DYSTOPIA

Chapter 1

I can sense my fresh wound healing. This must take a couple of weeks to completely heal, but now it's not because of this New Highly Implemented Ointment that can heal any skin disease. An Ointment that formulated with newly discovered 7th State of Matter called Slvvrus Oprehthus—sounds different from the other six states. This is probably my first time to use this and I'm quietly enjoying it, it was ivory white in color and was very gentle in skin. I put more ointment directly to my Elbow Tip where my wound located, the mere changes are probably noticeable. I came closer to mirror to study my face, to notice the changes I got since I haven't seen myself as close as this within past 1 and a half week. The twilight coming from window really made my short natural blonde hair stunning, short enough to reveal my face clearly along with my ears and neck. It's been a year since I decided to have this hairstyle rather than I have ever since I was a little kid which is a long straight blonde one and was curl and black at its ends. I ran my look directly to my nose. Nothing changed, I still got my mother's charming nose which is always been recognized by everyone who knows my mom. An average one. Next is my eyes, or to be precise, my eye's pupil and iris. My iris was quite liquid sky blue and my pupil is quiet bluer one, I can say they're charming but brave at the same time. I focuses my look wider so I can see my eyes, my eyes along with its lashes. They really fit in my personality, they are innocent but strong, brave, adventurous, loving, charming, and above all, they are honest, but I can manage to turn them elusive whenever and wherever I want. My cheeks captured my attention. I never seen my cheeks as more pinkish as this. I started to infer some possible reasons and so I came up with Three. First, I have allergy in cats, so it's maybe because I just played with a cat an hour ago, second, maybe I was tired since I've done more adventurous endeavours today which I really enjoyed, but it's somehow irrational since this is not my first time to be as tired as this and I never got this kind of pinkish color, and third, maybe because of this new ointment. This is known for healing wounds or any skin disease within a minute but it was then quietly striving my cheeks. I looked down my wound and it's now healed, leaving no traces of wound scar. I took my attention back to my eerie pinkish cheeks but now it's gone, it goes back to its normal pinkish color. I probably came up with one conclusion, that once my wound healed, I will next have that eerie pinkish color on my cheeks that will last for a seconds. Now I see face flawlessly along with my whole body wearing black leather jacket and black skinny pants together with white shoes. I turned my body rightward then I slightly tilted my head down my right shoulder. All set, my tattoo was exposed, a tattoo on my neck's left side. Tattoo that reminds me of my family always, a heart tattoo which we all have, my mom, my dad, and my younger brother. Each family in our city have their same chosen tattoo marks, marks serves as strength to conquer everything, because we believe that family completes human, and without family there is no good society, without good society, there is no Utopia.

I wonder what's happening outside this city. Or to be precise, I wonder how messy the Four Dystopian Cities are. I haven't heard any information or stories, or even rumors regarding them, except in the three mere facts that our government provided us; that the four Dystopian Cities are Freedom-free, Terrorized, and Under Selfish Government and Laws. I wonder how Freedom-free. I wonder how Terrorized. And I wonder how selfish their Governments are.

An anonymous blueprint message pupped-up through the technology-based mirror in front me. "17:56 Nightfall. A message from anonymous sender. Primary message: Open This When You Are 19 Year-Old.". Goosebumps strikes me. I never received any mysterious message as this. Anonymous sender? Maybe this is a threat, prank, or a surprise message for me once I turned 19. It doesn't matter for me... The rule. I was 17 years old, and I can't bare the two years of waiting for this message. A part of me says open it, a part of me says don't. I remember the thing my mother told me when I was a little. "Good and Bad are always connected. If there's a way for good one to turn bad, then there's probably a way for bad one to turn good. So never be afraid having decisions that might lead you to worst. There will always be a way to turn it good. And when you do, you will become stronger. Stronger because you knew yourself. You knew your weakness, and knowing your weakness makes you strong." I used to always consider my mom's advices in my decisions, and she's right, it made me stronger. So I'd rather open the message and take the consequences than letting curiosity devour me.

I chose to open the message. For the sake of my enticing curiosity. "Great Nightfall. Welcome to Dystopia." First phrase made me shocked. "I hope you didn't broke the rule." I sighed to gain my bravery back. "If you're 19 years old, congratulation! You're saved. You can continue you're Utopian life in your Utopian world... In one condition. You will receive a message next nightfall, and all you have to do is read it well, then spread it out. You're being watched." I was messed up. I'm starting to reach my anxiety. "And this is for you. For you who broke the rule. If you're 18 years old below... Again, welcome to Dystopia. All you have to do is to start hiding and don't get caught. Failed? Then Your Utopian Life Will End." This is ridiculous! Hiding will make my Utopian Life End. So what's difference between hiding and getting caught? Probably NONE.

