Dark reverie

Walking down the streets I grew up in, I say hello to the fond sense of distress rising like a lazy wave in my chest. I slow my pace and, for a moment, embrace the scent of gratefulness accompanying it. I still feel. I still am myself.

A memory of you, pulling me by the hand, with the dreamiest smile on your face touched by a ray of sunshine, flows up. That was the day of your first kiss, and you couldn't wait to tell me all about it. I take a deep breath in, holding on to this ever further image of innocence and you. Similarly, my hand moves up spontaneously to wrap around the heart-shaped locket hanging from my neck.

I exhale sharply and panically look around, while shooting my hand down. Is anybody around? Did anyone see me?

The street looks empty, it is empty - and I know cameras are not an issue as the area is controlled by us. No immediate danger. I need to keep my composure, so I force a peaceful smile and leisurely start walking again, heart still pounding. The number of checks and arrests had been going up alarmingly in the past weeks, and the grounds for them pettier and pettier. Long hair, gushes of wind, reflective clothes. The locket must be visible at all time, no matter what. So many people detained, and never released. The saddest part is that many checks are a result of reports by citizens. No sympathy. And, naturally, the older you look the more suspicious you are.

Now that only six days are left until I turn 29, I have not been able to keep my thoughts - nor apparently my body - at bay. I am afraid. If we cannot complete the plan on time, this will be my last year of life. And, even in this fucked up world, I do want to live. I guess if we weren't such hopeless romantics, we would never have gone this far in the first place.

I chuckle, thinking of the name that Lancelot had chosen for the rebellion group years back. AMOR. <<Latin for love, same tone as armour. We are the knights of life, which is nothing without true love>>. What a hopeless romantic for a hacker.

What a grim day when he was arrested. They made a big show out of it, trying to instill fear in the group. Days of silence and torture leading to public execution. He wore such a proud face in his last moments. The first and last time I had seen his face. The knights knew he had stayed loyal to the cause, and had the certainty of it when the backdoor in the locket's GENESIS system stayed open. Our entrance to freedom.

And the government still has no idea about it, how close we are. They believe our weapon is the counterfeit locket that we wear. It is designed to replace the census and health data signal that the locket sends back to the government centres with a lookalike capable of tricking GENESIS into believing that the host is not to be matched. This is how we stay free, in a liberated symbol holding illegal prints of our loved ones. Still, we knew it would not take long for the government to discover our operation, as they did. Ever since then, they have been updating their algorithm constantly trying to make our own obsolete while making their surveillance tighter and tighter. We have lost many knights to the updates. Too many. Until Percival appeared. A knight deep in the government ranks. Now we can adapt to new GENESIS updates before they are even released.

Still, the gloom of the "Roulette" update weighs heavily on us. This is the measure the government had introduced three years ago because of us, our guilt. AMOR is completely powerless against it. Nothing our algorithm can do to keep us safe. No matter the data in your entry, GENESIS can randomly select you at any time whether you are wearing a real or counterfeit locket. This is how you were taken away from me. Lost to a random match made by an algorithm, compelled to live the life it tells you to with the person it tells you to.

What was born as a health solution product by one of the early 2000s tech giants transformed into a dystopic system for population control. Ingeniously marketed to make the population eager to be part of its dream. Not only GENESIS will match you to your soulmate, but the government will gift you with your best life from then onwards. You will not need to work anymore, as your sole focus will be to enjoy the entertainments and guidelines the government provides while raising the perfect number of children in a house gifted to you. And the better citizen you are, the more luckily you are to be matched. You can make your own luck. A dream, right? Plus, you can customise the locket in multiple colours.

The catch? You only have until your prime age, up until you turn thirty years old, to be matched. If you are not, you will say goodbye to love but still live a good life relocated to one of the government's owned retirement homes where you will keep working to support society and live peacefully in the company of new friends surrounded by nature.

How can so many believe this illusion when the truth is so tangible. With a match, you live an empty lie for comfort. Without a match, you end up in a work camp.

To me, both options are hell. I am not willing to live in either. The first one I can fight with AMOR, the second one I can at least defy with my death.

Lost in this dark reverie, I get brought back to the raw reality around me by the bright light of the laptop turning on with facial recognition. Without noticing, I had reached my workplace and entered my cubicle - one of the many in this tight web of endless grey lines. As I take my seat, I briefly glance at the ever-watching eye of the camera in front of me, there to always make sure I'm doing what I'm supposed to.

So, I do exactly that. I open my Sudoku game. The government does not expect an analyst to work without 1 or 2 hours of distractions. My luck: nothing behind me beside a thick wall. With the system busy thinking I'm playing, I start my AMOR incognito terminal to do actual work. Aim: complete the hack into the GENESIS system and destroy the locket misrule once and for all.

Promptly, a broadcast message from Ector comes through the encrypted channel. <<Blue caterpillar is in motion. Phase 4 is cleared.>>

I grin. Time for the final act. This may be my last year of life, but I will not go down without a fight. I will do all I can to save you, love.