The 50: Post AI Apocalypse

The Drill

“Didn’t I and you have our plan already in motion? Why do you keep saying these words then?”

John said these blaming words with some pain, as he shook his head with helplessness. Laila looked silently at him for a moment as she recalled what the two had planned to guarantee their future.

After that accident of the old record, the three began a wide research about those who were lovers before the chipping ceremony. They checked their relations before and after the ceremony, and without much effort the three reached the same conclusion.

After the chipping ceremony was over, those who had the same qualities were matched together like matching colors. For example John’s dad was a scientist, like his mother.

As for Dan, his parents were both engineers. When the little gang compared the work details of each family they knew, they were shocked to find out every single one of them had the same job.

That was incredible, and the most shocking thing that no one had ever suspected this, not even them. without that accident, they wouldn’t have reached the same result.

So, the two little lovers decided to neglect their studies and had bad marks one month ago. they discussed what both liked, and eventually both chose a middle ground for the two of them, to be a general service worker.

It was one of the lowly jobs in the city, however they at least would have a chance to stay together after this ceremony.

As for Dan, the love of his life was some brilliant girl that  was way above him in intelligence and her dedication for study. So after he knew of that hidden law, he decided to focus on his studies and never let anything disturb him, nothing except watching his love, like what he was doing right now.

“Hey buddy, you need to go there and confess to her,” John muttered softly as he was teasing his best friend. He knew how much Dan loved Gina, not less than his love to Laila, however he also knew how hesitant his friend was.

Dan was afraid, afraid of confessing his true feelings and receiving a refusal. So, he was comfortable to watch from far away, as he didn’t want to screw things up.

That wasn’t what his two best friends wanted him to do, as they believed he had to confess first, then deal with the results later. John always warned him, if he didn’t take the first move, someone else might do it.

He was about to speak with her, but when he learned about that hidden law, he was the only one of the three to be excited with it. he knew he could match up her marks, the only one in the whole generation who could do that.

So, he decided not to say anything and trust that hidden law. He began to take his studies seriously just to secure his life with her in the future.

“I will stick to my own plan,” Dan simply replied.

Before any of them could say anything more, a sudden alarming sound came out from the internal speakers here. it was followed by the sound of an adult as he said:

“Order, prepare for the landing.”

The three exchanged silent glances before they replies alongside everyone else here:

“Done.”

Suddenly the huge aircraft began to lose altitude as it was heading to the ground. In the middle of nowhere there, a middle size town was built with high walls and strong defenses that didn’t lack considering those of any city.

“Look, they really built a town here,” John pointed to the window as he softly muttered to his friends. The three looked from the window like anyone else watching this town getting bigger and bigger each passing moment.

They were nearing it, and in less than two minutes they finally landed there on the special landing zone beside a large facility with many buildings.

This was where the Drill was.

“Order, we have arrived. Execute departure.”

The same sound appeared again to give them permission to leave the aircraft. The three exchanged glances silently then Dan muttered:

“Are you two sure you want to do this?”

John looked at him like he was having the best fun in his life before replying:

“Execute.”

Laila stood from her seat as she jumped softly to get herself glued to John as they used to do while waiting:

“Execute.”

Dan shook his head as he felt helpless. This crazy idea just popped up in their minds after discovering the hidden law.

The idea was simple, if there was some sort of power that could cloud everyone’s judgment and make them forget even who they love, then the same power might manipulate other things.

Like that dark year in the distant past. So the three decided to use the Drill and discover what was hidden inside this year. At the same time, John and Laila had their share of using the Drill, and they both were extremely bored right now.

So exploring this dark year through the Drill was something both were looking for, as Laila described it as the most fun moment in their lives.

The three followed the line of other students in their class who came here to take part of the Drill. Some of them were well experienced like the little gang, as they had used the Drill a couple of times before.

However most of them were new, as they agreed to take part of this experiment after hearing so much about it.

“Organize. Order, follow me and don’t leave the group. Error, leaving the group. Punish, house arrest till the end of the semester. End.”

The head scientist of this experiment and the one who brought them here said these words out and loud. He used the common transcendent language as this was the official language here.

He then turned around as he headed towards the door, which was an automatic door with two big human-like machines wearing special forces uniforms guarding it.

The whole city was as full of human-like machines as these two, as this place was considered the future of the current civilization.

The Drill was an invention of a mad scientist who tried to break the boundaries of time, and he succeeded in it. The end result invention of his was called the Drill, and it was left in custody to the current leadership of the city of Los Angeles, the home city of that scientist.

No one really knew whose that scientist identity was, however the primary tests were marvelous back at the city. The device used special quantum physics powers to break through time, and through it they managed to send children like John, Dan, and Laiyla to the past.

The limitations of this device were many, one of them was the restriction of any metal or electronic devices, which made any chipped adult unable to test the device.

That led to the conclusion of using children, non-chipped humans. This also prevented human -like machines from using the device.

The other challenging limitation was the energy consumption. This device was like a fat kid eating candies, so they first tested it upon fifty kids in Los Angeles city.

When the device proved its worth, they began to build a new town specifically for powering the Drill. This town was built on the ruins of a forgotten city, as there was a separate power generating facility built only for the Drill.

The third main limitation of the device was its inability to totally send kids into the past and bring them back, as this would require a power surge enough to destroy the eastern coast and let it go dark.

So, this device was decided to be used only to send a wisp of those kids’ souls to the past to experience how life was before the apocalypse and after it.

It was meant to show humans living inside the walls of the remaining cities how humanity was living in disorder and misery before the era of the chips, and how these chips helped humans to secure their current state and build today’s civilization.

This device came to solve a growing problem in cities all over the world. what John, Dan, and Laiyla discovered was one of the many flaws youths around the world began to spot, and thus many escaping attempts were done in the last century.

The numbers of deserters to heaven as the higher ups used to call began to escalate in a frightening speed to exceed in this century alone all the number of deserters in total years after the disaster.

So, the Drill was meant to make these kids embrace their fate and be more acceptable to the chips. This was a crucial solution to amend this critical flaw in the system.