The Code of 12

In the world today, the average citizen is struggling. Struggling to make ends meet, struggling to put food on the table, struggling to survive while living with such a deadly disease. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people, are taking to the streets to protest the rising costs of insulin, the necessary drug that helps to treat individuals with diabetes and allows them to live and function with this disease, and riots have started to occur in large cities. The citizens are afraid; afraid of the government for not regulating these pharmaceutical companies, for destroying the universal healthcare system put into place, afraid for their lives and for their loved ones' lives, and overall just afraid of not being able to afford food to properly sustain them. To the everyday person, this life has become seemingly impossible to live; working underpaying jobs while still having to afford increasing costs of living, increasing drug prices, increasing food prices, and just their overall physical and mental health being at an all-time low. The suicide rate in the country is increasing at an alarming rate, with so many individuals affected with diabetes taking their lives to try and not be a burden to the others around them taking care of them. The future looks and feels bleak for so many individuals.

Timeline

2013: The first-born daughter to Darren and Kristy Grey is born! Sofia Grey emerges into the world with force, 5 days early, at 7 pounds 3 oz, prepared to take on life at full force.

2020 Part 1: The first case of Covid-19 hits the United States. The US, completely unprepared, goes into a major lockdown in March of that year, leaving millions of people jobless, homeless, and in debt. With unemployment at the highest it had ever been, millions of everyday people struggled to afford their necessary everyday things, such as medicine, food, and bills. The current President, President Trump, fired his entire pandemic response team before the outbreak of the virus and left the entire country unprepared and vulnerable.

2020 Part 2: Jamie Cooper and Donald Trump battle it out during a fierce election, with Cooper winning by a vast majority and Trump claiming a rigged election. This was the largest election in history with Cooper winning by the biggest margin in the history of the United States. The people loved her for her progressive ideas, her love for education, and her universal healthcare plan she wanted to put into effect.

2022: The American obesity rate hit an all-time high, with 75.3% of people over 20 years old being classified in the “overweight” or “obese” categories and children under 20 being at 72.3%. The rate of Americans with diabetes is at a staggering 15.2%, with a predicted increase of almost 2% each year. After the pandemic of 2020 left millions of citizens unemployed, homeless, in severe debt, and having mass food insecurity, the accessibility of healthy foods has become increasingly low. Simple fruits and vegetables have skyrocketed in price, causing the lower classes to be unable to afford healthy food. The government under President Cooper is declaring obesity an epidemic and is currently trying to work towards creating a system where insulin is more affordable under a universal healthcare plan for all citizens.

2024: The biggest presidential election to date occurred, leading Cooper to victory for a second term. Her universal healthcare plan has been put into effect, lowering the cost of insulin and helping others get access to medical care to increase the early detection of diabetes and pre-diabetes. The prices for healthy goods is ever increasing, with a single banana costing one almost $9.50.

2026: Some scientists have started to try and figure out ways to mass-produce fruits and vegetables at a low cost with their engineered greenhouses, speeding up the process of farming and creating an almost abundance of healthy foods. These projects are funded by a few of the Big 12, the ones who are actually charitable and hope to help change the world, specifically Jake Thompson, head of America’s largest grocery store chain, Clarke Richmond, the first female multi-billionaire who made her fortune after starting her own major venture capitalist crash course for others while running her own real estate company and major marketing firm, all at the age of 19. You also have Manny Ortiguez; no one really understands what he does or how he acquired his money, but nonetheless, he uses it all to try and help others. Their hope is to help the next generation of children avoid this epidemic and lead healthy lives, and more specifically, lead lives that are free from these mass food insecurities.

2028: The election was rigged. America had Democratic candidate Manny Ortiguez running against Republican candidate Jeffrey Odin, with a predicted win of Ortiguez by a landslide 74% of votes. No one is sure what happened, but Odin won. There are rumors of Chinese diplomats having contact with Odin’s team, hacking the cloud where the votes are stored, and changing over half of Ortiguez’s votes to be for Odin, but now with a Republican-controlled Senate, House, and White House, the public will never know. Odin’s main points of his Presidency are to eliminate the universal healthcare system that was put into place by President Cooper and to ban the use of growth technology on all produce, claiming the technology that was used is causing our children to die with no real claims backing this up. This did scare some parents enough to truly believe in what he was saying. This casualty caused another mass price increase in produce, leading towards yet another spike in obesity and diabetes, which in turn were not able to be properly treated in impoverished parts of the country due to the once again lack of healthcare.

