January 7th 2073: The Apartment

Tom's old hands trembled. His breaths were shallow and rapid. He tried to drink, but water sloshed out of the cup and onto his lap.

After he had awoken from the simulation, the waves of artificial memories and the rush of emotions had hit his frail body hard. The room's AI Caretaker robot had rushed over and administered first aid, then helped him into his chair.

For the past hour, Tom had struggled through the cruel and violent memories of his family's life during the simulated week.

What the hell happened? Something went wrong.

He tried to distract himself by focusing on the main wall display. The host—who Tom now recognized as Mick Nealy-Nealy—was overlaid on the screen with scenes of fierce battles playing in the background. Even Mick, who had always been so poised and well-groomed, had fluffier hair and a chalkier complexion than Tom remembered.

"Room, unmute please," Tom said.

"Everyone, I am . . . I am trying to get some answers," Mick was saying in his thick Australian accent.

Mick closed his eyes, and took a long pause before he spoke again.

"Until then, I would appreciate your patience, please. What we went through . . . was not by design."

Mick paused again. His hand moved to his ear. "I am getting continuous updates from the Utopia team, but I do not have answers as to what went wrong with the simulation. For everyone just joining, I can assure you it was not our intention for the selection process to have been so horrific. I understand this was very frightening for all of us. Take it slow, and give it time. Breathe deep, and stay calm."

Mick performed slow and exaggerated deep breaths, using his hands to demonstrate the flow of air into and out of his lungs.

Tom did his best to emulate the breathing pattern.

"Please hang tight. We will begin the Onboarding video shortly. This will help patch up any memory holes, leaks, or lapses you might be experiencing. When the video is finished, we'll begin the weekly AI-generated highlight shows, which will transition into the live show. Until then, please look after your health."

Mick looked into the camera. "Welcome back, everyone."

He vanished from the screen, and the sounds and visuals of magical battles filled all four walls of Tom's apartment.

"Room, mute and dim!"

The noises stopped. The battles faded, and the blank white walls returned.

Tom leaned back in his recliner. All the memories from Utopia were now fully integrated into his brain, and he was finally able to hear himself think. To remember.

The room gradually fell into darkness, save for a digital display on the wall.

10:00p.m. January 7th, 2073.

"Pictures," Tom murmured.

The walls sprang to life, displaying a slideshow of photographs: Chloe with her arm around Loo as they sat together on a roller coaster; a selfie Kate took of the two of them in the middle of an anniversary dinner; himself and Bo sitting together on a fishing boat; Amber with her arms raised in a gymnastics salute and a gold medal glinting on her chest.

Tom smiled sadly. Amber had trained day and night to earn that medal.

The pictures scrolled on. Each image captured precious moments with his family or the Robinsons. Remnants from a time long gone. Before the world was ravaged by natural disasters, relentless viruses, and brutal wars that took away everything and everyone Tom held dear.

At one point, they had been an average Midwestern American family living in a modest house in a rural neighborhood. Tom and Kate were childhood sweethearts who had married in their midtwenties. They had built a life together that eventually led to their three girls.

Every family had struggles, but—overall—their family had been happy, healthy, and thriving.

Tom wiped away his tears.

The scrolling images dimmed, and disappeared. The words 'Reality Onboarding Video' appeared on the main screen in front of him.

Mick—wearing baby-blue scrubs—was sitting in a single chair in an unfurnished room. His slate-gray curls were sleek and under control. Some type of translucent plastic material hung around him. Beside him, in the same room, was a balding White man in white scrubs, who was also sitting—rigid—on a single chair within his own plastic bubble.

"Hello everyone," Mick began. "Welcome back from a week within the simulation. What you are watching now is the pre-recorded Onboarding video. This video will be played to us each week as we wake up from the simulation."

Mick indicated the other man. "I'm here with Larry Oliver, lead developer of Utopia and first ambassador to the AI which built, and runs, the simulation."

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Mick nodded in Larry Oliver's direction, then turned back to the camera. "The intention of this video is to fill any post-simulation memory gaps you may be experiencing, which we foresee as a common but temporary issue." He paused. "Let us begin with a history lesson, covering the late 2020s and early 2030s."

