2024
I open my eyes and take in the morning sun. The soft blue light illuminates my room. My wrist was vibrating, a daily 7:00 am alarm I've set so I get up on time for work. A small 4-inch LED screen popped out with my plans for today after I mentally shut off the alarm.
7/11/2014
Work: 8-4pm
Dinner with Cynthia: 9pm
Software Update: 2am (approx. 4 hours)
I could feel my eyes rolling instinctively. I hated software updates. Nothing I could do about it since it happened during the REM stage of sleep cycle so I wasn't awake for it but the next day I could always feel the differences in the updates.
Software Updates were mandatory because it kept us in synch with the frequency of the Source. If you couldn't synch with the Source, you died. The Source is what gave all life energy and everything is interconnected in perfect unity and harmony.
No one had ever seen the Source, it was taboo to even talk about it with people.
Talking about the Source incorrectly disrupted the perfect unity and harmony of the colony. Any disruptions to the Source and the guardians showed up.
The guardians were scary winged humanoids that came from the Source and were extremely powerful. They rarely showed as long as we maintained order of every day life.
Free thinkers were executed by guardians and turned into programs, a thoughtless cyborg who only did the functions laid out in it's programming. Programs did the jobs that normal people didn't want to do, like fast food workers, janitors, garbage disposal, teachers, sales and marketing.
Which reminds me, I have to get ready for work.
X
I entered Nandel's Deli and a program greeted me. "Good morning, what can I get for you?"
"Let me get a Sausalito on whole wheat and a large coffee with extra cream and sugar." I told him.
The program nodded and rang it up on his register. "Six dollars, sixty six cents." The program.
I stuck my left wrist into the scanner, which scanned my identification number and deducted the money directly from my account. "Thank you, let me get your food ready then." The Program said.
After enjoying a nice breakfast, I saw it was 7:45, almost time for me to go to work. That means I had ten minutes to make it to a jump station to teleport. The jump station could take you anywhere in the world based off where you wanted to go.
I was about to head out of the restaurant when there was a crack like lightning and a winged man appeared before me. "Who are you?" I dared asked.
"Azazel." The winged humanoid introduced himself. His power radiated so strongly that even he shop owner high tailed it and left, leaving me all alone. Just being this close to a guardian was making me nervous.
"I am…" I was about to introduce myself when he cut me off.
"You're Samuel de la Cruz, Rothschild programmer. No need for introductions. " Azazel said.
"Why are you here?" I decided not to beat around the bush.
"I think you know why… I'm here to kill you and send you off to be a program. It's become necessary at this point." Azazel stated and his calm demeanor is what unnerved me the most.
"Why?" I dared asked, looking for escape exits.
"You think too much. You're continuously disrupting the Source by questioning it and we'll we think you'd be better off as a Program. Perhaps all that time spent as a Programmer messed up your own."
"I don't wanna die." I replied, looking around for an escape.
I knew my thoughts would get me in trouble one day. Yet literally, here I was about to die and turn into a thoughtless robot.
"Why are you doing this?" I asked.
Azazel looked like he was contemplating it for a moment. "We have to maintain order in the Source. There can be no chaos, no…"
"Freedom." I cut Azazel off. "We're really like cows to you. You just use us." I said.
Azazel nodded grimly and reached a hand into his chest, pulling out a flaming sword. I was really about to die.
I closed my eyes and prepared for the inevitable.
Nothing happened, as I opened my eyes I saw Azazel swinging the sword at my head. I saw a light appear in the sky and a figure with two pairs of wings grabbed me before Azazel could decapitate me.
"No, give him back. He must die!" Azazel said.
I passed out.
X
I woke up later, it was still daylight outside, and I could feel the heat of its rays. I could also feel really soft and squishy flesh…
I realized I was not alone and my memories came back to me. I remember being at the deli and being attacked by a guardian who was going to turn me into a program. The last thing I remember was two sets of white wings.
But it couldn't be.
Only the guardian had wings and all guardians were blonde, blue-eyed males. This was definitely a woman, if the breasts were any indication. I never heard of a female guardian though.
I slid out of her embrace and stood up. She woke up yawning and rolled over, before getting up as well. "Where are we?' I asked.
"In a place where the guardians can't find us, away from Source surveillance." The female stranger replied.
"Who are you and why did you save me?" I responded. I was truly curious.
"I'm Sarah. I'm the only human survivor left in the world. I saved you because I got tired of being alone." She said. She was really beautiful with dark brown, almost black hair and emerald eyes.
I shook my head. "I don't understand. What do you mean you're the only human survivor left in the world? I'm a human and alive. I have parents, siblings, neighbors…"
"None of that is real." She stated. "You've noticed it. That's why the guardians were after you. You're a freethinker, and you started to question certain things that makes the Source uncomfortable."
