District A1: Week 01

Author's Note: District A1 is an anthology series. Each Week will usually focus on a different character, but in the same setting: District A1.

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Jamie awoke in her bed. She started to sit up but her head felt unusually heavy and foggy. As she propped herself up as well as she could, half lying down, half sitting up, she remembered why she felt so sluggish. She had been drugged.

Jamie Lambert lived on Earth, but it no longer went by that name. The New World was called Valantsa, and Jamie lived in the Valantsian Empire. She had been raised as all women were under the Valantsian Empire, without any parents and without any exposure to males. In fact, Jamie and the majority of the female population had no idea that men even existed. The two sexes were completely segregated, and the women were kept in the dark about the existence of a second gender.

This was because women's entire purpose in life was to be bred, and integrating men and women would only distract from and confuse this purpose, in the opinion of the Valantsian High Council. The world outside the walls of the Valantsian Empire was a dark and treacherous place, and so in return for shelter from the harsh apocalyptic elements, the Valantsian Empire demanded a renewable and exponential source of population growth, which all women provided.

Women were impregnated with sperm harvested from men, although as far as Jamie and her fellow female citizens knew, sperm was simply an organic chemical produced by the government that enabled women to create life. Upon being born, their babies would be taken away by the government and sent to schools, so as not to distract the mothers with the task of child-rearing and to allow them to continue to reproduce.

The female babies were raised together, and once they were old enough, taught together, in various schools throughout the Empire. They were prohibited from having sex until they were eighteen, to allow them to focus better on their studies, which were primarily centered around world history. Once they did turn eighteen, sex was not only allowed, but strongly encouraged. The Empire indoctrinated and brainwashed women to be sexual beings above all else. They bombarded them with a culture that was pornographic and, unbeknownst to the general populace, during food production laced all food with hormones that increased libido so that sex would be an inevitable part of everyday life. This way the monotony and discomfort of being pregnant most of one's life could be somewhat alleviated by the constant and accessible relief of sex, making for a content and controllable population.

Women were also typically trained in one of nine professions upon turning eighteen, so they could work and earn a living once they were sent away from school. Once a woman reached the age of twenty, she was usually sent to an existing District to begin being bred. However, in Jamie's case, she was sent to a brand new District that would be filled with a population of women fresh from school who had never been bred before. This was the first time this had been done in the Empire, since it had always been easiest to send graduates to existing Districts so they could be further trained and assisted by women who already lived there and had experience with working and being bred. Women were bred until they were no longer fertile, at which point they were sent to the Capital, where the High Council, other government officials, and the elderly lived.

So, as her memory came flooding back to her, Jamie recalled what had happened just previous to her being drugged. She had graduated from school on her twentieth birthday, as was customary, and had scheduled an appointment with the Doctors.

The Doctors were the faceless and nameless agents of the High Council. They only intervened in the affairs of the citizens when there was trouble, such as a crime being committed or when complex medical procedures were necessary. They were women who were exempted from the responsibility of being bred, and who wore long white robes and white veils to mask their faces. No one was quite sure how one became a Doctor, for they were a very mysterious order that did not communicate or justify themselves to others unless completely necessary.

Jamie had met with a Doctor in her school hospital. The Doctor had explained to her that she would be sedated for her journey to her new home in District A1, for her own safety.

All Districts, included the District her school was located in, were surrounded by immense and impenetrable walls, and topped with transparent domes to shield the citizens from the uninhabitable conditions of the outside world. Travel between Districts was strictly forbidden, and impossible besides. There were no visible entrances or exits in any of the Districts, no doors or passages through the District walls. No one knew how the Doctors traveled between Districts when they were called upon, although some speculated there was some sort of subterranean tunnel system and secret doorways that allowed for unseen transportation.

Of course, in the case of populating a new District with graduates, an exception in the travel restrictions had to be made. But Jamie was not allowed to be awake for it. She was leaving everything behind — her friends, teachers, belongings. She had been assured that everything she needed would be waiting for her in her new home, and upon waking up from her drug-induced slumber, she would find herself in that new home lying in bed.

