Safety Blue

La la la la
Drink Safety Blue
La di da da
They won’t come for you.
And you need not fear
For you
La la la la
You drink Safety Blue
La di da da
And they won’t come for you!

What a stupid song. The lyrics are juvenile. The melody is sickeningly alluring. But then, it was supposed to be. It does catch on. It gets stuck in your head and refuses to leave. When I awake in the dark of night that song often fights its way into my head. I shout, sing, beat it out. But it never leaves for long. La la la la…

Whoever created it thought they had made something snappy. They were right. Every man, woman and child in the colony knows Safety Blue by heart. While shopping, people hum it. I even caught my dad bellowing it in the shower the other day. It is everywhere! They taught it to us first thing in preschool. They drill us with it in high school. That’s not enough; they saturate our life with it through TV and music. Every station plays the darn song at some point during each program. La di da da…
Our culture is a Safety Blue culture!

It is sickening! I can’t even stand the taste of Safety Blue. I don’t think anyone can. My parents screw up their faces every morning when they drink it. My little sisters mix theirs with orange juice. I don’t care what they say about it, they’re lying.

I’ve been studying 21st century advertising and marketing techniques in one of my classes. Interesting stuff. They used to create songs back then to sell products. They called them ‘jingles.’ Some big company would pay an advertising firm to come up with a snappy jingle to sell their new product. The jingle would then be released on radio, in TV commercials, or before movies. It too would stick in peoples’ heads and they would go out and buy whatever the jingle promoted. Just like that, they’d go out and buy it! They got so good at jingles that Government started passing laws against them.

Well, I think someone did his homework as the new colony was getting started. That someone was R.G. Hughlilly. He revived the dreaded jingle. And it works still. Every last person in the colony drinks his product religiously. No exceptions! I’ve been checking. And every one of them is convinced if they stop ‘they’ will come for them. Not a bad way to keep your customers loyal and coming back, now is it? Drill into them that if they stop buying the stuff, they will die. ‘They’ are coming to get you. He has imprisoned us all.

I know I am still young, but I’ve never seen ‘they’ come for anyone or show any form of aggression in my life. The Bearfalo don’t even fight amongst themselves. They are content to graze night and day on the soft grasses that surround the colony. Often they graze inside the colony on our plants as well. No one truly fears them any more.

--p2--

But they did once. And R.G. Hughlilly knew that well. My research brought me to the very beginnings of our colony. The first party to land on the planet was killed. The second party landed to recover them. They reported large furry creatures with powerful front limbs attacking their ship, the bearfalo. The creatures move on either four legs or upright on two. They had small horns and blunt claws. They reminded the second party of a cross between buffalo and bear.

The third landing party set up a fortress-like stockade and got a firm foothold on the planet. Dad said the stockade finally collapsed right before my birth. It used to surround the town building and Mayor’s office. I found pictures of it. The bearfalo were kept out as the settlers arrived. Twice they broke through. They crashed in doors and pulled people out of their beds. Eight people died the first time and five the second. Many were wounded before the animals were stopped. In that period ten more settlers were killed, but always outside the stockade.

And R.G. Hughlilly stepped up with his new elixir. He cited the work of fellow scientists stating that the bearfalo’s aggression might result from human pheromones. It was a ridiculous theory and the colony laughed him to scorn. But Hughlilly was relentless. He started his advertising and wrote his jingle. He even moved his factory outside the stockade to show that Safety Blue really did work. And ever so slowly he won the people over. Convinced, they started buying Safety Blue daily and telling their children stories of the once terrible bearfalo.

That is how it used to be. Dad told me those stories too when I was very young. But no one cares anymore. My little sisters have never heard about the aggressive bearfalo other than what is alluded to by the jingle.

Hughlilly was lucky and knew how to play off of a coincidence. He, or more correctly his son since R.G. passed away several years ago, is by far the richest person in the colony.

And so it was that I decided to stop drinking Safety Blue. Through this paper I hoped to reveal the corrupt power that R.G. Hughlilly has wielded over our naive colony.

One week has passed. At first nothing happened. My parents caught on after two days and told me I was foolishly endangering the entire family. We had a fight. Dad kicked me out. I’ve been living with my Fiancée since. She was worried but supportive. She is sleeping in a different room, as is proper, though with the door locked just in case. Just in case what? In case they come? It made me chuckle. I hoped she wouldn’t keep it up for long.

