The Heart Locket Hunt for Humanity

Foreword:

I haven’t tried my hand at creative/fictional writing since high school 10 years ago. So here goes nothing. All I need are dramatic elements that everyone can relate to, right? I feel like the range of 600 - 2000 words doesn’t allow a ton of room for character development, but I’ll at least have a protagonist and antagonist as most good fiction stories have. I hope you, whoever happens to be reading this, enjoys what I’m about to conceive. Thank you for reading.

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1: The Great Disparity and the Origin of the Tribes

Chapter 2: The Hunt for the Heart Locket

Chapter 3: The People’s Champion

Chapter 4: The Journey of Many to Mars

Chapter 5: A Turn for the Best

Chapter 1: The Great Disparity and the Origin of the Tribes

The year is 2120. Exactly 100 years since the beginning of the fall of civilization. The “great disparity” has since whittled the socioeconomic classes down to just 2 classes. The ultra rich and powerful, aka the “totalicrats,” and the poor and impoverished mass majority of the population, which are divided into several regional tribes that the totalicrats don’t bother to learn the names of, and simply refer to them all as “trogs,” which is short for troglodytes, because they liken them to primitive cave dwellers.

With the overpopulation of the planet, the elite totalicrats grew so disgusted in the poor class, that they used their greatest minds and vast resources to evacuate the planet and start a relatively small colony on Mars.

But perhaps the most diabolical thing they did when they left, was to take all technology and all knowledge of all technology (even the internet, many servers were destroyed) with them. Before they left, they sent A.I. bots to all low class citizens to test them on their knowledge, and all of those that had any technical knowledge beyond making a chair or a fire had those particular neurons systematically fried in their brain. It wasn’t as brutal as a full-on lobotomy, but it was essentially the one fell sweep that made an honest society of hard working people into what became known as trogs.

Left with no technology or system of currency, the people had to revert back to primitive ways of life including hunting and gathering, trade and barter, and formed regional tribes led by the most suitable and sensible leaders.

The perversely sick and twisted totalicrats watched it all unfold from their hologram screens as they overindulged their fat greedy selves with an unlimited abundance of the most delicious comfort foods that the trogs would have to hear stories about from their parents or grandparents. Imagine Mcdonalds, Taco Bell, Burger King, and Pizza Hut being touted as urban legend. You think we live in a sad state of affairs now? Well, my friend, this is not far off from a hypothetically realistic trajectory.

Chapter 2: The Hunt for the Heart Locket

After 32 years since the totalicrats left to Mars, they began to crave a very specific form of live action entertainment that only trogs could provide. And though they had robots to cater to all their needs, they began to miss the power trip feeling of bossing around other human beings. Bossing around robots just didn’t quite offer the same sadistic and malevolently fueled dopamine drip. The citadel of the 12 leaders of the 12 most rich and powerful families congregated to solve the issue. “Make the robots more life-like?” “No, that’s not good enough, for we know they are still robots.”

What they decided was to hold a competition among the trog tribes in “survival of the fittest” fashion to determine which tribe was worthy to be their slaves. They decided a battle to the death was too brutal, and also didn’t want to plagiarize the plot of “the Hunger Games.” So the competition was decidedly a scavenger hunt. The artifact to be found was a heart locket (not like an emoji heart, like an anatomically accurate heart with ventricle openings and capillaries and all).

Of course it couldn’t be as simple as finding the locket. It had to be hidden in an artificial atmosphere bubble quarantined region of Africa, where all non-human animal DNA was subjected to a virus to make them grow to 10x their original size. So much for not being brutal.

The trogs were just living out a normal primitively pre-conditioned day like any other, when all of a sudden, the entire sky turned into a giant screen that repeated all around the world in repeating squares large enough for any one person in any one place to see mostly 1 screen. As everyone looked up in bewilderment, a scrolling text appeared on the screen in almost “star wars” like fashion that read, “Attention citizens of Earth: We are holding a contest to crown 1 winning tribe the opportunity to join us in paradise on Mars. All you have to do is locate the heart locket in this designated region of Africa. These arrows will lead the way. Do not be alarmed when you encounter a gigantic plexiglass dome. There will be doors to enter, but you may have to traverse some distance to find them. It’s all part of the challenge. Oh, and as just a teeny tiny disclaimer: The animals inside are just a wee little bit bigger, so be prepared, and maybe bring a bigger than average fly swatter…. And weapons, lots and lots of weapons. As for leaving you guys all behind 32 years ago; we apologize for that, and now feel really, really bad about it, and are trying to make amends and be better people. The problem is there’s just not enough room up here for all of you. No hard feelings? Can’t wait to welcome you to Mars. Happy hunting!”

Chapter 3: The People’s Champion

Of course this haphazardly written message stirred a lot of mixed responses among the tribes. Some took it seriously as hope for a new beginning. Some thought it was a complete joke. And some were unsure, but curious. Somewhere in between.

It wasn’t long before teams had accepted the challenge, entered the dome, and exited with less team members than they entered with. Word had spread about the true size of the beasts within the dome, and it would only be the bravest of the brave to enter to search for the locket knowing the danger full-well.

After almost 2 years, the locket would finally be found by the courageous “Alexio” of the “Wulfstan” tribe. His people were so proud, but only the naive were not skeptical of the totalicrats true intentions. The sky teleprompter message was just too sketchy, and something felt off about the whole situation. It was like they had just knew they were up there laughing at all those who fell victim to the unspeakable beasts inside that dome.

Alexio, being as fearless as he was, was willing to take whatever risks came his way in going to Mars. He evaded and battled innumerable beasts 10x their normal size, so he certainly feared no man. With his tribe and tribe leader Reeves also having his back on the journey, he had very little apprehension toward the endeavor.

