The Monster Of The Future

A short story about the monster of the future.

Let me paint a picture for you; it’s the top of a tower in the dead of night, but there’s no quiet. It is the dead of night, but there’s loud shouting, cars whistling by, and helicopters buzzing in the air. It is the dead of night, but the sky is as bright as can be. All around there’s tall buildings, ones that seem to touch the sky. There’s a nearby bullet train that wraps and winds through the city like a snake, climbing buildings and falling under ground. The year is 2084 and this bubbling cesspool of city is the World Capitol.

In this city live the pinnacle of human society and those hoping to join them, the top scientists, the greatest actors, and the best models; the elite from every aspect of life congregate here. But in this city, despite the noises and the sound all seeming the same, they’re not. For in this city a revolution is about to occur, for there is a man who is standing atop the tallest building of all, the New Energy conglomerate’s skyscraper. The man standing atop that building is me.

I’m dressed in a long black trench coat, the collar popped up around my neck. My long brown hair is soaked as the rain relentlessly pours atop my head. I can hear the shouting of guards behind me, a helicopter buzzing about, a spotlight on me like I am the star on a stage. As I bask in the warm light from the news chopper circling above, I can hear shouting from guards and police, though to me it just seems like more noise to add to the city’s ambience.

Now I know what you must be wondering, why am I atop this building? Why is there a news chopper and guards closing in on me? No, it’s not because I’m about to jump, not exactly. It’s because I’m about to bring this entire civilization to its knees. As for the reason, well I suppose I should start with what has happened to the world, and explain why people call me The Ancient Monster.

It all started in 2045, though I guess really it was occurring for centuries before that. Man was always striving for the ultimate energy source, one that would be limitless, and one that would allow us to do incredible things! And so it was in 2045 that a scientist by the name of Alexander Schmitt created just such a device. Also occurring during this time was World War III, and The Golden Age Of Science.

Why was World War III significant to this tale? Well by 2043 the world had been divided into 2 major powers, The United Humanity Nation and The Earth Federation. Most of the world powers took opposing sides in this war- America, Britain, and most of Europe coming together to form The United Humanity Nation and countries like China, Russia, and Japan coming together to form The Earth Federation. The reasons they fought, hell if I know. They aren’t of importance.

The reason the war was fought and its victors are of no concern to our story. What is of importance is that in order to enhance soldiers, both sides had developed biomechanical arms and weaponry, along with giant robots that could move like humans, whatever they could to give them the edge. However, all the fighting had been rather limited, as these devices were hard to keep powered and simply severing the power cords would destroy the enemy’s movement capabilities.

However, when Schmitt created this unlimited source of power, which we call ULMA, things changed. The giant robots, which were previously little more then a novelty, were now an actuality. The war soon stopped being fought between men and was fought mainly between machines. That’s where I come in. I don’t know why they picked me, or how they did so, but something about my physical capabilities made them want me. They chose me for a special unit, one who would fight the weapons, an elite squad. We were known as The Reapers. Though we have faded to all but legend now amongst people, we were all highly trained fighters, trained in Anti-ULMA warfare. Truly it was a sight to behold, as our small squad of ten would take down massive 15-foot robots. My main weapon was throwing knives, ones of all different kinds and effects, and all powered by ULMA.

Throughout the war, we fought many battles and we lost a few along the way…. But one thing we’d never lose was hope, hope that we would continue to win and eventually the hell of a war would end.

Back to the present for a moment. I hate to stop my story, but it would appear that the guards sent to stop me have begun to open fire… I’m going to have to go ahead and start my plan, but don’t worry, I’ll continue in a minute. I can hear them all screaming… I forgot to tell you all what I’m doing right now, didn’t I? Well just to give you some idea, I’ve just jumped from the top of this building. Fear not, for as I fall, I shall continue my tale, at least until I must take my next course of action.

Now where was I…. Ah yes, so we always maintained hope the war would end. Then finally… finally that day came. We were told we were going to be fighting one last battle with The Earth Federation and if we won, it would mean the end of the war. It was called Operation Death… What happened next… What happened after we were deployed? Well, now’s not the time to tell you that…

Let’s just say that my squad won, but I was the sole survivor. After returning from the war, I was given a nice penance and all but forgotten about… But it wasn’t all bad. I took my money and bought a nice home on the edge of The World Capitol. I must have been 24 then, and despite the years that have gone by, I don’t look like I’ve aged a day. Why? Well… that goes back to what happened during the final battle… But that’s not important right now…

What is important is the rate at which the world changed. With no more wars and all the geniuses of the worlds coming together, humanity’s technology was evolving at an incredible rate. Soon amputees began to get biomechanical enhancements, those who couldn’t see got new eyes, and it wasn’t long before people started getting biomechanical enhancements just to improve themselves. In fact, by the year 2067, nearly every person you met would have them. I personally never got any. In fact I despised ULMAs and all ULMA devices. I went out of my way to buy gasoline for my old car, buy phones with old batteries, anything I could to avoid the power source… the power source that I had despised ever since Operation Death.

