The 32nd of December

It was the 32nd of December and another tally mark had been entered on her prison wall. New Years never came anymore. It wasnt allowed. No large crowds in Times Square or anywhere due to the great Plague. Soon keeping track of new days, weeks, months, and years had all stopped. No more birthdays, holidays or anniversaries. Gathering together was prohibited. Memories and Memory were erased.

The great apocalypse had slowly begun. Some say it was predicted by the ancient prophet Nostrodamus ages ago. “The year of the great seventh number accomplished, it will appear at the time of the games of slaughter, not far from the great millennium, when the dead will come out of their graves". Yet, the decline had started years earlier. It had started by foolish, sheepish followers, mad government leaders and rich politicians who fed upon the fatted cows of new idols, erasing history, wiping out memories, destroying statues and namesakes, burning books deemed inappropriate, and controlling the masses.

Her prison was not a typical cell, with bars and guards. Her prison was her workplace. Her cell was her mind, her body, where nanotechnology had been placed years ago, during the great inoculations, heralding the miraculous defeat of the deadly plague. Eventually Europe, America and the rest of the world had collapsed. The great Euro Union of nations never even began, before the greedy dictators took over, using the financial collapse of countries brought on by the virus to their political advantage. Even though quarantines were eventually lifted after two years, the world never returned to normal. People were now trained to fear even a common sneeze. Like the sudden extinction of the aliens in H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds”, fear of the common cold held people prisoner. Eventually they lost all immunity. They were consumed, not by the Deadly Consumption, but by fear.

During the Great Collapse, people had been imprisoned for such reckless behavior as taking a walk outside without a mask, or gathering for religious services. While these people were fined to the point of becoming penniless, losing their livelihood and homes, and in later days imprisoned for defying the mandates, justifiably incarcerated prisoners were released and left to roam and run rampant in the streets. Cities had become hell holes of bedlam, with rioting and looting erupting in burning cities worldwide. People who mentioned anything as innocent as any old terminology, no longer acceptable, were imprisoned by the Politically Correct, aka PC Police, now officers in the One World Judiciary.

And they never even knew about the nanotechnology that had been injected into their bodies, until their complacency and compliance had fully overtaken them. By then, it was too late. Rations were distributed weekly to those who lived in the city. They were actually the lucky ones. Many had been exiled to the Netherworld to be used as experiments for science and technological advancement. Some were turned into Dogs of War in the military regions. She had been one of the lucky ones. Her confinement to the city , imprisoned as a worker in the lab, was mandatory because of her former position in state government. They were the lab rats used weekly for the Great Vaccine and working with new science, with new mind controlling drugs and enhancing humanity. Her luck was that they weren’t sent to the Netherworld, but allowed to live in the labs, with private, isolated areas.

What the Control Bureau didn’t realize was that she had overcome the domination of the nanotechnology placed in her body by an undetected aversion, in the first year of the vaccine. The boosters received six months later, had no further effect on her system either. For some unknown reason her body rejected the technology without any visible evidence, and for all intents and purposes, she was under their total control. It was then that she started tracking the injections, the days and the years in that secluded area of her room. Since luxury was a thing of the past for every day people, the area granted to her included a bed, table and chair, controlled TV monitor and bathroom. She exited each morning to work in the lab, and returned nightly, marking the end of each day, tabbing the boosters received semi annually and keeping it all hidden in a confined area, with a slab of plywood that she had found covered over it. She used the plywood to serve as a backdrop for a picture of the Great Leader. One thing they were allowed to keep was ideological images of the new “Utopia” and the great leaders. She carefully had been marking the tallies lightly in pencil since she had been given this job two years ago. That was when the great Slaughter had occurred and Dystopia had become an official nation. Before then calendars were not outlawed and history was not yet fully rewritten. After that she had been given courtesy as member of the State to work for the State in the government controlled facility.

Immediately she started to tally the days and years on her wall, since she knew all records of the past would now be totally eliminated. To date, she had been lucky. Monitors were cleared and desensitized nightly and she knew the time because she had learned of cameras and observations before the great takeover. It had started silently but in full range of citizens with cell phones, nanny monitors and security cameras on city streets. Everyone was being watched. Privacy had become a thing of the past. So she learned quickly about the systems and maintenance of them.

As she went to check off another day, fear overcame her. The plywood had been tampered with. The picture that covered it was loose. Her markings were gone! The wall had been painted over. She still knew the day, but what was obvious was that someone knew about her deceit. Something as simple as remembering a day and year was severely forbidden. She looked up at the camera. It was definitely not operating at this time! How could anyone know her movements for this one simple task. Was her body’s rejection of the nanotechnology failing? Had they somehow discovered her immunity? A wrenching pain in her gut made her fall over onto her knees. Sweat dripped from her and chills overtook her, violently taking over her body. Fear engulfed her.

The guards were at the door. Soon she would be taken away and either killed or experimented upon in another lab in the Netherworld. The door crashed in. She would become a toy used “in the time of the games of slaughter “ She was lifted up from the floor and dragged to the room of the Great Inquisitor.

While awaiting her judgement, chaos erupted outside. People who had been dead or murdered, zombielike beings invaded the room. The large Court was overwhelmed with masses of the undead. She broke away as one of the guards was attacked. Looking for an escape, she saw a window. As she ran towards it, she realized something unusual was going on; well, more unusual then a hoard of Zombies invading a building, that is. They were attacking everyone and avoiding her! It was as if they were repelled by her.

Running out of the room and into the streets, she saw that mayhem had taken over. She ran for safety onto a highway ravaged by flesh eating monsters. After crossing over into a wooded area, she tripped over branches and fallen trees. Empty holes where people had been thrown in as makeshift graves were empty. The dead had risen from their graves. Upon each grave was a marker declaring that they had died bravely, receiving the great vaccine of the millennium.

She found an abandoned cabin. As she caught her breath and started to relax, she realized something fantastic. The people who received those first inoculations had gotten them about seven years ago. They had eventually died and risen today from their graves. Those who hadn’t rushed to get them, members of the government, who knew about the Nano Cells and brain control, and who had faked injection, were now their victims. Death would not overcome the memory and they rose up in revenge!

Maybe there were others out there like her. Others who had kept track of days and years. They too would be immune to the vaccine and to the attacks. She would find them and in the meantime keep track of time so its history wouldn’t be lost. Perhaps Nostradamus had it right all along. “The year of the great seventh number accomplished, not far from the great millennium, the dead will come out of their graves.” She felt a chill go through her body as she realized the truth. Revenge is truly “a dish best served cold”