it up every night, angry that they didn’t have children, and seriously crazy about Jaejoong and Yuri’s poor work ethics. One reason and he would get rid of them, even if others would have been given a chance for redemption.

“Fine, continue being sick! If you feel like you are about to pass out, try to go to Yunho’s, he can hide you there and his C0-PAN10N can take your place for the rest of your shift. I’ll try and take some vitamins, you need them. I think the cause for your sickness is probably malnutrition. Pray it is just a cold and not something like bronchitis. You would die.” Jaejoong nodded as he pulled himself up once again. It helped greatly to always have a nurse by his side. Yuri changed into her nurses uniform as she eyed the now freely coughing Jaejoong. “How much time do we have left?”

Jaejoong shook his head. He hadn’t heard any voices in the last few minutes so they must have had a good amount of time until their shift started. Almost all, probably all, males were implanted with the voice chip. The chip was programmed to keep track of their movements and allow messages to transfer to their inner thoughts from the Governor of their region. Females were not given them because they interfered with their mentality during pregnancy. Sometimes nobody understood the elaborate web of regulations and assumptions strung together to make their lives unbearable.

The couple set off; their destinations were a long ways off. All along the street were loved ones hugging their spouses, kissing, and in some areas, doing the nasty. It was a welcomed expression, public display of affection is okay. It was only the young couples allowed to live so relaxed and luxuriously. Yuri and Jaejoong felt awkward. There was always one house in particular that made them feel in danger for their own safety. There was a young woman, maybe the same age as Yuri, who was 23, and she had six children already. It was disgusting to think that this is what humanity had turned into. At least sector 7453 didn’t allow adultery like 7454, Yoochun’s district. That sector was so free that there practically weren’t any rules.

Jaejoong hooked hands with Yuri to avoid any scrutiny, but they had to let go as their paths separated. Yuri warned Jaejoong to keep safe and stay out of trouble. He assured her he would pull through, but he was paling by the second. They parted and continued a good ways alone. Jaejoong was groggy and out of whack. He had trouble putting one foot in front of the other. His arms and legs were throbbing from their use, and he wasn’t sure why. Despite Yuri’s heeding, he collapsed onto the dirt road causing a commotion big enough to get both of the exiled right then.

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I finally updated! It has been awhile that my computer has worked long enough for me to write and use the internet! My keyboard hurts my fingers, but I continue to write. Wow, I am sleepy, nighty! I hope to get some readers soon.

Comments are motivation~♥