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Future Writing Contest - Winners!
ziggy like stardust
MildlyPandaIt's about time I posted this. I'll be private messaging the winners with their trophies c:
Participation Trophy
And now, I will introduce the winners.
First Place: La Vie En Technicolor by Chiaroscuro. I loved reading it - it wasn't long before chills were running down my arm. The only criticism I might have can hardly be considered criticism - you don't need to avoid "said" like the plague. Your elementary school teachers lied to you, "said" is a word that is easily skimmed over by readers and easily understood. If you want to get a tone across, find an adjective for it. Of course, this doesn't mean you have to use said every time. If you really, really want to set a tone, it's perfectly fine to use a synonym!
I will be private messaging you with your trophy and other prizes.
Second place: Reliance by striker107. I loved the ending, it spooked me a little, heh. But as I mentioned before, "said" is a perfectly fine dialogue tag to use.
Third place: We Come From the Future by MildlyPanda. I loved the feel of the story. I'm not sure what sorcerer you went to, but they did give you the power of adding emotion to words. One bit of advice though: some information isn't necessary, as in when you were describing Ryan. But you can ignore this though, some readers do prefer to envision the characters using the author's words.
And finally, in fourth, maybe the future is not so bright by kitt-chan. It was such a new take to the futuristic outlook, I was almost moved to tears.
And now, I will introduce the winners.
First Place: La Vie En Technicolor by Chiaroscuro. I loved reading it - it wasn't long before chills were running down my arm. The only criticism I might have can hardly be considered criticism - you don't need to avoid "said" like the plague. Your elementary school teachers lied to you, "said" is a word that is easily skimmed over by readers and easily understood. If you want to get a tone across, find an adjective for it. Of course, this doesn't mean you have to use said every time. If you really, really want to set a tone, it's perfectly fine to use a synonym!
I will be private messaging you with your trophy and other prizes.
Second place: Reliance by striker107. I loved the ending, it spooked me a little, heh. But as I mentioned before, "said" is a perfectly fine dialogue tag to use.
Third place: We Come From the Future by MildlyPanda. I loved the feel of the story. I'm not sure what sorcerer you went to, but they did give you the power of adding emotion to words. One bit of advice though: some information isn't necessary, as in when you were describing Ryan. But you can ignore this though, some readers do prefer to envision the characters using the author's words.
And finally, in fourth, maybe the future is not so bright by kitt-chan. It was such a new take to the futuristic outlook, I was almost moved to tears.
La Vie En Technicolor
Of all the occupants on the ship, Emmett felt that he was alone—or at least among a meager few—in wishing to return to Earth. It was, after all, his idea to begin with to compete for a spot in this electronic sanctuary. Millions would be more than happy to take his place, and he was never short on reminders of this fact.
“Old sentimentality,” his friend Anji called it. But was it really only that? She was right in some respects; he had long outlived any of those who could have possibly replaced him, and even their offspring. Soon, he would even outlive the planet that he longed so earnestly to return to.
Of course, time was of no consequence to Emmett. The years, the decades, the centuries had melded into one continuous, interconnected string of sequential occurrences, a routine-less exploration of all that he could have wanted. Art, music, culture, learning, everything was there for Emmett in his virtual utopia.
From the outside, there was nothing special about the place on this unending flight from Earth that Emmett called home. A large, rectangular room bathed in a gentle darkness punctuated only by the rhythmic blinking of lights on vast banks of processors. Inside these processors, the thoughts, emotions, and memories of a thousand carefully-selected intelligentsia roamed, qubits in a vast topology. But it was inside of a simulated world that Emmett and the others experienced, a world of electric-blue streets and vibrant pink sunrises, of infinitely tall skyscrapers and exquisitely crafted houses, a Technicolor paradise for those who deserved to spend the rest of eternity in a safe, peaceful bliss.
It was at one such vivid street corner that Emmett found himself in a glummer state than normal, pondering what it would be like to return home for one last time.
“You shouldn’t keep worrying about your homesickness,” Anji’s soothing voice sounded from behind Emmett, reminiscent of the bell rings, rain drops, and sine waves from which it was synthesized. “It will fade with time.”
Emmett turned to look at Anji. Her slight frame seemed so out of place in this urban jungle, slender and lithe against the muscular and weighty high-rises surrounding them. Still, her apparent frailty belied the conviction with which she said her words, piercing and straight like a well-aimed arrow. “It doesn’t do any good for you to keep thinking about it,” she continued.
After a long pause, Emmett simply shook his head but remained silent. Anji raised her hand and set it down gently on Emmett’s shoulder, letting the simulated warmth from her touch radiate through him like a probe searching for information. “What’s wrong?” she finally asked.
Emmett inhaled deeply, as if to begin speaking, but seemingly decided against it. Anji stood unmoving, patiently waiting for him to gather the courage to speak. “I can’t help…I can’t help but think that all we’re doing on here is running away, you know?”
“We’re running away from some cosmic inevitable, some game-over like a Big Bounce, or some heat death,” Emmett heard a sharp intake of breath from Anji at this mention, but continued nevertheless, “And to what end? To live in constant fear? To run until we can’t run anymore? Believe me, Anji, when I say that we will likely be worse off from all this running.”
“But is it not better to do all we can to extend our lives and relieve ourselves of the burden of age-related degeneration?” Anji quipped in response.
Emmett shook his head. “For what? Just so that we can run away for longer?”
Anji was silent for a while. “Are we not,” she began tentatively, “then just doing what we would have done as physical humans, in a sense? In eighty, ninety, a hundred short years, we would have strived to get as much done as possible, to see the world and complete our bucket lists before we died. We were running from death. Are we not doing the same here, cocooning ourselves in this virtual landscape full of places to see and things to do in a desperate bid to stave off our eventual demise?”
She had a point. As far as Emmett was concerned, the only things he had to worry about on this ship were technological singularity and the eventual end of the universe, both of which had their own analogies in ancestral humans. But still, there seemed to be something missing, something about the physicality of being human that Emmett missed.
“I just feel like we’re lacking something in our virtual forms. Sure, we perceive the stimuli of this simulated world, but do we really feel them?” Emmett said.
“But then how do you know that as a ‘physical’ human,” Anji threw up air quotes to accentuate her emphasis, “you’re able to actually feel? For all we know, that could just be another carefully crafted virtual world like the one we’re in now.”
Emmett shook his head. “The difference there is that we don’t know any better. Here, we know that this is all a lie, generated from the internals of some incredibly complex technology. Outside, we don’t know so we assume that it’s real.”
Anji opened her mouth to speak, but Emmett continued. “Like this concrete here,” he said as he scuffed the sidewalk with his shoe. “We all know that this is just some clever product of bump mapping and ambient occlusion. Doesn’t that bother you at all, to feel the roughness of the ground and know that it’s all in our imaginations?”
“Emmett, I think you’re making too big a deal out of everything. I mean look at us—we have everything we could ever want, no worries, no illness, no stress. I don’t understand why you insist on making it worse for yourself.”
“That’s because you’re comfortable.” Emmett slunk away with a slight snarl, evidently to fume on his own for a while.
It was not uncommon for Emmett to do such things, especially recently since he’d been thinking more and more on this subject. Anji regarded him with slight unease; it seemed that every day, she was drifting further and further away from her good friend. Nevertheless, she hoped that he would one day see his error and return to the joyous, enthusiastic person he once was. Most of all, she worried about his safety.
Anti-future thoughts were not taken to kindly in these parts.
⸙
By now, Emmett was used to getting the same pushback on his thoughts from Anji and others day in and day out, so he was quick to forget the animosity he’d felt the previous day. Refreshed from a good night’s sleep, he set about returning to the pace of life that he’d become accustomed to aboard the ship.
Emmett hefted a pot of freshly-brewed coffee from the kitchen counter and poured some into his favorite mug, a matte black affair with the words “#1 Dad” emblazoned across the front. He’d never had any children, but lately he’d been smitten with the thought of having had children if he’d stayed on Earth. The smooth, rich smell of the dark liquid rose gently out of the cup, momentarily bringing peace to him.
He sighed deeply and closed his eyes. They flicked open once again at the pop of the toaster. The golden-brown slabs of bread protruded joyously from the slots at the top of the machine, ready to be buttered. In one deft move, Emmett splayed the two slices expertly on a small plate and spread a thin layer of butter over each. Content, he brought his breakfast to his kitchen table and sat down, gesturing open the virtual newspaper display in front of him.
Of course, on this ship, there was never anything newsworthy in the traditional sense. With no real source of crime or tragedy, the news was filled with nothing more than plaudits for the great achievements of its passengers. Nonetheless, Emmett browsed through the pages, noting Harry Kwan’s new art exhibition that was due to open next week. Perhaps he would peruse that, or perhaps he would go see the new film premiering at the Nugget later this week.
Emmett took an extended draft of his coffee. He still needed to finish inking the cartoon that he’d started a while back. Having finished the last bite of his toast, he swiped the newspaper closed and stood up to put away the dishes. As he set his plate in the dishwasher, he heard a firm knock at the door.
I wonder who that could be, he thought to himself. No one ever called this early, and people rarely called at all. Half-finished coffee in hand, Emmett casually strolled over to his front door and opened it to reveal a pair of machinic droids.
“Dr. Aufseher would like to speak with you,” one droid said in a disingenuously calm synthesized voice.
“What for?” Emmett responded, brow furrowed.
“I’m sorry, I cannot complete that request,” the droid flashed an apologetic LED smile on the screen where its face would be.
Emmett paused for a moment but acquiesced before he got himself into more trouble. There was no point in resisting, anyway. Even if Emmett refused to go, he knew that in this virtual world, he could be teleported to anywhere at any moment. Because Dr. Aufseher was in charge of the entire ship, having been the one to conceptualize it and oversee its completion, it was even more useless to resist her imperatives.
“When would she like to meet?” Emmett asked the droids.
“As soon as possible,” came the reply.
