The Shrieker

The forest was lined with trees and shrubs humming with insects and filled with jagged rocks and crags, as I brushed through briars and thorns to clear a path, I made my way to a fairly high elevation to make a vantage of the New England summer horizon. I camped in the woods for many seasons to escape the pressing anxieties of the modern world, and in the 21st century the environment has become a place scarce of empathy and trust. Even today as I stroll through the empty woods, the life we once saw brimming the mountains of Southern New Hampshire was dull and listless. Birds lay dying on the ground for no reason apparent to me, and small burrowing animals make their meals of tiny bugs and insects. The large wildlife that once called this place home are no where to be seen, and even us humans that once hiked the forests are gone. The brimming electrical hum of machinery and logging equipment has gone silent, and the roaring combustion engines of cars have become hushed.

I left my home over six months ago, I had an OK job, I worked diligently, but my life grew complacent, and I needed a change. I worked tirelessly day in and day out serving some obscure capitalist entity called Framtid Tech, and I never knew the faces of my “betters”. Although I was a respected engineer and I even won awards patenting new fusion powered cells that could change the way we lived as a society. My work was suppressed under the weight of my corporate betters, and although I was allowed the patent, it was taken, and lawyers said I copied the design from the company. I was sued and went bankrupt. My wife Clara and adopted child Sven left me because of my failures, but instead of ending it all I recognized the powers of the universe may be guiding me in a different direction. Rather than accepting failure I decided to embrace freedom and leave a society that enforces payment for living. Rather than finding new ways to accommodate a societal design of payment for luxuries and easy living, I decided to embrace learning more of the design and pattern of nature.

I did not fight the divorce; I left the house willingly and left my wife taking my crippling debt with me. Before my departure I attempted to share my plans and what they expected of me, Clara was determined I see a Head Doctor because she thought I was having some psychiatric meltdown. The Dr. referred me to an inpatient treatment center and take lithium with antidepressants, but I refused. Security came to take me to this “psychiatric center”, but I pushed them out of the way and left on foot. Coming back to my house I took my hiking equipment, tent, water, and dry goods enough to last me a few weeks and I trekked into the Midstate trail never to be seen again.

From time to time, trekking mountains and trails I gaze at the only other material object I kept from this deranged society, a golden heart-shaped locket of me and my mother. I thought about hanging this locket in a grotto on Mt. Monadnock to commemorate my mother’s life, who died in a car accident a year before I came into the woods. As I gazed into the picture on the locket, I thought of seeing her grave as I cried to myself quietly. Although I may be a missing person my beard and long dreads have a distinct effect on making my appearance quite different than when I was last seen.

With this mission in mind, I made my way through the winding ridges of the Wapack mountain range down to the Midstate trail and into the wider array of civilization. I trekked endlessly across the small mountains and expected to see hikers and cars making their way down dirt roads, but I saw nothing. To my amazement, once I came off the trail and into the small cities there was nothing but emptiness, no buzzing of cars and terrible traffic, no walkers or joggers exercising. I was astonished to see the large Massachusetts towns empty and listless with no signs of life, along with this realization entire buildings were decrepit and derelict. Shingles fell off roofs and holes littered the siding, along with cars abandoned in driveways. Being a former engineer, I noticed the wireless energy transmission towers were in disarray and control panels buried in the sides of the towers were buzzing and malfunctioning. I took out my hatchet to open the control box to peek inside and the visual display flickered a malfunction code. Not having a cell phone or access to the net I scanned my memory to discern what this code meant “Access Group Failure; error code 0032x33”. I quickly grabbed my hatchet and placed it back in my pack and continued on my path along the barren streets, and I decided to stop at my old lab which was by the river in the center of town.

The lab was a part of a larger structure of an old, refurbished mill that operated next to the Nashua River. I came to the doors which required access, but without power I was unable to open the glass doors, so I figured without any scent of life in the area no one would mind if I smashed it. I took a large part of the concrete walkway and smashed the glass doors and walked inside, noticing a sense of a rushed commotion being the last event in the building. The front desk was scattered with papers and crushed computing materials, broken equipment littered the floors, and the waiting chairs were ripped from their station. I recognized the signage near the front desk labelling the different labs and stations of the company; A.I., Neuromolecular integration systems, Synthetic Neurotransmission and Hormones, Micro-Fission cells, and Micro-Fusion Cells. I walked to the lab entrance and again smashed the door open with my trusty hatchet and began towards my old station of the Micro-Fusion lab. As I walked the empty halls I wondered, even after the loss of power there should have been some advanced security systems in a lab of this importance in contemporary research.

