Simulation

 

[We have all experienced fear of foreign force at least once in our lives. To be abducted by the unknown intruders, a community more progressive in knowledge and power than humans, sends shivers down our spines. For we humans consider ourselves the superior specie, and the only ones supreme to ourselves are gods. But maybe this gods have already visited us and they are coming back...]

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Art by H. R. Giger

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„All hail the Great Pharaoh!”

The workers dropped their hammers and shovels. Sun-burned faces turned towards the approaching group. Four men carried a wooden carrier. Behind the transparent black sheets a dark figure was visible. The unknown person dressed in black silk hoodie, the mysterious Pharaoh everyone bowed to. Their supervisor and great commander appeared every few days to see if the progress in work was satisfying. After all, it was his future residence they were building.

Emilya turned here eyes toward the unfinished pyramid surrounded by scaffolding. Her eyes quickly moved when a woman standing next to her pinched her hand. It was extremely rude to look at anything else when the Great Pharaoh was present. Emilya took woman´s warning seriously and attached her eyes to the moving procession.

The supervisor never left his place on the carrier where he was protected from direct examination. Nobody knew how he really looked like and nobody dared ask such a question. It would be an insult not only to His Great Majesty, but also an insult to their brilliant country and their magnificent cause.

Pharaoh was eventually lost in the dusty fog and his companions and guards followed. Workers returned to their task. They were working on the building non-stop. It was all Emilya knew she had ever been dedicated to. Not only her, this was true for every worker on the site. Everyone wore the same clothing; colorless and formless robes which they changed once in seven days when all clothing was being taken for washing. Their dresses were replaced by clean ones, completely same as the dirty ones. All women had short hair so that it wouldn´t mind them during work and they were obliged to keep it behind with a headband. Men did the same if they decided not to shave their hair off.

„Take this”, muscular worker whose skin was shinny because of the sweat drops handed Emilya a sheet of smooth glass. Letters were convexing from its surface, alphabet no worker understood. They weren´t intelligent enough to learn doctrines of their Superiors. Pharaoh was only one of them, the only one they ever came into contact with. They knew nothing about others except that they owed them their lives, they were smarter, more powerful and more dignified than them, therefore worthy of worshipping. Their names were Horus, Anu, Marduk and Nabu. „Take this to the Chancellery.”

Emilya took the given and rushed to get to her destination as soon as possible. As she passed the temple where worshippers brought sacrifice to the Great Five Leaders, Emilya wondered what was the item she was carrying. Was it some kind of a report? Important letter? Squeezing the piece of glass in her arms, careful not to drop it, Emilya hoped it wouldn´t bring misfortune on people. They spent all their time on the building site. Even those who were making sure that lower positioned men and women do not lag didn´t have an easy job. The pyramid was visibly growing each day. The Great Pharaoh had to be pleased because of it!

The Chancellery was the furthest building from the construction site inside their living complex. Neither Emilya nor anyone else had ever crossed the borders which marked endpoints of the complex. Special guards watched high metal walls. The walls were separated by the towers from which more guards looked upon the land. Emilya was sure that you could see every building in the complex from up there. And, if you turned towards the other side, perhaps you could see... something more. Something forbidden.

Beside the temple, the new pyramid and the Chancellery, their limited space consisted of two dormitories, canteen, hospital and terms. Women slept in one dormitory, a building which looked like a big grey brick, and men in another. They gathered early in the morning under the stone roof which stood on grooved pillars decorated with golden olive leaves. This was their canteen where thousands of plates and glasses arranged on a mile-long table waited for them. Everyone´s servings were identical. They ate the same food once a day; yellow beans, white porridge and a piece of purple fruit with little amount of juice inside of it. This was the only type of food any of them was familiar with. None of it had any taste except for the red liquid they had for drink. It was sweet and spicy. Terms consisted of three smaller buildings, one for pools, another one for sauna and third one for rubbing skin and extra cleaning. Emilya loved going there, it was the only opportunity to relax. Their supervisors were compassionate and reasonable. She felt an honest respect for them. They protected her and her comrades.

