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Warriors of the Golden Age

We were chosen.

By Scott KessmanPublished 3 years ago 9 min read
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Warriors of the Golden Age
Photo by Shuvra Podder on Unsplash

Jakob signed out of his terminal and removed his visor. He blinked several times as the reality of the world around him returned to his eyes in dull, muted tones. His room was a mess, of course, as was the rest of the apartment. No need to clean when no one is ever coming in.

A wall panel was flashing, and he put his palm to it. Several messages appeared on the panel, but the only one he considered of present importance was the delivery notification. The delivery would contain his weekly rations, and quite possibly, something a little extra if his connection had succeeded.

At the front door, Jakob placed his palm against another wall panel, and the door unlocked. Beyond was a small vestibule and a second door that opened to the outside. The vestibule itself was empty except for a large white box on the floor. A stamped seal declared the box and its contents disinfected and sanitized.

Jakob brought the box inside and opened it. As expected, his weekly rations. Rice, dehydrated fruit, high-calorie food bars, and various other rations sealed in protective mylar bags. Beneath that were toiletries and some plain garments. And also, a small wrapped and sealed package, with no description of its contents. But Jakob knew what was inside.

He brought the package into the small kitchen and cut the wrapping with a knife. It was sealed pretty tightly in multiple layers, so it took some time. Finally, the treasure was revealed, along with a note. The note read, “Jakob, my love, how I miss you. Please place a picture of yourself inside this locket and send it back to me, so that I might have a keepsake of our love.”

The note was fake, meant to fool any inspectors that might suspect something. But seeing as how the package hadn’t appeared to have been tampered with, whichever inspector had allowed the package to pass had probably been paid off.

Besides, the heart-shaped locket couldn’t easily be opened. Not without the key. A key that had been sent to Jakob weeks earlier.

At long last, Jakob could leave this place and join those he pledged his life to. Those who would be his new brothers and sisters in a utopia far away from the plague-filled cities.

The Neo-Hopi didn’t accept just anyone. It had taken Jakob years to simply find one of The People to contact, and then almost another year and a half to prove he was worthy enough to join their ranks. But it would all be worth it once he was fully a part of the Golden Age.

Jakob took the locket to his bedroom and set it upon the recliner that faced the terminal. Then he retrieved a small box from beneath a floorboard. Within the box was the key. It didn’t look like an actual key, however. Rather, it was a small, sophisticated piece of tech. A thin, cylindrical flash drive containing an encrypted code.

When the drive was inserted into the ring-shaped indentation on the back of the locket, the coding hidden within the locket would marry that within the flash drive, allowing the locket to be opened.

Jakob didn’t hesitate. He inserted the key, and the top of the locket popped open with a soft click. Inside was a single white capsule. Supposedly, the Neo-Hopi had spent almost two decades perfecting this formula. It was derived from a centuries-old recipe that served to allow the mind to transcend time and space. The new formula enabled the same, but had also been specially engineered to further amplify the electrical impulses of the brain while connected to the terminal.

The goal was to allow all those connected to form one collective conscious, at which point the Neo-Hopi would welcome them to The People and provide them with instructions on how they might aid the cause and bring about the Golden Age.

Previously, Jakob had been given instructions to wait until 6:00 PM before swallowing the capsule and connecting to the terminal interface. That was only about 5 minutes from now, just long enough for Jakob to look around his dark apartment and say goodbye to the wretched land that surrounded it.

No longer would he need to envelop himself in protective gear just to step outside. No longer would he have to survive on half-rations for months at a time because raiders had ambushed the supply train. No longer would he have to listen to the hollow words and empty promises of a puppet leader that did nothing to improve life within the cities.

Goodbye to all of it. Within moments, he, and many others, would receive the instructions they had all been waiting a long time for. Then, he would undertake the journey to wherever The People had been transmitting from, and join them for a better life.

It was time. Jakob swallowed the capsule, put the visor over his head, and plugged into the terminal interface. A few key commands and password prompts allowed him to quickly traverse cyberspace and reach a hidden room in Mariana’s Trench — a part of the Net that very few in the world were privy to.

