Off the Grid [Short Science Fiction Story] [Steemit Exclusive]
“Oh my God, just let me out!!! You cannot be serious!” Gin yelled, staring wide-eyed at her mother.
“Yes I am, Gina,” Summer said, her hands planted on her hips in a pose of resistance. She was not about to let her spoiled daughter ruin this vacation.
“Okay, I am totally not consenting to this,” the teenager yelled, grasping at her mobile device for dear life. “And stop calling me Gina! It’s GIN!”
“Tom, will you please talk some sense into our daughter?” Summer whispered to her husband, realizing that half the people in the queue were now staring at the three of them. She turned to the security worker in front of her. “I am so sorry for this!” she exclaimed.
“It’s okay, ma'am,” the tall man replied with a Brittish accent. “We’re quite used to this type of behaviour from teenagers visiting Green Bank,” he added with a very British tone of subtle disappointment and mockery.
“You do not seriously expect me to spend three days without my connection to the world in some shithole in the mountains of West fucking Virginia,” Gin lowered her voice, but was still causing a scene.
“Gina, we are guests here! And we’ve waited six months for this opportunity. Watch your mouth or I swear you are not getting back online till you’re eighteen!” Summer threatened, her face turning a crimson shade of red.
“I can’t track my activity or health status with my implants, can’t look up information and... my friends!” Gin flung her hands in the air. “My friends are going to think I am dead! I might as well be!”
Tears were appearing in the teenager’s eyes when her father finally spoke.
“Ginger,” he said his daughter’s nickname softly. “Remember that self-driving smart-car you’ve been wanting?”
“The convertible iRide 2093 Delux?” Gin spat out almost automatically.
“That’s the one,” Tom said softly and placed his hand on Gin’s shoulder. Summer pursed her lips and tried to hide her frustration. This was not good parenting, but if promising her a car is what would help get Gin to cooperate for the weekend, then so be it.
“What about it?” Gin asked, obviously knowing the answer.
“If you’re good, and hand over your devices to the nice man over here? When we get back home, I am ordering you that iRide,” Tom said.
“Really, Daddy?” the girl exclaimed.
“Can we discuss this after we’ve passed security, please?” Summer whispered as loudly as she could, eyeing the people getting impatient in the line behind them.
She pushed Gin forwarded, and the teenager glanced at her father before depositing her mobile device and implant processor in a small box she then handed the tall British man. She felt sick. For the first time in her life, she was absolutely disconnected and off the grid.
“Is this the place criminals hide?” she heard someone behind her ask. Her head was spinning. A guide arrived to take them on a tour of the village. Gin barely managed to stand, shaking like a leaf.
“Green Bank was established to protect the sufferers of EHS - electromagnetic hypersensitivity,” the tour guide spoke as the group of tourists tried to adjust to the lack of electronics in their hands and heads. “It is the only place in the nation to be free of electromagnetic radiation of any kind, giving EHS sufferers a home off the grid.”
“Is that a real disease?” a child in the audience chimed in, only to instantly be hushed by his mother.
The guide smiled and replied, “Although medical professionals are still trying to decipher the cause of this rare syndrome, it is very hard as the very presence of medical devices with electronic components near sufferers of EHS is painful and life threatening to them. Now if you please follow me.”
He paused to give the audience time to rise from their seats in the welcoming hall.
“Here you can see the Faraday cage,” he said and pointed at a section of the village wall that was exposed to display the metal mesh that was protecting the settlement from radio waves and any kind of electromagnetic radiation. “Since it cannot provide sufficient protection for many of us, we also wear protective clothing when outdoors,” he added.
The audience bombarded the polite guide with questions while Gin stared around bewildered. There were no screens. No flickering advertisements of the background noise of audio devices chiming, chirping and humming in people’s pockets. The air tastes rotten. Like animal droppings and decaying wood. She couldn’t breathe.
How could people do this? How could they live? Tears were flooding her eyes again.
“I have to get out of here,” she whispered at her father, clutching at his hand.
“Oh come on honey,” he replied softly. “It’s only been half an hour. After the tour, we’ll get our cozy room and you can go swimming in the lake and eat some delicious organic foods…”
Summer looked back at Gin and Tom as they lagged behind the group. The look on Gin’s face worried her.
“I can’t,” Gin whispered, looking around. Everything looked old. Like in the two dimensional movies they viewed in media class. It was a living nightmare and she couldn’t share it with ANYONE. “I just can’t!” she yelled, releasing her father’s hand and racing to the main gate of the village. It was closed, and Gin threw herself against the metal bars.
“Let me out! Please! Somebody let me out!!!” she screamed while the security guards gently injected her with a mild sedative. “Out! Please!” she whimpered and collapsed into the arms of a short Asian guard. “Please let me out!”
“Let me in! Please! Somebody let me in!!!” the woman’s screams tore through the silence of night in Green Bank. Gin woke startled, like everyone else in the village.
