He could do everything. And he enjoyed it.
Has drowned in blood the revolt in the frontline island state. Has left lifeless desert on southern suburbs of his country, where hordes of enemy have dared to intrude – the same whitish desert remained in all territory of the attacking state. Threatened to throw off the newest modification of psychoneutron bomb on the neighbor, who was unwilling to yield convenient trade routes, having destroyed all mental potential of the pigheaded one – he gave up very quickly, having become the witness of demonstration of its possibilities in small scales …
He possessed all. Everything was below him – he was above everything. He was the president of the state …
* * *
Mechanics peep. Red measured words on the X-display screen – “Your account is empty. Please replenish your balance”. Damn ! The end …
Slowly unhooked from a body sensors and controls, the nejro-pulse helmet, removed from his head. That’s all. Game over …
A lonely thought, spinning in the head : “eat”. So … where is a food here ? He has turned his head around. Oh, here … just near the terminal. A needle, inserted into a vein … very soon nutritious liquor will be soaked up and carried by blood through the organism – it should suffice for some days. Should suffice … a shrill sound signal … done. He has pulled out a needle.
So …. he has rummaged around his pockets. Twenty credits … not enough … only for sixty-seventy hours … heck … no matter.
A helmet, being dressed again. Heaps of wires and connections, fitted to a body. A token, put into a machine, which has greedily grasped it… Satisfied mechanics peep.
Start. The virtual world never waits.
* * *
City streets, lightened with lanterns. A signboard over one of many buildings – “Salon of virtual findings”. Hundreds of terminals over the walls. People, sitting in them.
Next terminal … a twitching man, braided by mechanics. A stream of saliva, slowly flowing down on a floor … The face is not visible – it’s being covered by a small helmet. Peeps of equipment …
He was the head of the largest mafia organization …
05.10.2010
World on the horizon
That was disgusting. Nay, that was terrible. Only four hours after “officially legislatively approved dates of time of rest” has passed, and all shops have been closed. Not a single one from those necessary to him, worked so early … or late – whatever is proper to each one … Damn !
He needed one shop … just a single shop, trading the necessary stuff. All those twenty ones familiar to him, which he has flown by on flycar, “have been closed due to upcoming professional holiday of sexual minorities in accordance with the official decree of the capital’s mayor". All of them !
Damn !
Such legislative citizens … such angels. Wolves in the sheep skins. Three out of twenty of these downtown-shops traded dreamcatcher, nineteen out of twenty traded kayfan, ten out of twenty – lisben. It’s, of course, the informal statistics – according to official reports, contained in the central database of the State department, everything was clear. Crystal-clear. Too clear to be truth.
And this are those, who should in every possible way to “help and assist in every manner” of preservation of citizens’ health … wolves in sheep skins.
And yet that very dreamcatcher has been forbidden for application, manufacturing or any use in the collateral purposes in all state’s territory. The strongest possible drug, made about five years ago as a by-product of some super confidential research of scientific laboratories of Pharmatheuticals United, it was capable to change human’s brain completely. Not some weak hallucinogen – it completely changed person’s vision of his surroundings after the injection of only one milligram into the blood. It was, actually, nicknamed as such, “a dream catcher” – all deep layers of human’s sub consciousness were revived, ten, twenty, thirty years-old memory came to life – all in one instant, all like a raging stream … and this was even better than VR – for no additional equipment was necessary anymore, no electrodes … human’s brain could do everything – it was simply necessary to aid a little.
Who of us did not dream ? And dreams of how many did come to life ? This devil’s drug made this possibility absolute – and you have been living through all your twenty, thirty, or forty years in these several days … in the world of your illusions, though, but was this really important ? All your dreams came true – all those, provided by deep memory. And approximately a month later a human died – his brain was simply “burnt down”. The brain simply did not survived.
Really, that was a very fascinating death. To die, feeling with the rest of your fading consciousness, that you are happy – for you are fulfilled. For your dreams – here they are, all in front of you, – all came to life, and who the hell cares what sort of dreams were these. To die with a blissful smile on your face …
It was supposed to be given to dying people, whose chances of survival were equal to zero. But they have miscalculated. Two-three percent of the state’s population died of its usage annually – and they were not doomed people. Fifty percent of these ones were not even thirty years old …
And then they sounded the alarm. And then they have published their decrees. And then they have mobilized that Liberty Security State Police Department … late. Too late.
“The love has come – die, love, oh damn !”, - a phrase from recently seen interactive movie has emerged from sub consciousness. Yet this love lived on. And internal security service could no nothing.
It’s like a plague, like pestilence – it will not stop until almost all are left dead. And these were just the florets.
* * *
Almost an hour has passed since the moment of the begging of his searches – and he has not even found a single shop, trading in preparations, lowering level of testosterone, adrenaline and related hormones in blood – something, that could save his body when a radio channel’s video stream of information will be transmitted to his nejro-pulse helmet – information, of whose “content’s purity” he has ceased to dream a long time ago. To rescue his body at the very least … he had no more hopes of rescuing his soul.
