I look at my wrist, the indent in my skin is still deep without the watch. My wrist feels so lonely without it. I didn't think it was possible for it to be removed, but I guess I also believed that the watch was impossible to break too. They took the watch out of me when I came over to the "organic side" since I don't need it anymore. I can still remember how my life was before all of this. The day before my watch broke.
The day started off the same as all my other ones, with a robotic voice greeting me. "Resident #8755 Azad Kamillo. It is time to rise and shine! You are needed at the E.R.A. be there in a timely manner." The message ended with a click. I could hear my bookshelf retracting, my sleeping pod rotated from its sideways position to an upright position, and my bookshelf then filled the empty space. The door to my sleeping pod opened and the yellow light of my room hit my eyes.
I stepped out, stretched my arms to my legs and stood backup. I redid my long brown hair, I straightened it out and put it back into a bun and two braids. My room was small, all it had was a mirror, and a bookshelf. The bookshelf had some manuals, along with my gel mint pills and tools for work.
I turn to my mirror, and press my hand onto it, the mirror then displays a diagram of me. I pressed one of the clothes options and the bookshelf flipped to show a rack of my work clothes. I change out of my sleeping clothes to put on those. Once I was done the bookshelf flipped back and I got my tools.I stepped in front of the door to go out of my room.
The door rises up and I step out to see the columns and rows of the other peoples living areas. I lived on the second row, column three. I wait for the ramp to extend, I step on it and it takes me down to ground level. I step off the ramp and walk to the front desk. Another robot greeted me. I gave the robot my left arm that had my watch on it. The robot scand me before saying anything.
"Hello kamillo. Needed at E.R.A?"
"yes."I said back as the robot let go of my arm.
"Everything is orderly. Remember curfew."
"yes." I said back to it.
I walk past the robot and go to the E.R.A. Stands for the Electro, R12, Area. The R12 is short for radio 12. Every morning I wake up and go to work there. It's a big building that has wired towers and is filled with electronics and big machines with big screens and panels.
This building is used for “maintaining watch user satisfaction.” I scan my watch and walk through the doors. As I walk to get to the moving spiral escalator, I observe the open workspaces on the first floor.
A whole team of people were in a conference and in the next room over there were people typing on screens. I get on the escalator and go to the fourth floor of the building. I walk to my place of work along with my group. We worked in teams of three, our job was specifically to simulate the programs of a new code that was being developed for our watches. It was nearly that time of year again where all the watches got an update.
I walked into an all black room. I stomped on the floor two times, The all black room then lit up around me.
"System check up. Access code 076." I said.
The room then surrounded me with boards filled with our watches' regular system functions, and with the new updated functions. I look over the watch mainframe and all of the regular functions. I lifted my arm and spoke.
"What are my energy levels?" I asked.
My watch screen projected onto one of the boards around me, "Energy levels are full, no new energy is required. When it is sensed that you may need liquid or other protents they will be edmisesterd to you shortly." It said.
I ask two more questions, "How is the air purity? And how is my vitamin and protein storage?"
"Air purity is acceptable for gathering needed liquid. And the last vitamin and protein pick up was 30 minutes ago. You can get vitamins and protein restored every time you scan your watch or if need go to the provided refill stations located near your area."The watch showed a map locating the nearest refill station.
"Show my chemical balance" I asked.
The watch then displayed a diagram. "Brain is distributing the proper levels of hormones,electric responses, and serotonin. Last Chemical balancer was administered at 10:00. Next chemical balancer dose will be edminister in one hour." It replied.
I looked at my side screen to look at the code to see if all was working and if this information was accurate for every watch in the system. I scroll through it, reading code is like my second language. All was good so I spoke again.
"Show my schedule for today."
The watch flickered to my schedule. I look through it. And then flipped my wrist so it’ll switch to the time feature. I put on a timer for 30 minutes.
"Camera on." I said to the watch.
The watch then extended a small camera out from its side. I flip through my camera roll and I stop on one image. Cameras are a new feature to the watch, It was mandatory for some, and optional for others to get it. Of course it was mandatory for me because of my job.
It is instructed for the ones with cameras to take live captures of the outside, and to take them of the people around us. So I did just that, the image I stopped at was a live capture of a tree.
"Enisheate simulatson, access code 0108267." I spoke out to the screen.