The Doctor had stuck an intravenous needle connected to an IV bag into Jamie's arm, and before she knew it she had drifted into a deep sleep. Now, as Jamie wiped her eyes groggily and finally managed to sit up and swing her legs over the edge of her bed, she looked around and realized the Doctor had been telling the truth. For one thing she was completely naked. She chuckled, thinking back to the Doctor telling her she wouldn't be allowed to bring anything with her from school. When she'd said anything, she'd really meant it.

She was in a large bedroom, not unlike the one she'd slept in back at school, although this one had only one bed and no roommate to be seen. There was a dresser, a desk, a bathroom, and a closet that looked to be filled with clothes. She got up uneasily, still waiting for the fog to lift from around her head, and shuffled slowly over to the closet. She looked through the wide variety of shirts hanging in front of her, all of which appeared to be her size.

She figured she had probably better get dressed before she could leave her room and explore the rest of her house. She fussed around for a few minutes, rummaging through the brand new clothing that had been supplied for her in her closet, trying to decide what to wear on her first day in her new life.

Finally, she settled for a pair of jeans and a yellow blouse. She slipped on a pair of panties and a bra first, then got dressed. She entered the bathroom to see how she looked in the mirror.

Jamie was a tall, moon-faced girl with long and straight black hair and brown eyes. She had a slight tan and rosy cheeks that grew very red when she was embarrassed or aroused. She had large, perky breasts that were currently pressing together to show off her cleavage, and a wide, round bottom to match.

She smiled at her reflection, running her hands through her somewhat unkempt hair a few times to straighten it until she was satisfied. She left the bathroom and walked to her closed bedroom door. She hesitated before opening it.

At school, she had not only slept in the same room with another girl, but had shared a dormitory with fourteen other girls. She hadn't been told much about her new home at all, so she wasn't sure if she would be living in it alone or with other people. She took a deep breath and opened the door.

She stepped out into an empty hallway. There was another door on the opposite wall to her right, after which the hallway dead-ended. To her left the hallway opened into what looked like a common room, from which she could hear some sort of noise. The other bedroom door was closed, so she decided to head to the common area.

She entered what she realized was a spacious living room with vaulted ceilings and an open kitchen against the back wall. In the middle of the living room was what looked like an extremely comfortable couch, in front of which were a coffee table and large flat screen television. To the right of the television was an ornate wooden door which Jamie figured must open to the street outside. She noticed all this in just a moment, but her attention was naturally drawn to the open kitchen behind the couch, where the noise she'd heard was coming from.

There was a woman in the kitchen cooking something in a pan, which was making a loud sizzling sound. Jamie's view of her was slightly obstructed by the kitchen counter and parallel hanging cabinets. The stove was built into the counter, and so the woman was standing right in front of it, her face blocked from Jamie's view by the hanging cabinets.

Jamie walked past the couch, noticing a dining table and chairs placed between it and the kitchen, and stepped into the kitchen to meet the stranger in her house.

She was face-to-face with a very large woman. She wasn't severely overweight, but was very tall and chubby. She had long and straight brown hair that matched the color of her eyes. Her skin was even more tan than Jamie's, and her breasts were bigger as well. She was wearing a skin-tight gray top that was struggling to contain her heavy breasts. Her large chest was even more obvious due to the decorative black belt she had fastened firmly between her breasts and pudgy stomach. She had long, thick legs encased in tight navy jeans.

Jamie was instantly taken in by her surprised but welcoming gaze and, most importantly, her beautiful breasts. "Hi," she blurted out a little too quickly as she entered the kitchen, "I'm Jamie." She extended her hand.

The tall woman standing at the stove was initially startled, not having heard Jamie approach, but quickly relaxed and shook Jamie's hand. "Hi, Jamie. I'm Gretchen. You must be my roommate!" She had a rich, lovely voice. She unintentionally looked Jamie over once before returning her attention to the food she had cooking on the stove. She moved about the vegetables and meat with a spatula as they continued to talk.