And all of this is just by a holiday of sexual minorities.
How have you though it over … how predicted. Sexual minorities … oh, sure ! A real orgies will take place there, and not only those of minorities. And there have been no signs of any “contraceptive toolkit” for two years already after the publishing of resolution “Of the termination of distribution of contraceptives and preparations with purposes of increasing of birth rate in the country” of our oh-so-beloved president.
Still hoping to compensate natural losses, aye? Two percent of “dreamcatchers”, one percent of the military men, one percent of the "accidents", half percent of murders, the one third of percent of "unidentified deaths”, the one sixth of percent of those, who nevertheless has not managed to emigrate away from here … and this is not the full list by any means.
You will not recover that way – your disease has gone too far. You are too sick to become healthy once again. And those who understand cannot tell it anymore – for the global Mass Media Interactive Network is not for them anymore … never was for them. Only for the government, only for multinational corporations under their “giving hand”. And you could even participate in all this – take, for instance, that interactive sex-orgies that will be broadcasted on all channels “with a purpose of familiarizing of the population with sexual culture and stimulation of natural needs of men and women”.
What idiot has issued this resolution ?! … even its name is idiotic. Bless you, it surely must have been a big person – too big to “stimulate his natural needs” together with mad people crowds in the upcoming day …
Never forget a hand that feeds you … providers of Mass Media content did not forget.
A chip on the right hand has emitted a high-frequency sound impulse and has confirmed it with
predefined sequence of IR-signals.
Damn ! This was dangerous ! This means that he has left the edge of his quadrant in today’s night patrol. This means that after ten minutes this very chip, built into his left hand, - and now also serving as universal biopassport, such a “smart-human-card” in a minitiature, - will send a series of radio signals in Liberty Security State Police Headquarters - his "native home" of sorts - only a series of radio signals which will be retranslated through the governmental stations. Informational stream, ciphered by the newest cryptographic invention SSC-51200, in which numerical postfix also designated length of a key…
Only a series of radio signals … and he will be up to the neck in problems. The internal security service disliked it very much, when its employees did not execute orders.
It was necessary to come back. He was not in time.
This means, that once again he has to writhe from pain, resisting his body’s desires, when video streaming will begin. This means, that once again he has to try to close his eyes – only to receive painful discharges from this damn multifunctional Security State Police Department VMSS helmet – having no possibility to remove it – because as soon as a signal with the information on the scanned retina of his eye will not be transmitted – he’s a criminal. This means that he should die once again.
Almost like those dreamcatchers – almost with a blissful smile on his lips … almost happy.
“You’ve chosen the way.
And you’ve become prey.
Forgotten you have paradise,
And thus received thy hellish prize.
Yes, it was you who’ve rolled the dice…” , - it seems, that such stanza of some newly born poet he has recently seen in still free part of the Net. It seems, the author called it “Appeal to the human”. And he is so damn right in something …
To look for him, maybe … a brother in arms by misfortune … the derelict of this world… Heck, to find … this one must have already joined the Underground Resistance Force – and thus became impossible to be found. For ten years his department was engaged in searches of these insurgents and fighters for “spiritual freedom” – and only their smallest and insignificant agents have been caught, and only one headquarter destroyed.
I am keeping fighting with my brothers, keeping struggling against them … and have no the slightest idea of how to stop it all … cannot stop it … not anymore.
Sometimes they made it. Sometimes they broke – miraculously - through all information covering – and broadcasted on the broadest possible range of frequencies – mainly speech and sometimes even video … for ten minutes only. Then they were blocked once again … however no one has ever found the true source of signals – not in his life.
Sometimes it was invocatory speech to see that already deformed nature of the majority of people, sometimes it was the statistics of human deaths during previous years – numbers and lines of texts, unfamiliar for those profane. Sometimes it was video records from places of military operations and speeches of how people have been drugged into this war by their government – for the sake of interests of the government itself and that cursed “hierarchical minority”. Sometimes it were such verses which he has found yesterday – by the divine will alone still being kept in the Net.
Sometimes … three-four times a year – no more and no less. And for all the rest time there were those Mass Media Interactive corporations.
There will be a holiday of sexual minorities tomorrow … in ten days after it – a holiday of military … there we will once again see heart-touching frames of how our brave soldiers defeat treacherous enemy and how he, this enemy, continue to retreat under their unstoppable pressure – has been retreating for five years already …
Then there will be a holiday of the man, and a holiday of the woman … the new woman and the new man. Then the day of overall scorn to those in the Underground – sort of official “phew” of the powerless government to the members of Underground Resistance Force. Then there will be a day of prostitutes – not that much different in its nature from the day of the woman … there will be so much.