2029: Oxford Pharmaceuticals is becoming even closer to having a monopoly in the production of insulin. They have skyrocketed the price of insulin, as a result of being one of the biggest manufacturers of the drug, and CEO Darren Grey is getting richer and richer off of each diagnosis of diabetes.

2030: A nationwide spike in diabetes is underway. Not only is the cost of produce the highest it’s ever been, but the cost of insulin is up there as well. In 2019, the cost of one bottle of insulin ranged from about $95-$180. In 2030, the pharmaceutical companies have made one bottle of insulin range anywhere from $2,500-$4,900, with certain brands costing even more. This total disregard for human life started to incite riots all across the country for months and months on end until the first Molotov struck Oxford Pharmaceutical, one of the world’s largest producers of insulin. While this was all happening, the “food scientists” have been working underground, literally, with funding still backed by three of the Big 12, to hopefully one day bring back the low-cost foods that America so desperately needs.

until the next riot

Stories from sofia

March 13th 2020
Sofia was rushed out of school in the middle of a geography test, her bodyguards saying something about a fire. She knew the riots had been going on for a while, everyone knew, but they had never been this bad. There’d been chatter on different online forums about some sort of attack against the heads of the pharmaceutical companies, but no one thought it was actually going to happen. She jumps in the bulletproof Escalade, her backpack in tow, and they speed off to the safe house. Her mother is there, but her father is nowhere to be seen. Her mother kept saying her father was okay, he was stuck in a meeting with the President and a few other company heads and that nothing had happened to him, but something felt off to her. She knew her mother was lying to her. It’s nothing new, her parents are always lying to her about work, saying that everything is going okay, nothing’s going to happen to them, but she knows better. She reads the news even though her parents forbid her from doing so, she sees the headlines; “Oxford Pharmaceutical CEO Darren Grey under fire for another increase in insulin prices” “Oxford Pharmaceutical Head Lawyer Kristy Grey in court for the eighth day in a row during another round of lawsuits”. The headlines never stop. Thankfully, no one at school treats her any differently because of it, mainly because their parents are in the same boat, but all over social media she’s sent death threats, doxxed, and just bullied by all different kinds of people. She openly talks about how she doesn’t support what her parents do, but no one cares. She’s only 17, it’s not like she can do anything to stop it. That’s why her parents had to hire her bodyguards, yes plural, to be with her at all times of the day. It was definitely a change, not being able to go hang out with her friends like normal, go on drives without being followed by them, even going to pick up food was done by them now. She’s snapped back to reality after her mother finally talks to her, “I’ve got some good news and some bad news baby. What do you want first?” her mom asks. “I don’t think there’s gonna be any good news mom” she replies. “There’s always good news. Your father is on his way to the safe house, but the bad part might sound better coming from him”. The only thing one could think of is A. One of the warehouses, where they store insulin, was burnt down and raided or B. The Oxford headquarters was burnt down. She had to put on this front, acting like she had no idea that the news her father was about to deliver would change her life forever. But the truth is, she did. She planned the whole thing.

Cecilia and Sofia
“Pack your shit up Grey, we have somewhere to be,” Cecilia says to Sofia. It was their last day of planning before the next insulin protest in Los Angeles. This one was in front of the new Oxford Pharmaceutical headquarters, built just the month before after the last one was burnt to a crisp in another riot. The latest spike in insulin prices was nothing new, just another cash grab by the pharmaceutical companies.

Cecilia had been the head of these protests from the start. Her mother died two years ago after President Odin was elected and eliminated the universal healthcare plan that had been put into place. She, like millions of others, had diabetes and was unable to afford insulin after yet another price hike, and subsequently died as a result. Cecilia has made it her life's mission to get revenge for her mother and the millions of others who have died as a result of the selfishness of these medical monsters. She decided to major in medical science at USC in order to hopefully run her own insulin clinic one day, offering free or low-cost insulin to people in need.

Lord knows how she and Sofia Grey, the daughter of the Darren and Krisy Grey, CEO and head lawyer of Oxford Pharmaceutical, came together, but everyone who knows them knows that they are unstoppable together. On the outside, Sofia may seem like your normal rich teenage girl. Her Instagram posts love to flaunt her wealth with her many trips to Europe, her matte black Range Rover she got for her 16th birthday, her designer clothes, but that’s all a front. Sofia Grey is secretly one of the heads of the insulin protests and riots. At first, the group didn’t want her. They thought she was sent by her parents to infiltrate and expose the organizers, but suddenly they found out how much she agreed with them and how much she opposed her parents. Not your typical teenage rebellion though, Sofia was full-on planning riots to burn down warehouses and headquarters of her parents' company.

