Imagine a world where nobody gets sick or old
It’s my birthday today. I have lost count of how many birthdays have passed, but I still keep my tradition. I climb to the top of the nearby hill, bringing a handful of dirt with me. I press it into the ground. Then, I sit down to prepare my mind for my next annual rite: reminding myself of who I am and why I am living.
I made this hill, actually, and I’m still building it up. I started on my tenth birthday. Now, the hill is large enough for me to ski down each winter. In a world where people stay young forever, persistence pays.
Persistence was what led Dr Syue Cano to discover the secret of eternal youth. At the age of eighty-four, he identified the gene that causes humans to age and the specific radiation that destroys it. No one will know whether he detonated his “Youth” bomb for the sake of his own immortality or for the sake of the other human beings in the world. However, his defective heart could not withstand the impact of the blast. He died the instant the bomb exploded.
Mankind will always be grateful for the discovery to which Dr Cano dedicated his life. However, he left the world with one problem: the earth’s limited natural resources. Even with plant growth accelerated by scientific wizardry, food and oxygen were becoming inadequate for the world population, which only kept booming.
Some subtractions were necessary for the survival of the human species. The only solution was to remove some of the people by unnatural means, that is, to execute them. Thus, this was why all crimes were made punishable by execution: murder, theft, adultery, slander, hoarding of food… the list is very long. This was the only way to maintain the balance of nature.
That’s where I come in. I am an Executioner. I work alone, never considering the risk. People say I have a death wish. Perhaps I do. Certainly, yesterday’s job was no waltz in the park.
Rob Tao was suspected of stealing and hoarding food. My job was to check this out. As always, I was to be detective, judge, jury and executioner.
I had enough stealth technology to break into Tao’s compound undetected. To get into the house was also a cinch. My vibra-blade cut through the wall like it was butter. In the house, my Arometer detected food, lots of it. I went down corridor after corridor, following the bleeps of light on my Arometer.
The signals went wild outside one closed door. There was a lot of human activity inside, judging by my HUO sensors. I primed a grenade and opened the door just a crack — enough to see whom I would be executing.
Then I deprimed the grenade. Sitting there were thousands of children. Rob Tao stood amongst them, holding a huge pot of steaming mush. He smiled at me, seemingly unperturbed.
“You’re feeding all these children?” I asked, flabbergasted.
“Yes,” he replied quietly.
“How do you get so much food? I’m sure you steal it,” I said.
“Yes, I do. Going to execute me?” Still that gentle smile. Sitting here now, on my hill, I don’t understand why I just walked out. I had no excuse for letting him get away with his crime. It was not my decision to make. Yet… I can’t remember what I’m killing for; can’t remember what I’m living for.