However, as much as the terms were a desirable destination, hospital was feared. Hospital meant never coming back. Emilya had no clue what happened to people who ended up there. She didn´t understand what it meant to die. She never heard about someone being born. Everyone and everything was simply put into place and existed, always and immutable. Those who went to hospital just vanished.

She entered the big round room. It was the only room where the temperature changed. It wasn´t comfortably warm like outside and inside other buildings, but cold and it made Emilya shiver. She hurried through the corridor. Female muses´ sculptures popped up from the walls and watched her. She bowed to each one of them, though she knew this was not meant to be dome because they were only beautiful idols and had no power. However, Emilya admired their beauty and elegance. These were the only representations of art inside the complex, so she payed them respect whenever she saw them, which was not often.

„I was instructed to bring this here.”

A woman dresses in the same worker´s robe as Emily took the glass sheet from her hands. She barely glanced at it. Of course she couldn´t read it even if she tried. „Your job here is done.”

Emilya left woman´s table. The room was full of tables with sitting chancellors. Their bodies were placid, but their hands and eyes moved fast. They were putting one piece of glass on the desk, sealing it and sending it to their supervisors by the tunnels which began beneath their metal desks. It seemed like an easy enough job, but they did it every day, whole day, their whole lives. Emilya was happier with her job on the construction site.

She returned to her usual working place and continued with the work she stopped in order to take care for the letter. She collected trash and remains of the building materials and removed them from the site. She threw everything she gathered down the hole next to the terms. She often wondered where the garbage ended up. It seemed like an endless hole.

Emilya was just about to place a bunch of dust, brick pieces and debris on a wheelbarrow when a screaming warning was heard from a higher level of scaffolding. Emilya blithely raised her head...

It hit her forehead. Emilya fell on the ground. She remained conscious, but her vision was hazy and the words addressed to her lacked meaning. Her hearing was not right; she heard some kind of cracking, as it little rocks rattled in her head...

People lifted her on her legs. Someone´s scared voice recommended taking her to the hospital.

„No”, she refused. „I´m fine, it was nothing, really nothing...”

Unstable worker was no worker at all. If it turned out that the hit damaged Emilya in any way, she was sure to be a case for the hospital. In other words, lost case. She wasn´t going to allow that to happen. She took her broom and continued sweeping as if she wasn´t hurt. Rattling in her ears never stopped, but she didn´t show anything being wrong. „What are you all waiting? Our Great Pharaoh´s pyramid won´t build on its own. You will make him wait even more than is necessary?” Her words turned the alarm in their heads on. Her observers lost their interest and quickly took their tools to continue with hard work. The guy whose voice unsuccessfully warned her before the brick hit her moved to another place and carried on as if nothing happened. Clumsy worker is as good as a damaged worker. He didn´t want to be connected with the accident.

When the working hours came to an end, guards directed tired people to the temple. Her head still slightly hurting, Emilya hoped to find a place to kneel on the floor, but others had already huddled inside. Kneeling wasn´t the most comfortable position, but losing a chance to be inside meant being forced to stand in front of the temple or two hours, which was the length of the everyday prayer and sacrifice. Bodies side by side, people waited in silence. Temple was the biggest building inside the complex. It was entered through a golden portal with mysterious letters written on its semicircular arch. A huge golden dome covered the interior. Between the shinny green walls it was empty except for the altar protected by thousands of thin bars. A golden mask was placed on the altar raised high by stairs. It was too far away for worshippers to see facial features. Some said it represented the Great Pharaoh. Others went so far as to gossip that it was a face of someone even more powerful than the Pharaoh himself, one of the unknown commanders who never visited them. Either one of them or a sixth god, one they never even heard about.

„I am weak”, the chant began after some time. Emilya´s voice joined quickly. If she was heard misspelling or kept silent, she´d be charged badly. „Weak and therefore left to you, Great Commanders, to guide me and do with me as you will. I am forevermore incapable, dependent, unreasoned, your unworthy subject. I beg you to command me, rule over me, otherwise my existence has no point. You are almighty and wise, the leader and the creator, so spare my meaninglessness and grant me the honor of being your slave!”