"Guess so," Jamie replied. "Is it just us? I wasn't sure how many people they'd have us living with."

"Yeah, just us."

"Cool. I can't believe we have our own rooms, I wasn't expecting that at all."

"I know, I'm so used to living with, like, twenty other people back at school."

"Same here. Which District was your home District?" Jamie asked.

"District 62," Gretchen answered. "And yours?"

"District 52. I guess everyone here in District A1 is supposed to have a different home District, right?"

"I think so. That's how it's usually done, at least," Gretchen shrugged.

Graduates from the same school, or home District, were very rarely sent to the same District to be bred. This was another policy of the Valantsian High Council that was intended to reduce the difficulty of being relocated. While separation from one's childhood friends was expected to produce some short-term emotional distress upon graduation, in the long-run it was meant to make for an easier and more distinct transition into the second and most important phase of one's life.

Jamie leaned casually against the counter next to the stove and watched Gretchen as she continued cooking. Her curves were very pronounced and Jamie found them to be very attractive. She wanted to avoid staring, so she kept up the conversation. "So did the Doctors knock you out too? Before they brought you here, I mean."

"Yeah, I still feel kind of sleep."

"Me too." Jamie's head was throbbing dully. "How long have you been awake?"

"Only about an hour. I haven't even left the house yet. I was about to, but then I got so hungry, I had to make something to eat. I don't know how long it took to bring me here, but it feels like I haven't eaten in days."

Jamie rubbed her stomach instinctively as her own sudden hunger started to infect her. "I hadn't thought about it til you mentioned it, but I'm starving too."

"Well, there's plenty of food here for the both of us," Gretchen smiled warmly. "Do you want to grab some plates? It's almost ready." She gestured at the steaming food in the pan.

Jamie smiled and nodded. She started opening the hanging cabinets above the stove, maneuvering clumsily around Gretchen as she pressed on with her cooking. "Do you know where the plates are?" Jamie asked.

"I think they're in that cabinet over there," Gretchen angled her head toward a cabinet behind her.

Jamie opened it to find an assortment of plates and bowls. She pulled out two plates and continued looking around until she found a couple of forks and two cups, which she each filled with water from the sink. The kitchen, like her bedroom, appeared to be fully stocked with the essentials — silverware, cooking equipment, even a fridge, freezer, and pantry completely filled with food. Eventually, they would run out of the food that had been left for them, but once they started working they would be making enough money to start buying their own.

While in school, students weren't paid money by the government, even though they were taught to work and were given opportunities to perform mock versions of their future jobs in the Districts they were being taught in. But once they were graduated and started to be bred, they had to work to earn a living and afford their own food and belongings, which up to that point were provided to them by the government-funded schools.

As she set the table, placing the plates on opposite sides so they could face each other while they ate, Jamie asked, "So, Gretchen, what job were you trained for?"

"I'm a chef," Gretchen answered from the kitchen. "Pretty lucky, huh?"

Of the standard nine jobs available in the Districts, being a chef was perhaps considered the easiest. Unlike other jobs where you worked on a fairly regular schedule most days for long periods of time, chefs only had to work when a reservation was made at the local restaurant, which wasn't often. There were so many cheap and freshly-made meal options available at grocery stores that very few people ate at restaurants for dinner, unless it was a special occasion they had saved up for. And even when chefs were called in to work, the job itself was fairly simple and didn't take long.

"Are you serious?" Jamie laughed. "It doesn't get much luckier than that!"

"What about you?" asked Gretchen.

"I'm a caregiver," Jamie replied as she finished setting the table and returned to the kitchen.

Gretchen looked up and halfheartedly offered, "Oh, well that's not too bad either. At least you won't have to do any work for the next ten months."

