Death, Page 2

hands, they would obviously fall down in a moving bus.

  There are some families that only a father or a mother is holding the strap and everybody else is depending on that person. Some families might have all of the family members holding the strap on one hand and each other's hand on the other. Some families might be holding the straps, but not holding hands with each other. Some families might pretend that they're holding hands, but they're satisfied that they are not holding it tight. My family used to hold the strap with one hand and hold each other's hand with the other so that we could all stand still on a moving bus. My wife was in the center, and she never let go of my hand and our children's hands.

  My family lived a stable life together, and I believe that we are still holding our hands. However, my wife began to get weak. Her hands were losing strength. My children and I could hold her hands tighter, but I can't keep telling my children to hold her up. I need to be stronger to hold her, and for a long time.

  As I was thinking this, my children came home with their children for dinner. We had a good time together eating and talking, and we were happy. I felt confident that my wife and I were living a happy life. I was proud that I still had strength in my hands.

  News reported that a person who took the Shield medicine while controlling the dosage died of cancer (nobody died of cancer for several decades ever since cancer was conquered). Additional news showed that a grandalpha was killed because he was caught under a machine during work. However, this information lasted for less than 10 seconds in media.

  A 40-year old jobless breadwinner was sentenced to death because he killed his own parents to get the Shield injection out of them to inject it to himself. This incident became headline news, and it ended with the commentators against Shield, stating that 'I knew this would happen someday. It'll just get worse."

  4Opposition forces

  “For humans to live humanely mean that we are born and killed by the laws of nature. Shield goes against nature, and it should be disappeared. We need to ban the manufacture of Shield, and make grandalphas stop getting the Shield injection. This would make us human."

  News screen is displaying the entire scene of National Assembly as the spokesperson of GS (Green Silver) Party was addressing in a high-pitched voice. He stated that 50% of the population agrees with his argument, and that Shield means the wrongful greed of people, and this greed will lead us to the end of mankind. Some of the members of the National Assembly seemed to be applauding, but it disappeared as it echoed in emptiness. The reporter ended the news saying "All of the members of National Assembly are grandalphas except 3 people. Nobody believes that this policy that GS Party is talking about is going to pass."

  Other reporters continued with a look that he already knew this was going to happen. "So the law to ban the manufacturing of the Shield or the use of it did not pass. GS Party said that they will hold a demonstration until the law passes. A religious party that agrees with the GS Party sent a supporting message. Religious parties are already opposing the use of Shield, but many of the believers became grandalphas, and what they're doing is not going to work."

  Business news reports that the grandalphas are doing a great job in the society. "Grandaplhas are actively working in the society as much as young people no matter how old they are. Their experience and know-how are becoming the basis for their superior performance." The reporter spoke sounded with confidence and strong belief in his words. "As grandalphas are earning more, they have increased purchasing power. You might already know this. This can be an example of what their roles are in society as purchasing power takes an important part of economic growth in terms of money circulation."

  Social news reported that the population of grandalphas approached 65% of the total population, and that we used to call people over 60 years old who had the surgery Grandalphas 10 years ago, but now anyone who had the surgery are called grandalphas. For the last few years the number stayed within 60% ~ 65%, and people forecasted that this number would stay the same. The reporter says that the other 40% of the people are thought to be the ones who think that natural death is more humane or people were too poor to afford the Shield injections. He stated that he wonders why the health insurance only covers the first Shield surgery and not the following injections, and that everybody would need to get the chance to extend life.

  I used to wake up at 7am and watch the news, but now I automatically wake up at 5am and watch the 5am-news. I'm worried that I'm sleeping less than before but I still sleep 7 hours a day, and I don't get tired during the day, so I think I'm okay. My wife was still in bed when the news was over, so I made us breakfast. I stopped working out in the morning because it was winter and I didn't want to go outside early in the morning. I didn't know what to do until my wife woke up, so I changed the channel to watch other news. The news was exactly the same with the 5am-news.

  “You guys are just living corpse. Just go outside and die. It'd be more humane and helpful for the people around you." The new managerial staff was yelling at a grandalpha who was older than me. People tried to stop the managerial staff, but he shouted out "now the humans are coming to an end. Everyone should know that working with these zombies is a problem." and left the office. I knew that the staff was a passionate follower of the GS Party, but I could feel that more people became our enemies than before.

  Something had happened in the morning as I just stepped into the office, so I was confused on what was going on. I started to worry that this would become a problem. One employee came to me and said "there was an error in the program that the grandalpha worked on, and a customer who spotted this called his boss and complained about it. The boss got mad at the managerial staff, and he told the grandalpha to write an apology and explanation, but he just smiled and tried to leave the office."

  I recently felt there was a strange atmosphere between the normal people and grandalphas. I saw frequent fights between the regular people and grandalphas in restaurants and pubs, and these were reported on the news and radio. Some young people thought of grandalphas as filthy animals and said 'they're not human. They should be killed.'

  Maybe they're right. I used to compare my life to a skein of thread. I thought of myself as a ball of thread that came out from many skeins of human thread. I was formed from nothing but a thread out of my father and mother. I grew bigger as other people gave their threads to me. Later I started giving my thread to others. When I gave more than I get, my skein would not have much thread left, and then I would die.

  If I lived my life normally, my skein of thread would be very small now, and it would be naturally waiting to go back to the empty space that I came from. However, my skein of thread seemed to be greedy holding up the threads, not giving any to others. I have so much thread now, but they were supposed to be passed on to others. What if they never get passed on to the other skein of thread and just disappear one day? What if the people can't make their own perfect skein of thread because the threads were not passed on to them?

  Unlike my skein of thread, my wife's would be passed on to all the people that she loves, making their skein of thread bigger as my wife's skein of thread gets smaller. I would persuade my wife to get the shield surgery if I had the same thoughts as before, but now I envy her. She looked good getting old. She was beautiful as she was. Wasn't I supposed to live like my wife did?

  I came back home, had dinner, and watched the news. I can't sleep tonight.

  Some of the grandalphas are having the symptoms of not sleeping, and the pharmaceutical company is doing their best to find the reasons, the news reported. There are more shops opening late at night as these grandalphas are not sleeping, and this is a new phenomenon that began with grandalphas.

  There are more traffic accidents that are caused by grandalphas, but the news said it's not so bad, and we don't need to worry. Some grandalphas were experiencing lethargy.

  Now the news on grandalphas seemed to be normal. They were causing accidents,
getting cancer from increasing the shield injection dose, and the cancer is fatal since it doesn't occur in one or two places but the entire body. 100% of the grandalphas are reported to die if they get cancer.

  News reported that the UN gathered supreme commanders of each country to discuss and announce the protocol on controlling the use of Shield. However, the reporter said that all of the supreme commanders are grandalphas now, and what would this protocol mean to us, and ended with "they agreed on the matter but the meeting ended without having a detailed schedule to make plans for execution."

  5Consideration on death

  My wife's skein of thread is gone. She left me alone on the bus.

  “Now we need to stop young people from getting addicted to the Shield that is wiping out humanity. We should not make political decisions just because many voters are grandalphas although we know the risks. We need to be determined." A young member of GS Party spoke up to the TV camera. The grandalphas who would have opposed to this were not there anymore.

  The morning news anchor who's been anchoring for more than 30 years was replaced, probably because he was a grandalpha.

  Except the grandalphas who received the Shield in the