The Utopia Project

Chapter 5

Andrew
It's been one week since our last run. But I don't even know if we're doing those anymore. After our run, a large group of androids was hacked. Those androids migrated to one of the many defiant groups in the city. They began doing runs of their own and hacking more and more androids. It's become an all-out war. Government officials are doing everything they can to stop them, but they just keep getting bigger. Our group has substantially doubled in size. Tiana sent the androids to do runs here and there, but recently we've been hunkering down in the Bunker due to the chaos outside. The crew is getting restless. We're running out of food. Tiana needs to make a decision. I'm beginning to get as frustrated as everyone else. I am hopeful that we will succeed.
I close the journal and put the pen down. I'm done waiting around. Tiana needs to make a decision. With the war out there, and the government's strictness, it's now or never. I remember her being in the meeting room. I go there and she's nowhere to be found. There are papers scattered on the desk as always. I examine what's written on them. There are tax papers, government documents, wanted posters, and letters. I dig through the papers to uncover something. Turns out Tiana has a journal of her own. I hold the little black book in my hand delicately and flip through the worn pages. She's been writing for seven years. I see pages documenting her frequent nightmares. Then I find a page that is charred black and covered in ash. I can still make out some of it.
October 14th,
It was just a normal morning yesterday. I woke up like usual, happy and in good enough spirits. I ran my errands. I did hunting. But I didn't expect to see blood. At about 1, the government came right to our doors. They smashed them down and tried to take everyone. The people who refused were shot in cold blood. I saw my comrades, neighbors, people who I favored, some who I held dear, just dead, with large holes in their chests or heads. Pools of crimson surrounding them. Most escaped. Including Mom. She's the strongest of all of us. She fought like she was on her deathbed. She didn't respect people who killed her friends like that. I don't either, I just don't have the strength to fight as she does. They overpowered and outnumbered us. We had to crawl on the ground or risk dying in one shot. There was my house. We took cover, both of us. My mom agreed that if she died, to carry on her legacy, and make this village better than she could. Then, a Molotov was thrown. At the house. At our very position. My heart leaped, and time froze. I grabbed my mom and ran. The cocktail landed in the house and the flames began. The house was engulfed in a few minutes. We ducked low to the ground to avoid smoke. My mom told me she loved me, no matter how angry or bitter she seemed. Her true intentions were in what she did, not what she said. As she finished, the wood plank came crashing down. It landed on her and left her pinned. I rushed over to her and tried to get it off. That's when I realized I couldn't feel a pulse. She was bleeding out of her nose and mouth, and that terrified expression was left on her face. I don't even know what I felt then. I jumped out of the window of the house. They were gone. I was bleeding, covered in glass shards. They destroyed everything in their path. They left a trail of bodies and my mother, dead in a burning house. I was able to put the flames out. The people who were alive came out of hiding. We need to move. I have to be the commander. I don't know if I can hold the responsibility. But I'll try.
I put the book down. God. I never understood why Tiana was so rigid and jaded, now I've never understood more. We need to end this now. No more waiting. I find Tiana in the lobby, talking to Lily. In the past week, the villagers came here. Tiana was thankful to see them but she was quite distant from them. "Tiana," I beckoned to her. "Can I borrow you for a sec?" I ask, trying to sound nonchalant. "Um, okay." She says, uncertain. We meet in the bathroom. "Tiana, I cannot wait any longer. We need to attack the government. One last fight. We have the numbers and the capacity to do it. I know we can. With your leadership, we can get anywhere. I've seen it." I try to motivate her. "I'm not sure, I just feel like if we do it all that we're gonna get is more blood." Her voice breaks. I know how she feels about blood. "I was thinking about leaving. Running away. Heading out of here. If we get far enough, they might not be able to find us." Tiana proposes. "Tiana, running away won't help anything. You ran away once when you built those villages. We can't go back to that. If we try hard enough, and give it our all, we will win. The androids only follow one common program. We follow multiple at once. That's what it means to be alive." I say. She looks up from the floor. "I don't know." She shakes her head. Suddenly, I feel an intense pressure in my head. It's consuming me. I suddenly feel the government's orders in my brain. Capture the humans. Make them perfect. "You will be perfect and reach your true potential. I will make you along with everyone in this bunker perfect. You will love your best lives." I say. It's not my voice. It's robotic. "Andrew-Tiana begins, but I grab her and begin to drag her. The program shuts off and I crumple to the ground. "Andrew?" Tiana says, concerned. "Oh, thank god, that was awful." I say. "Tiana, they took control of my program again. They were able to control it again. They're trying to sabotage us from the inside. We can't run away. We need to do something." I leave the planning to her. "Ok, let's begin." She says with determination. We hear a door opening. She pulls out her gun. The door slides open and we are greeted by someone who I vaguely remember. Jonas.
