Apocalyptic fiction; Psychological fiction; Science fiction; Short stories
Greg looked at Pat. She smiled. He smiled back. "Justified or not,"
he whispered. "I'm here. Sane or insane, I'm one of the Colonists
now I guess. Unless I want to return to the Cowls, be probed and
re-conditioned."
Pat whispered. "Do you, Greg?"
He shook his head. "Not now. I'm tired. I don't want to now. Maybe I
never will. All I want now, is rest."
Merrol leaned across the desk. "Before you rest, you'd better get a
few things straight, Greg. We want you to be convinced that you're
doing the right thing. We feel that the big Chain blow-up shocked
the whole human race into a mass psychosis, comparable to individual
cases of hysteria, schizophrenia, escape from reality. That's why
the non-change, non-aggressiveness Codes were established. Also, the
anesthesia, the Dream Continuity Scale--nothing but hysteria on a mass
and planned basis."
Merrol got up. He walked around and sat down beside Greg.
"Carried out to its inevitable end, this could only lead to mass
racial suicide. That's obvious. It was a static dead end. A few people
recovered from the psychosis. They escaped, and formed the Colonists.
But their own welfare wasn't the most important thing.
"They concerned themselves then with the freeing of the Citizens of
the Cowls from their psychosis. The world is untenable on a large
scale now, due to radioactive poisoning. It will remain untenable for
some time. Meanwhile we decided to Colonize Venus. We've established
Colonies there. Thriving communities, but the important thing is this,
Greg--it's given new impetus and enthusiasm to those who become sane
and escape the Cowls. It presents a big challenge and solidifies the
cure.
"It's bigger than Control has any idea that it is. It will take a long
time yet, but we'll win. You have noticed the increase in so-called
insanity in the Cowls. It really means just the opposite. Our numbers
are increasing by leaps and bounds."
Greg said, "The Controllers think you're using some psychological or
physical pressure to create these--cures."
Merrol smiled. "We've got a recruiting system. Drakeson, for example,
is a spy. We have spies all over the Cowls."
Greg stared. "Drakeson?"
A door opened. The lean cynical man entered, nodded, and stood beside
Pat. His eyes shone more brightly as he looked at Greg.
"That's right," Drakeson said. "Remember the two injections. I said
they were adrenolex. They weren't. Our spies inside the Cowls are
equipped with a supply of a certain aggression factor. It used to be
called Kappa, or K, for killer. This factor is handed down through
the generations in the general cell protoplasm. It forces aggressive
tendencies. It makes a man capable of physical aggressive action, and
able to kill, if he has to. High motivation is required though, in most
cases. With you, my probable death wasn't enough. It took the vision of
Pat here in the clutches of a monster to make the Kappa factor work on
you, Greg."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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