elimination

The alarm sounds to the right above my head and just like that vacation is over. It feels strange and foreign to stand on my legs again and they nearly buckle underneath me. How long has it been? I shiver and grab at my arms half expecting to feel bone carved out by the teeth of millions of mice. Instead I am met only by the smooth feeling of freshly mended skin. I need to get back on my hallucination preventing medication. As I stumble out of the shower and past the mirror I am stopped in my tracks. I look healthy again. My cheekbones have gone from knives protruding below by skin to elegant curves in my face. My ribs are scarcely visible. Oh well, time to ruin that. I pull on my uniform and begin my morning run across the tundra.

Bump Nose clears his throat. “World War Two was caused by many factors: World War One (The Treaty of Versailles), the Age of Anxiety, and the rise of strong leadership. World War One left a broken, disillusioned Europe. People lost their faith in human progress and the traditional values of liberal democracy. This brought about the Age of Anxiety with the additional help of other factors such as the discovery of atomic physics and the Freudian notion that the human mind is irrational. In addition, Germany was extremely dissatisfied with the Treaty of Versailles which stole their land and forced them to pay an indemnity of 33 billion. With this and the Great Depression, the German economy suffered significantly. They were in need of a strong, powerful leader to pull them out of their economic crisis and revitalize the country. That man was Adolf Hitler. He single-handedly saved the economy through public works and remilitarization. Through Germany’s war effort Hitler was able to bring the unemployment rate from 44% to full employment, including women.”

It’s a strange long forgotten feeling to be well rested enough to focus on Bump Nose’s incessant droning. It’s quite lovely actually. Our text has been making references to WWII for forever now and I have been looking forward to learning about it. I regard Bump Nose eagerly, yet he doesn’t have the usual sparkle in his eye. I frown. In the past this has served as indication that he doesn’t like the subject matter at hand, like with the Industrial Revolution.

“In order to make Germany agriculturally self sufficient, Hitler wanted to push eastward and take land from the Slavic people who were racially inferior. Though the European powers turned a blind eye to Hitler’s grabs at Austria and Czechoslovakia, the United Kingdom and France finally declared war on Germany after Hitler’s invasion of Poland in 1939. From here a brutal World War ensued with tactics never before seen such as aerial bombardment. The world’s first atomic bombs were dropped at the end of the war on Japan’s cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This was perhaps one of the most significant events in all of human history, working directly to bring about the circumstances of the modern day.”

“You will be reading about the more specific details of the war on your own, however I will still mention a few notable events. For example, the United States joined the war in 1941 with the Japanese bombing of the US naval base at Pearl Harbor. Also of significance was D-Day in 1944 when American, British and Canadian forces landed on the beaches of Normandy. Between the advance from Normandy and the Russian advance, Germany had no chance. In 1945 the Allied forces had taken Germany. Hitler committed suicide and the Axis powers were defeated. An issue for future consideration was the Russian liberation of Eastern Europe. Stalin intended to make all of these countries communist satellite states. The United States and Western Europe opposed this. Thus the Cold War ensued.”

Now Bump Nose’s face gets really sour. I lean forward to listen. “A phenomenon to be noted and praised from this time period is the power of human obedience. When all of the individuals in a society understand their place and purpose under a central ideology vast potential is created. Both Mussolini and Hitler did a superb job with this, however it was Stalin’s Russia that was truly exemplary. The strong leadership of these men serves as an immortal example of true human potential.”

Bump Nose looks as though he’s about to vomit. There must be something about the leadership of Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin he doesn’t actually like. The textbook however, gives me little inclination of what. My eyes drift through the room examining the dwindling number of my fellow Titles. When I see 12 my heart skips a beat, she has become a gaunt skeleton. The shine is gone from her hair and the light is gone from her eyes. She recognizes my gaze with a worried furrow of her brow and perhaps a slight smile. Switch looks just as bad, only 14 is unbroken. Yet something is different, he radiates an aura of cold. I look around the room to find that two groups of people seem to have formed in my absence. There are the Titles who are broken, and the Titles who are cold metal representations of their former selves. I realize with a sinking feeling that Tight Rope is gone.