The video of Mick and Larry minimized and tucked itself into a corner. A map of the Earth expanded and filled the background.

"During the early 2030s, the devastating effects of climate change unfolded at an alarming pace. Countries were devastated by floods and droughts. Entire ecosystems were destroyed. The polar ice caps melted, and coastal regions throughout the world were consumed by the ocean."

The video showed images superimposed over the Earth: dried-out crops; the bleached tendrils of a dead coral reef; a small tanned girl crawling out of muddy floodwater.

"Things became worse. The loss of the polar ice triggered a series of viral outbreaks caused by ancient pathogens which had been preserved in the Arctic's frozen depths. As the ice thawed, these pathogens were unleashed upon humanity, and the emergence of new strains was constant and relentless."

The rotating Earth was in the foreground again, showing ever-increasing areas highlighted in red.

"The first virus went undetected for months. No fatalities. No obvious symptoms. Just silently rendering humankind sterile." Mick gave a sad smile. "As the remaining glacial ice and permafrost melted away, more waves of highly contagious viruses were unleashed, and humanity's sterility became the least of its problems. During these years, the viruses proved to be vicious killers. Hundreds of millions of people died."

Tom stared at the screen, memories began to connect.

The hospital was a battlefield. His sick and emaciated girls, Loo and Chloe, lay limp and unresponsive in the back seat of the car. They hadn't eaten in days and now their

shock-white skin was slick with fever-sweat. His voice cracked as he screamed through the car window for help, his pleas drowned out by hundreds of others who were just as desperate. He left the car and fought through the crowds. Each face mirrored his own terror. Army soldiers guarded the entrance, turning people away. Shouting at them all to go home. That there was nothing they could do.

Another memory seared through the brain-fog; him kneeling at the edge of their beds at home, sobbing uncontrollably as Kate clung to their lifeless bodies. Her screams were sharper than Boars' tusks, and bored deeper into his flesh.

The video shifted: news reports; riots; looting; dead bodies . . . the impact was global, and catastrophic.

Mick nodded at Larry.

Larry's voice wobbled at first, then he found his words. He had an English accent.

"While society spiraled into chaos, the medical field tirelessly sought cures. The viruses were complex, and the computing power required to keep up with the ever-evolving mutations drove Artificial Intelligence forward at a rapid pace."

The images showed laboratories and banks of computer servers.

"As AI technology advanced," explained Larry, "a happenstance breakthrough was made in mapping human consciousness into digital data. The technology required for this process was relatively inexpensive and straightforward. Consciousness-mapping became a potential survival strategy; transfer a human consciousness into an artificial brain with a robotic body, and the person's body would become a climate- and virus-resistant prosthesis. However, the experiments were met with widespread horror and outrage."

The video changed: thousands of people protesting in Vatican square; politicians pointing and yelling at each other; a car bomb exploding outside a glass building.

"Years were consumed by religious fervor, political conflicts, and acts of terrorism." Larry frowned. "Eventually, as humanity's numbers continued to dwindle, the majority of the population underwent consciousness-mapping. In total, around six billion people had their consciousness scanned into digital form."

Tom and his family were scanned only days before Chloe and Loo's symptoms started. In his darkest moments, Tom wondered if the scanning center was where they had picked up the virus that killed them.

"In the end, though, it appeared to be a waste of time," said Mick. "The technology failed to deliver on its promise, and the idea was ultimately abandoned."

The video shifted once again, showing troops and military vehicles mobilizing.

"As the pandemics spread, essentials were harder to obtain," Mick said, his voice grave. "Global conflicts erupted across the world, driven by scarcity of food and supplies."

Tom thought back to the beginning of the wars. To Amber.

I was lucky to get a few more years with her.

The screen showed a bunch of soldiers—all drafted into the military the second they turned eighteen—screaming and swarming through a city with assault rifles. Mowing each other down.

It was in one of those brutal battles that he had lost Amber.

Larry spoke again. "During the 2040s, as the wars raged on, one of the many rampant viruses mutated. It was the worst one yet, and it killed nearly a billion people. It was during this time that society and governments fully fell apart. Economic and healthcare systems collapsed. Humankind spent years existing within primitive tribal communities, searching for dwindling resources, and fighting both the plague and each other."

