The emergence of the Office

“The faith of humankind is in our possession, our dominance shall remain till eternity and our goal shall be achieved,” those were the words painted in white at the top of the Office. The word “dominance” was the only word painted in crimson red; its significance was clearly pronounced. Even on bright days the combined power of the other words was insufficient to assert any authority. It was as if these words were portraying the lives of the individuals, feeble and trivial, whereas “dominance” resembled the Office, overpowered and assertive.

The sky which once used to buzz with the chirping of birds, buzzed with drones, like a musical orchestra in the sky with the drones all synchronized. However, in no time it felt as if the orchestra had reached its crescendo as the drones raged towards humans with envelopes attached to them. Humans stood perplexed unaware of what the occasion was. A few of them searched on their in-built devices if it was time for their monthly dosage, but there were still a few days till that. So what message did the Office want to deliver today on new year’s eve ?

J01 was particularly resilient to read the letter, he knew what it contained, how would he not ? He was Office’s first victim. Humans could only be distinguished from one another by the tattooed code on their arm, a letter followed by 2 numbers. These numbers signified when these individuals sacrificed themselves to the Office. The green and black marks of the tattoo left scars that could never be erased. It would be wrong to classify them as individuals, they had no individuality left, they were merely puppets of the Office, puppets to an inhuman system. From where they buy their food to what time they sleep everything was in the control of the Office. J01 looked at the other human beings, pitying their innocent sinless faces, they still were unaware of the cruelty. The larger the number tattooed on their hand got the more unaware they looked, they were the new victims. He strolled through the groups of humans debating continuously on what the letter meant, mocking each of the explanations he heard, but simultaneously mourning the state of misery he saw.

The voices of humans echoed in his head, they weren’t melodious but robotic and impassive. Soon the pain got unbearable for J01, he marched towards the fields, it was his only escape from this misery. The field was the only authentic place left, where nothing was in the control of the Office. The winds blew willingly and the crops swayed as per their wish, the presence of freedom allured him in. The smell of the fresh crops was hypnotising, and as the misty green grass touched his feet he felt healed from all his worries. J01 spent most of his time in the field since the rise of the Office, he didn’t want to lose the only place where freedom was, the only place that hadn’t been wickedly morphed by the Office.

As soon as he laid down in the middle of the field surrounding himself with harvest, J01 was no longer a puppet, he was Ben, a farmer who lived with his loving wife Mary. He closed his eyes and relived the memories of 2019 New Year’s Eve, his last memory as Ben.

It was a sunny day and as usual Ben was working in the scorching heat, cutting down the harvests for the sale on New Year, till Mary, his beautiful blonde wife, beckoned him inside, alarming him of what she saw on the news.

An unknown virus had been creating havoc in Wuhan, people were dying and doctors, unprepared for this crisis, couldn’t do anything as they saw hopeless humans dying all around them.

A few months later, Mary became prey to the virus and soon lost her life. Ben was unable to gather his thoughts, it was as if the world was running faster than him, he was somewhere lost in a race so long that he questioned his existence, but he had to live for Mary. Months passed, and people fell like dominos dying one after the other.

Ben quietly observed the world crumble, cries of people mourning the death of their loved ones was all he could hear, weeks passed by and Ben still lived in the memories of his wife.

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP… his in-built device started beeping, startling him and bringing him back to reality, back to the robotic, impassive and emotionless humans, it was as if the souls of each individual had left the body 30 years ago, only lifeless humans lived now all under the power of the Office.

Ben stood up and read the message on the device, he was alarmed to come to the Office for the celebratory party, how ironic he thought as he sat and mourned the death of many, the Office was celebrating their triumph over the world. Leaving his agony treasured in the middle of the fields, he walked away…..