Tiana
Jonas. Here and now? Why? I don't how I feel about seeing him. He was never the closest to anyone. But I do care for him. I few emotions of love, sadness, regret, and apathy. "Tiana. You're here. I didn't expect...he trails off. I realize me and Andrew have been holding hands. I let go and he is taken aback. "Him..." his voice is distant. "Him?! He and you!" He charges toward Andrew. I stand in the way. "Don't come near him, you son of a bitch." I threaten, pulling out my machete. He tries to kick me and I swiftly dodge. He tackles me and I'm on the ground in a second. I throw punches to the side of his head and his face and nose. Jonas...the same one that I cared about for years. The same one that took three arrows just for me and held off government forces. The one that had a hatred for the whole world. He grabs the machete and holds it to my throat. "Just one swift cut. Would be like cutting a rope." He maniacally laughs. He lifts the machete just to have Andrew take it out of his hand. He beats him with it. Again and again. "NO!" I shriek, lurching toward him. "Andrew wait!" He stops. "I was defending you! Tiana, I..." He looks at Jonas. He's beaten badly. He has many bruises on his face, along with a lot of cuts. "I was..." Andrew babbles. His face is very swollen too. He reaches to me. I pull back. "I know, I...I know." I say.
An hour later, I'm putting the plan into action. But I keep distracting myself. Those are images I'll never get out of my head. I know the plan at least. The goal is to get into the heart of the building. This heart controls all of the android systems and is the reason any of this is possible. How we will get there is the tough part. I don't exactly have an idea. That's when Andrew walks in. "Hi." He says, his voice rough. "Hi," I say somberly. "You developing the plan?" He looks over my rough draft. "I don't exactly have an idea on how we'll get to the heart," I explain my troubles. "Well..." He begins thinking. "What if...we used the villagers?" He proposes. "What?!" I am alarmed. How? Will they die? Is he recommending bloodshed? Jonas, and now this? "Cool it. What I mean is that they'll go down into the streets and riot. That will provide a distraction for when we go in through the roof." He plans. "Will you give them guns?" I ask. "Of course." He doesn't hesitate to say it, so I know he's honest about it. "Okay. Good idea." I add it to my list. "Tiana," Andrew pauses my thinking. "To get into the heart, there is a handprint needed. The handprint of the leader of the government. Jane Tracy." He tells me. "Okay." My voice shakes. I plan it out. "I was thinking, because we have a big group, going together would be a bloodbath. So it's best if we go to different floors of the building. One part of the group can go into the control room and help get access to the heart. The last part will go into the very top floor and try to retrieve Tracy." I put it all together. "Sounds simple." Andrew remarks. "Easier said than done," I say. "Well, let's go explain it to everyone." Andrew rushes over to the door. Lily comes in. "Tiana, hi." She says delicately. "Hi?" I say, wondering why she's being so caring. "We put Jonas in the hospital. He's alive, but in pretty bad shape." Before she can finish, my heart leaps with joy. Jonas! Alive! I thought Andrew had... "Can I go see him?" I ask frantically. "Yes, of course." Lily leads me to the hospital. I see him. He's lying limp in the bed, barely moving. His face looks a little better. I touch him lightly. "Hm?" His eyes open. I wonder if he can see me. "Tiana?" He says. His voice is weak and raspy. "Yes, Jonas. It's me." I beckon to him. "Goddammit. What are you doing here?" He rolls over to his side. "I came to see you," I say sadly. "Just go. You care more about a robot than me, so just leave." He ushers me. "No Jonas, I care about you as much as I care about him. I just love him. But I like you." I explain. "Hm, real nice. Good to know." Jonas closes his eyes and lays his head on the pillow. "Fine, if you want to be a prick, then so be it." I exit the hospital and am left in tears. "Fuck. Let's just do this plan." I give up.
I present my plan to our group, and all of them agree and support me. They admire me for all the work I've done. I thank them. "If we get this over with, life will no longer be a struggling battle, but a blazing symphony." I try to inspire them. "We will fight for ourselves, and others in this last battle, and until the day we die, do you understand!" I scream. The crowd screams yes to me and cheers. There are shouts and stomps. "Let's move out!" I command.
