Free Minds of Voronia
“He was a good boy! He was a damn good boy!”, she wailed. Her seat shook and her hands trembled towards her leaking eyes. “Oh, how could it go so wrong!”.
“Thanks for your time ma’am, I think that’s enough information for us”.
___________________________________________________________________
The screech of steel wheels wailed across the station. Five in the morning, it was time to get to school.
One could see a family with about a dozen kids packed into an already-full train. Their hands despairedly burst through the barred windows of the carriage. Gerard’s train had arrived.
A familiar hand waved at him. “Gerard, hurry up! Assembly starts in ten!”.
Gerard tightened his red neckerchief and ran over to Mewar.
“Gerard Havon, soon you’re gonna be a very rich man! The regional government announced today that they will be investing in your town of Hatyjul after a more oil was found in the area. Don’t you love it here?”
“Mewar, if only you knew what life was like back there. Even on a summer’s day it’s not as bright as the city’s night lights.”
The boys sat in the hall, another two thousand students sitting around them. A large man in a black suit walked onto the stage.
“Men, today marks the 40th anniversary of the great nation of Voronia.”
He waved his hands up lightly, and everybody stood up. Gerard stumbled up as well. All the boys in the building placed their right hands up and made a fist.
“GLORY TO VORONIA. GLORY TO VORONIA. GLORY TO VORONIA!”, they shouted as the sounds echoed through the hall.
The man on-stage smiled and began a long speech on the history of the nation. This nation was young. A civil war shaped its early post-colonial life and this war still guides governmental policy now. The leaders of Voronia today are the ones who won that war.
“Open your books onto page 176, Chapter 13. The diagram at the bottom shows you how to rewire the circuits in a circuit breaker. You won’t need it for this class so most of you can ignore it, but you never know when a make-shift job is needed.”
Gerard sketched the diagram onto his notebook, and ran some calculations. “V = IR, so I’m going to need a lot of resistance to hold back the current of a circuit breaker to charge something like my phone”.
Mewar scoffed. “When are you gonna need this crap? Just study the course material and you’ll get straight A’s.”
After more rounds of mathematics and computing courses, Gerard and Mewar left school.
“It’s still bright outside” said Mewar.
“Nine at night already, time to go.”
Mewar lived closeby in the city’s dense towers, and there he went. Gerard walked with him as the national library was nearby. As they walked they passed a gargantuan one kilometre feat of human engineering. The floors of the building spiralled in a helix, and in day its windows were paned blue. At night it was an eery monolith, keeping its watch over the city. The tower presented a light display, in which the national flag was waving and the speakers on the streets played the national anthem. People passing by would could not do but stare at the “National Pride” as it was named. In the streets surrounding, cleaners dumped rubbish left by workers in the tower. An uncanny feeling came across Gerard.
The People’s Great Library was the only place where a village-boy could get good some Internet connection.
========================================
C:\>dir
C:\chdir \libcomp\profiles\hav098188\programs\freedom
______ __ __ _ _| ____| | \/ |(_) | || |__ _ __ ___ ___ | \ / | _ _ __ __| | ___| __|| '__|/ _ \ / _ \ | |\/| || || '_ \ / _` |/ __|| | | | | __/| __/ | | | || || | | || (_| |\__ \|_| |_| \___| \___| |_| |_||_||_| |_| \__,_||___/__ __ __ _/ _| \ \ / / (_)___ | |_ \ \ / /___ _ __ ___ _ __ _ __ _/ _ \ | _| \ \/ // _ \ | '__|/ _ \ | '_ \ | | / _` || (_) || | \ /| (_) || | | (_) || | | || || (_| |\___/ |_| \/ \___/ |_| \___/ |_| |_||_| \__,_|“What one writer can make in the solitude of one room is something no power can easily destroy.”
Archive: Monday 03/03/2031, 21:47:53
(21:47) ytap: How is everyone? My dad just arrested over a dozen activists in H — — for posting a video on social media asking where the people at their train station are being sent. Anybody know what that’s about?
(21:58) h4v0nn: Yeah, I take the train from there each morning. From what I’ve heard it’s some train to the Farlands settlements. Probably some kind of slave labour. I’ve never seen any city kids though.
(22:00) ytap: If you have any messages with those activists then remove them, unless the authorities have already read your texts.
(22:00) h4v0nn: I’m more worried about my family. If anyone in our family commits a crime we all come with them.
(22:01) ytap: Why does the government treat the village people so poorly?
(22:01) h4v0nn: Ask your dad.
(22:01) ytap: There’s six times more of you than us, why don’t you fight back?
(22:02) h4v0nn: Say that to the people on the trains.
(22:02) ytap: Alright, I’ve gotta sleep, I’ll see you later.