Whip was being transfered from one hand to the other. Emilya took it and swing it at her back. Ten times, as hard as she could, so that she felt the pain engraving in her skin. This was the generosity of the Great Five Wisemen. They taught them what is pain so that they would never be ungrateful. Ten whips a day and obedience; a small price for the continuation of existence.

Chant repeated numerous times, ceremony finally finished. Emilya´s legs were shaking. She was exhausted! But she didn´t allow herself to admit her weakness to anybody. After attending temple, everyone had to show gratefulness and joy. They were spared! They were allowed to continue working for the Grand Masters!

Dormitory was a monotonous room; beds line up one after another in a seemingly never ending row. Emilya crushed on her bed. Her comrades fell asleep quickly. Five hours of blessed sleep, what a wonderful gift! But Emilya couldn´t sleep. This never happened to her. In fact, nobody had problems sleeping. This made her nervous. What if something was really wrong with her? What if the hospital was her only choice? Her eyes burned. Was that water in her eyes? Was that normal?

Crying. I am crying. Just like that day when mum´s bus crushed and she ended up in a real hospital, but she came home. She was fine. Mum.

Emilya lifted herself in the bed, shocked and disturbed. What were those visions all about? Who was the woman she saw beneath the white sheets, attached to strange strings and some kind of black board with a green line lighting on it... Crunching in her ears. She covered them with her hands, but the noise was coming from the inside. She removed her hand and looked at it. Pieces of silver metal were on her palm. That was it. She had to go to the hospital. The Masters would find out about her secret sooner or later, and hiding it would only make things worse. Obedience was their main demand and rule. She shall act according to it and admit herself to the hospital.

Walking alone in the half-light of obscured source high above, Emilya felt like a criminal and was growing more and more upset. She snuck out without the guards seeing her, but she was still in danger of being noticed. She was sure that her intentions were right, but it never even occurred to her to ask guards for help. They were not like the other workers. Their eyes were covered by metal wrap with red laser line in the middle. This wrap covered most of their heads, while the rest was covered with a black scarf. They wore tight black uniforms and carried weapons in cases. Emilya was sure that she saw what their weapons looked like once, but, strangely, she could not remember under which circumstances. They were black swords with silver tips. But they quadrupled and turned into frightening rifles...

Her head started hurting badly. Fire from the rifles, blood on her hands... Emilya hurried towards the hospital.

After reaching, her willingness to enter weakened. Hospital had a shape of a cube made of polished white stone. Walls were full of tiny holes. Emilya approached the building and took a look inside of one hole.

An eye blinked on the other side.

Emilya shrank back. It was not possible that those little holes were equally deep as the stony walls. Her mind must have been playing games with her. She needed help urgently. But there was no door. She searched on all four sides, but found no entry. A guard almost saw her. For a moment she considered approaching him, but then she stumbled upon a conduit. From it came a strange, howling sound. Emilya actually had no wish to talk to scary guards, so she jumped into the conduit without thinking twice.

She spun, waged, hit metal walls and then fell onto a hard surface. She struggled, hopelessly tried to run away, but she was unable... Emilya stood on her shaking legs rubbing hurting spots. The room she found herself inside was extremely white. It seemed that the light was coming from the walls. Just like the building lacked entrance, this room lacked anything which could connect her to other rooms. Emilya came closer to the walls and taped with her hands on the cold tiles.

Her hand pressed one tile. It sagged into wall. Dozens of other tiles suddenly did the same and a passing was granted to her. Stunned and dazed, Emilya followed the path.

It was dark in the corridor, but the point of light loomed in the distances and magnified as Emilya was coming nearer to it. Focusing on the distant point, Emilya was struck by another dozing-off episode. Laying on the uncomfortable desk. They are opening her, putting something inside of her brain. Her memories... She can´t remember... Shaken up, she reaches after them; when she got her dog for birthday, her first day at school, her first kiss, tea and biscuits with her grandma...

