A dystopia not far

“Sam!” whispered Kyle, Sam's younger brother, “they are coming from there” hiding in the ruins of a tall building and looking down on the armed militia that was just now arriving in a van. It was around noon, the Sun was at its peak, the second Sun already at the Horizon slowly going down.

“Alright Kyle, you will stay here and do as we planned, throw this decoy out towards the back of this building, so they are distracted, once I give you the sign, alright?” 

An elongated “I know…how often do you wanna tell me this?” came as an answer. 

Sam smiled at him, caressing his head, saying “Good boy!” 

“I’m not a dog man” said Kyle, taking Sam’s hand off his head, “now go go go!” 

Sam jumped over the rock that they were hiding behind to reach the stairs of that building. He went downstairs until he reached a floor, out of which he could just walk out on a pile of debris that was once holding the building together. He snuck his way down, hiding behind every bigger chunk of rock he could find, until he finally reached the spot from which he wanted to give the signal. He realized really fast, that one of the people in the group, gave another guy a sign to position himself in the building that he just walked out from, the guy started running towards it, past him not noticing he was there. Sam starting to panic over Kyle, he was in danger, he looked up to the floor in which Kyle was hiding to signal him that someone was coming upstairs. He waved his hands and made signs for him to leave that building as fast as possible. Kyle, who was waiting for the signal to throw the decoy, just threw the decoy out to the back of the building and signaled him a thumbs up for the success. The decoy was loud enough for the 3 militia at the Van to hear it as well; it sounded like gunshots. Sam with inner terror, was observing what would be happening now, the guy who was running up the debris towards the building stopped for a moment and looked back at his commander at the Van.  

Sam could hear the commander saying: “This is a trap, blow it off, we are leaving”. 

Sam, who had forgotten to breath for a moment, just started breathing again, his worry for his brother made him question everything in that situation. Knowing Kyle was safe again, he continued his mission, though it hadn’t worked out as planned. He needed to place a tracking device on the van; otherwise, he thought, all the planning would be for nothing, and they would continue starving without energy to plan for another time. Once all of them got into the van, Sam rushed towards it, Kyle was observing, thinking that this was not part of the plan. The Alert militia had noticed him in the mirror, right before he reached them, with the order to unlock the guns; all four of them were ready to shoot on sight. Sam reached the driving van, put the device on it. The Militia who heard the magnetic connection of the device to the van, rushed out of the van thinking that it could have been a bomb, right before they could see him he threw a smoke bomb on the ground, to escape behind the pillars of the bridge. They started shooting towards the smoke, Kyle who had seen his brother being shot at, screamed out of the building, throwing rocks at the Militia to distract them, one of them hitting the Van and making the same sound as the tracking device, which gave the commander reason to doubt that what Sam did was a bomb but just a stone to draw attention to that side. One of them had noticed Kyle, aiming steadily towards him, Kyle who was inexperienced in taking cover was continuously peaking in and out from the same spot, Sam had reached the cover of the pillar, peeking from one of the sides towards the building that Kyle was in, wanting to signal him to hide, but it was too late, Kyle peeked out from the same spot, allowing a clean shot on his right upper chest. The pressure of the impact pushed him back, making him trip, hit his head and lay unconscious…

Sam was in a shock state, this wasn‘t happening, this couldn‘t be happening to them. Tears running down his face, he rushed out, disregarding the militia, his life would be obsolete without his little brother, he thought. The Militia was shooting at him, he was taking partial cover behind trashcans and the street brigade, running, tripping, crying, throwing another smoke bomb on top of the debris as distraction for them to shoot towards it, while he ran around the pile of rocks, to the back of the building, jumped inside and ran up the stairs, there was nothing else more important at that moment. 

The commander said: „Just some starving kids, let’s pack it up. There was no deal waiting here, it was just them, tell Alphari to check his source better next time“. 

Some places from the backdoor entrance had severed connections to the upper floors, with piles of rocks blocking the stairs or some stairs being partially collapsed. He was jumping from rock to rock, climbing from floor to floor with his bare hands, cutting his arms and hands on the sharp stones and pieces of metal. Until he finally reached his brother, who was laying there, unconscious in his own blood, blood coming out from his head and his chest, he fell down on his knees, realizing, that even if he would have a pulse, even if his heart would be still beating right now, there was no way to make him reach any place that could take care of him in this state, there was no one to go too, no place that would allow medical help, no blood transplant available. He was in denial to even check his pulse, just crying on his knees, screaming that echoed through the ruins, to the bridge, to the militia in the Van, who took the screaming as a sign of success. 

„Nice shot, Benjamin“ said the commander, to the 14-year-old who just took off his mask, eyes filled with tears, no facial expression, grabbing tight to the barrel of his gun, slightly shaky. The commander looked down at him, holding back his laugh, just saying: „Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.“ lighting up a cigarette and offering him one as well, which he took to not disrespect the offer and put in his pocket. 