(22:03) h4v0nn: And I’ve got a train back home to take, see ya!
Archive: Wednesday 05/03/2031 22:33:41
(22:31) ytap: I’m back! h4v0nn, you done your homework?
(22:32) h4v0nn: Maybe…
(22:32) ytap: …
(22:33) h4v0nn: Do you think these conversations are tracked by the Central Computing Authority?
(22:34) ytap: I mean, this board system’s called the “Free Minds of Voronia”. What do you think?
(22:34) h4v0nn: Oh and who else is going to use this outdated hack of a technology to talk to people like us?
(22:35) ytap: Damn right.
(22:35) h4v0nn: So umm, ytap, if this conversations private do you mind telling me your real name?
(22:36) ytap: Emilia
(22:37) h4v0nn: Wow, doesn’t take much to make you spill some beans. You better be careful or you’ll end up getting caught without some caution.
(22:37) ytap: If I get caught my dad will take the punsishment and I’d be free, wouldn’t I?
(22:38) h4v0nn: I’m guessing you have no idea how the Central Party’s system works, do you?
(22:38) ytap: Nup.
(22:39) h4v0nn: Well, just heed my warnings.
Archive: Sunday 16/03/2031 22:37:38
(22:37) h4v0nn: Emily
(22:39) ytap: …
(22:40) h4v0nn: Jeez, you scared me!
(22:40) ytap: That’s because I brought a friend!
(22:41) h4v0nn: (*_*)
(22:42) ytap: Don’t worry, she’s one of us, a thinker!
(22:42) jj17: Hi
(22:43) ytap: My dad had a meeting with Colonel [REDACTED] and brought his daughter. I showed her around the underground web.
(22:45) h4v0nn: DO YOU REALISE WHAT YOU JUST DID?
(22:46) ytap: What did I do, why are you so mad?
(22:46) h4v0nn: THE LITTLE SNITCH WILL PROBABLY LAND YOU ON ONE OF THOSE TRAINS, YOU IDIOT! GOODBYE, I DON’T WANNA HEAR FROM YOU AGAIN TODAY!
Archive: Monday 17/03/2031 21:31:37
(21:31) h4v0nn: Emily.
(21:35 ) h4v0nn: Emily?
(21:49) h4v0nn: EMILY.
(22:02) h4v0nn: PLEASE TELL ME YOU’RE OKAY. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE I BEG YOU.
(23:03) h4v0nn: I GIVE UP! MESSAGE ME IF YOU’RE STILL THERE.
Archive: Tuesday 18/03/2031 21:29:24
(21:29) h4v0nn: EMILY PLEASE I CAN’T DO IT WITHOUT YOU. I CAN’T LOSE SOMEONE LIKE THIS AGAIN.
Archive: Wednesday 19/03/2031 20:21:27
(20:21) h4v0nn: I left school early to see you. PLEASE RESPOND.
(23:34) h4v0nn: That’s it. I’m done. You’ll see me on the big screen tonight. Everyone will, and it won’t be the usual programming.
C:\ EXIT
It was dark this night. Echoes of thunder could be heard reflecting off the city’s towers, and a light rain drizzled. Gerard strapped his bag onto his right shoulder, and sprinted. He thrust the doors open and continued to run as passers-by stared on.
He looked up. There it was, the magnificent structure. The glowing giant watched over the tiny people which dotted the streets. He walked into the building, still donning his school uniform.
“May I know where the bathroom in this building is?” he asked.
“Left and straight, next to the maintenance stairs.”
“Maintenance stairs. Maintenance stairs…” Gerard mumbled as he scurried past the crowds in the main floor.
He looked left then right. When nobody was watching a dash up the stairs was made. This dash came to a sprint as he scaled flights of stairs. He tightened his grip on the heavy backpack and bounced his toes off the hard steps.
He’d reached the top floor. “Floor 200” he whispered. He threw the bag off his shoulder.
From this height he could see all of “Ashkabar, Capital of Voronia”. All of the luxury one could imagine was held within the confines of these towers which littered the centre.
It was time.
He opened his bag and grabbed a screwdriver and some wires. He unscrewed the on-floor circuit breaker’s cover and sautered on a new circuit. “Guess those notes did come in use”. He smirked as he heard a “Ping!” from his phone. “All connected, time to go.”
“GLORY TO VORONIA!”
His voice shattered the ground as the speakers wailed his speech.
“While millions suffered, the rich would indulge. While others worked, the rich enslaved them. The opiate of the masses was this government. They colonised our bodies, and now they want us to respect us. Free yourselves, this is my final message.”
The time was midnight. He shut his eyes and leaped. His body dropped in the hands of the sky. All could see his floating silhouette covering the boundless screens.
“No more suffering” the dead man mouthed within his final seconds.
