Machines

Chapter 4: Losing Lunisay

I have not been able to concentrate without Callisto. I even forgot of my lessons of Olden Education today until Vermisa came up the stairs with her wooden spoon. I got questioned for the broken lamp, but the great thing about macros is that it keeps your temper down.

            Now I sit in the classroom before my Professor Pouka, with my meta decided friends surrounding me. I don’t even glance there way. I know I should act like a normal macro-controlled being, but part of me no longer cares.

            “Miss Erisella?” the professor calls.

            I jump in my seat. “Yes?” I quickly recover and answer smoothly.

            “A ‘present’ is all that is needed for roll call,” Pouka eyes me with suspicion, but continues with the last name and stands in the center of the room with the hand activated screen. “Today we will be reviewing The Outcast.” He touches a button, and on the screen appears a map of Pax and an endless amount of forest with the label Outcast.

            All students sit high in their seat, face forward, without moving a toe. Intellectuals are seated in the front of class, grading into the Peril towards the back. No one dares cause disruption, even those dressed in black. Education is our motto, respected fully and a hundred percent. However, I find that keeping still is difficult without the help of meto.

            “After the nuclear battles and unstable economics, a group grew with the idea that the human being should no longer be trusted on their own. Their actions cause destruction, and because of this, our era was born.

            The group I refer to is called Central, which in reality is now controlled by the Metamacro Machine. It is a highly intellectual robot that does not have the flaws humans do. Every being since two hundred and twelve years ago have been implanted with a machine that eliminates unactful actions that does not follow our Acts, and any dangerous thoughts. This way, the human kind can continue develop nonstop without fear. It is the perfect communistic and utopian society our ancestors thought was impossible.”

            Sounds like a big bag of junk, right, Callisto?

            No answer.

            “However, there were humans that protested against the Machine because they wanted freedom. Freedom is the source of fear. These humans are called the Esoteric, and they live in the Outskirts. We do not know how they survive. The water is too polluted for them to drink of naturally, the ground too dry for food to grow. Anyone who enters will surely fall to their own unavoidable death.”

            Okay, maybe it’s just me, but I feel like Pouka stared at my eyes only during that entire speech. I don’t know what he’s worried about; I want to live, no chance in hell I would offer myself the option of crossing over the borders. It’s the same with Callisto, he hinted the same thing. Perhaps there’s something in my files I’m missing out on.

            “Class is dismissed,” Professor Pouka announced. I practically sprinted out the door, leaving my ‘friends’ behind. That professor gave me the creeps, and honestly, if I have to communicate with another meto driven teenage light girl I might as well just cross into the Outskirts.

            Okay, so that was a complete lie.

            Rain drops slowly color the gravel gray. I sigh and curse the skies. My house is only a block from here, but it should already be raining by then. Behind me, I see a meto friend of mine walking with an umbrella all staring at me.