Hello

Hello there. Today I'd like to show you a novel that I started working on. It's kind of my first one I'd say. Never wrote anything longer. It's hard for me to define it's genres for now, as I still do not know how it'll turn out, so... yeah.
As for the description, there's none. Why? Well if you want to see what's it about you gotta read it yourself. If you like it, that's good, if you don't that's fine too, have a nice day either way.

Brace yourself, 4379 words incoming.

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Dreamer: Prologue

“We are born on this world without anyone asking us our opinion, we are born without knowing what we’ll become, what we could become and how things will or could turn out.We are then told to do this and that, to work, to get married, to study and behave. No one asks us if we want to fall in love, if we want to work, to love, to feel, to fail, to cry, to be in sorrow, to watch someone or something die.”

“It just happens without our consent or awareness. No one asks us if we want to get in this ultimate mess and chaos of experiences and feelings. Moreover we are often not aware of that, of our ultimate slavery, or we are forced to stay in it because of others and their selfishness, or our own.
Hell, even if beat it – even if we defeat all obstacles, we still mostly can not choose, because fear stops us from changing anything, be it freeing yourself from your shackles or from your life or from anything else for that matter.”

“And I think that this is unfair. That so many things are out of our control. Not a lot of things are under it, actually. But… It can’t be otherwise. I just can not. Why?”

“Despite the fact, that it’s what often makes us crippled, It’s also what makes life beautfiul – if everything was under our control, things would be boring. Why? Can you know what happiness is if you don’t know sadness and despair? I don’t think so, because then the happiness would just become normal thing, mundane and usual. You couldn’t appreciate it then, you have to live through at least a little bit of bad things in order to understand the good things and vice versa.”

”I am not a nihilist by any means – being born is certainly better than not being born at all, but I sincerely think that life is not fair and just, and we are slaves of it. It’s also not easy. Our parents, our co-workers, classmates, government, family, friends, life, world – they all throw all kinds of expectations on us, while not even being aware, that by doing so, they may just make us completely crumble under the weight of their demands.”

”It is manageable to endure all of that and keep going, but in order to do so, you need some kind of a support. You need others to share your load with and also take some of theirs. Then despite the fact that the total amount of your burden doesn’t change, because you give some away, but also take some in, you somehow are able to endure way more easily.”

”However as I said, life here on Earth is just unfair, and most of its unfairness is not in the fact that we can’t control many of the things in our lives, that we have to carry all kinds of burdens on our shoulders through all of our lives – we can get through that. What is unfair is nothing but the fact, that sometimes it just takes away all of the things, people, activities that we support ourselves with. And how can one manage without it? How can you do that? Some, the ones that are very, very strong, can do it, but what about the rest? They crumble to pieces. They fall in the pits of despair, sorrow and void. And from there, there mostly are three choices – some, the ones that still have a tiniest bit of hope hidden deep within them, they live there and sometimes they manage to get out, others, those that have embraced their fall and being in pieces, just stay there and do nothing, except for feeling the pressure, the despair, and others, those who can’t just take it anymore, end it once and for all.”

“Out of the reasons mentioned above, the second group is of course the biggest, next is the first and the least amount of people choose the third way, which takes the biggest amount of courage, but on the other hand is also the choice of a coward in some ways, because life, in my opinion, is just so fragile, so ridiculous and enslaving, that the only way of rebelling may be not death, but actually living, living as a free and maybe happy person, but it’s way too difficult and only some are able to achieve this.”

”Also, because of this unfairness here, I believe that there is some kind of a just, fair life after this one. Because otherwise… Otherwise I don’t even want to imagine it. It’d be horrible.”

“But what is the scariest thing of it all, is the fact, that despite all this sorrow, pain, fear, killings and despair that humanity has been through, we still keep doing what we were doing since ancient times – we still are hurting each other, people still get killed everyday, they get robbed, beaten, hurt. We have been through wars, through conflicts and seen more pain, casualties and despair than any other generation. We can make things that were, not so long ago, impossible, possible without any problems. Then why can’t we, as a humanity, just not cause pain to each other anymore? It’s what is the biggest problem in my opinion.”