Emmett nodded silently. He tipped the last dregs of his coffee into his mouth casually, briefly disappearing into his kitchen to let the mug soak in the sink. He then reappeared in the doorway, resting his hand on the brass doorknob.
“Please let Dr. Aufseher know that I’ll be there as soon as I am presentable.”
The droids approximated a nodding motion and turned to go, leaving Emmett lingering in his doorway for just a moment longer before he too retired into his apartment. In his bedroom, he quickly changed out of his pajamas into something more respectable before grabbing his coat and heading out of the door.
⸙
Dr. Helena Aufseher was, from a distance, seemingly indistinguishable from a crowd. Her mid-back-length brown hair was usually stored in an inconspicuous ponytail and her unremarkable facial features would not have turned any heads in a crowd.
From up close, however, she was terrifying. Her angular jaw framed a hard-set scowl, and her fiery brown eyes bored deep into anyone unlucky enough to meet her gaze. Her voice, though it was synthesized from the same pleasant samples as everyone, always seemed grating and accusatory.
Thus, as Emmett pushed open the dark wooden door to her office, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of dread descend over him. Even before he had fully crossed the doorway, Dr. Aufseher’s crow-like voice called out to him.
“Emmett Brown.”
“Dr. Aufseher,” Emmett replied.
“Please, call me Helena,” she corrected him with a venomous smile. “Have a seat please.”
Emmett mumbled a muted apology, before seating himself directly across from her. He looked at her expectantly, waiting for some kind of violent outburst.
“Do you know why I’ve brought you here?” Helena started uncharacteristically gently.
“No,” Emmett replied tersely, feigning ignorance.
Helena wordlessly stared at Emmett directly in the eyes with a look so piercing he found himself involuntarily averting his gaze. There was a long, aggressive silence, before Emmett finally caved. “Yes, I think I do.”
“Which is…?”
“You are concerned about my opinion regarding our transhuman state of being,” Emmett replied, gathering the courage to look back up at Helena’s questioning face.
She smiled slyly. “How very diplomatic,” she remarked, “but yes, I am concerned about your anti-future thoughts.” She finished her remark just short of a snarl. There was a heavy pause.
“I’d like you to tell me about them,” she said out of the blue. Emmett raised his eyebrows in surprise. But all of a sudden, Helena’s face wasn’t looking as threatening as they had been before. She flashed a small smile, friendly yet deadly like a domesticated snake.
Emmett could only manage to utter a confused grunt.
“I’d like to hear what you think,” Helena egged him on.
“I don’t quite know what to make of this.” It hadn’t escaped Emmett’s notice that Helena had, in the space of about thirty seconds, completely changed from accusing him of having anti-future thoughts to being suspiciously interested in what he had to say. It would take a complete moron to fall into what he suspected was a trap.
Helena lowered her voice, as if to hide from some imaginary surveillance system. “I know you’re suspicious, Emmett. But part of supporting a free, utopian society is listening to other perspectives that you may not agree with, and so I am doing just that.”
He sighed deeply. She was right, after all. But Emmett still couldn’t help but feel that he was being baited. “I just think that it’s a shame that we aren’t able to feel things in the same way that we would be able to in our physical forms,” he ventured cautiously.
“What do you mean by that?” Helena asked. “Your entire brain has been uploaded onto the machine in which we live. You should be able to see, smell, feel, and experience everything that you could’ve done as a human physically and emotionally.”
“But not metaphysically,” Emmett jabbed back.
“Metaphysically?”
“Do you not feel like you’re lacking something about your essence of being? Doesn’t knowing that all of this around us,” Emmett said as he swept his hand around him, “isn’t real? That all of it is just completely made up by a computer?”
“But you knew this coming on, didn’t you? You signed up to be on this ship.” Helena paused. “I suppose that’s not a good argument. You couldn’t have completely known.”
Emmett nodded. He stayed silent, waiting for Helena to continue, but nothing seemed to come. Finally, just as he opened his mouth to speak, she cut him off.
“I don’t think we can reduce our existences, or humanity at large, to some simple essentialist view. There’s so much to human experience, especially in this day and age, that goes beyond the limits of our physical form.”
Emmett tried once again to interject, but Helena paid him no attention. “We can create anything we want, Emmett. Don’t you understand? Once you are freed from the burdens of sustenance…of any sort of maintenance, you’re free—completely free! —to do whatever you want. You’re drawing a cartoon, Emmett! What would have you been doing on Earth? Furiously writing another grant proposal to scrounge some funding for your research lab? Putting in hours upon hours of overtime just so you could keep the water running?” She stared at him, expecting him to crack under her sudden outburst.
“But maybe I would have a wife and kids. Maybe I would be spending the weekends fishing with my friends, going to the movies with my family. I would be living. I would be laughing, I would be loving. As a human.”
“I don’t think you know what humanity means, Emmett.”
At that statement, Emmett rose out of his seat explosively, his frustration finally reaching a boiling point. He slammed a closed fist onto the wooden desk in front of him and pointed a finger at Helena accusingly, lips curled in a ferocious snarl. “I know humanity better than anyone on this ship!”
She was unfazed. “Do you really though?” She clasped her claw-like fingers together loosely and set them on the desk arrogantly. At this, the fire drained from Emmett’s eyes and he shrunk back down into his chair.
He lowered his head, struggling to find his words. “…What do you mean?” he finally asked, his voice returning to a normal volume but still trembling.
“Humanity has changed, Emmett. For the better, I might add. We’re no longer bound to our physical forms in the same way that ancestral humans once were. We’re no longer dependent on chance genetics to live forever. We can spend the rest of eternity as ourselves. Isn’t that worth something to you?” The venomous look had descended over Helena’s face once again.
“But the humans back on Earth—” Emmett started.
“There aren’t any humans left on Earth. Earth, Mars, our entire solar system became completely uninhabitable ages ago. The only humans left alive are us and those like us, floating through space until the end of time. We’re all that’s left. ‘Humanity’ is us, Emmett.”
“Can’t we be pulled out of stasis for at least a little bit? Experience reality for a just a short amount of time?” Emmett pleaded.
Helena sighed. “…No. There’s nothing left to experience.”
“I looked at the plans for the ship before I signed on. I know there’s some space down in the cryo chamber to walk around in.” He looked at her with a pained expression on his face. “Please, it would mean the world to me, it really would.” He paused. “Besides, what do you have to lose?” he asked tentatively.
Helena shook her head. “It’s not about what I have to lose, Emmett. It’s about what I’ve already lost. What we’ve all lost.” Her leather-upholstered chair squeaked as she leaned back, the expression on her face revealing her seeming frustration by something. For a while, all was silent in the room as she stared downward at her hands, deep in thought.
Emmett looked at her questioningly, silently egging her on.
“The cryo system failed many years ago.” Helena sighed deeply, resting her head in her hands dejectedly. When she looked back up, the fire had disappeared from her mud-brown eyes, replaced with the almost-imperceptible glistening of a forming tear. “There was nothing that I could do about it. Believe me, I tried everything. I tried to reboot the systems, I tried looking with the cameras to see what was going on, I even tried to operate the surgical bots to see if anything was out of place.”
“But there was nothing,” she continued. “I’ll admit…” she paused, choking up, “I’ll admit that I knew it would happen, but I didn’t know it would happen this quickly. The cryostasis chambers are old technology, relatively speaking. I spoke with the contractors when they first brought them in. They assured me that they would last forever, that metal corrosion and heat cycles and just basic entropy wasn’t going to be a huge factor. And I believed them. Paid top dollar for these machines that hardly lasted us a century.”
She shook her head in disgust. “Look how far it’s gotten us. The bodies are gone, Emmett. There’s nothing left of us except what’s uploaded into these computers. At least our maintenance machines are specially designed to handle problems arising from the servers themselves. But still…” she trailed off, unable to finish her sentence. The air, the virtual air, the electronically synthesized air that to Emmett was noticeably ingenuine, nonetheless carried with it a weight not replicable in anything but reality.
There was a heavy pause. “So why are you telling me all of this now?” Emmett finally asked. It was odd to him that Helena would shift so quickly from aggressive, to understanding, to aggressive, and finally to the very human display of emotion before him now.
“Because you’re not the only one who’s thought about this, Emmett. I’d shared your sentiment long before it even crossed your mind. I programmed the reconnaissance system of this ship to search for planets suitable for life in the vain hope that one day, we would find someplace where we could settle down, be human again, live out the rest of our lives and go on to start something new wherever we ended up.” It seemed, for a moment, that light had returned to her eyes.
“I don’t understand,” Emmett started slowly. “Why bring us off Earth in the first place then? Why make such a long, tedious voyage to an uncertain end?”
Helena sighed once again, raising herself up in her chair and leaning her head back to look up at the ceiling. “Earth was doomed. We all knew it. It was simply a matter of time before everything collapsed in on itself, societal or natural. As much as we could hide from what was going on, we would never be able to create anything good out of Earth. And so, we left. Struck out for something new.”
“And we haven’t found any suitable places yet?” Emmett asked.
“Space is big, Emmett. We’ve barely gotten anywhere in the time that we’ve been gone. I’m sure you know a little about the SETI project?” Helena paused and looked back down at Emmett. He nodded hastily. “The best planets projected to be genuinely suitable for life were over a thousand light years away. We’re only a tiny fraction of the way there.”
“But now, we’re just drifting…endlessly, aren’t we?” Emmett ventured.
Helena nodded. “Running away from some cosmic inevitable,” she replied. “Running from the end of the universe, running from physical reality, running from the truth. But most of all, running from ourselves.”
She stood up from her chair, pushing it back gently against the wall. “There’s nothing we can do at this point, unfortunately, but to try to make the best of what we’ve got.”
“Are you sure there aren’t any other options?” Emmett asked.
“Yes, there are,” Helena started, straightening the name plate sitting proudly at the front of her desk. “But they aren’t good ones.” She knew that Emmett would ask about them, so she hastily continued. “The only other thing we could do is stop running. Unplug the computer, shut down the systems. Give up, essentially.” She watched as Emmett’s hopeful expression turned to one of pensive apprehension.
