Think of the Children

In the year 2035 an epidemic of crime spread throughout the entire planet. Wave after wave of kidnapping crashed upon the shore of the world. This plague was mainly aimed at the youth. And so the government has begun to take steps to protect its young.
* * *
Dean nervously walked down the straight hallway. He had been called down to the head office, and he thought he knew the reason, being that his birthday was next week.
“Hey Dean, where are you off to?” one of the older children asked on his way back from the washroom. This was Kyle, one of Dean’s brother’s friends. Dean gulped a little then answered, “I was called down to the office.” Then he added, quietly, “Next week is my birthday.” No sign of comprehension dawned on the older boys face. Dean started to tear, “I’m turning six.”
At this James’s face blanched. “It’s okay. At least be thankful that you’re not getting the newest upgrade like your brother. ”
The voice over the speaker overhead rang through the hall, “Will Dean Sacral please come down to the main office, immediately!”
“You better get going Dean, it will be okay. I promise.” James ran down to the opposite end of the hallway. Soon, all Dean could see of him was a red light blinking impulsively fast on the back of his neck.

Even 6 years later, Dean could remember every detail the first time they installed the new software into the base of his neck. He sighed as he unconsciously reached his hand back, and started massaging the newly raw, bumpy skin at the back of his head, a result of his most recent upgrade. He put his hand down and sighed again, thinking that now at this exact time his little brother James was going through the exact same procedure. All of a sudden a severe electric shock went through his body. “Ah,” he thought, “the reason for the new upgrades.” He grimaced as he imagined the principal saying, “the new upgrades are for your own good. As you grow older you start to think inappropriate thoughts and the government has decided to discourage that by adding this little device. Remember now this is for your own good!” Dean snorted and was immediately rewarded by a sharp shocking sensation.

“Well mister Sacral, you took your precious time getting here. We had no idea where you were, we were worried about you. Well, that won’t last too long now will it?” The principal of the school wore a mask of sympathy, which almost perfectly covered his true expression of elation. “I’m sorry young man, but next week is your birthday, and you are turning six years old. You know what that means don’t you?”
“Yes sir.” Smoldering anger lit up Dean’s eyes as he thought, “Yeah, it means that you’re going to take away my freedom, that’s what it means.” The principal saw the look and quickly changed into a very paternal figure.
“I know you believe that we do this to keep you from having fun, but in truth we do this for your own protection. As you know the government cares about its children. They do not want a repeat of that horrible kidnapping phase.”
The fire burned brighter in the young child’s eyes as he thought, “it may have started out that way but now, you just want us under your control. To think what you think, to be what you are.” Dean was so distressed that he wanted to charge down the principal and beat him mercilessly. He was shaking, “How dare he put me in this so-called safe-haven, this prison!” Even as a child Dean was always precocious, and understood ideas and concepts better than anyone.
By now the principal was slowly leading Dean into a new room, which depressingly reminded the six-year–old of a dentist’s office. Sharp, pin needle utensils slowly protruded through spaces between the cracks in the walls. The room had a disgusting aroma of metal and had a distinct gray colour-scale. Dean shivered involuntarily as he was led into a chair, that again gave him the idea of a dentist, which included all the images of drilling and jabbing and gassing. He definitely felt uneasy in this room. His thoughts were disturbed by the low, seemingly gentle voice of his principal.
“Don’t be afraid this will not hurt.” Dean could definitely hear a whisper of the word “much”, as the principal pulled a lever which set off an almost clear gas spreading throughout the room. Yet his mind was still working even though its freedom was now being confined, to nothing but warm fuzzy thoughts. As timidly as he could possibly allow he asked, “Could you please explain the procedure to me.”
Knowing perfectly well that the procedure would not allow any sufficient memory to be stored within the child’s psyche, he proceeded to explain. “Very well, if it will make you feel better to know. As you very well know, all children who each the age of six must be kept underneath strict supervision. When you were young I’m sure you have noticed that your parents have kept quite a close watch on you, but what are they to do now, as you become older, smarter, and independent.” Dean felt his subconscious slowly being shutdown as the monotonous voice of the principal droned on. “So, instead of your parents watching over you like hawks, you will be placed under the responsible and watchful eye of the government.” Again, Dean struggled to stay awake; he asked a question which actually came out quite garbled with drowsiness.
“How will the government watch me?”
“Today I will be installing this exquisite piece of machinery into the base of your neck.” The principal held it up to the light.
“No!” Dean fought through his sleepiness, he had to know what the device was, not what it looked like. He whispered, “I can’t see it. Explain it, please.”
The principal was now quite amused, after all, the student will not remember and he is taking the whole procedure a lot calmer than most of the students before him. “Very well, this device is a censor, a motion detector if you will.” By now Dean was almost comatose as the fumes started to penetrate his supposed concentration.
“What does it look like?” Dean definitely sounded desperate as he croaked these few words. The principal was now irritated by these unimportant questions. He unquestionably sounded aggravated as he answered, “What do you think a censor looks like. It’s a black box with a little red light in the middle. Only this particular censor is quite a bit smaller, it’s easily the size of the ‘on’ button on a regular cell phone, seeing as it is supposed to fit on the base of your neck.” The principal paused now, clearly waiting for the next onslaught of ridiculous questions, seeing that they did not come he continued even though his patient was slowly closing his eyes.
“All this is for your own protection. This censor will accompany you everywhere you go, like your own personal bodyguard. It will hear and see everything that you will do and everything around you, even if you yourself won’t hear or see anything around you. This way it can warn the government or anyone who is watching you if anything happens, such as if a man is sneaking up behind you to kidnap you, we will know. Later when you receive an upgrade a new feature will be added. It will be able to read your thoughts; but that will be in around three years. I know that you children will never understand that we do this for your safety; you think we do this just to control you.” The principal was steadily becoming more agitated as he continued. “Think of this scenario, what if the kidnapper somehow disguised himself from the technology? How would anybody know what happened to you, but once you were abducted, you would know who it was and the censor would detect your brainwaves and the police will be there right away to help. Yes, I know what you think even before I install this device, we are not lessening your freedom, but we can now control your violent and emotional thoughts, to help you grow up into civilized human beings. Wouldn’t it be better if no one swore anymore? Or if little boys like you didn’t buy naughty magazines and didn’t smoke? Children who exhibited these tendencies usually ended up being perverts and psychopaths. As I said we are doing this in your best interests, and one day you will become a productive member of society. Now be quiet, I must do this quickly so you can get back to class.”
By the end of his speech, the principal’s voice raised a couple of octaves into a full blown crescendo. Yet, it had no effect on the now slumbering Dean Sacral.
* * *
Snores punctuated the uneasy silence as the principal finished his speech. James Sacral woke up a few hours later in a daze. He knew this would happen, the memory loss, the haziness and dizziness. His older brother Dean told him this about one month before he turned six. Of course by then Dean had already gone through two separate upgrades, so his details were not very clear, but somehow he had gotten his message across. His neck throbbed painfully as he found himself walking towards his house. As he reached the familiar area he saw his mother and brother immerging from house number 13.
“My poor boy! Are you alright? Does it sting?” His mother was crying out loud. “It was bad enough they had to do it to Dean! I hate them!” As if her words were bullets, Dean shivered slightly ever time her voice went up.
After dinner, James gratefully escaped to his room, away from his mother’s questions and tears. A few minutes later his big brother came upstairs. He quietly came into his room and sat on his younger brother’s bed.
“I have a way to take off the censor, but I never tried it out. Would you want to?” He asked this conspiratorially, trustingly, really wanting to help his poor little defenseless brother. Yet the fact that he wanted to help his brother left him twitching uncontrollably.
“How do you know? How did you ever find out how it worked? And why do you keep twitching?” James was a little put out. His neck hurt, his mother was fussing over him and his brother was as pale as he himself was when he had the censor installed.
“The first time I had it installed I tape recorded everything the principal said. I think this guy really likes to hear himself talk. He practically told me how to do everything forwards and backwards, even when I fell asleep.” He laughed but his laughter quickly turned into yelps of pain. He gingerly pointed to the back of his neck. “New upgrade, tries to control my thinking capability. Think something bad and get a shock. Lovely don’t you think?”
Horrified James quickly agreed to have the censor removed. Now what was left of the censor was a deep hole in the back of his neck.