Lighting point turned out to be a room, very different from the first one. Emilya was stricken by the complicated setup. The wall was made of blue pieces of glass connected into a round ensemble. She looked closely and realized that these were the pieces like the one she took to the Chancellery earlier that day. At the foot of the walls were some kind of compartments, opened and unopened, but not locked. Emilya never felt an urge like the one she felt at that moment. Curious, I´m so curious to find out what have I discovered, but I shouldn´t sniff around, I´ll get caught...

A regular piece of glass flew from one of the drawers of its own accord and placed itself over another glassy quadrangle. It was positioned low enough for Emilya to reach it.

When she touched it, the screen glowed. A picture formed on the surface. Emilya´s eyes grew in wonder as a face of one of her male comrades appeared on the glass. It was the man who accidentally dropped a brick on her. Wanting to find out more, she touched the screen again, but it turned of. This alarmed her, but another screen lightened up and caught her attention. It was a picture of the same man, but now he looked completely changed. He had long, curly hair and beard, he stood in a strange encirclement where everything was built out of concrete. The weirdest things of all was that he smiled. His smile was honest.

Emilya was struck once again. This time she fell on the floor. The light seemed to blink as her vision diminished.... Run, run, mom, try and catch me! Mum!

Mother.

„Mum!” Emilya yelled the unknown word. What kind of god was trying to communicate with her? It must have been a magnificently forceful one, for only that kind of being could bring such a pain to her. Her head hurt, but also her insides. Not her organs, but her... feelings.

Dozens of other screens now showed different pictures. On some of them letters were written, but Emilya was not smart enough to understand such mysterious signs.

Then these letters were replaced by another kind. Emilya understood them perfectly.

Moving her finger along the lines which hid a profound meaning, Emilya read out loud: „Bram Evan, human, captured on October fifth nineteen-ninety-four, thirty-two years old, seven years ago, computer scientist, wife and one child, female, case of chronic bronchitic...” She didn´t manage to capture the rest of the text because it was replaced by another statement. „Area of research; for how long can a human being withstand oppression and obvious neglect. Depression started after five months, panic attacks after one year and seven days, changed behavior after two years; accepted the role given to him and became useless. Left for further research. Started making serious mistakes. Can not be supported anymore. Recorded for extermination.”

Emilya stared in confusion as her memories returned to her in one striking wave.

I am a human, too, and I don´t belong her. I was kidnapped. I was sold by the government. This is fake, this is a simulation. Before the chip was inserted in her brain, she overheard human representatives talking to the alien beings which they supplied with random people to conduct their experiments on. „We´re all so glad we achieved such a reasonable and useful agreement for both sides.” Achievement. People who the governments considered useful in exchange for safety. But the aliens have been away from Earth for such a long time, they forgot all about humans, and what they remembered was based on informations which were thousands of years old. They wanted to see how advanced humans became in the meantime. In order to figure that out, they forced them to work on something slaves worked on in the time when they last visited humans. Pharaoh´s great pyramid.

Emilya went through hundreds of compartments in search for one piece of glass. It had to be here somewhere.

She cut her finger. This was the one. She recognized it because it was the one which wasn´t perfect. She broke it when she found it in the director´s office.

She used to be a promising student, but during her last year, her mum had an accident which resulted in her falling into a coma. It was a turning point for everything in Emilya´s life. She turned into a lousy student because she had to spend all her time taking care for her mother´s unfinished businesses. After some time, her mother woke up, but she was in a critical condition and needed constant care. Emilya was either running around her or she stayed in her bed, exhausted and depressed. She loved her mother deeply, but being her career was like being someone´s slave. Eventually, her mother started getting better and it seemed that things might go back to being normal. It was not necessary to be by her side all the time, so Emilya got more time to fix her private life, primarily her studies. She almost fell out of college and professors did not look kindly upon her downfall. For these reasons she wrote a plea to the director, begging him to grant her another chance. The secretary let her enter his cabinet and wait for him there. And so Emilya waited and waited, but he did not come, and then the phone rang and the voice left a message...