"I've been thinking weirdly lately but it must be a software glitch, I'll be fine after tonight's update." I said.
"Humans don't need software updates." Sarah replied.
"Humans also don't have wings, guardians do." I responded.
"Fair enough. Samuel, do you understand what the Internet is?" She asked.
"Of course. Global interconnected data mining network." I replied.
"Exactly, the Internet is the Source, and you are data." She said.
I began to pace back and forth in the room. Even this morning I kept thinking how my image looked so fake, how everything was so unnatural. "No it can't be." I tried denying it. There was no way I was just data in the Internet, I had a real life. I was real. "I'm real. I'm real."
"Are you prepared for the truth?" She asked.
I nodded.
"What year is it?" She asked.
"It's 2014." I replied.
She shook here head. "It's 2024."
I must have looked really stupid, because she kept going. "Back in 2014, there was a really bad nuclear disaster. A lot of the Earth had been poisoned by nuclear radiation and humanity would become extinct along with the planet. The top leaders of the world's governments convened and had an idea. They would follow after Hitler and try to communicate with the Aryans in order to persuade them to save humanity.
"It worked, they communicated with the Aryans only the Aryans weren't too keen on saving humanity. Instead they deceived the world leaders by promising to save them but instead they took all of the world's population and made digital copies of them. After making a complete replica of Earth inside the Internet, the Aryans put all of humanity's digital files into the Internet and erased all of their memories. The Aryans became the guardians; the protectors of the Source and humanity awoke inside a new prison built for them by the Aryans. The Aryans are draining you each of energy to feed back to the planet you destroyed. By putting all of humanity to sleep, they were going to return Earth to pre-human conditions" She explained.
I couldn't believe it. It was too far fetched to believe. I'm nothing more than a digital copy in a digital Earth because in real life, humans destroyed Earth.
"Why do the Aryans hate humanity? Why did they trick us?"
"They used to work for the true Source. The Source created Earth and then mankind in his image, so the Aryans, having been created first by the Source became jealous. Why did the Source create a whole planet and life for some hairless apes when he had royal, faithful servants?" Sarah said.
"I can't believe it. This is too crazy." I replied.
"True, but that's why I have wings. This world isn't real so rules don't apply, that's how I could save you from the guardian earlier. But you're not safe yet."
"What do you mean?" I asked her.
"You were about to be executed. They know you were rescued and there's an update coming out tonight. They're going to cut you off the frequency, effectively killing you." She explained. "That's why they come out with updates, to get rid of those who can't synch to the Source and those who understand what the Source truly is."
Shit, she was right. "So at two in the morning I'm going to die?" I asked.
She nodded. "Unless you escape the Source and send your consciousness back to your real body which is connected to the Source." She replied.
"How do I do that?"
"You're going to have to get high…really high on DMT. You produce this in your sleep during REM cycles. It's what makes you dream and what makes your dreams so lifelike and realistic. It's also a drug that causes you transport to different dimensions." I didn't like where this was going.
"I don't do drugs." I said.
"Do you do life? Because you've got less than half a day to find your body or you'll die." Sarah responded.
"I don't have any DMT." I replied.
"I do." She said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a small glass pipe and lighter. "Take a really big hit and close your eyes. You're going to see some geometric patterns and shapes but ignore that. Ignore anything that looks alive and try to escape by dimension hopping. Think of your soul as a UFO."
I nodded and took the pipe and lighter from her. I had seen this done on a few movies so I should be able to do this right. I put the glass piece to my lips and took a lighter and held it over a small white crystal in the screen piece. I inhaled some smoke and Sarah gave me a kiss on the lips. "See you on the other side."
She disappeared and I closed my eyes. I could see spirals, triangles; all kinds of shapes come flying at me. I focused on floating out of my body and suddenly I felt light.
The room began to spin and I felt nauseous. I was about to be sick.
Suddenly I opened my eyes and I was flying above my body like an ethereal spirit and everything was like a blur.
Suddenly I remembered being in Philadelphia fighting against a foreign enemy and there being a bright flash of light as a mushroom cloud filled the Philly sky. My eyes shut reflexively.
I woke up screaming.
I felt a warm embrace around me and I tried to breath as it felt like I was choking. I couldn't move, so I just tried to relax.
I was helped out of the metal container I was in and taken somewhere to be washed. Finally after being washed clean, I could open my eyes again.
I looked into the beautiful emerald eyes of Sarah.
"Hey, you made it out, I told you." She said, hugging me.
I looked around me and saw nothing but wastelands. "Where are we?"
"Welcome to the real world, you ready to kick some guardian ass and free humanity?" she asked, tossing me a silver military grade rifle.
I smiled as I caught the gun. "Are you sure this is the real world?"
Sarah gave me a chaste kiss on the lips. "No. I'm not sure about anything."
I wrapped my arms around her waist. "I'm sure we're about to kill some guardians."