”But all of that doesn’t matter in context of this work. What matters are these questions: Why are born? What for? Why do have to do all these things? Why do we have to submit to all of these rules made by those born before us? Why they had to submit to the rules made by life itself? Why do we fall in love? Why can’t we love back? Why do we feel? What is all this sorrow for? Why can’t we be with those we love? Why can’t they be with people they love? Why do we kill? Why do we hate? And the happiness? Is this all futile? Do we live for the moment or maybe some higher purpose? What is it all for?”

“And that’s all Miss Graham, I think that in this essay I thoroughly explained ‘What questions sometimes keep you up at night?’, or did I?”

“...”

In the mostly white classroom, silence ensued. All the students sitting by white desks with grey tops, on white chairs were looking awkwardly at one boy. There was not a lot of them, around 20 or so, but all of them did. So did the teacher, which was standing at the front of the class with her arms crossed, slightly leaning against the wall on which the digital board was projected. She was wearing a really nice dress that did not reveal much of her figure, which left a lot to the imagination, as there were some points saying that it might be astonishing. The boys were of course intrigued. Finally, after couple of awkward seconds, Miss Abigail Graham, finally spoke.

“Um… Yes. You did Whaaso. You did.”

Today, on the English lesson, all the students were asked to write an essay answering the question “What questions keep you up at night?” and present it to the class. And now, when even the last person has just finished, the bell rang, ending the lesson and bringing the students back to the real life.

As students started to get up, miss Graham spoke again.

“Whaaso, could you stay for a second?” She asked.

While all the other students left, one boy stayed. Actually, a boy he was not. With height around 6’, firm build and stance, he looked like an adult. Average face. Dark eyes. Round head. But it wasn’t what made him look serious. His eyes. They had a look of experience, a little bit of understanding. They weren’t hopping around, constantly looking everywhere like the eyes of his peers. They were more solid, constant and slower, at peace, but you could kind of also see sadness hidden deep within them. Or maybe not?

“What can I help you with, miss Graham?” - the boy asked.

“It’s actually the opposite – what can I help you with. Whaaso? Do you have any problems maybe? Your work seemed… a little troubled? Is everything allright?” - Replied miss Abigail Graham.

“Yes, everything is perfectly fine miss Graham. Don’t worry.” - Said Whaaso, while looking straight into miss Abigail’s eyes, smiling a little bit.

“… If you say so. But you definitely have to go to the class trip that is organised later tomorrow, do you get me? If so, then well, then off you go, student.” - After a while of thinking said Miss Graham.

“ I got it. I’ll be there. Goodbye then.”

And so he left the classroom, leaving the young woman alone in it.

‘It’s been a month already, but he still doesn’t want to open up. Am I failure as a homeroom teacher? Why can’t I get him to talk about what’s bothering him? What do I do wrong?’ - Pondered the freshly baked teacher in her head. She started the job just this semester – one month ago, and for a start she got to have her own class, one of the best in the whole school – easiest to manage. It was all perfect, except for one boy.

It’s not like there were some kind of problems with him – he had good grades, he was very polite and kind, but there just… was something about him. He smiled and laughed, talked with others, joked, but it all seemed empty, fake. He looked kind of sad, hurt. He wasn’t truly cheerful like a teeneger in the tender age of 16 should be. And Abigail saw that, it bothered her very much, because she was empathetic person. What also bothered her was the fact, that no one beside her saw that. Whaaso was very well received in the class and the surroundings, no one would ever think he is sad or anything. But she just knew he wasn’t the person he seemed to be.

‘Ehhhhhhhhh’ - She sighed.

And continued to think.

Meanwhile, the boy that has just left the classroom, Whaaso Bjornson was walking through the school corridor, going straight for his history lesson. He wasn’t in a hurry, despite the fact that the bell will ring in a second and he possible will be late. His step was calm and firm, while he was passing by hurrying students.