He simply nodded, then stood still grasping for words, for ideas, for something. Finally, he spoke. “Could we not build new bodies for ourselves? Don’t we have the resources on board?”
She sighed. “We do. But wouldn’t that defeat the point? We’d just be an electronic people, wandering around a cramped spaceship until the end of time. Inhuman.”
Emmett wanted desperately for something that he could latch onto to push back against Helena, but deep down he knew that she was right. The best that he could do for himself was to just accept the situation as it stood.
⸙
Emmett felt the cold steel doorknob between his fingers as he left. He turned it and the door relented with a soft click. It swung open silently, effortlessly, well-greased and good as new. He felt the roughness of the stained wood underneath his soft hands as he turned around to close the door behind him. The diminishing window of view into Helena’s office revealed a woman returning to her desk, proud but defeated.
As the door finally closed completely, Emmett took a deep breath and held it in for a while. He slowly released it, looking around at the office space. It was completely silent, sans the background hum of an air conditioning unit or a ventilation system. It wasn’t needed, anyway. Emmett’s eyes alighted on a small plant decorating a nearby shelf, its verdant leaves contrasting sharply with the smooth black frame beneath it. It sat so peacefully in its fishbowl-shaped pot, happily sucking nonexistent nutrients from the virtual dirt in which it was planted.
On the way out, he stopped for a sip of water from the water fountain. The clear liquid felt perfectly cold against his lips. Satisfied, he withdrew but continued to hold down the button, watching the perfect arc of water jet gracefully from the spout and descend into a turbulent chaos down the drain in the center of the stainless-steel basin.
The hard soles of Emmett’s shoes tapped lightly against the shiny linoleum of the administrative office building, his footsteps approaching the door with a rhythmic regularity. His forward momentum only hesitated when the main sliding doors could not open fast enough to accommodate his speed. He stepped into the fresh air outside, replete with the scents of the approaching autumn. He looked around.
Before him was a complex urban landscape, with tall, imposing skyscrapers rising gracefully into a brilliant blue background streaked with long, icy clouds. Electric-blue streets punctuated the city, the throughways for pod-shaped cars carrying distinguished passengers to beautiful destinations. Further off in the distance, the setting sun reflected off the rippled surface of a peaceful lake, staining it deep hues of crimson, magenta, and a fiery orange.
The grass crunched under his feet as he strayed off the hard, concrete sidewalk. He sat down on a small knoll overlooking the passing cars on a wide street. The soft, yellowing blades of grass rustled in between his splayed fingers, ever so gently cutting into his skin. There he sat, unmoving, contemplating the scene before him.
This was it, then, Emmett thought to himself. For so long he’d been searching for humanity, the answer to all his problems, the elusive concept that had been plaguing him. And yet here it was, right in front of him the whole time. This life in Technicolor.
⸙
“Old sentimentality,” his friend Anji called it. But was it really only that? She was right in some respects; he had long outlived any of those who could have possibly replaced him, and even their offspring. Soon, he would even outlive the planet that he longed so earnestly to return to.
Of course, time was of no consequence to Emmett. The years, the decades, the centuries had melded into one continuous, interconnected string of sequential occurrences, a routine-less exploration of all that he could have wanted. Art, music, culture, learning, everything was there for Emmett in his virtual utopia.
From the outside, there was nothing special about the place on this unending flight from Earth that Emmett called home. A large, rectangular room bathed in a gentle darkness punctuated only by the rhythmic blinking of lights on vast banks of processors. Inside these processors, the thoughts, emotions, and memories of a thousand carefully-selected intelligentsia roamed, qubits in a vast topology. But it was inside of a simulated world that Emmett and the others experienced, a world of electric-blue streets and vibrant pink sunrises, of infinitely tall skyscrapers and exquisitely crafted houses, a Technicolor paradise for those who deserved to spend the rest of eternity in a safe, peaceful bliss.
It was at one such vivid street corner that Emmett found himself in a glummer state than normal, pondering what it would be like to return home for one last time.
“You shouldn’t keep worrying about your homesickness,” Anji’s soothing voice sounded from behind Emmett, reminiscent of the bell rings, rain drops, and sine waves from which it was synthesized. “It will fade with time.”
Emmett turned to look at Anji. Her slight frame seemed so out of place in this urban jungle, slender and lithe against the muscular and weighty high-rises surrounding them. Still, her apparent frailty belied the conviction with which she said her words, piercing and straight like a well-aimed arrow. “It doesn’t do any good for you to keep thinking about it,” she continued.
After a long pause, Emmett simply shook his head but remained silent. Anji raised her hand and set it down gently on Emmett’s shoulder, letting the simulated warmth from her touch radiate through him like a probe searching for information. “What’s wrong?” she finally asked.
Emmett inhaled deeply, as if to begin speaking, but seemingly decided against it. Anji stood unmoving, patiently waiting for him to gather the courage to speak. “I can’t help…I can’t help but think that all we’re doing on here is running away, you know?”
“We’re running away from some cosmic inevitable, some game-over like a Big Bounce, or some heat death,” Emmett heard a sharp intake of breath from Anji at this mention, but continued nevertheless, “And to what end? To live in constant fear? To run until we can’t run anymore? Believe me, Anji, when I say that we will likely be worse off from all this running.”
“But is it not better to do all we can to extend our lives and relieve ourselves of the burden of age-related degeneration?” Anji quipped in response.
Emmett shook his head. “For what? Just so that we can run away for longer?”
Anji was silent for a while. “Are we not,” she began tentatively, “then just doing what we would have done as physical humans, in a sense? In eighty, ninety, a hundred short years, we would have strived to get as much done as possible, to see the world and complete our bucket lists before we died. We were running from death. Are we not doing the same here, cocooning ourselves in this virtual landscape full of places to see and things to do in a desperate bid to stave off our eventual demise?”
She had a point. As far as Emmett was concerned, the only things he had to worry about on this ship were technological singularity and the eventual end of the universe, both of which had their own analogies in ancestral humans. But still, there seemed to be something missing, something about the physicality of being human that Emmett missed.
“I just feel like we’re lacking something in our virtual forms. Sure, we perceive the stimuli of this simulated world, but do we really feel them?” Emmett said.
“But then how do you know that as a ‘physical’ human,” Anji threw up air quotes to accentuate her emphasis, “you’re able to actually feel? For all we know, that could just be another carefully crafted virtual world like the one we’re in now.”
Emmett shook his head. “The difference there is that we don’t know any better. Here, we know that this is all a lie, generated from the internals of some incredibly complex technology. Outside, we don’t know so we assume that it’s real.”
Anji opened her mouth to speak, but Emmett continued. “Like this concrete here,” he said as he scuffed the sidewalk with his shoe. “We all know that this is just some clever product of bump mapping and ambient occlusion. Doesn’t that bother you at all, to feel the roughness of the ground and know that it’s all in our imaginations?”
“Emmett, I think you’re making too big a deal out of everything. I mean look at us—we have everything we could ever want, no worries, no illness, no stress. I don’t understand why you insist on making it worse for yourself.”
“That’s because you’re comfortable.” Emmett slunk away with a slight snarl, evidently to fume on his own for a while.
It was not uncommon for Emmett to do such things, especially recently since he’d been thinking more and more on this subject. Anji regarded him with slight unease; it seemed that every day, she was drifting further and further away from her good friend. Nevertheless, she hoped that he would one day see his error and return to the joyous, enthusiastic person he once was. Most of all, she worried about his safety.
Anti-future thoughts were not taken to kindly in these parts.
⸙
By now, Emmett was used to getting the same pushback on his thoughts from Anji and others day in and day out, so he was quick to forget the animosity he’d felt the previous day. Refreshed from a good night’s sleep, he set about returning to the pace of life that he’d become accustomed to aboard the ship.
Emmett hefted a pot of freshly-brewed coffee from the kitchen counter and poured some into his favorite mug, a matte black affair with the words “#1 Dad” emblazoned across the front. He’d never had any children, but lately he’d been smitten with the thought of having had children if he’d stayed on Earth. The smooth, rich smell of the dark liquid rose gently out of the cup, momentarily bringing peace to him.
He sighed deeply and closed his eyes. They flicked open once again at the pop of the toaster. The golden-brown slabs of bread protruded joyously from the slots at the top of the machine, ready to be buttered. In one deft move, Emmett splayed the two slices expertly on a small plate and spread a thin layer of butter over each. Content, he brought his breakfast to his kitchen table and sat down, gesturing open the virtual newspaper display in front of him.
Of course, on this ship, there was never anything newsworthy in the traditional sense. With no real source of crime or tragedy, the news was filled with nothing more than plaudits for the great achievements of its passengers. Nonetheless, Emmett browsed through the pages, noting Harry Kwan’s new art exhibition that was due to open next week. Perhaps he would peruse that, or perhaps he would go see the new film premiering at the Nugget later this week.
Emmett took an extended draft of his coffee. He still needed to finish inking the cartoon that he’d started a while back. Having finished the last bite of his toast, he swiped the newspaper closed and stood up to put away the dishes. As he set his plate in the dishwasher, he heard a firm knock at the door.
I wonder who that could be, he thought to himself. No one ever called this early, and people rarely called at all. Half-finished coffee in hand, Emmett casually strolled over to his front door and opened it to reveal a pair of machinic droids.
“Dr. Aufseher would like to speak with you,” one droid said in a disingenuously calm synthesized voice.
“What for?” Emmett responded, brow furrowed.
“I’m sorry, I cannot complete that request,” the droid flashed an apologetic LED smile on the screen where its face would be.
Emmett paused for a moment but acquiesced before he got himself into more trouble. There was no point in resisting, anyway. Even if Emmett refused to go, he knew that in this virtual world, he could be teleported to anywhere at any moment. Because Dr. Aufseher was in charge of the entire ship, having been the one to conceptualize it and oversee its completion, it was even more useless to resist her imperatives.
