We all stood there on the streets, looking up, and looking around. People met eyes with each other. It was a major happening.
The intervention quickly kicked in.
Automatic Screen Shows popped up all around the zone... It was the Johnny Worm IRL VLOG. I could almost sense that invisible aura, the smell of which made me know not to trust him.
"A pig called Johnny Silverstar!"
applause
We had no choice but to watch and to listen.
I could feel her... the eternal HR woman burning a hole through my head with her sensors, just waiting for me to slip up. Any excuse to have her way with me. I knew it was just her programming, she couldn't help it. I was a crazed cog in the machine. Perhaps in some way we were star crossed lovers, a post-modern Romeo and Juliet; her always watching, and me always thinking about her. The distance between us was insurmountable, yet there she always was, in my life, the Eternal HR Woman. Could my heart belong to anyone else?
"And his arms turned into worms...."
"and that was our weekly horror dream space by Martin Jorgos! Now let's discuss daily HAPPENINGS!!!!!" Johnny Worm said with cool charisma.
The screen flashed HAPPENING in many colours and directions to alert the plebs of all the happenings they should be paying attention to.
We were bombarded with images of Hitler everywhere. He was on the streets, and in the shops, and even in our homes. He was everywhere and he had to be stopped. He could even be your child.
"IT'S HAPPENING!!!"
"So if you SEE SOMETHING you SAY SOMETHING..." we were warned.
After the daily happenings we were treated to a series of adverts and propaganda which also served as make-work jobs for the Africans.
"We're no better than our Viking ancestors" we were reminded by most colourful folk who did not resemble my ancestors.
We were then treated to a documentary promo showing the reconciliation over the Troubles in Ireland. It was advertised as an Englishman and an Irishman sitting down to reconcile, but perhaps my eyes deceived me, as the dark fellows looked Nigerian and French.
This was an emergency broadcast, so we all had to listen. It was easy for Johnny Worm to become the number one listened to when the system either forced you to listen to him, or used the algorithm to feed you his content. He who pays the piper chooses the tune. It was always easy for the system to push people into containment, like with the Johnny Worm IRL VLOG in all its bad badinage.
People feeling like they were rebelling by listening to the system's 'chosen' rebel, as they believe they rebel by action of participating by watching, an inactive passive consumer, consuming rebellion. It was all so sickening. I only listened to bands that didn't exist.
"It's me Johnny Worm! And it's that VLOG time! Remember anything said outside of VLOG is in violation of EQUITY 28.37... So just between me and you... Is it possible the elites are hiding something bigger than we ever dared to imagine? Yes! Yes exactly dear subscriber! (Click and HIT those buttons) Whatever you are thinking is true! And it had to be racist! We're all feminists here! Reports of UFOs in the sky? More like racism! And if you think differently you are probably one of those racists, so you better turn yourself in scumbag, I bet you think the word 'Nigger' is funny, so you better turn yourself in now before the authorities escalate. Look I'm cool and anti-system like you guys, but you got to think optics. Concede at every moment, otherwise you might as well just be a racist joke enjoying terrorist. Saying Nigger just isn't funny! Am I Rite!?" Johnny Worm jested.
"But Seriously! Dyma Bars! I tell you, I eat them every day, Dyma Bars are DymaCorps newest product, and you know you can trust their brand. I tell you dear subscriber, I feel so good and powered up on these bars. Got a medical problem? Why not try these bars? They fix you right up! 97 credits per 29 pack. Unbeatable savings! May contain experimental mood altering ingredients. Your Testosterone levels are awfully high! We've all heard that before! Well not with Dyma Bars! Deeelish! I love my DYMA BARS!!!!!" soy face.
Screens fade to black.
* N Word Sirens in the distance *
Johnny Worm reappears on screen as judge and executioner.
"They've figured out you say the word!"
Johnny Worm reads out a list of several citizens who had laughed when he said Nigger. Under the Equity Act they were dead, but not before torture/rehabilitation.
We were all Carbon Criminals, but that was just a series of taxes and fines. Carbon and social value laws were a soft touch compared to The Equity Act of 2029. Those poor bastards...
Johnny Worm then read out a list of new terror attacks by the terrorists. The Zone was breaking down due to incompetence, but it was more convenient to blame it on terrorists who were supported by the people who laughed at the word Nigger.
"...they blew up the roof of the bath house, but you can still use your good citizen tokens elsewhere!" Johnny Worm exclaimed in Soy face.
The bath house must have been were the spotlight had crashed. What was above us? And what are those giant spotlights hidden above EZ ULEZ607?
Johnny Worm returned to his normal worm wear.