But it wasn’t long before I was an outcast, a relic of a forgotten time. While I refused to go forward, the rest of the world continued. I soon became known as The Ancient Monster. I was to be avoided, children would laugh and point, I’d often wake to find my house covered in eggs, a window broken… But it was a fine existence. At least I wasn’t bothered by it.

But a couple years ago, well a couple of years ago I went into the city to get gasoline, just like I often did. But as I started looking around I saw it… I saw the world we were becoming… People were becoming more machine then human… Those who looked at me looked at me with disgust. I was an average human, inferior to them. More often than not as I passed people on the street, they would spit on me, insult me, or ignore my presence entirely.

By the time I finally reached the small shop where I bought gasoline, a hard resource to come across, it was late. Despite this, I didn’t care. I enjoyed the nighttime, at least in the forest on the very edges of the city. What did bother me on this trip was what I saw as I walked back and looked at the faces of those around me, I began to see it. I began to see the faces of those robots I fought during WW III. The faces of those who would tear my comrades in twain. The more I looked, the more I was disgusted by what I saw. The more I looked, the less humanity I could see. I saw more and more of the ULMA generators going haywire, but no one else seemed to notice. It was as if they were all oblivious to what was happening. It was as if they were all machines walking around with a programed purpose.

Upon seeing this, I broke. I broke because I saw the direction humanity was heading. I saw that we as a species were becoming nothing more then machines.  But why? I couldn’t figure out why. What was making these people give up more and more of their humanity? And as I walked, I got my answer, the same answer that brought me to this building I stand fall from now. It was the New Energy Corporation. Their founder had long since died and their values long since become all monetary. Every corner had an advertisement for another enhancement, another way you could become less human… And I knew that I had to stop them, stop what as happening…

It was on this day that I began preparing, preparing for the plan that brought me to this point, falling through the air from the top of the largest building in this corrupt city. This city of machines with human parts. This city where those who create ULMAs kept the sole machine to manufacture them, a machine build by great scientist Schmitt’s himself, and that they’d been unable to duplicate.

I won’t get into the details of my plan. We don’t have time for that, not this late into it. Oh yes! I nearly forgot! The plan! Give me a moment. I know you can’t see it so I’ll tell you what I am doing. I’ve just taken my knives from inside my trench coat, two very specific knives with steel cables attached. As I throw them at the building glass it shatters and they find traction deep in the floorboards. My arms strain to come free from their sockets as the cables reach their length and pull back on my arms, the rapid change in my momentum almost causing it to happen.

But as I said, I am a trained soldier so that won’t happen. My body is used to this kind of abuse. As the cables are pulled taught, I swing towards the building, the glass shattering as my steal toed boots slam into them. Once inside, I let go of the cables, rolling in the freshly shattered glass and still a bit dazed. As I stand up bruises, from the cable are already forming, and my small bits of exposed skin are bleeding from glass, but I can’t let that slow me down. I have to get to the machine; I have to stop it, to stop it all.

I’m sprinting no towards the door; they’ve sent robotic guards to stop me. Unfortunately for them I am a reaper and I have fought weapons much more dangerous then these guards during the war. I keep taking out my steel hand crafted knives from within my leather trench coat until I’m holding 5 in each hand, one between each finger. Their bullets are fast but still too slow to stop me. As I throw each knife I can practically see its path, each one hitting the cores of the robots. As I continue down these halls, I keep running into these robots, having to swiftly take out the cannon fodder and grab my weapons; lest I run out and be left defenseless.

I’m jumping down flights of steps, my legs wanting to crumple from the force of each impact; perhaps I didn’t prepare my body enough. I’ve easily gone down ten flights of steps and I’m finally there, the level with the machine. The door to this floor is thick steel and there are guards closing in from the front and behind. I take out a few more of them and grab their cores, their ULMAs. Most people don’t know this, but each ULMA is highly explosive and if made unstable can cause destruction equal to C4. Right now I’m quickly taking off the ULMA’s regulators to destabilize them. After each one, I have to throw it quickly towards the door.

Finally I’ve thrown about five, and am sprinting back up the stairs, it’s about to explode. After about a minute, they finally blow up, and I can now feel the wind blowing in up the staircase from the newly made hole. Within moments I’m sprinting down the stairs and leaping across the giant gap that now sits between the bottom of the steps and the door. As I run in I can see it. I can see the machine.

