Life Simply Continues

In a near future life is perfect,but at what cost?

#1

“Why?”

The sound of this small, yet powerful question bounced against the walls.

“Why?” The Agent asked the man who sat on the floor, on the far side of the room hugging his legs.

“F**k you!” responded the man.

“I am only trying to help you.”

“Help me how?” The man was trembling in fear, “People like you have distorted everything.”

The Agent, stood up from his small bench, pressed his hand against the wall and a door opened. As the door was closing the man saw the Agent starting a conversation with an old man. A few minutes later the door opened again and the old man entered the room. He took a short inspection of the room, then sat at the bench near the door.

“Why won’t you take the Happy Pills?” The old man asked. There was no response. The old man sighed, took out a little card from his pocket and threw it to the man, who managed to read the first line.

“Prisoner #267980. Code: Red. Aggressive attitude towards staff, discontent with social norms and requirements. Psychiatric help needed, he has become part of the Many,” the man read aloud, “This is what I’ve become, a f*****g number.”

“Hmmm…” The old man was stared at the man with piercing eyes, “You totally ignore what we’ve accomplished. The Agency stopped war, hatred, poverty, inequality, EVERYTHING!” The old man stood up and approached the man, “Name a Sin of the Old Order and I can assure you we got rid of it.”

“Hey, Isaac, what about ignorance?”

Isaac turned around and started gazing through the small window on one of the walls.

“For perfection to exist we must sacrifice something,” Isaac then left the room and ordered the other Agents to set the man free and release him from all his charges. Armed men entered the room, unchained him and pushed him all the way until he was on the front yard of the black and white building.

“Why?” the man asked himself.

#2

“Scott, eat your Happy Pills!” The mom told his son.

“I have no more time left before leaving for school. I’ll grab them on the way out, okay?” Scott responded.

“Okay” The mom smiled. Thoughts then took control of his mind. Her smile looked fake. Well, maybe not fake, but not the one a mother would have given his child. He then remembered the novel a man by the name of Samuel gave him. It portrayed a happy family and what most shocked him has that every morning the mom would have given his son a kiss on the cheek and would have smiled to him. It seemed so real to Scott and what most terrified him was that the novel didn’t require thousands of words to describe this moment, only one: Love. What a powerful word and yet it was the first time he ever heard of it.

“Scott, you’ll miss the train if you continue to stand there.”

“Yes, mom.”

Scott then ran as fast as he could to the station. Everything was like every other day. Scott got ten minutes later than everyone else and was frowned upon. He was different and he liked that but he hated how being different meant disapproval. He hated everything in his life. How he had to keep his hair brushed back and his clothes, tight and suffocating, always on and tidy. He hated everything but he had to continue looking and acting normally or he would grab the attention of The Agents. At least that was what Samuel told him.

The train finally reached the station and everyone orderly went in. There was a seat for every student who went to The Academy. Scott reached his seat and sat straight, just like everyone else. A girl was sitting next to him. She looked different. Maybe it had to be a side effect of not taking the Happy Pills for a week.  He then remembered that he had his Happy Pills in his pocket. He silently, without anyone noticing, stuffed the Happy Pills behind the seat. Samuel had told him that they would start dissolving within 24 hours of being removed from their container so he didn’t have to worry ever about an Agent finding them. The train then came to a stop. Everyone went out of the train as orderly as they came in.

Classes on the Academy started at 7:30 which gave the students a 15 minute break to go to their lockers or to the bathroom and still be ready, waiting for the first teacher to appear and start his class. The first class was English. Scott looked at the teacher and instantly took out his notebook and started writing something. The teacher noticed Scott strange attitude and approached him, looked at his writing and sighed.

“When you are writing you can’t simply use those kinds of breaks,” The teacher told Scott.

“It has a reason. It’s called poetry and it has to be like this.”

“Brilliant idea, but Scott that’s not the way things work. You cannot change how things are.”

“Yes I can,” replied Scott, who in a hurry grabbed his notebook and left the classroom. It was the first time he ever left a classroom. It was the first time anyone ever left a classroom. His attitude was different and he knew it would grab the attention of The Agents. He ran down the corridor until he stumbled with The Principal.

