chapter 2

The next day I take the test. It's exhaustive. An IQ test, plus athletic ability. I run about a 20 minute mile I joke, but they don't seem to find it funny.

24 hours later, I get a visit from the man in white, whom I learn is named Dr. Caldwell.

"Hello Cate!" he says, cheerfully, "I have your test results."

"You want to sit down?"
"No, this will only take a moment", he confirms, "Then I have honey with friends. Your athletic ability dragged you down, as did performance in math and science that was just barely above most of the population. But you excelled at language and history. Your IQ is 128, quite impressive, and you were judged to be quite attractive despite not being in perfect shape. But that's something you can change. You tested B plus. While you must be considered in the B category, we won't forget the plus. We think maybe a professorship teaching or a diplomatic post might be good for you. And your writing skill is off our charts. What do you think?"

I was actually shocked at how well they'd guessed my aptitudes.

"Sounds good to me", I say.

"Excellent!" he claps. "I know you're worried about your family. I have people looking..."

"I can look myself if I can leave..." I start.

"Leave? Why would you ever want to leave? You're housed in government facilities, most people would donate organs to live here." He doesn't crack a smile.

"I just have to find them", I say.

"I'll find them, in the meantime, tomorrow Miranda will return show you to your new work place. Ta!" He disappears through my door.

"What a freak", I whisper. Yes, I whisper. Because I don't know that the walls don't have ears. I don't know what's going on here, but something is wrong.

Mr. White Cape doesn't want me to leave here, like, ever. And why are they eating honey but have no bees?

I do have the run of the place, so I put on my new badge that reads "B +" and go out of my apartment into the hallway. I figure I'll walk until someone stops me, but no one ever does. People keep lowering their heads to me and calling me "m'am", and I see they are in lower classes than I am. This is completely sick.

"Cate!" I turn to see my tour guide.

"Miranda! A familiar face, thank goodness."

She sees my badge and lowers her head. "How can I help you, m'am? Told ya you didn't have anything to worry about."

"First, you can stop calling me m'am. Second, I want to know more about this place...how it works...and the honey. How can you have honey without bees?"

"I was told you aren't ready to know", she admits.

"I think you better tell me."

We take the elevator down...down, down down. As we get off the elevator, I see "Class E" written on the wall.

"I thought there were four classes: A, B, C, and D?" I ask her.

"There's one more, but it's only for a certain type", she says.

I have a bad feeling about this. There are no vegetables. There are no animals.

"E, for eating", she says.

"What??!!"

She shows me into a large, busy room. There are people, at least I think they are, held in cages against the wall, in a standing position.

"We've found a way to fatten them up to a thousand, fifteen hundred, even 2,000 pounds..." she starts.

These people look normal, though fat, from the waist up. From the waist down, their abdomens and bottom halves are swollen huge. Huge, and bright yellow with ooey, gooey honey. Ten times their size.

They're being fed by both people and machines. The human bees just keep opening their mouths and they're fed constantly, nonstop. A few are wheeled around on trolleys, too fat to move on their own.

"They're fattened here by both workers and funnel feedings", she says. "They're grown and born in a lab."

"You eat PEOPLE?!" I scream. "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, it's like soylent green." I gag. I ate it.

"It's not like that", she says, "They're not really people. They're...designed for this. They're designed from birth to be eaten. Like domestic animals. No different from the cows and pigs and chickens of old", she says.

I look them over. Eating and eating and eating, with barely time for a breath. I know that face.

"Dan!"

"Cate!&q uot; I run toward him, but Miranda catches me.

"No."

"I know him!"

"You KNEW him", she corrects. "He's untouchable now."

"Let me go! What the hell is going on here?"

She sighs. "Have you ever heard of Honeypot Ants?"

"No!" I shout.

"You should have, they were around a hundred years ago. They're ants who were selected at birth to be food. They're fattened over their lives by workers in the colony. Their abdomens and bottoms swelled with delicious, edible honey until they were 20 times their size. They were a stop gap in the hive in case of a bad harvest, in case of starvation. When they were fattened thoroughly, they were eaten by the other ants in the hive. Our system is based on them."

"***. How can you do this? Dan wasn't grown in a ***ing lab, he's as old as I am, Miranda, he's over a hundred years old. This what you did with large people isn't it? People who couldn't pass your arbitrary attractiveness or physical fitness test?"

"It's not your place to judge us!" she hisses, "You don't know what it's like with no one dying. There's no room! There's no space. There's nothing but people packed in everywhere. We needed more food and fewer people. It was the ideal solution."

"So you feed up fat people to make them enormous, then eat them?" I ask. It sounds so insane to my own ears.

She doesn't answer.

"They're not really people", she repeats.

I run toward him again, she tries to grab me, but misses.

"Give me a minute with him, Miranda, or I'll tell Dr. Crazy you brought me down here." She looks terrified and leaves us alone.

"Cate! You survived!" He looks similar I suppose. He was always round. And I found that so so enticing, so attractive.

"Dan..." And then I'm crying.

"Hey, hey, it's okay", he says, putting on a brave smile. His hands are free and he pats his belly. "I'm made for this."

"No, you're not. You're a person, a human being, this is unbelievable..."

"Open", his feeder commands, and Dan opens his mouth and continues to eat while we talk.

"I....."

"So do I", he says, "I always did."

"From the first moment I saw you", I say, sobbing. "How did this happen? How did the world become this?"

"Slowly", he says, taking another bite.

"You need to go so he can feed properly", his feeder instructs. I flash my B+ badge and he apologizes and steps back. I take it these worker drone feeders are lower than that.

"But you're a nurse, you're so smart!" I object.

"I was already so obese, my IQ wasn't high enough to save me", he says.

"I love you."

"Cate...don't say it. I'm food, Cate. You have to forget about me. I'm nothing."

"You're a nurse and you're the love of my life", I correct. "I'm getting you out of here."

"It started with fat hate. You had to look perfect..." A tear starts running down his cheek. I try to get close enough to hug him, but he's behind a barrier.

"Dan, I'm not going to stand for this..."

"You won't find your parents around here", he says.

"What about my parents?!"

"They're resisters, they probably were kicked out. Those who can't fit in try to make their lives outside the city. They're scrounge for everything...they're untouchables. You had to look perfect..."

"You did look perfect to me!" I shout, and then we're both crying. "I love you."

"I get to be useful. I always wanted to help other people. So I get to feed them, that's important, Cate. I know I'm delicious and tasty honey, and I'll help people and keep them well fed", he says, and my mouth is hanging open.

"How long do you have?" I ask.

"We never know, and we're kept drugged half the time. I'm probably close to fifteen hundred pounds now, so any day now...."

"I love you and I'm coming back." I would rather do anything than leave him now, but Miranda is tugging on my sleeve.

He waves as she drags me away and I can see he doesn't believe it.

"Good-bye, Cate", he says, "I love you too, and I'll think of you at the end."

"Dammit!" I haul back and punch her hard once we're off the elevator.

"Violence! Violence!" An alarm goes off.

"You can be executed for that!" she shouts.

A group of robots surrounds me, weapons pointed.

"There is no violence in our perfect society!" she shouts.

"Except murdering people to eat them, you mean!" I scream, and am dragged off.