Open your eyes.

You open your eyes just like any other day.

You open your eyes thinking the same you thought about yesterday. Except…

As (sadly) usual, you look at your phone and discover you have tons of missing calls. From your mom. From your dad. From Steve, your brother.

You don’t hesitate, and call Steve first.

Nothing.

You call your mom.

Nothing.

You call your dad.

“Hey, dad… is there anything wrong?”. You know there must be. It can’t be perfect if you received those 3 calls. Your dad is shocked. He is silent. He’s only able to ask you “What’s your UKC?”

UKC: Unique Key Code. One of many human inventions aiming to unify the whole world under the same system. There are no more passport, o Social Security Numbers, or anything like that. Anywhere yo go in the world, there’s a UKC associated to you and only you. I remember thinking that was a GREAT idea when it came out. The thing is, I never imagined what it may be used for..

“Dad, you know it’s Steve’s UKC minus 1. 6464357893748589".. Dad, what happened?”

“You really need to look at the news son… I love you very much…” and he hang up.