The room went black. Then lit up once again, it showed the live capture of the tree. But this time it wasn't just a projection, it was a 3D modeling of it. I walked around the tree, it had a concrete circle around it, and in that circle was grass and the tree. I sit down and lay my back on the projection of the tree.
I saw a fuzzy worm in the grass, it was black, those were common to see next to trees. But I saw another fuzzy thing that wasn't common, a thing that I've never seen. It was a strange looking thing. Its body was medium size, it had a long tail and ears, four legs and the color of it was a dark red.
I wanted to take a live capture but it ran away before I could. I reported it, but all I was told was to not worry, and that they would take care of it. I went back yesterday and it seems like they did. I told my coworkers about what I saw but they didn't really give me a positive reaction.
Some looked at me and told me to "Not to make up stories, we have more important things to do." and "Are you sure your watch is working properly? Lack of water can make one hallucinate." But I know what I saw. The closest thing I can compare it to is one of the little robots we use as helpers, they are called c8t-bots, we also have d0g-bots but this looked more like a c8t-bot.
Thanks to this new animal, I've been out more. I usually just follow the schedule that my watch gives me. Wake up, go to work, go to the social building, free time, and then lastly go to sleep. I used to spend all my free time in my room, just reading my books and looking at the ceiling.
Going out more made me even more happy than the dose of serotonin I get every 30 minutes. Talking about 30 minutes, the timer just went off. That was enough time for checking if the camera and the 3D projection was functional. Time to check the watch mainframe again.
I look through all of the currently working watches. Checking for any errors. The likelihood of an error aparing is 0.0001% of our entire population, but you never know. You do find the occasional glitch of a watch not giving the person their water, nutrients, moodstabliser, or any other chemical, on time.
A glitch has a higher probability then a mager error but, that's okay, that's why I have this job. To make sure everything is running like it should. Or at least. I thought everything was running as it should.
There was this one watch that would have glitches more often than most that I have noticed. I looked up the watch by memory, Watch ID:87554. I remember the ID so well because it's just like my room number, except with one more digit. I look through its code.
"Glitch in chemical distribution." like usual, i thought to myself.
I tap on the screen to go in and manually fix it.
-_ERROR_
"What?" The computer gave me an error,I retyped the code and submitted it again.
-_ERROR_
"Another one? This does not make sense. What am I doing wrong?" I look at the lower screen.
-*original code that is already been set can not be changed* it said.
"Original? That's not right. Let me try again."
-*original code that has already been set can not be changed*
-*”new code” will be ignored and not processed*
-*_ERROR_
-*can not be changed*
Error, after error the screen gave me.
I squint my eyes, trying to see the error in the code I was putting in. As i keeped on working. My arms fell to my side, and before I could even question it, all the screens in front of me turned red. I felt needles stabbing all over me. My body jerked and I fell to the ground. My body was burning and throbbing with a sharp-stabbing sensation. I gasped for air but I didn't make a sound. My surroundings were turning white and yellow.
I got up on my hands and knees. The room was spinning,my head was pounding into my skull, I couldn't even breathe correctly without having the need to close my eyes and fall back onto the floor.
"What's happening to me?" I gasped out.
I called out to my watch. It didn't respond to my call.
Still in so much pain and haze.
I crawl to a corner of the room. I lift myself up with shaking legs. I grasped onto that wall for dear life. I had no idea what was happening to me. I had no idea what I was feeling. And had no idea why my saliva was running from my mouth, and why my eyes were filled with so much water that I could barely see out of them.
I gagged at the new sour, metallic taste in my mouth. I stood there shaking for what seemed like an eternity.
I couldn't tell if my eyes were closed or open. All I saw was red.
The room then turned black, and then back to white like it did when I first stepped in. I was still grasping onto the wall, berthing through my clogged up face.
I still stood there, the feeling was nothing but a dull piercing sensation now.
I looked around the room and slowly pulled myself off the wall. I go back to the center of the room. I stomp my foot two times.
"Work hours are now over. Please return to your schedule. Thank you :)" The screen says in red letters. I look at them. They make me feel wrong. They make me feel out of place. I don't know what this is. My head feels like it's running.
I got out of the room hoping that these feelings would stay in there. I see one of my coworkers also step out. He turned to look at me, his mouth opened but I didn't hear anything. His face then seemed confused, he opened this month a second time. His voice boomed in my head, I covered my ears.
