“Welcome this week’s episode of Your Indigo World. I’m your host Len Otuvac. This week we take a look back some eight years ago when Indigo City was the scene of outright chaos. It was called The Great Impact.
Some sort of alien spacecraft crashed down in the centre of Indigo City spraying the populace with a blue gas. That gas seemed to affect all that breathed it in. Some were turned into what became known as Blights, human zombie creatures who were filled with a lust for violence and blood. Others turned into Carriers; people gifted with powers far beyond mere mortals. And not just in Indigo, but also just outside Lagos in Nigeria.
In the days that followed the TGI it became known as the Blight Wars. Hordes of citizens altered beyond their control acting out their base desires whilst brave men and women held them off. It was 95 days of block-to-block warfare as packs of wild Blights ran across the city.
Indigo City was quarantined and essential shut off from the outside world to contain the unrest. The Carrier Blight Task Force or CBTF was set up. Carriers were rounded up for questioning and testing whilst Blights were put down. These camps lasted for seven months but then footage was leaked about the starvation techniques, physical torture, and heavy sedation used on Carriers and they were shut down. This led to what can only be described as period of weirdness that fell across the city. Mutated Fungus-spider people, Kinetics Clubs, the T-Zone, talking marsupials, The Response, a carrier army in the forest, dragon men, The Reverend Doctor Dentist, a flying stoner accompanied by rock music, selfless fish people; Indigo City resembled a magical zoo!
But as quickly as characters like Alexander Wolffe, Lex Hard, and Genghis Quan appeared it was all over. Indigo City returned to what appeared to be normal, the events of nearly a decade ago swept away. Which brings us too why? Why rehash the past? Why look back as Indigo City moves forward?
Because of what happened on Friday. A maintenance crew clearing tunnels under Central burst a pipe where a cloud of blue gas engulfed a city block. The previously disbanded CBTF has been reactivated but will this mean a return to the horrors of 2014? Was the blue gas Xeno-Cyan which caused Blights and Carriers?
Time will tell. This segment was sponsored Indicum National, silly name serious banking. After the break, Roadbull Energy Drinks and their effect on your kids!”
The TV goes off and the lights go on. I’m sitting in a room with a dozen other people shackled to steel chairs like myself. There’s a gag in my mouth. I don’t know what is going on. I can feel my skin crackling, it doesn’t hurt but it isn’t normal! My hands feel like they have a headache, and my stomach is a helicopter.
A man walks to the front of the room. He’s about as round as he is tall, thin hair that should just be shaved off instead of pretending he has any, glasses, a sheen of sweat on his skin. “I won’t be keeping you long, sorry for the containment but it is necessary. You have all been exposed to Xeno-Cyan which potentially will either turn you into a Carrier or a Blight. Both are unacceptable. Carriers have powers that disrupt the status quo of not only Indigo City but the entire world whilst Blights are just soulless relentless killing machines. Until we work out which one you’ll turn into, you are stuck here as authorised by every level of government you can imagine thanks to the reinstatement of the Carrier Blight Task Force. I do apologise.”
The room erupts in moans and groans as we protest but he is unmoved. A swarm of armed men in black begin taking us from the room; we’re not uncuffed just picked up like furniture! We are in some sort of concrete bunker type thing…I guess I don’t know; I wish my dad was here he’d solve this in a heartbeat being the goddam Chief of Police!
I’m plonked in a cell, more like a locker. One of the men in black unshackles me as a woman with an iPad walks in next to him.
“Hello, my name is Dr Brie Bishop, I will be monitoring you,” she says as she taps on the screen. “Can you please tell me your…”
“Where the hell am I?”
She looks at me, a wave of frustration ripples across her face. “Can you tell me your name?”
“My name is Raven Chang! My father is Rikki Chang, the Chief of Police! I want a lawyer! I want to call my dad! I want…”
“We all want a lot of things, Raven,” she replies. “But we don’t always get what we want. Did you inhale any of the blue gas on Friday?”
I look at her. My skin feels like its going to peel off me. I feel like lurching forward and making a brave break for freedom…but the large man with the automatic weapons, the cameras and the fact I don’t know where I am… “Yes.”
“Did you pass out or were you unconscious the entire time?”
I shrug.
“It’s very important Raven, it often helps determine whether you turn one way or another.”
“Unconscious. Now could I call my dad? Please?”
“A few more questions,” she nods at the guard who steps out but closes the door. Part of me think I should jump her, take her hostage, and leave this place. In my head it makes sense and seems like I’ll be successful but since I stopped doing karate when I was fourteen, I think I’m stuck. “Do you feel any different?”
“Aside from behind held against my will?”
She rolls her eyes.
“My hands hurt, happy?”
“Stomach cramps? Itchy skin?”
“Yes. Not really itchy but weird. Are we done now?”
She ignores me, taps on the computer, and then stands. “Thank you, Raven. Please try to relax.”
“Relax?! I’m in prison!” I make my way to the door when it opens and the guard walks in with a cattleprod crackling. I back away and the doctor leaves. My reality is jolted as the door slams shut and locks. I burst into tears and collapse. I don’t know what to do. So, I yell. And I scream. And I cry. And I attack the door to no avail, only bloodying my knuckles, reddening my palms, and possibly breaking a toe.
When I wake up sometime later, I don't really know, my hands have this coating of yellow energy and I'm hovering in the air like I'm lying on the floor.
"What the &^%$!"
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