Forest One

New York, the year is 2125, level 165 in central district. A sharp, stabbing headache accompanied a slow emergence into consciousness. The awareness of lasts night heavy drinking became painfully obvious with the first glimpse of an empty whiskey bottle in bed next to him. Slowly his eyes started to close with a flickering image of more pleasant dreams, sun kissed water arising in his mind. BEEEEEP BEEP! The mandatory 6am alarm can be heard across the 50-bedroom 1 flat complex and the stacked up adjoining complexes. His fellow government computer coders are all risen by the government call to work as it were. The rooms technological operating system is activated with an artificial sun rising over the large windows of which only grey toxic smog can be seen. Coffee is vended up through a hole in the bedside table, alongside the post, the day’s work briefing and some cigarettes.

The artificial sun fades and is replaced with the mandatory news on the central broadcasting network. The face of New York, Tom Spielman. “On today’s news, another day, another toxic waste spillover emanating from the so called ‘Junk yard central states’ of Iowa, Mississippi, and the like (A population heat map showed the population of the US concentrated into 6 cities on the coast with roughly 100 million inhabitants each and a vast empty, contaminated space in the center).

The spill contaminating the water supply further. An unknown number of hospitalizations have been recorded on the lowest 50 levels who still use the mains for drinking. Furthermore, this toxic sludge has led the city health principle to issue a pink smog alert, I repeat that is a pink smog alert, your standard daily outdoor breathing masks will not work in such conditions. Stay inside. That is all from us at CBS till 12 have a good day and long live Central United Peoples Party!"

James realized he had 10 minutes before leaving to sit in his reclining virtual reality chair. Once plugged in the VR central hub opens showing a screen of options being social hangouts, games, work, and mall shopping. James navigated to a lesser known, old time-scape program in an almost hidden part of the virtual world named ‘Forest one’. As he clicked enter, the interface cleared and James entered the sandbox loading screen, a completely blank, white room with no walls or end. A few swishes of his finger on the remote and he cast his favorite Beethoven piece comes on. Watching his foot tap itself to the sound of violins he hears ‘Simulation ready’ in a computerized voice.

The white empty space filled with a landscape of green fields of grass as afar as can be seen, a bright sun glowing down its first rays. Sitting down in his virtual chair James curiously watches from the hilltop. A few more clicks on his remote and, ‘2000% natural simulation speed activated.’ Green shoots raced across the landscape like darts. The scene, like a moving painting in all directions as the music intensified. Interweaving shrubs, young trees, and a multiplicity of natural-colored leaves. The mellow changes in color and James becomes acutely aware of the seasons passing rapidly. A warm landscape of dark green was emerging in the crisp morning air of the valley. As the crescendo loomed, he felt the urge to start walking down into the valley, with a spring in his step and feeling like he was 25 again James’ arms arose and swished as if he were conducting the symphony of nature around him.

The trees slowly began to grow old and the landscape starting to die, in a few minutes all but the last gangly dark trees remained, towering above the previous tree line having won the battle for the light. James wondered if this was a parallel to the final, deathly state of their own natural economy’s life cycle. That 400 million people find themselves trapped working under a few major corporations at the end of capitalism if you could call it that. Natural selection cutting out a few winners from a well spring of life and diversity. Consuming, starving, or outliving all for the final place. Last tree standing as it were. ‘This can’t be it.’

He looked down the valley and tree tunnel path and saw something he thought was impossible. This was a closed, private simulation yet a feminine figure appeared, slowly walking towards him from 200 meters away. An enchanting glow and radiance about her, a playful confidence he rarely saw in anyone. She couldn’t be 30 with blonde hair and pale face looking equally as at awe with the natural scene around her. They walked towards each other down the tree tunnel with James feeling the intensity rise, the growing nature around him seemed all the more clear, the music sharper. As she came close, he stopped and asks, ‘How did you get here?’ nervously. With a smile and soft voice, she said ‘My mother designed this simulation and I built up some of the code, I own it in a way. I’ve been watching you James, and we all have’.

A piercing perplexed feeling came over James, ‘Who’s we?’ he. ‘We are part of the resistance, people in places of power and influence who all seek to bring down the central party, a discovery has been made at the heart of this resistance, I will tell you straight. The poisonous smog that covers this city day in and day out is just a manufactured tool of control. Killing all of nature, giving us cancer and blotting out the sun. This has detached the people from their true selves, their souls in a way. A sick society living in fear. They seek only now the choices of pleasure the party desires, position up the levels, money, sex and submission to powers that they believe are giving them security in a world decimated by war’. Intuitively James felt that she was telling the truth, In his time working in coding he had seen just as Brutal, manipulative plans for methods of control that led him to his breakdown.

