Deep within the Nucleus

Everyone knew that when a person was terminated, they dissolved and trickled down the storm drains. But what Gina had assumed was a waste treatment plant was not.

She gripped Milo’s arm. “I’m gonna be sick.”

The vat before them obviously collected the liquidized proteins of every sacked life in the Nation. Pipes funneled the goop through monitored tubes with color-coded letters, A, C, G, T, cultivating, changing form.

At the final pipe’s end, a lumpy product was dropped, quickly saran-wrapped, and conveyor-belted toward a slot marked “Nursery.”

The dead were being recycled into freeze-dried babies.