A Series of Short Stories

Utopia's Truth

(Edited 9/27/19)

"Good morning and welcome to the world, new one. Your name is Aruna. You are a peacekeeper generation 042. Your purpose is to serve the community and make sure all needs of others are met. Should you fail to fulfill your purpose you will be retired. You are serving model 647901 and you are identifiable by the barcode tattooed on your inner right wrist. Your charges include two children, their mother, and the family pet. Their names are implanted into your CI-stem. You may access their names, preferences, habits, routines, and educational standing under the file in your memory bank labeled CHARGES. Please attempt to access this file now so we may be sure that your systems are running efficiently."

~

This was your first memory. You have no memories before that because you were not yet awake. You are an organic android. At least, this is what the government refers to you as. Some parts of society view your creation as inhumane, yet sympathize with your race.

 However, others view you as an abomination that is a failed attempt at humans playing god. They refer to you as a Zombie. The term comes from Old Earth's superstitions about the dead rising and destroying the human race. You are not a zombie.

You serve your charges loyally and efficiently and you hold little contempt for them. The children you serve, Weston and Cerce, view you as an older sister of sorts. Their mother, Tasha, treats you kindly, and almost like a daughter. This has confused you for some time. You have observed that other peacekeepers and their charges have similar familiar relationships. You are curious as to why some accept your existence and yet others do not.

"Aruna, would you please take this to the disposal station?" Tasha asked you, holding out a box that seemed to have some faded labeling.

You nod in acceptance. You are able to speak but you often choose not to for your voice unsettles you. It does not seem to be wholly yours. You carry the box with little difficulty, as it does not hold much. You can hear the sounds of glass rattling and the Old Earth material, known as styrofoam, crunching and squeaking as the objects inside shift.

The walk to the Disposal Station is a relatively short one. The building looks more like an Old Earth hospital than a place to dump unwanted things. Cleanly trimmed trees and hedges line the perimeter of the station's property and verdant green grass is neatly trimmed without a single weed marring the pristine landscape. All lawns and open spaces were like this. "To bring peace there must be order," it is a law of this world.

The voice that spoke to you when you first woke up 67 sun cycles ago told you about this world. The voice, feminine in speech, called it New Earth but many citizens residing in the developed districts called it Utopia. Tasha was born at the end of the Old Earth and she would often tell you stories of war and disease that were told to her by her grandmother. 

These things no longer existed according to the leaders. When the world was crumbling into chaos, the group known as Lazarus, rose to power and established order. You faintly recognized the name from an Old Earth book you had found (and hidden). You did not understand a lot of it as the pattern of speech it was written in was very odd. You were not sure if the title on the cover was an acronym or a word. BIBLE was the title of the large tome.

Ever since you started to read the books of Old Earth you became curious. Many Old Earth books had not been entirely eradicated and you had stumbled across a few of them. The books, although they confused you (and were said to be dangerous and therefore outlawed), also taught you things. For example, there used to be plots of land called graveyards. Families would bury their dead in these places. They were said to be sacred to many and could be centuries or even millennia old. 

There are no longer graveyards. You wondered why they got rid of them. It was a place for the grieving to emotionally connect with a lost one, and you found it to be a lovely idea. Many things of Old Earth were lovely. New Earth had done away with nearly all of these things. They claimed that they caused chaos, but you did not understand how.

You processed all of these thoughts as you sorted through the contents of the box, placing reusables with reusables and so on. You were going to throw a notebook into the reusable's section when something slipped from between the pages. It was a picture. A photograph to be specific. You stared at the slip of paper in wonder. It was old and worn around the edges with some water stains. However, it was very clear to see that it was a picture of yourself. You had never had your picture taken.

Something within your brain clicked, a vague memory of tears, screaming and the sound of a long beeping. There was a reason why you felt as though you were not Aruna. The girl in the picture was Aruna. 

You are like the creature from that Old Earth book, Frankenstein. You are the product of flesh and technology. Organic android was indeed a fitting name. As you thought about it, zombie was perhaps a fitting name as well.

You wanted to know more about the original Aruna. Who was she? What did she love? What did she hate? Where is she now? You pondered over these thoughts for a bit and came to a realization. 

Aruna was Tasha's daughter. Tasha had once mentioned how she had a teenaged daughter that died from one of the last diseases to be eradicated. She never told you anything more than that. Now you understood why. You now comprehended why some looked at you in abhoration. You knew the truth veiled behind the lies of Utopia, and so did they.

~

You no longer watch over your charges. You left a note to them saying you decided to retire. This was the first time you lied. You did not even know you were capable. You managed to escape the developed districts and into the wild. In the wild, you gave yourself a new name. A name you believed was truly yours.

You cut your hair and dyed it a darker color as well. You used a skin stain to permanently tan yourself. Your barcode was tattooed over to resemble a line of trees. You did not want to live as Aruna, nor Peacekeeper Aruna. You would not disrespect the dead in that way. You looked like her in some aspects; the eyes, nose, and stature were still the same, but you were no longer purely her. You were yourself for the first time.

You have lived more than one life. You lived as Aruna. You lived as Peacekeeper Aruna. Now, you were free to live as you. With a backpack carrying all of your contraband books, Aruna's notebook, her picture, and a bedroll, you journeyed onto into this new life you've taken for yourself. You would adventure and explore and live only to experience the things none of your lives ever could. Happiness, freedom, adventure; it was all out there. You are now Seeker.