Confessions of the Few!

Confession 10 : Cam-Era

WHO AM I?

Alan awakens with no memory of his existence. He slides out of bed, still tired and with no strength in his legs. He drags himself and grabs his phone. The phone opened with his face detection, and he saw a beautiful girl on the wallpaper with no recall of who she was. He began to go through his phone for information on himself, but he couldn't discover anything; the phone had already been blanked.

Alan, doubting his own existence, began walking as if he were a newborn learning to walk; with each stride, memories of his house flashed before him, and he began to recall his location. He strolled out of the room and discovered a wall covered in photographs, which made him feel like a photographer. He had tears in his eyes and a smile on his face simultaneously. He was drowsy and couldn't see the photographs properly, but he could hear a woman's voice within his head.

While Alan was attempting to restore his lost memories, someone arrived in a hurry, as if he had just finished a marathon. It was Nitin Alan's bestie, and he had to reintroduce himself to Alan, as if he was following a pattern. Alan felt bittersweet when he met Nitin since he had previously been unable to recognise himself, but now he is being introduced to someone else. Still, the question "who am I" stayed in his thoughts.

IN BETWEEN SOMETHING.

Alan was on medication that allowed him to remain drowsy. Nitin explained to Alan that he needed to rest because his brain became so stressed that he experienced chemical imbalances throughout his body, causing organs to malfunction. Alan confesses to having a dream about waking up in a massive lab and attempting to escape. Nitin then stated that he will have unusual dreams since he is maintained in a REM state for an extended period of time to balance the chemicals in his body. Nitin claims Alan is under the care of a well-known doctor.

Alan, being oblivious of his own existence and attempting to reveal himself, believes what Nitin says. Nitin then reveals Thad, the AI assistant he has been developing to assist Alan with his memory loss. The AI helper was named after the well-known historian Thad. Thad was at Alan's disposal for consciousness tuning. Alan felt like a test subject, having no idea what was going on around him.

Nitin then informs Alan that he awoke earlier than his usual time. Alan was deeply sedated when he awoke, remaining in Rem condition. Alan couldn't fathom reality; he felt like he was in a bizarre dream.

YOUR’S ONLY

Alan falls deeply asleep, then awakens to hear a charming lady's voice. It continued to speak poetically about their most memorable moments together. He slowly remembers it's Zenoba, whom he calls Zen. Zen was his fiancee, and he is slowly remembering her. Alan met Zenoba at the hospital after falling ill; falling ill was his way of falling in love with her. She was a physician at Haven's Hospital. She was a northeastern girl, extremely direct and serious, a no-nonsense person. But she fell for him because of his honesty and persistently falling sick.

It was a love tale everyone spoke about in the hospital, and they were overjoyed to be together. That prompted Alan to take more photographs; she was his muse, and he became increasingly enthralled by her existence; it was a clash of worlds. Zenoba recognises Alan's interest for catching unusual things in his surroundings and gifts him a high-end professional camera to help him capture the best things he can see.

They say that when worlds collide, they can annihilate each other. Zenoba had to return to her hometown for an emergency, and it was raining heavily owing to a cyclone across the country; Alan wanted to accompany Zenoba, but she refused since she didn't want Alan to get caught anywhere due to the weather turmoil.

She finished everything in her hometown and messaged Alan, "I'm coming back to you, miss me less, Yours only." Fate played a trick on her, as she discovered that a cloud blast near her village caused a landslip, killing many people and taking Zenoba with it. Alan was destroyed, and her sudden withdrawal caused his mind to become unsettled. Alan remained paralysed as if everything had ended because her final message was so full of love, and she was waiting to come back.

TAKE ME HOME

Alan wakes up feeling down again, and this time he talks about the lab, but this time he says he met Zenoba there. The fact that Alan met Zenoba has left Nitin in a state of astonishment. Nitin reveals to Alan that he asked him to erase Zenoba from his mind because her passing left him depressed and filled Alan with despair.

Nitin further revealed that all of his friends tried to help him during times of loneliness. Alan was concerned by Zen's disappearance, and no one could draw him out of it. That's when they brought Alan to a research lab and treated him with SMD (Specified Memory Drain) to eliminate Zenoba from his memory.

Alan's recollections were also linked to the photographs he took with his camera; he had a remarkable ability to notice unusual things and keep them dear to his heart. That's why the wall full of images of his fondest memories was at home, but Nitin had already taken Zen's pictures off the wall and saved some random girl's picture on his phone. Nitin now realises Alan is returning to his usual state, back home, and back to his beloved Zen. Nitin then scheduled a session with Thad to tune his consciousness.

I AND YOU

Thad begins the session with a questionnaire, which Alan answers logically. Thad knew Alan's state of mind, and Thad was determined to help Alan find his purpose. The revelation had to be impactful. Thad then begins the lecture on the commentary of human existence. It discusses the evolution of mankind and how it differs from other beings. It mentions humanity making a jump in consciousness and intelligence. It emphasised how people are prone to forgetting things, yet they developed to record everything as a reminder of progress and improvement.

All of the records contributed to the discovery of the camera, which changed human intelligence and increased consciousness. It mocked human progress and the fact that with each reset, we end up in the Cam-era. Thad says that we are living in a simulation, and that once we leave this life, we are transferred to another, much as we change our clothes to suit our lifestyle. Thad discusses how humans record everything that happens with our built-in cameras, and how our brains store it as memories to help us develop connections, create emotions, improve our logic, and judge philosophies.

There are beings in this cosmos that are energy beings without form, and they exist to move and turn energies into entities in the universe. He forecasts that the world will lose its freedom and privacy, with everything eventually being monitored by surveillance cameras. Cameras will govern and guide the globe. We all believe such manipulations will cause chaos, resulting in a reset. This happens all the time, and AI will help humans deal with the consequences. It describes the relationship between my advanced intelligence and you, or us evolved people.

A to Z

THAD (Technology and Human Analysis Device). Thad's session pulls Alan's thinking into alignment; he begins to realise that not everything is genuine, and he must draw a boundary between imagination and reality. Alan picks up his camera and takes a photograph of the room before going to the wall of pictures to look out all of his unique photos. Alan feels a sense of accomplishment. He praises Thad for waking him up from his slumber.

Thad is pleased with Alan's response to the session; he asks Nitin to leave and give Alan some alone time to align his consciousness. Alan is still enamoured with Zen, and Thad realised that only company can keep Alan in check. Thad advises Alan to relax because it is nighttime; Alan continues his talk with Thad, eats his food, and falls asleep.

Alan wakes up in the morning to find Zenoba waiting for him; she hugs him fiercely, crying loudly, and Alan begins to cry because he believed he would never meet her again. They travel together to the wall of memories, where they begin reliving the moments through the images collected. Alan tells Zen, "The magic is in the moment, and when that moment is captured, it remains a memory. You are not just my memory, but my now; let us make memories." Zen smiles at Alan, as if he were the cosmos for her. Alan grabs his phone and takes a selfie of the reunion. He decides for himself whether real or not this is what he wants.

Thad then adds, "Reset complete, mission accomplished; see you in the next Era."

"Our reality is like a flash light in the dark, we can see how much the light reveals, beyond that it's only untapped mystery" .

By Andrew Diamond