The Shadow

When most people were out of work, it took a long time for the masses to be aware of its most deadly epidemic ever even as it took hold of most of them. The one thing done to stop its spread was to isolate the sufferers, but it was also the one thing that made it so deadly. There was no cure for existential depression, and when the mass suicides and murders began, deep brain stimulation was the only thing that could delay it indefinitely. When no distractions were left to keep it away, it was only a matter of time before everyone became affected, and the suffering it caused was so great that people would do anything to get away from it. With nothing to lose they became addicts, and in their isolation they let their society turn back into a despotism. Thus began a long age of decadence in which all progress stopped, but people still reproduced, for it was the one goal they had left in their life.
So when humans became immortal but did not change otherwise, over the centuries humans became the only life forms in the world. The entire world became a single city made up of tiny cells, inside which people live their entire lives. Although machines synthesize enough nutrients for everyone, they compete their whole lives to obtain as much as possible for themselves, starving each other in the process, so that when they retire, their brains can live on on life support indefinitely while on deep brain stimulation, perhaps forever.
Deep brain stimulation, which is supposed to cause the greatest pleasure possible, and is the one thing they live for. Because it’s extremely addictive, it’s rationed until retirement, which is the only way people avoid starving themselves to death on it. Once in deep brain stimulation for a long period, however, the brain becomes unable to function normally, so that their only chance to store nutrients for their life support is before their retirement. The wealthiest have enough nutrients stored to last them through an artificial orgasm lasting millions of years.
Only a few, who called themselves the Stoics, were able to avoid the system through the illegal use of nanorobots, which gave them great powers, but none so far which could save people. Eventually, they became neurotic and, having nothing to lose, gave in to the offers made by the authorities to give up their powers in return for indefinite deep brain stimulation.
Now, I am the last. I live in a shell of nanorobots in outer space, the only place where I won’t be found. I’ve lived for hundreds of years, all that time trying to find a way to save the world through the ever increasing powers of my nanorobots. But no matter what I do to give people back their freedom, they always give it up again. When I try to wake people from deep brain stimulation, it’s only to find them comatose and realize that as more and more people retire, the whole of humanity will eventually go into a coma forever, leaving no living thing left on the world.
When I finally fall into neurosis, I know from what happened to the others what is to come next but try to resist. But I begin to have dreams of one with the same powers as me, but who uses them instead to end the world, one district at a time, always there to execute the mass murder in person, and see to it that the people there die in as painful a way as possible. The dreams are so realistic that I’m afraid the dreams may be real, and were sent telepathically through nanorobots by another Stoic. However, the ecumenopolis goes kilometers deep into the ground and sky, and I have no way of knowing where he could possibly be.
The dreams become more and more frequent, and I start to see visions of him while waking. He calls himself the Shadow, and says that he is sending these visions to prepare me to face him when the world is to end. As the visions continue, my neurosis becomes more severe. Then in one of my dreams, I again dream of the end of the world, but in this dream, it is I who bring it.
I realize that I am the Shadow, and that I may turn into the Shadow at any time, and that there is no way I can know when it will happen, or if it has already happened and if all my dreams were real. I only knows that if it will happen again, the world will end.
So I try as hard as I can to stay myself and keep from falling asleep, lest there would be no world left to wake up to, but I can’t think of a way to save the world from what I may be about to do other than destroying myself, and with me, the only hope for humanity.
After some time, I realize that the longer I stay awake, the more the Shadow is taking over, and let myself fall asleep. The next thing I know is the Shadow standing upon the dust of the ecumenopolis, not knowing whether it is a dream or reality.
I walk towards the Shadow, and as I take hold of him, I becomes one with him. When I wake up to myself, I feel like I am whole again, and know what I must do. I have to do the one thing I was always afraid to, lest it would itself destroy them. But now I’ve become one with my shadow I’m no longer afraid. I let my own mind become one with theirs as their shadow.
Now after all these centuries I’ve achieved enlightenment, the connection causes their egos to disintegrate. But I will not stop the connection no matter what. I will let them suffer and suffers with them, and they will know all the suffering that I knew. But for the first time in centuries, they’ll become truly human again.

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