It's been a half hour since I have read the message. I've been very sensitive with everything, I was expecting for someone or something to eventually show up, neither from my back, my left side, right side, underneath me, beneath me, or in front of me. I consider myself now as a young girl trapped inside a giant magnet and was located at the boundary of good and bad, and anytime, a larger magnet from bad side will pull me. I was hoping that someone or something will break the connection of two sides to prevent me from being pulled. But I was wrong. My mother will always be right. Good and Bad are connected, and there's no way to break it. But why? Why there isn't any way to break it?

I feel something mysterious at my back. I have a strong feeling that it was the intruder, the intruder I was expecting to come, to come and attack me.

I'm about to fight the intruder but before I turn, I felt something at my back, it's a syringe. I felt the pain as it penetrates my skin deeper, I don't know how long it was but it hurts, then I suddenly feel my brain aching, the lights I'm seeing turns phosphenes then started fading, turning every sides of my sight dark. I can't feel my muscles, my skin, until my whole body, all I can feel is my sweat, my sweat of anxiousness. I suddenly lost my balance as I fall on my knees. I heard our dog outside, barking. My mom, dad, and my younger brother are home. It's too late to gain hope. I fainted.

*

Where Am I? I woke up in a midst part of an endless white scenery. A legion of infected people eventually showed up. I wish I could help them with their disease. It was an acquired deteriorating skin disease, they must be in quarantine zone.

Everything flashed in my head even the pain I got before I faint, from the message to intruder. Am I already in Dystopian City? Which one? 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th? And I wonder what innovations their governments are up for these infected people. I'm sure these people or even this City aren't oriented about the new 7th State of matter. Slvvrus Oprehthus can resolve this, and their government must know that.

The infected people start running... towards me. They're about to attack me, they seem they were. But why? I must leave here, I must escape them, but how?

I chose to stay calm as my heart beats fast. They're coming closer, but I'm trying to keep myself calm to be able to think for way to escape them. I ran my gaze as I turn around, there is no way to escape them. I was cornered.

They're much closer now. They are all illusions, I know this is an illusion, from the scenery to the infected people, everything isn't real, and I wish I knew it before.

They are approximately eight meters closer and I can see their faces, their infected and cracked bleeding faces. I took a deep breath, then I calmly closed my eyes.

As I close my eyes, I felt something at my nose' point, maybe a soft fingertip of a person. Then I suddenly heard a bird's tweets, I can feel the breeze running my skin, and there comes next the petrichor, I realized that I did it, I escaped them, the infected legion. I heard a laugh a meters away. It's not unfamiliar, it was my mom and younger brother's laugh. I excitedly opened my eyes due to enthusiasm, and everything turns into reality as the laughs from meters away grew nearer. I was with my mom and my younger brother, and we're up underneath a tree. I can see their faces as clear as the reflection when I'm studying my face. They were both jubilant, from their eyes, their lips, cheeks, and their wrinkles, the wrinkles formed as they laugh specially my mom. My mom drew her attention towards me. "Why aren't you laughing Kly?" Mom asked, they used to call me Kly rather than the whole one and it's no deal for me, perhaps, I admire it. She didn't let me to answer, instead she followed it up an advice. "Remember what I've told you my dear Kly. Good and Bad are connected, if you're lost, find your way back. Don't be afraid to be strong, nor be afraid to be coward. You are human remember that, humans are powerful, never limit your ability." Mom followed in her very courageous tone. I smiled back as my mere response. My younger brother takes its place then hugged me. We're probably have same height though I'm 3 years older than him. "Hey sister, be strong which is you always used to, and you really are. So the appropriate one to say is, be stronger." He tap my back two times as his way of motivating me. I must wondering why they're being this but I didn't, all I feel now is positivity to relish this moment.

Eventually they are from afar. A meters away from me. "You can do it my dear!" My mom's last phrase then they gone, I can't lie to myself that I want them to stay. I realized that this is just a dream, or nightmare. I should wake up. I closed my eyes again then I slowly opened it but nothing had change, maybe this dream isn't over yet... But I need to end it. "If you'll end this now, then you can't talk to me." Someone at my back had taken my attention. It's my Dad. I know He is. I'm trying to turn at my back, but something's strange. I can't move my body, or even just my head. I gave my full force to move, but the more I persist, the more I can't move. My Dad speaks and that made me calm. "Being strong isn't enough. You have to love, to care, and to think. You must know and accept your situation, and when you do so, you can think clearly, you can have your goal, and when you have your goal, you can survive." He pause. I never heard any motivational thoughts from him, because he's letting me feel them, his motivations. But this time, it's more than letting me feel his thoughts, he's motivating me along with his words and that really pumped my heart. "But don't forget to love and care. If you'll have your goal to survive, have it with people who needs you. As what your mom said, you are human, and every human can be hero, but they don't realize they can. You can be hero as you are, you don't need power or wealth to be hero, all you need is yourself and courage." I was completely overwhelmed with his inspiringly-motivational-advice. I tried to look again at my dad, and this time in peaceful, gentle, and calm way. I was surprised with what happened next, I can now move my body. I was in front of my dad. I hugged him altogether with love. I want to say thank you but it's too late when I realized that he's gone. Like bubbles, he's eventually gone.