Sam decided to check Kyle's pulse, against whatever he was thinking…no pulse. He grabbed him and pulled him towards him, crying and grabbing him tighter, covered in blood himself, his hands shaking, his head moving back and forth, just whispering to himself: „No…no…no..“. The only nightmare he had, the only purpose he felt on carrying him through this disastrous world, that had a ticking clock assigned to it, was his little brother. He was caressing through his hair again, feeling the flesh that had burst open, removing his hand as soon as he felt it, removing his hand, just like Kyle did when he was doing it before. 

„Just for some food…“ he said. 

„Just for some fucking food…“ he stopped, bursting out crying again, his face a mess of tears, snot and blood, whispering: „…that we don’t even have time to eat, why…why..“. 

He took a piece of sharp metal in his hand, looking to the ceiling, screaming: „I‘m sorry, mom…I‘m sorry, dad…“ as if they would be on the top floor, he stopped for some moments, wiping the tears out of his eyes, to see his brother clearly: „I‘m sorry, Kyle…I‘m so sorry“. Putting the piece of metal on his throat, it carved into it and with his last „I‘m sorry…“ right when he was about to go all the way, his tracking device started beeping. A signal from the location of the tracking device, that was now steady for over five minutes. He could feel his throat bleeding, his hands shaking so strong for a second that the metal piece dropped and a deep breath of release, as if something went through his body and didn’t allow him. 

„You‘re right…they are still alive,'' he thought, sobbing and nodding his head repeatedly, „they‘re still alive…they are alive.“. 

He had kept his last small piece of protein-chocolate to give it to Kyle as a reward after the mission. He packed it out, shoved it in his mouth, chewed a few times, crying and swallowing it finally. „This is for you.“ he said, thinking he would be missing the strength to achieve what he had to, because he hadn‘t eaten anything today and only some leftovers from yesterday. Wiping his tears once again, standing up, to take Kyle in his arms, he wanted to bury him, but not even knowing how to get him downstairs, he fell on his knees. „Can I not even bury you?“ came out of his mouth, when he was looking at him. He remembered that Kyle most likely had a rope with him in his bag. He turned him around, checking his bag for it, and he found it. Later he carried him from floor to floor with the rope that was not long enough for two floors at once, carrying him all the way down to the back of that building. Finding the decoy that he had thrown, putting it into his bag, that he took on himself, to carry it with him. He carried him several miles, to bury him at the place that was bringing Kyle the most joy when they were having their breaks from this life. Watching the last Sunset of the day, sitting next to his grave, Sam wanted another break from life, this break wasn’t feeling like one, with Kyle the possibility to escape hell was taken from him. He wanted to end all of them, but for this one night, he wanted to be with his brother. Crying, he fell asleep, next to him. 

They never slept more than the first sunrise and when it came up 6 hours after the second sunset, he was ready. He was determined, the last job he had to do to find peace with his family on the other side. He stood up, walking all the way through the City to reach the parking spot of that van. The normally planning persona he was, wasn‘t him anymore, he was walking straight towards the signal, with the same sharp metal piece that he was going to use for himself. Once again, he was walking several miles to reach the Militia's outpost, his rage not decaying even a second. Sneaking past the guards that were busy enjoying their time with each other, their guard was lowered down, because no one was dumb enough to attack a base anymore. Resources were too scarce to waste it on an offensive attack, so was the general mindset of various para military groups. There were still patrolling militia around the hangar in which the van was parked, most likely the place they stored all of their things, he thought. Sneaking around the Hangar to enter it from the back. But it was closed and he didn‘t know how to pick the lock. He noticed two of them coming to go inside. He hid behind a small pillar, to quickly follow them inside, once inside he could see piles and piles of food stacked up on each other. Pallets of water, MRE‘s, cans, juices…he was disgusted by it. Disgusted by the hoarding, while so many were dying, literally in front of their doors. The two militia that had come inside, took a jeep and left the hangar, closing the door behind them again. He was inside, alone searching for the van until he found it behind the goods, facing the front side of the Hangar, the doors were open, he went inside. Looking around, just thinking that this was the place those disgusting people just sat down and rode home in peace, while his brother bled to death. His tears came up again, he punched against the wall of the van. And sat down, waiting for them to board the van again. The palette with food was still inside, they hadn‘t boarded it down, he was hiding behind it. Hours passed and nothing happened, until at some point he could hear how the front doors of the hangar were opened up slowly. Peaking out of the windshield of the van, he saw the same group of people, same masks, same heights, same weapons, same guy commanding them to go into the van. His rage came back in an unfiltered way, the adrenaline just added onto it, he was holding onto the sharp metal piece so hard, his hand started bleeding, he couldn‘t even feel it. 

He could hear the steps right outside the van, he prepared himself to jump the two guys that were opening the backdoor of the Van. The commander was waiting at the front door and the other one was walking towards the driver’s seat. The door to the back of the Van opened, he jumped straight up to the guy on the right, ramming the metal piece into his throat, ending him quicker than any of them could even pull out their guns, the other militia was scared, not being able to unlock his gun. Sam looking at him with pure disgust. He punched his face, by now the commander and the driver heard the screams, so they rushed towards him. Sam took the weapon of that Militia, taking him as hostage to be able to finish off the others. Holding tight on his throat, holding the weapon against his head. He dragged him to the front and screamed at the other two to put down their weapons, which was not really followed by the commanders, while the driver wanted to put the weapon down. 

