The Doctor and the stemDrives

by lastcompanion

Everyone is now on the web—literally. They have invented a device that goes into your brain and uploads your consciousness to the web. This is now how schooling happens: in a virtual world. One of the last girls in the country to upload herself gets a call from The Doctor: he knows there is something bigger behind this and he needs her help.

A/N: So this story came to me in a dream I had and I thought it would be fun to write about! It takes place in the United States because that is where I live and I believe that this is kind of what the US is heading toward. If it doesn't make sense now it hopefully will later on but you can always DM me with questions. Please read and review! Enjoy!

"LAST NEWSPAPER EDITION EVER!" The top of the paper read.

"What utter bullshit," I muttered to myself as I fingered through the paper, my eyes landing on one specific article: my article.

"WHY I DO NOT WANT A STEMDRIVE, BY JULIETTE HIGGINS"

stemDrives have been active for years, first coming out about a decade ago. Everyone thought it was cool at first, like cell phones. I admit, so did I at first, but I was only 7. All shiny things are cool to 7 year olds. No one under the age of 16 was permitted to use a stemDrive because they were afraid of what it would do to childrens' brains. Now, anyone can use it. I don't know if they fixed the issue or if they no longer care.

A stemDrive is a device that gets inserted into the back of your neck. It accesses your brain and brings you into the virtual world. It knocks you unconscious and it is like waking up in a Sims game. When it first was released, people wouldn't experience any physical needs while in the stemDrive world. They couldn't feel hunger, the pressure to go to the bathroom, or even pain. It caused a lot of deaths from overuse. People would literally die of starvation and not even know it. Then the creators modified it, making sure the parts of the brain that told you this information were still active while you were under.

The next big thing in the stemDrive world was school. The creators found out that people learned a lot easier while using the stemDrive, maybe because the information would be directly inputted into the brain? I was never given a proper explanation. Schools in the real world began disappearing as virtual schools began popping up. My father, a United States Congressman, refused to enroll me in the online school, fearing what it would do to my brain. The people that use stemDrive….change. Last night the United States Government passed a law stating that all physical schools were to be shut down: all learning will be done over stemDrive. Home-schooling is even illegal now.

I don't have a stemDrive now, but I will have to get one to go to school. My father doesn't have one either but now all congressmen are required to have one.

My father wants us to run. Run to Canada, France, England, somewhere other than here. Somewhere other than the Land of the Trapped and the Home of the stemDrive.

"My name is Juliette Higgins and I am 17 years old. I do not want a stemDrive because I want to be able to think for myself. I want to be able to make my own choice and that is not possible through stemDrive. I do not want one because I do not follow the crowd. I am a leader and I will not stop at anything until I can lead enough people to the hospital to get their stemDrives removed. I may only be 17, but I am strong and I am a fighter."

I read well in print, I thought. But then something else caught my eye, something under my article. It read: "JULIETTE HIGGINS, MEET ME AT THE MEDICAL SQUARE AT 5TH AND MAIN. I THINK YOU ARE IN NEED OF A DOCTOR."