Dystopia - Part 2

July 11th, 2029

I feel as if I have been running a marathon that never ends. My last entry was in May - the day before we ran away. It has been hell ever since. We have had no means of communication with anyone. The towers for cell phone communication went down because they were putting things in place to be able to pinpoint everyone's locations. We turned off all our technology that could possibly be used to find us, and then destroyed it.

We made it here, yesterday. My soul is tired, my body aches, my mind is on fire with a combination of relief and exhaustion, yet I don't want to sleep. As I type this my parents are sleeping in the bed next to me, with my furbabies cuddled into the warmth for the first time since we left. They are also asleep, but they are uneasy. Animals always know, they can sense things. I am taking the shift to listen for any people who might be hunting for us. The clan we are with says I am being too paranoid - after what we have been through to get here, I don't believe that's possible.

There are people running around like zombies. I don't mean the stupid zombies from movies that run around eating your flesh that are invincible, I mean the type of violent zombies that were in my worst nightmares. The ones that walk around like people, but who are so tired and haggard that they cannot even distinguish right from wrong. The ones who have been injured in fights with innocent people, but who appear to go on unaffected by their pain.

One of the vaccines brought about a side effect that nobody had planned for. Insomnia. People are becoming more and more violent, then they just drop dead from exhaustion in the street. As they drop dead they are being tested for this new variant. I have lost count of how many so-called variants now exist. The "variant" they speak of and are testing for is an adverse reaction humans have had to the vaccine. I hate animal trials on anything - but how I wish the vaccines had been thoroughly tested on animals first this time around. I feel like even those in power are regretting their sins from history. Not directly, because they and their families never took them, but it's impacting their wealth, freedom and power now. People are just dropping dead and there are very few that are left to do their dirty work for them. The robots are everywhere. The camp we planned to get to had moved when we got there, but they left us with a code to find them. We had to walk many miles, the pain in my heart for what my parents have had to live through is almost unbearable.

Right now, there's a log fire going behind me as I type this. I have missed the warmth and comfort from a fire. This is the first time we have had some type of contentment since my last time of writing. My work sent out a search party and when they turned up they found all the clues I left for them. I sent them on a chase to nowhere, an outpost on the far end of the land that we weren't allowed to go to. That's also where we dumped the other car we had to steal. The good news is that the only way they will find us, is if someone here opens their mouth - and that is unlikely. Nobody is allowed to leave here until they become part of the Trusted. My family and I already are. I bought us our freedom with what crypto I had - combined with the hard wallets of people who have died. I am sorry for them, it feels like theft, but they are dead and cannot use it.

I am jaded. I am bitter. But I am "strong", somehow.

We left at the right time, the day after we left there was word travelling of the chaos and devastation the robots were leaving behind. They were burning people out of their homes who refused to comply with the new orders given by government for the top-up doses of the vaccines. Some of the people refused to leave when the flames engulfed the buildings; to them burning to death would be less painful than being injected and captured. I agree with them. I would have done the same. Some of the people protested, they tried to fight the robots, we could hear their screams as we were running away. We couldn't see them, but we could hear them. I don't even know how that is possible, I believe it was like from a speaker system. It sounded so close to us, but they were nowhere near us. We all heard it, even the animals, so at least I know I am not going crazy.

I am terrified of the future, but everyone here seems at peace. I don't know how they can be at peace when they have also all just run away to this new place. What happens if we have to run again? We have no cars, we have no way to move away quickly. What if. What if.

The scientists here are doing good things though, they have made sure that all of us can stay connected to what matters - security. The dark web has become a way of life. Things have advanced so much in a couple of months. I can't even believe what I see around me. They have the feeling that regular cars are not worth the energy to build because there will soon be no purpose for them. It will just be a waste of energy. They are building defence mechanisms. Bombs, weapons, drones that can do things I didn't even see in sci-fi movies.

The farming has begun, it will be rough for a while but they took food provisions with from the last camp. Enough to feed the clan for a month. In a month we would have long since been able to establish proper self-sufficiency. I am scared we will have to run again, but everyone is convinced that this is home for good, that we will be strong enough here to defend ourselves. The robots have a minimum duration before they need to be charged again, and we will be able to destroy them when they get close.

I keep having flashbacks.

The image of the burning lands, the smog. Nobody argues about wearing a mask when they matter (and work). Everyone wears one now when we begin to smell anything other than "normality". We wear proper masks, gas masks. Nobody complains because we know the risks. We ran through the one village I grew up in, there were people who did not wear their masks when the chemicals were unleashed, I can see them choking, I can see them suffering and the pain they went through before they died. I see it every time I blink.

The riots have caused the AI of the robots to turn vengeful to humanity. I don't even know who is in charge anymore, the robots or the politicians or the elite few? I don't know. I don't even care right now.

For now we are safe. We are together. We are protected.

I hope my next entry will be more positive.

Lead image by Pixabay User: DeSa81