Code of the Council

Unauthorized Content

It was late at night, hours past curfew. Everyone was demanded to be in their houses by 11 o'clock, if not earlier. Once when a major rebellion leader was captured, the society sent out machines to warn everyone to go inside at 7 o'clock. It was recreation day, which happens once a week on Sunday, an Alex and I had been disappointed. We were planning on going swimming  at 8:00, but the robot staff closed down all activity centers  and sent us home. We watched inside our locked house as a screaming, bloodied man was dragged along by robots, ignoring his cries. He resisted, kicking and punching, but to no avail. It was in a night like that.

I was reading on my holipad, when pounding feet sounded under our window. Alex was already there, gaping at something. I pushed aside the lavender curtain to see several teens sprinting down the street, tossing strips of paper in the direction of nearby houses. A girl of about 16 flew by me, and for a second I saw her face. She had  jet black long hair, short bangs, and astonishing green eyes. She saw me at the window and threw a couple of papers in my general direction. Then she raced off, other teens and Council machines hot on her heels. Not far behind, maintenance robots were picking up the strips of paper. I noticed people grabbing the pieces of paper when the robots had their backs turned. I followed their example, and as soon as the nearest maintenance robot turned, I threw open the door and grabbed the nearest strip of paper. The robot buzzed and started turning around, but I sprinted back inside and slammed the door shut.

Alex handed me the headphones as I put the strip of paper in the Visionscreen. It booted up, a butterfly circling around a flower as I had set it. Around and around and around... At last a message read: "Invalid code. Please try again." I took off my headphones in disappointment, but suddenly the Visionscreen hissed and winked out. Static filled the screen, changing its direction every few seconds. I squinted at it, trying to understand what had happened, and hesitantly put the headphones back on. A glitch in a Council machine was unheard of. She static abruptly stopped, and an orange window flashed on the screen. A voice started speaking in my headphones, not the monotonous computer-generated voice of a Council message, but an actual human being.

"The Council has gone too far. Report to point CRP tomorrow at 12:00 am. We will end this once and for all." The message repeated several times, and by the fourth repetition, the voice crackled and slurred. The computer voice of the Society tried to drown out the other.
"Please remove your headphones. There has been a small mistake. Unauthorized content." The two voices fought for control of the headphones, the mysterious human voice growing slower and fainter as the Council voice grew louder and clearer. The Visionscreen hummed, as it does when I use it for prolonged periods of time. At last it couldn't take the data overload anymore. The Visionscreen sputtered and the screen went black.