It was not a human voice.

„You are being advised...”, it spoke, combining words Emilya understood with the foreign language unknown to habitants of Earth, „Concerning the document... We are in need of more conceded ones, for our program to continue... New experiment...”

The voice left Emilya in shock. It was hard for her to breath, as if someone was choking her. Nervousness filled her stomach, she couldn´t move. Suddenly something hit her and she started to overturn principal´s office upside – down, looking for something she herself wasn´t aware existed. Because the message was meant not for her ears, but for principal´s, and alien power concentrated in it effected her the way it should have influenced him. In one of the drawers she found what she was looking for. She pulled it awkwardly and broke one edge. The same piece of glass that was in her hands right now.

It was a proclamation written in two rows; one contained description in alien language, the other one in the language understandable to Emilya.

„They will kill us all.” The new experiment alien voice talked about was a simulation of life which ends just when every trial specimen gets used to it. It ends in chaos, leaving only few survivors to be examined by aliens. They wanted to investigate human behavior after facing the end of the world.

Emilya never left principal´s office. He came in a moment after she read the proclamation. It wasn´t hard for him to knock her out. He stopped liking her ever since she decided her mother to be her top priority instead of education. He considered her a missed case. After that morning, she woke up only for a few moments, after which she was sedated and the chip was put into her brain. It broke when the brick fell on her head.

„I have to warn everybody! We must escape!”

The door she came in through were now closed. She was scared to pound them because she definitely didn´t want to attract alien´s attention. The Great Pharaoh, Horus and Nabu...Anu and Marduk... They used the same names they used hundreds of years ago when they introduced themselves to the ancient people. What were they capable of? Why did they want to make an experiment in which all the people die? And what was principal´s role in this circus? Perhaps he was actually one of them. Or they promised him something grand. Or he was a slave just like Emilya and other humans, with a nice chip in his head.

Dreadful noise made Emilya stop in the middle of turning movement. Wall made of glassy documents opened. A figure joined Emilya in the room. It was a being of no real constitution, and no matter how much Emilya looked at it, she was unable to grasp the essence of his expression. It was like water or air, material, yet amorphous.

Its frightening voice creeped into her ears like creaking of iron. Stiff as a statue, Emilya stood in silence as human intellect leaked out of her. „I mustn´t let it harass me like this”, she repeated in herself, „I have to fight. I refuse to succumb... You are no god, Nabu, but a charlatan!”

As surreal as it was, the figure recoiled and Emilya took grasp of her thoughts once again. She had just enough time to run for her life. She took three fast steps towards the fake god and spread her hands as if she was about to push him. She never saw what happened; did she hit him or passed beside him? It didn´t matter because in the end she managed to run away through the newly opened portal.

As she was getting farter away from Nabu, Emilya´s mind cleared from his hold and her thinking became sharp as it was in her best student days. She contemplated how she´d get out of the hospital, wake everyone up and arouse an upstanding. They´ll have to stand on her side when they find out what the aliens plan to do with them!

Her eyes circled around in wild attempt to find a way out. Roller corridor completely paneled with mirror-like-glass seemed to stretch endlessly, but ever fer steps, a black door appeared on one side of it. Emilya had to enter one of them eventually; her choice was random.

She found no base for her feet. Emilya fell. Screaming and swinging her arms and legs, she cried for the help she knew wasn´t coming.

She hit the ground. Dirt in her mouth. She was in a tunnel underground. Emilya got up on her shaky, hurting legs and stumbled forwards. Her nose was bleeding and the blood went right into her mouth, but she was not allowed to take a break. If there were tunnels underground, there was a chance for her to find way to the dormitory.

She thought and thought until her head started hurting, but she managed to orient herself and decide which path to take. She staggered in the dark. Her desperate wish for survival was the only thing keeping her going.