Caregiving was a similar job to nursing, except where nurses dealt mainly with the beginning and ending of pregnancy, caregivers dealt with the most difficult part. Caregivers were essentially nurses that made house calls to pregnant women who were overdue. If a woman reached her due date, but didn't give birth, a caregiver would be assigned to her. Caregiver's main responsibilities were to alleviate discomfort and help overdue women with their daily lives, since excessive movement became painful and difficult in the late stages of pregnancy. It was also important for caregivers to help induce labor if possible, to minimize the amount of time an overdue woman had to spend in discomfort, and to allow her to be impregnated again as quickly as possible.

Gretchen was correct, however, that Jamie wouldn't be doing any caregiving for the next ten months, since District A1 was comprised entirely of graduates like Gretchen and Jamie who hadn't been impregnated yet. But Jamie didn't want to speak too soon.

"As far as I know," Jamie said. "Everyone else here is supposed to have just graduated, right?"

"Yeah," Gretchen answered. "I'm telling you, you've got a way easier job than me for the next ten months."

"But I still get paid, right?"

"Yeah. They said they were going to pay me even when I don't have work. I just have to be on call and can't make sure I don't miss any reservations."

"But if we're all getting impregnated at the same time, we'll all have about the same due date, won't we? That could be a lot of girls to take care of at the same time."

"Could be. Then again, you know how it is," Gretchen said, referring to all of the information that was taught in schools on pregnancy. "It doesn't always work on the first try. It could take a day or a month to become pregnant. It just depends."

"That's true. How many of us did they send here? And are they gonna send more?"

"I have no idea," Gretchen chuckled. "I'm sure we'll find out later, but right now, I need to eat!" The sautéed meat and vegetables Gretchen had been preparing was finally ready. She carried the full pan to the table, where she scraped half onto her plate and half onto Jamie's. She returned to the kitchen to dump the pan and spatula into the sink and wash her hands.

Jamie waited for her to come back to the table before she sat down. "This smells really good," she said earnestly. "Then again, I could eat just about anything right now."

"It's a little plain," Gretchen confessed. "I'm usually a much better cook but I was just so hungry I couldn't really come with anything other than food in a pan. But there's a bunch more stuff in the fridge if you want."

"This is perfect," Jamie mumbled through a mouthful of food. She had to take a frantic drink of water as the freshly cooked dinner scalded the roof of her mouth. "Ooh, hot!"

"Yeah, you might want to wait a second or two," Gretchen laughed.

After waiting a minute for their food to cool off, they both dug into the mounds of food on their plates ravenously. Between mouthfuls they shared brief anecdotes from their lives in school, but nothing too personal or substantive. They could both still feel the initial awkwardness that permeates a conversation between two strangers reaching to relate to one another but not quite connecting.

On top of that, the absurdity and sheer weight of their new situation hadn't seemed to set in just yet. As they came close to the end of their meal, and the food energized and focused Jamie's mind, part of her realized that she was going to have to make an appointment to be impregnated very soon. After that, despite the fact that she wouldn't have to start work right away, she would be doing something very new to her. The thought of being pregnant, not just for the next ten months, but for the rest of her life, was more than a little unnerving. But for now, she tried to just enjoy the meal Gretchen had made, and push her worries to the corners of her mind.

Upon finishing her dinner, Jamie leaned back in her chair contentedly and placed her hands over her stomach. "Phew," she sighed.

Gretchen looked back at her expectantly, chewing her final bite of vegetables.

"Seriously, that was great," Jamie gushed earnestly. "Like, way better than anything I could ever make. I'm a terrible cook."

Gretchen smiled sheepishly and said, "Like I said, it wasn't my best. But I'm glad you liked it."

"Well, maybe I can return the favor tomorrow night. I hope you like grilled cheese, though."

Gretchen's eyes widened. "Don't even get me started on grilled cheese. I mean, who doesn't love grilled cheese. I can't have too much, though, I'm trying to lose weight."

"Oh, Gretchen," Jamie said in feigned disbelief, trying to be nice. "You don't need to lose any weight. You look really good."

"I always look good," Gretchen said in a jokingly vain voice, flipping her hair back with an overly exaggerated flick of her wrist. "But honestly, I've gotten really fat. I used to be pretty skinny."