The gears of your future are churned in blood

Hello everyone! Just a quick writer's note before you get into this. This story sucks. It is easily the worst thing I've put on this blog and maybe the worst thing I've ever published. Normally, this thing would get scrapped into the drafts folder forever, but I put a whole two days of class time into it, so let's just let it rock. If you'd like to read better work, please see the rest of my blog. Thanks.

The future is a fickle thing. Our theory is it's ever possible, and that the future is ever changing. Science fiction would say there's multiple futures, and that time is a highway leading from one point to another. It'd say you can travel to it. Myself? I don't know what I believe. I don't know if it's a highway, or if it's predetermined, or how much my course of action matters now. All I know is I believe in it.

My name is Marcus Bavisha, and I am a futurist. Officially, I am an engineer with a master's in chemical engineering, but personally I am a futurist. I believe we have the solutions to all our problems now, and that we'll see them implemented as our society grows.

I live in a suburban world just like anyone else, and I pass by any given amount of problems every day. Homelessness, poor infrastructure, inconvenient public transport, shitty roads, air-polluting exhausts, over-priced food, cold weather, disgruntled customers and unhappy people. Everywhere I go, I see unhappy people. I think everyone would be so much happier if all their problems were solved.

I've got big ambitions. I don't know how I'll reach them, but I believe I can change the world. I believe I can fix every problem that plages our people, all with practical solutions. Sometimes I have doubts, though.

"YOU ONLY MAKE IT WORSE!"

"IT DOESN'T TURN OUT HOW YOU EXPECT!"

"YOU CAN'T CONTROL IT!"

"THE FUTURE ISN'T YOURS TO FIX!"

"HUMANITY WILL PERISH BECAUSE OF YOU!"

Sometimes, I hear these voices of self doubt. They don't quite sound like how I do, but I recognize them all the same. The doubt that my vision would make it all worse. How could it? I've got a vision, and I know how to reach it! How could it not happen? The future is a fickle thing, but at the end of the day, it's all just the scientific method! Control the variables and you've got an experiment. That's what this all is. An experiment. It's one I know I can make work.

I have a room. My big room of 1000 problems, and my room with just one more. 'Fix everything.' So that's what I'll do. I start simple. Problem #34: Human disconnects. They happen due to a lack of knowledge among people. If everyone knew what others were thinking, and they could relate to another person, wouldn't we stop arguing? That's step one. No more divides. No more arguments. I'll make something that can link knowledge!

I start theorizing my prototype. I research into how human knowledge works. Two neurone fire together, sending off impulses simultaneously, forming connections between them, creating synapses, and growing stronger! Thank you Scientific American! I start drawing out theories on how to link the synapses of other minds. I do research into how to make the idea reality. It should take me two years to make this work, but with enough testing, it should work! I'll end the human divide!

It takes me a few months, but I'm able to put together a model of what my machine would look like. Only simple things, nothing too in-depth. Something that would work in theory, but that would require years and years of testing.

I call it the synapses-translator.

Over the next few weeks, I look for investors. I pitch my design to just about everyone I can, from banks to tech companies to politicians to the military to the UN. A few of them got back to me. There was Jake Kismet, the CEO of Kismet international, the leading force in sustainable technology practices. There was a presidential candidate named Jessie Trixxie, a republican and pro-gun activist. There was Marshall Iniko, a CEO of a massive clothing line company with sketchy work practices. Finally, there was Matthew Osman, the worst of them all. Osman was the wolf of Wall Street. He made millions off the backs of others, and I was not happy to help him make more.

I've got a meeting setup with all of them. I want them to tell me why I should work with them on the project, and then we'll go forward from there.

Suddenly, as I'm leaving for the meeting, a light flashes. It is green and cyan, with darker colours being mixed into its collective colours. Wind spews from it as it gets brighter. Then, as soon as it was here, it fizzles, and in it's place is something else. It's like a mixture between deer and man. It stand on two feet at seven feet. It has hooves for hands and feet. It's face is a deer's, with dark green and blue antlers decorating its head. It wears a gold. necklace around its neck. This thing... it looks super natural.

