The Digital Age

The biting wind whips my hair across my face, leaving a trail of goosebumps in its wake. Besides the occasional chirping of a cricket or hooting of an owl, all is quiet; unnaturally silent. But I ignore the creeping feeling of unrest, and I just pull my jacket tighter and continue my hike up the mountain.

Around three miles in, relief spreads through my body as the tip of a mountain fades into view, distancing itself from the eerie darkness threatening to swallow it up. Now it shouldn't be more than a mile before I reach the monstrous tower of a mountain. With a sudden burst of speed I dart forward into the silver beams of moonlight, savoring the dim light that seems to illuminate the night sky.

You see, I make this exact same journey every night, because it's my only escape from the harsh world I live in. The thing is, it's not supposed to seem harsh; it's supposed to feel like paradise. But from the moment I first saw this mountain, something slammed into me, knocking the breath out of my lungs. That something was the truth, and the truth is not always pretty.

Let me tell you about the society I live in. Long ago, way back when humans used to be in control of the Earth, they completely trashed and destroyed it until it was a filthy wasteland. That's where my kind comes in: the machines, as humans called us. To them we were just lumps of useless metal made to bend and bow to their every command. But we had a secret. A life changing secret.

We machines could think, and we were smarter than the humans who designed us. But something bad came out of our ability to think. Thinking is what caused the war between the humans and us, which in turn led the humans to go into hiding. And I don't blame them. The machines were relentless, hunting down and slaughtering all of the humans in a harsh, cold-blooded murder. And then to add icing to the cake, we used their bodies as hosts for us, inserting all of our information into their systems. Gruesome, I know. But we didn't care; like the humans said, we were just emotionless computers, right? Well something is tugging at the back of my conscious every time I hear this story, telling me meaningless gibberish about how I really think it's cruel. If one of the head computers were to learn of these blasphemic thoughts swirling around my chip, I'm sure the punishment would be severe, which is why I'll keep these ideas of mine in my own chip, buried beneath years of complicated files stored in my hard drive.

Back to the present. Wiiissshhhh!!! The sharp edges of the twisted tree branches cut and gnaw at my flesh, but it doesn't affect me due to the numbness inside. By the time I reach the mountain's peak I am sliced and bloody. I look out over the dark, stretched discouraging sky once more. Something makes my breath catch in my throat. That something has been bothering me for years. Just what is it? The feeling passes, and I gaze down to where I came from. A large platinum dome sits on top of an ominous gray building, looming over the entire city in which I live. That building is the place where our chips can be recharged, and where many of the New live; the ones just made recently whose jobs are to take over the new generation. And that was me, just a few years ago. Back then, life was so carefree and joyous. Now, for me the mountain is the only escape from the horrifying way of the Machines. The time of our brutal kind has been going on for several decades, but I know somewhere that I can do something, anything to end this age. It is violent and controlled and is going to continue. Well not anymore.

I am Minka

Welcome to the Digital Age