*

I woke up very bad, I woke up because I can't breathe, so now I'm catching my every single breath. I can feel my heart pumping rapidly, but I'm not tired, and I didn't had a bad dream either, perhaps, it was a good one. I suddenly realized that I was in a white room with a turned-on florescent ceiling that makes everything blinding white, strong light that cannot be devour by other lights. I was sitting on invisible chair and it's not new to me. And I'm floating, it feels like I was, I know I was sitting in invisible stimulator chair, the responsible one in making me feel this kind of floating thing. I was shackled; my wrists, ankles, my neck. The shackles isn't invisible, they are thick and color silver grey. But I feel different with the one on my neck. Just like in my wrists and ankles, it was thick, but the thing that differentiate the shackle in my neck is it made me feel the presence of Slvvrus Oprehthus at left side. I feel it vanishing my tattoo. I tried to defy the process but I can't. I must unravel myself from these shackles specially my neck. I can't lose my little meaningful tattoo that reminds me of my family, and it sucks because I can't even do anything to stop it. Then I suddenly feel my cheeks blushing, I feel the thing I felt when my wound once healed earlier.

The florescent ceiling unexpectedly turned off, then a blueprint showed up because of darkness. I wonder if this blueprint is here at very first, before florescent turned off, a blue light hiding from stronger light-or maybe devoured from stronger light. I focuses my attention to the blueprint, it looks like a map, a detailed map wherein houses were build. There's no trees in the map, nor there was a lot of destroyed buildings, I wonder if those buildings were abandoned or not. The center is very different. It was very perfect, it was 360 degree in structure, and there was a high-rise buildings and numerous soldiers everywhere within its radius. I wonder if they were made of glass, a glass that can switch in whatever the operator wants, just like our city has. It can turn invisible, or concrete, or wood, or even blueprint, a huge blueprint, it can change its color too. It can be black, grey, green, blue, aqua, neon, or whatever they desire.

A loud voice distracted me. "Klisyra Lurkspur." That technologically-projected-phrase showed up along with a voice coming somewhere, it's so hard for me to know where the voice is coming because of its echoes. "Welcome to 2nd Dystopia." The projector and voice followed. Here I am, studying everything. I used to remain quiet and not showing any emotion of anger and curiosity because I'm aware that I'm being watched. "You failed your first test." The voice followed. I wonder what test. Did I took test? I chose to remain silent beyond everything. As what my father said, being strong isn't enough. I have to accept the reality, and the reality is I was captured by the 2nd Dystopian City and I can't do anything to escape them because this is their territory. Diverging from my emotions is the best way to save myself, and I'm doing it by being elusive. "You might wondering what test I am talking about. It was your dream, your monitored dream. And you failed it." The voice followed. How come I failed it? "This is your last chance. Your second test. Test that will define you." The echoes of unknown voice lasts longer, and it made me confused. I can't think clearly. The echoes persistently damaging my mind's concentration.

Echoes isn't over yet but the test took its place. "Government or Society?" Is it about power? For me, "Society" Is more powerful. I answered along with nonstop echoes. "Fist or Palm?" If it regards unity, Fist in some way indicates unity and anger in the other side, Palm undoubtedly indicates significant unity. "Palm" I answered. This isn't a test anymore, this is an inquisition, because of the inquisitor's harsh way of throwing questions. "Twilight or Dawn?" Inquisitor asked. Twilight were meant to end the day, but dawn is there to revive what twilight ended. "Dawn" I answered. "Speed or Velocity?" Speed focuses on how fast, Velocity focuses on how fast and in what direction. I choose the precise one, "Velocity" I answered. "Faded or Neon?" Inquisitor asked, I wonder if it's about color type and ability, if it was, I choose "Neon". Neon colors never let darkness devour them. "Square or Circle?" Inquisitor followed. Unlike square, circle doesn't have edges, it's equal. Circle disregards positions or ranking. I answered "Circle".

Sonorous ring took its place as it vanishes echoes. It simply indicate that inquisition is finally over. I wonder why I still managed to think clearly along with diverting echoes. Then what will come next? How will inquisitor define me? I used to not expect any positive outcomes because I'm keeping the fact that I was in Dystopian City, I was in under-selfish-government-world.

The florescent ceiling eventually devoured darkness. I was back, back in a blinding white room and it makes me realize that I'm still floating and shackled, I forgot that shackle and floating thing during the inquisition and that made me think clear. "Uhh!" A sharp sound unexpectedly came out in my mouth in reaction to a creepy thing that strikes my left-side-neck, it's momentary but it's painful.

"Your test is finish. Welcome to 2nd Dystopia. Now, start hiding and never get caught." The voice said. What? Start hiding? Why? Everything eventually turns into reality. I'm not sure if this is the reality, the real reality. I've been through a lot, so I'm apparently in absolute great confusion, but I suddenly realized that it doesn't matter. All matter is to save myself. To survive.