It was the third day when the first incident occurred. I say incident, but it was really nothing. That darn song has just made us all paranoid.

I was walking home from the school along the Easthill trail as a herd of bearfalo sauntered across. I walked around the herd, showing them the due respect they deserve. They are very large and impressive. While observing the herd I bumped into one of the stragglers. I gasped and stepped back. The bearfalo continued several steps as if it didn’t notice, then stood up and watched me as I walked away. It dropped back down and followed me for almost a minute. At one point it was right next to me and sniffed my hand. I patted its side. It then rejoined the herd.
I smiled and tried to imagine the beast as aggressive.

--p3--

The second incident happened the next day. I was out running with my fiancée on the other side of the colony. A large herd was grazing on the side of the hill above us. My fiancée touched my elbow and I stopped running. Above us the herd was silent. None were grazing now. They just watched us. My fiancée’s look reminded me that it was not us, it was me. She shuddered and ran back to the colony without waiting. The bearfalo in the back stood up. The whole herd faced me and seemed to be waiting for something. Their large eyes bored into my soul. None of them blinked. I tell you it was eerie, but I was thickheaded. I ruled it off as coincidence.

The following day I got unlucky. At lunch I was on my way to school. A group of elementary students was walking the same direction, out to their building. There was a very small heard just off the trail grazing. One of the kids threw a girl’s computer at the herd. It hit the side of a bearfalo and fell to the ground. The darn animal didn’t even look up. Being closest, I walked over to pick it up for the girl. The bearfalo turned and looked at me, its eyes wide and black. I picked up the little computer just as one of the males pushed past the grazing females and stood erect ten feet from me. It was massive. The thing let out growl that set my knees shaking. When I didn’t move, it immediately bellowed in a manner I interpreted as hostile, its mouth opened wide. I never knew they could open their mouths that wide. I never knew they had several large, sharp teeth amongst their molars either.

Needless to say the kids burst out crying and the teachers started singing that cursed jingle to calm them.

Yesterday I grew paranoid. Every time I went out there was bearfalo sitting alone watching me. No matter where I went. Mere coincidence, but it was always there. The previous days accident had done more than enough to make me fear “them” coming for me. I opted not to leave my fiancée’s apartment the rest of the day. Once she got home she yelled at me. I tried to take it stoically but fear I failed. She ended up in tears and locked herself in the other room. I sat awake in her bed most the night stewing angrily on the many coincidences of the week. She woke once and sobbed herself back to sleep. I longed to hold her but knew she wouldn’t let me until I started drinking Safety Blue again.

Then the noises began. They were quiet and indistinct. There was no pattern; they came sporadically once or twice an hour. I didn’t need to go to the window and look down on the street to feed my curiosity. I knew. And I feared that I might not just be paranoid anymore. ‘They’ were sniffing around.
I slept little if at all.

By sunrise I had resolved to leave my fiancée for a bit. Just in case there might actually be any credence to the whole Safety Blue issue, you know. I sprinted through the streets as the sun peaked over the hills. One solitary bearfalo followed me through the colony, far in the distance. I didn’t know where to go. I didn’t want to harm anyone. I needed to be somewhere alone and safe.

That’s what brought me here to the colony detention building, one of the sturdiest buildings on the planet. My employee password and palm print were all I needed to get in. The building is entirely automated. No one is stationed here when there are no prisoners. There haven’t been prisoners for more than a year.

I stopped on the way and bought some Safety Blue. I’ve drunk four now and think I’m going to vomit. It hasn’t done any good. As soon as it was dark they attacked the building. I couldn’t believe what the surveillance cameras showed me. They are strong. Much stronger than any of us thought. And they are smart. Within an hour these grazing animals had broken into the building. They ripped through the security gates. They are coming for me.

--p4--

I’ve locked myself in the last containment cell. The door is solid steel. The power has gone out. I write in darkness. They are against the door. Their howling is terrifying. Their claws, their claws...

They are coming for me. I don’t think there is anything I can now do. If I don’t survive this, whoever finds this letter please give it to my family. Oh my fiancée, please, tell her I’m sorry. I’m oh so very sorry. Why didn’t I listen? Why didn’t I believe? Tell her I love her so much.

And tell my friends, all of them, in fact tell the whole colony: Its true, drink Safety Blue and they won’t come for you!