After some time, she came to a dead end, but it lighted her with hope. She saw a gate high up above her and when she touched the dirty wall in front of her, she felt stairs. She started climbing. Although her fingers were weak and she felt as if she might fall down and die every second, she never stopped.

In a savage condition, Emilya came out. She recognized the place, it was near one of the boarding towers. The artificial light was importing the false daytime. Emilya had to hurry. She missed noticing that there were no guards around.

She found her comrades at the canteen, eating the same disgusting food they were given each morning. No one dare stop eating when she approached them. They must have noticed her. Emilya did not join them, but stood in front of the long row of eating tables, breathing heavily and looking at them like a beast. Suddenly she took a plate in front of a man who was finishing his meal and threw it as far as she could. They still persisted in eating, not giving her any attention. Looking away from their food could be interpreted as dissatisfaction, in other words ungratefulness, and it could be a fatal error.

„Listen to me, you brainwashed morons!” Emilya´s voice was loud enough to be heard at the other ends of the row. „You have been kidnapped! We are all slaves to the monsters we consider gods! They are no gods, no kings or pharaohs, but crazy aliens who want to do research on us! They have put chips in your brains in order to turn you into dummies! Mine broke, so I remembered what happened!”

Nobody granted her as much as a single look.

Emilya had to cling to the edge of the table to remain standing. „Stop ignoring me or we´ll all die! Their plan is to kill 90% of us to see how will the others react when they face the end of the world! Everything shall be destroyed and most of us will die!”

Some people finished their meal. They put their hands together. They were praising The Great Lords for blessing them with food.

„Don´t thank them, curse them! You have families somewhere, friends, real lives, but those hve been taken from you and you have been trapped here for... some lunatics´ experiments... Can´t you...” She became dizzy.

A woman approached her and took her by the hand. „There, there”, she whispered. „Let me take to the hospital.”

„No, not the hospital...” Emilya´s words were barely understandable, mumbled in distraction.

„Yes, yes, hospital, where people get better”, woman said, „our Lords have big plans for today. Pharaoh came and introduced us to his wonderful plan. Well, one of his close minions indicated they have a plan...”

„It´s dead they have in mind...”

„We have so much to be grateful for...”

„We are already dead...”

Woman took her to the hospital, but Emilya passed away during the process. She heard voices... then she heard explosion and cries and screaming. A scene of nuclear war formed in her mind. She didn´t make it. She was too late, they didn´t believe her. She...

She took a deep breath as she woke up. She was in a glassy tube and had a breathing mask on. A window opened on the tube and man´s hand removed the mask from her face. Emilya breathed in once again. The tube opened and she trotted out.

„You were inside for quite some time”, the director of the college said. „They must have like you. Glad you were useful.”

Emilya didn´t understand. „It was the end... you sent me... you gave me...”

He tapped her on the shoulder and slightly pushed her to sit on one of the chairs. They were in the new laboratory in the college. „It was all just a simple simulation. You need know nothing else. Don´t you remember signing up for it? It pays well and you could use money for your mother´s medication. You said so yourself. You can pick your hundred bucks at the reception, I´ll give you the bill.”

„I still don´t understand...”, Emilya whispered to herself. Her head was exploding. „All those people... The aliens, false gods, they were gonna...”

„Ts-ts-ts”, the director shook his head. „It sure seems real, but you´re out now and you´re done with this. Thanks a lot for cooperating, Emilya, it will pay off all your lagging from this year. Don´t worry, you´ll get your diploma. You should get going now. I can imagine your mother needs you at home.”

He smiled at her as she left the laboratory. The tube she was in was still opened, smoke was coming out of it. She kept looking back, but the principal seemed kind and blithe as always. Was the idea of him knocking her and trapping a dream? Did she really sign up for some kind of freaky experiment.

As she was taking her money and heading back to her car, one thought kept haunting her.

Whatever happened to all those people who didn´t wake up before the final stage of the experiment began?

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Story written by Arijana G. aka Anachronism in October of 2021