CW: this title contains triggering stuff for people who have lost children. Here it is. You've been through enough. Stop reading now. *Have you hugged your soon-to-be-murdered child today? Habitat -5minutefreewrite Comedy Open Mic 43

For https://steemit.com/freewrite/@mariannewest/day-432-5-minute-freewrite-wednesday-prompt-habitat

Heya! And thanks for the SBI.

Today's habitat freewrite is brought to you by Visiting Family for the Holidays, for when you want to be in someone else's house.

And now, our regularly scheduled freewrite.

The biodome was supposed to be a perfect habitat. Self-maintaining, capable of sustaining one human life per pod.

But they hadn't taken into consideration just how many people would have babies and how few people would be willing to give up their lives so that the babies could live.

They tried drawing lots, but that hardly seemed practical. What if the baby's parents were selected? Then who would raise the baby? They tried getting rid of the eldest, but the eldest banded together to point out both that THEY hadn't caused the problem, and also that only THEY knew where the thermostat was.

They tried to make do with, "whoever dies first from lack of oxygen" but that got scuttled when they realized this was a choice that would not only take years to work itself out, but also, that maybe that would result in everybody dying simultaneously.

So, instead, they fought. It was a bloody war, but ultimately gave them the solution they needed. You are the offspring of that war. And that is why, today, on your 18th birthday, you will attend the culling. Perhaps you will be one of the lucky ones. Or perhaps you will succeed at the tasks. But if neither occurs and you must be one of those who dies today, know that your body will feed the soil which feeds the plants which will sustain your fellows. And so in some not-true way, you will live on.

Also, Merry Christmas. Today we celebrate the birth of a baby whose body we eat and whose blood we drink.