• Some loud, thunderous sound came from just outside my apartment. I stopped reviewing the backlog of last month’s studies of the Virus - an updated version of which I always kept on my laptop - to see what had happened. From my window, I could see hundreds of people gathered on the streets for our annual celebration of the Technology. This year - as a decade had passed since the Technology was issued - the celebration was to be much larger in scale than in the past. I decided to take a break from my work and join the growing crowd for the celebration.
    The booming noises I had heard were fireworks of all different colors, which were now forming themselves to spell out 2080 in the sky. The “oohs” and “ahs” of the crowd were drowned out by the crashing noise. Large screens on the sides of most of the buildings zoomed in on the cheering faces of the crowd. I though I saw my own face flash up on the screen for a moment, but surely my expression was too dull to show publicly for long. I chuckled, smiling to myself, and told myself silently to loosen up a little.
    This moment of cheerfulness quickly sank as the lightshow in the sky ended, and a message scrolled across the screens on the buildings. “As the tenth year of our ‘New’ world comes to a close, we look back on the progress we have made perfecting our Technology, and the progress we are still making even now. We are planning to expand our knowledge overseas very soon. And! As we speak, development for a new, updated version of our microchips is underway. We look forward to the release of our further perfected Technology.”
    This was certainly news to me. We were usually informed of such changes. I made a mental note to ask Scott about it tomorrow, and turned back towards my apartment. The large screens grew dim like the night sky as I made my way to bed.


    Read the rest:
    -Preface- -Chapter One Part One- -Chapter One Part Two- -Chapter One Part Three- - Chapter One Part Four: Reading Now-