Sam screamed: „WHO OF YOU KILLED MY BROTHER.“ 

A subtle diabolical laugh came from the commander: „You are keeping him in between your arms, my dear.“ 

„You wanna kill him?“ He said grinning. Sam realized the guy he was holding was crying, his strength not even remotely enough to overpower Sam. When Sam heard it was him, he strangled him even more, making his mask fall off…

It was Benjamin, looking up at him with tears in his fleshy red eyes, that reminded him of the blood filled eyes of his brother. By now the commander just took cover, to enjoy the situation, he wanted to see if Sam would kill him. Benjamin was nothing more than a foot soldier to him, not even an effective one he thought; he didn‘t like his weakness. Sam thought he had seen all the malevolence of the human side, but they made a child, seemingly the same age as his brother, who wasn‘t even able to defend himself, to a soldier to kill other humans. He was overrun by emotions, he wanted to kill the murderer of his brother. But who would he punish then, he asked himself with tears in his eyes, letting off some of the pressure on Benjamins throat he asked: „Did you want to kill him?“ 

Benjamin answered with a crackled voice, bursting out crying: „I‘m so sorry.“ 

„I don‘t want any of this.“ he said with his next breath.

„I DIDN‘T WANT ANY OF THIS“, giving up all tension in his body.

Benjamins knees became weak, he basically fell, saying: „Just kill me as well…“, there was no excuse…no begging for anything…”a child who was just accepting a punishment? Accepting death?” Sam thought…he was in disbelief, shivers running down his back.

And he fell unconscious, Sam jumped behind the Van with him when he realized that the commander was becoming more and more serious in how he was holding his weapon. He laid Benjamin down, jumped on top of the Van, he was a natural talent in climbing and jumping, with just one jump and his bleeding hand, he could pull himself up while keeping his Gun ready at all times, allowing him a clear shot on the commander right when he reached the topside of the Van. And he saw how the other guy just didn‘t even pull his weapon anymore. Seeing his commander say those things to Benjamin and Benjamin, a 14-year-old just giving up on life, made him lose whatever faith he had in whatever system. Thinking that the Militia would have been a type of family to him, but realizing the only real family he could sense, was Sam, coming as far to revenge his brother, sacrificing his own life. He didn‘t decide for a change of heart, he just stopped fighting, it was too much for him. Once the commander was shot and bleeding and his weapon a safe distance from him. Sam stepped off the Van, onto the windshield, rushing towards him. Just seeing him pull another cigarette, just saying: „Do whatever you want, it won‘t change anythi…'' as he was shot in between the eyes. 

„No, you won‘t change anything.“ Sam responded and turned around to the driver. 

The driver was sitting on the ground, looking at Sam with his mask taken off, just throwing him the keys to the car: „Maybe you‘ll make it.“ he followed up. “Making it…?” he questioned himself, up until now there was no “making it”, there was no time after, this was it…but an inner impulse wouldn’t agree with him, he was feeling something, how would he be any different to the commander if he had died here, while another child was in the same position as his brother…but this time, there was at least a chance to save him. The alarm had already gone off, other Militia were on their way. He didn‘t have too much time to think, it was like there was a new instinct in him, his purpose to die was not a part of his feeling anymore. It was wrong to die here, he thought, so wrong. He rushed to Benjamin, lift him up and threw him into the van, closing the door, looking one last time at the guy he had killed before...thinking how it was the risk of this guy to end up like that and seeing his face and guessing his age…there was no remorse in him.

The other soldier was still on his knees, Sam jumped on the driver's seat from the back, not knowing how to drive old manuals and starting the engine twice, just to stall it. He was sweating, just looking at the door and expecting them to rush inside at any moment. The driver looked at him, the only strain of thought he had was that this guy had saved someone who had killed his brother, when he was ready to sacrifice himself for his revenge…he stood up, ran to the car, opened up the door and said: „I can help.“ Sam switched to the passenger seat and allowed him to drive. Within seconds after they reached the hangar door with the van, they could see Militia attacking and shooting from both sides. The tires were bullet proof, same for the windows, it was one of their few transport vehicles for their precious goods. The driver screamed nonetheless to keep their heads down. Reaching the front gate, he drove against it, breaking the chains on the door, to escape, at least a little part that was making this world hell.

2 years later

It was noon, the first sun was slowly setting, marking the beginning of Atenyas day. With a tired, yet loud “Good Morning!” followed by a long stretch, she gave her room the voice command to prepare her favorite vanilla coffee on the machine across her bed. The blends would open up fully, allowing the sunlight to enter properly. Jumping quickly into some warm clothing and her slippers, she went for her coffee and then out of her room downstairs to the kitchen. Her mom Lydia had set up a late breakfast, both her and the dad already eating and conversing before work.

“Good Morning Sunshine, are you joining us for breakfast today?” asked her mom happily surprised.

Moving towards the table and sitting down with a tired face, she answered: “Ya mom, work shift has changed, I can finally go to work after the first set…” interrupting herself with her own yawn… “I really am not the person for double daylight.” she mumbled in a still slightly tired voice.

