Coded

The fiery midday sun was beating down, just mocking me. Finally, my wrist buzzed telling me to go home for the day, just as I reached up to wipe the sheen of sweat from my forehead.

Home. Well I suppose that's a stretch.

If you'd call a large blue box plumped in a complex next to a bunch of other large blue boxes home, I guess this fits the bill.

"Twelve!" the commander barked at me. Yep, that would be me. That's my rank in the community, AKA my whole identity.

"Three-hundred" I answered. He pulled out his scanner, as I held out my wrist. Once he scanned my navy blue Chain, I was free to go.

I'm so honored to be a contributing member of the Crypt Republic. Really, very honored.

Three hundred is the number of pounds of quartz that I mined today. Quartz is now the value behind the currency that keeps our community running. Sort of like how gold used to be the value behind the US Dollar. We are the ones who keep the currency running. We are the ones who give the currency value. We, as in, the workers who mine the quartz. We are assigned a rank and a color, and that represents us. I am lucky. I am a Blue. This means I have food on the table, and a bed to sleep on. It also means I am a valuable contributing member to our society, and to the government.

The reds are rebels. They are dangerous and they stand to take down our nation. They are terrorists in every sense of the word. Because we are a generous nation, we house them and give them food but obviously we need to keep a close eye on the reds. They refuse to mine the quartz, so they are the ones that make the jewelry that the Golds wear. Rumor has it that some of them even still dream.

The Golds are our leaders. They are the ones who saved us from the Crypto-War, the ones who walk around in their suits and gorgeous embroidered dresses and wear quartz jewelry. The reds make the quartz it into jewelry that they can wear as a sign of our wealth. A sign of our strong nation.

Twenty-five years ago, money became worthless. "Real" money became worthless. The value of the electronic "crypto" money skyrocketed. The reason paper money lost value is because the people no longer accepted its worth. The people turned to a currency that they believed would be an end to their poverty. And it did end our poverty. We are now privileged enough to be able to mine the quartz that keeps our nation strong.

As I exit the large indent in the Earth that is the mine, I start my walk back to my complex. Just like I do every day, I stop at the small creek to catch some relief from the hot summer sun. While it's not really against the rules, we aren't technically supposed to make any pit stops on our way home. And curfew is 5 o'clock. On the dot. So I have to be quick.

I cup some of the cool spring water in my hands and splash it on my face. Just as I am going back in for some more water, I am startled backwards and fall right into it.

"Blue!" the guard says to me in an extremely deep voice. "What's your number?"

"T-twelve" I manage to stutter.

"It's 2 minutes past 5."

"Oh, is it? My Chain must be off. It didn't put off a warning vibration yet."

He gives me a very intense look for what must be two full minutes. If I wasn't late before, I am definitely going to be late now.

"Go. Don't waste time or I will have to scan your bracelet. And you should report to headquarters as soon as you can to get your Chain checked."

I slosh out of the water and start my way back to the complex. Once I arrive, I scan my Chain at the door to let myself in.

My Chain is my bracelet that holds my number and color, I am privileged to have a Chain. It means I am a part of the Crypt Republic, an honored citizen that gets to enjoy the all of the perks and freedom of our great country. Our country run by the Chain, which is the computer system that keeps tabs on all of us workers who mine the quartz.

I am free. I am a 12. I am a blue. I am a citizen of the Crypt Republic. I am free. I am a 12. I am a blue. I am a citizen of the Crypt Republic.

Click. My Chain bracelet finally falls off after several tries of prying at it.

Now I can tell you the truth.

The Chain might as well be a shackle that reads our every thought. I have undergone extensive training to be able to neutralize the effects of the Chain on my mind.

It monitors our energy and it even harvests the energy that we put off when mining the quartz. That is what really fuels the Crypt currency. The people are the currency.

I am not a 12. I am not a blue. And little does anyone know, I am not actually a citizen of the Crypt Republic.

I am actually a citizen of Electra, the Eastern nation on the other side of the Matrix. The Matrix is actually exactly what it implies. It is essentially a wall of binary code that separates the West from the East. The Chain bracelet isn't made of binary code, which is 1s and 0s. It is made of 3s and 4s so it is rendered incompatible with what is beyond the Matrix. If you have a Chain on, the outside of the wall doesn't even exist to you.

