Happy Days

“Tell me, why do you resist?” A voice spoke. I sat there, staring down at the cold hard concrete. The voice continued, “Why do you choose to rebel against us?” The room grew silent once more. Then, it was broken again by the grating sound of a chair being dragged. Footsteps echoed throughout the room, it was growing louder and louder. It stopped abruptly. The scent of cologne was strong, probably that overused crap from that stupid ad. I felt something on my head, cloth. My head cocked up as I felt a pulling force on the back of my head. I was greeted to the familiar haunting, wretched smile. The smile that plagues my entire existence in this wicked place. His twisted, yellow teeth was only complimented by his horrible breath. “Why don’t you be happy, like us?” He spoke. Those words echoed violently through my mind as memories flooded my head. The man loosened his grip on my head. I was finally able to see the only reassuring thing in this god forsaken place, the ground. The man gave a little sigh and walked out of the room. He opened the rusted steel door and locked it behind him. As the man walked away, I gave myself a chuckle and muttered, “If only that cologne can mask the smell of this rat-infested city.” I looked up, a dimly lit lightbulb was staring directly at me. “How fitting.” I mused myself. I slowly directed my attention towards the legs of the chair, there were iron shackles restraining my legs. I can’t escape. That thought echoed throughout my entire body as I slumped into the chair.

I smiled. There was nothing I could do.

“How did I even end up here...” I chuckled with a heavy sigh.

I closed my eyes and drifted to my thoughts.

Back to where it all began, my youth. I was a curious boy, too curious as my mom would say.

I was never really quiet. I would always ask questions like why is the sky blue or why are leaves green. You know that sort of questions, innocent. My parents and teachers weren’t really keen on answering all my questions, but the fact that they did really made me happy. It was the only time i was genuinely happy. But, it was at the time of my 10th birthday where I noticed something… odd.

A crying child. My friend, Kyle. He was at my party, and he was unhappy. His parents didn’t like it and tried to calm him down. But he wouldn’t stop. From that point of the day, I never saw him again. I assumed his parents must’ve taken him home. The next day, at school, he was sitting at his desk staring at the whiteboard. I came up to him to greet him, but what I saw terrified me. He was crying. Crying but smiling, no not a natural smile. A forced one. It seemed as if he had been keeping it up continuously for the past day. What frightened me the worse was what came out from his mouth, “There is no room for pointless emotions, only happiness.” It was frightening, robotic, like he had been saying that for his entire life. I dashed out the classroom, hoping I could find a teacher that is capable of helping Kyle. I eventually found one, I brought him to examine Kyle and pleaded him to find a cure for Kyle’s condition. His answer, “Nothing is wrong with Kyle, Simon, he is just being happy. Can’t you tell?” I was compelled to scream at the top of my lungs and accuse the man for being an idiot, but his cold bloodshot eyes told me otherwise. It dawned on me, if I don’t obey and be happy, someone would take me away and turn me into Kyle. So I smiled, and apologised. I felt a weight on my shoulders, it was….suffocating, as if it was something I had to bear for the rest of my life.

A decade passed. The government had introduced a new antidepressant drug called the Blissful Paradise. The government had noticed that there was an increase in the people being unhappy and decided that they would take action. Needless to say, the drug worked, more people were happy. But there was that 1% that was still unhappy, that 1% were called The Dull. The drug didn’t have any effect on that 1%. They were shunned and outcast by society, living the lives of hobos. Living in the destroyed land made from the great war a century ago, seeking refuge from the ruins of the once great city known as, New York. The 99% ,however, were living in utopia. The only condition for living in the city was to have a happiness level of 90%. People were screened monthly by robots to ensure that they were at the 90% margin of happiness. The BP pills were distributed to those who were below that margin. There were people who were against the idea of exiling The Dull, but were too afraid to take action against the government. I was one of them, a 20 year old who was taking a degree in engineering in a university. I hated them, the people of this… this awful city. Every single one of them was too damn happy. It was like no other emotion existed within their being. It wasn’t human. Every single day, propaganda would be spread around the entire city. Every damned day, I would hear the words “Being happy will bring you benefits” or “Happiness is the key to success”. It was insanity. Why do they want us to be abnormally happy? I asked myself this time and time again, yet I couldn’t find the answer. I wanted answers, answers to the brainwashing, answers to the propaganda and answers to the government’s motives. Well, I did eventually. On June 20th 2089, I found them. They were the solution to this travesty. They were the revolution and salvation of the people in this city. The Livid. The Livid is a group of pissed off individuals who were willing to sacrifice themselves to save this city. The only problem was, they didn’t do anything that was worth capturing the attention of the government. The Livid was a joke, when I first came in, they were disorganised, had zero resources and also had no clue on how to overthrow the government. The only capable one there was their leader, Rik. The one who had started this group. Sadly, a capable leader is not enough to get the gears of a resistance group like this going. Nobody here, except for Rik, had the motivation to follow their cause. I tried my hardest to provide as much information as possible to the group, but what can a 20 year old who only has his ideals to back him up provide? Then, it came, Operation: Zero.