Larry bowed his head in contemplative silence.

"Yes. Yes. Terrible," added Mick.

"Eventually, billions of dead people later, peace was established," said Larry. "Primarily because most people were dead, and we weren't getting anywhere fighting. Now, for over two decades, humankind has lived a peaceful but lonely existence within our underground shelters."

Mick let the silence continue for several heartbeats. "Those of us who survived those tumultuous times live within compact, underground, one-room apartments."

The wall display shifted to show the top-down view of an apartment.

"The unpredictable weather conditions have driven humanity underground," said Mick. "The uncontrollable airborne viruses have further enforced our separation. Physical human contact has been outlawed in an attempt to prolong humanity's survival."

Lines of socially distanced people marched across the screen, streaming into underground cities. A young woman in a purple hijab stole one final glance at the Sun.

By the time I came here, I'd lost my entire family.

The devastating loss of their daughters had eroded Kate's mental and physical wellbeing, draining her spirit until she simply faded away. Tom could still picture her, moving through the house like an automaton, barely speaking or eating. Her eyes told Tom that she had already been dead for years before a virus claimed her.

Tom was alone.

I couldn't keep them safe.

They had slipped through his fingers like grains of sand, leaving him shattered and broken under an unbearable weight of grief and emptiness.

Tom had resigned himself to his solitary existence. He had willingly sealed himself within his own little tomb to spend the remainder of his days.

Mick's voice interrupted Tom's thoughts.

"Artificial Intelligence and robotics are humanity's saviors, providing for our every need. Gone are the fears of malicious AI taking over the world; instead, they have become humanity's Caretakers, treating us as their own family. They handle all tasks necessary for our survival, from growing food to running power plants."

The feed showed sleek gray robots: one presenting a tray of food; one monitoring the sprinkler system for a field of mushroom crops; and one adding the final cosmetic touches to a replica of itself.

"However, despite having everything we need to survive, our lives are coming to an end," said Mick. "The average age of the population is seventy-five. The youngest person is fifty-eight, having only been a child during the downfall."

I turned ninety-three this year.

Larry took over. "Once the AI began providing humans with food and shelter, scientists, doctors, and engineers returned to the task of creating some kind of future for humankind. It had seemed like an impossible task at first. There were countless dead ends and obstacles. Our inability to reverse sterility meant no more babies could be born. Cloning was attempted, but resulted in abysmal survival rates, and those who did survive were not 'right'. Artificial bodies were also ruled out. Our brains rejected them instantly, and would slip into a comatose state."

Mick leaned forward and held his hand up, motioning for Larry to pause. "Sorry to interrupt Larry. If you are still having memory dissociations, please pay close attention. This is some of the most relevant information of the Onboarding video." Mick nodded at Larry to continue.

Larry cleared his throat. "In a last-ditch attempt for survival, humanity created simulated versions of Earth for our scanned consciousnesses to live on inside virtual reality. At first, like the other experiments, the simulations ultimately failed. The test subjects slowly went mad as their consciousness recognized all the small disparities between real-life and the simulated world. For example, it is possible virtual pizza does not taste exactly like real pizza. Alone, that is not a big deal, but multiply that by thousands of disparities, day after day, and the human brain simply cannot focus on anything else, and eventually goes mad. The hope of a simulated world was coming to an end."

The background feed—laboratory images, VR headsets, and scientists thoughtfully scrutinizing whiteboards—ended. Mick and Larry filled the screen.

Larry looked directly into the camera. "And then, just a few years ago, a new possibility emerged. A developer finally unlocked the secret to keeping a consciousness alive and sane within a simulated universe."

Tom remembered first learning of the simulation. He had found the news interesting, but he wouldn't call that 'living'. He had no intention of signing up for it.

The simulated consciousnesses were fake imitations; they were not, and would never be, his real family. They were gone. He was done with life, and every day he just waited for the end to finally take him.

Then, an even larger discovery was announced.

A discovery that made the world lose its collective shit.

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