Gosia returns home after a hard day’s work, tired of scoffs from unpredictable clients who comment her graphic designs. Today was exceptionally abundant in it. The only thing our heroine dreams of is taking a warm shower and lie down on the acoustic waves flowing straight into her ears from the big headphones.
The girl falls into a half-sleep state, focusing her thoughts on the sounds of electric guitars. First, it is difficult to chase away emotional thoughts about unpleasant clients, and then it becomes easier and easier to move away from reality. Her consciousness leaves 2019 and moves to 2030 in the era of overpopulation.
Aleksander Bartlewicz, 18 years old, Toruń, overpopulation era
We regret to inform you that you have not passed the second test for genetic suitability. Date of castration: 07.28.2030, 17:00, 50 Słowicza Street. To collect your animalcon proceed to the Depression Prevention Authority at 51 Słowicza Street.
Yours truly,
Experts of the Homo sapiens species
With my eyes blurred with fury, I’m trying to turn off the flashing message on my right wrist. What a bunch of crooks! I can’t be genetically useless! I am an EHC and BBV programmer and I have just reached the age of majority! I kick a swivel chair, which lands with a crash on a black matte floor. Should I go to this party of life losers?! Never! I prefer to be alone for the rest of my life. I kick the chair further to reach for the gray peaked cap. I put on socks, black spids and a sweatshirt. I put on my cap, placing the visor low in front of my eyes, and the hood on top. The living room is empty, so without a word I slam the door and stumble angrily outside.
I put my hands in the pockets of my shorts and look hostile ahead. The weather is terrible on the ellipse today. It is good that they patched up the dome of Toruń, because I would get hit with red snow at my mug. Maybe it would be for good, such a failure like me deserves it. Winnica district’s conditioned air does not help me control my nerves. Especially since every now and then someone pushes or nudges me. I understand why they limit reproduction. These bipedal no-brains should not duplicate. I would have loaded some bug into the irrigation system of several districts of UNUSEFUL and here we go! Problem solved.
Why did someone classify ME in the same container?! Maybe it’s a mistake. Maybe I got the result of someone else? No, there are three stages of verification, there is no room for errors. Unless they have a predetermined maximum of people who can go through this stage and I was unlucky. Now they will move us to the poverty district. Parents will probably live in Bydgoskie and me in Meksyk.
Not that I would like to be utilized for reproduction. [BLEH] However, those who pass the test are the elite. They can live in nicer districts with a larger space, and me they will throw into a men’s cave and I will work my arse off in some factory. Why did I learn this programming? Nobody appreciates it anyway.
I reach the slag slope at the Wisła river and sit down in my favorite place to observe the conditions on the ellipse behind the dome. The river is bright yellow today and I can see a calmly flowing fridge that melts in a toxic liquid, leaving white spots. Ruby snow is still falling from the sky and flowing down the transparent atmospheric dome, leaving red streaks. It’s a bit cooler here because I’m very close to the border. It’s good that I took my sweatshirt. If a larger hole had been created in this protective barrier, I could have ended up like those from Popiełuszki Street last week. A small shard of cosmic garbage got into the atmosphere of the Earth ellipse and made a nice crack in our dome. Radiation from the river killed them. I like danger. Makes me feel more real.
I don’t even know what animalcons are there to choose from. I’ve never been interested in this. It didn’t cross my mind that I wouldn’t pass the test. I wanted to be a back-end developer and live in the district where I was born. I close my eyes and focus on the gust of air conditioners on my face. I feel my emotions dissipate. I look at the hour displayed on the top of my right hand – I still have an hour to castration, and I haven’t even told my parents yet. I will send them a sims, I don’t want to listen to words of compassion.
“Mom, I’m going to the surgery. I failed the test. I’ll be late. Don’t call.”
I have a long road to Słowicza St. so I go to the bus stop. I stand a meter from the vehicle and wait to be pushed inside. I hate public transport. It’s good that there is no route longer than five minutes in the dome. I would suffocate in a longer trip. In the stench of sweat and dandruff on many heads I try to find the pros of this situation. I fail. Shitty existence awaits me.
