Utopia Chapter 2

Rocky felt his tail go between his legs instinctively as the polar bear stared him down.

“Come inside,” Brometheus finally said, opening the door further.

Rocky kept his eyes down as he shuffled into the office. He heard the door close behind him as he stood awkwardly in the middle of the room, unsure of what to do. Everything was white, gray, and black, not showing any sign of blood like Rocky was expecting to see. He always assumed, along with the others, that there would be at least some signs of blood in the office where it was suspected that over a hundred murders had taken place.

“Take a seat, please, Rocky. I’d like to have a word with you,” Brometheus said.
Rocky obediently sat on a chair at a desk, the polar bear sitting across from him.

“Now, I need to discuss an… Experiment, if you will… With you,” Brometheus said.

Rocky nodded, his throat dry.

“We’ve been working with civilians only thus far on this project of ours, and we feel it’s ready to test on Peace Keepers now. You, being our best one, have been handpicked by me to be our first experimental Peace Keeper. All you would need to do is stay at our headquarters in Area One for a while. The scientists we have assigned there will do the rest,” Brometheus said.

“O-Okay,” Rocky said, still unsure of what was going on.

“We are working to create a more evolved species, for lack of better word, of future Peace Keepers. A stronger one. You’re the prime example of what I’m looking for. Strong, fast, agile, brave. We’ve been testing on civilians only thus far due to the intense requirements proving to be too much on the body so far, and it’s resulted in death every time. We believe the formula we’ve created may be successful now. You’ll double in speed, strength, agility, and even bravery. It has worked with the civilian trials to this point and now we want to have a go on you. Of course, you do have a choice in the matter, however, refusal to cooperate can and will result in death,” Brometheus said.

Rocky gulped, knowing completely well that Brometheus was telling the truth. He wasn’t one to accept misconduct in the community and even as a Peace Keeper, Rocky had no chance of surviving refusing to cooperate. No one did. Those who spoke out or acted out against the Corporation and Brometheus himself were rebels, and they had no chance of survival.

He knew deep down that the rebels were onto something, that Brometheus T. Bear was truly corrupt. He was the one who wanted everyone to behave in certain ways, to keep them ‘happy’ as he liked to say. Rocky knew that it really was a way of keeping everyone in line, but couldn’t make himself resist like the rebels. The schools that every Area had had drilled into the young ones brains that obeying and smiling were the two keys to a happy life, and by the time they graduated, every citizen was expected to behave according to the Corporations standards. They were taught how to behave and were assigned jobs on their day of graduation. They weren’t allowed to choose much in their lives, only their diets which still were controlled at their roots by the Corporation, who they married and mated with, and how many pups, kittens, etc. they wanted to have.

Rocky’s own parents, a black and brown German shepherd and a white German shepherd had only four puppies, two of whom died from being just too weak. Rocky, who was born pure white, and his sister, Lilly, who was a surprising white and black German shepherd were the two that had survived. Everyone who knew Rocky when he was first born were shocked to find that that he’d grown up to be the way he was because he was born a runt, even compared to a runt. He was tinier than tiny and the doctors didn’t think he would survive. However, he pulled through and had survived and flourished, quickly becoming taller than average, standing now at six feet, four inches, strong, fast, and quick on his feet.

He’d been raised in Area Four, and it was all he knew. There were Areas all over the world, but he’d only been to a handful. However, it was more than most citizens had been to. They were required to stay in their own Areas and were sentenced to death if they left without permission, a strategy used to help avoid rebels meeting other rebels and spreading further. Peace Keepers were allowed to travel but only with the strictest of permission and only for their job. They were scanned before entering other Areas and closely monitored the entire time by security cameras on and in every building.

Each Area contained similar apartments, along with normal food stores, hardware stores, specialized schools, hospitals, and many other buildings, including where Rocky worked, a Peace Keeper office. Peace Keepers took the place of police officers when the Corporation first took over and had similar duties, but Peace Keepers also had to make sure there were no rebellions and that everyone was smiling. Not smiling was considered a major crime. Everyone had to at the very least act happy, even if they truly weren’t.

