Warning: Don't Look at the Moon

You remember it don't you? Those dreamy summer evenings, head on the ground, staring up at every glistening star. You see the craters on our familiar moon, you study each crevice and dip. You begin to imagine how fragile Earth must look from way up there.

I remember it too. But that's all it'll be, a distant memory.

Five long years have passed since every TV in the world told us "It'd be ok." "It'll pass." "We must stand strong, we'll get through it together". "The blackouts are necessary".

But above all: "DO NOT LOOK UP AT THE MOON. ANYONE CAUGHT DOING SO WILL BE TAKEN INTO CUSTODY AND PROCESSED."

Five years of looking down, never looking up, never questioning, never trusting, never knowing.

In the darkness, as I leant up against the hallway wall, a wave of despair came over me. When will this end? I'd barely got to thinking when I heard the letterbox open and close. Looking down on the hallway mat a light yellow piece of paper lay there. Picking it up, I noticed it was almost completely blank apart from the top right, a tiny icon of a torch lay imprinted.

I was curious, bored, up for something (anything) to take my mind off this, I grabbed the flashlight from under the stairs. Flicking on the torch, I held it over the paper. Nothing. "Hah!", "Of course, f**k all..". Out of curiosity, I tried one last thing, holding the paper aloft and shining the torch directly behind it words began to appear.

It read:

"Do you seek the truth? Do you still wonder why? Do you question? Find the answers. Come to the old Gray Lane Sewer Outlet."

"A goddamn sewer?!" I thought, "What is this? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Gimme a break.."

But who am I kidding? I was desperate for an answer. If this was a false alarm, a trap, a bunch of kids playing a stupid prank.. In all honesty I was beyond caring.

Carefully tucking the piece of paper into my jean pocket, I grabbed my coat and headed straight to the sewer outlet. Of course I did.

The eerie silence outside was a thing of normality now, you step out and hear no sirens, no distant talking, no children playing, just the sound of the constant Patrol Force. People have become isolated, choosing the safety of their own homes. No one can be trusted. If the Patrol Force doesn't catch you looking up, your neighbour sure as hell will.

God knows what happens when they get you, but everyone knows some poor son of a bitch who's been captured. They never come back, they never return.

Deep in thought I almost walk past the sewer opening. You'd think after years of being abandoned it wouldn't smell like shit. But man, it reeks.

Crawling inside the opening to the sewer I see crudely chalked on red arrows with a torch symbol above. Following the arrows I start hearing faint and distant voices, in the distance I see a small flicker from a bin fire.

Getting closer the voices slowly fade out, in front of me a small group of people, maybe 10 to 15 in number, are standing huddled around the fire. Each dressed in what can only be described as Mad Max chic. Man, it took me long enough but I've just found my first rebel group..

A woman dressed head to toe in a makeshift black cape, cargo pants and camo paint approaches me.

"You must've got our note. Well done for having the critical thinking skills to seek out the truth."

"Thanks, it gave me something to do I guess.." I'm playing it cool.

"Take a seat, we'll show you what we know. We're here to get the truth out to the many. We need more people to wake the hell up."

She gestures to a chair, points to a file she's retrieved from a locked case. "Look at it. Then we'll talk." The group talk among themselves as I get to opening the document.

Inside are a series of images. Holy fuck. Holy fuck. How did they get these? No, that doesn't matter right now. As I flick through each picture, my breaths begin to become erratic. These are images of the sky. A sky that for 5 years we've been warned not to look up and see. But it's broken. It's twisted and fucked. In each of these images it's fucking broken. Where the moon should be, there's a loading symbol, vast patches of the sky are missing. In their place is just RGB static noise.

I freak out, throwing the images on the floor. It can't be real. I won't believe it. I can't let myself believe it.

The caped woman and a few of her group refuse to let me leave until I see it for myself. They insist. I desperately want answers too, but god, if there was ever a moment I was scared of the truth, it's now.

Stepping out of the sewer, the group guide me to a patch of densely overgrown brush, carefully avoiding the eyes of CCTV and patrols.. I'm instructed to do it, to look up and see for myself.

Then tentatively, with their encouragement I do so.

For the first time in 5 years I raise my head to the night sky and I see it.

Like a video tape that's reached the end, a tv connection not fully in, white and black jerking. It's all simulated.

The sky, is a complete simulation, a broken simulation.

Nothing is real. It's all a lie... everything we've been told..

It's a fucking LIE.