Read Online Becoming by Chris Ord - Free Book Online

telephone once was before it was ripped out. A noticeboard was on the wall above with various numbers and graffiti etched on it. There was a drawing of a penis and scrotum,  along with some ample breasts, and many strange shapes, symbols, and numbers Gaia did not recognise. A different language for different times.
    The houses in the village all had a uniformity in their look which once gave them their charm. Gaia had always thought the village would have been a beautiful place to live. The isolation of the island had both complications and appeal. The accessibility would have made it a very insular, self-contained community. Even now that she knew there was a road to the island, the causeway, it would still have limited access dictated by the tides. It would mainly have been populated by those that were born there, and had grown atuned to this unique way of life. Or maybe those that came here to escape, to get away from the mainland and live life in a different way. How ironic she thought. Their refuge was her prison.
    Gaia could never decide whether, given the choice, she would live somewhere like this. The point was she had never been given that choice. Everywhere had been chosen by others. Her whole life had been spent living with and for others. A prison made and controlled by others. Despite its rugged beauty and charm and the appeal of silence and solitude the island was the latest in a long line of prisons. She could not disassociate the island from the chains that bound her, therefore it could never win her heart. It was a place of beauty to behold, but beauty lay in the beholder’s eye. The eyes through which Gaia saw it had been clouded by the darkness of the community, their power and control.
    Given the choice where would Gaia live? She had often dreamed. Perhaps an island of her own, or somewhere on the mainland? A large house with acres of landscaped gardens of flowers and veg, and a family of her own. All Gaia wanted was somewhere she could be herself, determine her own life, drive her own destiny. Anywhere but here. Did such places exist? Were there people out there leading such lives free of the community? Gaia doubted it. All she had been taught, all the whispers, every indication was that way of life had disappeared. It was gone, destroyed forever. It was as Kali said. Together they were stronger.
    Gaia’s knowledge of the world was limited, drip fed, controlled. She knew that large parts of the world were no longer accessible. They were poisoned, destroyed, populated by deformed creatures. Other humans had survived, rebuilt again, started over as best they could, as the community had done. Living on an island, albeit a large one as the mainland was, had saved the community. They were told it was something in their genetic code that made them special, had helped them survive, made them immune to the poison. The blue eyes were the indicator. That was why all in the community were bred, and the whole reproductive process was controlled. It ensured the gene pool remained pure. All impurities or mutations were identified and destroyed.
    The narrow gene pool caused problems. There were some conditions and diseases that were caught within the pool and were difficult to contain or filter out. The main one was the fading of memory. This was common amongst the elders. For some their memories would disappear and they would lose their ability to function. The condition varied in its speed and severity, but a great many of the elders suffered it. Most developed it early in the final phase. They knew of it and prepared for it, but few spoke of it. The community had a special place for them. They were taken away and cared for, but never seen again.
    The community had been built by the survivors. They had begun again, started time all over again. They had moved back to a simple life, an existence based on community, on working together, on the common good. They believed they were the chosen ones, trusted to start