Chapter 16 Chapter fifteen

The manual laborers at the Park Lane Hospital for the Dying were one hundred and sixty-two deltas, divided into two Bokanovsky groups, eighty-four red-haired multiborn daughters and seventy-eight dark-skinned A long-faced male with multiple births.After get off work at six o'clock, both groups assembled in the hospital corridor, where the accounting assistant handed them their daily ration of soma. The Savage stepped out of the elevator and into the crowd, but his heart was elsewhere— still mingled with death, sorrow, and regret.He just squeezed his way out of the crowd, not realizing what he was doing.

"Who are you squeezing? Where do you think you're going?" Among the large throats, there are only two voices, one high and one low, one delicate and one thick.Two types of faces, endlessly recurring as in a long row of mirrors: one is a freckled, hairless moon surrounded by an orange halo; The beard haw that stayed for two days.They all turned to him angrily.The words of the two and the hard elbows on his ribs woke him up from the confusion.He is back again in the outer reality.He looked around and understood what he was seeing--he understood it with a kind of falling terror and disgust.He loathed the fever that recurred day and night, the nightmare caused by the same faces that came and went.Multiple births, multiple births...they swarmed profanely like maggots in the mystery of Linda's death.Now there are maggots in front of him again, but they are bigger and grown into human beings.Now they were crawling over his sorrow and regret.He stopped and stared at the khaki-clad mob around him with puzzled, terrified eyes.He was standing between them at the moment, a full head taller than them. "How beautiful are the creatures here!" the song taunted him. "How beautiful is the human race! O wonderful new world..."

"It's Soma," cried a voice. "Get in line. People over there, hurry up." A door has been opened just now, and a set of tables and chairs has been moved to the corridor.The one who spoke was a handsome young Alpha, who had already walked in holding a black iron cash box.With a contented murmur of desire, the superborns forgot all about the savage.Now their attention was on the black iron cash box.The young man had put the cash box on the table and was opening it.The lid came off. "Woo-wow!" One hundred and sixty-two people shouted at the same time, as if they were watching fireworks.

The young man took out a stack of small pill boxes. "Now," he said assertively, "come up, one at a time, please, without crowding." The multiple children walked up one by one, and there was no crowd.First two men, then a woman, then a man, three women, then... The Savage stood and watched. "Ah, wonderful new world..." His inner song seemed to change tune.With what vicious jeers did the words mock him in his hour of pain and remorse!It laughed like a devil, letting the nightmarish filth and disgusting ugliness continue to torment him.At this point, the lyrics suddenly become a clarion call to him to take up arms. "Ah, wonderful new world!" Miranda was announcing the possibility of being beautiful, and even nightmares could become something beautiful and noble, "Oh, wonderful new world!" It was a challenge, a command.

"Don't crowd over there." The accounting assistant was furious, and he shouted, "If you don't behave properly, I won't post it." The deltas muttered a few words, squeezed a bit, and stopped moving.The threat worked.Withholding soma, it's terrible! "That's better." The young man said and opened the box again. Linda had been a slave, and Linda was dead.Others should live free and make the world beautiful.That is a remedy, a responsibility.Suddenly there was a flash of light, as if the shutters had been raised and the curtains drawn.The savage knew what to do.

"Come on," said the accounting assistant. Another female khaki stepped forward. "Stop!" cried the Savage in a loud voice, "Stop!" He pushed his way to the table; the deltas stared at him in surprise. "Ford!" said the accounting assistant, lowering his voice. "It's a savage." He was frightened. cried the Savage eagerly. "Please lend me your ears..." He had never spoken in public before, and found it extremely difficult to express himself, "Don't want that terrible thing, it's a drug, it's a drug." "Well, Mr. Savage," said the accounting assistant, smiling calmly, "will you let me first--"

"That's a double drug that damages the soul and the body." "That's right, but, can you let me finish posting first, okay? Mr. Savage." He patted his arm like stroking a famous dangerous animal, "You let me first..." "Absolutely not!" cried the Savage. "But, man, listen to me..." "Throw it all away - those horrible drugs." The phrase "throw it all away" penetrated the deltas' chaotic consciousness layer by layer, and stung them.There were angry murmurs from the crowd. "I have come to set you free," the savage said, turning to the son, "I have come to give you..."

The accounting assistant didn't listen any more. He had slipped out of the corridor, looking for a number in the phone book. "He's not in his house," Bernard concluded. "Not in my house, not in your house, not in the Temple of Love, not in the Fertility Center or the Academy. Where could he be?" Helmholtz shrugged.They had just come back from get off work and expected the Savage to be waiting for them in one or two places where they usually met, but there was no sign of him.This was a disappointment for them, as they had planned to fly to Bijaritz in Helmholtz's four-seater sports helicopter.If the savages didn't show up right away, they might not be in time for supper.

"We'll wait for him another five minutes," said Helmholtz, "and if he doesn't come we'll have to—" His words were interrupted by the ringing of the telephone, and he picked up the receiver. "Hello, I am." He listened for a long time, "Ford is in the car!" He said viciously, "I'll be right there." "What's the matter?" Bernard asked. "It's from a friend of mine at Park Lane Hospital," said Helmholtz. "There's the Savage, and he seems to be mad. Anyway, it's urgent. Would you like to come with me?"