In front of the operating building there are several meters of queue, of course, only men and boys. They all have gray faces and silently fallen corners of their mouths. Hurry up with this cutting stuff, waiting stresses me. I feel the dark snakes of restless feelings wriggling in my stomach, waiting for the procedure that will seal my future. Fortunately, the operation only lasts a minute. Sixty seconds and you become officially genetically useless. They should burn an USELESS sign on our foreheads. Everyone will know either way when I get the animalcon. It’s good that it’s free. Maybe at least it’ll prove useful.
In a gloomy mood, I enter the bleached white room and set myself on a red line painted on matte white tiles. I feel like one of a million cockroaches to be exterminated. That’s how a guy in a white smock with a band on his face treats me, throwing words at me:
“Lower your underpants.”
He didn’t even bestow me with a look as if I were a disgusting, brown arthropod… just like the crowd before me.
“Lift your business.”
He probably means the upper part. I lift it and he sticks the needle in my groin, turns around for a scalpel, makes a quick movement with his hand and the testicles land flat on the floor. He lubricates me with an ointment with a sterile glove protected hand, and turns back to his tools. My useless genetic material is absorbed by a special vacuum cleaner with the hands of a bored helper.
“That’s all,” the machine operator says to me.
I step out uncertainly at the other side of the building, immediately squinting in front of the big, flashing commercial of a friendship with an animalcon. I don’t feel pain, but I don’t quite know how to arrange my legs. I try to do some stretching exercises, but my body is slightly numb. Another USELESS appears in the door, so I decide to go to the Depression Prevention Authority.
Here the atmosphere is lighter, men deprived of reproduction possibilities, admire available friends. This is probably how animals other than humans used to look like. If you believe the story, once the ellipse Earth was full of creatures other than man and cockroach. Maybe it was happier then. Animalcons stand on blue-illuminated platforms and make small movements. At the bottom of the wall are small phantoms, and at higher levels – larger. The biggest ones are up to a half a meter high according to the measures displayed next to their stands. I wonder if these are their historical dimensions.
One furry animalcon catches my eye and I know I don’t want another. It is on the highest shelf, it has black, thick hair, somehow elongated face, large ears, yellow eyes and it sticks out it’s tongue from time to time. It is standing on four limbs and has a body element on the back that it can wag.
Immediately I go to a tired office worker sitting at a table made of (how mismatched!) pink plastic. I give him my PESEL number and the number of the selected animalcon.
“Bring 4D phantom of the wolf to stand three,” the official says in a flat voice to the plastic handset.
“I’m sorry, did you say ‘the wolf’?” I ask, surprised to hear an unknown word.
A prolonged sigh answers me, carrying the weight of thousands of unproductive hours in which this man’s gray cells died. In the end, this ruined man honors me with a look and I already know that he considers me a cockroach like the others.
“Wolf is the name of the species on which base this animalcon was created. Specifically, it’s the European wolf. I advise you to familiarize yourself with the model of the behavior of this phantom, although now it is a bit too late. I have already assigned its number to yours and there is no turning back, or another attempt,” I hear a caustic answer.
The official looks at me with sight long deprived of a creative thought.
“I don’t want to change anything” I answer, pretty pissed.
I turn around when I hear the sound of approach of four paws equipped with claws. A so-called wolf runs up to me and sits before me, sticking out its tongue and breathing deeply. [WOW] Nice. I think he knows he was chosen by me. I take a step and see that animalcon intends to follow me. [COOL]
“We flee out of here, wolf” I whisper to him conspiratorially, then quickly move towards the exit with mood ten levels higher.
I need to get to know this creature better, after all, we will stay together for the rest of our lives. The phantom stays very close to my right leg and keeps up with my pace. I feel his touch on my calf all the time and I hear claws clattering on the floor of the Toruń dome. Although this is only a half-touch, it seems very real. I play Wikipedia on my headphones cause I can’t wait till I get home. This time I will take a walk, I will not condemn my new friend to a bus trip. I will learn about him an enjoy fresh air in the same time.
The animalcon is a 4D phantom of the animal that inhabited our planet before the era of overpopulation. This is a digital representation of extinct Earth creatures in semi-reality technology. They are plainly visible and can be touched, but it is only a fleeting impression. Animalcons give out smell and make sounds. They have no physical structure or needs. They have a conventional weight and are not completely faithful to the historical size and behavior. Due to the limited space in the climate domes, the largest animalcons are half a meter high, while the tallest animal in the world living before the last extinction was up to six meters.