“When would she like to meet?” Emmett asked the droids.
“As soon as possible,” came the reply.
Emmett nodded silently. He tipped the last dregs of his coffee into his mouth casually, briefly disappearing into his kitchen to let the mug soak in the sink. He then reappeared in the doorway, resting his hand on the brass doorknob.
“Please let Dr. Aufseher know that I’ll be there as soon as I am presentable.”
The droids approximated a nodding motion and turned to go, leaving Emmett lingering in his doorway for just a moment longer before he too retired into his apartment. In his bedroom, he quickly changed out of his pajamas into something more respectable before grabbing his coat and heading out of the door.
⸙
Dr. Helena Aufseher was, from a distance, seemingly indistinguishable from a crowd. Her mid-back-length brown hair was usually stored in an inconspicuous ponytail and her unremarkable facial features would not have turned any heads in a crowd.
From up close, however, she was terrifying. Her angular jaw framed a hard-set scowl, and her fiery brown eyes bored deep into anyone unlucky enough to meet her gaze. Her voice, though it was synthesized from the same pleasant samples as everyone, always seemed grating and accusatory.
Thus, as Emmett pushed open the dark wooden door to her office, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of dread descend over him. Even before he had fully crossed the doorway, Dr. Aufseher’s crow-like voice called out to him.
“Emmett Brown.”
“Dr. Aufseher,” Emmett replied.
“Please, call me Helena,” she corrected him with a venomous smile. “Have a seat please.”
Emmett mumbled a muted apology, before seating himself directly across from her. He looked at her expectantly, waiting for some kind of violent outburst.
“Do you know why I’ve brought you here?” Helena started uncharacteristically gently.
“No,” Emmett replied tersely, feigning ignorance.
Helena wordlessly stared at Emmett directly in the eyes with a look so piercing he found himself involuntarily averting his gaze. There was a long, aggressive silence, before Emmett finally caved. “Yes, I think I do.”
“Which is…?”
“You are concerned about my opinion regarding our transhuman state of being,” Emmett replied, gathering the courage to look back up at Helena’s questioning face.
She smiled slyly. “How very diplomatic,” she remarked, “but yes, I am concerned about your anti-future thoughts.” She finished her remark just short of a snarl. There was a heavy pause.
“I’d like you to tell me about them,” she said out of the blue. Emmett raised his eyebrows in surprise. But all of a sudden, Helena’s face wasn’t looking as threatening as they had been before. She flashed a small smile, friendly yet deadly like a domesticated snake.
Emmett could only manage to utter a confused grunt.
“I’d like to hear what you think,” Helena egged him on.
“I don’t quite know what to make of this.” It hadn’t escaped Emmett’s notice that Helena had, in the space of about thirty seconds, completely changed from accusing him of having anti-future thoughts to being suspiciously interested in what he had to say. It would take a complete moron to fall into what he suspected was a trap.
Helena lowered her voice, as if to hide from some imaginary surveillance system. “I know you’re suspicious, Emmett. But part of supporting a free, utopian society is listening to other perspectives that you may not agree with, and so I am doing just that.”
He sighed deeply. She was right, after all. But Emmett still couldn’t help but feel that he was being baited. “I just think that it’s a shame that we aren’t able to feel things in the same way that we would be able to in our physical forms,” he ventured cautiously.
“What do you mean by that?” Helena asked. “Your entire brain has been uploaded onto the machine in which we live. You should be able to see, smell, feel, and experience everything that you could’ve done as a human physically and emotionally.”
“But not metaphysically,” Emmett jabbed back.
“Metaphysically?”
“Do you not feel like you’re lacking something about your essence of being? Doesn’t knowing that all of this around us,” Emmett said as he swept his hand around him, “isn’t real? That all of it is just completely made up by a computer?”
“But you knew this coming on, didn’t you? You signed up to be on this ship.” Helena paused. “I suppose that’s not a good argument. You couldn’t have completely known.”
Emmett nodded. He stayed silent, waiting for Helena to continue, but nothing seemed to come. Finally, just as he opened his mouth to speak, she cut him off.
“I don’t think we can reduce our existences, or humanity at large, to some simple essentialist view. There’s so much to human experience, especially in this day and age, that goes beyond the limits of our physical form.”
Emmett tried once again to interject, but Helena paid him no attention. “We can create anything we want, Emmett. Don’t you understand? Once you are freed from the burdens of sustenance…of any sort of maintenance, you’re free—completely free! —to do whatever you want. You’re drawing a cartoon, Emmett! What would have you been doing on Earth? Furiously writing another grant proposal to scrounge some funding for your research lab? Putting in hours upon hours of overtime just so you could keep the water running?” She stared at him, expecting him to crack under her sudden outburst.
“But maybe I would have a wife and kids. Maybe I would be spending the weekends fishing with my friends, going to the movies with my family. I would be living. I would be laughing, I would be loving. As a human.”
“I don’t think you know what humanity means, Emmett.”
At that statement, Emmett rose out of his seat explosively, his frustration finally reaching a boiling point. He slammed a closed fist onto the wooden desk in front of him and pointed a finger at Helena accusingly, lips curled in a ferocious snarl. “I know humanity better than anyone on this ship!”
She was unfazed. “Do you really though?” She clasped her claw-like fingers together loosely and set them on the desk arrogantly. At this, the fire drained from Emmett’s eyes and he shrunk back down into his chair.
He lowered his head, struggling to find his words. “…What do you mean?” he finally asked, his voice returning to a normal volume but still trembling.
“Humanity has changed, Emmett. For the better, I might add. We’re no longer bound to our physical forms in the same way that ancestral humans once were. We’re no longer dependent on chance genetics to live forever. We can spend the rest of eternity as ourselves. Isn’t that worth something to you?” The venomous look had descended over Helena’s face once again.
“But the humans back on Earth—” Emmett started.
“There aren’t any humans left on Earth. Earth, Mars, our entire solar system became completely uninhabitable ages ago. The only humans left alive are us and those like us, floating through space until the end of time. We’re all that’s left. ‘Humanity’ is us, Emmett.”
“Can’t we be pulled out of stasis for at least a little bit? Experience reality for a just a short amount of time?” Emmett pleaded.
Helena sighed. “…No. There’s nothing left to experience.”
“I looked at the plans for the ship before I signed on. I know there’s some space down in the cryo chamber to walk around in.” He looked at her with a pained expression on his face. “Please, it would mean the world to me, it really would.” He paused. “Besides, what do you have to lose?” he asked tentatively.
Helena shook her head. “It’s not about what I have to lose, Emmett. It’s about what I’ve already lost. What we’ve all lost.” Her leather-upholstered chair squeaked as she leaned back, the expression on her face revealing her seeming frustration by something. For a while, all was silent in the room as she stared downward at her hands, deep in thought.
Emmett looked at her questioningly, silently egging her on.
“The cryo system failed many years ago.” Helena sighed deeply, resting her head in her hands dejectedly. When she looked back up, the fire had disappeared from her mud-brown eyes, replaced with the almost-imperceptible glistening of a forming tear. “There was nothing that I could do about it. Believe me, I tried everything. I tried to reboot the systems, I tried looking with the cameras to see what was going on, I even tried to operate the surgical bots to see if anything was out of place.”
“But there was nothing,” she continued. “I’ll admit…” she paused, choking up, “I’ll admit that I knew it would happen, but I didn’t know it would happen this quickly. The cryostasis chambers are old technology, relatively speaking. I spoke with the contractors when they first brought them in. They assured me that they would last forever, that metal corrosion and heat cycles and just basic entropy wasn’t going to be a huge factor. And I believed them. Paid top dollar for these machines that hardly lasted us a century.”
She shook her head in disgust. “Look how far it’s gotten us. The bodies are gone, Emmett. There’s nothing left of us except what’s uploaded into these computers. At least our maintenance machines are specially designed to handle problems arising from the servers themselves. But still…” she trailed off, unable to finish her sentence. The air, the virtual air, the electronically synthesized air that to Emmett was noticeably ingenuine, nonetheless carried with it a weight not replicable in anything but reality.
There was a heavy pause. “So why are you telling me all of this now?” Emmett finally asked. It was odd to him that Helena would shift so quickly from aggressive, to understanding, to aggressive, and finally to the very human display of emotion before him now.
“Because you’re not the only one who’s thought about this, Emmett. I’d shared your sentiment long before it even crossed your mind. I programmed the reconnaissance system of this ship to search for planets suitable for life in the vain hope that one day, we would find someplace where we could settle down, be human again, live out the rest of our lives and go on to start something new wherever we ended up.” It seemed, for a moment, that light had returned to her eyes.
“I don’t understand,” Emmett started slowly. “Why bring us off Earth in the first place then? Why make such a long, tedious voyage to an uncertain end?”
Helena sighed once again, raising herself up in her chair and leaning her head back to look up at the ceiling. “Earth was doomed. We all knew it. It was simply a matter of time before everything collapsed in on itself, societal or natural. As much as we could hide from what was going on, we would never be able to create anything good out of Earth. And so, we left. Struck out for something new.”
“And we haven’t found any suitable places yet?” Emmett asked.
“Space is big, Emmett. We’ve barely gotten anywhere in the time that we’ve been gone. I’m sure you know a little about the SETI project?” Helena paused and looked back down at Emmett. He nodded hastily. “The best planets projected to be genuinely suitable for life were over a thousand light years away. We’re only a tiny fraction of the way there.”
“But now, we’re just drifting…endlessly, aren’t we?” Emmett ventured.
Helena nodded. “Running away from some cosmic inevitable,” she replied. “Running from the end of the universe, running from physical reality, running from the truth. But most of all, running from ourselves.”
She stood up from her chair, pushing it back gently against the wall. “There’s nothing we can do at this point, unfortunately, but to try to make the best of what we’ve got.”
“Are you sure there aren’t any other options?” Emmett asked.