Operation: Zero. The beginning of The Livid. This operation questioned my resolve. My resolve to sever the tyrannical chains of the government. My resolve to save the people. And my resolve to be free. The operation was simple, steal the new blueprints at the biggest robotics company in the utopia, UR-Robotics. As I entered the hideout. The atmosphere tensed. No jovial attitude emitted through the group. They weren’t their usual selves, honestly, I couldn’t blame them. We all wanted to make this mission as smooth as possible. We all wanted to make it out with our personalities intact to our brains. The teams were simple. One for surveying the area , the other for breaking into the workshop where the blueprints were kept. The reconnaissance team was in charge of taking out of every single camera inside the company. The other team was responsible to break into the workshop as fast as possible to avoid any complications. It was agreed that the team was to split up into groups to cover the area efficiently. The break-in team would patrol the area outside of the building. To communicate, Rik handed us walkie talkies to us, and for our protection masks were handed to us. A caring and firm leader Rik was. God, I miss the poor bastard. Nightfall came. The entire resistance readied themselves to begin our raid. That night we felt something fresh and a never felt before emotion, fear. An emotion that fuelled our hesitance and impulse. We gathered at an obscure building near the company. It was unnoticeable and dull. No one would expect anyone to be living there or even planning to host a meeting there. It was the perfect place to rendezvous at. The reconnaissance team went in first. Rik’s tea then split up and covered every spot in our entire vicinity. Once my team broke the lock of the company, we scrambled ourselves and went sneaking around the area. The company was built recently and surprisingly had little security. I guessed that being terrorists in a utopia has its perks. After disabling cameras in my area, I flashed my torchlight to signal to the others that I had disabled the cameras in my section. The others eventually flashed theirs. I then slowly made my way to the rendezvous point which was at the door that we came in from. After reaching the point, sat down and began surveying my surroundings. It was dark and I couldn’t make anything out. Only the scent of machine parts and rust accompanied me through time. After a while, my team finally gathered at the point. I radioed Rik on the walkie talkie as soon as everyone gathered at the point. Rik gave me a simple “ok”. My team’s next objective will be to scout the premises for any sort of security from the government. Although we are living in utopia, security is still needed to handle grunt work issued by the government. Security in this utopia is simple, to handle people with resistance and to exile those who can’t take their drug. The entrance flew open, my heart skipped a bit. I turned to face the infiltrator and it was none other than Rik. My fear during this experience truly magnifies my inexperience in heists. It was hard for me to trust the actions of The Livid members as it was the first mission. It frightened me to think what would be installed for me during the future. I had to shake that thought and carried on with the objective. Rik and a few others were lifting an object that seemed rather heavy. I couldn’t guess what it was but decided not to press further. As soon as the rest of The Livid walked into the company, my squad followed up with exiting the building. Everyone was doing their job, the operation was carrying out smoothly, there was nothing that could go wrong. Or so I thought. There was a crucial point we as the recon team didn’t inspect. It was inside the workshop. It was a rookie mistake. Their downfall was on our hands. We heard the alarms, from inside the company, the lights inside burst open. From my walkie talkie, I heard Rik shouting for us. I immediately answered back, he was telling us to run to the harbour due east of the company. It was a tourist harbour. Rik wanted me, of all people, to get a boat for the entire Livid to escape in. The rest of the recon team heard the instructions through my radio. The operation had been breached. Our escape was top priority. Without a signal or instruction given, my team ran towards the harbour at top speed. It was fear and adrenaline that fuelled us. We didn’t want to get caught. All of us didn’t. We all had to escape. A few minutes passed, our destination was right in front of us. A dimly lit harbour with few boats parked in it. From where we were standing, we could see a huge boat big enough to carry the full group in. It had to do. I rushed towards the obvious boat that we were going to take. My team followed with clumsy movements. We climbed the boat and began our new objective: Escape. I went for the controls of the boat. It was those ferry boats only meant for carrying people. It was perfect for our escape, but the problem was how to start it. I opened the panel below the control station and found several wires leading to each function of the control station. I instructed the rest of the team to help me search for a toolbox as I studied the wires. It wasn’t simple, I couldn’t get my mind to comprehend the mess of wires that was in front of me. Yet, I didn’t know how I did it. The devil’s luck was on my side that day, I manged to start the engine. With that a new problem rose, who would drive the boat? A man stepped up. It was a miracle that someone on the recon team had expertise in driving boats. A man named Lewis. Without a second to spare, my walkie talkie spoke. It was Rik. They were being chased. Rik said that they were close by but the Alpha Security were hunting them down. I gave Rik the directions leading to the big boat. The recon team were on the lookout for Rik and his team. Minutes passed, one of us shouted out. It was a signal that Rik was here. The next thing I heard was climbing. They scattered to all areas of the boat. As soon as I head Rik shout “all in”, the boat moved. We had escaped. A feeling of relief and accomplishment overwhelmed me. It compelled me to ask Rik about their escape from Alpha Security. As the boat was moving, I searched for Rik, who was leaning towards the railings of the boat. I asked how they escaped. Rik who was normally so confident and filled with valour had a cold and depressing vibe emitting from him. He looked at me with eyes full of tears. It seemed as if he didn’t want to talk about it, but I could understand from those eyes that we had lost people or someone to them. We had lost a brother to the tyrants.

