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Kyra was sitting at her desk responding to emails. Her assistant was out sick and she regretted not bringing in an intern to help lighten the workload. She was a busy woman and quite frankly didn’t have the time to respond to every enquiry, though she did her best. She understood it to be part of the job and she wasn’t unappreciative of the fact that if this was her biggest annoyance, then she must have had it pretty good. She had just finished replying to an intern who was requesting some time off next week when Melissa burst excitedly through the door.

 

‘5 minutes, Kyra.’

 

That was all she needed, work could wait. She smiled and closed her laptop then followed Melissa out the door and down the hall. They walked quickly towards the vault, down the unnecessarily long passageway. They had been waiting a long time for this moment and didn’t want to miss it. Apparently, there had once been a series of large doors down here, blocking entrance to everyone except authorised personnel. At that time, cryo technology had been the very pinnacle of scientific discovery, so security was clearly a necessity. Nowadays, it was a relatively common and inexpensive procedure, with hardly anyone even bothering to take part. Why would they need to spend the money on security measures? Crime was virtually non-existent now anyway.

 

The vault was rarely visited anymore as very few people elected to have the procedure. Apart from the occasional tour group, very few people spent time in there. Management at IntelliGen had long recognised cryo as a dying practice and had thus expanded far beyond the primitive novelty of freezing oneself. They were now at the forefront of medical research and prided themselves on having some of the world’s greatest scientific minds on payroll. However, they were most widely known to the public for their pioneering efforts in genetics, having helped to facilitate the Great Change in 2376.

 

They entered the brightly lit vault and made their way over to the last occupied chamber. There were maybe 40 other women crowding around it, both staff and journalists, chatting excitedly amongst each other. Kyra and Melissa made their way to the front of the crowd and joined the others in looking at the clients’ frozen expressions one last time. It was an image that had become famous the world over, the only real remnant of a bygone era and was etched forever in the minds of every woman, presumably every man too. Children learned about it in school. Scholars studied them, their faces and body language becoming the subject of many an academic paper. They were even used in the campaign to promote the once radical ‘Male Assignment Act’ more than 150 years ago, showing a close-up image of the terrified woman being screamed at by the irate man while shoving his finger in her face, with the caption ‘Never Again’ written underneath. It was a shame that they had undergone the procedure without any of the required paperwork because it meant that they knew nothing about the subjects or why they had been frozen together, but this lack of context gave way to several theories and speculations as to why they might have been there. Most believed that he had forced her in there with him and when she protested, he hadn’t hesitated to make his feelings known. Typical man. Well, whatever the case, it would all be settled in a few seconds.

 

Melissa turned to the crowd, ‘Okay girls, almost there! Ready? 10….9…..8…’

 

Everyone started counting down together. The atmosphere was electric and the journalists were trying to capture it as best they could before the chamber opened up, because once it did, all focus would shift to welcome modern society’s most anticipated new member. Frankly, Kyra wasn’t much interested in that right now. She would have plenty of time to get to know the mystery woman in due course and hear all about the dark days of the old world from someone who had actually lived in it. No, she was more concerned with the man. As the head of medicine and therefore the cryogenic department, she had long ago designated herself as the one to reveal to him exactly how much the world had changed since his day. His reaction would be priceless and she wanted to see it up close.

 

‘5…4…3…2…1!’

 

The chamber released a cloud of vapour into the crowd, completely removing it from view, signalling that decompression had started. Once it dissipated, all eyes turned to the couple inside. There was an audible chuckle from some of the women as others in the crowd gasped. The man continued to shout at the woman as she reached up and tried to push away his finger, seeming to be pleading with him to stop. ‘Poor girl’, said someone towards the back. Everybody else just watched in silence, waiting for the door to open. Suddenly the girl stopped pleading and turned her head slightly to look outside at the faces staring in at her. She appeared to be in complete shock as it began to register with her what just happened. The man was still shouting at her but she didn’t seem to care anymore. She said something which couldn’t be heard from the outside but otherwise just stood still, looking out. This must have drawn the man’s attention, because a few seconds later he looked out too, also mouthing something inaudible. There was a hiss as the door finally started to open up, revealing them to the waiting crowd. The room fell silent as both the crowd and the couple waited for what would happen next. Kyra gave Melissa a nod, who broke the tension by approaching the awestruck girl.

