Forgie Speaks

The following is a small passage the author of Forerunners wrote to help develop her character Forgie, the medic of the Clan of Resistance. It tells of Roation and many key aspects to the plot of Forerunners.

Heo, I'm Forgie, the Clan of Resistance's medic, of sorts. I was sort of like the leader of the COR before Aldis took over. I'm not mad, Aldis is one of my best friends. He's just got that air to him, the air of a leader. I'm sort of like a leader in another sense, I know the most about medicine.

As I said, my name is Forgie. My name used to be Forresten, but my dad was punished for picking a name that sounded like a moniker from the Light Era. They say the Light Era was the worst era in human history, and that we should not remind ourselves of it in any way. They said my dad should pick a Modern Era name like Wydein, Xynaya or Gavranex. No, he stuck with Forresten. After they learned I was a flincht, which was shortly after my 16th birthday, I ran away. My Target Reason is my feet, I've got webbed toes.

What is the Light Era, you ask? Fortunately, my pal Aldis has studied a lot of history. The former history of our state is forbidden from the public. It's so secret that the government has even gotten people to forget about the concept of time, so they don't wonder about the past or future. They treat passing "days", as they were once called, as repeating phases. The light hours are called the light dajun, the dark hours the dark dajun. Collectively, one light dajun and one dark dajun, that time is known as one daj; one day. Aldis refers to "months", as people in the past called them, as 3-10 daj periods. You have 10 daj periods, times the 10 by 3, and you have  what is roughly equivalent to a month, 3 10-dajs. He's better at math then I am. The government has thrived on math, that's what the mainly teach in schools nowadays... But what they don't know is that some people just have an inability to comprehend math, and they're labeled as retarded. If they can, the government convinces their parents to have them sent off to these "camps" where they're told their children will receive specialized one-on-one training adapted to their particular learning style. But from what I've heard, no kid has ever come out of one of those camps... Many underground reports say they die in there, an not of natural causes.

There was this new edict or project passed by the government several years ago, the Imperfectcy Annihilation. My friend Augustine doubts Imperfectcy is even a word. According to the government, this new project will "Help the citizens of Roation excel academically as a whole, provide better jobs, less chance of contracting deadly diseases, live longer, and thrive in life." What this project actually entails of is killing off Autistics, homosexuals, sufferers of mental illnesses and birth defects, and they subject people with exceptionally high IQs to lives of scientific experimentation. Even amputees.. In the past, if someone had a mutilated limb, they could be saved if that limb was removed, but nowadays they don't want any citizens with physical disabilities, so they let them die. This is 2078, welcome to the future.

I always knew what was up with Augustine.. Or at least, I though I knew. You know, my pal August. I'd heard of it before; this recurring bleeding, from the palms, feet, forehead and sides; bleeding in strategic places, in all reports of this malady the bleeding's come from these places. One of the reasons I didn't diagnose it is because, well, it's beyond my... Well, it's not my thing, it's beyond me.. This isn't external wounds, or even internal.. It's religion.

Religion is on of the many hypothesized destroyers of the Light Era. It defies all logical human rational. People put perfect faith in something they could not see, hear or feel. It was built on thought alone, and thought can be easily swayed... And used against the People. No one really knows what destroyed the Light Era, or how the present era, the Dark Era, came about, but I think this negative utilization of religion had something to do with the crumbling of society and collective ethics, at least. People, their souls, thetans, are crumbling, it's like they're being brainwashed.

The Light Era ended after the rise of a new government, a revolution. They dispelled global warming and pollution and built big factories, huge cities. The sky was blacked with smog and thus ended the Light Era. They re-wrote history, and listened only to what they wanted to hear. And now, they're trying to purify the human race, by executing "lessers" for no reason. They have no regard for emotion. It's as if this generation has learned to shut off their emotions entirely.. Or maybe they just don't know what's going on.

But I, Forgie, have emotions, and I know what's going on.. So does my friend Aldis, and August.. And Joseph, and Locke, and Gala, Rhan, Gyben, Rhado, Bruthonen and Sapia.. And even Kat, he knew as well. We all know the truth..

But we're just a street gang.. A gang of lessers hiding in a city that wants us dead.