Whaaso was in one of the best schools in the whole city, it looked very nice – corridors were broad and decorated by lots of interesting art. If not for the rushing students it would be relaxing, calm and peaceful scene.

Despite not hurrying, Whaaso made it in time to his classroom and sat somewhere at the end quietly, while smiling at one of his classmates.

Then, Mr. Sobieski entered the class. He was a man well into his fifties, with well kept beard, thick and really old school glasses, wearing a suit. He looked rigid and disciplined, and he indeed was like that.

He placed his leather suitcase on the desk and proceeded to unpack his things from it. Without a slightiest care about the world or the students. This man certainly owned himself.

After he finished, he finally spoke.

“Good morning class.”

“Good morning Mr. Sobieski” - answered the class.

The students were especially polite towards this teacher – he was very respected, but also a little bit feared. You did not want to get on his bad side.

After slightly going through his glorious beard with his hands, Mr. Sobieski began speaking.

“As you all probably know it, it’s already been a month since we’ve started this Introductory Course to Modern History together. And that also means, that exam is coming your way. So today we’ll do a little bit of revision. Actually you’ll do a little bit of revision and I’ll listen. Let’s see what you remember.”

The class got even more silent, if it actually was possible. If before you could probably hear a fly beating its wings, then now you could hear the cells in your body multiplying.

Mr. Sobieski looked around the class for a while and then stopped on the classmate that Waaso smiled to before.

“Hmm. Let’s maybe start with Sawsan as she is apparently in a very good mood, look on that smile on her face. Go on darling. Begin with telling us how the World War 3 started and how it went. Explain only the facts concerning the War and Treaty, also maybe something about modern Politics, but don’t speak about the rest, someone else will do that later.”

The girl selected by Mr. Sobieski, Sawsan, wasn’t particularly eye catching. Average height, with normal looks, except for her spectacularly long and thick blonde hair and blue eyes. He only choose her because she was apparently smiling while looking some other way. She got startled for a second, and then started.

“It all started in 2016, with a group of terrorists named Domi who, got so fed up with the World, that they wanted to end it. They somehow managed to hack into Russia’s nuclear warheads stations, whose security turned out to be way worse than everyone thought, and launch them.”

“Out of 16 of them that were launched by their group, 15 were quickly taken down or turned off somehow by the Russians just seconds after launch making them harmless, but one was not. They didn’t manage to regain control over one of the warheads. Unfortunately that was also the biggest one. Couple of minutes later, the country then known as Germany, was no more, even despite the fact, that the warhead itself did not kill a lot of people or fall on any major city. So what happened?”

“The warhead did not struck randomly – it hit the biggest warehouse of nuclear waste in the whole country, which the location of somehow ended up in the hands of members of Domi. In mere seconds thousands of tons of radioactive waste got blown up in the air. It killed millions. Around 90% of Germany’s population got killed by the radiation in minutes or hours after the hit. Luckiest ones, living furthest away even managed to live up to three days actually. Fortunately all the neighbouring countries somehow managed to keep it from spreading, but it was not without a cost, a brutal one at that – it meant a complete blockade of the borders. Both in the air, in the sea and in the land.”

She paused for a second, but then resumed.

“ No one could get in or out. All the victims of this horrible acts were left alone to fend for themselves. But it helped to contain the danger, so it was necessary, possibly even justified, but I ain’t the one to judge that. Anyway, let’s get back to the main topic.”

“After that hit, no one asked any questions. No one would after such a thing. It was a chain reaction. Soon similar warheads started flying everywhere on the world. France, Germany, Ukraine, most of Russia, Slovakia, parts of Poland and Hungary. A little bit of Asia, whole Africa. And lots more. They ceased to exist after the first wave of attacks.”

“After that it was too late to explain everything, and the War has officially started. Fortuanately no one used warheads anymore, just soldiers. It was a slaughter. World’s population was reduced by almost 30% in mere 4 years. 2 billion people died, many more were crippled and or sick. The Earth was flowing with blood. Most of the countries have ceased to exist.”