The news were talking about the remembrance day of a mass shooting that had taken place in one of the six great conurbations 14 years ago, where a soldier had lost his mind and killed 13 civilians. People had gathered at the memorial to honor the dead. The minister was holding a speech talking about how it was one of the darkest days in their history. 

“Without some people, the world would definitely be a better place, always tragic to get reminded of these things.” commented the mom into the room.

There was a slight nodding from the dad in approval, who was just finishing his breakfast.

Atenya talking to herself: “We don’t get reminded enough, to be honest.” 

“Oh darling, not again..are you gonna mention the current case?” answered her mom rolling her eyes. Atenya was working for the news, having specialized in research and fact checking. Her current case was dealing with the unfair work environment that a lot of people had to deal with in areas adjacent to the conurbations. 

“MOM, come on…it’s like modern slavery, sorry, but I won’t shut up about it. And it’s not being dealt with enough, it’s like we have a two class society between the people working outside the conurbations and inside and nobody cares about the conditions nor is it even half as relevant in the media. And how on god’s green earth am I supposed to make it relevant by myself.” 

“Darling it’s not like people aren’t choosing to take on those conditions, in the end it’s the hard yet simple way to the top, let people decide the way they want, some people prefer working inside, some outside, don’t you think? Everyone decides how they want to make money, your father and I aren't working for fun either.”

“This woman knows.” came straight from the dad, who had now finished his breakfast and was standing up to get ready.

She answered mockingly: “Choosing huh…,” with a fading voice…“if the numbers should be true I’d doubt that things are decision based…” 

Her mom, who was mocking Atenya until then, became a bit more defensive in her response: “And there we go, yet another conspiracy, I told you last time that the breakfast table isn’t the place for that Atenya.” 

Her voice relaxed again, becoming more protective: “We don’t have you often here darling and you know what false information can cause and has caused in the past, be careful with what you are spreading. We made the best out of the world, given what we had to face with the great panic. We don’t wanna go back to that.” 

She tried answering: “But mom, it’s inj…” 

Her mom stopped her attempt to talk any further, in a strict yet loving voice: “Enough Atenya, do your proper research first, and we can talk again, now have some breakfast you’ll need the energy for work! And are you gonna go to work in this clothing?” 

The seven conurbations around the world were the last megacities. Air pollution and the civil wars of the past, due to the great panic, had made life outside the conurbations almost impossible. Only people, considered barbaric or anarchistic, would still be living far outside. Life was determined between whatever was happening within the conurbations in Canada, India, Mongolia, Egypt, Brazil, Honduras, Italy and theire close surroundings. Big factories and farms were kept outside the conurbations, to allow more space for people inside to increase quality of living and expand factories according to the needs without spatial limitations. It was general knowledge that working at places outside the conurbations was incentive rich, yet looked down upon due to its low-skill nature and harsh work environment. It was constantly associated with, "you only do it, when your brain isn't made for more complex work". Working there was seen as a struggle for a short time that allowed people to become rich, not quick, but for sure after a longer period of time. Most teens had brought at least one joke about working outside the conurbation amongst friends. 

Atenya hadn’t seen the working conditions herself, but according to her sources, the payment workers would be receiving would be too little as to define it "rich", especially comparing it to the age someone would have reached by the time this money is available. It caused Atenya sleepless nights. 

Though she lived in the conurbation in Canada, once a week she would fly over to the one in Italy to take part in the company meeting and participate in social activities and games the company would offer their employees. They had a 3+1 days work shift, the plus one-day being limited to those activities and a “get together”. Flying in between conurbations was almost like taking a train, there were flights to every conurbation in hourly intervals, and monthly flying tickets for most international working employees. 

She had a lot of friends in both places, and the fact that she loved her job, made her even more likable in her entire work environment. And being part of one of the three biggest news companies in a notable role made her even more attractive for others to connect with her. 

For the longest time in her position, Atenya would be bored checking through everything she received, most news that she was going through were irrelevant to her. 

Theories on “what might happen in future with the collision” or “technological advancement that make life more enjoyable” or typically news about “influential people getting married” and personal work-life balance.

On her way to work, sitting in her private cabin in the train, she was going through the new batch of interviews she had received from the workers in the factories and farm. The interviews weren’t as bad as the headline of the batch when she received it, not even remotely. She was expecting people to be upset about it, but after reading through a few interviews, she could see how the people were paradoxically even “quite happy”. 

The time needed to reach the top-earning state was reached “only” a couple of years after what had been promised, due to a slight mathematical error that wasn’t taking in the full scale of inflation into calculation. And there was mostly only good things to read regarding the working conditions, so people were fine. But she had inner difficulty of accepting the situation, she knew that for years those people were looked down upon and talked bad about. They were already in a social disadvantage and now after this miscalculation of things it felt like a great unfairness that was taking place, not even recognized by its victims. 

