The Program

Stefano curled his toes. The moist sand crumpled easily underneath them. He felt the grains massage his feet as he dug his toes deeper and deeper. He loved seeing the sunset against the ocean. This was a particularly beautiful one. The sky was bright streaks of purple, pink, and fuchsia hues. Stefano put on his shades and laid all the way back on his towel.

Someone placed an icy cold lemonade right next to him. He turned to see his uncle smile wide. “It’s a stunner tonight, eh?” Uncle Chance said as he passed out lemonades to the rest of Stefano’s family.

“It’s gorgeous,” Stefano said as he took a giant swig of the sugary sweet lemonade, complete with a pink umbrella. He then turned to the camera and gleefully shouted, “Join the Program today!”

The image of the beach projected on the side of a skyscraper faded away quickly into bright red letters.“Join the Program Today! Spots Available!”

Doug scoffed. “They must think we’re idiots. Everyone knows what happens in that horrible, forsaken place.”

Sam nodded. “Being a sleeper is worse than death.”

Doug quickly agreed. “At least when you’re dead, it’s real. I have a friend who’s cousin joined The Program. He said they never saw him again.”

Sam and Doug ran to cross the street. They were surrounded by giant, dark-stone skyscrapers. Neon signs flashed different images and holographic illusions several stories tall. The sidewalks were wide and littered with fast food wrappers and soda cans.

“So what will it be tonight? Happy Hamburger or Pizzazzz?” Sam asked Doug.

Doug looked at a digital counter implanted into his forearm. “I only have enough MinerCoin for a single slice.”

Sam checked her forearm as well. “Me too, actually. This will be the third night in a row. When do you think the algorithm is going to give us more shifts?”

Doug chuckled. “When enough of the senior miners die.”

Sam sighed. “You’re so morbid.”

Doug laughed again. “I live in the real world, so of course I’m morbid. You either have to learn to be realistic too, or you might as well be a sleeper.”

Sam rolled her eyes. The two of them had finally reached the front of the Pizzazzz line. Doug held up his forearm to the scanner. A small slice of pizza materialized right in front of him. He scarfed it down quickly. Sam did the same. With a mouth still half full, Sam said, “I remember my grandma talking about going to the grocery store as a kid. They would just walk into this huge market and there would be all kinds of ingredients. She said a lot of it still came from trees back then.”

Doug raised an eyebrow. “All food has always been made by ChemGrub. Your grandma was just telling you stories to help you escape this reality. But trust me. It’s always been this way.”

Sam and Doug parted ways quickly after they finished eating. Sam took the high-speed train several hundred miles outside of the commercial district. The miners were packed shoulder to shoulder, several half-asleep. Out the window, Sam saw only bright ads fill the night sky. Soon, she arrived at her stop. She walked the several blocks of empty high-rise apartment buildings until she reached her home. She walked into the back of an old laundromat and into the basement. She started the long trek through the nearly pitch-black hallway, formed by sheets pinned to a seemingly endless clothesline on either side and illuminated only by the glow of people watching television and playing games on the other side of the sheets. She reached her family’s section. Her mother and brother watching the news, reflected on the wall by a tiny projector.

“Hi mom” she whispered.

“Shhhh!” her brother, Will, hissed. “Pay attention!”

The news had interrupted all other streaming services for a breaking announcement. The news anchor, an AI-powered but human-looking robot, announced “Starting tomorrow AM shift, The Program will become mandatory for at least one miner in every family, unless the family can pay a $20,000 MinerCoin fee to ChemMine.” The basement hallway erupted in cursing and yelling.

Will threw his mug at the wall, shattering it into several pieces. “Can you believe this?” He yelled. “They know nobody can pay that!”

Sam shook her head. “Why would they do that? They couldn’t possibly need the money! They take everything from us as it is.”

Sam’s mom opened the heart-shaped locket she had worn for the last twenty years. “When my mom passed, this was all I was able to keep. I want you to take it.” Sam’s mom handed the locket to Sam, which contained a small photo of Sam’s grandmother. “I never told you the full story.”

When MegaSocialNet bought the American government in the thirties to bail them out of bankruptcy, your grandmother quickly became the union leader for all of the company’s employees. She managed to get everyone safe working conditions and enough wages to buy food. Things were getting much better, but MegaSocialNet just kept buying all the other companies, until it eventually just became “Chem.” When there were no other companies and no other governments, the King Executive Officer invited your grandmother in for what they said was a discussion about healthcare, but I know they killed her. We never saw her again after that.

Sam let out a tear. “Mom, we’ll figure out a way. Maybe we can sell something.” Sam squeezed her mom tight, knowing she would likely never see her again.

Sam’s mom embraced her and breathed in her scent, knowing these were the last moments she would have with her children. “You know we have nothing to sell, sweetheart. Certainly nothing worth $20,000 MinerCoin.”

