Landed Wings

chapter 10: VWP



ASHLYNN

Mocha starts to speak, words I can tell he’s spoken before.

“The VWP – Volunteers for World Peace - started as a benevolent institution whose mission was to provide aid in natural disasters. They were run by volunteers who felt like they had a calling to help all living kind. The volunteers made decisions collectively and it worked for a while. Years ago, the volunteers voted to elect a small group of people who would make decisions on behalf of the group. VWP had grown too big and small decisions like where to hold meetings would take weeks to make because every vote had to be counted. The governing body was allowed to campaign for votes and the 12 people who secured the most votes became the executive branch of the VWP. At the time, anyone could say they were VWP members, there were no systems in place to check membership. If there were, then maybe things would be different today. You see, the people who got the most votes or better yet, the people who said they got the most votes came in with a plan. They were mostly environmental social scientists…”

“What’s an environmental social scientist?”

“A environmental social scientist is someone who studies

society and individual relationships in and to society as it

relates to the environment. Before I go on, I have to make a confession. I wouldn’t want you to think I’m smarter than I am, I’ve been studying their history for years – I know it like the back of my wing.”

I smile.

“Thanks for telling me, I was starting to feel stupid.”

“No problem. Okay, so the scientists infiltrated the VWP

because they had a theory they wanted to put to test. The theory was that living beings social behaviors caused natural disasters. They determined that if the social behavior of living beings caused natural disasters, then natural disasters could be eliminated by controlling behavior. The scientists already knew that viruses introduced into the blood stream could cause psychological and therefore behavioral changes. They had already perfected a virus that caused physical changes that again, triggered psychological and behavioral changes. They needed a pool of people they could experiment on and VWP was the perfect organization to act as their cover. VWP had locations and loyal volunteers all over the globe but that’s not what made it so attractive. VWP also had first access to

people who were desperate. They knew that the victims of natural disasters are psychologically vulnerable. Like children, they would take direction without questioning and because of the associated trauma, be unreliable witnesses in case of questioning by the authorities. They would be housed in VWP shelters where they would eat, drink and take medication – as directed. It was the perfect lab for their experiments. They started small with fat pills. The pills were designed to increase body mass when triggered. The trigger was usually a treat – cake or ice cream for example. Once the victim ate the cake, the pills were activated through nanorobots that would send a signal to the brain. That signal would get the person to eat more because the person would not get the signal that they’ve eaten enough and are full. Eventually, the person’s body mass would grow to the point their wings were clipped and they were banished to the LandBound. Once the wings were clipped, the robots would know they reached the end of their programming and the person would get back to their normal weight – or at least they stopped eating so much. At that point it didn’t matter, they were LandBound, obligated to work with the land to feed the world’s population. The social scientists considered this program to be a great success. With the pills, they were able to control the population of SkyBound and LandBound. Psychologically, because the LandBound felt their circumstances were their fault, they didn’t rebel against their change in status. Their wings were clipped literally and figuratively. They are docile and afraid of themselves. What if they lose control again? They are so afraid of losing control that they strictly control their food intake. SkyBound don’t have to count or watch food resources because LandBound are afraid to use those resources. LandBound are not only bound to the land but they are bound to specific land. That means not only does this group control the number of LandBound but they also control where they are per area. This in turn limits the potential of large scale natural disasters taking life because only a certain number of LandBound are assigned to any area. The idea that SkyBound are better than LandBound grew naturally from the idea that if LandBound could control themselves, they would still have been SkyBound. It might have been the perfect plan if they were able to see the effects of the virus on the DNA of the created LandBound. An unexpected side effect of the virus was seen in the offspring of LandBound. The offspring are born without wings. And for some reason when LandBound reproduce, they produce multiple births of 3 to 4 children. The VWP fixed the problem of SkyBound overpopulation and created the problem of

LandBound overpopulation. In another generation, LandBound will outnumber the SkyBound we won’t have resources to feed the LandBound and SkyBound population. If that weren’t bad enough, from VWP’s perspective, the children of the LandBound have not taken to the psychological conditioning that SkyBound are better than LandBound.”

Mocha takes a deep breath, pausing briefly.

“Now do you see, Princess, what we’re fighting?”

“I don’t understand. Why don’t we know our true history? In school, they teach us that LandBound are people who made the choice, by not controlling themselves and through their own ignorance, to toil the land so that we can all eat. I understand why we don’t know the truth because most people don’t know the truth. But why is it so important that we believe we are better than LandBound?”

“You’re smart – what do you think?”

Even as I asked the question, I realized I already know the answer. It’s funny – I’m starting to understand what my mother’s been talking to me about all these years. She was telling me how things are and I couldn’t see it.

“Because as a society we could not tolerate handicapping

people unless we believe we are better than the person we maim. If they are less than SkyBound then we can tell

ourselves we aren’t monsters.”