A new society

They marched on for days and days on end. There was so much around them but there was nothing, really. In front of them there were ruins. Ruins of houses, gardens, humans. Behind them were ruins. Burning, crashing down, dying. The sky above their heads was dark. Filled with tons of smoke and toxic substances. Under their feet were bones of humans and animals and stones and dirt. So much dirt.

”How much longer is it going to take? I can’t feel my feet anymore,” Person 1 complained. ”I think we are almost there. You see that pole over there? I think that’s it,” Person 2 said. The others started cheering. They were all tired. So when they reached the pole and discovered that it was indeed one of the elevators they were all relieved. Person 3 made quick work of the mechanism, and soon they were all going down into the earth.

When they reached the ground and exited the elevator Person 58 already awaited them. ”I’m so glad you made it back safely! Go on and get some rest. You are expected in 2 hours at our assembly. They have something amazing to show us.”

So they all made their way to their apartments. Identical rooms with the bare minimum of furniture. New clothing, blue jeans along with a white shirt and a gray jacket, had already been laid out for them.

When they made their way to the assembly later that day they greeted all the other Persons that they have not seen for a while. Everyone was dressed the same, of course. They chatted along until several Persons stepped onto the platform above their heads.

”People! We are happy to see you all so beautifully together as always. Today, we have a special announcement. Person 75493 and Person 24897 have created a new technology that will ease our lives. I will now introduce to you: The new network!” The curtain behind Person 789 dropped and revealed a device that looked like a flat cube.

”This amazing device is a phone. It will only show you perfection. Perfect Persons, perfect environment. The perfect world. It will show you how you have to be, how you have to look and act. It will make all even more like one another! It will show you how imperfect you are. And because of this, you will be able to fix yourselves! I promise you this: you will never want to do something different!”

A cheer went through the crowd. Everyone pushed each other to get their hands on one of the phones that were given out at the front. But if and only if you looked very closely you could see one human on the edge of the room that stood very still. It would look just like the others if it wasn’t for the little bit of green that was visible beneath its gray jacket. This human’s eyes were horrified, and their hands were shaking. The human still remembered the world above before it had collapsed. And because it remembered it knew. It knew that being the same hasn’t worked before.

And so the human vomited in the middle of the room.