Let it Burn
Sofia had gotten good at acting oblivious and innocent, almost too good. The moment her parents told her that her house had been set on fire as a result of another riot, one that she helped to plan, she burst out in fake tears. But on the inside, she didn’t care. She had anything physical she valued in the trunk of her Range Rover, safe and sound. “No one was hurt, thank god,” Darren told the girls. “We aren’t sure who started the fire, but trust me, whoever did will be brought to justice.” She knew that wasn’t going to happen. She made sure before she left for school that all of their security systems would go offline at the perfect moment for a “routine update” so that no one’s face would be caught on camera. For a 17-year-old, she had thought of everything to a tee, much better than any adult could have. She grabbed her phone from her bag and messaged Cecilia on her private number, asking how it went. Sofia plans these out but is never there to execute them. It’d be too suspicious if she was gone during every event. “No1 hurt. We r all good. Parents?” Cecilia responded. “Crying, what do u expect?” with a little laughing emoji after her response. It may seem heartless to someone looking in from the outside, but Sofia knew this is what her parents deserved. Maybe this would be the wake-up call they needed. Millions of people have lost their homes as a result of the ever-increasing price of this medicine they need to survive, so why not give them a taste of their own medicine. Anyways, she had friends from school she knew she could stay with, or even in Cecilia’s dorm as a last resort. To her, that house was just a place she slept, not somewhere she called home.

Meeting Time
The latest meeting was a bit smaller than usual. Some of the members had gotten picked up on the street during the last protest, some even had their homes raided and were arrested there for “inciting violence”, so the numbers kept dwindling. Nevertheless, there were always backups; people who wanted to become heads of the movement, but had to go through thorough background checks first. When Cecilia first started this group to form these protests, one member was outed as working for the Grey’s, trying to collect insider information. After that day, everyone who even stepped foot into their meeting place went through an intensive background check. Especially Sofia.
“Today, we’re going to go over the burning of the Grey’s home,” Cecilia said.” I think things went well, especially with Sofia helping us out with the security feed, but we could still improve. Any suggestions?”. The crowd surrounding Cecilia murmurs, no one with a fully concise answer. A new member, Dillion, seems to have a question though. “Sorry guys I know this is off-topic, but Sofia, how was it having your own home burnt down? Did you really not care?” Sofia laughs at this comment, throwing some other new members off guard who weren’t fully aware of who she was. “Honestly, Dillon was it? I didn’t care. I know that sounds so morbid but I promise you guys, I do have feelings. It was just a house, nothing important to me, it’s the 8th one I’ve lived in, so trust me, after the first few, you just start to disconnect from them. A house is not’ a home. Now, let’s go back to our other topic, how are we going to improve next time? We only have 7 days until our next protest, and we need to coordinate with the smaller businesses on Sunset so that none of their property is damaged. I think for this one, we should have a certain way to mark different businesses who support us so that nothing happens to them. How about big blue paper circles in their windows?” People begin talking amongst themselves and ultimately come to an agreement. This next protest should be their biggest one yet. On Facebook, someone created an event for it and it already has almost 100,000 RSVPs. “I can’t wait to fuck some shit up” Cecilia squeals.

until the next riot

Artifacts

Diary of sofia grey

December 13th 2029
Dear Diary,
I don't know what to think. I've known that my dad's line of work isn't the best, but he's always told me it helps people. I just can't believe that I've accepted his lies for so long. The fact that he willingly takes money from people he KNOWS can't afford it makes absolutely no sense to me. Oh and how does he justify this, you might be thinking? He tells me "Now Sofia, it puts food on our table and a roof over our head, do you really want to be living in the slums like those obese pigs you see on TV?" Yes. He said that. Word for word. He actually WANTS people to get diabetes in order to, what, make a few extra bucks? It's disgusting. I need to do something.

March 13th 2030
Dear Diary,
It's happening today. They're finally doing it. This might teach my dad a lesson. I have to act like I don't know anything is going on, but it's gonna be hard to do anything during school except wait. If you're wondering, Diary, yes, I am co12 on Golden Gate. You probably don't know what Golden Gate is either. It's one of those anonymous online forums like Reddit. We built a little community on there to try and start a revolution, and it's finally happening. I can't wait. I know neither of them will be home when it happens and our maids have the day off, so today is perfect. And on Friday the 13th no less.

Symbol of the Big 12

until the next riot