HEART'S CONTENT

I don’t remember the world as it once `was. I was too young when the pyramids came. I don’t mean the pyramids in Egypt, but the PYRAMIDS. These were warships shaped like the structures in Egypt from an alternate universe that somehow crossed into our plane and decimated every civilization on Earth. They destroyed it all. They took my family. I was three years old. My mother, father, and brother had managed to get me to the back of the bomb shelter built into the basement. Mom manned the door as my father and brother ran to get the last supplies. Unfortunately, the Pyramid over our little town of Schaghticoke New York launched a massive bomb at that moment. The blast killed all three of them. I was discovered in the rubble three days later. I was crying, covered in dust and wood, clutching my mother’s heart shaped locket.

At least that’s the story that was told to me. To be honest, I don’t remember anything. My first memories are of watching the fish swim by my window in the underwater city of Tonokos located in the Mediterranean Sea. After the Decimation, all survivors were moved to an underwater structure that had previously been used by the former Russian government for research. All former governments chipped in where they could to expand the original structure, and form a city for the one million survivors. You would think everything would be good after that, but no. The thirst for power exists whether you are, surface side or under. The remaining politicians saw an opportunity to seize control. Just like history has told, everyone had different ideas. There was a bloody battle, reminiscent of the Coliseum days held on the former continent of Europe. All contestants had to do was be the last one alive. Those guidelines set up the failure that is Tonokos. The politicians from all the former countries, a total of 22, battled it out for ten days. John Walsh, from the now defunct United States of America, won out with strategy. He was the defense secretary of America. He had a bloody and menacing record, and that record, mixed with a lack of conscience won him the contest. He immediately seized control of Tonokos and enacted his dictatorship, with fear as his main tactic. If you disobey, you get sent to the surface to starve or die of thirst. Most succumb within a few days to the latter.

It’s been twenty years since the Decimation. This is all I have ever known. We are all assigned roles in life and mine is an Influencer. I have heard of the days where people created online accounts to influence people in many different areas. Influencers today are not that at all. We are charged with teaching the children in all areas. This includes how to act and how to think. We teach them what is right and wrong. There are no parents here. Reproducers and Birthers are partnered by their genetic makeup to make the strongest child possible. Once birthed they are immediately handed over to the Legacy Center to be cared for through infancy. Once they reach two years old, they are assigned to people like me, and we teach them until they are 20. They are then sent to the local University Hall to be sorted and taught their trades of assignment. Nothing in Tonokos is by choice. It’s all laid out for us under the guise of living a happy life.

It is hard work teaching these kids things I don’t believe in. People should be allowed to choose their own path in life, but we don’t get that opportunity. We are to follow the path laid out for us and must not question anything. If we do, we face trial and Surface Execution. I stick to myself, or at least I did. That is until Mara showed up.

Mara is an Influencer as well. We are assigned to the same unit. She handles the girls. I handle the boys. She’s 21 and very new. She still has a light within her. It attracts me and makes it impossible to work. She’s beautiful. She has the deepest brown eyes and black hair. She has a laugh that makes the world stop. When she speaks it seems she is singing. Her voice has a melody all its own. I’ve never heard such before. Everything about her is so enticing. I tried to stay away but I just couldn’t.

You see, we aren’t supposed to fraternize. Birthers and Reproducers are the only ones involved with intimate acts, except Walsh. He’s fathered 30 children over the years, hoping for one to impress him enough to succeed him. The mere mortals are not allowed though. Physical pleasure is not a thing. Everything must be done to continue the success, or so they call it, of Tonokos. Mara and I have been seeing each other in secret for the past six months. We take many precautions including black market contraception, different paths to the same destination to ensure it is a happenstance meeting, and sitting at different tables in restaurants. We tried to stay away. It was as though the Universe was forcing us together. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful. I don’t think I could have continued on with my life in the same way much longer. She brightens my world.

One night, we are sitting in a botanical garden talking about our dreams. We do this in hushed whispers, as dreams and goals are outlawed. No one can know we think for ourselves.

“What would you do if we were able to choose our own paths?” Mara asks.

I took a moment to think before responding. “I would like to gather supplies and try to make it work on the surface. The only thing that kills people is starvation or severe thirst leading to dehydration. If I had the right supplies, I’d rebuild.”