Will stood up. “It doesn’t need to be you. I can go.”

“Shhhh” their mom whispered. “No need to be upset, Will. It’s probably best for me. I’ll enjoy it. Nothing but endless sunsets and endless leisure on the beach, right? And they’ll upload pictures of your grandmother, and your father, and all of our other loved ones. Even you guys. I’ll love it. Really.”

Will, now crying also, protested, “But you know that it’s all just --”

“Shhh!” Sam punched him in the shoulder hard. Shocked, he looked Sam in the eyes, who simply shook her head side-to-side. “There’s nothing we can do. Just hug her.” The three sat huddled together, crying, until dawn creeped up on the horizon.

The other families had also all chosen to send the eldest member to The Program. Nobody spoke on the train to the commercial district. There was nothing but dead silence, other than soft sniffles and whispers of “I love you,” “It’s for the best,” and “It will be okay” - all the things families say when they know it will neither be okay nor for the best.

The train arrived at the commercial district station, but nobody got off. The families stayed huddled together, knowing that once they let go, they would never see one another again. The AI-train conductor announced. “All families must depart. All families must depart.”

Slowly, a few elder members began to get up and say their final goodbyes. A few more followed. The crying intensified with each miner who got off the train. Eventually, there were just a few families left.

Several armed robots boarded the train. “This is your final warning. You must disembark now.”

Sam and Will’s mom smiled at them. “I love you both. Don’t ever forget --”

Before she could finish her sentence, one of the robots yanked her by the collar across the train door. “Nooo!” Will shouted. He jumped up. Sam screamed and lunged after him, but it was too late. Will jumped on the back of the robot that grabbed their mom, but the robot closest to them simply stuck a long thin blade into Will’s neck.

“Threat neutralized. Threat neutralized.”

Sam fell to her knees. She reached for her mom who was quickly dragged away into a tall building that rotated images of happy families at the beach.

Doug, who was just a few yards away saying his own final goodbyes to his father, saw everything that happened. “They killed him!” he shouted. “They killed Will!” Several people looked at Will, lying on the pavement. “Enough is enough!” Doug shouted. He rushed toward the robots. A few robots ran into the building to secure the miners they had in their grasp, but several other robots began running toward Doug.

“Get them!” another miner shouted. Several hundred miners who were the last to get off the trains and give their final farewell to their family rushed after Doug. They let out war-like shrieks, swearing vengeance. “Death before your Program! Death before your Program!” they shouted.

The robots killed several of the miners quickly, but some of the miners managed to break the camera lenses the robots used for spatial recognition, leaving the robots blind. Sam ran toward the other miners to help, but when she looked up, she saw several hundred more robots rushing toward them. “Under the tracks!” she screamed.

The miners ran after Sam, following her underneath a small opening in the ground to the side of the train tracks. The robots were able to capture a few of the miners, but several made it safely inside, though they could still hear the robots. “Threat neutralized. Threat neutralized. Threat neutralized.”

“Follow me!” Sam shouted, as she darted through the labyrinth of centuries-old tunnels underground.

Once it was safe, Sam collapsed into tears. One of the miners paced back and forth. “What did you guys do? What did you do? They’re going to find us any second and kill us all!”

“They won’t.” Doug said calmly. “You get any signal down here? We’ll starve to death before the robots catch us. As far as they’re concerned, this place doesn’t exist because it’s off the grid.” One of the miners pushed Doug hard. “So either way we die?! That’s just great!” Doug pushed him back and the two began to fight.

“Stop!” Sam yelled. “It’s going to be Okay.”

Doug, exhausted from the fight, asked in between labored breaths, “How so?”

Sam took out her locket. “I know about this place because of my grandma. She kept this map of the town’s underground tunnels from the 30s folded into her locket because she thought there would be a civil war when MegaSocialNet bought the Government. These tunnels were built by MegaSocialNet just in case they needed to go underground to protect their executive team.”

Sam scratched his head. “So you’re saying--”

“I’m saying I have a map of a tunnel system that takes us straight to the executive offices of Chem.”

The other miners all crowded around to see the map in the locket. One of them said, “I heard about these underground tunnels, but never thought it could be true!”

“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” Sam asked. “It was my mom’s locket until last night. She didn’t want to lead a revolution. She had kids to look after. But me... well…”

Sam nodded. “If we do this, everyone must be willing for whatever waits on the other side of those doors.”

The miners smiled. “Death before your Program” one said quietly with a large grin. The other miners all repeated the words, and with excitement in their eyes and anger in their hearts, followed the map to the old shaft and rode it up to the door outside the executive offices.

Sam kicked open the door.

She saw a beautiful sunset, full of purples, pinks, and fuchsia. Her mother handed her an icy cold lemonade.

A tear fell down Sam’s cheek.

She was hooked up to several wires in a crowded room with countless other humans. A robot logged her tear as a datapoint and went to observe the next human on its list.