Knowledge for an Empire

 Creative Writing Story 

          The sound and color drained away from the room as Henkil, a 24 year old resident, was brought back into reality. He was in Belmont, a large urbanization in South Dakota. Everyday was the same to him. Get up at 7 o-clock, program operation sequences for the multi-trillion dollar cyberspace on his laptop computer, stop working at 5 pm and play in cyberspace. To him it seemed that the world was run by computers. Computers dominated society. Computers made better computers and computers made robots. Robots built structures and vehicles. Computers also told you what to eat and where to live which made humans loose their freedom. Computers even created movies and composed music for entertainment. People no longer had a need or desire to get an education because computers knew everything that needed to be known for the current era, and advanced at their own speed.

          The world had suffered atomic detestation in 2067 and since then, a completely new world had developed.

          The last few words of the on-line program Henkil had just watched had set his mind spinning. Was it really true that people spent so much time in cyberspace that computers were becoming and idol to human kind? Wondering who to ask, he switched his computer into live communication mode and tried to connect to his neighbor in the dwelling newt to his, but it said he was busy. Frustrated, he tried his other neighbor. Connecting Successfully, a video of his neighbor speaking appeared on the wall.

          "Do you think that computers are a waste of time?" Henkil stammered into the oral communication receiver.

          "What a stupid question - of course not!" the neighbor replied as the computer displayed him with an angry look.

          Instantly the screen faded back into it's normal position. Frustrated, Henkil shoved back the computer input controller into it's cabinet and lay down in bed. He thought about the state of the world he knew. He thought about how much he knew and realized how little he really did know. He had been told that the city of Belmont, went to the ends of the world. Was it  really the only place in the world? Were there other places that might be different? Henkil, angry at himself for thinking about something that made him upset, and at the uselessness of his life, fell into a restless sleep.

          Henkil awoke suddenly with a start. He peered through the darkness. As he glanced at his watch, it's eye sensors illuminated it's back light to reveal the time as being Tuesday October 4, 2176, 4:16 am.

          Suddenly Henkil felt something strange as if the machine-made oxygen was evaporated from the room. A streak of fright went down his spine. Completely unable to understand what was happening, he threw off the electric bed covers and frighteningly strolled over to the window. His whole room was dark except for the eerie glow of the moon as it bathed the walls with it's weightless beauty. Walking up to the polished glass, it opened and he looked outside. From his view, he could see thousands of lights from the city surrounding him. Staring down 48 stories of apartments, he could see small streaks of light as cars whistled softly by into the distance. Looking up four stories he could feel the harsh glare of the surveillance lights at the top of the building he was in. Trying to find out what the strange feeling was, he looked into the blended pink and purple sky which seemed to blanked the whole city like a layer of protection.

          Suddenly hi heart skipped a beat as an enormous illuminated object faded into view from above the clouds. He seemed to freeze, to scared to move.

          "How could that be possible? A flying object! Everybody knows only birds can fly!" he thought as a mass of controversial thoughts flooded his brain.

          The strange object slowly drifted down directly in front of Henkil's window to the small grassland in front of the mega apartment building. While hydraulic legs cushioned it's landing, several small things got out of the massive air ship. Unable to tell what they were from the distance, Henkil immediately thought they were extra-terrestial creatures about to invade earth as he had seen online last night and pressed the red emergency button.

          "I'll save the world myself!" Henkil screamed out the window as he ran towards the emergency escape elevator.

          Sliding downwards 20 meters a second he suddenly realized he had no method of defense. Realizing it was not really important, he ran through the already crowded entrance to the building, and out onto the pavement outside. People scrambled to see the spectacle as hundreds of lights from surrounding buildings were illuminated.

          As Henkil struggled through the crowd to get a look at the strange incident, he noticed that the things he saw were really humans! However, they looked so incredibly different! They looked extremely skinny and wore strange clothes with different colors.

          "We come in peace!" one of the trio yelled out to the crowd of onlookers. What in all of Belmont does peace mean? Henkil thought to himself. Some of the onlookers ran out and started to attack on of the men.

          "Stop!" yelled out Henkil at the top of his lungs as he dodged his way to the crowd to protect the strange visitors. By now there was a small mob of angry citizens ready to  eliminate the strange new visitors. Henkil ran up to one of visitors.

          "Were not going to hurt you!" he said as people started throwing objects at him. Soon they gave up and started to retreat back into the ship.

          "Wait! I want to come with you!" Henkil yelled as the words fell out of his mouth unexpectedly. As he run up the hydraulic ramp and onto the scream amongst yells at him to come out, the doors closed and the ship lifted off.

          "Where do you come from! You does this thing fly!" Henkil said full of questions he wanted them to answer.

          "We come from Japan, on another part of the world." a visitor told him.

          "There's another part to the world! That's impossible! Belmont is the world."

          "The entire world suffered nuclear detestation many years ago, and we are some of the only cities existing."

          "What's your name?" Henkil asked.

          "Scott Welworth" he said.

          "How can you have two names!?" Henkil demanded mystified and getting irritated.

          "Welworth is my family name, the name which is passed down the generations." Scott told him amazed how little he knew.

          Henkil stayed in the ship many days as he visited several places in the world. Scott told him that the ship flew by reversing gravitational force by adjusting the temperature of the molecules around the ship. Henkil learnt so much in the few days he was on the ship, that he was desperate to go back and tell everyone in Belmont.

          When Henkil arrived in Belmont in the huge ship with his new friends, he promised to tell others about the new technology and make them realize that it is us that should know things, not the unrevealing computers. Scott and the other people on the ship promised to visit him again, and they showed him how he could use a basic cell phone to call them.

          As Henkil walked off the ship into the amazed crowd of onlookers who stared as if they were watching a movie, he stepped back onto Belmont and began telling others the amazing news. He waved goodbye to his only friend as their ship drifted up and faded away into the beautiful clouds.