Mara grins. “That sounds lovely. I’d like to be surface side to. I’d like to lay in the sun and swim in the sea. I’d love to feel the salt water on my skin, gently exfoliating as I enjoy my day.”

There is a couple minutes of silence as we allow ourselves to slip into our daydreams. Mara speaks again.

“We should do it. It can’t be too hard.”

“What do you mean. How can we possibly succeed? We would be shot on the spot and sent to the surface to face our deaths.”

“We’d have to be sly about it. Don’t you want to escape Tonokos? This place is so dreary and disgusting. We are brainwashing children day in and day out. I don’t know how much more I can take.”

I sit for a while and ponder Mara’s revelation. Could we do it? Is it possible to escape Walsh and his tyranny? I don’t really know. It’s as enticing as it is terror inducing? We could die. What could be worse than death? It hit me then. I was already dying. I was dying slowly. Each day a little bit of me was lost to Tonokos. I wasn’t living. I was just existing. There was no end in sight. In fact, if I really think about it, death would be better than staying in this world where individuality is a crime.

I finally respond. “Let’s do it.”

Mara looks shocked. “Really? Do you think we could?”

“Why not? You said it yourself. It’s awful here. We can either accept our lives here or try for something better, consequences be damned. We will die at some point either way.”

Mara grabs me and hugs me. I hold for a second and push her away with a disgusted expression so any cameras will see that I didn’t enjoy it.

“You know physical contact of the opposite sex is strictly prohibited Mara. We can’t do that.” I sneak a wink at the end so she knows I’m performing.

“I’m so sorry. I don’t know what came over me. I’ll do 3 extra confessional cleanses tonight.”

At this point, we say goodnight with a whispered promise of spending the rest of the night planning. Once I return home, I grab a notepad and brainstorm. We need supplies, food, drinking water, and medical kits. There are rumors of trees still growing, so we will need to tools to chop down the trees and use the wood to build a home. It won’t be much as we aren’t very skilled, but humans of the past have managed, so why can’t we? I finish planning, memorize what I write, shred it and toss it into the garbage chute.

Two weeks later, the plan is done. Two weeks after our monthly delivery of disillusion tablets, to make the children more pliable, arrives. Mara and I make an excuse to count the stock on the ship prior to accepting delivery. While Mara and the transporter count the bottles, I take the knife we are given to open the boxes and slice the transporter’s throat. It’s an awful but necessary experience. We have to get out. Mara hits the button to close the back hatch and I program the ship using the knowledge I gathered from an old manual I stole. We launch off the loading dock heading right for the surface.

After about an hour, Mara laughs and screams “We are doing it! This is really happening!” She grabs me and kisses me deeply. A screeching alarm sounds. I push Mara off me and look at the radar. There is an object coming right towards us at an alarmingly fast rate. It’s a missile. The ship is nearly indestructible so the missile won’t destroy us, but it can disable it. We have about 2 minutes before the missile reaches us.

“Get in your diving suit quickly!” I scream.

We run to the back and grab our suits. We manage to get them on and get the air supply going. I run to the front of the ship and see we are nearing the surface. The missile hits. We are thrown to opposite sides of the ship. We scramble to the airlock chamber that will eject us. There is no time to speak. I hit the red eject button. We are torpedoed into the sea at a diagonal heading towards the surface. Once slowed, we begin our frantic ascent. We can see the sun’s rays beaming off the surface. We swim faster. We are almost there. From the corner of my eye, moments away from reaching the crest of the water, Mara suddenly drops out of view. I turn back and see a man dragging her to him. There is a vessel I hadn’t seen on the radar. I swim down to help, but I am too late. The man disconnects Mara’s air supply and stabs her three times in the chest. He turns toward me as I watch Mara’s lifeless body floating away. I panic and swim as fast as I can. I make it to surface. I see a beach and swim frantically to it. Just as I reach the edge and take my helmet off, the man reaches the surface and stands. I try to run further inland. I make it 20 feet before he tackles me to the ground. We wrestle for what feels like hours. I manage to get his knife. I stab him in the neck through his diving gear. He falls to the ground. I see a gun in a waterproof case on his hip. I quickly grab it. I point it at him and shoot three times. Blood splatters my face. All I can think of is Mara’s body floating away in a sea of red. I can’t breathe. I can’t survive on my own with no supplies. I grab my mother’s locket under my suit, take a breath, turn the gun on myself and pull the trigger.