The wolf must have been the biggest!
All animalcons have programmed love for human, although in nature it was often impossible to obtain. Many animals were dangerous to humans, but some of them were kept at homes. Most natural instincts have been left out. Animalcons can be programmed for a peaceful and active life, to suit their owner best. Each useless citizen receives one phantom of an extinct earthly creature from the government that is supposed to be a lifelong companion. It is designed to prevent depression in a family-deprived man.
My wolf is way cooler than a family.
“{OO} Look! Aleksander has a phantom! {HAHA} That means they finally cut off his balls! I’ve known for a long time that this fate is waiting for you, sucker!” a classmate insults me.
“Why are you picking on me, Radek? You probably envy my wolf” I answer, feeling aggression begin to rip me from the inside.
I approach the delinquent so that I am only a step away from him and I express my disgust with his new hat covering his ears. I focus my attention on his blue eyes next, laughing at me with superiority. I feel that my animalcon is still glued to my right calf, and Radek smells of his father’s cologne.
“Look how cute this fluffy toy is! Made to wipe away the tears of the USELESS. {HAHA}”
My rich colleague is looking with mock expression at the wolf, so I also direct my eyes there. Suddenly, the phantom begins to make a scary sound. He curved his lips and wrinkled his nose, showing us pink gums and long white teeth. He directs his anger towards the aggressor, and I try not to be afraid of him, although some primitive escape instinct arose in me, which I had no idea existed. I stand on legs set wide apart and admire my animalcon as he flexes his torso muscles over and over again, making a wheezing sound. Radek apparently had already dealt with a phantom, because he looks like he is having a great time.
“And what do you think Aleksander? That I’m scared of your toy?” Radek with theatrical disbelief looks into the eyes of each of the colleagues who gathered around him.
Their faces express confidence and I know they are having fun making a mock of me. All three have better grades than me and probably passed the suitability test, but I chase that thought away so that it doesn’t weaken my anger.
“So look!” yells the idiot in the ear-covering cap.
After these words, he takes a step toward the wolf, squats and looks into his digital eyes. The animalcon growls louder and snaps his teeth, but Radek just smiles. He puts his hand up theatrically, as if to answer a teacher’s question. After a long moment, he lays it on the chest of the wolf and easily moves him away.
“{HAHA} Did you see?” one of the helpers says. “It shifted place like a character in League of legends, what nonsense! {HAHA} You know, it was a MMORPG game from the previous era. {HAHA} Like the stupid wolf didn’t weigh anything!”
Radek gets up, bows to the four corners of the world, pretending to be a theater actor, and then without a warning he punches me in the face. I feel as if half of my face has fallen in. The pain makes me slightly numb, but after a while it adds energy. I give a blow, using all the accumulated aggression and cracking his eyebrow as a result. I create a flood of blood on the unpleasant mug of my opponent. The red liquid forms a branching pattern and begins to drip onto the floor before the boy can stop it. My triumph does not last long, because his colleagues jump at me and incapacitate me. I have my arms and legs rendered powerless.
“Don’t cross me anymore because I will kill you, you useless eunuch!” yells Radek, spitting on my face in the process, and then he kicks me in the lower part of abdomen, in which I began to feel pain after anesthesia.
“Now it’s pointless to aim at balls, because they are gone! {HAHA}” screams the boy holding my hands in an iron grip.
“That’s why I will aim at eyes next time,” says Radek calmly but brutally scathingly.
The group abandons me very sore and walks nonchalantly toward our district. I feel huge shame and humiliation. This wolf is useless! He is looking at me now with sad eyes and is trying to lick my hand.
“{BLEH} What are these strange habits? I will teach you better things, wolf. Let’s go home, a lot of work awaits me.”
I stand up, adjust my shorts and go straight ahead, trying to preserve the remnants of pride.
“I have to give you a name, wolf. Your name will be Onyx.”
The phantom of the wolf trudges happily at my side, while I devise my plan. I hope my father will not be at home.