She was a person seeking for the best possible life for everyone, living every bit of what she could herself, not holding back on things. But the way life was playing out in the conurbations felt unreal, it felt like the first version of the Matrix she thought, too perfect to be true. She loved those movies and ideas revolving around them, sometimes she thought she was in one as well. Though conflicts leading to death were not of necessity in her ideal world, the way the past played out and how reality was now, just in a few years after the great panic felt as superficial as the Matrix itself, but real enough to be her world. People had struggled thousands of years to reach this state, and “suddenly” they managed? Even though there was no revelation about what the collision would bring next? Things that were made to problems, were on a delusional level to her. Most of her appreciation for things and her judgement of “modern life” issues came through her mindset that there was still injustice in the world to be tackled. Injustice that played a bigger role than who was getting married next.

Arriving at work, she went through her routine of greeting everyone, getting yet another coffee, but avoiding longer conversations because work was waiting. She was still upset about the interviews, because none of the people would address any of what she was thinking about the general conditions there. And it was apparently not an issue at all for people, to dedicate prime-life-times and basically not be able to live in the conurbations during that time. “Was the work there so perfect?” she thought… but for that to be the case, the sincerity in the interviews was missing, which would have lowered her frustration and especially suspicion of something not being right. Without exception, all of them were talking about how things were going good, but none addressed the “good” in detail. She went on reading the rest of the interviews and analyzing the statistics on how much miscalculation was behind the promised earnings. The calculation was roughly off by 1/8th of the previous one, adding almost 2 years of extra work in addition to what was planned. 

After reading through the rest of the interviews, she had enough of breaking her head over it herself, it was her break, that she loved spending with her friend Anna. She was a soul that she could talk to about anything, someone who was calculable in her response and transparent in her worldviews, yet interesting in the expressions of her opinions, because hers were usually the exact opposite. She had called her over her office dial to ask her if she was down to make a break. 

The phone rang only once and Anna had already picked it up: “Look at who is calling over the office phone, YOU WERE HERE AND DIDN’T COME TO GREET ME?” she said loud enough for her voice to be heard through the ceiling. 

Her office was right under Atenyas office. She had a stick, which she typically used to poke on the ceiling to signal a break instead of calling, which she used repeatedly after seeing that the phone call was coming from her. 

Atenyas response was just a: “Yo, I’m sorry bro, I knew if we’d see each other I’d lose my concentration on these reports.” 

Anna answered straight forward: “Actually…understandable. If you wanted to concentrate, I get it, BUT A CALL MEANS??” her smile was of such an obvious nature that she could hear it in her voice. 

Atenya responded: “Break time?” followed by a quick statement from Anna: “Break time!” 

They met up at the same place as always, in front of the elevator of the cafeteria floor, it didn’t take a long conversation for Anna to realize that Atenya wasn’t in the best mood. She asked intrusively what was up, to which Atenyas response was: “I really know in which direction this would go, and I am not ready for a discussion on this matter.” 

Anna was acting shocked: “COME ON bro…you know me, what’s up, I’ll go easy on you.” she said, crossing her fingers. 

Atenya explained the situation with the interviews, and concluded her monologue by saying that she knew that it was basically nothing that she was upset about, there was no real reason to hold on too.

“You seem to be more upset than them hahaha” responded Anna 

Atenya took a big sip out of her orange juice: “If there is a “them”…” 

Anna realized why Atenya didn’t want to open up about the topic…she felt the urge to ridicule Atenya already three times just during this short conversation. 

Atenya took another sip: “I feel it, I feel what you are thinking right now and sincerely, fuck off with that” smiling forcefully.

She followed up by: “I already had to hear about that on breakfast today, thank you, but no thank you.”  

Anna saw the level of frustration in her: “Alright you know what, I will level with you on this one and won’t make jokes about it, okay?.” 

She paused for a second, asking again: “Alright?” coming from a sincere place.

With a nod from Atenya who was just eating her Bagels, she went on: “Really man, you know the statistics about the average IQ of the people that decide to work there right? It’s legit mostly just low IQ people bro, you gotta accept reality. And it’s nothing to be ashamed off, I mean they just don’t know how to make that amount of money otherwise…and some of them may have actual fun there…and decide to do that for good. I don’t think it’s difficult to satisfy them. And to be fair, the way you described the interviews, it makes sense that they perceive everything like that. Like just think about us, who in the world would accept 2 years extra work just like that being fine with it hahahaha” breaking her promise, laughing it out. 

She became serious again: “Obviously if you or me, or anyone else from the cafeteria or hell even from the street down there, would be interviewed, we would probably react the same way as you, being in that situation and finding out those things. So the empath you are, it’s understandable you are upset, but simply, it’s not them and you might be lacking empathy for low level of intelligence, but they are easier to please then we are. I mean, instead of actually destroying your mood and breaking your head over conspiracy levels that would get you kicked out of your work, just go ahead and call them.” 

Atenya stopped eating her Bagel, while Anna continued: “It’s not like you can’t make your own picture, but in the end, it’s a waste of time, not that you would accept reality interviewing them yourself. You just have this inner urge in you to disprove whatever is going right and I know that as hopefully one of your best friends, so just eat your breakfast and calm down. You really watch too many movies fam.” 

Atenya with a look on her face that was asking, “are you done?” just said: “You are so fucking right, I can just make my own picture! I’ll see if I can get any of them to have an interview with me.” 