She continued ‘We have located the sites and methods of these toxin releases. We’ve forged a virus that will spread through the system causing all toxin facilities to rapidly overheat and blow up. Furthermore, we are forcing a city-wide power outage as we need the distraction to hide our intentions, this is our plan.’ All along the resistance have been meeting here daily and planning, in Forest One, and you were the only other person visiting this hidden domain. It so happens that you are the only one person we know who has access and clearance to the central mainframe computers in your job, if that is not a sign of fate, I don’t know what is.

The virus that is implanted within this very program in which you walk daily. All you need to do is to download forest one onto a memory device and physically insert it to the central mainframe computer.’ BEEP BEEEP BEEEEP! James work alarm snapped him back into reality, the simulation folding in on itself revealing just his room. The silence and emptiness following this gave James a chill down his back. There was no question about what he was going to do, a deep sense of purpose, almost reckless possession came over him. For enslaving him and the entire city to a life of soulless, dark servitude in a world stripped of nature. For the future inhabitants of New York and the country.

James uploaded the forest one program onto an ultra-micro memory card and inserted it into his mums’ old heart shaped locket behind the picture. It seemed fitting as she died from smog-based cancer, which was treatable to those on the highest levels, not on level 100 where she lived and worked.

James hoped into a pod on the hyper-loop, a series of spaghetti like tubes for transportation around the city. As soon as he sat, he realized the dangerous hurdles he had to face. Walking into the coding ministry, an advanced scanning system checks all those for irregular temperature, sweating and even the disposition of hormones you are releasing. The higher floors securities included new technology, complex mysterious brainwave scanners could draw a picture of someone’s mood and intention roughly.

While flying through hyperloop tubes at 300km an hour, looking out at the core of the central district, the tallest modern buildings, and highest levels in the city. 350 stories high and completely inaccessible to all but a few. James wondered staring out into the city. A literal, physical representation of the hierarchy, the city built like a pyramid to the political gods of men,where people fight to climb the lower levels just to be able to breath clearly. A feeling of strengthening resolve came up from within him.

James began to meditate as he drew near, flashing images his mother, the girl he met, and his life began to flood his mind. The closer he came the more he felt as if he was overcoming his fear and began to relax. He walked calmly through the landing still lost in a pleasant train of thought. Through the long marble halls, bustling with activity he got an elevator directly to the mainframe level. He scanned his key card and the guards recognized him at the check point, however he had to look directly into the new brainwave security scanners. 3rd in line, 2nd and a feeling of intense anxiety drew over James. Time for one breath slowly, in through the nose and out through the mouth.

Beep beep, beep, booooop and he is allowed through. James took a seat on a central computer somewhat out of sight. There was no point in delaying, nor planning an escape, he knew what would happen to him. He stopped composed himself and opened some advanced coding software that would allow him to upload this correctly to the mainframe, bypassing security. A few minutes typing. He removed the locket, and then the picture of his mum and the memory card under the table by feeling. He causally entered the memory stick. His finger hovered over the run program enter key. His mind wondered, ‘it’s a curious thing, that a single click could spell the end of an empire.’ He pressed the key and walked calmly to the window. Nothing.

At first, it was just a faint sound in the distance, then he realized all the party’s intercom and public speakers were playing something. Playing music across the whole city. It was the very song he was listening too that day. As the music roset, the office workers slowly lined the windows in awe, as if they'd come out of a trance that was this working life, but were now conscious. Explosions rang out across the city. The city went dark. A fatalistic smile of playful childish mischievousness drew over his face. He now realized that the music was to stop the chaos that a city wide blackout could evoke. Beethoven, paralyzing 400 million people in the year 2125 who are surrounded in darkness, the slow verse took the place of what would be scenes of indescribable destruction. Explosions rang out across the city. He dared not look as he heard fast movement coming towards him. A gun shot rang out. Falling to the ground in what felt like slow motion, the quiet smile remained on James' face even as he lay there dead.

The smog largely cleared overnight, and the warm sunrise marked the first natural sunrise in a century. The first of many. In the coming month patches of green climbed the walls of the buildings, patios, and concrete parks. Rumors of trees and animals in the outskirts. The only change greater than the physical was that of the minds of the people. All it took was this glimpse of nature, light, and beauty to spell the beginning of the end of this sickened societal age, or the beginning of a new one.