"Are you Marcus Bavisha, the futurist?"

It knows who I am

"Uhhh... yes. That's me. What are you?"

"I am a Kedai. I come from the future you seek to create. My kind was created from experiments you gave birth to. The world we were born too is not the future you set out too shape."

"There's gotta be some misunderstanding here. I'm an inventor. I'm working to end human conflict. I'm not the one you're here for."

"What you do in the coming hours will end humanity. Come with me, and I will show you why you must tear all of this down."

The Kedai extends it's hoof towards me. I reluctantly hold his hoof, curiosity of the future overtaking my need for self preservation. The Kedai presses a button on the side of his gold necklace. The green and cyan lights envelop us as my room of 1000 + 1 problems fades away. In it's place is a large bunker room filled with more Kedai. The Kedai vary in sizes. Some are bigger than others. Some have bigger antlers or bigger hooves. Some look stronger. Some are different colours. Still, they're all seven foot deers walking and talking to each other. Kind of insane.

They notice our arrival and celebrate. There's high fives, hugs and head nods all around the room. They just cracked time travel.

"Welcome to 3502, Marcus. Welcome to your future."

The bunker is underground. We climb up a ladder and open a hatch leading to the surface world. The world is desolate. There's no trees, rocks, anything in sight. One one small city filled with tall buildings and roads going between. Harsh, warm winds roll across the deserted soil.

"Let me show you what the world looks like."

The Kedai presses another button on his necklace. We're enveloped by a dim, yellow light as the space around us fades. The yellow light dissipates as we appear on a road in the city. Humans walk soullessly. They don't notice us. They simply go from place to place. Some are carrying things, like buckets full of water, or bars of food, or burning metals that have melted their hands. None of them have pupils.

"What happened here?! This can't be the future that I created! I would've never done this!"

"It wasn't you. Your inventions, your theories were misused by another. By several others. Your synapses-translator technology was stolen by another. The technology was used to turn humanity into machines. The higher functions of their brains were replaced with commands, a network of commands used to serve the higher person."

"Who? Who is the higher person? Who did this?"

"The Autarch. The Autarch lives for as many years as their body can take, and then they die, leaving the throne open for their child to become the next Autarch. The cycle has been this way for as long as we remember. No one knows who the first Autarch was. Personal names are lost to time."

"No. This can't be what my technology was used for. It was supposed to connect people. It was supposed to unite countries! How did I not stop this?"

"You died before you had the chance. Right after you created my kind, you died of a drug overdose. No one could stop The Autarch after that."

I couldn't believe it. This, this was the future I produced. This is what I did. My belief in the future, my ambition I've been chasing for months now, all it did was lead back to this. The gears of my future were churned in blood.

No. No, I wouldn't accept this. This is not the future I will create. I can still make a better one. I can still fix humanity's problems. I can still fix every problem humanity has.

"Listen to me very carefully Marcus. This is the result of your inventions. You need to destroy it. Destroy any findings you've got of the synapsis-translator. If just a fraction of it gets out, the world will be doomed. You'll create a dystopia."

"Did any of my other inventions lead to this all happening?"

"No Marcus, they did not. I know what you're thinking, but don't. Don't build something else. Just because it didn't happen doesn't mean it couldn't. This time it controlled human wave lengths, but next time could be worse."

"Next time it could be better."

"I'm warning you Marcus, don't do it. I'm not going to let you go back if you try creating something else. I won't let you do this."

"You don't have a choice."

The Kedai and I hear a third voice. It is loud, but it is clearly far. Marcus and The Kedai look down the barren street and see a figure adorned in red and gold walking down to meet them, one surrounded by dozens of lifeless bodies. The Kedai panics.

"Autarch! No! This cannot be! We took every precaution! You shouldn't be in this city!"

"Damn shame. You can take as many precautions as you want, but I'll always have just one more left. I see through the eyes of every soul on this life-sapped rock. I see you and another in this city, so I make my way over. Here I am. You've brought me a present, haven't you Kedai?"

The Kedai knocks me down without hesitation. His hoof is on my neck before I've noticed.

