Microstory 874: Translucent Government

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All human skin is translucent. Don’t believe me, just shine a flashlight under your finger, and you’ll be able to see it peeking through. But last century, doctors began to see children with an incredibly rare condition that makes their skin several times more translucent that it’s meant to be. While not entirely transparent, you can see the insides of their bodies; bones, muscle tissues, and the hint of their vital organs. You might think it would freak you out, but you get used to it after awhile. I don’t agree with everything our government does, but if I didn’t do my job, things would be so much worse. I’ve always believed this, but now I see how frighteningly true it is. Fearing for these children’s lives, they are taken from their families upon being discovered, and raised in a secret facility. I don’t even know where it is. When they recruited me twenty years ago, they gave me a sedative, and flew me out somewhere in the world. I stay with the kids underground. I’ve not seen the sun once this entire time, and the kids go their whole young lives before seeing it...or so I thought. When they turn eighteen, I was told they were sent to live in a special forest commune. They could theoretically rejoin society if they wanted to, but the rumor has always been that this never happens, because they’ve grown up isolated, and don’t know how to live any other way. Well, as it turns out, this has all been a lie. The day after their respective birthdays, the government has just been executing what I now realize were always just prisoners; under the thin protection of some moral obligation to wait until they reach the age of majority. What they don’t realize—or purposely ignore—is that if they raise these kids in captivity, then kill them when they become an age some countries arbitrarily decide make them adults, they aren’t actually adults, because they didn’t live real lives, so they never matured. I’ve done my best with them, but I’m angry with myself for not having recognized what was happening all along. But that ends today. After all this time of proving my loyalty, there’s no way they’ll suspect I’m now working against them. Tonight, I escape...with all of them.