"And now back to the happening! We've just received reports that it was a weather balloon. And the fireworks were for you! You beautiful people! You kind souls! Only through strength of our peace can we move forward and fight for our inalienable rights. We must protest within accordance of the law and commit to peace. Because if you let your enemies win, then you win! Think about it! Anyway that's all ol' Johnny Worm has got time for! Isn't it past your outdoors time? Good night my beautiful lovelies!"
The automatic screen popups all disappeared. The dubious aura of Johnny Worm vanished with them.
Could the simulacrum really hold me grounded like I was some sort of electrical current to be controlled? Was I losing my optimal grip on reality and fading into hyper-reality? They made digital me... horrors I couldn't comprehend. And I smiled uncomprehending, walking in hope to my freedom. Prisons I couldn't see. Shackles more than physical. Forced to watch and ingest this thinly veiled propaganda, but that was the thing.... some people were not forced, they loved it, and they couldn't see any untruths in the truths.
I could hear neighbours discussing how it was in fact a weather balloon and not a madman taking to the skies. The leaflets Schwarzwald dropped were discarded and ignored. They then reminded each other it was past outdoors time, and that it was time to return indoors. Back in my day there was no social pressure of outdoors time, you could go out when you want, but these days we were conditioned to such concepts.
The thought just further added to my despondency, my helplessness. I needed to run. I needed to see a future. Any future. Just a glimpse of light in this dark world is all I need. But what I really needed was some batteries. I had to escape WormWorld/.
But was I really living? Or was I just playing a role?
I looked Liselotte in the eyes. It was time to man up and pull myself up by the bootstraps.
"Hey, wanna see something in my garage?" I said as a ruse to the system, as I invited Liselotte inside.
I took Liselotte into my garage, out of sight from any prying A.I. or video recording. It was just the two of us.
She started to cry.
I grabbed her by the cheeks as I said "babe!"
I kissed her and squeezed her butt.
She looked at me doe eyed as she said "5.57?"
"Fuck 5.57" I coolly said raising my eyebrow.
We made out like young adults on a hot summer. But the entire time I couldn't stop thinking about the Eternal HR woman... forever haunting my mind as I finger banged the life out of Liselotte. I could never commit my penis outside of marriage.
*fade to black after I send a smiling Liselotte all the way home after totally finger banging her all the way to next Sunday *
...
"Unit JLZ21347! Your testosterone levels are awfully high!" the Eternal HR Woman chased me in my dreams.
She was dressed so scantily in all the ways I like. I tried to resist. I tried to run, but she kept changing, adapting, constantly keeping my neurons firing, I couldn't handle the heat. What could a monkey-pig hybrid descendant do against neuronal activation?
(It was known at this time in the future that humans descended from an ancestor that was a monkey pig hybrid, which is why only humans and pigs have kidney shaped kidneys, whereas the likes of monkeys have triangle kidneys. Humans also have cartilage snout noses, unlike monkeys. Not to mention cardiovascular and tissue differences that allow for efficient cooling of our large brains. Essentially our genetic similarity to pigs is about the genetic distance to our closet living monkey relatives. It wasn't until 2027 that this was widely known and accepted).
Anyway I was caught in the worst kind of best dreams that made you question Stockholm Syndrome, as well as Sweden Syndrome.
And that's when it happened!
"Ohhhhh Shiiiieeeeeeett!"
The voice and the sound of breaking glass woke me up. I rubbed my eyes, trying to piece together where I was and what was going on. I could hear someone stumbling around outside my bedroom.
"Shiiiiieeeeeett" I whispered to myself as I picked up my oak bokken.
As I rushed out of my bedroom ready for action, I quickly whispered "lights on", to find myself above a young African child, ready to strike him down with my bokken.
I looked at the African child, and then I looked at the broken window, the looting in progress, and then back to the child.
""Shiiiiieeeeeett!" we both said at the same time.
That was how I met Lil' Nig, and let me tell you, this is only where the story begins.
I think it was the 2027 Irish act that made it so any child without adult carers would be entrusted onto an Irish citizen. This was one of the ways they flooded us back in the day.
Anyway, Lil' Nig had created an incident, and so the authorities were involved, and then his legal responsibility became mine.
...
I couldn't believe it, I was so close to my escape, and Schwarzwald... he was out there... I had to know what was Beyond WormWorld. Lil' Nig would be a hindrance to my plans. Maybe he was part of the System's Trick, but what I would go on to learn was that Lil' Nig was a little shit. But he was my little shit... and ultimately the key to my salvation... Truly an Angel had sent him!
Chapter 1 No Money, No Job, No Life
Chapter 2 Schwarzwald
Chapter 3 Apocalyptic Stare
Chapter 4 Digital Marionettes
Chapter 5 Biodegradable Citizen
Chapter 6 Digitized Truths
Chapter 7 A Simile of a Facsimile