Once over the initial trauma associated with going off the grid, Gin grew accustomed to life in Green Bank. She discovered nature, and marveled in the ingenuity of steam-based tools and machines, as well as the printing press printing books on ancient recycled wood pulp. She even managed to pin flowers in her hair in a way that disguised her implant port.
Gin found herself so fascinated, she forgot about her plans to write in length about her trip on her social media pages. She even agreed when her mother suggested they extend the vacation by a whole week. This was their last night at Green Bank, and Gin was actually sad to pack her many souvenirs from the trip and prepare to return to her digitized life.
“I am begging you! Let me in!” the voice continued. Gin got out of bed and threw on her coat over the pajamas and hurried toward the front door of the cottage, where her parents were already waiting.
“What’s going on?” she whispered at her parents. Her father shrugged, and all three hurried outside and toward the gate where the yells were coming from.
A woman was grasping at the gate’s metal bars. Her face was covered in dirt and dust, her hair a muddy mess around her face. Her clothes were torn in places and she looked terrified. A crowd had gathered around the gate, and Gin joined it with her parents.
The mayor of the town, an elderly man in blue pajamas, stepped forward and swung his ancient metal bullet rifle so that it rested on his shoulder.
“Slow down, tech slut,” he said with a Southern accent. “We’re not taking in any guests at these hours,” he muttered sheepishly. Tech sluts. It’s what the residents quietly and mockingly called the people on the grid. The connected.
“You don’t understand!” the woman yelled. “I ran here. For two days. This is the only place safe. It’s gone. It’s all gone. First the implants…” she sobbed. “They hacked them. There was chaos. Murder in the streets. And then the EMP hit…” she paused. “It’s all gone…”
“What the heck do you mean all gone?” the mayor’s wife stepped in with her own ancient non-energy gun in hand.
“There’s no electricity. No police. Energy weapons don’t work. No running water. No power for cars. Nothing. Just death,” the woman whimpered. “Please let me in!” she cried.
“Other tech sluts will come,” the mayor’s wife said.
The mayor sighed and cocked his gun.
“I swear, no one followed me,” the woman begged, reaching her shaking arm through the bars. “Oh my God, just let me in!!!”
-=-=-=-=-
Notes: This story is based in the future of an actual town and syndrome. Inspiration from:
I would like to dedicate this story to @gingerninja for being patient with me and blame the lack of editing on @furious-one and @reggaemuffin. Oh you know why I haven't had time to write all day!
Images courtesy of Pixabay - as always.
-=-=-=-=-
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Wow great story @techslut ! I had a good read on this one ^^
I Dont want to ruin the story for those who havent read it yet, but i like how you used the word "tech sluts" for the outsiders
Will there be a Part 2? :p (excited to see how this will continue)
Btw you are my favorite writer on steemit now :)
<3 <3 <3
It's yet another one of my short stories that sound like the start of a novel. Hmm... I can probably continue it. The world is built, characters are there... all I'd need is a plot.
Can totally see this as a teaser for a new TV series. "In a World where Tech no longer works there is one place that is still considered safe..."
img credz: pixabay.com
Nice, you got a 26.0% @peaceandlove upgoat, thanks to @techslut
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I really chuckled at "iRide". Apple seems to have moved quite a bit :P
And then
is a bit disorienting, the fact that a significant amount of time has passed between the two is not immediately clear and causes some confusion. At least for me, others might perceive it differently.
I really like the concept of the story, especially the "something really bad happened while you were safe in here" part. You manage to introduce the reader to this new world before the apocalypse but still keep the mystery of what exactly happened.
And aside from that one rough transition, your writing is great too :)
<3
Thank you for reading!!!!
That rough transition is actually what started the story in my head. The quick and unexpected turn of events that flips everything onto its head.
As many noted, this is yet another of my shorts that sounds like the start of a novel. Still toying around with the idea of continuing it, but if I am going to work on a book, it's going to be my erotic fantasy epic (the previous draft of which was partially published on steemit last year).
And again - THANK YOU! I was looking for you on Discord to ask you to read this. You're one of the very few authors on steemit whose opinion I seek out when I create something worthwhile. <3
You can always find me on steemit.chat :)
Noted! It's the one place I didn't check.
I will never go to that village. It seems prison. What they injected into Gina? After injection she started like the place which is not right things to do. Something evil going on there. Who is gonna reveal the conspiracy?
It's not a prison. It's a cage. Faraday cage. Built to protect people who are sensitive to electromagnetic radiation. But you know what happens when you have such a closed society for a long time. Things get weird. There's no conspiracy, but this almost amish-like community now holds more power than most towns - they are not dependant on electricity and use mostly steam-powered machinery. So they are the only ones with running water and medicine and order in a world gone to hell after an EMP bomb.
nice
nice pecture
great post
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Great read! :) like the guy above said, this could be a cool intro/beginning of a mini series like that 'under the dome' thing we had a few years back :D
I will consider it. For now, I am racing myself to get as many short stories as I can out of myself.