Dystopia

2080 was merely a warning… because 2085 is where it all truly begins. It is the new beginning of the end: the moment when RESILIENCE loses its grip on humanity… and stops preyng upon the SRs, those radioactive beings. Because now, it is our turn to rule the Earth. In the name, and in memory, of all our own… those who bled without the chance to fight back. I will cease to be collateral damage… and become a lethal strike within their entire system. I am exacting vengeance for what they did to me, for what they tore away, for the person they thought they destroyed. And more than that… I will stand by my people until we reach the pinnacle of power… and from those heights, I will look down upon those who harmed us, just as they once looked down upon us.

In the near future, humanity has divided into four social classes. Representatives of each class live in specially designated areas and have virtually no contact with each other. It is easier to pluck a star from the sky than for a representative of the lowest class, “C,” to enter the elite. But the hero of my story, Eric, succeeds in doing just that. Like the hero of Mark Twain's novel The Prince and the Pauper, he swaps places in society with Ted, a representative of the highest class, “E”...

When the illusion shatters, all you have left are fragments. The choice is yours — throw them away and build a new life, or gather them up and glue them back together. I wanted so much to create something new, but fate kept destroying everything. And now I have fragments in my hands again. Will I be able to piece together my former life? Or will I remain forever just a part of an illusion?

I often felt that the world around me was an illusion. Everything seemed unreal: me, the people around me, the houses, nature. I liked my life, but the disturbing thought of the illusory nature of the world constantly gnawed at my consciousness, undermining my confidence. People laughed at me. But with each passing day, I believed more and more that one day I would wake up and find myself in a different world. I would become someone else. The world would be different. I would lose everything that was important to me. I would be left alone. Fear became my constant companion. I tried to get rid of my obsessive thoughts, but they won out time and time again. They consumed me. Fear won. It destroyed my illusory world on an unremarkable autumn morning.