 

‘Welcome, my dear.’ She took the poor girl’s hand. ‘How do you feel? Can you walk? Here, come with me. You’re safe now, no need to worry’.

 

……………………………………………..

 

500 years before

 

‘YOU STUPID BITCH! WHAT DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING!?!? YOU’VE ALWAYS BEEN AN ASSHOLE TO ME AND NOW LOOK WHAT YOU’VE DONE!! YOU’VE SEALED US IN HERE FOR THE NEXT 500 YEARS!!’

 

‘Stop it Stevie, I’m sorry okay? Just take your finger out of my face!’ Amanda put her hand up to try and remove Steve’s finger but he was too strong and far too angry.

 

‘NO! SHUT UP! YOU DON’T GET TO TELL ME WHAT TO DO ANYMORE! I’VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU AND YOUR SHIT! ALL YOU DO IS TREAT PEOPLE LIKE THEY’RE YOUR PERSONAL PLAYTHINGS!‘

 

‘I’m sorry! It was only meant to be a joke! I swear I didn’t mean to! I didn’t think –‘

 

‘YEAH YOU DIDN’T THINK! YOU NEVER THINK AMANDA! ALL YOU SEEM TO DO IS GO ABOUT YOUR DAY MAKING EVERYBODY MISERABLE!’

 

 ‘Oh my God’, Amanda said weakly. She had stopped looking at Steve and seemed to have lost complete interest in his tirade. She was looking outside the chamber.

 

‘What are you looking at? I’m not finished! What are you –‘ Steve turned around too and fell silent. Had that been it? He’d barely felt anything. He cast his eyes on the crowd staring back at them. Maybe 30, 40 people. Some even had cameras and microphones.

 

Wait, were they all women?

 

With a hissing sound, the door opened and exposed them both to the outside world. They just stood there, dumbfounded. A few seconds passed and a tall blonde woman in a pantsuit and heels came forward. She extended her hand to Amanda, not even acknowledging that Steve was there too.

 

‘Welcome, my dear. How do you feel? Can you walk? Here, come with me. You’re safe now, no need to worry.’

 

Amanda followed her lead and walked out of the chamber to rapturous applause. She seemed as shocked as he was but managed to raise the hand not holding on to the blonde and gave a slight wave to the cheering women. Steve stood there for a second, waiting for someone to welcome him. He looked out and found that everyone’s focus was on Amanda. Everyone except one woman. She was stood at the front, looking straight in his eyes with a slight smirk on her face. She appeared to be quite tall and was dressed in business attire as well, wearing a mid-length black skirt, a white blouse and knee-high black leather boots. Her dark red hair was tied up, leaving 2 strands, one on each side of her face. She adjusted her glasses and raised her eyebrows at him, folding her arms in mock impatience. He stepped out nervously and the crowd once again fell silent. Steve looked around and saw the eyes of every woman looking at him scornfully. The blonde who was holding Amanda’s hand looked him up and down with a face full of contempt then turned to address the crowd.

 

‘Ladies, may I present to you our newest and most eagerly awaited citizen of our glorious country!’ She held Amanda’s hand in the air and the crowd broke out into uproarious applause. She silenced them with her other outstretched arm. ‘Now, this must be a big adjustment for our young heroine. She must have many questions and we will need to show her the ways of our world.’ She turned to Amanda. ‘Could you come with me sweetie? We have lots to discuss.’ Amanda nodded and accompanied the blonde as they exited the vault, the crowd cheering all the way.

 

Once they had left, the applause stopped and again everyone turned to face Steve. He could feel each and every eye upon him. The red-haired woman approached and said a few words to the awaiting women. ‘I’ll be taking this one here. Like my colleague, I’ll have a lot to explain to him about the…tiny…changes in society’. Whatever she meant by that, it got a huge laugh. She looked at Steve and smiled at him, though it offered him little, if any reassurance. It seemed more of a predatory grin than one meant to put him at ease. She nodded her head in the direction of the exit. ‘Come. Let me show you around.’ He followed her out, accompanied by 2 imposing female guards on either side of him. Amanda didn’t have any guards, why did he? He felt something in the pit of his stomach. He didn’t know what was happening, but he didn’t have a good feeling about this.

 

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