There are no more guards coming from behind me. It’s rather strange. Though as I’m looking around a bit more, I can see why- Good god... Let me paint one more picture for you. I’m standing in this room and there are nine people who died many years ago, nine people who I saw get blown up along with most of the island that Operation Death occurred on, yet here they are, standing before me. On the far left, one clad in a near full metal suit. He carries a pistol at his side, and last time he was seen, he was known as The Indestructible Reaper. Standing next to him is a woman, her long blond hair falling well beyond her shoulders. Across her chest she carries a multitude of small metal containers, some varying in shape and color. I know this woman well. She was know as The Reaper Of A thousand Tricks, mainly because each of her small bomb-like devices had a different effect. To the far right was a man who looked more robot then man, proudly sporting his biomechanical attachments, each one clearly a weapon. He was known as The Machine Reaper and is the reason I didn’t get caught in the explosion all those years ago. Next to him is a man standing tall and slender at around 6 foot 5. He sports a heavy metal katana on his back as well as several other seemingly outdated weapons left over from Japanese martial arts. He was known as The Reaper Lucifer. There were five more between them and I recognized them as well. They too are Reapers who long since perished, though I’d only met them recently before Operation Death.

And standing behind them who can I see, it’s none other than the CEO of New Energy, Joseph Asher.

“What the hell is going on here?” I ask him, my voice callous and unflinching.

He smirks as he responds, “What do you mean?”, his voice sly and smug. I pull several knives from the inside my jacket and rush towards him. If I take him out along with this machine then, the company will fall and humanity will be saved.

As I charge towards him I see a heavy metal sword swinging down. Quickly I plant my foot and pivot to block. As I turn to look at my assailant, I see it is Lucifer, his sword still as heavy as it ever was. Just blocking it is a great struggle indeed. I look him in the eye as I speak, our weapons locked.

 “What happened Lucifer? Why are you doing this?” But I could tell as I looked into his eyes, it wasn’t Lucifer in there anymore. It was a true devil, an unholy mashing of man and machine, nothing but gears left to try and reason with.

I glare at the CEO as I meet his smug gaze. Surrounded by my old platoon, my old comrades, I know… I know that if I want to get out alive and destroy the machine, I’d have to take them all out, the strongest fighters in history. But I can’t; I know I can’t. Their bodies have been enhanced even further and they have no emotions holding them back. There is only one way to win. The one way that smug smirking CEO didn’t count on. I can’t say I mind what I have to do all that much. I do regret the innocents who will be caught up in it. But it must be done. Plus there wouldn’t be a place for an ancient monster like me in the world to come.  My generation has far too long influenced this world. I know I must do it, I must finally let this world that my generation has held on to free, to finally let the barely-human citizens go free and create their own futures.

I look hard at my old comrade, our eyes still locked, and I swear to god I see him smile for a moment. As if he knows what I’m thinking, and is silently agreeing with what little humanity is left. As our stalemate breaks, his sword pierces through me and my daggers through him. I feel the pain as my lungs flood with blood, but I smile. The CEO laughs deftly but it seems like the white noise of the city to me now. It is clear he doesn’t know what caused the great tragedy during Operation Death. You see, each of the ULMAs are really small nuclear power generators, made on sub-atomic scales. While normally they do no more damage than a C4 when they go haywire, there is a way to make them go nuclear, and I know it. Hell I know it better then anyone. I know it because that is what happened all those years ago. It was the radiation all those years ago that made my time halt, and it will be by similar radiation that the world begins to truly move forward once again. I’ve cut the second safe guard with my dagger, one that is meant to contain the explosion when they go nuclear. That is the reason I’m smiling, the reason that, although I am pierced through, I smirk. The reason I look like I’m about to die happy.

Three… Two… One… Nothingness… There is nothing here, where I am now, no earth or heaven or hell… Just nothing… As I look around, I see my comrades, the ones who weren’t re-made by New Energy. As they surround me, they all smile slyly but warmly, no words being spoken. Lucifer slowly walks up to me and places a hand on my shoulders, saying nothing as his hand just rests there for a moment, before he continues walking. As he goes out of my field of view, I quickly spin around to stop him, but he is gone. I quickly whirl around to try and talk with my other comrades, but they have vanished too. It is as if they have all moved on, and in this thought I find myself realizing what Lucifer meant by putting his hand on my shoulder. I think it is his way of telling me I’ve done my part, that I did a good job and can finally move on. So now, I shall. I shall go from the nothingness that has been created where New Energy once stood, and as I go from this nothingness, I leave this world to you. My last wish, that there will never be a time again when being a human makes you a monster.

Author's Note

I wrote this short story a decently long time ago. There are probably plenty of grammar problems and I would love it if someone could point them out to me so I could improve upon this old but favored piece of mine. Like with all my writings I really enjoy constructive criticism or positive comments. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed.