Utopia

Noah’s grip on his baseball bat tightened as the banging on his front door continued. He knew whoever it was on the other side was trouble, and trouble was not what he needed nor wanted right now. And to think, this all started because he decided not to go to work this morning. That was the problem right there. He CHOSE not to go to work.

You know that little voice in the back of your head? The one that you listen to when you are trying to make a decision. Your conscience, some may call it. But in this case, in this world many believe to be a utopia, that voice in your head is no longer yours. Instead, it belongs to a man said to be a prophet of God.

Thirty years after The World’s End, when the earth began to rot and humanity started to die along with it, someone stepped forward with the promise of a safe haven for the humans that remained. It was not a lie, but it was not the whole truth either. There was a price to pay to live in this new world that he, Lucius Hemlock, had created. Your own free will.

Now, because of a simple act of defiance, Noah was about to pay the price for acting of his own volition. The front door of his apartment was soon broken down and a group of men dressed in black burst into the living room. Noah was hiding in his bedroom, preparing to attack the moment someone stepped inside. He had nowhere to run and nowhere to hide, so if he was going down, someone was going down with him.

Noah then heard the door to his room creak open and a man with dark hair slowly made his way into the bedroom, a gun held out before him. There was no way they would shoot to kill, Noah thought. He crept from behind the door, and using all his strength, Noah swung his bat straight down onto the intruder’s outstretched arm. The man yelped in pain and his gun dropped from his hands onto the carpet. While he was stunned, Noah took the opportunity to attack the intruder again, this time aiming for the face.

The dark-haired man was sent flying out of the room into the hallway just in time for one of his comrades to come to his rescue. But before they could offer a hand to their injured ally, Noah charged at the new foe with all his might and then sprinted down the hall while the two men were recuperating. As Noah entered the living room, he could see two more men decked in black coming towards him and shouting for him to stop. But did he listen? Of course not. If Noah stopped running, it was over.

Noah narrowly escaped the clutches of the intruders as he ran straight out the front door and into the long hall that housed other apartments including his own. He darted towards the nearest staircase and he hurried down the stairs two at a time. He could hear multiple sets of footsteps right behind him, but Noah did not dare to look back. That was exactly how people die in horror movies, and this entire situation definitely had the horror part down.

Noah soon exited the staircase and was face to face with the entrance doors to his apartment building. If he could just get through those doors, he may be able to lose his assailants within the huge crowds of people outside. That should buy Noah some time to think of a proper plan. With that in mind, Noah prepared to make a run for it, but a voice stopped him in his tracks. A voice that sounded exactly like the one that hid in the back of his mind, waiting for when it was needed to make a choice for its charge. But this time, the voice was not from Noah’s head.

“Enough.” The voice was calm, soothing some would even say. But it held a coldness that always sent shivers down Noah’s spine. “This little game of cat and mouse ends here.”

Noah sighed, and glanced to his right, where he saw an older looking man leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. The man’s short, white hair was slicked down with gel and he wore a black suit with matching leather gloves. Everything about the guy just screamed authority and he was not afraid to show off that he was a man of power.

Soon enough, the intruders from earlier had caught up to Noah and they moved to surround him until the white-haired man raised his hand. “That won’t be necessary. I can take it from here.”

“But sir－” One of the men spoke up, but was quickly silenced by a single look from his boss. He then stood back along with his other comrades and his face became stoic, emotionless. Even his eyes turned into a light shade of gray, like a storm was brewing within his irises. Noah knew what this meant and he scowled at the one responsible.

“You really take some sick joy out of this, don’t you!?” Noah yelled at the white-haired man, but he had not expected a full-bellied laugh in response. That only made Noah angrier, and he stomped towards the elder man, grabbing a hold of the man’s collar once he was close enough. “This has gone too far, and you know it! People should have the right to choose for themselves!”

“Like when you chose to skip work this morning?” The white-haired man’s voice remained calm as he spoke to Noah. “You know the rules. The least you could do is follow them.” The man then shoved Noah off him and straightened out his suit jacket. “Besides, you are setting a bad example for the people. If my own son won’t listen to what I say, who will?”

Noah scoffed. He did not want to be reminded that he was related to the very man responsible for creating this so-called paradise. “You’re no father of mine, President Hemlock. My dad died the same day my mom did.”

The man, Lucius Hemlock, shook his head and reached for his son’s face. “I loved your mother, Noah.” Slapping his hand away, Noah took a few steps back from his father, who looked at his empty hand in anger. “But it was because of the stupidity of humanity that she was killed. Humans don’t deserve free will.”

“But you’re human too!” Noah stated while pointing a finger at Lucius. “Stop talking like that! Look, I get it. I miss Mom too. For a long time, I held so much anger towards that drunk driver who ran Mom over, and I wanted to get back at him somehow. He took Mom away from us, so of course I was angry! But you can’t keep punishing innocent people for something one man did. It’s not fai－”

Before he could finish his sentence, Noah’s father wrapped his hand around his throat and pinned the young man to the wall. His eyes were ablaze with fury and Noah struggled to breath as Hemlock’s grip grew tighter. “Don’t talk to me about “fair”, boy! Especially since I have allowed you to live this life of yours without me making every choice for you like these other pathetic fools!”

Lucius threw his son to the ground, allowing Noah to breath air back into his lungs. Noah took a moment to catch his breath, his hand massaging his now sore throat, before addressing his father again. “So I should be grateful to you for not making me a slave?”

“These people are not my “slaves”, as hard as that may be for you to believe. They were lost sheep yearning for someone to be their shepherd. I only gave them what they wanted.” Stepping past his son, Hemlock stared out the windows of the lobby and clasped his hands behind his back. “All you had to do was play pretend and you would have been fine. But the moment you went against your assigned routine, my council and I were made aware of it. They are not happy about it, and frankly…neither am I.”

Noah froze. The dark tone of his father’s voice caught him off guard. This was the first time Noah has ever heard Lucius talk with such a serious demeanor. That was when the reality of his situation hit him, and Noah began to panic. “S-So…what’s going to happen to me?”

“They want you dead.” Lucius stated flatly to his son. “For anyone else, that would be the ideal punishment. But－” The white-haired man looked over his shoulder to Noah. “You are my blood. And Angela would be heartbroken to see that I, her own husband, murdered her most precious gift to me in cold blood. So…I’m going to do what I should have done in the first place.”

Noah’s eyes widened when he understood what his dad meant. He scrambled to his feet and tried to run away from Lucius, but his father’s men caught him before he had the chance. They forced Noah onto his knees and held him still as their boss stepped before him. “I really did not want to do this, Noah. I wanted you to make your own choices and live a fulfilling life. I guess I was wrong for having that much faith in my own child.”

“D-Dad…” Noah’s voice came out as a whisper and his eyes welled up with tears. He could barely keep his voice leveled as he pleaded. “Please, don’t do this to me. I swear, I’ll never skip work again, okay? Isn’t that what you want!?”

“This is much bigger than you skipping work today. I knew you would go against me. It was just a matter of when. I wanted to give you the benefit of a doubt, but as I said…I was wrong for doing so.” Lucius raised a hand to his son’s face. “But I am correcting my mistake now. I hope one day you will forgive me.”

Noah let out a small gasp before a flash of white light blinded him, and then…he was back in his bed. He turned to face his alarm clock, which read 6:45 a.m., and realized that it was five minutes before the alarm would have went off. Noah did not need to be at work until 9 a.m., so he could afford to sleep those extra minutes away. But a little voice in the back of his mind told him it would be good to get a head-start on the day, even if it was only by five minutes. And strangely enough, that voice did not sound like his own. It sounded much like his father’s.