Chapter 4: The Journey of Many to Mars

Remember the first time you went to Disney World as a kid? That’s what it was like for the Wulfstan tribe when they boarded the S.S. Talon. Only the elders of the tribe had remnants of a memory of what some of the technology was. It was like a flying Dave and Busters. There were games, movies, music, fast food, and more for the passengers to enjoy during the 30 day flight to Mars than they had enjoyed in their entire lives. This was like first class on steroids (am I allowed to say steroids?).

The great Alexio, and his blushing bride to be, Deebio, were more disciplined than the average tribesmen. Though they had never seen such comfort and entertainment in their entire lives, they indulged in them with a disciplined minimalism, and spent much of the time working out. A few days in, Alexio had the epiphany that all of these comfortable amenities were likely a deliberate ploy to make the tribe arrive fat, docile, weak, and pre-programmed.

Alexio consulted with Reeves about the matter, and it was decided that everyone keep the gaming and movies to a disciplined minimum, and calories be counted, and exercise be mandatory. It was then apparent to all Wulfstans that since these totalicrats true intentions are unknown and likely malevolent, that it’s best to be sharp and prepared for battle if it came down to it.

Chapter 5: A Turn for the Best

Alexio and the Wulfstans were cordially greeted upon arrival at the S.S. Talon landing gate. “How was the flight?” a lady with fancy shoes and a stupid looking hat greeted them. “All that stuff is great, but we are disciplined people that take pride in doing hard work.” The monotonous “stepford wife” like lady generically and monotonously responded, “Great, let me show you all to your rooms.”

The bot led them into a hotel, but there was no way for anyone to know at the time that it was a trap. Especially without having the technical knowledge of how space could be digitally re-looped into an entry without exits. But it wasn’t until later that night that anyone would figure that out, as everyone was tired, and wanted to rest.

Many of the Wulfstans enjoyed the shrimp tacos at the bar of the “Don Chico’s” in the lobby of the hotel. The rest went straight to their rooms to sleep for the night.

A mind reprogramming bot was assigned and sent to every tribe member’s room in the middle of the night. Many were compromised, but few fought and defeated the robots. Among the scuffles, the uncompromised Wulfstan’s met in the hallways, and hurried to gather all remaining true Wulfstan’s to the lobby. It was then they discovered that both the exit and entrance doors of the hotel looped right back into the lobby from the other side, almost like one of the impossible realities of the art of M.C. Escher.

The compromised Wulfstan’s like zombies collaborated together like drones along with the bots to subdue and attack the remaining true Wulfstans. Alexio thought he was ready for whatever would happen, but never could envision anything as crazy and messed up as this. He didn’t know what to do. He shouted, “Everyone! Huddle together in a circle and stand your ground. We have to take them down by non-lethal force. Whatever was programmed into our families minds must be possible to be unprogrammed.”

To Alexio’s sheer and utter dismay, he saw that his fiance Deebio, and tribe leader Reeves had both been compromised, and it was only him and a few others that hadn’t. The odds were stacked against them, and it wasn’t looking like there was an executable plan with any sort of favorable probability.

He suddenly came up with a plan. It was a long shot, and not knowing if it would work, he had to at least try. He said to the remaining tribesman, “unscrew all these glass balls with these shiny filaments inside.” (light bulbs from the lamps). “I hope this works.” He approached Reeves, swiftly dodging his robotic-like attacks, squeezed his mouth open, shoved the light bulb in his mouth, smacked him in the face as hard as he could, exploding the bulb, it somehow managed to override and shut off the program. Reeves was Reeves again. “What the heck just happened?” Reeves said in confusion. “Long story. But we have to put these in their mouths and smack them to bring them back.” Alexio told him quickly.

In the process of getting everyone back to themselves, some of the robots had turned them back, but they inevitably defeated all the bots, and got everyone back. Now the challenge was to figure out how to escape the hotel that seemed to defy the very laws of physics.

They had to think and had to think fast before more bots showed up to attack. What they realized that was the doors and windows themselves are wormhole portals, but the entire place might not be designed that way. They went to the top floor, and chiseled away at the ceiling to get out on the roof.

They escaped from the roof, and realized that if they were spotted they were done for, and that their only chance to survive was to seek refuge, train in silence, find the main power source, shut it down, and be prepared to fight anyone in the way of taking them to the leaders in charge.

When the Wulfstan’s went awol for 2 entire years, the totalicrats gossiped and feared for where they were hiding and what they were planning. It was almost like they knew they were weak and were up against a superior opponent, even greatly outnumbered.

The Wulfstan’s had been collecting broken and malfunctioning bots to figure out how to reverse engineer them. When they finally did, they could not only repair the broken ones, but build new ones from scratch. After building an army, they were ready for the revolution.

When they finally revealed themselves fearlessly to the totalicrats, the totalicrats made the figuratively fatal error of underestimating the Wulfstans. They thought they could just send the bots to them like they did at the hotel. What they didn’t know was they had the army of bots of their own hiding in the distance to fight and defeat all their bots. “What are we going to do now?” the totalicrats said. “We don’t know how to fight. And we’re fat and out of shape.”

Being the cowards that they were, the totalicrats didn’t even put up a fight. They surrendered. The very people who they planned to enslave had defeated and enslaved them. But the Wulfstan’s being noble people, did it in a subtle and nonchalant way. They just took all their money, gave them no choice but to work minimum wage jobs, and made them pay taxes? Reeves tells them all from a podium on a stage, “You guys are still free…. Enough….. Right?” Alexio and Deebio at his side with fancy suits and the latest iphones explode into laughter as the entire crowd is silent in defeat.