The next day at school, James wore a bandage over the gaping whole at the back of his neck. Maybe it was warranted or maybe it was a plain coincidence but James was called down to the office the moment he stepped inside the school.
The principal’s face was very close to the shade of a very ripe tomato, as he roughly grabbed James by the arm.
“What did you do?!” he shrieked. “Why have you taken it out? Do you know what you have done? You were recorded into government files. Now they are out of order. We are going to put the censor back in today. If there is any resistance I will personally see to it that you receive the newest upgrade immediately!” He half-dragged, half-carried James into the well-used room and roughly strapped him in the chair.
With a maniacal gleam in his eye the principal slowly lowered the dissection utensil into the back of his victim’s neck. All of a sudden it fell down and the principal collapsed over top of the child. Dean came rushing into the room, with a smile on his serene face, almost odd without its twitches.
“Hey little bro. I figured out how to take out my own upgrade. Mom and dad helped since I couldn’t stop the shocks on my own. Now what do you say to some fun?” Dean sauntered up to the principal and laid him on his stomach. “Why don’t we implant my upgrade into him, let’s see how he likes it!”
“Wow, aren’t you in a good mood today.” James was a little unnerved at his brother’s apparent happiness.
“We don’t have to wear these things anymore! Don’t you get we’ll be free!” in a slight undertone he added, “of course we’ll be on the run from the law. But mom and dad have it all figured out.”
Working together they quickly attached the upgrade to their former principal’s neck and quickly left the school, the country, and eventually the continent.


Nothing could be done about the unfortunate incident with the principal, and he had to live his life out with major shock disturbances, seeing as how he could not forget the two children who had destroyed his sanity. As for the family, after years of searching for them with no results, the government gave up and destroyed any files that have previously been associated with them, thereby denying their existence.
However no matter how hard they tried they could not destroy the memories of the other children at the school, who have now formed an underground “railroad” to try to free themselves from the government’s oppression.