After that first mission, everyone was in high spirits, everyone cheered that they had stolen something. It was indeed a new feeling, pride in doing wrong. The only one not feeling any joy was Rik. He wanted to be happy that our first mission had succeeded. The success was not without sacrifice. Rik’s brother, Hans, volunteered to act as a decoy for the team to escape. Needless to say, he got caught. It appeared all over the news, “Mysterious Masked man caught for damaging property and trespassing of UR-Robotics company.” He had been ‘rehabilitated’ into the happy zombies we see everyday. As Rik was mourning for the ‘death’ of Hans, I stood up and made a vow to him. I will change this messed up system that we lived in. It was the typical “overthrow the government for you” cliché but at that time I thought it was kind of cool to say it. It was the stepping stone for me at least. From that day forth, I worked my way to become the right-hand man Rik. Rik and I planned out every single attack onto the government, and made sure The Livid’s next attack would cripple a small part of the system. I would research on our government to know what runs the system and to plan out every attack that we would have to make. Eventually, the government noticed that we were hunting them down. So, they issued curfews, increased security, and trained their guards to use weapons. The Livid would always be one step ahead of them. The Livid had made a name for itself and will continue to be a hindrance towards the government, but, our journey was naught without sacrifice. We had lost many to them, good men, they were willing to sacrifice themselves for our cause. That includes Rik. Rik had been found out. It was a mole in the group, Jacob. A government official that joined us when our reputation had spiked. We condemned him and made sure he never talked again. Rik, a man I respected, killed himself before he was forced to talk. He was a good man, and forever will he remain as an inspiring leader. After his death, I took charge and became the new leader, but, it didn’t last long. I was eventually caught on one of the many missions we carried out. I told everyone that if I were to be caught by them, no one is to rescue me. That’s how I ended up here, this cell awaiting my death. It would be the first ever public execution made in the history of utopia.

As I finished my last thought in this world, the man came back, this time with two burly looking men wearing suits. They unchained me from my seat and dragged me off. I was too tired to fight back, if I resisted it would make me look like a coward anyway. I looked at the mossy ground as I was being carried off to my fate. Footsteps echoed through the tunnel, light was slowly seeped through the tunnel. We were near my destination. I was being dragged to the government house. As the light blinded me, I could see citizens smiling at me, happy that I wasn’t going to change their lives anymore. But, I smiled. It was the only time I could be genuinely happy. I was finally free from the chains of the government. The burly men stopped and put me onto my knees. The tied a rope around my neck and left me there. From there, a government official spoke. It was a blur to me and I couldn’t care less, he was preaching about the correct way to be a citizen in this utopia, to be happy. One thing did catch my attention however, it was his last sentence, “You who have desecrated this happy land, what say you?” I laughed, and said my final words, “Out of all the people here, I’m probably the happiest one.” The man nodded with a tint of disgust. I closed my eyes and awaited the inevitable. The noose around my neck started rising. I stood up with it. I opened my eyes to the sky, it was a magnificent clear blue today. ‘what a lovely day to die’ I smiled. A sack was then placed over my head. Moments later, I heard a mechanism operate and the floor beneath me opened. I closed my eyes for my final moments. I couldn’t stop smiling. Yes, I was truly happy. My last day on earth and I’m finally happy..