Diary of a suffering world
The gun shot split the air like the sharp edge of a blade. Time seemed to slow down as I felt the bullet puncture my back, burrowing its way into my heart. I could feel the warm blood running down my back; smell its metallic fragrance, sickly sweet-the smell of death. My only thoughts were of a diary, my diary, the only truth in this intricate web of lies. Well I guess I should tell you how this came to pass, this terrible story of a brutal world.
First off my name is Yuki, meaning snow. I was a standard twenty seven year old girl living in London in 2024. Just out of medical school. This whole thing started about nine months ago with a dream. A dream so vivid it was painful. It seemed to be of me living in another world, a free world. I was younger, probably about 12 and on my way to school. It looked so much like earth, but the earth I remembered was dark with rows upon rows of identical dark grey concrete buildings. No green spaces for children to play. Playing was banned. Everyone looked different, wore coloured clothes not matching black suits. It was bizarre but I felt the need to write it down, hence why I crept outside and headed for the black market. The black markets were the places were you could find all the things you could no longer legally purchase, including notebooks. Here under the rule of the androids, the mechanical beings created by humans, laws were to control not protect. Not a single human slipped through their net once they came to power. Rebels were killed and memories erased using a kind of hypnosis. However, slowly I was remembering, and that knowledge sang through my veins, burning like fire. It was after this that I began to record every memory, every dream.
'Diary entry 2: an android is born. During the year of 2012 it was scientist Dr Greymen who finally created the first working android in Germany. The world was taken by storm, the Olympics left behind, discarded. World leaders met, the G8, UN and EU. The mass production began, poverty rose with people made redundant, but no one cared. The world had changed.' When I first remembered this I woke up in the middle of the night and cried the tears of a million peoples ruined lives. I finally understood why the androids ruled our lives, glorified in conformism. Revenge.
Whilst recording the story I had to pretend nothing was wrong, wear the pristine black suit and fit in with the rest of the crowd. I had never been so scared. I already knew what would happen if they found out, I would be killed immediately without question. All I could be thankful for was that my parents had both died two years ago and I was an only child. No family to worry about and no one to care if I die. "How encouraging" I remember thinking sarcastically.
Diary entry 3: one and the same. Year 2015 the mass production continued throughout the world. An 'emotionless' race of mechanical people identical in all ways. Androids did everything for everyone, all types of jobs: factory work, building work and banking to name a few. Some of the rich and famous even had android servants and chauffeurs. It was slavery except people thought it was okay they're not 'real people' they can't really 'feel'. It was like baiting your own trap. At the time I wondered if people could really blind themselves so much, pull the wool over their own eyes, but I supposed it was possible that there was a majority who disagreed but were voiceless and couldn't be heard. It was the poor who had lost their jobs to this so called revolution, who had worked in one of the many trades that were taken over by these new beings. The only source of real money seemed to be in government, literature, the media, academia and research. Remembering this made me so livid that I wanted to go back in time. To scream and scream 'till my voice was heard, but alas that is the blessing and curse of hindsight.
Keeping up a blissfully ignorant façade is inconceivably difficult, nevertheless it had to be done. I had managed to work my way into the diagnostic medicine department and had little time to spare during the day, often having to pull all-nighters to get the mountains of paperwork done. It didn't help that the androids were constantly surveying what was going on to check for rebels and I was currently under home surveillance for breaking the curfew when going home late from work. Thankfully they never reported any suspicious behaviour and after a month of carefully avoiding being caught they were satisfied. It had felt like treading on hot coals. Then again the androids always freaked me out with their blank faces, cold voices and piercing inky black eyes. Even their hands were strange as they curled with a fourth joint.
Diary entry 4: World War 3. Several years after the invention of the android around 2018. All countries became competitive always wanting more money, status and weapons. The USA began to formulate battle androids so that they could 'bring democracy' to foreign countries. Of course they never 'planned' on taking control of them. Other countries disagreed and got involved. Nuclear weapons came into use causing entire states and countries to be almost completely destroyed. Islands like Madagascar and the Galapagos were completely nuked. It was a full scale world war costing the lives of millions. The world had become warped in so many ways. I cried like a baby when I remembered this. The war in which I lost my parents, my everything. The period of my mental breakdown. Thinking back on it I'm shocked I ever graduated from medical school. The anger pent up inside of me at the state of affairs our world got into was leaking through and hairline cracks formed on my beautiful façade. I should've known then that it was over.
I remember walking down the corridors of the hospital I worked in hearing the whispers of the people around me. I knew my health was suffering, I was much too thin and my skin was as pale as porcelain, contrasting dramatically with the dark patches under my eyes. I knew it was probably causing the higher-ups at the hospital to speculate about the cause of the deterioration in my health. However, I was quite frankly beyond caring.
Diary entry 5: the tables have turned. Two years after the war began, year 2020. The war was over the Americans won but then they have had a lot of practise. The governments were entirely corrupted and have begun cutting government funding preferring to keep the money themselves. Poverty became the new black, and scrap yards the new children's playgrounds. The old money families were the best off and some took in people from the streets. The androids saw this as the ideal timing and began to organise themselves. Morals, a thing of the past were yet again flattened into the ground as the governments accepted the bribes offered by the androids with open arms. The androids offered their help; rebuilt buildings, rewrote laws. In the blink of an eye they had complete power. The puppeteers finally stepped into the light. Memories were erased and people were taught the all important lesson; be nice to the puppeteer lest he cut the strings. I had been shocked to see that they had been in control since their creation. To see that mankind, self proclaimed most intelligent race had been fooled and bribed into their own destruction. It was this that made me realise our morals hadn't forsaken us it was we who had forsaken our morals. It was this that made me feel contaminated to be seen as human. As a child I hadn't seen the corruption of our world, hell, back then I didn't understand much beyond what was for dinner. Then, when I was a teenager I was absorbed in my studies and my friends, I was too arrogant to stop and take a good enough look at the world around me. When the war started, the damage had been done and I soon broke down. By the time I realised the world was erroneous it was too late, beyond all repair. I was a fool.
Meanwhile things at work got worse, I looked dreadful and it was raising suspicion. Countless times I was asked if there was something I needed to say, something I was hiding. I was told finally in an official meeting with a bureaucrat speaking on behalf of the current head of government that if I told them now they might reduce the punishment I would get if they caught me later. I only responded that nothing was wrong and they had nothing to be apprehensive about. By now I knew I would die and I didn't care, I just wasn't about to turn myself in.
Diary entry 6: "so long and thanks for all the fish" So now that I've told the story of how the human race managed to truly prove its inadequacy, I feel its time to say goodbye. I cannot help but think that maybe I'm insane; however that's not so bad. I mean, after everything I'm sure that I am supposed to be angry and consumed with hatred with these androids, but to be honest I just want to laugh. I mean the androids destroyed humanity because they themselves wish to be human. Yet they say humans are scum and that they will never let something like this repeat itself; but really they have become the very thing they sought to destroy. It really is ludicrous; furthermore, I will have the last laugh.
In the end it seems that a neighbour saw me writing my diary and decided to trade my life in for a better job. Again this is ironic as it was insubstantial. It was bargaining that got us in this mess in the first place and in some ways will get me out of it. The time did of course come around when some nameless androids turned up to take me out into the centre of the town for execution. I was to serve as a reminder that the puppeteer can do whatever the hell he wants and is really just an affluent child. When asked if I had any last words I just laughed a strange, manic laugh. It felt good and I just couldn't stop. So despite what you would imagine as an exceptionally embarrassing public execution, I died with a great smile on my face. I did indeed have the last laugh.