Post by gezunked on Sept 18, 2009 2:22:51 GMT -5
The hour before dawn was the best time to walk the perimeter. Before the searing sun rose and brought with its heat, the hot wind and the dust. When the dust came for days on end, you could see it build up around the thin metal supports for the wire. We always hoped it would build up enough so we could broach that wire but physics ensured that never happened.
The dogs liked this time as well, before the heat brought the fibers and the sweating itch. Being the first and only detainee had advantages back then and that is how the dogs slipped through. Everyone needs companionship especially for someone in 100% quarantine. In those days civil rights for the infected were still available.
With the new bio-detention centers, isolation was the key strategy. Around every isolation camp was a 500-mile buffer zone beyond the wire, where no detainee could go and no outsiders could enter. The centers, built ostensibly for illegal immigrants, where always going to be for public health. This epidemic had been coming for some time and it was known about and planned for; but kept quiet. To control both the spread of the infection and discussion or dissent, people in the infectious phase and those considered "political" or "activists" where picked up first. The sprawling camp was built to a level of security that was equivalent to a prison farm. This made quarantine an easier sell to the frightened masses. It was seen as a suitable and benign response to the epidemic.
But the malevolence of the place was pernicious and deep. On the surface it was modern and well resourced, with everything required for comfortable middle class living - dormitory style. It wasn’t as crowded in the beginning. Then everyone had rooms and freedom of movement, but now as the epidemic entered its second phase the numbers of detainees had flooded the camp. With the extra people came less room, more order, more control by the the Cams, Remotes and Bots. It still wasn’t prison, but it made it hard to claim anything, even a space, unique and your own. That's why even the wire, at least in the early hours had its place.
Word brought in with the new residents told of much fear and paranoia in the general population. There was a thriving business in bounty hunting and the laws had been changed so that any registered bounty hunter could test any citizen at random. They say the punishment for refusing a bounty hunter test is worse then having the disease.
How quickly the world has changed. I used to joke that one day I'd wake up and there would be no trees left. Then one morning, an hour before dawn and after a long drive in the night I was left alone at this center. I shuffled along one hand on that perimeter wire in thick darkness. Two dogs whimpering close at my heels. Before the headlights had disappeared into the night, the sky was lightening. With each moment, brightness increased and I began to see clearly that there was absoulutly nothing beyond the wire to see. Outside there were no trees. My joke had become real. Nor were there mountains or hills or features of any kind, just miles of lonely dust.
As the sky lightens it’s possible to see the wildlife bedding down or waking up, moving about their tasks. Tiny rodents, reptiles and birds are all that get through that wire. That and the dust coming in, and fibers going out.
The dogs liked this time as well, before the heat brought the fibers and the sweating itch. Being the first and only detainee had advantages back then and that is how the dogs slipped through. Everyone needs companionship especially for someone in 100% quarantine. In those days civil rights for the infected were still available.
With the new bio-detention centers, isolation was the key strategy. Around every isolation camp was a 500-mile buffer zone beyond the wire, where no detainee could go and no outsiders could enter. The centers, built ostensibly for illegal immigrants, where always going to be for public health. This epidemic had been coming for some time and it was known about and planned for; but kept quiet. To control both the spread of the infection and discussion or dissent, people in the infectious phase and those considered "political" or "activists" where picked up first. The sprawling camp was built to a level of security that was equivalent to a prison farm. This made quarantine an easier sell to the frightened masses. It was seen as a suitable and benign response to the epidemic.
But the malevolence of the place was pernicious and deep. On the surface it was modern and well resourced, with everything required for comfortable middle class living - dormitory style. It wasn’t as crowded in the beginning. Then everyone had rooms and freedom of movement, but now as the epidemic entered its second phase the numbers of detainees had flooded the camp. With the extra people came less room, more order, more control by the the Cams, Remotes and Bots. It still wasn’t prison, but it made it hard to claim anything, even a space, unique and your own. That's why even the wire, at least in the early hours had its place.
Word brought in with the new residents told of much fear and paranoia in the general population. There was a thriving business in bounty hunting and the laws had been changed so that any registered bounty hunter could test any citizen at random. They say the punishment for refusing a bounty hunter test is worse then having the disease.
How quickly the world has changed. I used to joke that one day I'd wake up and there would be no trees left. Then one morning, an hour before dawn and after a long drive in the night I was left alone at this center. I shuffled along one hand on that perimeter wire in thick darkness. Two dogs whimpering close at my heels. Before the headlights had disappeared into the night, the sky was lightening. With each moment, brightness increased and I began to see clearly that there was absoulutly nothing beyond the wire to see. Outside there were no trees. My joke had become real. Nor were there mountains or hills or features of any kind, just miles of lonely dust.
As the sky lightens it’s possible to see the wildlife bedding down or waking up, moving about their tasks. Tiny rodents, reptiles and birds are all that get through that wire. That and the dust coming in, and fibers going out.