Song author: Bring Me The Horizon
Received from: http://tiny.cc/2yp7bz
Throne:
(…)
So you can throw me to the wolves
Tomorrow I will come back
Leader of the whole pack I am the alpha wolf
Beat me black and blue You are good at it
Every wound will shape me My rite of passage from boy to man
Every scar will build my throne I am invincible
(…)
In the living room I find a note informing me about my parents going to the cinema – perfect. I take a quick shower and go to the living room. I need to find my father’s orgasmater. I have a theory, or rather an engineering plan. I just need to find this device! I won’t need it now for its given purpose. My father has not used it since my birth, which was also his castration day.
I open the last drawer of the dresser and nothing. Only underwear. Maybe he threw it out? No it is not possible. I was to inherit the orgasmater if I passed the last test, but I did not even pass the second. Maybe it’s for the best. I don’t have to train human fertilization. Apparently it is terrible, but boys are being prepared for this sacrifice since childhood. I was ready for this act of bravery, but I’m happy that I’ll miss it. I get on the bed and jump to see if there is any space up there. My father must have hidden this torture tool so that I don’t accidentally find it and hurt myself. [OOO] There is a box.
I bring the broom from the kitchen and throw the cardboard on the armchair. I abandon the weapon and get to the box. This is it! I feel a triumph when, after tearing apart the pieces of cardboard, I see a red plastic driver and half-translucent, slightly orange, sensory suction cups. I run to my room with my treasure, leaving a mess behind. I’ll manage it later. I have already wasted too much time searching. I need to check my theory before my parents return.
I sit at the desk and get to work. I need to learn how the driver works and make suction cups flying. I search for the wolf video on YouTube, I want to know more about my Onyx’s extinct animal base.
The wolf was a social animal living in packs. The group had brutal hierarchy rules and complex emotional relationships. Wolves were incredibly closely associated with other members of their pack, which can be compared to love in a human family.
“Well, Onyx – I will have to suffice for a whole pack.”
Wolf phantoms are not entirely deprived of pack instincts. Every one of them has a pre-programmed position of the beta wolf, and the man to whom it belongs, functions in its system as an alpha wolf. In nature, wolf in the beta position did not question the leadership of the alpha, it was faithful to alpha and its role was to help maintain order in the pack. The beta wolf naturally took over the role of alpha after its death. Other wolf pack members took low and medium positions, and omega was at the very end. Males and females had a separate hierarchy. Most often, two alphas, betas and omegas of the opposite sex established in the pack. Omega-wolves played an entertaining role, initiating games. Sometimes they were punished for it when more serious wolves didn’t feel like playing.
Unity in the pack and bonds were celebrated during a pack rally in which all wolves participated, even the youngest ones. Listen to their howling: {AUUUUUU}.
“{AUUUUUU}”
I am surprised to see my wolf imitating sounds coming from speakers. He tilts his head up, closes his eyes and gets carried away by emotional voices he seems to understand. I also join in his singing and yell out loud like an idiot. I like this… primitive experience. Our excited looks cross and I feel that our bond has been sealed.
With this custom, the wolves strengthened their ties, found lost pack members, and mourned lost comrades. Like humans, wolves were in mourning, which they manifested in despondency and howls.
In the pack, only a pair of alpha wolves could breed, wolves lower in the hierarchy had to restrain their instincts, that pushed them to extend the species. When wolf puppies were born, all members of the pack were happy to help in their raising. Adult wolves eagerly played with the young and put their lives at stake, defending them against danger.
Human families look a little different. By the way, it’s unfair that girls after passing all the tests do not have to train this terrible copulation. All in all, they have to carry this little humans in their stomachs for nine months. OK. Maybe it compensates for the inconvenience. But some men need up to several years of torture with an orgasmater to brave the copulation with a live woman. It’s terrible what they are going through. Women take maternity leave from work and can play with young children, while men must take copulative leave. Apparently wolves liked to extend the species, and most of them couldn’t. What an irony of fate.
Wolves belonged to the group of so-called predators, i.e. carnivores. Such creatures existed to maintain balance in nature. Wolves mainly hunted ungulates such as elk and deer. When hunting, wolves used their amazing organization and performed like the best-calibrated machine. Wolves hunted weak and sick animals, healing herbivore populations. Wolves provided herbivores and scavengers with their food sources. Thanks to the healthy amount of herbivores, the plants could reproduce, and the uneaten victims were an essential source of food for bears. They were extremely strong animals with amazing stamina, which were able to track their victims even for several days. They would catch the weakest individuals that after many hours of escape, lost their strength. Wolves, as very intelligent animals, took the terrain, weather and behavior of herbivores into consideration while hunting. They killed victims thanks to a well thought-out strategy and the brutal strength of teeth and claws.