“Why are you here?” The Principal asked.

“It doesn’t matter,” Scott pushed The Principal aside and continued down the corridor until he reached the front door. It was locked. He swore. It was the first time he ever did. He learned that word from the novel, when both parents were fighting over the rights of who had to keep the child, because they were divorcing. F**k and Divorce: two words that no one ever said. It felt so good. He felt good after saying that word. Even better than that: he felt good. Life is a bitter shame. Everyone is always the same, mainly because the pills control hormone production. At least that was what Samuel told him.

#3

“SIR ISAAC, we’ve received reports from The Agents about OPERATION ANGRY PILLS. Like you ordered we have stopped all HAPPY PILLS IV production and replaced it with the experimental HAPPY PILLS V. These new pills, apart from regulating hormone production, cause the brain to become more receptive to stimulus on a subconscious level. All The Ones inhabiting The City will within a few hours receive this new shipment of pills and will have to eliminate the old ones on the excuse that those have possible negative side effects which the new ones don’t. End of Report #438871.”

#4

“Why?” The man walked through the front yard. He couldn’t understand why he was set free. The worst part is that although he was free he could not return to The City, he needed a pass and in the way out he was told that took a few hours to get. Meanwhile, he decided to sit in a bench and finish the novel he started reading. The dad had stayed with the child because the mom showed signs of craziness. Then during the night the kid escaped the dad’s house and went to the mom’s house, gave her a hug and then returned before the sun cleared the night sky. He did this every night during the following 3 year until her mom died of cancer. Cancer. Death. Two really awful words. As far as he knew people simply disappeared at night when they were getting really ill and life simply continued like nothing ever happened. Like if they had never existed.

After turning the page the man found the story of the mother’s burial. Burial. Another yet unheard word. A rite of passage for those who died. A gathering to cry for the lost one. Cry. Another thing new to him. In his world tears did not happen. Even pain was suppressed by the Happy Pills. He took a look around him. Neatness and symmetry governed. Everything was perfect from the outside but on the inside it was all fucked up. And the worst part is that no one knows how fucked up things were…

#5

“F**k,” Scott thought, “What a f*****g load of bullshit.”

History Class was always the same. His teacher would talk about how the world was horrible during the Old Order. War, greed, inequality, everything bad you could ever imagine was around the corner waiting to harm you. How different from the novel Samuel gave him. There was conflict but people were really happy.

Then he starts talking about the New Order, or in other words how people came to live harmoniously in the world. He assures The Agency did all this in the blink of an eye. They seem almost godly to him. I know the truth. The Agency did not turn us into believing all this crap from one day to the next. It was a slow process; they committed Sins like no one of the Old Order ever did. But maybe it was necessary. In Math a negative number times another negative number turns into positive. Now our lives may be perfect, but at what cost? Our humanity? Was it necessary? He hated this s**t.

“Scott, now that you seem so thoughtful, may you tell me who Samuel Irving is?” asked my History Teacher.

“I don’t know.”

“What a surprise!”

The worst part is that he does know. Samuel is an intellectual who discovered a toxic element used in the Happy Pills. He saved many people from getting ill. He is human, unlike those pesky Agents.  He also is the same Samuel that gave him the novel. He told Scott everything he knows about the Happy Pills and The Agency, like that they cause subtle changes to the chemical compsotion of the brain to stop the production of “feeling” hormones and to make those who take the pills subtly more responsive to stimulus from the Agency. He also hates society, the utopic and idealized society created by The Agency.

Scott sat down remembering the past and how he got there. A few minutes later he was trying to escape from The Academy, he failed. Then he was sent to The Principal’s office by The Principal himself. There he was asked a series of strange questions. Only one made sense: “Did you stop taking your Happy Pills?” Scott lied in that one. This left him thoughtful. Now everything does. Samuel had inspired in him the seed of thought and rebellion. His plan had come into action.

The youth is the future of society. If they are inspired to go against something, changes will happen. But to move this whole load of confused children towards a goal you need a shepherd to guide them, and who better than Scott. He had a powerful voice, an unmatched intellect, and better than anything else, deep inside he was human.