"I won't let you have him. This is not the world we should be living in. He is laced in the sins of his future. Killing him would do the world good. You can't have him!"

"That's funny, because I think I already do."

One of the Autarch's guards shoots off The Kedai's hoof. The Kedai screams out in pain, backing off of me. Two guards shoot off The Kedai's knees. The Kedai falls to the ground, screaming in agony. Light green blood squirts out of The Kedai's joints like chemical waste. I can't bear this.

One final guard shoots The Kedai's forehead, and as green blood explodes from The Kedai's forehead, The Kedai dies. I've never experienced something this gruesome. The Autarch just smiles.

"Bravo! What a show! Some fight The Kedai put up, hey? Yeesh."

I can't find words. All I do is stare.

"What's a matter? Cat got your tongue? Don't have anything to say to the man who saved your life? Cause I've got stuff to say to you. Why, I can't even REMEMBER the last time I had another functioning human being to talk to. Not since dad died, that is."

"You're a monster. You're a psychopath."

He just smiles.

"Can't help your nature! Now, how's about we send you back to your time so you can give my great great great great great great great grand-parent the device that'll make sure I don't disappear, hey?"

"No. No. I'm scrapping it. You'll never get your hands on it. I'm going to unmake all of this."

"Really? Is that so? See, I really doubt you there. A little birdie from below told me you can't HELP but make inventions. He told me you'll try to stop this from happening, but that you won't be able to help yourself. He told me you'll have no choice but to try changing the world with some brand new thing that'll only turn it to this. He told me your pride is just, too big to let this go. You claim it's all about the morals, the world-changing good, but really you just want to solve a problem. It's nothing more than something to do. Is that what you're gonna do, big guy?"

I pause. It's what I told The Kedai I'd do. It's what I think I should and can do. The world is already on the verge of catastrophe. Every day there's just, another problem. Maybe if I choose something smaller, I can avoid all of this.

Finally, I find my words.

"Yes. I am going to go back and make sure you never happen. I'm going to undo you."

"Well alright. Guess it's settled then. You're going to go back, and you're going to try stopping all of this from happening. Sounds like a plan. Well y'know what? I dare you. I dare you to go back and try to stop me. Cause if my birdie is right, you don't have it in you. So I guess we'll find out."

"I guess we will."

We look each other in the eyes and stare for two eternity-filled seconds. Then, he winks.

"Guess we gotta send you back then."

The Autarch snaps his fingers. One of his guards tears the necklace off The Kedai's dead carcass. The guard pushes some buttons on it, puts it around my neck, and pushes one last button. I am enveloped in the same green I was before. The world around me starts to fade away. The guard stands between the green flashes.

"We'll meet again soon, Marcus. In another life."

The world completely fades from my view. I watch as the guard, who was cut in the middle, is torn to shreds. His head decapitates from his body and falls to the floor. I arrive back home, back in my time.

I cancel every meeting I've got. I hide my design away where no one will find it. I avoid contacting anyone that could cause the future I just saw. Whatever step I can take to prevent it, I do. The severed head serves as my reminder.

Instead, I looked into learning aids. I invented neurological pathways-enhancers that can help someone consume information easier. All you have to do is eat it, and it'll get to work. I put in a lot of failsafes, though. If the device affects pathways it's not meant to, if there's any information on here I deem unsafe appears, it shuts down. Immediately. I'm not selling this to anyone but schools. I won't risk it.

Within five years, I've got it up and running. I worked with Kismet International to produce the device. They seemed the least likely to turn the world into a slave dystopia, so I went with them. I still need money if I'm going to do some good, after all.

We sell it to universities across the world and use the proceeds to fund easier learning in countries without good school systems.

It was all going so, so so well. And then, the bang.

I was driving home from work listening to Harry Styles. We'd been working on an immortality drink. I figured if I give it to myself, I could stand against the Autarch if he appeared again. And then, a flashing light appeared to my right. It wasn't The Kedai, it wasn't the Autarch, it was a car.

It slammed into me, and I died.