The two hurried down the hallway to the elevator. "But will you be slaves?" was the Savage talking as they entered the hospital.His face was flushed, and his eyes shone with passion and righteous indignation. "Do you like being little dolls? Yes, squawking and spitting dolls," he went on.Annoyed at the brutish ignorance of the people he was trying to save, he couldn't help cursing them with harsh words, but his curses hit the thick ignorant carapace of the other party and bounced back.The men stared at him with blank, dull hatred. "Yes, spit milk!" he exclaimed confidently.Forgotten now of grief, remorse, pity, and duty, the irrepressible hatred aroused by this brutish monster seemed to possess him. "You don't want to be free, don't you want to be human? Don't you even know what is human and what is freedom?" Anger made him speak fluently, and the words flowed endlessly. "Don't you know?" he asked again, but got no answer. "Well," he said sternly, "I'll come and set you free, whether you want it or not." He pushed open a window that looked out onto the inner courtyard of the hospital, and threw away the little boxes of soma tablets one by one. go down.

The khaki-clad crowd stared at this astonishingly profane spectacle, speechless in amazement and horror. "He's crazy," Bernard whispered, staring wide-eyed, "they're going to kill him. They're going to..." The crowd suddenly yelled.A surge pushed them menacingly toward the savage. "Bless Ford!" said Bernard, afraid to look. "Ford helps those who help themselves!" laughed Helmholtz Watson, ecstatically, indeed.He pushed everyone away and walked forward. "Freedom! Freedom!" cried the Savage, who continued to throw the soma into the yard with one hand, while with the other he struck the like-faced men who charged him. "Freedom!" Helmholtz suddenly came to him--"Good Helmholtz, man!"--Helmholtz was also shaking his fist--"Finally a man!" At the same time, Helmholtz was also throwing the drugs out of the open window in handfuls. "Yes, I've become a man! I've become a man!" There was no drug left.He grabbed the cash box and showed them the black, empty box. The deltas howled and rushed forward with four times their anger. Bernard hesitated on the brink of a fight. "They're done," he cried.Suddenly a burst of impulsive emotion dominated him. He rushed to save them both, but when he looked back, he stopped again, and then felt embarrassed.He wanted to jump on him again, but the thought changed, and he stood there hesitating again, painfully ashamed at the same time-he thought that if he didn't help, they might be killed, and if he helped, he would have his life again. Danger.At this moment, thank you Ford!Policemen in gas masks with bulging eyes and pig noses ran in. Bernard rushed to meet them and waved to them.After all, he was acting, doing something.He yelled several times: "Help! Help!" He shouted louder and louder, and he had the illusion that he was helping, "Help! Help! Help!" The policeman pushed him aside and went about his mission.Three cops with sprayers on their shoulders spewed soma gas into the air, two others busied themselves in front of portable synths, and four rushed into the crowd, carrying water cannons full of strong narcotics , spraying skillfully one after another at the person who is inextricably beaten. "Quick! Quick!" Bernard yelled. "Hurry up and they're going to be killed. Go to... oh!" His twittering annoyed a cop, who fired a tranquilizer gun at him.Bernard's legs seemed to have lost bone, tendon, and flesh, and turned into two sticks of jelly, and then not even jelly, but water.He shook for a second or two before collapsing to the ground, paralyzed. Suddenly, a voice spoke on the synthetic speaker, a voice of reason, a voice of kindness.The synthesized music tape was playing number two (medium intensity) anti-riot speech, straight from the depths of a non-existent psyche: "Friends, my friends!" Speaking emotionally, even the policeman wearing a gas mask had tears in his eyes for a moment. "What do you mean? Why can't you make everyone happy and kind together? Happy and kind," the voice repeated. "Peace, peace." The voice trembled, became a whisper, and died away for a moment. "Oh, how I wish you happiness," began the voice again, with genuine longing, "how I wish you were kind! I beg you, please be kind and..." Two minutes later the speech and the soma mist took effect, and the deltas were already tearfully kissing and hugging each other—six or seven superborns hugging each other in understanding.Even Helmholtz and Savage were close to tears.New boxes of soma were brought from the accountant's office, and they were quickly distributed.Following the farewell words of the affectionate baritone, the multiple children dispersed, choking as if their hearts were about to be broken: "Goodbye, my dearest friends, Ford bless you! Goodbye, dearest Dearest friends, Ford bless you. Farewell, my dearest friends...” The police turned off the stereo after the last delta was gone.The angelic voice stopped. "Are you going to be silent, follow us, and be silent?" the officer asked. "Do you want us to use a tranquilizer gun?" He threatened with his gun. "Oh, we'll follow you in silence," replied the Savage, stroking the broken lip, the bruised neck, and the bitten left hand. Helmholtz put his handkerchief to his bleeding nose and nodded in agreement. Bernard was awake and his legs were working, and he took advantage of the opportunity to slip through the door as unobtrusively as possible. "Hi, that," the officer called.A policeman with a pig's nose mask hurried across the room and grabbed the young man by the shoulder with one hand. Bernard turned around with an angry innocent look on his face.slip?He never dreamed of doing such a thing. "But what do you want me to do?" he said to the officer. "I can't imagine it." "You're a friend of the man who was caught, aren't you?" "Well..." Bernard said, hesitating.Yes, he really couldn't deny it. "Why can't I be friends with them?" he asked. "Come on then." The police officer said and walked to the police car waiting at the door.

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