“So, what do you say, Rocky. Will you participate?” Brometheus asked.

Rocky nodded, at a loss for words.

“We’ll be taking you off of your current assignment in Area Three for now, so that you may take part in our experiment. If our experiment is a success, you will be sent back to the Area and continue your work,” Brometheus said.

Rocky kept nodding, feeling as if his head were on a spring from the amount of nodding he did. He was too scared to shake his head at Brometheus, and just kept on nodding the entire time.

“You will be provided a temporary living quarter in Area One, where you will reside until we give you permission to leave. Anything you may need shall be provided by the Corporation, including your food. It will all be delivered to you and you won’t need to pay for anything you need.”

Still, Rocky nodded.

“You will be asked to move into the new quarters immediately. There is already furniture in there, all you have to do is move in. Jax will drive you. He is the tiger who picked you up for me. He is a very reliable young gentleman and will have you at your new living quarters within a half hour.”

With that the door to the office opened, and Jax came in. He took Rocky by the arm and led him out of the office and building all together. They got back into the car and they soon were driving out of Area Four. It took them a moment to wait for the border patrol to scan their collars and make sure they had clearance to leave and they soon were passing through the other Area’s and into Area One.

“Here we are. Tell them your name, they will scan you, and then you will be lead up to your quarters” Jax said as they parked.

Rocky nodded, looking up at the towering building. Once inside, he found himself in a science lab, where he was stared at by many strangers. One approached with a scanner and asked for his name, collar, and ID number.

“My name is Rocky. My ID number is seven seven zero seven eight one nine seven five two. My collar is around my neck,” Rocky said.

He lifted his head slightly to show his collar to the stranger who scanned it.

“Right this way, sir,” the stranger said.

He led Rocky to an elevator which stopped on the top floor.

“This entire floor is yours. Brometheus T. Bear asked that you specifically have this floor to yourself. You have all the amenities you’ll need and food will be delivered once a week. You can order anything you like online and we will provide the payment for any fees. If you need anything, please, don’t hesitate to ask. My name is Henderson. Any of us downstairs are more than willing to help you out,” the stranger said, “I’m a lab assistant, and, as you can see, also a lab!”

Rocky rolled his eyes at the joke, but taking note of the fact that Henderson was in fact a yellow lab.

“Thanks, Henderson,” Rocky said.

Henderson left Rocky alone in the new apartment after that, leaving the shepherd to explore it. Rocky walked through the main living room area and into the kitchen. It was already fully stocked of foods he commonly ate and even had his favorite cereal sitting on the counter for him.

“Wow… Guess that’s one reason they record us…” Rocky mumbled.

He continued to another room which he quickly found was a game room with a pool table, several old arcade games, and a foosball table.

“Awesome!” Rocky said.

He ran his paw over the smooth dark wood of the pool table and eyed the cue sticks, tempted to play a round.

Later… he thought, heading into the next room. It was a large bedroom with a bed, TV, a variety of movies and CD’s, a CD player, and a bookshelf full of books. The next room was a small study with a desk, laptop, and another bookshelf full of more books.

“This is cool,” Rocky said to himself.

He wandered through the various rooms, getting a lay of the land, before going back into the living room. He sat on the leather couch and picked up the remote to the TV and turned it on to a news station for some background noise.

“I could get used to this!” he said, crossing his legs and resting his feet on the coffee table.

He leaned back on the couch, relaxing happily. He had just begun to drift off to sleep when someone knocked on the door, interrupting his rest. Begrudgingly, Rocky stood and opened the door to see who it was. Henderson stood outside, waiting.

“I’m sorry to bother you, Rocky, but we’re ready to begin testing,” Henderson said.

Rocky bit his lip, wondering what was about to come and what he’d gotten himself into by saying yes to Brometheus.