<span style="font-family:Acme">As Shelby Fran glanced over a file that had made it’s way to her desk, she opened it and perused the contents. There was a new community member, apparently, who had gotten here differently from all the others. Merview Heights was a unique community, you see. Unlike the others in the system, it had been built specially to draw in rebels and it still managed to do that to this day. Rather than labeling them criminals and flooding the system which honestly had no more room for them, they were filtered right into a community themselves. They already were a little community in and of themselves so it was a logical course of action at the time. Every now and then, the system needed a spot for someone who had earned “release”.<br/>
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Rescue. Rehabilitate. Release. <br/>
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It was the motto, a long time ago, of a famous aquarium in Clearwater, Florida. Given how far inland the population had been pushed in their own wars and destructions, the place itself didn’t exist anymore, but that didn’t mean no one alive remembered it. People did. Far and few in between, they did. Someone, somewhere along the way had decided to take up that motto and in doing so they forgot one thing. The original model was meant for animals… not people. Eventually the lines between people and animals became too blurred to recognize. When asked for a new solution to the problem of crime, this was what was thrown out and this was what stuck. <br/>
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Rescue. Each criminal was now viewed as a lost soul who needed help. What they did was an act of crying for help and by finding them and imprisoning them, they were “rescued” from themselves. Some people argued that their victims were rescued too, through the removal of the criminal, but that wasn’t acknowledged as part of the model. <br/>
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Rehabilitate. This was the tricky part because not every prisoner is rehabilitatable. The prisons were flooded with psychologists charged with determining who was presentable and who wasn’t. If you weren’t “fixable”, then it was tough luck. Prisons had turned into zoos over time and everyone there was treated like a sick animal. Those who couldn’t be changed were more or less considered dying and it was a kindness for the prison to provide them with a comfortable place to die rather than put them out and risk them being hunted. Prisoners were like an endangered species. And that was the truth of it. Crime rates were decreasing as all the criminals were moved. <br/>
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But wait… if they were moved, whatever happened to the concept of release?<br/>
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Release. Transfer of the prisoners back into a “community” environment where they could once again contribute to society albeit while remaining separate from the true and “innocent” society. When a prisoner was released, they were let into the locked gates that divided the rehabilitated criminals from their civilian counterparts. In there they had as much freedom as they would ever get again. There was no getting back into the world. There was no parole. There was no privacy. Even in community, there were still guards in disguise. There were still wardens and there were still ways to commit a new crime and get yourself thrown right back into the system you’d started in once again. “Community Educators” were wardens in disguise. “Jobs” were the same manual labor that the prisoners in the old systems would do. The freedom it offered was only an illusion. After all, what civilian wanted to have to have anything to do with a former criminal? They hadn’t been able to get jobs in the old world so this was better anyway. <br/>
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And that was what brought Brandy Adams into the locked gates. <br/>
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“Interesting,” Shelby Fran muttered under her breath, leaving the manila folder on the top of the pile. She imagined she would be needing it soon. <br/>
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While her file was being labeled one of high intrigue, Brandy herself was busy getting a tour of her new home. It wasn’t hard to realize that she was disappointed by the way that her eyes took everything in. Prisoners were never told what the communities were like so their imaginations tended to run wild and hers had not been an exception to that. The streets were empty. No cars even though that was an important part of a city if her memory served her right. The living quarters were cramped. The doors had no locks. The facilities were… open. She quickly realized that privacy still didn’t exist here. Stepping back out of the living quarters, their tour guide stopped the long train of people. <br/>
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“All meals are served in the community center. Every night there are activities. Community is everything. You’ll do well to remember that.” His eyes seemed to gaze over each and every newcomer with the utmost scrutiny before he finally released them from the curiosity of knowing what else he was going to say. “You are dismissed. Report to dinner.” <br/>
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Even before they had started moving, Brandy had already realized how outnumbered she was. This was clearly a male dominated community and she knew she’d have to work extra hard not to get turned into meat. She knew what that was like, though. It had been the same exact game when they’d first thrown her into the prison yard for recreational time. She’d come back with a few bruises and eventually she’d toughened up enough to survive it. They got used to her. Then they left her alone. That was how her life had always gone. What she didn’t know this time around was what she would have to endure before she got to that point. And it was that thought that consumed her mind as she walked with the crowd, determined to remain in the middle despite the fact that some of them took steps that were twice as long as her own. <br/>
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The walk wasn’t far and the way was already familiar but perhaps that was the point of the community center in the first place. <br/>
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However, they were stopped one more time before they reached their dinner. “Attention new recruits!” The sound was a woman’s voice this time. “My name’s Shelby Fran and I’m your public health nurse here in this little community.” Her introduction was brief and lacking a lot of details. She did not care. “Our particular crowd tends to lend itself to certain contagens. These contagens are not safe. Therefore, per community policy, you’re all being vaccinated before mingling with the others.” Almost the moment she said it, she reached into a bag and pulled out prefilled syringes. Walking down the line, she started administering them while she continued to speak. “Redness and inflammation are normal. Don’t come to me unless your arm feels like it’s going to fall off. I don’t have time to deal with that when I have as many people to monitor as I do.” <br/>
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Brandy chuckled a bit as she came to a thought. Unfortunately for her, that was when Shelby happened to be standing by the recruit in front of her and Shelby definitely heard it. <br/>
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“What’s your problem, girl?” she snapped. <br/>
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After struggling to wipe the smirk off her face, Brandy replied, “It’s obvious, isn’t it. You’re just tracking us. It’s what they always do. Only now you’re lying to us about it.”<br/>
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A few heads turned to look towards Brandy. That was the first thing they had heard her say all day and it was shocking to hear something so bold coming from her for many of them. They hadn’t pegged her for that kind of girl. <br/>
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Shelby Fran finished up her injection on the man in front of Brandy and then she walked to Brandy’s side. Her hand reached out to snatch the girl’s chin as she pulled out a new syringe. “If you want to think that way, go ahead, girl. The vaccine is for your own protection. In a community, we protect our own.” Releasing Brandy’s chin, the nurse pinched her arm and stabbed the needle in. Brandy didn’t flinch. <br/>
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The vaccinations continued down the line and Shelby yelled out, “Once you’ve been vaccinated, you are dismissed. Dinner’s being served and you are all invited.” By invited, she meant required to attend. Having no intentions of arguing, Brandy scurried off to the mess hall knowing that at the very least, she had established herself as someone who wasn’t afraid to be bold. That had to be a good thing in the long run. However, she wasn’t so sure as the first thing she heard when she walked into the mess hall was… <br/>
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“New meat.”</span>