I wake up. The flashing light is gone. The muzzled voices are gone. The numbness is gone. It's all replaced, with a warmth. Not a warmth, a burning fever. Are these the flames of my passion, or something else?

"Well well well, look what we've got. It's another one! The Kedai have been generous enough to hand another Bavisha to me."

I open my eyes. What I see is nothing less than the devil. The purest incarceration of evil. He sits on a brick and mortar throne surrounded by flames, himself far larger than the throne he inhabits.

"You just had to do it, didn't you?" The devil grinned an evil grin at me.

"Do what? I've done no wrong! I saw the vision! I saw the world that would've been and I fixed it!" I tried to defend myself, but in my soul I knew it'd do no good.

"Oh you, you stupid soul. You really thought changing yourself would change the world? You really thought the variables would all stay the same? You really thought your grand, scientific method-ass experiment would help you win? No. The world is too big a field to control every variable. The fact you even thought it could be is telling enough. Whether your reason came from arrogance or ignorance I don't know, but it doesn't matter now, does it?"

"I shouldn't be here. I only wanted the best! I just wanted to help people! I just wanted to fix problems!"

"Heh, heh heh. Y'know Bav, there's an old saying. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. It doesn't matter what you set out to do. What you did was break the future. See for yourself."

The hellish ceiling above us opens. Above me, I see footsteps. I see people walk. I see their feet, and legs. I am in the below place, so of course I would. I see the same building constructed everywhere. I see people walk in, and something else walks out. They're walking like machines, soulless beings with nothing in their heads. They've been erased, whoever they were up there. I see a man on top, a man holding the keys. He wears a black cape and tux. It's Jake. He did this.

The hellish ceiling closes back down.

"Kismet took control of humanity, just like he always does. He made humanity into machines for his own system. He hated people. He always hid it from you, but he never cared about your future. He only wanted control."

"Why... why did the Kedai never warn me about him?"

"Oh my dear boy, they never knew. Kismet keeps himself a secret from all. He's worshipped as The Autarch, but they don't know who he is! No one did! You were deceived, just like you always are, and always will be."

"This shouldn't have happened. I should've stopped it. Send me back! I'll stop him this time!"

"No no no, why would I do that? You Bavisha are my favourite collectable. They were no different, why would you be?"

"What do you mean? There's only one of me. All my family is gone by now."

"Now? Now now, that's a funny word. You always wondered about the future. Always wondered what it was. Acted like you didn't but oh, did you. I'll tell you about your little 'future.' Across a million current realities, across a million universes, you make the same choice. Every time. You graduate with your little master's, you drive your ambition, you do it all. Then the Kedai come. They warn you. They tell you not to do it and they show you why. They take you forward in time and show you how bad it is, and you barely make it out. Then you go back, even after you watch the Kedai die in front of you, and you try again. But you always lose. Kismet is your fate. You work with him every time, don't give it a second thought, and try again. No change. No difference. Just the same, over and over again. Kismet goes on to be immortal, and when the universe is eventually reborn, one of them becomes me. This is how reality has always been. This is how it has always been. This is how it will always be. Kismet preys on Bavisha for the rest of reality, and god lets it go every single time." I shutter. My whole world view, my whole dream, my... my everything... it was all this? Is this all I am? Just a pawn in some stupid universal game with one winner? What is this? How could this transcend everything? This transcends... everything! No... no there... there has to be something.

"Now, seeing as I'm the devil, the best way to torture you isn't physical pain, nor mental. It's ideological. Here, watch the future play out forever with the rest."

The ground opens up. Hellish tentacles grab my legs. They burn with the flames of hell. It hurts, it hurts so much...

I try to resist. I try to oppose it. Nothing works. I fall down into his abyss.

"Bye bye! See you in the future! Until next time!"

HAHAHA!

I fall, and fall, and fall until I finally arrive at the bottom. I find myself surrounded by myself, an uncountable pools of myself thinking and talking. They're trying to figure out ways out as they painfully watch the world shatter above them. For all our ambition, we added up to nothing.

One of them walks over to me.

"Welcome Marcus. We've been waiting for you," he says with disappointment.

"We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell," -Oscar Wilde.