I came about my old lab and entered the doors which was already open and came to my old cubicle station. I pulled out the mobile computing pad and attempted to power it up, and success! The pad started up and entered its bios set-up, prompting me for a username and passcode. Remembering this I attempted to plug in my old credentials and the operating system powered on showing my old files. Curiously, I opened the internet, and nothing came up, I searched for Wi-Fi signal and again nothing. Hopefully, if I take my pad with me, I may be able to connect to the internet somewhere. As I finished that thought I heard crashing in the hallway outside of the lab, quickly gripping my hatchet I attempted to quickly sneak towards the hallway. The shattering continued down the hallway into the reception room, and the moving object sounded large and intimidating. Although fear has set in due to the imagination of the sheer size of this thing, my adrenaline kicked in and I rushed down the hall and crouched near the side of the door peering out. I caught a glimpse of this man, almost naked wearing a loincloth, smashing chairs and throwing objects in an excitatory rage. The size of the man was intimidating and the shrieks coming from his vocal cords reverberated off the glass and steel beams of the hallways. Understanding that I may be in clear danger, I snuck back towards the lab and looked for a window to crawl out of. I came to a window, about 30’ by 40’ and attempted to open the darn thing. Struggling, I just smashed the window and cleared the glass in order to not be punctured. Hearing the window being crushed, the man exhibited a loud, devastating shriek in my general direction, so I attempted to hurry out of the window as fast as possible. Unfortunately, I missed a shard of glass and it pressed sharply across my side as I rushed out of the window and turning around in pain, I gripped the windowpane because I was now 20 feet above rushing water. Peering into the window I caught sight of this shrieking villain as he charged into the lab and shrieked again seeing me in the window with murder in his eyes, out of sheer terror I let go of the windowpane and crashed into the river.

Floating downstream I was given buoyancy by my hiking pack, and since I was given this swimming aid I could easily drift downstream to a safe spot. I came about a small grove on the side of the river, gaining my bearings I noticed the small cut on my side which was easily bandaged using my hiking first aid kit. Out of frustration I grunted, knowing that the small station pad I got from the lab is now wet and most likely out of working order. I got up and attempted to dry myself before setting off back into town, and I decided to carry on and attempt to reach the cemetery and I will not let some shrieking freak stop me. I started down the empty street to reach the gravesite, and I thought I might camp out there while I am at it. Coming to the graveyard the sun began to set and I could see the large granite cross hovering over my mother’s grave.

After several moments of quiet grieving, I began to set up my tent in a clearing near the gravestones. As I pulled out my pack and materials, I could hear footsteps rushing leaves and kicking dirt off in the distance, without hesitation I grabbed my hatchet again waiting for confrontation. Not being able to see in the twilight of the sun, a group of 7 men and women came closer to my position by the clearing. Noticing no malcontent or rage that was exhibited by the raging shrieker in their eyes, I lowered my weapon and called out. The man leading them called back and raised a hand, “We come in peace, but who are you, why are you here?” I called back confused and anxious of human contact after being without it for so long, “I came to see my mother’s grave, what is going on here, what happened to this town?” The man walked closer and shrugged, a long draping scarf and hood littered his head, along with dark brown clothes which looked like a mechanic’s overalls, “You uh… You don’t know?” I drew a confused expression onto my face, “I used to live here, I used to have a family here not long ago…” The man looked around towards his group in a confused manner and then looked back, “We’re from the Framtid Tech lab, and aren’t you Simon?” Several emotions came to me spontaneously, it was as if I could not comprehend the name that was given to me by my mother, “Simon, Simon… Yes, I was… I mean I am Simon, and you are…” Looking into the face of the man I noticed him, “Devon?” He nodded. He grabbed my forearm and gripped my skin with a small pinch as I grunted and grabbed at him, he pulled back the skin to show a barcode. Several numbers and letters were revealed, and more emotions came rushing, “What the… What’s going on?” Devon sighed, “You don’t remember… the end?” I shook my head in shock, “We all agreed to live on in these machinations before the fusion cells simultaneously melted down, because the virus shut down our control systems.” Shocked, I could not move. “Your invention ended human life on this planet…”