Anna just responded sighing: “Alright this wasn’t exactly what I was aiming for, but go little rock star! At least you’re smiling for real again, isn’t that what we are all after anyway.” 

Atenya, cleaning up her things on the table, answered: “Yeha…sure. See you later!” 

About to walk away, when Anna abruptly remembered: “By the way!” Making Atenya come a few steps back. 

“James asked for you again in Italy, you really have to join those events more often man, the guy is top tier, and it’s obvious as hell that he would be down for anything with you, it’s your chance girl.” 

Atenya just answered walking away: “You know I love you, despite our different world views, but that guy is like the godfather of what I can’t stand about all this, pure ignorance towards anything that is not him. Did you EVER talk to him?”

She said with a fading voice: “Yep, once…and it was pretty decent actually…” blushing a bit. 

Atenya just smiled again, rolling her eyes as she turned to leave: “There you go…”

“Fuck you hahaha” said Anna screaming behind Atenya.

Atenya walked straight upstairs and reaching her room, she placed her drink on the table, sat down, exhaled, grabbed the phone, to call up her sources. She went on calling source after source. Some of them didn’t know what to say and just redirected her. The ones she reached after several redirections answered her that those sources were comming from governmental level and that there was no worry in fact checking anymore. Though, Atenya never not fact checked governmental sources anyway.

Thinking that she would have to be able to get some answers from the government directly, she searched up some numbers in their internal phone book and called up the deputy of the head press. It was her 6th call, and she was being redirected through the secretary directly to the deputy head of the press office. 

The call was picked up, and a manly voice spoke: “Micheal Vendor here, deputy head of the press, who is this speaking?” 

“Oh Mr. Vendor, said Atenya: “I wasn't aware that you were responsible as deputy head of press.” 

Micheal Vendor was one of the original contributors of the conurbation concept, back during the great panic times. It was an honor to talk to him, she quickly became nervous. 

“Here is Atenya Black from News5, I was just now going through certain interviews that were held due to the scandal that occurred with the factory and farm working contracts…”

Interrupting her sentence, he asked:“May I ask where your question is heading?” in an intimidating voice

Atenya’s heart jumped for a moment, she thought he wouldn’t have enough time and would want to come to the point directly, but the way he answered made her feel unwell. So she went on asking directly what she wanted to do, but changed some things to not offend him even further: “Oh, I just wanted to expand the article and ask the interviewees a few more questions, so the report would feel a bit more complete.” she said. 

In a pretending surprised tone he answered: “Someone thinking that the interviews held by the government wouldn’t be enough, you sure must be good at your job…” 

His voice became more serious than during the rest of the phone call, and he said: “Or are you just doubting the realness of the content, Ms. Black?” 

Followed by a break of silence, until she could hear some mouse clicking in the background: “Because I know that you are responsible for research and fact checking, level with me Atenya, what is the true reason for your call?” 

Atenya was just constantly thinking “what the fuck” and didn’t know how to answer any further. She started stuttering: “Ehm, I understand if this is a sensitive topic, but it seemed that some things wouldn’t be checking out, though I have difficulties describing what it would be, for that I would like to apologize, but I just wanted to get some contact to the people that were interviewed.” 

“Atenya…” he smiled, relaxing his voice a bit. “Please don’t apologize for this, I was waiting for this call, and I am really glad it didn’t take you too long. For now, just wait for further instructions until then, lie low and go ahead publishing the article as is if you can, I hopefully will be able to give you the answers that you want.” and he hung up the phone. 

“Fuck, fuck fuck fuck…” biting her nails: “am I fucked now?” she spoke to herself.

She stood up, closing the curtains to her office completely, walking around the table in circles: “Alright calm down Atenya, like, what to think of this, was I right? What does it mean that I was right? Or is this a scheme? Is this some governmental level control crap and they are gonna get rid of me? Is this really happening? What do I do now? Do I trust him? Should I lie low…I mean, what else can I do right now? I have nothing in my hands, and why is he the deputy of the head press in the first place? His name wasn't even on the list..."

She browsed, if it was actually him, and it was true. Before becoming one of the leading contributors, he actually had a lot of experience in the media sector, it sounded plausible that he was hired for that position since he was one of the main contributors.

After some moments of breathing, she was trying to convince herself: „I mean what else can I do, I think I should calm down and note everything down…but offline.“

So she went on, noting down the way Micheal responded to her and where her research led towards. She was a person who had to be somewhat prepared for everything, to her that included death, she thought in case something happens to her, this should get out. After finishing her obligatory small document, she was actually calm enough to go on and forward the interviews as they were, to the next department that would write the article about it. She kept her suggestions and notes as “normal” as possible, following the instructions of “publish the article as is“, because that was the problem she saw in first place, some statistics, and mindsets, appealing to whatever the mainstream media would be already thinking about the people working there. 

An hour before the end of work, she went home to keep a certain distance to Anna, in case she was in danger to not bring her in danger as well. She went home, telling her she felt a bit fatigued, but told her she would join the trip to Italy tomorrow, to keep things...normal. The rest of the day, she was conversing with herself in how she was just purely overreacting, going through the few words of what Vendor said, over and over again, until she inevitably fell asleep at some point, waking up several times after that.

