The Interchangables

It had been a few years since Law-Z was passed. It was their last option for our country I guess. I was . seven when I heard that all individuality would be erased or you would be executed. It’s the year 2167, my name is Bernadette Jay and I’m turning 17 on June 11th. Law-Z made it so everyone would look the same, sound the same, and in some extreme early thoughts even think the same. Of course, people were outraged at Law-Z but no one could stop them. Who is them you might ask, well no one really knows actually? They were also called “The Orignal” but all the people know is that they made everything a living hell for me and for everyone else for the past 10 years. Everyone calls us the " Newfound generation."

We're not new, we're just experiments.

“I’m so tired of being a man already, it’s nice to finally be equal!″ my father said that once when “martial law” took place and we were forced to take a pill to make our voices sound the same. I know for a fact he wouldn't have said that if a guard wasn't forcing us to take the pills in front of him.

The government purposely made the pills slightly less addicting than heroin on purpose. So no matter what we did we would become dependent on the pills and have to take them. They were smart in a sense that whatever chemicals they put into the pills they were a chemical that we couldn't overdose on. When we were first given the pills it felt like someone was slicing into my throat with a scalpel and poured acid into my throat and threw salt at my wound. In the end my voice was back after 3 days.

From what some dead detectives research seemingly showed. The only reason there no longer were homeless people was because they were taken off of the streets for a "rehabilitation program" there was no rehabilitation program. They killed them for their vocal cords, (I suppose they're more like vocal flaps,) everyone who they got to be "rehabilitated" was murdered and their bodies were all cremated together that way their bodies couldn't be identified and the government couldn't be blamed for their disappearances.

The army, from what I remember, took all of our clothes and burned them in the street. They did this to my neighbor’s too. Everyone from that day forward would all have the same voice and not long after the same clothes as well. What we didn’t know what that they would make all houses the same too, along with the food inside of them. That is what really made me angry.

Before Marshall law took over, we had some of the most powerful people turn into the first Interchangeable’s, of course, because of the publicity it got them and Law-Z they became some of the richest people in the whole world. The rest of the world hasn’t caught onto it yet, they're the lucky ones. The rest of the world believed it was too harsh and would be damaging to the youth when the law would be passed, they were right.

A few of my friends and their parents committed suicide after 5 years of the law being in motion. The one that hit me that hardest was when my best friend Amiee killed her self. According to Amiee in her and her parent’s suicide notes, “by erasing our individuality, we might as well be dead” Aimee’s father worked as a scientist who was pushed to make the voice changing pills. He also had access to cyanide, he infused them into pills instead of drinking it, that’s what they say happened.

I never believed that Amiee wanted to die, I knew how against the law she was but I knew her, she was my best friend. She would of at least told me or mentioned me in her note, then again they all had the same note, her, her mother, and her father. It always left a sour taste in my mouth. The situation always seemed off, there is no way she committed suicide with her family.

I didn’t cry when I went to the funeral, I knew she would have said” crying isn’t going to bring me back so think back on all the dumb shit we did and smile” I knew because she said that if she ever died before me that that’s what she would say to me.

I knew she wouldn’t have killed herself, I can’t do anything to prevent it or go back and figure out who made her but I always knew that somehow it was her father right? He’s the one who had access to it so everyone assumed it was a “mass suicide” I guess if you call 3 people a mass suicide.

After she died I felt like I had lost some of my humanity along with her. I couldn’t feel sorrow for other people or show empathy. It was like a part of me was lost once she was gone. I knew what I was supposed to look like when I showed compassion or had a cry with someone. But I never felt like I used to after the damn law was passed and after Amiee died. Everything changed in my life after.

I didn’t feel a need to socialize with anyone at school or hell, I couldn’t fall in love with someone without wondering what they were and who they once were. The law wasn’t completely inforced to everyone, but unless you were rich you had to follow the law or just like the president, you would be executed on live TV.

After a year the law passed, everyone was required to shave their heads and put on these caps so that way everyone had a chrome dome. Everyone looked completely ridiculous, but so did I. The clothes we wore made everyone the same weight and have the same body figure. No woman had any curves that would make a man lust after them and no man had a buldge that could be seen. Swimsuits did the exact same thing but took to an almost extreme level. The swimsuits felt like you were carrying armor until you got into the water. Everyone was truly cloaked under equity.

The law never did any good, murder, suicide, and terrorist attacks had increased. I remember when the empire state building got blown to dust right after a minor nuke like-bomb went off in the oval office. It was just one thing after another that day. The empire state building and the white house. That whole day is and is still suspicious to me. I was 13 when it happened, I still remember it like it was yesterday.

When the bomb went off The original was apparently not hurt, because they weren’t there in the first place. Apparently, whoever set the bomb there hadn’t gotten the memo that they were out of the country trying to convince other countries to follow Law-Z. 20 People died that day, a touring group of elementary kids took a field trip there that day, not one of them survived.

I didn’t know how to feel about the whole incident, it didn’t affect me personally so I couldn’t really react to it.

The reason the whole incident seemed so off to me was that the news about the white house incident happened around 12:30 when everyone found out. But I saw on the news at around 8 that the bomb exploded but the broadcast was cut and changed to different programming and when the news channel finally came back the news anchors were different people. I know most people couldn’t tell but these new ones had different body language and one of them had a mole under their left eye. Before that neither of the original anchors had any moles on their faces.

I couldn’t question it or else my individuality would come back.

Thinking about the law makes me remember what my parents and I used to do before the law was introduced to the public. I have faint memories of everything we used to do but I do remember us going camping and star gazing at Lovers Lane. A cheesy name I know but now it’s changed to Astronomy Mountain, I liked it better when it was cheesier.

To get to Lovers Lane it took around an hour and a half from where we lived. I always slept on the way and it made it seem like only a few minutes had passed by rather than 90 minutes. I remember the one time I stayed awake I knew that I wanted to stay awake the whole ride and the few rides that came after it. I saw the stars for how they truly looked without a telescope. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

After I turned 16 I stopped going to school, I guess you could call me a dropout. I got good grades and I liked the teachers. I had so many memories at school, that’s one of the reasons why I left. I could only remember Aimee and every time someone mentioned her name I would snap, I knew it was how her family was crazy and how the law was great and a revolution in society. That's what everyone said and it really irritated me. That’s why after I got expelled for sending a former friend of mine to the hospital, I realized that I was dangerous to most people now. I knew I wasn’t a killing machine or some genocidal monster but I have to admit that I have anger issues.

Only after that did I start taking trips by myself to Lovers Lane. People never really knew about the secret path to the beach below the clifftop. I remember stumbling upon it when my mom and I were messing around. We saw a clear path to the beach and since we had some swimwear we decided to go for a swim.

Every once in a while I’ll go to the beach when I get angry with my parents about how stupid the law is and how everyone should go against the law and stand up to the government and take it down to become what we once were. Independent.

Of course, people think I’m crazy when I talk like that but it’s true. I never understood the law and I still don’t.