“Yes, there are,” Helena started, straightening the name plate sitting proudly at the front of her desk. “But they aren’t good ones.” She knew that Emmett would ask about them, so she hastily continued. “The only other thing we could do is stop running. Unplug the computer, shut down the systems. Give up, essentially.” She watched as Emmett’s hopeful expression turned to one of pensive apprehension.
He simply nodded, then stood still grasping for words, for ideas, for something. Finally, he spoke. “Could we not build new bodies for ourselves? Don’t we have the resources on board?”
She sighed. “We do. But wouldn’t that defeat the point? We’d just be an electronic people, wandering around a cramped spaceship until the end of time. Inhuman.”
Emmett wanted desperately for something that he could latch onto to push back against Helena, but deep down he knew that she was right. The best that he could do for himself was to just accept the situation as it stood.
⸙
Emmett felt the cold steel doorknob between his fingers as he left. He turned it and the door relented with a soft click. It swung open silently, effortlessly, well-greased and good as new. He felt the roughness of the stained wood underneath his soft hands as he turned around to close the door behind him. The diminishing window of view into Helena’s office revealed a woman returning to her desk, proud but defeated.
As the door finally closed completely, Emmett took a deep breath and held it in for a while. He slowly released it, looking around at the office space. It was completely silent, sans the background hum of an air conditioning unit or a ventilation system. It wasn’t needed, anyway. Emmett’s eyes alighted on a small plant decorating a nearby shelf, its verdant leaves contrasting sharply with the smooth black frame beneath it. It sat so peacefully in its fishbowl-shaped pot, happily sucking nonexistent nutrients from the virtual dirt in which it was planted.
On the way out, he stopped for a sip of water from the water fountain. The clear liquid felt perfectly cold against his lips. Satisfied, he withdrew but continued to hold down the button, watching the perfect arc of water jet gracefully from the spout and descend into a turbulent chaos down the drain in the center of the stainless-steel basin.
The hard soles of Emmett’s shoes tapped lightly against the shiny linoleum of the administrative office building, his footsteps approaching the door with a rhythmic regularity. His forward momentum only hesitated when the main sliding doors could not open fast enough to accommodate his speed. He stepped into the fresh air outside, replete with the scents of the approaching autumn. He looked around.
Before him was a complex urban landscape, with tall, imposing skyscrapers rising gracefully into a brilliant blue background streaked with long, icy clouds. Electric-blue streets punctuated the city, the throughways for pod-shaped cars carrying distinguished passengers to beautiful destinations. Further off in the distance, the setting sun reflected off the rippled surface of a peaceful lake, staining it deep hues of crimson, magenta, and a fiery orange.
The grass crunched under his feet as he strayed off the hard, concrete sidewalk. He sat down on a small knoll overlooking the passing cars on a wide street. The soft, yellowing blades of grass rustled in between his splayed fingers, ever so gently cutting into his skin. There he sat, unmoving, contemplating the scene before him.
This was it, then, Emmett thought to himself. For so long he’d been searching for humanity, the answer to all his problems, the elusive concept that had been plaguing him. And yet here it was, right in front of him the whole time. This life in Technicolor.
⸙
Reliance
I sprinted down the dilapidated corridor, my steel-toed boots clanging on the rotted wooden floorboards, I looked back to see several angry men with crowbars and bats-with-nails. I held tightly to the box under my arm, but as I was fleeing I failed to notice a hole in the floor, catching my foot as it fell through it and slamming my chin onto the wood and launching the box ahead of me
Then the men caught up to me and beat down upon me till my health bar reached zero and the all too familiar death screen popped-up.
“Do you wish to continue or log out?” a mechanical voice chirped.
“Log out, I am going to leave it alone for a bit to think of another way out of there.” I replied.
“Logging out, please wait while your save data is updated. And do you wish for me to attempt to find walkthroughts/tutorials on how to escape that mission?” it queried.
“No, and you know that no one has made it as far as me at this level.” I told it.
“Saving complete, please remove headset.” it instructed me.
I did as I was told, taking off the goggles hooked up to the machine with the game ‘Nac-Trion’ in it. I looked about the room making sure everything was where I had left it, my collection of every old gaming console/device only having a few in a somewhat working condition, a wall full of old games and a table with my stuff on it.
I picked up my phone and glasses, then stood up and left to the next room to make some lunch. I walked to my fridge and was about to press ‘make lunch’ when the lights went out. I stopped, never ever experiencing a problem with the power, I didn't know what to do.
Then the room shook as it went to back-up supports which groaned in protest. I ran to my balcony and looked out, seeing every building dark, then I see the supports of an apartment complex like mine give out and bring the whole thing crashing down to the ground (the complex is a spiraling building with each floor separated, a central elevator goes through the middle of it, usually the building relies on hover pads to support the floors, but as back-up it has supports on the bottom attached to the elevator, but it has a weight cap).
I looked up and saw the floor above me, but the supports were giving way, I watched in shocked disbelief as back-up failed and it fell onto my floor which cried out in anger of the extra weight. I fell to the ground when it hit, the the ground beneath me dropped as my floors supports gave out, slamming into the floor below.
I attempted to start crawling back into my room, every time the floor gave way, the next one fell faster, so I had a time limit till I entered free fall, which I didn’t want to be outside when that happened. I made it inside just before we stopped breaking at every floor and the ground got further and further away until I was stuck to the roof.
A few seconds later we reached the bottom, and I was thrown from the ceiling to the ground, coughing as all the wind was knocked out of me and maybe a few broken bones, as my vision danced while I looked around. Then I heard a cracking sound as something nearby started breaking, I turned over to get a better view of the room then saw the cracks forming in the ceiling. I inwardly screamed to myself to get up, but my body wouldn’t respond anymore, I just laid there completely petrified.
Then a chunk of the ceiling dropped, but at the same time someone dived through my balcony doors and rolled to right by me and caught the piece of ceiling that fell. I looked at my savior and saw the beautiful body of a women leaning over me in a fireman’s uniform with beads of sweat dripping off her face onto her helmet as she held up the chunk of ceiling.
“-you okay? Can you hear me? Sir!” she shouted at me, snapping me back into reality.
“Uh… y-yeah, thanks for saving me.” I responded.
“Can you move? Because this is actually quite heavy.” she stated.
“I-I think I can, but it hurts to breathe.” I told her, while glancing towards her chest.
“Good, but try and sneak a glance again and I might lose my grip on this.” she said.
“I-I wasn’t doing a-anything!” I replied nervously as I crawled under her and stood up when I was through.
She dropped the chunk which crumbled when it hit the ground “I am tired of guys trying to be ‘sly’ and sneak a glance, but I guess I still do need to save you.” she sighed as she said it.
She powered up her jetpack and motioned for me to come over, I walked over sheepishly, she grabbed my hand and pulled me closer, she pulled my arms over her back. “Try anything, and I’ll ‘accidentally’ drop you.” she told me.
“Okay, thanks.” I said.
We launched off the balcony and shortly flew down to the ground, she dropped me a few feet above the ground. She landed in front of me, facing a car with the jet-black windows up, preventing me from seeing who was inside the car. I stood up and looked at her, as she just stood facing it, not moving in the slightest.
“You aren’t even breathing… hello? Are you okay?” I asked her.
She just stood there for a bit longer, before she turned to me, slung me over her shoulder and shot off into the sky, leaving the car behind. I watched as the doors opened with guns and aimed at us, they fired at us and she tried to dodge, but a shot from their guns hit the jetpack and we dropped from the sky. Then a car drove under us and caught us, it zoomed off as I was too stunned to move or try to figure out what happened.
“You two okay back there?” he asked. The voice was from man in the front of the car, from the back he had dirty blond hair, a blue t-shirt, brown cargo pants and black tennis shoes with a neon-green trim.
“Yeah, thanks for saving me.” she thanked.
“Is he okay? He isn’t responding.” he stated.
“He’s fine, he does it sometimes.” she replied.
“Y-Yeah, but what’s going on?” I asked them.
“This may sound cliche, but the game you were playing was designed to test who could be assets for us.” she answered with a straight face.
“W-Wait, really?” I asked with shock.
“Haha, nope! I figured out you were a gamer when I flew by your room, so I said something that'd get a reaction out of you. Your face was priceless!” she stated smiling.
“That's not funny. But why did you really save me?” I inquired.
“Because she's such a nice person. In actuality, she probably just saved you by reflex because that WAS her cover, but it was blown by the people in that car.” he told me.
“Sorry about getting you wrapped up in this mess, those people are the ones I was sent to catch, as they were suspected to be planning to take out the power and cause mass chaos… but it seems I was too late.” she stated.
I looked at her and saw that she was straightening out her hair and that her helmet was off. She had shining light brown hair that was probably to her upper-back in length, piercing brown eyes, smooth looking skin of a slightly tan complexion, she had a reserved expression that seemed as if she was hiding something.
“Are you not telling me something?” I asked her.
“Nothing, I don't have anything I want to share.” she answered.
“So you ARE hiding something!” I pointed out.
“What? No!” she snapped.
“She is, and she'll tell you later.” he stated.
“Okay… but why don't you just drop me off somewhere? Or why did you save me specifically? Better yet, who are you?” I questioned.
“We can't, those people will find you. That kinda just happened. Can't say, because I don't trust you.” she answered.
“But what talents do you have?” he asked.
“I've beat nearly every game made on the hardest difficulty, currently on the ‘Ancient Canyon’ mission of Nac-Trion on Suicide.” I replied.
“Dude! No one has made it that far on the difficulty below that! The enemies are compared to A.I. levels of intelligence!” he stated.
“Oh really? Charles, list statistics for Nac Trion on Suicide.” I said as I brought our my phone.
“Yes sir, you have reached as far as Ancient Cavern three times in your three attempts at completion.” Charles Responded.
“Can't really argue with that.” he agreed.
“Told you. But, what about the buildings for life sustainment?” I asked.
“We're heading to a nearby power back-up center.” he responded.
“Okay.” I said.
Shortly after the conversation, we arrived at the back-up center. It was as dark as everything else around it, we parked nearby but behind cover and got out.