#6

“Sir, here is your pass,” said the odd Agent once he reached the man’s spot. The man grabbed it and asked the Agent to leave him alone. He rapidly grabbed his stuff and walked towards the end of the yard where a station was located. He entered the train and sat down in the seat next to the door. The Train was empty. The man then took out his novel again, hoping for new knowledge of the Old Order to understand if The Agency’s sacrifice was fair. He opened the book right in the middle. The kid was already a grown-up who decided to enter a gang. This made him feel powerful because inside he was really weak. After all, who would have been strong after having lost his mom?

The story from this point on elapsed slowly. The boy kills other people for personal gain. He robs, rapes, and finally in the end kills his father because he thought that what happened to his mom was because of his dad. After killing his dad with his bare hands through the method of strangulation he feels guilty. He then talks about Irony, a term the man could not comprehend. He was letting himself be driven by hatred and lose sight of what was important. 

He then decided to turn into Christianity. This transformed him into another being. His days in the gang were over; he started to preach the community about his transformation. When he was noticed by a church from another city he was taken there to preach and slowly, during the time of 3 years, had gone from coast to coast telling his story. He was rich and had a wife and children. He had a perfect life, but he missed something: Adrenaline. One night he escaped and for the sake of it decided to rob a store, a gun store. He went armed and after getting the money and turning around he was shot by the owner who was in the counter. He was taken to the hospital with shotgun pellets all over his body. Pain was excruciating. Survival was an astronomical odd. The only thing that kept him from going to the tomb was pure will. Doctors reached into his pocket and took his ID. His name was Samuel.

“Passenger we’ve reached our destination: The City,” The Voice on the Speakers said.

The man stood up and went out of the empty train. He had entered the train in plain sunlight and left in the darkest of nights, he could barely see his hands even when in front of his face. He walked down the stairs of the station until he reached the main street. He then walked for two whole blocks until a sound from The Voice on the Speakers interrupted his heavy footsteps.

“Citizens of The City, The Agency is asking of you a favor. We’ve recognized a hostile stranger walk down the main street. He is located two blocks below the train station. If we, as a community, do not stop him now through aggressive means he will endanger what we have achieved since the Fall of the Old Order.”

“What the hell?” the man asked himself. He knew he was asking society an impossible, to attack someone for an unknown reason. He continued walking down the street; his house was three blocks away. Suddenly he felt pain strike his back.  He looked behind him and found a man with a shotgun in hand, blowing smoke. He had been shot. His vision blurred. Suddenly, a mob was on top of him throwing kicks at him but at that point pain was inexistent. Thought appeared in his head. How could people turn into this? This doesn’t make any f*****g sense. Wait a minute, it does. It’s all a f*****g illusion. This man and Kid I’ve seen are me. But in the past, before I was on the floor dreaming about two men with a dream. I think I now get what Irony is. Irony is the fact that “Happy Pills” have caused all this chaos. Irony is being not being alive, but just breathing like we are.

#7

I look through my window. What the hell is that mob doing on the street? I’ll finish my reading first. It turns out the kid dies. Interesting. What was his name? Samuel Irving.  Why would there be a mob in front of my house? I’m going down to see. I open my door and see this entire people gathered launching kicks. I’m squeezing between them to see what is happening. Oh no! Oh no! Isn’t that on the floor Samuel Irving? Hey Guys, what the hell are you doing!? I hear someone say they had to do it to protect the New Order, that’s what Voice on the Speaker said. What the F**k!? You have to kill someone? Death… “what is that?” is the main question that arises. Tears escape from eyes.

Death is what you are seeing. Someone on the floor bled to death. The worst part of the story: You caused it. You are dead too, inside. This is what The Agency has turned you into: some animals acting by instinct and guided by a tyrannical shepherd. What are you doing? No! I’m not trying to destroy the New Order; I’m trying to enhance it. Wait! Things don’t have to happen this way. Wait! Wait! NO! I can taste my blood, is coming from my mouth… 

Author's Note

Please be constructive.