MCSM: Strange New Guests at Beacontown

Chapter 4: Efficient

Ivor's POV

"So, what do you have to say, Nelina?" I asked as the rest of our group started gathering around her. "Well, I had a dream. I thought it didn't mean anything, until I heard about Lindy's dream. I had a dream I was in a sandstone city, near the ocean. I was walking down a street, and just doing normal things. It gets a little fuzzy there, and tension starts picking up, but then I remember standing in an anxious crowd. Lindy stepped on to the platform and gave a speech, about "how we can't let them control us." I still don't understand what was going in in the dream." She explained. Fascinating. She said she heard Lindy say something about people controlling them. Oh dear, what if this is another PAMA situation! "We could all be in great danger!" I said in a panicked scream.

Lukas' POV

"We could all be in great danger!" "Ivor... what are you talking about?" I asked him. "Nelina said they were talking about people controlling them in their dream. Lukas, have you lost your memory as well?! Why are you not understanding? This could be the work of PAMA!" Ivor said in a panicked tone. I felt the color drain from my face at the word PAMA. I haven't thought of that. "But Jesse disabled PAMA!" Petra countered. "I don't know what happened, but something bad did happen to these people. Maybe PAMA reactivated itself and got into other worlds, or maybe there was a portal world with its own version of PAMA." Ivor hypothesized. "But controlling people can mean a lot of things, maybe someone or something was controlling them with force, or money, or something." I reasoned. "You make a fair point, just uh, keep your guard up, whether it's PAMA or not." Ivor said. "We always do!" Jesse quipped.

Lindy's POV

What is PAMA? What in the world are they talking about? Hearing Nelina's dream made me remember some things, but only fractions of what should be a full memory, so it was hard to tell what it all meant. I still didn't know what PAMA was. "Hey, what IS PAMA?" I asked. "I was wondering the exact same thing." Null said. "Well, it's like this super crazy overpowered robot that chips people and mind controls them to make them 'useful'." Jesse replied to my question. "Yeah, it was built to try to make things efficient, but it got out of hand." Lukas added on. Efficient... That word, I can remember some of what happened! "I know what happened." Nelina whispered quietly. "So do I." I said. "Same here." Null added on. "Lindy, explain what you remember first." Nelina told me. "Ok. So, I was mayor of this really great town. Great people, great builds, everything was going well. Almost. I mean there was occasional famines because it was in a desert, but everyone got through them because it was a community where everyone helped one another. We were an independent city state, we didn't really make that much profits, but enough to survive and be happy. Well, one day, a nation by the name of Cerna and their leader, Emperor Steam, decided that we could be profitable under their rule. No one knows exactly who Emperor Steam is, it is a fake name he made up. They came here with a huge army, I knew we would lose if we tried to fight them, so I allowed them to claim the city for their nation. I mean, it was just being part of a nation, how bad could it be, we were just a city. But no, in their eyes we were a cash cow." Larry mooed at that last comment. "Sorry Larry, no pun intended. But they started enslaving our citizens in factories, farms, stores and anywhere else they could find as "citizen duty". They started adjusting our city policies to benefit the rich. They only allowed us to trade with their own currency. They wouldn't let us separate. They had a complete dictatorship. We had no free speech. The list of injustices goes on, so I started to gather my people. I soon found out that they had done this to other cities. I traveled, giving speeches, gathering resources, people, until one day we were ready to stand up for ourselves. We fought... but we lost I assume. Apparently, Emperor Steam had a portal key to another world. We were thrown into portals, and we were thrown though this one. The last thing Emperor Steam said to us was "Don't worry, this world will be way more efficient with out you, traitors." Lindy explained.