Andrew
We walk the desolate streets. There is no one outside on here anymore. Most of the androids are now in our group. The government is fighting its own battles at its base. The base we will invade. I've walked these streets millions of times, but I never noticed how bland and flavorless they are. There is no color, and so much gray I can barely tell the buildings apart from the road. I guess ignorance is bliss. Being in a colorless world and serving as a higher power's slave. There was no thought, honor, or even emotion in what I did. I just sat at a desk doing an office job. I had no sense of smell. I had barely a sense of taste. I didn't gain weight or lose weight. I got older, but that was the only thing that changed. I didn't sweat or throw up or experience anything new. I couldn't do anything. I was trapped in a box that I couldn't see. I was thinking inside of that box, but the box wasn't there. I could've jumped out the window of the office, but I couldn't let myself do that. The government created this prison for a purpose of making people have the best experience possible. They just wanted people to be happy. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Suddenly, Tiana approaches a point in the road and stops. I look up. We are near the government's main base. That's where we will locate and destroy the heart. "Okay," she begins. "Villagers, friends, brothers, those I have held dear. RIOT!" She lets out a scream and the villagers begin burning cars, flipping benches over, or vandalizing anything that isn't nailed down. Innocent androids walk by and begin to report to the government, but the villagers gun them down. "Holy shit." I stare at the android corpses in awe. "Maybe you shouldn't have given them guns," Tiana smirks. She leads the rest of us into a back alley. We peek out at the chaos. Government personnel attempt to clear the villagers out. But the villagers resist. They protest. There are screams and shouts and bullets. "We can't hang around. They're distracted, so we go through the front." Tiana orders. And that is what we do. We enter through the front using a dropped keycard. There are guards, and they have guns. But I have training. I shoot one in the head and kick the other one causing him to stumble. I sweep his leg and knock him flat on his back. Another guard turns the corner so I pick the guard up off the ground before the bullet hits me. I move him out of the way and put another hole in the guard's head. I pick off other attackers and even kill a guard with a melee weapon. I see Tiana and a guard in a struggle so I shoot him. "Nice work." Tiana high-fives me and we continue. "I don't understand, weren't you an office android, how the hell are you doing all of this attacking? It's not built into your program, is it?" Jack asks. "No, it's not," I answer. "I don't have a program," I remark. After one flight of stairs, guards are rushing us through the elevators. I put bullets in three of them, and the others have swords and daggers. I attack with the butt of my gun. "Elevator?" I ask Tiana. "No, too risky, they might be ahead of us. There's a fire escape that leads to the control room, it's the quickest way there." She explains. We go through the fire escape. Tiana aims her gun at the closed door and slowly opens it. We are in the control room. Androids sit in chairs, monitoring things. Androids. This is bad news. We were fighting off humans before, but androids mean that they are as good if not better than me. Our group will get wiped. Tiana puts her finger to her lips and crouches. We all follow her lead. She sneaks behind a guard, ready to pounce on him. We all stand behind the guards, ready to attack them. Tiana gives us the go-ahead, and we stealthily kill them. The tension in my chest relaxes. "Okay, this is where we split up. Half of you go to the control room, the rest of you stay here." We form into two groups. I go with the group that will go to the top. "Andrew, wait!" Tiana ushers me back to her group. "Please, stay here. You could die!" She worries. I remember the loss with her mother and how desperately she must not want to lose someone again. "Tiana," I tell her. My voice is lacking emotion. There is a bluntness and sharpness to it that I don't recognize. It catches me off guard. "These people created me. They're the reason I was able to be here. They're the reason I was able to meet you. I will be the one to kill them." I tell her. "Stay here, I've got it," I order.
Tiana
We watch Andrew and the others from the cameras and open doors for them when it's needed. Andrew is at his peak, using parkour, the training I gave him, and his skills to strike. Nothing is stopping him. He takes a few bullets, but they're merely scratches. I am impressed. I can't believe I was even worried. I stop focusing on him as I need to help hack the system to try to get into the heart. Even if we don't have the handprint, we can still try to break their code.
Andrew
A bullet flies toward my head, and I dive into cover. I quickly vault over a desk, shoot a guard, perform a wall-run, and stab a guard in the head with a dagger. I help my allies against our attackers, slamming into guards and hitting them with the butt of my gun. Out of all the bullets and swords and metal and teeth, I see a familiar face. Kara Wilson. "Well, hello Andrew. Long time no see." She mutters and trains her gun at me. How does she know my real name? I only told Tiana. "You're with them now?!" I say in shock. "I was always with them. You and these fellows are just a side job." She reveals. "You snake!" I quickly reach for my gun and put a bullet in her chest. She shoots me near my stomach. I flop into cover, struggling to stand. She fires her gun endlessly. "I AM GOING TO KILL YOU, ANDREW, EVEN IF IT'S THE LAST GODDAMN THING I DO!" She screams so loud I can hear her over the loud sounds of the gun. I wait until she is forced to reload and blind fire at her. A few bullets hit her, but it's nothing severe. She begins spraying again. I can't stay here long or eventually get mowed down. I was so confident in myself and look where it got me. I'm about to die to Kara Wilson of all people. I'm a disgrace to Tiana. I don't deserve someone like her. Suddenly I hear a foreign gunshot. It's from someone else. I peek out of cover and Kara is clutching her side. They shot her seven times, going from her chest to her head. I can barely make out her face by the end. The person who shot her was Lily. "Come on." I follow her and the guards are getting the upper hand. I defend my team and hold them off. My side burns but the adrenaline is too high that I don't even feel it. I finally reach her. Jane Tracy. The leader. She cowers in the corner near her desk. "Get up, miss," I order. I drag her down to the control room while my allies help hold off the guards. She cries, begs, and pleads. I try not to let it get to me. I feel dirty for doing this. A guard ends up shooting me in the side. I stumble. I can barely stand. I search the desk and find a detonator. I take it. "Dekan," Jack interrupts. "I can take this." He carries Tracy down to the control room while Lily supports me.