"Are you alright, kamillo?" He asked.
"YES." I blurted out.
Oh. No need to scream.” My coworker said.
"APOLOGIES, Apologies. My ears, uh I can't." My watch cut me off with a beeping sound before I could finish my sentence. I take the hand with the watch off my ear to look at what it wanted. On the screen it read: "Energy is low! You have used up all your energy for these 24 hours, please go to your room and rest." I wiped my face with my sleeve and continued talking.
"My watch is telling me that I need to rest. I need to go to my room. Excuse me." I said as I tried to walk past him.
"Wait already? Kamillo, are you sure?" He asked, making me stop in my tracks.
"Yes, that's what the watch said. I-I had to do late work last night so that's probably why. Bye." I lied in a hurry.
I walk past my coworker quickly without him asking any more questions. I rush to the front of the building. It took two tries for my watch to go through the scan to let me out of the building. I get on the path to walk back to my room. "What's wrong with me?"
I think to myself about the excuse I made.
I made it back to my housing building in one piece but I couldn't help but feel like everyone was looking at me with every step I took. It's like they know something is very wrong with me. I put my watch on the scanner but I was too focused on the people around me to notice that the door didn't open, I slammed into the door and I felt that sharp sensation again. But then a rush of another sensation came in. I felt my face turn red hot and my ears started to burn. I look back and see people looking, that made the even sensation worse.
I put my watch on the scanner, again, it didn't open the door. I got more quick with my movements trying to get the watch to work. Finally, on the 10th swipe of my watch the building let me in. I have never been so happy for the cold air of this building to hit my face before. I came inside just in time for the door to slide shut behind me.
I turn my attention to the robot at the reception desk watching me breathe heavily. I straightened up my posture and tried to relax my breathing the most I could as I walked over to it.
"Hello kamilo. I saw that you were having trouble entering the building, so I let you in. Is everything alright? Feeling unwell?" The robot said to me as it reached out to scan my watch.
I stepped back, not letting the robot touch me. "See, m-my watch is telling me to go up to my room as soon as possible, to rest."
"Is that so?" the robot replied, It then asked me another question. "What happened to your energy supply?"
"I used it up for this 24 hours. I can't get anymore." I wrapped my hand around my watch just hoping the robot would let me go. Just then, the watch started to beep again this time it read the message out loud. "Energy is low! You have used up all your energy for these 24 hours, please go to your room and rest. Your energy levels have since decreased, please get rest immediately." I looked up at the robot. "See? Now please, Will you open up my room door? I can brealey keep my eyes open."
The robot backed up from me, now believing getting me to my room was the most important thing to do. The robot went to its desk and started typing on the screen that sat on the reception desk. I stepped on the electric path and was led to my room. The sound of my door closing was muffed, I took three more steps and then collapsed to the floor. The last thing I remembered hearing was my watch beeping again, but it then cut to static. The exhaustion had finally caught up.
My head was spinning when I regained consciousness, I felt cold metal on my face, I heard bumping and whispering all around me. I blinked my eyes to see what was going on in my room. The blurry blobs of shadows soon gained color and a proper silhouette. My vision straightened and i joulted up from my relaxed position. This wasn't my room.
I turned my head and took in my new surroundings. I was in something made out of metal, I was setting on something cold and green. My hands were tied up and there was a belt around my waist keeping me on the green thing beneath me. There were four people around me all dressed a little differently, but all had black vests. One with a short hairstyle, and shade of red hair I've never seen before on a person turns to look at me.
"Hey guys, he's up! Take a look." they said to the other members. I pressed my body tight to the wall I was next to as they all looked at me. Another one with dark orange hair spoke up. "Hi, don't be scared! You're with us now."
With that, my eyes started to burn. Water began to fall from them again, more than ever before. What's going on? What is scared? Who is us? Why do you all look like that? All questions I couldn't get out because my throat had closed up muting me. I sit there with water streaming from my eyes silently.
They all looked at one another and then back at me. "Let's start off slow. My name is Nore. What's yours?" a blacked haired person said to me. I looked the blacked haired person up and down. I opened my lips and managed to squeeze out my first name.
"Azad."
"Azad, that's a nice name you have. This is Mack, Crystal, and Gabe. I, along with these three are a part of a symptom called the watchers. The watchers help people like yourself. We are from the organic side. Do you know what that is?"
