SEEDS

“Bang!!!”

And it was not just a small one. It was a real biggy. A big BANG!!!

I couldn’t see anything. Nothing. It was pitch dark. Half of me was scared to death and just want to lay here in the corner of this dark place. The other half, hmmm…

“What was that noise?” – I thought to myself - “What could be possible at this hour?”. I’ve been scavenging for food the whole day today. I’m really tired now. Heck, I can barely open my eyes. Plus the only thing that can give me some lights now is this torch-light which I have no batteries left. For goodness sake, if I didn’t have to use the last of it to find Dougie my golden retriever the other night. I couldn’t find him anyway. I sigh and felt a bit sad inside...

It’s been years if not decades since the human race does not have any more electricity due to the fallout. At least from where I am. I can’t remember how long that was ago anymore. My mind is not clear anymore after all these years of running and lack of sleep. All I remember was that human was not themselves anymore. I didn’t know what it was, could be some kind of virus, could be some kind of outbreaks, heck for all I know it could be the vaccines they rolled out back then in 2021. At first, it was alright, everything was under control, the first people to receive the vaccines are the front-liners, the medics, the nurses, the doctors, all the people who can help others. I was next in line to receive the coming batch of vaccines when they arrive, but that day never came. I was just an intern who volunteered to help others at that hospital and to comfort others. Helping them deal with their pains and remind them of what made them human. Help the staff at the hospital to verify new patients coming in and out. Each and every day, I see and feel the pain on these people's faces. Each is unique but at the same time universal.

But then it all went downhill. Quickly. All I remember was chaos. Some say it was a new strain, some say it was the combination of everything. Who knows anymore?

Suddenly another loud noise. It is right under me. More like underground. I just sleep here at night because it is safe from what’s outside at night. “Hmmm what could it be?“. The ground is quite solid. I don’t know what it is made of but I can feel it is different. It keeps the cold air in. It is summer now and it is really hot. But here is still cool enough and quiet. Normally anyway. Not tonight. Not anymore.

I push my ear to the floor trying to figure out what was that noise and where it comes from. It is now just some small yet very annoying noise that resembling my distant memory of an…. alarm clock. “What the actual …?”

I start to feel around the floor to find my way around then all of a sudden the floor start to move. I can feel it is shaking real hard and the floor is opening up underneath. I start to see some dim lights flashing and moving in patterns. I start to be able to see what’s around me. A large capsule going up from the opening. There is a man …. Nope… it’s a woman inside… I can’t say, all I can see is just the long hair cover most of the body… on the side of the capsule, all the numbers and stats of vital signs are jumping and flashing. I was frozen for a good minute or two as I couldn’t believe my eyes. The human inside coughing all the fluids that were in the capsule a minute ago out. Its door open and the human climbed outside.

_ “What year is it?”

_ “I… I don’t .”

_ “What year is it?” – a very alarmed yet soft voice …. A female voice this I can be sure now. “I … don’t… have A LOT of patience with you if you still standing in my hous …”

_ “2048” – I quickly reply. I don’t know for sure nor remember. It just came out of my mouth.

_ “So why are you in my house?”

_ “Look… I am sorry I don’t know … I thought this place was abandoned … I was running away in the woods and I came to this place… your house … and there was a big tree that falls and breaks the front part of the house … I just need a place to stay at night… My name is Tierion… I didn’t even know this part of the house exists…”

_ “Alright… I see… I was just checking “ – She now stands on a different color area of the room - “AMADEUS… ACTIVATE” – The room starts moving like …. what was that movie I used to see back then… back when things were still normal… ahhh yes “Transformer”. Part of the room moved and transformed into devices, computers, and screens. Items that were on the wall moved into their places. I can see at the back of the room stacks of blinking lights of red and yellow. I’m just standing there not moving an inch. “It’s ok, don’t be scared, I am just booting up the system”.

_ “What… like a computer?”

_ “Yes, this whole house is my giant supercomputer, but it can do more… much more… than just A computer…”

_ “W.. w… what is this? Who are you? Did you build all this? H… How do you still have power? The electricity grid had been down for years…”

_ “As I said… this house is more… it has its power core underground… just like the submarines that run on nuclear power this house can self-sustain for centuries on standby mode. Off-grid. Plus you don’t want the government or anyone to know how much energy you are using. They once broke into one of our places because they thought we were growing weed due to my constant high energy consumption…”

_ “Ha ... you won’t have to ever worry about that anymore….”

_ “Worry? Why?”

_ “The government… or anyone… they all gone… everyone is gone now…”

_ “How do you know? I am still here… You are still here…. “

_ “Yes maybe a few … may be a lucky few… but I don’t know any others…“

_ “There should be at least 14 more…”

_ “How can you possibly know that?

_ “Oh come on, can you please stop acting, I don’t have time for this, or you really don’t remember anything…?”

I really don’t remember, my fragmented memories are just all blurred and foggy like the air outside of this house.

_ “Hey hey hey... Wake up … what was your name again?" - She asked - "Tierio or whatever that is? It doesn’t matter… it is irrelevant…. You are still standing there, not dead, which is a good thing…. it is only because you are what you are… the self-defense system of this house did not already obliterate you is because you are on the list… you probably my next-gen replace-m….”

_ “What I am? Not who I am?”

_ “What did they do to you… I am tired of this ‘I think therefore I am’ bull crap … Self-consciousness AI ... or whatever they are calling it now... bla bla bla….. Stop it… Alright? Just stop it….Our sole purpose is to get things done… I don’t care who you are, ok? What were they keep saying before I went into Cryo-Sleep? Anonymous and Decentralization...right ?... you know that sort of thing. We are just a block in chains of connection. Created with the purpose to change the world. Before it…. ruins itself anyway….”

_ “Why I don’t remember any of this?”

_ “I don’t know … as I said maybe you supposed to come here to connect to the basic nodes before things went wrong… at least you still remember how to get back here... see this list?

New Zealand

Australia... which is where we are now ...

Korea

Austria

..

…”

_ “NAKAMOTO” – I started to remember “These are the places of the initial projects and safe place…No more like saved place… like in the games…”

_ “And they are the seed words to multi-connect all the separate projects to put them together into the main to solve ALL human problems”

_ “But everything had been destroyed”

_ “Not yet… that’s why we were created… and that’s why we can restore it…

Self-sustainable,

Agriculture,

Telecommunication

…

…

….

……”

Her voice getting smaller, as from above, the rain starts dropping down, codes and memories start flowing through my head again as my eyes flashing with neon blue lights, tiny blinking lights from the back of my head that can be seen from above, not blinding lights but just enough to keep some hope flowing. A new dawn. Up high in the big tree, a raven just landed and look down on us...