“You stay behind us, we'll protect you.” she said to me.
“You better.” I warned, though they ignored me.
They brought out their handgun railguns and advanced towards the structure. When we entered, there was broken systems everywhere, and no signs of anyone still there.
“Alright, you go and fix it.” he told me.
“What? Just because I am a master gamer doesn't mean I can fix the electrical grid!” I replied.
“I'm sure one of your many games delved into it in some way.” she countered.
“Yeah, for ancient systems!” I snapped at her.
“How different can it be?” she asked then continued, “At least try something.”
“Fine, you get your way… I'll try to fix it.” I relented.
After looking at it for a short time, I came to the conclusion of ‘It can be different, VERY much so’, but I still tried to find a way till things turned for the worse.
“Not good…” I said to myself aloud.
“What isn't good?” he asked me.
“I might have just set the system to feedback, meaning it'll amass power till it goes ka-boom. Normally it would be fine, but the safety system is broken too.” I answered.
“I thought you didn't know what to do, but it sounds like you do.” she commented.
“I learned a lot from trial and error, well… until this mistake.” I stated.
“Okay, but we should probably run now.” she added.
We ran outside and she put her arm up in front of me as something shot at me, it dissipated as a blue field blinked around her arm.
“Great, they’ve found us!” she shouted.
“Who?” I asked.
“The people from earlier,” she stated, “so you'll stay between us while we escape.”
She stepped in front of me and he stepped behind me, then we ran to the car as they took the bullets with the field taking the impact. When we reached it, they blasted off to seemingly try and get as far away as possible.
“What's with that field?” I asked.
“Something you were not supposed to see.” she replied.
“It's a force field/energy shield, used to protect their ‘investments’.” he stated.
“investments? What are you talking about?” I questioned.
“Us, we are their ‘investments’. Because we are people that were given a second chance, if we became machines. When we were offered the choice, we were on our deathbeds, our facility had been destroyed due to an accident and many had already died.” he answered.
“Oh… so are you-” I was asking before I was cut-off.
“Dead? Technically, yes we are, for a few years now actually.” he interjected.
“Then how did you sweat when you held up the chunk of ceiling in my room?” I inquired.
“Our bodies were made with the intention of blending in without anyone being the wiser. So that means, fake sweat, proper texture and movement.” she replied.
“So what exactly are you?” I asked.
“That's not exactly easy to explain.” he stated.
“Then who are you?”
“That is none of your-" she said before she was interrupted.
“I'm Jason Barrow, or was. And she's Alexandra Smith,but everyone calls her Alexa as a joke.” he chirped in.
“I should probably introduce myself too. Well, I'm Sam Brown.”
“You had to go and say it, didn't you?” she asked irritably.
“He's helped us, quite a bit actually, so he deserved to know.” he stated.
“No he didn't, he just typed some junk and broke it more.” she countered.
“You do know I am here, right?” I asked them.
The car shook violently before beginning to plummet to the ground, leaving my stomach behind as it fell. I saw Jason trying to steer the car as we fell to probably try and prevent me from getting too hurt when we hit the ground.
But before we hit the ground he ejected my seat, preventing most of the injuries I probably would’ve gotten otherwise. But I still was launched through the window of a building, breaking something.
“Ow, that hurts really bad.” I stated as I tried to stand up.
As I kept attempting to get up, I looked around where I was to get a grip around where I landed, it was a meeting room with overturned chairs, broken coffee cups with puddles around them, tablets with varying degrees of damage to them, and a body on the floor with blood trickling down the side of his head and on a nearby chair.
I crawled over to him, seeing that he was still breathing, even if faintly. I tore his shirt, turned his body over and propped his head up, I wrapped the torn shirt around his head injury and tied the ends together tightly. I dragged him to a wall and propped him against it, I checked his pockets searching for a way to contact the right people to take care of him, I found it and activated the beacon.
I then got up (finally) and walked out of the room scouting for a way down, I found the stairs after not too long and began to climb down them, after what felt like hours I reached the bottom (how I miss hypervators, hyper speed elevators, basically really fast elevators) and walked to the exit.
When I made it outside, I walked back to where the car was and saw that it was surrounded by cops and that they were gone. I ducked behind a pile of trash and peeked over to see if anyone saw me, which they had, so I turned and bolted off, taking sharp turns and sliding under things. But after a minute or two, I was completely out of breath, and began panting heavily as I laid back against a wall.
I looked up and froze, seeing a police security droid in the air scanning the area in search of me, I tried to scoot away as slowly as possible… but it still detected that I was moving and shot me in the neck with something and I woke up in a cell.
“You are going to stay there, because you are suspected of destroying the technical grid.” a voice from a mic told me.
“I didn’t take out the grid, I was trying to fix it.” I countered.
“You were seen in every single grid before the power went out, and the again when the back-up generator exploded.” he stated, then continued “You won’t be leaving here anytime soon.”
Then the men caught up to me and beat down upon me till my health bar reached zero and the all too familiar death screen popped-up.
“Do you wish to continue or log out?” a mechanical voice chirped.
“Log out, I am going to leave it alone for a bit to think of another way out of there.” I replied.
“Logging out, please wait while your save data is updated. And do you wish for me to attempt to find walkthroughts/tutorials on how to escape that mission?” it queried.
“No, and you know that no one has made it as far as me at this level.” I told it.
“Saving complete, please remove headset.” it instructed me.
I did as I was told, taking off the goggles hooked up to the machine with the game ‘Nac-Trion’ in it. I looked about the room making sure everything was where I had left it, my collection of every old gaming console/device only having a few in a somewhat working condition, a wall full of old games and a table with my stuff on it.
I picked up my phone and glasses, then stood up and left to the next room to make some lunch. I walked to my fridge and was about to press ‘make lunch’ when the lights went out. I stopped, never ever experiencing a problem with the power, I didn't know what to do.
Then the room shook as it went to back-up supports which groaned in protest. I ran to my balcony and looked out, seeing every building dark, then I see the supports of an apartment complex like mine give out and bring the whole thing crashing down to the ground (the complex is a spiraling building with each floor separated, a central elevator goes through the middle of it, usually the building relies on hover pads to support the floors, but as back-up it has supports on the bottom attached to the elevator, but it has a weight cap).
I looked up and saw the floor above me, but the supports were giving way, I watched in shocked disbelief as back-up failed and it fell onto my floor which cried out in anger of the extra weight. I fell to the ground when it hit, the the ground beneath me dropped as my floors supports gave out, slamming into the floor below.
I attempted to start crawling back into my room, every time the floor gave way, the next one fell faster, so I had a time limit till I entered free fall, which I didn’t want to be outside when that happened. I made it inside just before we stopped breaking at every floor and the ground got further and further away until I was stuck to the roof.
A few seconds later we reached the bottom, and I was thrown from the ceiling to the ground, coughing as all the wind was knocked out of me and maybe a few broken bones, as my vision danced while I looked around. Then I heard a cracking sound as something nearby started breaking, I turned over to get a better view of the room then saw the cracks forming in the ceiling. I inwardly screamed to myself to get up, but my body wouldn’t respond anymore, I just laid there completely petrified.
Then a chunk of the ceiling dropped, but at the same time someone dived through my balcony doors and rolled to right by me and caught the piece of ceiling that fell. I looked at my savior and saw the beautiful body of a women leaning over me in a fireman’s uniform with beads of sweat dripping off her face onto her helmet as she held up the chunk of ceiling.
“-you okay? Can you hear me? Sir!” she shouted at me, snapping me back into reality.
“Uh… y-yeah, thanks for saving me.” I responded.
“Can you move? Because this is actually quite heavy.” she stated.
“I-I think I can, but it hurts to breathe.” I told her, while glancing towards her chest.
“Good, but try and sneak a glance again and I might lose my grip on this.” she said.
“I-I wasn’t doing a-anything!” I replied nervously as I crawled under her and stood up when I was through.
She dropped the chunk which crumbled when it hit the ground “I am tired of guys trying to be ‘sly’ and sneak a glance, but I guess I still do need to save you.” she sighed as she said it.
She powered up her jetpack and motioned for me to come over, I walked over sheepishly, she grabbed my hand and pulled me closer, she pulled my arms over her back. “Try anything, and I’ll ‘accidentally’ drop you.” she told me.
“Okay, thanks.” I said.
We launched off the balcony and shortly flew down to the ground, she dropped me a few feet above the ground. She landed in front of me, facing a car with the jet-black windows up, preventing me from seeing who was inside the car. I stood up and looked at her, as she just stood facing it, not moving in the slightest.
“You aren’t even breathing… hello? Are you okay?” I asked her.
She just stood there for a bit longer, before she turned to me, slung me over her shoulder and shot off into the sky, leaving the car behind. I watched as the doors opened with guns and aimed at us, they fired at us and she tried to dodge, but a shot from their guns hit the jetpack and we dropped from the sky. Then a car drove under us and caught us, it zoomed off as I was too stunned to move or try to figure out what happened.
“You two okay back there?” he asked. The voice was from man in the front of the car, from the back he had dirty blond hair, a blue t-shirt, brown cargo pants and black tennis shoes with a neon-green trim.
“Yeah, thanks for saving me.” she thanked.
“Is he okay? He isn’t responding.” he stated.
“He’s fine, he does it sometimes.” she replied.
“Y-Yeah, but what’s going on?” I asked them.
“This may sound cliche, but the game you were playing was designed to test who could be assets for us.” she answered with a straight face.
“W-Wait, really?” I asked with shock.
“Haha, nope! I figured out you were a gamer when I flew by your room, so I said something that'd get a reaction out of you. Your face was priceless!” she stated smiling.
“That's not funny. But why did you really save me?” I inquired.
“Because she's such a nice person. In actuality, she probably just saved you by reflex because that WAS her cover, but it was blown by the people in that car.” he told me.
“Sorry about getting you wrapped up in this mess, those people are the ones I was sent to catch, as they were suspected to be planning to take out the power and cause mass chaos… but it seems I was too late.” she stated.