“But in the year 2020 it finally stopped. Why? It was way beyond bad. If it went any further, humanity would be without saving. So the few countries that survived the war signed a treaty. It was a breakthrough, because in it they made a rule that would change life of every single generation born after. Any kind of nuclear weapons or technology were banned. So was the army and marital conflicts in real life. They devised something – Virtual Reality. From then on any kind of conflicts between any given country, that is not solvable by law and mediation, could be decided by the use of augumented/virtual reality and fighting in there. It was something new, something amazing. Since then, after a long period of grief and mourning, the World entered the long lasting era of peace.”

“Empires that emerged after the war, are as follows: Anatin Empire, Ursus Empire, Capreolus Empire, Mellivora Empire and Muscidae Empire.”

“Biggest ones are Ursus and Mellivora, with Muscidae and Anatin being a little bit smaller than them, while the Muscidae is very small in comparison. After the treaty Anatin Empire made a pact with Ursus Empire, and Capreolus with Mellivora. They actually are so close together that you can kind of consider them as one being. Muscidae Empire stayed neutral.”

“The Empires are ruled by the Emperors and their family, but the citizens still can shape their own country by direct voting in some cases – if you want to change something in the country, it can get voted through by the citizens. The Emperor can still turn it down though, but he has to give a reason. If it’s not sound in the minds of people, they can vote again an the Emperor can’t turn that one down. Also not everyone can vote. Only those who pass the exam, which checks for basic knowledge in maths, economy, politics and history, can vote in anything.”

“Other than these Empires and their territories we also have some special, so called dead zones. They are the places that were destroyed during the war by bombs or/and radiation, causing them to become unhabitable for countless generations to come. These areas are off limits to the human population and entrance to them is strictly prohibited in every Empire.”

After a brief pause, she continued.

“Since the Treaty, Augumented Reality has started developing immensely and became big part of our lives and now it has actually became the centre of it. Instead of having wars, instead of killings each other we just solve conflicts by competing in hand to hand combat in a simulated environment. That’s it Mr. Sobieski. I think.”

Silence ensued, but it was quickly broken by Mr. Sobieski.

“That’s very good Miss Sawsan. I’d add more here and there, but otherwise it’s solid. Congratulations. You can sit now.” - said Mr. Sobieski.

After stroking his beard for a while, he continued.

“So… Now let’s learn a little about other things that changed after the War. Hm… How about you, kind sir? Yes, you Mr. Tury. Go on.” - said the bearded man after stopping his eyes on a rather normal boy, who did not stand out at all. He just liked to daydream all day, and he just did that. And Mr. Sobieski did not like it when students did not pay attention on his class.

“Um… Yes. Uhm. Allright. Other than politics, economy, territory and so on, we as humanity have changed. The globally elevated radiation levels and other after effects of the War caused us, humanity as a whole, to change. We supposedly mutated. First result of that was the sudden rise in the average life expectancy. It went up considerably after the War. What was found out later is the fact that we somehow quickly adapted to the radiation and by some miracle our telomeres lengthened considerably. Thanks to that we are currently able to live much longer than people did in the past.”

“Today’s life expectancy is exactly 124 years old. No one dies from natural causes in earlier age. It’s almost twice what it was just around a century ago. It’s amazing. But no one has somehow managed to live past that age. Despite trying everything that medicine had to offer, not even once did the doctors manage to make the patient live till his 125 birthdays. It’s like we have some kind of clock inside of us, which just makes our body stop after that time. From research we also know that generations born after the War, which have not been exposed to the radiation and all that also have this mutation.”

“Another thing that changed is of course the job market - back in the days people used to work in more physical, repetitive and boring world. Now however these jobs are long gone. Humans are now only working in jobs that require creativity and higher level of abstraction of which machines are not yet capable of.”

“Also because of the fact, that a lot of young men died in the War, polygamy was introduced back in the society in order to regain the former population and frankly just because there was lack of men on the market. That’s all.”

