Unfrozen

Bored

The earlier hacker attacks have generally been dismissed by the society and even I didn't care as much about what happened, than I expected. After all - it lasted only for a little bit and didn't influence my life after the fact. I continued going on, following the same routine as earlier. I felt very lonely. I did not enjoy my life in this pseudoperfect world. I missed the past.

What however was worrying me, was the lack of any contact from Marcus - he didn't answer even one of my texts or skype-ish calls. Neither did July. It's like if those two disappeared without a trace.

Then, suddenly on a typical dull evening, I heard knocking on my door. I ordered Cara to open the door as I walked towards it.
"Ellie!" I was welcomed by Marcus's shout "Long time no see... Sorry for not replying... I had troubles after the hacker attack..." I felt pretty mad at the vague answer from Markus, but I was far too shy to shout at him. No matter how much I tried to hide it, I was seriously attracted to him for some reason. He did not seem like other "insiders".
"Where have you been...?" I asked trying to sound mad. Markus scratched the back of his head
"I... Don't really want to talk about it.... Remember what I said about the 21st century restauration? Lets go there right now!" he changed the topic quickly. I knew something was weird, but... I guess I started to get some traits of the futuristic society. I ignored suspicious situation. Without much thought given, I agreed.

The restaurant was stylised to resemble an old and cozy bulding that you'd find on the countryside or in the mountains. It was even surrounded by huge fields of wheat - space saving landscape architecture. If I ignored the enormous amount of suns, I'd probably feel like I was in the past again. I felt cold wind blow, which was a rare feeling over here if you lived at 4th city floor. The restaurant was on 10th, the highest one. I looked to see its name - it was called Sound of the Past. Me and Marcus went inside.

We sat next to a window, an actual window made of glass, through which we were able to see the wheat fields. Somewhere farther away, I noticed workers buildng something. They looked a bit like robots wearing some kind of exoskeletons.
"That's the first time I see a human doing a manual job..." I said to Marcus, while pointing towards the workers.
"Those exoskeletons increase the strenght of a human greatly - it's much more sustainable to use those enhanced workers than machines... And more precise. Those people, they live on 1st floor..." Marcus explained to me while we were waiting for food. I ordered a medium rare steak with mashed potatoes and he ordered a strawberry cake. Marcus said, he couldn't stand things that weren't sweet.
"So the inhabitants of the lowest level?" I asked to confirm, but Marcus shook his head, but before he elaborated, the food arrived. I immediately started to eat quickly. I almost expected the food to be sweet, but... It was completely normal. I ate it quickly, almost like a starving animal. I didn't savour the unusual in this world taste, I ate like crazy. When I was finished, Marcus was barely through half of his cake. When I realised how fast I ate, I felt like an idiot, like I messed up in front of a potential boyfriend, but he only laughed.
"It's ok, you didn't eat stuff like this for a while... Can you cover the bill?" He told me. I made a surprised face.
"I thought you'd pay..." I answered him. He stared at me and grabbed my hand.
"Ellie. Please. I... I don't have any money left" he said with pain in his eyes. I stood up and stared at him. I could feel my body shaking. Something was very, very wrong.
"What the hell, Marcus. What is going on?" I could hear my voice trembling.
"I will explain. Just pay and lets leave!" he said firmly, but I could see in his eyes that he too was terrified.

I quickly payed and we left the restaurant. Outside, it was already pitch dark. Marcus grabbed my hand and started running through the wheat field. I felt the plants scratch my whole body, but I did not stop, until he did.
"What is going on?" I said sternly and pulled out my hand out of his. "What are you doing?"
"I'm bored Ellie! Of this city, this life! Look at the sky!" he pointed his arm towards the pitch black ceiling. "Do you see what I do?" he shouted out.
"What...?"
"It's fake! Fake sky! No moon, no stars! Pitch black dome. I have never seen the sky. I have never been outside the dome. All my life here, among people who are ignorant!" he shouted out frustrated "While people suffer outside, because our government prefers to act like if everything was perfectly fine, like other people do not matter!" he continued ranting loudly while gesticulating wildly. He seemed almost crazy.
"Wait... The hacker attack. You and July, my rebellion-crazy friend, disappeared after that..." I started to put the pieces together. "Now you are unable to pay, because the you'd be spotted...". I clenched my fists. "I don't want to have anything to do with your rebelion!" I opposed Marcus.
"But... You don't like the way life is..." Marcus told me quietly. "I could see it during all the times we saw each other"
"I am not some kind of a hero!" I felt tears dripping down my cheeks. I just wanted a normal life... But my life... I barely lived it anyway... I stayed home, wasting my 2nd chance at life. I was alone and even if I tried to not be so alone, I was ending up wishing I could be home, in my flat. I felt conflicted again, but... I couldn't afford to fight. "I'm not going to throw my life away" I decided. "Why'd you even need me?" I asked and without waiting for an answer I left.

Shaken, I walked through the warm night, I walked home. I was thinking about what I heard from Marcus, about his will to fight... I thought it was pointless. Warm night. Another warm night. Every day was the same, no rain, no snow, no clouds... Everything was so easy to obtain, life was so easy. So I lived comfortably, we all did, because we were blessed. Perfection was good, I tried to convince myself, but I believed less and less with every repeat.

"Halt!" I heard  a robotic voice shout. I stopped and realised something terrifying. A few robots were walking towards me, with their guns pointed at me. "Move and we will shoot!" the robot choir said to me. I wanted to shout, I didn't do anything wrong! But I was terrified, I was so close to death. I shouldn't have left the flat today. I shouldn't have gone anywhere with Marcus. I just wasted my second life.

The robots continued to walk towards me, like zombies. Hopeless, I fell on my knees and sat there, waiting for my second death. Every single one of their steps lasted hours and hours. Where did I go wrong? I never wanted this. Damnit. Damnit.

Suddenly, the lights on nearby buildings flashed. Maglevs and lifts all around stopped and the robots turned on each other. As I ducked and fell to the ground, covering my head, petrified as they all shot at the same time, every shot hitting another robot. I heard clanking, the robots falling down, to the ground. I didn't dare to move an inch.
"Hey, Ellie." I heard a familiar voice of a girl. I slowly looked up and as tears dripped down my face, I smiled widely in relief. Energically, I stood up and hugged the girl
"July!" I cried.
"It's ok, Ellie, don't worry" July said as she pushed me away slightly "Guess, now you don't have a choice... I'm sorry, friend, Marcus is a moron." she said as she walked away. She wore a dark blouse, with a keyboard on her sleeve. She joined some kind of rebel movement.
"I am afraid, you now have to become a part of the Hackers" my friend said as she turned her face back towards me. "Maybe, you weren't truly blessed after all?"

To be continued.