People often demonized these predators because of this, and they were afraid of them. Wolves, however, had a natural fear of humans and did not pose a great threat to them. Wolves, controlling the populations of other animals, were a very important element of the balance in nature, which had a beneficial effect on people’s lives.
“Crap, Onyx. You were considered a dangerous demon! Why didn’t people see the good that wolves brought them? Besides, you’re so dignified. For me, you are a symbol of the beauty of nature that we have lost. It is a pity that we will never see a real wolf again.”
Okay, I did part of my work. I already know how a driver works thanks to reverse engineering. I have to reprogram it to give instructions to my wolf instead of a digital woman. There will be no problem with suction cups. With small cuts they fit as cartridges into my rifle. I just have to try how far I can shoot them.
Wolves communicated with each other through body language, sounds and smells. These animals had a much better developed sense of smell than humans and were able to recognize with their noses the direction in which specific individuals from the pack had moved. Every trace of the wolf’s paw was like a website with information hung in the air for kinsmen. Wolves marked the area with urine to send the warning sign to other packs. Females emitted a smell filled with pheromones that informed males about their readiness for motherhood.
“It’s good that you won’t pee my apartment. {HAHA}”
The body language of the wolves was very complex. Only the alpha male and female had their tails raised, which was a symbol of their dominance. Other wolves had to lower their tails, and omega often kept it hidden between its legs. Erect ears also showed dominance, along with a fully erect silhouette and a raised muzzle. Low-ranking wolves had to bow their heads and lie on their backs to show submission. A higher position was associated with many privileges. The most important of these was priority during meals. Alpha and beta wolves were the first to eat, devouring the best pieces.
“OK, I’m done. Time to try this on you, Onyx. I hope that my leadership skills will now strengthen and it will be easier for us to communicate. I don’t know the wolf language, but the programming language is easy.”
My companion has not left me since my decision in this gloomy office. Now, after uploading his name to the system, his response to this word is automatic. The wolf leaps up from the floor and looks at me expectantly.
“Call the pack!”
“{AUUUUUUUUU}” I have my reply.
“Yes! It works!”
I wrote the commands to the controller in the EHC language and changed their destination. I uploaded the scanner function thanks to the BBV language and it worked! I chose the sound model so I can put the console away and Onyx will listen to me anyway. Time for suction cups. I put suction cups on my chest and give the command.
“Show me the wolf love, Onyx!”
The wolf jumps on my lap, licks my face and rubs his head against my body, showing attachment like a real wolf. [WOW] Now when I close my eyes, I can still feel him on my lap and know what he is doing. However, this is still not a full touch, because I do not have a slimy hand or his hair on my clothes. Technically, it is 90% of the experience. I hug Onyx and observe his reaction. He is not so light anymore and he seems to feel my hands too. Incredible. Both of us, enjoying the moment like little ones without one problem, we run outside to burn some of the endorphins tearing us apart from the inside. Despite the fact that my animalcon of course has never had puppyhood and he doesn’t have a body that could create happiness hormones. However, I do not know whether this is all code work or whether my Onyx is actually feeling something.
In both hands I hold a rifle (heavy iron!), and my right calf is still warmed by a wolf trotting next to me. His beautiful black fur glistens in the moonlight. I notice an empty alley on third, so we make a sharp maneuver and I stop with my back glued to the gray wall of the block of flats. I turn my head right and left, the wolf stiffens at my right knee. I put the weapon on my right shoulder, I look through the sight with one eye at the wall of the block facing us. I pull the trigger. The suction cups bang on the apartment block and fall to the ground. Well, now I know what the firepower is – satisfactory. I didn’t expect rubber suction cups to stick. They only catch on bodies. I run for the suction cups and head to my vantage point by the dome. Now somebody try to mess with me! I have my Onyx 2.0. and I’m not afraid of anything anymore.
Song author: Five Finger Death Punch
Received from: http://tiny.cc/5qq7bz
Bad Company:
A company
Always on the run That’s street life
A destiny
Oh it’s the rising sun I want to rise above the streets
I was born
A shotgun in my hands Yes, rifle feels good on my shoulder
Behind the gun
I’ll make my final stand, yeah! Nobody will mock me!
