Hey guys! I have been working on this story for a while. It's hard to find time since I have gotten a new job, but anyhow I wrote this in any scrap of time I could find. In the meantime I had been posting some random quotes so that my account wouldn't appear abandoned.
You guys can expect more of stories like this to be posted in the upcoming days.
"Filth has clogged up the air of this city."
"The neon lights of the bars, the mind-numbing advertisements on 60-foot screens only present a naive hope and the ever-attracting "American Dream." All above the slums and ghettos which reek of poverty, crime and corruption. It's all a facade." said Henry, as he washed down his meal with cheap beer. There was deafening silence in the bar. Everyone plugged into walls, unaware of what's happening around them. Only Henry and Kent were having a conversation over a couple of burgers and a few Cokes, which seemed to be the only "human" thing left to do in that world. The bar was a fairly unknown joint, lit by only the blue Charging lights of the people as most of the new bars were. An effort to remain modern in a world which was descending increasingly into chaos.
In the underbelly of this rotten city, civilization had decomposed. The streets were silent as the addicts were to busy getting their fix of their reality. You know how in stories the world is on the brink of destruction, then suddenly the hero comes and saves it? Well, this world was already destroyed and any heroes that arose vanished into thin air as if they didn't exist in the first place.
"Everybody is so busy in their dreams and these worlds that they have conjured up inside their little brains that they have forgotten about what's real and what's not. The fuckin' Y-Corp isn't doing nobody favors by updating those glasses. At the end of the day you're still plugged into wall doing nothing," Henry said as he finished his burger and swiped left to decline the offer of a 2 hamburgers with fries. All food was digital of course. Kent looked around the bar, seeing people-like corpses lying on the ground with blue light coming out of their mouths and eyes. He said, "You know what's funny? When everyone is drugged up high above heaven, why are they still spending barrels of cash on the ads and the screens? No one's there to see them, no one's gonna watch them anyway."
"It's for people like us, Kent. The ones who actually look through the shit they are trying blind us with. I'd give this society a couple of months maximum. A day more than that and one of us would be eating the other."
Kent couldn't argue, for he knew what Henry spoke was the truth. Europe had fallen a week prior. And now it was America's turn to bite the dust. In the end, Asia would be the only thing that kept on going.
"Look: what is even left in the world now? Everyone and everything is essentially dead. Yes they are. Think about it. You stay plugged-in 24 hours a day, you live in some imaginary world doing Lord-knows-what, while your actual self rots away. You don't do the very basic things! You don't do the goddamn chores around the house, you don't shit, you don't piss, you don't eat. So what do you do? You sleep. Once you get hooked it ain't so easy to come out, man. Now the streets are silent, the fucking New York City is a ghost town. The only voice you hear in the street is that of the holograms selling you your end."
"Death came after us alright." Kent scoffed. "It sure fucking did. The Chinese have got it figured out. They didn't plunge face first into this modern-day heroin, they used it for more ethical and reasonable purposes. The use of glasses for the alive-and-well is banned over there. Instead, they upload the consciousnesses of the terminally-ill to the cloud so instead of death, they live again. Here, it's the other goddamn way around."
Henry looked at the clock. It was almost 12. And they both knew that meant no good news. The Watcher would be here soon and The Watcher was very bad news. Being thus deprived of having a conversation which seemed to be the last luxury, the two parted ways and went underground once more. Resistances had sprung up in various parts of the country. Most of what utilized the Underground Railroads of 1800s. But Y-Corp had begun cracking down on these too and soon there'd be no place left to hide. But they knew that this was inevitable. Everyone knew that this was inevitable. The very fabric of humanity had been plucked from it's very roots long ago and all that remained now was the primal instinct of survival. The world was a dark place, lit by the neon signs of treachery and tyranny.
Everyone knew this, but nobody cared. They lived in their dreams, too busy in their reality. They were plugged-in to their reality, where they lived the life they were supposed to be living.
Everybody knew this. And nobody cared.
Hey guys thanks for reading. Sorry for being inactive, working on some other things too including some more stories. I'll put them up as soon as I get the chance.