Tiana
Andrew. He looks horrible. Two bullets in him, and his face is turning paler. My heart pounds, getting faster by the minute. What does this mean for him? I can't lose him, I can't lose him,
I can't lose him. He enters the control room and we recoup. "I'll be fine Tiana, this is just a little slip." He reassures me. "I never thought that you two would be the ones to wipe my entire army," Tracy says with hatred. "Can it, asshole!" I snap. "I think it's time we finish this," I say to him softly. We both share a smile. I grab Tracy and scan her hand on the scanner. The Heart opens up and all three of us enter. It's a void of red, black, and white. A mix of colors. Andrew approaches the heart. It's a very large oval, made up of machinery and pulsating with intense power.
Andrew
I approach it slowly. This is the birth of my creation. The reason I am who I am. I reason I'm alive. And I'm willing to destroy it. I take the butt of my gun and slam it into the Heart. "No!" Tracy screams, thrashing violently as Tiana restrains her from me. I slam the gun, again and again. "Andrew!" Tiana calls to me. Tiana points to the entrance of the heart. I glance at it. It's getting smaller. If I keep smashing it, it's going to close in on itself. I point to Tracy. "You do it," I order. "I'm not crazy. I'm not destroying it. I'm not destroying our survival!" She refuses. "DO IT!" I smack her. I give her my gun. She holds it apprehensively. She smashes the heart. "Come on!" Me and Tiana jump out of the Heart as the hole folds in and closes. We manage to get a view of the streets. All androids who haven't malfunctioned are now standing there confused. The officials, the only humans left, are shooting at the villagers. "I can't let them die," Tiana says with anguish. "I won't," I promise. I begin to run down the stairs. "What are you doing?" Tiana shouts. "I'm going down there," I explain. "No, you'll die!" She screams. "I know," I whisper. "Get out of here! There's a back entrance, leave the city and run for the hills. Take everybody with you and just go." I keep going. "ANDREW!" I hear Tiana's bloodcurdling scream and it breaks my heart. She was so hardened and tough, but now she's feeling sad over me. I make it down to street level. The officials fire their guns. I move towards them, in the center. I stand, tall and broad. I hold my hands up and surrender. The firing ceases. "Stop. We're done. And so are you." I say. "Affirmative. They have surrendered. This war is over." An official says. "It is," I say. I pause. "RUN!" I shout to the villagers. I take out the detonator and slam my thumb on the button. One shot is fired through my stomach, but it doesn't matter. I land on my knees, and I crumple to the ground. The entire city is a pile of rubble and ashes. An entire government was destroyed in one day. An army of villagers who have been rebelling for twenty years, all charred and burned, the skin torn off of their faces. I hope Tiana listened.
3 Days Later
Tiana
I hold my gun up, lining up the shot at the deer. My finger clutches the trigger sheepishly. I squint my eyes. The gun moves as I fire. The deer scampers away. I crumple to the ground, crying. I hold myself against a rock. I saw the explosion. The entire city was destroyed. All I saw was a flash of orange, and then black and brown. Structures of buildings and wood frames. No one could have made it out. Not even my people. But I did get out. Me and everyone else from The Vanished. The first thing Andrew wanted to do when we met was destroy my village and kill my people. And he did that. He accomplished his mission. I walk back to our camp. Androids are making food, and Lily is tending to the sick and wounded. "Tiana," Jack says. "Can I have a word with you?" He asks. I meet him in private. "Listen, maybe it's too soon, but I want to build something new. That city was beautiful. Not many people got to see the beauty, but we did. I remember all the runs, all of the nights. I want to make a new one. Us. All of us. And we'll never try any experiments like that. But let's just make a fair city. A good city. One that works. And if it doesn't work, we'll fix it. We won't let it linger. Tiana, you've lived in camps for twenty years. We can't keep doing this. It's now or never. Are you up for it?" He questions. I think long and hard. For Andrew. "Of course. A government that works. A system that works. A strong, loving, beautiful city that works. For the most part. And most importantly, nothing is perfect." I say. "Of course," Jack says.