I looked at her and saw that she was straightening out her hair and that her helmet was off. She had shining light brown hair that was probably to her upper-back in length, piercing brown eyes, smooth looking skin of a slightly tan complexion, she had a reserved expression that seemed as if she was hiding something.
“Are you not telling me something?” I asked her.
“Nothing, I don't have anything I want to share.” she answered.
“So you ARE hiding something!” I pointed out.
“What? No!” she snapped.
“She is, and she'll tell you later.” he stated.
“Okay… but why don't you just drop me off somewhere? Or why did you save me specifically? Better yet, who are you?” I questioned.
“We can't, those people will find you. That kinda just happened. Can't say, because I don't trust you.” she answered.
“But what talents do you have?” he asked.
“I've beat nearly every game made on the hardest difficulty, currently on the ‘Ancient Canyon’ mission of Nac-Trion on Suicide.” I replied.
“Dude! No one has made it that far on the difficulty below that! The enemies are compared to A.I. levels of intelligence!” he stated.
“Oh really? Charles, list statistics for Nac Trion on Suicide.” I said as I brought our my phone.
“Yes sir, you have reached as far as Ancient Cavern three times in your three attempts at completion.” Charles Responded.
“Can't really argue with that.” he agreed.
“Told you. But, what about the buildings for life sustainment?” I asked.
“We're heading to a nearby power back-up center.” he responded.
“Okay.” I said.
Shortly after the conversation, we arrived at the back-up center. It was as dark as everything else around it, we parked nearby but behind cover and got out.
“You stay behind us, we'll protect you.” she said to me.
“You better.” I warned, though they ignored me.
They brought out their handgun railguns and advanced towards the structure. When we entered, there was broken systems everywhere, and no signs of anyone still there.
“Alright, you go and fix it.” he told me.
“What? Just because I am a master gamer doesn't mean I can fix the electrical grid!” I replied.
“I'm sure one of your many games delved into it in some way.” she countered.
“Yeah, for ancient systems!” I snapped at her.
“How different can it be?” she asked then continued, “At least try something.”
“Fine, you get your way… I'll try to fix it.” I relented.
After looking at it for a short time, I came to the conclusion of ‘It can be different, VERY much so’, but I still tried to find a way till things turned for the worse.
“Not good…” I said to myself aloud.
“What isn't good?” he asked me.
“I might have just set the system to feedback, meaning it'll amass power till it goes ka-boom. Normally it would be fine, but the safety system is broken too.” I answered.
“I thought you didn't know what to do, but it sounds like you do.” she commented.
“I learned a lot from trial and error, well… until this mistake.” I stated.
“Okay, but we should probably run now.” she added.
We ran outside and she put her arm up in front of me as something shot at me, it dissipated as a blue field blinked around her arm.
“Great, they’ve found us!” she shouted.
“Who?” I asked.
“The people from earlier,” she stated, “so you'll stay between us while we escape.”
She stepped in front of me and he stepped behind me, then we ran to the car as they took the bullets with the field taking the impact. When we reached it, they blasted off to seemingly try and get as far away as possible.
“What's with that field?” I asked.
“Something you were not supposed to see.” she replied.
“It's a force field/energy shield, used to protect their ‘investments’.” he stated.
“investments? What are you talking about?” I questioned.
“Us, we are their ‘investments’. Because we are people that were given a second chance, if we became machines. When we were offered the choice, we were on our deathbeds, our facility had been destroyed due to an accident and many had already died.” he answered.
“Oh… so are you-” I was asking before I was cut-off.
“Dead? Technically, yes we are, for a few years now actually.” he interjected.
“Then how did you sweat when you held up the chunk of ceiling in my room?” I inquired.
“Our bodies were made with the intention of blending in without anyone being the wiser. So that means, fake sweat, proper texture and movement.” she replied.
“So what exactly are you?” I asked.
“That's not exactly easy to explain.” he stated.
“Then who are you?”
“That is none of your-" she said before she was interrupted.
“I'm Jason Barrow, or was. And she's Alexandra Smith,but everyone calls her Alexa as a joke.” he chirped in.
“I should probably introduce myself too. Well, I'm Sam Brown.”
“You had to go and say it, didn't you?” she asked irritably.
“He's helped us, quite a bit actually, so he deserved to know.” he stated.
“No he didn't, he just typed some junk and broke it more.” she countered.
“You do know I am here, right?” I asked them.
The car shook violently before beginning to plummet to the ground, leaving my stomach behind as it fell. I saw Jason trying to steer the car as we fell to probably try and prevent me from getting too hurt when we hit the ground.
But before we hit the ground he ejected my seat, preventing most of the injuries I probably would’ve gotten otherwise. But I still was launched through the window of a building, breaking something.
“Ow, that hurts really bad.” I stated as I tried to stand up.
As I kept attempting to get up, I looked around where I was to get a grip around where I landed, it was a meeting room with overturned chairs, broken coffee cups with puddles around them, tablets with varying degrees of damage to them, and a body on the floor with blood trickling down the side of his head and on a nearby chair.
I crawled over to him, seeing that he was still breathing, even if faintly. I tore his shirt, turned his body over and propped his head up, I wrapped the torn shirt around his head injury and tied the ends together tightly. I dragged him to a wall and propped him against it, I checked his pockets searching for a way to contact the right people to take care of him, I found it and activated the beacon.
I then got up (finally) and walked out of the room scouting for a way down, I found the stairs after not too long and began to climb down them, after what felt like hours I reached the bottom (how I miss hypervators, hyper speed elevators, basically really fast elevators) and walked to the exit.
When I made it outside, I walked back to where the car was and saw that it was surrounded by cops and that they were gone. I ducked behind a pile of trash and peeked over to see if anyone saw me, which they had, so I turned and bolted off, taking sharp turns and sliding under things. But after a minute or two, I was completely out of breath, and began panting heavily as I laid back against a wall.
I looked up and froze, seeing a police security droid in the air scanning the area in search of me, I tried to scoot away as slowly as possible… but it still detected that I was moving and shot me in the neck with something and I woke up in a cell.
“You are going to stay there, because you are suspected of destroying the technical grid.” a voice from a mic told me.
“I didn’t take out the grid, I was trying to fix it.” I countered.
“You were seen in every single grid before the power went out, and the again when the back-up generator exploded.” he stated, then continued “You won’t be leaving here anytime soon.”
We Come From the Future
Ladies and gentlemen please fasten your seatbelt, we except to take off shortly… with each word, each sound, the reality I came to know and love drowned in an instant, remembering the fateful night where any sign of reason was lost within twisted jaws of chaos.
*
“Dan! Where are you?!”
“I’m here…”
“Run, Dan, run!”
“I don’t want to!”
“Why won’t run, run damnit!”
“But I want to save you!”
“Dan… take care of yourself.”
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”
*
“Kid… up… kid wa… up you…” I woke up, gasping for fresh, cold air. “Hey kid, wake up, you okay? You were mumbling in your sleep again. Looks like you were about burst out screaming, need water? What about a sandwich?” I was drenched in warm sweat, one hand clenching my chest, the other reaching out in front of me searching for an invisible figure.
“No thanks, Ryan,” I whispered hoarsely. “It happened, I’ve got to learn to deal with this myself.” Ryan grunted.
“Well if you need someone to talk to, just ask.” He spoke softly, comfort expressed in each syllable.
*
Sorry about that, got a bit mixed up for a second. Here is my introduction- I’m Dan Fenix. I wouldn’t want to bore you to sleep with the details, so I’ll cut right to the chase- my parents died in an arson blaze. What? Did you want me to be a little subtler? Well, it’s not like I’m glad they’re dead, just… it happened. Why break down in a pool of tears if my parents wanted me to live? That’s a good parent, one that takes extra measures for their child’s safety and manners. Anyway, enough of that, if you haven’t guessed, I’m about to take off back to London to live with my grandpa. Ryan Cooper, or just Ryan, is a good friend of my grandpa, raced straight to California once he heard the bad news. He has a gruff demeanour, but I assure you, this jokester with sixty years under his belt has done quite a bit for my family, I knew him ever since I was born. His chin coated in a thin, grey beard that is surprisingly pleasant to the touch. Now, where were we?
*
A soft rumble emitted under the suitcase wheels grinding against the uneven street, it was midday when we arrived at the antique shop my grandpappy did his usual business in. Sneaking across the sky was a shade of brilliant royal blue, accompanied by the occasional fluffy cloud or two. London was transitioning into the summer, so bustle was usual business too. Ryan decided to buy some nutrition to maintain my physical form, but this wasn’t London to me, it was home. The sight, the smell, the feeling, it all was too perfect- if only my parents could be here too. I could have saved them. If only I did…
“Now, now, don’t drift off yet,” laughed Ryan. “Grandpa Toby is up ahead, go. I will be there in a bit, just going to get some food.” He cracked a smile. I return a smile. I suddenly feel light-headed, perhaps my parents are smiling above me too. It wasn’t meant to last.
*
Staring through the window, I register all the new antiques Grandpa collected. However, my focus shifts to sign on the chestnut door.
“Closed?!” I exclaim, “It’s the middle of a working day!” Reaching out for the shiny, silver handle, I curiously try to open the door. It unlocks, creaking inside, the same chime of bells ring above me. Big beady eyes of timeworn, wooden owls, or other woodland animals, pierced the tense expectation I envisioned clean in two halves. Disappointment and horror. “Grandpa?” I ask tentatively. “Are you there?” No response. Was gramps too ill to come to work? No… was this a put-on? Was Ryan is on… no, they wouldn’t joke with me, especially not now. “Where are you, this isn’t funny!?” A blatant tone of desperation washed over my words. Hesitantly, I shuffled my way into the dark depths of the shop. Across the antique-filled shelves, behind the counter, and… I pause before entering the ‘manager room’. It was a manger only area, and although there were no employees, I never knew what it was for, hence the ‘manager room’. “Hold on…” I whispered. Sounds emitted through the door, from another language, not intelligible, but not human. My breathing quickened, my hands moistening from the new layer sweat emerging. Unpleasant, freezing sweat. Signals delivered from my brain stopped functioning. Hammering against my ribcage, my heart thudded at the prospect of trespassing into unknown land. Soon enough, my entire body trembled, an uncertain decision to be made. Luckily, a decision that quickly resolved, if resolved is considered the right word. Thud. Eerie silence follows… It happened too fast. Rooting my body to the ground, the door crashed open, a split second of unbearable screeching engulfed my ears, vibrant green light spilling into the open, shadows dancing along the marble walls unable to assume any form or shape. This wasn't usual business. Finally, peace settled. Peace, but one that didn’t agree with me. In accordance with my judgement, the peace departed as swift as it arrived. But…
“Come back!” Mom? Dad? “Come back to us! We miss you!” There was no mistake. It was them.