So many holidays … so little joy. So much pleasure. And once again all in a circle the next year. But for now this was completely unimportant. It was time to go back, he had at most about five minutes before the entry into a zone of the patrolled quadrant. The patrol has been completed … his home awaits.
He has turned his flycar, turned on autopilot mode. Now it will travel to LSSP base by itself, automatically regulating its height and evading counter streams of similar happy owners of this transport, and will land on one of free platforms on the base. Nothing more is required. The technics will do everything for you … almost everything.
Then he will make his report on the performed patrol – everything is normal, no suspicious activities have been revealed, no incidents have occurred. Everyone is happy and content … everything is just fine. A paradise on the earth in the borders of his patrolled quadrant … hellish paradise.
He has leant back on a seat and closed his eyes. He had to rest for a while. A difficult day awaits him tomorrow.
03.10.2010
Wrath of war
A whistle of a flying shell. Air, dissected by an iron pig. Explosion. Explosion – just behind the next hill.
Missed. Missed again.
Alive. I am alive ! Still alive.
Have missed the mark, slightly – but have missed. Lucky enough ?
And how many times again must he be lucky enough during all these days, to remain alive ? How many ?
However, it could be worse – much worse. Worse than when his lung was shot and he has been gasping since then, sucking air into lungs with some sobs, and releasing it outside – still hot, warmed by his organism air … air of war and destructions. Even worse than when explosion of a grenade has deprived him of his three hand’s fingers … instead of them – bloody-stained lumps.
A nevertheless he is still alive, living in this mad war. Alive among hundreds and hundreds of other mad ones.
Will he last for long ?
A machine gun fired nearby. Into entrenchments ! – where the killing iron will not reach him. To the ground – the ground of native land … the country, which was hardly resisting enemy’s onslaught. The enemy … How, when these people, just the same as he is, when have they become his enemies ? Why enemies ? What a monstrous absurd and error must have occurred that they suddenly became enemies ? Another madness ?
Anyway, they are enemies now. Worse than that – the hungry beasts, feasting on corpses of killed and wounded, rejoicing with each death of hated enemy … next cut thread of human’s life … human … No, they are not like humans now … not anymore. Each of them – is not a human anymore. They were like them, in their former lives – but not anymore. No.
Since this madness of war has begun.
And once again a whistle of a machine gun and a desperate shriek somewhere far in these entrenchments. His comrade has died – a brother by motherland, by faith, by customs. Yet another stopped life way. Yet again a grief for his parents – if, of course, they are still alive … One more life, put on the altar … what for ? For the sake of what all this war was started ? Territories ? Resources ? Money ? World influence ? But how insignificant all these temporal goals in comparison with one – yes, with a single stopped human life ! And there are hundreds and hundreds of them by each day.
Enemies couldn’t feel regret. They had no desire to understand. They had to kill – kill their enemies. Same people as they are.
And this was the most awful, the most horrific that a blinded by the power and riches human mind could invent. A mistake, terrible mistake … unforgivable mistake. An error, which price is – the split blood – the blood of wounded and dying people, blood of those, who once were them. An error, which price is – ruined cities and destroyed families, corrupted human fates. An error, which price is – unleashed war of two nations.
The war … and for how long w
ill this war ever last ? Until last soldier is killed ? Until all major cities of the enemy are wiped out from the face of Earth ? Until the flame of grief inflames all far horizons of this country – a country, whose destiny is to be subdued. To become a raw appendage of more powerful state and – more aggressive – those which begun the war, made a monstrous mistake for which both will have to pay.
They will not withstand – he knew it. Technics, weapons, resources – enemy has all it in plenty. Much more that they can dream of. They had only one thing left which has played such a malicious joke with them – natural resources, riches of Earth interior – the motherland, where he has to die. He has to die, seeing coming victorious forces of the enemy, seeing their proud and blind delight of a victory, seeing their hatred to those survived – civilian population … to survived civilians – if, of course, there will be many left. He hoped there will be many. It must be many – for sometimes after decades and decades his country could reborn.
And still he has to fight – along with other your men, quickly mobilized and driven on the front lines soon after the beginning of war. Hastily trained. Slightly armed. Not murderers – living people.
The burst of machine gun has abated and he has slightly raised his head. As he has suspected – enemy’s infantry was advancing in full order. Damn, it would be so great to have some heavy technics here and now – some tank. Or tanks. But all large forces have already been mobilized in other directions. And they have been abandoned here, against superior forces of the enemy, with almost no means of protection. They have been left to die here on the battlefield. Well, he though – to die means to die. There are no other options possible, apparently. A pity, his death will be in vain.
He has suddenly caught himself on a thought of how he can die to grasp as many as possible enemies together with him, for enemies aren’t talked with, they have to be – killed. But whether they would began to kill him if they have happened to meet in different circumstances ? Possibly, they would even become friends. Yes, friends with that very young soldier that has so ineptly got out forward …
On the Wings of Hope : Prose Page 29
