Chapter 49: Members
Chapter 49: Members
“What’s chives?”
AA asked curiously. Clearly, she had never heard of this plant that could grow back quickly after being cut.
“We are chives. Chives are us,” Sun Jack quipped, then followed up with a serious question, “So, these so-called birthing factories churn out kids, and they all owe the company money?”
AA nodded. “Yes. They calculate the costs of birth and education into a bill, which gets uploaded to our system on our sixteenth birthday, during our coming-of-age ceremony.”
“We have to work hard to pay off the entire debt before we can gain freedom.”
As she spoke, a trace of fear flashed in AA’s eyes, and her hands paused mid-task.
“If… if we’re overdue by more than six months, the birthing factory sends people to repossess our organs, one by one, as collateral. Once we have the money, they return them to us.”
“That’s insane!” Sun Jack was horrified. “Even if you report this to the BCPD, they won’t help, will they?”