“I’m coming, where are you?!” I panicked. There was no other objective to accomplish other than this one, one that I would fulfil, risk or no.
“Here! Here!” They replied… on the inside of the room. Standing in the doorway, I finally received of an image of the inside of the room. Squeezed into the middle of the room was a bright, shining light- no visible source of where the light came from, and no parents. Concluding the voice came from the light, I sprinted for it, leaving no time to spare. Nothing mattered, nothing mattered except them. I will save them. I want to save them. I need to save them.
*
*
“Dan! Where are you?!”
“I’m here…”
“Run, Dan, run!”
“I don’t want to!”
“Why won’t run, run damnit!”
“But I want to save you!”
“Dan… take care of yourself.”
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”
*
“Kid… up… kid wa… up you…” I woke up, gasping for fresh, cold air. “Hey kid, wake up, you okay? You were mumbling in your sleep again. Looks like you were about burst out screaming, need water? What about a sandwich?” I was drenched in warm sweat, one hand clenching my chest, the other reaching out in front of me searching for an invisible figure.
“No thanks, Ryan,” I whispered hoarsely. “It happened, I’ve got to learn to deal with this myself.” Ryan grunted.
“Well if you need someone to talk to, just ask.” He spoke softly, comfort expressed in each syllable.
*
Sorry about that, got a bit mixed up for a second. Here is my introduction- I’m Dan Fenix. I wouldn’t want to bore you to sleep with the details, so I’ll cut right to the chase- my parents died in an arson blaze. What? Did you want me to be a little subtler? Well, it’s not like I’m glad they’re dead, just… it happened. Why break down in a pool of tears if my parents wanted me to live? That’s a good parent, one that takes extra measures for their child’s safety and manners. Anyway, enough of that, if you haven’t guessed, I’m about to take off back to London to live with my grandpa. Ryan Cooper, or just Ryan, is a good friend of my grandpa, raced straight to California once he heard the bad news. He has a gruff demeanour, but I assure you, this jokester with sixty years under his belt has done quite a bit for my family, I knew him ever since I was born. His chin coated in a thin, grey beard that is surprisingly pleasant to the touch. Now, where were we?
*
A soft rumble emitted under the suitcase wheels grinding against the uneven street, it was midday when we arrived at the antique shop my grandpappy did his usual business in. Sneaking across the sky was a shade of brilliant royal blue, accompanied by the occasional fluffy cloud or two. London was transitioning into the summer, so bustle was usual business too. Ryan decided to buy some nutrition to maintain my physical form, but this wasn’t London to me, it was home. The sight, the smell, the feeling, it all was too perfect- if only my parents could be here too. I could have saved them. If only I did…
“Now, now, don’t drift off yet,” laughed Ryan. “Grandpa Toby is up ahead, go. I will be there in a bit, just going to get some food.” He cracked a smile. I return a smile. I suddenly feel light-headed, perhaps my parents are smiling above me too. It wasn’t meant to last.
*
Staring through the window, I register all the new antiques Grandpa collected. However, my focus shifts to sign on the chestnut door.
“Closed?!” I exclaim, “It’s the middle of a working day!” Reaching out for the shiny, silver handle, I curiously try to open the door. It unlocks, creaking inside, the same chime of bells ring above me. Big beady eyes of timeworn, wooden owls, or other woodland animals, pierced the tense expectation I envisioned clean in two halves. Disappointment and horror. “Grandpa?” I ask tentatively. “Are you there?” No response. Was gramps too ill to come to work? No… was this a put-on? Was Ryan is on… no, they wouldn’t joke with me, especially not now. “Where are you, this isn’t funny!?” A blatant tone of desperation washed over my words. Hesitantly, I shuffled my way into the dark depths of the shop. Across the antique-filled shelves, behind the counter, and… I pause before entering the ‘manager room’. It was a manger only area, and although there were no employees, I never knew what it was for, hence the ‘manager room’. “Hold on…” I whispered. Sounds emitted through the door, from another language, not intelligible, but not human. My breathing quickened, my hands moistening from the new layer sweat emerging. Unpleasant, freezing sweat. Signals delivered from my brain stopped functioning. Hammering against my ribcage, my heart thudded at the prospect of trespassing into unknown land. Soon enough, my entire body trembled, an uncertain decision to be made. Luckily, a decision that quickly resolved, if resolved is considered the right word. Thud. Eerie silence follows… It happened too fast. Rooting my body to the ground, the door crashed open, a split second of unbearable screeching engulfed my ears, vibrant green light spilling into the open, shadows dancing along the marble walls unable to assume any form or shape. This wasn't usual business. Finally, peace settled. Peace, but one that didn’t agree with me. In accordance with my judgement, the peace departed as swift as it arrived. But…
“Come back!” Mom? Dad? “Come back to us! We miss you!” There was no mistake. It was them.
“I’m coming, where are you?!” I panicked. There was no other objective to accomplish other than this one, one that I would fulfil, risk or no.
“Here! Here!” They replied… on the inside of the room. Standing in the doorway, I finally received of an image of the inside of the room. Squeezed into the middle of the room was a bright, shining light- no visible source of where the light came from, and no parents. Concluding the voice came from the light, I sprinted for it, leaving no time to spare. Nothing mattered, nothing mattered except them. I will save them. I want to save them. I need to save them.
*
maybe the future is not so bright
'What happened?' I asked to myself. There I was, sitting in a pile of rubble, murky sky. My pale skin turned a cherry red, blistering from the blazing heat. Turns out, I might have went to the future, for an unknown reason. Probably some cliché 'time traveling' plot, but whatever. Everywhere I saw, there were people depressed on the streets, and more. 'Oh god,' I whispered to myself, 'What have we done to deserve this?'
I walked around, and in a small house, I overheard someone crying. It was a child's cry. I also heard a woman scream. I peeked at the window, only to see a little girl and her mom, cornered by a tall figure. I felt sorrow and pain, hearing their distressed screams. I tried to break in to rescue them, but it was no use. I tried again and again, but I couldn't break the glass.
I look around some more, I see people with depressed looks on their faces. Everyone who was walking in the streets had a ankle bracelet, so I assume it was so that they couldn't leave the area. 'This is bad.' I thought to myself. Before I could finish my thought, I started choking on the thick, warm smog surrounding the city. Barely any trees were planted anywhere near the city, rendering fresh air impossible to find in the particular area.
Walking around some more, I came across some people trying to detach their ankle bracelets. 'Do you need help?' I asked. They didn't answer. I asked again, and one of them stopped, looked at me with a deep scowl, and continued their attempt at detaching the ankle bracelet. Right next door to them, was a tall building, most likely the people controlling the city. 'Oh, how convenient!' I say to myself. I tried so hard to open the door, until one of the people trying to detach their ankle bracelets said to me, 'It's no use.' I gave up after that.
I walked around the empty city, seeing how filthy it was, until I heard an alarm, which freaked me out, when I saw everyone run into their homes, when I saw a missile land towards the city. When it hit, everyone was shot back, and some of them even... you know.
When I got shot back by the missile, I landed into the ocean, when I nearly passed out and drowned. I could see people being lunged back, it was a horrible sight to see. I then swam back to land, choking on water. I realized what all of this was. The fear, the suffering, the clearly horrible state of this area, I knew what it meant.
It was the end.
I walked around, and in a small house, I overheard someone crying. It was a child's cry. I also heard a woman scream. I peeked at the window, only to see a little girl and her mom, cornered by a tall figure. I felt sorrow and pain, hearing their distressed screams. I tried to break in to rescue them, but it was no use. I tried again and again, but I couldn't break the glass.
I look around some more, I see people with depressed looks on their faces. Everyone who was walking in the streets had a ankle bracelet, so I assume it was so that they couldn't leave the area. 'This is bad.' I thought to myself. Before I could finish my thought, I started choking on the thick, warm smog surrounding the city. Barely any trees were planted anywhere near the city, rendering fresh air impossible to find in the particular area.
Walking around some more, I came across some people trying to detach their ankle bracelets. 'Do you need help?' I asked. They didn't answer. I asked again, and one of them stopped, looked at me with a deep scowl, and continued their attempt at detaching the ankle bracelet. Right next door to them, was a tall building, most likely the people controlling the city. 'Oh, how convenient!' I say to myself. I tried so hard to open the door, until one of the people trying to detach their ankle bracelets said to me, 'It's no use.' I gave up after that.
I walked around the empty city, seeing how filthy it was, until I heard an alarm, which freaked me out, when I saw everyone run into their homes, when I saw a missile land towards the city. When it hit, everyone was shot back, and some of them even... you know.
When I got shot back by the missile, I landed into the ocean, when I nearly passed out and drowned. I could see people being lunged back, it was a horrible sight to see. I then swam back to land, choking on water. I realized what all of this was. The fear, the suffering, the clearly horrible state of this area, I knew what it meant.
It was the end.
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Yee!~ :)
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Great job to everyone who had participated, and congratulations Chiaroscuro on getting first place.
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Congrats everyone who participated!
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Thanks for letting me participate and good job to everyone else! I really enjoyed reading everyone's work and seeing the wide variety of takes on this topic.
