Heatherton Research Paper

The year was 2384, the air was dry, and the sky, hazy in the nation of Heatherton. The parched land, dotted with identical, beige-colored, stucco, single-story buildings, extended for miles. Heatherton’s monotonous vista terminated abruptly at an ill-boding barrier indicating the beginning of the Outskirts, a nickname given to the bleak, seemingly endless desert beyond the ominous, barbed-wire, electrified fence. After the War of Devolution wiped out one-third of the human race, few organized nations survived. Heatherton, however, was a nation that endured, sustained by its ability to conquer immense challenges through innovation and invention. One pivotal innovation, the DeathDate, was introduced in 2257 by the brilliant Lucius Helvetica,
When a child reached the age of two, Heatherton parents were invited to bring their child to Centroid, for a party to commemorate the toddler’s official welcome into Heatherton society. Centroid not only housed the reception rooms for these festivities, it also contained the ultra-secure, temperature-controlled chamber which housed the GNC. While the parents enjoyed a champagne party with other families, one-by-one their child was lovingly taken by an authorized Heatherton nurse, to the chamber with the GNC. There, the nurse turned on a cartoon to distract the toddler, and gently placed a virtually imperceptible, lightweight cap on the head of the child, covered with sensors which were wirelessly connected to the GNC. The subsequent head scan measured the child’s brain development since birth, calculated IQ and assigned an impartial DeathDate for each toddler. Fully preoccupied by the cartoon, the nurse then tenderly administered an anesthetic spray to the toddler’s right foot, and the DeathDate computed by the GNC was painlessly tattooed on it. Unbeknownst to citizens at large, a time-released toxin was introduced into the tattoo ink, that would discharge a lethal poison on the child’s eventual DeathDate. However, promptly after the anesthetic wore off, and about a half hour after the nurse had escorted the
As usual, I went to my class in technological training, however, at the end of the day, I returned to my little, beige home. My parents had ordered me a special meal, and I sat down at dinnertime to my final birthday feast. Not knowing what else to do, after helping clean up, I kissed them both goodnight and headed off to my room to watch the clock. It was not until what I thought were my last hours of life, that time slowed down; seconds felt like minutes, minutes felt like hours and hours felt like years on end. It was impossible for me to fall asleep that evening, but as the clock struck twelve, I laid motionless in bed, expecting to succumb to my final slumber. It was not until I opened my eyes before dawn the next morning, that I realized that something had gone terribly wrong. At first delighted to still be alive, I soon became terrified over the ramifications of my survival. If discovered alive even by my parents, I would be hunted down. I would have inadvertently betrayed my parents wishes, and become an embarrassment to my government. A future was now possible for me, but my circumstances were dire. I needed a