Everything but the Truth

The year was 3055. A once fruitful Earth engulfed by a loveless culture; meaning there was no love of self, love of others, or love for the environment. The lack of love caused the population to wither away. First, it started with the spirit, then followed the mind, and lastly the physical body, leaving humans, not like the fictional zombies we read about in science fiction novels, but empty shells of humanity. Eventually, those empty shells disintegrated, returning to the barren earth.

Right before the world went barren, life was less than ideal. Smart devices evolved into tiny microchips implanted in the brain. Initially, the chip implants were only to be purchased by the wealthy, then the United States Government mandated microchips for every adult over the age of 18. Once all adults 18 and older received chips, hospitals implanted all children including newborn infants. The chip regressed from the original design as a more efficient way to communicate without a physical device to a means to engage in social media. Society was consumed by the on demand access to social media. In-person interactions were scarce, replaced by mental text messages with emojis-filled sentences. If you were lucky enough to verbally interact with another human, the topic of conversation was no longer the content of one’s character but how many likes a person received on social media. Families no longer ate together and wordless individuals attended social gatherings focused on the media screen in their brains. Social media released the same amount of dopamine in the brain as cocaine. After a period of time the severity of the addiction led humans to look for a stronger substance. There was not one known to mankind creating a slow journey to death.

One of the only remaining mentally conscious survivors was an elderly man, a scientist, an aristocrat who spent the entirety of his adult life seeking to gain control of the world even if it meant losing his soul. As a young adult he managed to avoid the chip mandate by hiding underground in his lab in the sewers from the American government officials.The elderly scientist grew up in a household plagued with smart devices where he was made a pariah for his choice to engage in science as a child rather than post content on social media. The scientist vowed to never fall victim to smart devices even though he secretly longed for the attention. He evolved into a bitter old man and his need for validation was so strong that it fueled his will to live while everyone else around him died. Therefore, he worked tirelessly to save the world for his own selfish gain. When he stopped hearing the rustle of the cars on the streets above him he relocated back to the surface to inspect the silence. He read the articles carried by the wind in the empty metropolitan streets. After the realization of what happened to humanity his ego pushed him to patent artificial love housed in a heart-shaped locket necklace. The locket was shiny with a translucent gold-plated exterior and misty red interior;almost vapor-like. The chemical vapor inside of the locket is absorbed into the person's skin causing an energy transfer that mimicked a more potent consistent chemical release of dopamine and norepinephrine, the love hormones in the brain. Immediately, the lockets were mass-produced then distributed as quickly as possible country by country to each surviving person. Consequently, what was left of the world rewarded him with the recognition he yearned for with likes, comments, and hashtags naming him a hero for his discovery. The world finally had something new to cling to and of course humans love putting their value in shiny objects.

After two years from the first distribution of lockets, the grass sprouted again seeing that people were tending to the earth. The energy from the locket began to reawaken people's minds creating a feeling of security and false confidence not based on reality. Furthermore, their eyes saw delusions of utopia. The sky appeared a brighter shade of baby blue. The sun shone like it was so close one could reach up and grab it and the skin felt warm like being coddled by a cashmere blanket. The air smelled of crisp pine trees and people procreated . In addition to procreation, conversations flowed at the dinner table once more. The dullness of the world vanished as the light reflected from the lockets brightening the eyes of its beholder. Ultimately, The world felt restored and people were figuratively high off life, literally high off the chemicals from the locket, yet ignoring the behaviors that caused the masses to die off in the first place.

With the passing generations, people further engulfed themselves in the locket's artificial love generating the same aggrandizing behaviors. Roughly a century later the locket malfunctioned and people started to experience severe withdrawals again. Before the scientist died he burned all his findings to ensure no one would ever be as great of an inventor as him. There was no man-made solution this time to fulfill the addiction and the false sense of love began to fade revealing the truth. As the last generation of youth grew into adults the energy from the locket transformed into hallucinations of their inner conscience. The inner conscious exposed every deed, every choice, and every forgotten memory playing in their eyes like a broken record on repeat. Hence, people were stuck for days sitting in cold corners rocking trying to find counsel but oddly kept clinging to the locket. The tighter they held the more their inner truth spilled over like a cup with too much water. The body stayed alive starving in a vegetative state, the mind plagued with distress, and the soul desolate like the dry soil beneath their beings. The only way to find release from the intrinsic replay was to face the truth, acknowledge oneself, and profess accountability for their mistakes. Not a single soul wanted to do that, choosing to live in darkness because the light exposed humanity for what it was. Eventually, the hallucinations overpowered all the utopian delusions, the earth went barren again so much so it rejected people’s toxic bodies. In the end, everyone remained immobile sitting in an earthly hell, rocking in dark corners, grasping to the locket for dear life, all because they valued everything but the truth.