Unfrozen

Everyday, everyday, stop.

"We could take a maglev... Or we could walk. Maglev is quicker, but louder and more boring. Walikng... Well, you get to see the city." Marcus smiled at me and I smiled back shyly. He was really nice and not as pushy as Ignacio. I was glad not everyone was crazy here. As we walked through the city, I could see so many small patches of green, filled with crops. Parks, balconies, bowls on the sidewalk... Almost everything had edible crops. Little space, max usage while making everything looked beautiful and... Perfect.
"Do you think it's incredible?" Marcus asked me.
"Yeah" I said "It's nothing like what I've ever seen. It's so clean, sunny..."
"Boring" he cut in before I finished my thoughts. "This place is boring." We stopped on a bridge that was going over maglev tracks. He looked down and my heart started beating faster. I was once again at the top of Shift Centre, wind was blowing and that man, whose name I never learned was preparing to jump. Then, I felt someone grabbing my arm and I snapped out of the trance.
"Ellie! Are you fine?" he shouted to me. I nodded, but I wasn't. My heart was still beating incredibly fast and my breathing was heavy.
"I just... Let's get into a maglev, I want to get home asap." I said quickly.
"O-ok..." replied Marcus nervously.

Once I got home and said goodbye to my new friend, I quickly got undressed and ordered Cara to open the bathroom door. I went inside and clapped my hands to turn on the lights. I jumped into the shower and turned the water on. I chose the regular water, without any weird shampoos or anything, that definitely was my favourite one. The thing about future showers was that, despite having a variety of different water smells, effects on body or whatever, the water was only hot. No way of cooling oneself down, no. The hot water created basically a sauna and it was quite relaxing. I felt like I could stay there forever, despite my skin getting visibly reddened from the heat.

I finished washing myself and wrapped myself in a towel and left the bathroom. It was really hot inside the whole windowless flat, so I asked Cara to turn the cooling on and lied on my waterbed. I attempted to look out the window, but what I've seen was the annoying underwater scenery instead of what was actually out there.
"Cara, show me what's outside!" I said firmly and turned on my side.
"Yes, ms Fox" said the AI. The TV-Window changed "channel" and finally I could see what's ouside. Surprisingly, despite it being already 7PM, the suns shined as brightly as they did in the morning. I guessed that was normal, but it didn't feel natural. Also, I had no proof I really saw what is behind the pseudowindow. Tired, from an eventful day, I fell asleep without realising.

I slept till the noon next day. When I woke up, Cara informed me that Amina bombarded me with messages for not taking the education level test. I sighed, got dressed, wearing the same jumper as the first day again and went to the kitchen. I clapped to turn on the light and took a swearp out of the fridge - it wasn't really tasty, but very nutritious. Apparently, they packed everything with supplement vitamins, protein and everything into it, just so people could get correct amount of nutrients everyday, while only eating sweets.

I turned on the full holographic PC version and decided to solve the test. At first it was easy, but went very downhill fast. Science didn't make sense, history was too vague... I sighed. I really had a long time to go if I wanted to be a proper member of the society and I did want this. My dream of being an architect didn't just disappear over the century when I was asleep, but at the same time I wonder if it wouldn't be  easier to cheat the system and stay in the learning stage forever, when I get money for "studying", but at the same time I didn't want to risk anything.

Since I was already a day late, I had to catch up with material already. I found my own studying program and started watching the lessons, then solved  exercises... Just as if I was doing homework, that was a very familiar feeling. When I got absolutely bored by learning, I decided to "google" interesting things that I could do. I found out that there were no libraries anymore, no books or magazines - everything could be found on the computers/watches. I was very interesting what were modern action books about. I spent the rest of the day doing nothing, but just simply reading books, but I didn't like them. Even there, the obsession with perfection was clear. The main characters tended to be flawless, beautiful chosen ones, typical Mary Sues, always winning. I was switching from book to book, but nothing really made me feel anything but nauseating blandness.

After I ate dinner (swearp again, because I'm lazy), I went for a walk, to get some fresh air. Like yesterday, despite it being evening already, the suns shined as brightly as always, on a cloudless sky. I was just walking around and brooding over everything that happened, when suddenly Jasmin came up to me with intention of forcing me to go out.

For next months, the days looked similiar. I was so excited to start my new life, but the days have slowly marged into one mass that just went on and on. I ate, studied, watched 21st century shows, met up with Jasmin and her friends, we partied, with me standing on the side, I talked to Marcus a lot...

One day I took a shower like usual. The tiny room was steamy, it was basically a sauna, but it felt really nice and relaxing. Even if the days just flowed on... I was happy. I was able to mostly move on from my past. Maybe I really was blessed?

Then suddenly, the lights went out. I clapped my hands, but nothing happened. I felt panic growing within me again. I clapped over and over, but to no avail.
"Cara!" I shouted out. But nothing answered. I wrapped myself with a towel and I pushed the door as hard as I could. But nothing happened. I was stuck. I tried to use my watch, but it said "no connection". Everything was gone and I was stuck inside my bathroom. The doors only worked if I asked the AI. But the AI was gone. And it was hot in here and as I got more stressed and my breaths became faster and more shallow, I slowly started to feel like I am suffocating. I was banging on the door and banging and banging and I was desperate to get it open, but not a thing would work, not without power, without the annoying Cara AI.

It felt like hours had already passed when the power came back on and I finally got out of the bathroom. I was seriously terrified. What had happened? Why was this stupid society so certain that the technology won't fail, that there is no need for a backup plan.

I got dressed, picked up my watch and called Marcus to ask if he knows what just happened, but there was no answer. This was really freaking me out, but when suddenly all doors have been shut completely open, I finally realised what could've been happening. The city was completely dependant on technology, on programming. without even one backup plan, if something goes wrong.

It was vulnerable to hackers.