This occurred when people lived in high-rise buildings under constant 24/7 surveillance and interacted with AI in their smart homes and cars. One day, inexplicably, people began to hear some noise and receive underground information about attacks on civilians in every city by the authorities. Initially, no one wanted to believe it could be true; most dismissed it as conspiracy theories, thinking it had nothing to do with their modern, secure lifestyle.
One morning, the army was deployed to our block, claiming it was for our wellbeing and protection. They quickly erected a fence around each city block and soon declared a state of emergency, preventing anyone from leaving their homes without permission.
I knew every street, house, river, and hill in the area, so I had time to find an escape route. The day to use it came when more military forces arrived in town, and we began to hear dogs barking, screams, and gunfire. I had all my essentials ready and decided it was time to go, perhaps my last chance.
It was only when I was some distance from the city, and looking down the mountain, that I realized all the discussions on the dark net were true. The government had indeed turned against its people, with a level of brutality the world had never seen before.
The following days brought the most horrifying scenes imaginable. The army went door to door with dogs, shooting anything that moved, after that, garbage trucks arrived to clean up the aftermath. By the end of the week, it became very quiet. Most of the forces had left, leaving only a small group to patrol the deserted city.
The next month, or so, I spent on that mountain, contemplating my next move while observing the patrols and the city’s reconstruction. As my supplies dwindled, I decided it was time to leave.
On my way to the sea, I encountered another survivor at one of the riverbanks. She leapt out from some bushes with such joy and almost shouted that she had believed she was the only one to survive the doomsday. I quickly realized she was a true blessing. Her name was Lee, and she was a biologist and a chemistry expert, which solved our food problem.
Over time, we learned that the entire SMRT grid was shut down except for some military bases, and some personnel, who remained under their own quarantine rules, working during the day and sleeping at night. Every city had become a zombie-like apocalyptic zone. At night, Lee and I could travel from city to city without any problems. Sometimes during our nighttime walks, we could even forget the current situation; it felt as if no one else was there at all.
One day, Lee developed a poisonous gas and became fixated on the idea of revenge. After sneaking into a military base at night, she became convinced that it was possible to make it appear as though the incident occurred naturally, without arousing any suspicion. She believed we could move from city to city and eliminate them all. One morning, after being gone for several hours, she came back to our hideout, full of excitement, and declared that everything is prepared and ready for our attack that night. She explained that the zombie-like soldiers were drugged in their tents every night, rendering them incapable of any rection, even when she made noise outside. She claimed they were useless at night, making it an easy task for us.
I had a terrible gut feeling about doing to them that, what they did to us, I feared losing my humanity and becoming like them. But I didn’t want her to see me as a traitor, so I always pretended to be enthusiastic about joining her on this mission.
All that day, I couldn’t sleep, and I became very sick just from thinking about the next night. In the evening, my fever rose to a high level, perhaps around 40 degrees or close to it. Anyway, I couldn’t move or leave the sleeping bag, so I asked her to postpone the plan and give me some time to recover. She agreed, but she left any way, and it was the last time I saw her.
After two or three days, I got out, and to my surprise, I discovered that the liberation force had managed to take over the entire globe.
I searched everywhere hoping to find her, thinking that during her quest for revenge, she might have joined the liberation forces, and she didn’t return because she had more important tasks to accomplish.
Then, I came across the tape. Someone who heard I was looking for a rebellious, surviving girl brought it to see if the girl on the tape was the one I was looking for. When I saw the recording, I couldn’t stop crying. I discovered that on that night, she couldn’t carry out her plan because she was intercepted by some army guys, who filmed their brutality on that tape.
It’s heartbreaking that it happened just a few nights before the liberation. If only she had stayed with me that night, she would be alive now.
As time went on, life not only returned to normal but improved beyond all imaginations. We discovered that the forces capable of attacking us worldwide were quite different from ordinary human beings. This became possible due to an earlier medical intervention, which led to recipients losing empathy for each other and caused some other lasting changes, including their blood turning blue.
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