I shake my head no.
"Oh my, they really know nothing about us." Nore says in astonishment to the rest of his team.
"I need you to listen to me Azad. What I'm about to tell you will be a lot for you to prossus, so it’ll help if you just listen as much as you can right now and ask questions later. Do you understand?" Nore than said.
I slowly shake my head yes.
"There are two sides to this plant called earth. The organics and the artificials. You are an artificial, and we are organics. We come from very different sides of the earth but we are truly all the same, just like how we were when we all once lived together. The world before the great separation wasn't perfect, it was far from it, but that doesn't mean it was bad. Our ancestors before us became entranced with the idea of a perfect world. One day a scientist invented a watch and proclaimed that we would live in a utopia once we all owned one. The idea of world peace that came with the watch was nice but the way that they would achieve it was unethical. The watch edmisted a comical that made its people dull and muted. They were made slaves to the watch, not alowed to feel any emoton that was dimed remotly negitive to the conule that runed the watches. This made a lot of people not want to comet to the idea, but a lot were also for the idea."
Crystal, the dark orange haired person, took over talking. "The political leaders at the time started fighting over the use of the watches in their countries. We were separated by countries back then, but now, the whole face of the earth has changed, thanks to the great separation."
"What is the great separation?" I asked in a small voice.
Gabe, the person with brown hair, started to talk. "Well, the great separation was basically when all of the world was squashed back together but then boom, the BITCHES decided to cut it up in two. Separating the people into the ones who use the watches and the ones that dont. Oh and also, you Artificials have tight ass security and restrictions! I almost died trying to carry out your lifeless body outta that dome."
Mack put a hand on Gabes shoulder. "Don't send the man even more into shock now gabe, he doesn't even know WHAT he's feeling or what's going on."
"Well I know what I'm feeling! And that feeling is to get out of this goddamn submarine!! Being fully submerged underwater makes me wanna die." Gabe hissed back.
While that was happening, my brain felt like it was turned off and I was just here seeing these people talk. I have more questions than answers. I looked at Nore, he seemed to be the most reasonable one here. "What's happening to me?" I asked him.
"You're being transferred to the organic side. You're going to be fitted as soon as we get off the submarine." Nore said.
"What do you mean fitted?" I asked.
"We’re going to get you ready to join the organic, you're going to be fitted to look more like us, and you're going to learn the basic ways of living here. So you're not completely in the dark." Nore replied.
I slumped back. Defeated with confusion, I don't ask any more questions, I just sit and wait for what's to come. 30 minutes passed by, a lot of that time was just the team explaining to me how they had to cut my hair for me to fit in, and me "crying", As they call it.
"Azad please, stop crying. It's for your own good! You can't possibly keep up with it when you're over here!" Crystal says to me.
"NO!" I screamed back, I was kicking around my legs at the team, I put my tied up hands on my head trying to protect my hair.
Mack sighs, "we're not going to convince him you guys. Just tell the administration not to cut it. He seems attached."
Just then we all got jolted forward by the submarine hitting something. "We're here! Come on, come on!!" Gabe said, jumping out of his seat. The team did the same and followed him.
"HEY WAIT WHO'S GOING TO HELP ME WITH AZAD?" screamed out Nore as he watched all of his other teammates get out of the submarine without him. He looks back at me with a worried face. "Um, here." He said when walking up to me, untying my hands and unbucking the seatbelt that held me to the green box. "Follow me Azad" Nore said as he walked up to the opened hach of the submarine. I stood up and followed him. We climbed out of the submarine into an orange tinted room, I looked around at my surroundings. "Come on Azad." Nore called out to me as he walked into the next room. I quickly follow him.
The room was the same color as the last one but it was much bigger, and it had some big machine, it looked like it extended to another room. The machine had a glass cover and a moving path, it looked like a person was supposed to go inside of it. I saw Nore next to the machine tapping on a screen, a door hidden in the glass of the machine opened. Nore turned around to face me and opened his mouth to speak.
"Okay! This is where you're going to get fitted Azad, please take off your shoes and step inside the chamber so we can begin."
"..is this going to cut my hair?"
Nore laughed at my question. "No no Azad, I promise it doesn't. That fecher off! It's just going to check if you're okay and other things,,, just step in it's safe."
"Okay." I said back to Nore as I stepped into the machine.