And that’s why they call me
Bad Company
I can’t deny And I don’t want to
Bad Bad Company till the day I die
Until the day I die
Until the day I die
(…)
[HA] Imagine that even today I considered myself inferior. I will show everyone that I am USEFUL. I modified the 4D phantom in a few hours, although to this day I knew next to nothing about them. I look at Onyx, who reciprocates my attention with his inquisitive yellow eyes. I know that in this dignified fluffy creature lives an angel and a devil. Now I have both of them under control.
If I knew that animal phantoms are so cool, I wouldn’t even try to pass any test. However, there was pressure from my father and other adult men from school. Now I know that they just wanted to force me to serve society. For valuable human genes to survive. Mine are to be eliminated and I feel good about it. Onyx will be with me for the rest of my life and USEFUL do not have animalcons because having them is like a great sign saying I AM NEEDLESS. They have one child who disappears from their lives after eighteen years. In solitary districts there is a gender division, only the father can visit his son, so I will not see my mother again.
At this moment I notice Radek. He sits on the carousel sticking his nose into the phone on his wrist. He is alone, so I decide to get back at him.
“Hey, I told you not to come here anymore!” I hear a beautiful greeting and I see a demonstration of my friend’s feelings in the form of him spitting on the ground.
“You won’t tell me what to do,” I answer calmly, keeping my adrenaline under control.
Without further announcement, I aim at him with a rifle and shoot in a split second in accordance with the rule of quick aiming. The weapon is too heavy to aim for a long time. Radek has no time to react, he gets hit by suction cups, issuing a surprised moan, and I shout:
“Onyx, attack!”
The phantom of the wolf deprived of his default barrier against attacking people, unconditionally throws himself at my rival, shot by me. He sticks his teeth into his arms, legs and instinctively bites his neck. The boy writhes and screams, but Onyx persists. His beautiful yellow eyes are now wild and focused on inflicting pain. Radek’s tissue remains intact, and yet the boy’s terrified voice assures me that revenge is working. Radek tries to chase away the wolf, but he is not so light anymore and will not leave him until I tell him to. The boy has no physical injuries, but his pain is agonal. It feels like having ninety percent fatal wounds loaded in virtual reality. This is my game and no one will beat my wolf. The attack lasts a quarter of an hour, so I decide to finally bestow mercy upon my former bully.
“Come to me, Onyx!”
The wolf jumps down from the lying Radek and runs to me. When I pat the wolf to praise him (because I noticed that Onyx nicely squints his eyes then), I can see from the corner of my eye that Radek is moving.
“Yes, run away, coward!” I shout at him on his leave. “This is my city now!”
I turn my back on him and go home. Enough adventures for one day. I wonder what position wolfs sleep in. I didn’t find that information. Suddenly I realize I no longer feel Onyx next to my calf. Why did he stop? I turn around again and see the wolf lying down, and the floor around him begins to glow red. I look at Radek and see him waving a small gun at me, as if he were greeting me.
I yell in a terribly shaky voice, “What did you do to him?!”.
“I killed him. This is my father’s weapon, he is the guardian of the male district. In this gathering of life losers, problems with reprogramed phantoms occur every day. Even animalcon fights are organized, and my father pacifies them,” he says proudly. “The wolf will disappear, but I wanted to add a theatrical effect. I managed it admirably well, don’t you think? This blood came out so beautifully realistic.”
“You bloody daddy’s son! Just because you’re rich doesn’t mean you’re better than others!”
“Aleksander you know that doesn’t hurt you. It hurts you that you are not the only one who came up with the idea to modify an animalcon. You thought you were special, huh? King of the world, ladies and gentlemen!” boy screams mockingly. “This mongrel would die anyway, no matter what you did with it. See you at school USELESS.”
I approach the damaged phantom and I don’t care if anyone sees me. I start to cry. I know it’s not right and that a man should be tough. I howl like a wolf that mourns a lost pack member. I don’t care about the stupid rules of mindless bipeds that destroyed the world! This wolf was an illusion of a normal life that should still thrive on the Earth ellipse. The last digital spark of hope for my happiness is now disappearing.
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