“The last thing that I am gonna speak about is the Spiritual Side of humanity. Before many around the world were Atheists, but now however, almost no one is. Why? We’ve managed to produce artificial human, which chemically is an ideal copy of us, a long time ago. Even despite managing to bring his heart to beat, brain to fire up and conduct signals, the produced human was still unconscious. Every single thing in the body was the same as in a living person, but somehow that created thing was not alive. After much research it was concluded that it actually lacks… Soul. It was scientifically proven that we all have some kind of spiritual side to us - soul, deep being, whatever. There’s something. Ever since then all religions and movements have been growing like crazy. Except there were made some regulations so it doesn’t get out of control - all organisations that were encouraging violence or intolerance to others were banned.”

“Also another proof of the spiritual side of humanity was an experiment with teleportation. After it was finally developed and tested on inanimate things, we tried it on death row inmates. Their bodies were all perfectly transported but somehow all of them turned into mindless bodies. Only their basic instincts remained - they could chew, drink and sleep, but nothing else. Only primal functions. As if they lost something during that teleportation, which in turn was actually just disassembling the body into separate atoms and sending it through special tunnels to another point on Earth with a speed near the speed of light. But after the ‘assembly’ on place, again, despite having perfectly fine bodies, they did not ‘work’.”

“Also, as Sawsan has already mentioned, humanity has moved beyond killing in solving conflicts and started resolving it just by violence. Not a real one, but still. Nasea is the name of the sport that is currently the most important thing in the World. It’s basically like a medieval duel but without actually hurting each other as it’s all done with the help of augmented reality. So like in a game. With swords, bows, shields and all of that. People who are professional Nasea fighters are called Fannae. They work for the government, some private companies and so on. Also the basic Nasea training is now part of every school’s compulsory program - everyone has to train in the basics and fight at least once. And well… I think that’s all.” - Tury finally finished and sat down. The sound of his moving chair was the only thing you could hear in the yet another white classroom.

“That’s correct, son. Very good.” - said Mr. Sobieski, who was apparently satisfied with the answers from the two of them.

“Let’s continue with…”

The rest turned to a blur for Whaaso. He did not care. He just wanted the time to pass by, because he had a greater task to do today. He finally could do it. And like this, the lessons ended. Before anyone could stop him or start talking with him, Whaaso quickly left home.

He go into his Var and arrived home minutes later. Vars were something like a car was back in the days. Except they did not need fuel - they had an energy source built into them which had enough power to drive through more than 1000000 miles without charging again and also they were not driving on a road - they were flying in the air. Someday someone really smart managed to bend some gravity, magnetism and all that, creating very efficient and very fast engine that after couple of years of improvements worked brilliantly. Anyway.

Whaaso got to his home. It was nice place in a quiet neighborhood, slightly more on the suburban side, with lots of green areas and beautiful scenery. Even some forest here and there too. He got out of his blue Var, which looked a little bit like a big sphere, and went to his home. Most Vars were made in the shape of sphere as it was the most efficient way of using the least amount of material possible, so.

He entered and silence was what welcomed him. Whaaso’s home was empty, despite the fact that there were a lot of things in it, the house was empty. However Whaaso didn’t seem to mind it. Maybe he was used to it?

He went straight to his room, sat in a meditation or maybe prayer posture and locked himself up there for hours. What he was doing remains unclear.

After that he got out from his room. He looked different - he has changed his clothes. He was now wearing his shiny leather shoes, light green trousers, which definitely have seen better times than now and also his grey hoodie, whose situation was the same. These were his favourite clothes. They brought good memories back to him. He needed them today.

After that he ate a meal. It wasn’t a normal meal by any means. It was glorious. He ordered it before, to be delivered exactly on this time. He paid a lot for it, but it was worth every single credit. The aroma of the food spread through whole house, escaping even as far as to the yard. He devoured it in silence, while enjoying it immensely. Then he left his house, while carrying a backpack he prepared earlier. He had something to do.

#dreamer