I am an Electran spy, here on a mission to find the weakness in the Crypt Republic currency. The Crypt Republic has had their "citizens" enslaved for years, buying and selling them on the black market like cattle. None of these people are even considered living, sentient, beings. They are property of the government, they are their numbers. And what the people, the "citizens" don't know, is that they aren't ranked based on their jobs. They are ranked based off of the energy they give off. Reds are ranked from 0-10. Blues are ranked from 11-20. Golds are ranked from 21-30. And it seems counter-intuitive but the reds actually give off the most energy and so they are the most dangerous. Their energy has been able to override the code of the Chains, and so they have made contact with our side, the Eastern side of the Matrix.

This is obviously why the Reds are labeled as dangerous.

Oh, that brings me to the reason that I was actually at the creek earlier. I didn't risk getting caught just to splash some cool water on my face, though it did feel really good. I left a message for the Reds.

The power hungry "elites" of the Crypt Republic can't help themselves. They always have to mine for more.

Welcome to the future: where half of the world lives in an ultra-technological era and the other half is back to the industrial era.

Technology doesn't always have to be a bad thing, as we have proved to be true in Electra. It doesn't need to be used to invade people's privacy, and to control them. It doesn't need to be used to drive half of the population into poverty, while the other half steals all of the riches. Those Sci-Fi movies that used to be put out always were about the "evil" technology and "artificial intelligence" And that's exactly what the Western Side was going to do, before they wiped their own technology out. The Eastern Side is everything you could ever dream of. Each of us has a bracelet, but they are optional and not mandatory. They don't read our thoughts. They don't invade our privacy. They are the currency. As we contribute to society in a meaningful way, your bracelet becomes worth more. This means helping people, planting gardens, planting trees, educating, and learning. So in a way, everyone is ranked. But we are ranked based off of the good we do, encouraging us to contribute in a meaningful way. To make the world better for everybody.

Once the governments in the West had gotten ahold of Crypto about twenty-five years ago, they just kept mining. They used up all of the power in their centralized computer system, so much so that they burnt out their own grid.

Smart, I know.

They were taking the crypto technology to a really, really bad place. They weren't going to use it to do good in the world, just like they aren't now. As it is we are lucky they got set back about 100 years, to the fault of their own.

Crypto is freedom on the Eastern side of the Matrix. It is a prison on the Western side.

I am here, on the Western side of the wall, to make sure they can't steal what freedom is left in this world. We have to shut the prison down.

This means we have to take out their code. If we can render their code ineffective, the Chain system will be shut down

This is where the dreams come in. If you recall, according to the "rumors" the Reds can still dream. The Chain bracelet harvests energy from the people who wear it, so it also takes their dreams from them. Reds are powerful enough that their energy can overcome the energy of the Chain, so they keep their dreams.

It is our belief that dreams are the key to destroying their code. They are strong enough to overpower the 3s and the 4s, this we know. Dreams occur in a universal code-- one the Golds of the Crypt Republic want to block. This means that the Reds can easily communicate with each other while they are dreaming, or with anyone on the Western side of the wall without Chains on.

So that's what we are going to do. We are going to dream.

The Reds and I have been secretly communicating through our dreams for a few weeks now. The only thing is, we will be dreaming with our Chains on. That's the only way to (hopefully) destroy the code. So we have to hope that we are powerful enough that the Chains won't pick up on what we are doing. By destroying their wall, we will release all of everyone's energy that has been harvested, and return it back to them.

We are going to try to telepathically have the same lucid dream. We have to try to think their code of 3s and 4s into destruction. This should be fun.

I put my Chain back on and lay down in bed. I shut my eyes and try as hard as I can to imagine their wall of code, their wall of currency. As I feel myself starting to drift off, finally I see it. Green vertical strands of 3s and 4s continuing on for as far as I can see.

Suddenly, more people start to show up, one by one. The Reds. They made it here.

I think, as hard as I can, trying to envision the numbers crumbling. We all stand here, in front of these numbers, for what has to be a full half hour.

And then they do. They start to crumble.

One by one, the numbers at the top start to fall, destroying the strands of code. Destroying their Matrix. Freeing the Western side of Humanity.

One by one, number by number. And then all of a sudden

darkness

The Crypt Republic is no more.

To be continued...

I read all the time, but this is my first go at really writing a story like this. So, I am curious to know if you like it, or if it is crazy and only sounds good in my head??? Since it's my type of genre I like to read, I figured why not give it a go.

I think this contest is a great idea, because I could very easily see how the blockchain could create a dystopian society. However, it can also be a good thing! I tried to portray two very different perspectives into my story.

For more feel free to check out my website!

Also, I am working on launching my own web design business. As a student building my portfolio I can give you a really great deal on a website. If you or anyone you know needs a website feel free to contact me! Will accept payments in STEEM :)

Until next time,

~Zoey