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kelly battley srndpty@rhf.bradley.edu
premise: There is a central organization that monitors
the health of all people. Everyone annually submits samples and a
complete report is compiled. There is nothing inherently wrong with
this; in fact, it promotes early detection of many
degenerative diseases. However, the organization also maps the DNA
for each individual and identifies genetic anomalies that
would ostensibly make the person immune to a specific biohazard. These
people are then randomly selected to clean areas that
are contaminated. The number of people with immunity to any given biohazard
is relatively small, and not even all of the people
in the group are selected. Therefore, it affects a very small percentage
of the population. Society views it as neither a punishment
nor a reward; it is more of an annoyance or responsibility, much like
jury duty. Also, the areas that are contaminated are
important for the population – perhaps for agricultural reasons. According
to society, there are no valid reasons not to serve and
anyone that attempts to avoid serving is prosecuted. But, again, the
actual service is not viewed negatively, so enforcement is
not a problem. People that are selected are led to believe that they
will return after completing a tour of five months.
story: I will focus on one character who has been selected
for a tour. She notices that no one seems immune to the biohazard,
and in fact, almost everyone dies before even completing the five months.
There is a lot of discrepancy between how the tours
are portrayed and how they are actually conducted. Most of the story
centers around her attempt to survive and discover the
true purpose or method behind the tour.