The glass door slid back to its original position locking me inside. Nore gave me a thumbs up and pressed a button. The moving path started up and began to slowly move me along the machine. Robotic Arms came from both the bottom and the top of the machine, they stripped me from my clothes. The ones from above pulled off my shirt but the ones from the bottom actually ripped my pants off. I looked back to Nore with a confused face, he rubbed his nose and looked away, acting like he didn’t see a thing.
With just my underwear on, the machine continued to poke at me. The arms took my hair and untied it, so it was no longer in a bun and two braids. A hand opened one of my eyes and scanned it, as another one swabbed my mouth. A long skinny poll came down from the ceiling, and two hands covered my eyes and my mouth. The poll went around me and sprayed me with some liquid. It smelled sweet.
The hands then pulled away from my face, they were now focusing on my arms. They took my left arm and stretched it out. I see that i'm getting close to a queer looking hole in the wall, the moving path stops when im right next to it. I turned my head to see if I could still see Nore, But all I saw was a wall.
"I guess I'm where the machine goes into the other room." I think to myself.
I feel the robotic hand pull me closer to the hole, it pulls on me until I put my entire arm in it. I felt a cold sweat form on my body, something felt wrong. I tried to pull my arm out, but it felt like it was stuck in an airtight lock.
I felt a needle go into my arm, it injected something into me, my entire arm went numb. I couldn't feel anything, But, I heard the sounds of machines working, grinding, and cutting. My insides felt like they were about to come out of me. I closed my eyes tight. Hoping whatever is happening to stop.
After an eternity, the moving path started up again, the hole let my arm go. I heard the hands come back out, they dressed me in new clothes, I still didn't open my eyes. The path keeped on moving me forward, until I felt myself drop an inch. I heard a familiar voice.
"Hey Azad! You're looking more like one of us already!"
It was Gabe.
I opened my eyes to see him right in front of me, he put a hand on my shoulder. “Come here! I have something amazing to show you.” Gabe said dragging me onto an elevator, he didn't even let me think for one second.
Gabe pressed the top button and an arrow button that pointed to the left. While on the elevator, I looked at the side of his face. He had the biggest smile I had ever seen. But, why was he smiling? Why did Nore look away from me? Does Gabe take pleasure in seeing me confused and hurt? Was Nore just pretending to care about me on the submarine?
I looked down at my left hand, my watch was gone. It was replaced with a wrap of bandages. Everything has been stripped from me. Of course. They kidnapped me. Not to save me, but to torture me.
The doors opened. Bright light came in, Gabe looked back at me with that big smile and ran out the elevator with me in hand. He led me to a big window. My eyes widened. There was so much to take in. It was almost too much.
I saw a big city, but not a city? At least not like my old one. With hundreds, no, thousands of people out. I saw a lot of people, Lots of colors I've never seen. Both around and on the people. Lots of bright green grass. Lots of trees. And when I looked up from everything, I saw a big bright blue sky. With a white orb in the middle of it.
I look to gabe. His smile turned into a grin. "God. I always love to see you artificials look at our world for the first time. Blows your world right out of the water huh?" Gabe said. He reached out to me and closed my mouth, looks like it came open when taking the view in. “It's also cool to see you guy’s orange eyes shine in the sun, or is it the excitement of a new beginning making them shine?” Gabe then said.
I take Gabes hand off of my chin and say. "Wait. Artificials? you guys? Are you saying there are more artificials here?"
"Of course there are! Did you really think you were all alone? There's 25 others like you. You see that round circle of homes right over there?" Gabe pointed out the window. And there it was just like he said.
"That's where they live, and that's where you're going to live too! Come on, let's get you settled in." Gabe grabbed my hand once again and dragged me into the elevator. We met back up with the rest of Gabes team, and it turns out they were all preparing a warm welcome for me. They showed me the city, and talked to me as we made our way to the circle of homes. Once we made it, I got introduced to the 25. They were welcoming to me too.
I got a new home there, it was big and had a lot of new things, especially new books to read. The 25 have taught me a lot, I've even made a "friend." Her name is Dell, and she has a friend called Jamie. They are both organics, so it's a little hard to connect with them, but they don't give up on me. We have fun and they are often impressed by my skill of reading code.
And that's how I came to the organic side, and my experiences with it so far. Now that I think about it, I don't really miss my watch that much.