The next day started and in the morning, she had difficulties properly waking up from the sleepless night. It was also earlier than usual, since Italy was ahead in time, and she had to be at the meeting at 5pm Italy time. She went downstairs to join the breakfast, not saying a word about what happened. Just keeping the conversation as low as possible. Which her mom directly noticed: „Alright, I know it‘s against the rules, but what happened sweety?“ 

Waking up from daydreaming, she was like: „Oh nothing, it‘s fine…I just published the article, the way you would probably like it and it makes me feel bad as you can imagine.“. The fact that her mom noticed, made Atenya reflect on herself for a moment: “God, am I bringing stuff up this constantly for her to ask me if I’m fine just because I shut up now?!”

„Oh…“ she said, not knowing how to feel about her condescending comments. But amongst many other things, she was a mother and a really caring one on top: „But baby…why are you worrying so much, in the end it’s other people you know, not you…we are fine, no matter what your truth might be telling you, which isn‘t even necessarily true until you have the evidence, you are here. You are fine, people around you are fine, there are also problems here to take care as well you know. You really seem to not appreciate the current state of things as much as you should.“ and she smiled. 

Atenya was never this disgusted by a statement, especially not from a family member, but now knowing she was on the right path regarding her suspicions, it felt like the very thing she was trying to fight, was so omnipresent, it was the mindset of the people. But she wasn‘t blind for what the generation above her had to go through, so she kept her cool. The things that were just some childhood stories and experiences to her, were existential difficulties for them, when everything changed in how they were living life, when their hope was diminishing day by day, until relocating to the Conurbations. Seeing the world go down until the moment of settlement here…was probably a fear they never want to go back to, making things as comfortable as possible, accepting things as they are…not caring about others, others being the people outside the walls of the conurbations, because “they were the ones becoming animals“ during the great panic, hence the little care probably for people deciding to work outside the Conurbations. 

„I guess…“ she responded. She thought, “Good thing my parents will never be in danger in case something happens, because they are basically the system.“ 

She packed one of the sandwiches and stood up to get ready for work. “I might be coming in late tonight, I’m in Italy today“. 

They were happy to hear Atenya was going to Italy again after some time: "But why aren't you wearing the beautiful dress that's hanging in your room for weeks now...you should wear it once, it would bring out your value honey, this is so casual I thought you were going to normal work". 

"Mom I want to be comfortable and not be a running display dummy you know, the day is gonna be long and there is this fliiiight..." stretching her voice 

Her mom responded quickly: "I see I see, do as you see fit sweety, I'm just saying." and accompanied her to the door.

They wished her both a good day, and she left.

She had reached the main station to meet Anna there and fly off from there. The flight passed by rather quickly, with Anna talking about her personal life adventures and about things that had happened at work from earlier times, filling up the time just perfectly, allowing Atenya to prepare for the conversations with people she would be having there. 

She was following Anna on autopilot through most activities that were planned. Here and there chit-chat with the others. Mostly drawn back, up until the end of the activities, where it was voluntary to either stay or leave. Though the entire day was voluntary, it was at least not looked down upon to not stay after the activities. Atenya was in favor of leaving, but for Anna the party was just starting. Anna suggested Atenya to refresh herself in the bathroom, to get ready for the party. Because now, everyone from the company would come together, the standard activities were mostly divided by a certain hierarchy, so Annas people of interest weren‘t there yet. 

When Atenya left for the bathroom and the people came together in the dining hall, Anna was directly approached by James. James started the conversation with small talk regarding the different activities they were taking part in: „Hey, what were you guys doing today?“ 

Following his question, by his own answer: „Man it was insane, we had to do an investigation of some sort of crime where some business guy was killed, with a few pieces of evidence and everything. And his Business was tied to ours and we had to investigate, not only as police but also as a business. There were a bunch of suspects, but once you went through their profile it was cake to find out who it was and guess who found it first?” Pointing with both index fingers to himself. 

„Oh WOW“ said Anna, actually impressed. Anna was blushing all over the place and obviously showing physical signs of interest, which went over James' head.

She followed up by: “Seems like there was a lot of information to process, but at the same time it sounds really fun, to be investigating areas that are out of our expertise and combining it with knowledge we have. We just had some group building activities, where we had to estimate the personality of the people sitting across us in the circle, with more information coming in every time the circle went around once. It was interesting, Atenya actually won the most rounds by estimating quickest.“ 

James answered: „Oh yeah about that, is she here?“ 

When Atenya just came into the room, searching for Anna with her eyes, seeing her with James and wanting to back off slowly, she was caught by Anna screaming towards her and saying: „YOOO we are here“. 

Atenya slowly walked towards them by giving a fist bump to James to greet him, with Anna breaking the Ice directly by talking about the activity that James had taken part in. Atenya was surprised, that something like that would come to play: „And how exactly did you make out who the murder was?“

James answered directly: „We had 6 different profiles to go through and evidence that we could link to the profiles, I just had to look at the knife that was used and already knew it, it was a low quality, rusty old knife and I thought to myself it had to be one of the poor ones and there were only 4 suspects left basically, two of them had a job and family, could lead a normal life with their head above water, and from the other two one was in gambling debt and had an alcoholic past, this one was really simple. It's always the ones that fuck it up with their money." 