All around him, he heard the excited whispers of others who were also on the same digital journey. And then, all voices hushed as a silhouette appeared in the shadows.

“My friends,” a voice said. “No, you are more than just my friends. You are the ones chosen to usher in a new age. A Golden Age.”

Cheers resounded from the many that had gathered in this dark corner of cyberspace. When they quieted down, the voice continued.

“When the last tree is cut down, the last fish eaten, and the last stream poisoned, you will realize that you cannot eat money. This has served both as a mantra for our people, The People, and a warning for others. Yet, this warning was never heeded, and the meddling of humankind brought a great plague forth to ravage the land. This, you already know.”

There were quiet murmurs of agreement and even a few angry responses to the reminder of what had happened so many years ago as a result of human incompetence.

“But what you don’t know is that after many years of research, after many years of planning, we, The People, have found a solution. We have found a way to eradicate this disease and heal this Earth. We have found a way to bring forth the Golden Age, and you, my friends, are the way.”

More cheering, and Jakob too found himself caught in the frenzy of anticipation. He knew that next, the voice would tell them what they needed to do and where they needed to go.

“There are thousands of you listening to my voice right now. Thousands in cities across the globe, contained in your dwellings, unable to go forth into the night due to the plague spores that inhabit the air. That ends tonight. Tonight, you will be free at last, and you will have the tools needed to eliminate the plague, to destroy it forever!”

“Tell us,” someone shouted, and others chimed in in unison.

“The capsule you swallowed before connecting to me and each other was very special. You all believed it would help to bring you enlightenment, in the same way our ancient ancestors sought wisdom from vision. Alas, while this is not true, it does achieve something much greater. For you see, contained within this capsule was a special blend of very rare ingredients. On their own, they do very little. But when they interact with the cornucopia of elements within your own body chemistry, they are the magic of the universe.”

Jakob, and others by the sound of it, grew a little concerned. What was it they had swallowed?

“Some of you already have doubts, because I lied to you. Unfortunately, this was necessary. But do not fear, because you will all still be part of the Golden Age. You are all still the ones chosen for this special purpose. Very shortly, the components within that capsule will react very strongly with your bodies, and a new growth will begin inside you. This will not hurt, I promise. It will not hurt, because you will be dead.”

And now, chaos erupted. But in voice only, for Jakob, as well as the thousands of others in the digital space, found they could not move their physical bodies.

The silhouette waved his hand, and the shouting ceased.

“I have silenced you all so that I may continue. As you have now discovered, you cannot move. A necessary side effect of the capsule. I cannot chance that some of you would be able to regurgitate it from your system. So, as I said, you will soon all die. But life will continue inside you nonetheless. A fungus, you might call it. This fungus will envelop and consume your body, and then release its own spores into the air. The fungus will grow and spread, through every crack and crevice in the buildings you reside in, until it reaches outside. The spores that are released from this fungus will react with the plague spores and destroy them. They will also kill anyone else that has not taken precautions in the form of an immunization. Alas, this was reserved only for The People.”

Jakob screamed in his mind, and heard nothing. He tried with every fiber of his being to move, and felt absolutely nothing. It was though he now drifted aimlessly in a dark void, with the voice and silhouette before him his only guide.

“In your last few moments, please do not fear. You should instead rejoice. You are all, indeed, a part of The People now. And for your sacrifice, we shall always be grateful. We will strive to create a Golden Age worthy of your sacrifice. An age where there is no war, no hunger, no sickness. An age of peace where every living thing can flourish. And that includes you, as well. Though your minds and bodies will have long since decayed, the growth that springs forth from your sacrifice will serve to allow the trees to grow again, to allow the oceans to fill with life, and to allow this apocalypse to truly come to an end.”

The voice was growing quieter, more distant. Jakob knew his life was fading, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He could just barely make out a thin smile on the face of the man that walked forward into a dim light.

“You are warriors,” the voice said. “Warriors for change, and unified as one in the world to come.”

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