Atenya was just thinking, “Damn...feeding the sterotype in the upper levels...why would people question things, when they are being proven right everywhere they go..."

Atenya answered, downing her entire glass of champagne: “And people would think we are a News Company“ smiling subtly forced

„Wait, why wouldn‘t we be?“ came as a response from Anna. 

Just to get out of that situation, she responded: „Oh no I meant because of the heavy complexity of the task that our superiors have to undergo in these, usually “fun“ activities you know.“

James answered quickly: “Oh, it might have been that I didn‘t describe it as fun as it was, but it was designed really enjoyable for most of us at least!“ 

Contradicting herself, Atenya just said: “I would believe so.“ At this point she could barely keep her acted mood up, she excused herself, wishing both of them a great evening and that she would be flying back. 

James responded: „Oh no, you went through all the activities and you wanna leave when the fun-fun part starts? 

Atenyas motivation came back for a brief moment: „You know what, that is exactly what Anna told me earlier as well. I think you guys will have a lot of fun-fun together!“ 

Anna was blushing even more: „Yeah let‘s see.“ she said. 

When Atenya turned around to leave: “James asked her if he should accompany her to the main station.“ 

To which the quick response came: “Oh don’t worry, I’ll find the way myself, you guys take care!“ 

Playing the perfect wing-woman for Anna, though she thought James was bad for her and that she’d fix the situation tomorrow and hold her back from developing anything in between, by talking reason. But for tonight, they were the perfect fit she thought, and she wanted a more chill ride back home, maybe resting a bit without Anna potentially fangirling over him as well… 

There were more important things to think about, than who would want to be laid by whom, she thought.

She went back to her locker, grabbed her things and left the building, took a brief moment to observe the bright sky and thought it was normality...she never missed to appreciate the beauty of two full moons, it always looked majestic... having calmed her thoughts, she started to walk her way home. 

It was around nighttime for her, while it was just afternoon back in her city, she was sitting in a bus that would drive her to the main station, to take a flight from there back home. The good thing was, that the flight was taking roughly the same time as the timezone difference. It was basically like the hours in the plane didn't exist.  

Arriving at the main station airport section, right after boarding and taking her seat, the flashing news from Canada reached her, “Micheal Vendor, heavily injured in a bike accident this morning, the doctors couldn't save his life.” 

Cold chills ran down her back, “It was not an accident” she whispered to herself. 

The airplane was ready for take off, and with her heart pumping already fast, the acceleration of the airplane just made it worse. 

“And we had contact...just yesterday”. She mumbled again to herself.

She was visibly scared of what was expecting her when she would come back home. In panic, she pulled out a few sheets of paper from her bag and wrote on every page: “Micheal Vendor knew something, this was not an accident!... Micheal Vendor knew something this was...". She tried holding on to any information or any safety she could. She didn't have anything, but knew something was up, but she also knew that no one would believe her anyway, but if she would die and leave behind these sheets, maybe someone would investigate? She hoped. 

She wanted to call her parents really badly, but thought that it would just raise suspicion and would involve them more than it should, they would be on the save side of things when they wouldn't know anything she thought. After writing down roughly 12 pages "Micheal Vendor knew something..." and further giving details about the incident in bullet points and about her conversation, she could for once during the flight calm back down. She loved looking out of the window in airplanes, putting away the pages and hiding 2 of them in the seat in front of her, she leaned her head towards the window to look outside. Above the clouds, as always, seeing the sky getting brighter every few minutes. 

Suddenly, an announcement: "This is your captain speaking, due to certain weather conditions, we have to lower our altitude and will likely experience turbulences, please return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts".

Atenya didn't pay particular attention since her seatbelt was still on, she was enjoying the view out of the window. Her overthinking mind went as far as to think that this might be her last time watching out of a plane window, and wanted to appreciate every minute. She could see how the airplane was sinking into the clouds, fully embodied by it, a peaceful descent closer to her home. Right after leaving the clouds, Atenya realized that something was different. There was a big fire raging up in the middle of some ruins of a probably former city on the ground, she could see that there were people around it as well, but she couldn't clearly make out what was happening. It was not a completely new sight, that the anarchistic people far outside the conurbations would set things on fire. But the lower the plane got, the more she could realize what was taking place in front of her eyes. People were being thrown into this fire...alive. Her hand in front of her mouth, in disbelief of what was playing out, she was getting tears in her eyes. She knew about cruelty...the most extreme forms of it, from movies, history and books. But seeing things live made a reality...to her reality, and that's when the realization kicked that things can be this bad, a person burned alive in front of her eyes. She didn't want to see it, but couldn't take off her eyes from it. 

Until suddenly a loud explosion just a few windows away, ripped almost a third of the airplane's left side away, a loud howling air current just wiping away her tears. She was grabbing tight to her seat, strong enough to make her fingertips around the nails bleed. The Oxygen masks were dropped for her to grab it, but she couldn't loosen up her fingers. The plane was crashing, a window burst open, sucking out everything that wasn't fixed.