A Century’s Awakening

The world comes into focus, a mixture of neon and metallic lights glistening in her eyes. A low humming vibrates through Neviah’s skull, a sensation but yet foreign and unsettling. Neviah’s eyelids feel heavy and her whole body is unresponsive. Panic starts to claw its way up to her throat asking for help… The last thing she remembers is the loud screeching tires sliding across the asphalt with blinding headlights obscuring her vision. Where is she? [[Wait for help.]] [[Get up and try to escape.]]

A face with beautiful bright eyes and a huge smile hovers over her. “You’re awake,” a woman with a soft voice says. “It’s good to see you.” Neviah tries to speak but her throat is dry. The woman offers her a glass of water and as Neviah sips, bits and pieces of memory flicker in her head. Her family, friends, her life all seemingly starting to come back to her like she’s dreaming. She finally musters up the courage to ask, “Where am I?” as she takes another huge waterfall. “Neo-Atlantis,” the woman replies. “You’ve been in a coma for quite some time. You were in a terrible car accident. They say you were on your way home to see your husband.” The woman gives Neviah a look of sadness and sympathy. Neviah had had a beautiful life with a husband, three loving children, and wonderful friends and family. “How long have I been in a coma?” The woman hesitates as she doesn’t want to scare Neviah… “A century.” Neviah replies “A CENTURY??” One hundred years… The words echo in Neviah’s mind, a chilling feeling of lost time. Her family and friends would all be gone… Everyone she knew, everyone she loved just dust and memories now. The woman, sensing her distress, squeezes her hand. “I know it’s a lot to take in right now,” she says. “My name is Zandra. I’m here to help you.” [[ Neviah feels a deep sense of despair. “I’m scared. Is everyone I know and love just gone? What am I supposed to do?”]]

“I have to escape” Neviah thought to herself. She looked around to see a flickering sign. “Neo-Atlantis General Hospital” it said. Neviah, wondering where she was and what Neo-Atlantis was, began to run out of the hospital. As she got down to the first floor, she heard someone scurrying after her “STOP!”, a security guard yelled. She contemplated for a second. [[Stop for the security guard and see what they want.]] [[Run out the front door onto the street.]]

“I know this is scary. But you have to trust me,” Zandra says. Zandra becomes Neviah’s guide to the new and strange world. None of the streets or buildings look familiar to her. Neo-Atlantis is a towering metropolis of chrome and glass overlooking the blue sea. Neviah is amazed by the flying vehicles and illuminated by the hologram advertisements. The futuristic world outside the hospital is a hurricane of sensory overload. Information floods her vision through the augmented reality overlays, advertisements target her brain specifically, and the constant humming of the technology is ear-piercing. Zandra shows her the basics; how to navigate the city’s complex transportation system, how to access information through neural networks, and how to avoid the ever-present surveillance drones. “So what would you like to learn about first,” Zandra says, “Augments or the corporations that run the city?” [[“What are augments?”]] [[“What do you mean corporations run this city??”]]

“Augments,” Zandra says to Neviah. “It’s commonplace now, enhancements that improve strength, speed, intelligence and even beauty.” Neviah looks around and understands what Zandra is saying. People are way different now. She notices many visible cybernetic enhancements like robotic limbs, glowing eyes, and intricate neural interfaces. Zandra has a sleek, metallic arm that moves with fluid like grace. Neviah feels a shiver crawl down her spine… The idea of replacing parts of her human body with machinery is unsettling to her but yet, she’s curious as to what it would be like to have robotic parts on her body and brain. Would it make her stronger? Or even smarter? Maybe even better equipped to survive in this unfamiliar world? “So what do you think? You want to try it out?” Zandra asks. [[Try it out]]

“Come with me,” Zandra says. Zandra takes her to a beautiful plaza that’s dominated by a colossal skyscraper. “LantisHighTechCorp Tower,” she says. “They’re one of the major corporations that run this city.” “Corporations?” Neviah asks. Zandra replies, “They’re the real power now. They control everything like resources, technology, even the law. Most people that live here work for them one way or another.” Neviah feels overwhelmed about the new world. This wasn’t the future she had imagined. It’s a world of fast growing technology and stark inequality, where corporations hold more power than governments. “I know this is overwhelming. But to survive here, you’ll need to learn to abide by the corporations’ rules. That includes finding a job within them. I can help you with that,” Zandra says. [[“I don’t know if I want to work a soul-sucking corporate job for the rest of my life…”]] [[“Maybe having a stable, high-tech work environment wouldn’t be so bad.”]]

Unfortunately trying out the Augments lead to Neviah's untimely death.

“You don’t need to make any decisions right now. I’ll give you some time to rest and think about it. Let me show you where you’ll be staying in the meantime,” Zandra says. The next few years are a blur. Neviah and Zandra formed a close bond at first. Zandra was her guide, showing her the ways of this complex new world. She helped Neviah navigate the changes of obeying her new corporate leaders at LantisHighTechCorp, as well as adjusting to the mandatory augments they made to her body to improve her work capabilities. However, they soon drifted apart after the first year. Neviah grew to resent Zandra for forcing her to assimilate into this miserable world. She hated her body, she hated the corporation she worked for, and she hated the woman who introduced her to it all. Misplaced anger destroyed their bond and forced Neviah to live out her days in quiet solitude, loathing everything around her.

“You don’t need to make any decisions right now. I’ll give you some time to rest and think about it. Let me show you where you’ll be staying in the meantime,” Zandra says. Zandra spends the next year showing Neviah the ropes of the new world. She gets Neviah a job with her at LantisHighTechCorp. The corporation is strict and miserable at times, but Neviah is just grateful to have her friend to help her through it. Neviah is also quite fond of her new augments. Her vision is clearer, her body feels much stronger, and her mind is sharper. Despite the emptiness she sometimes feels having lost all of her loved ones, she is grateful for this new life. She was given a chance to start over, and she decided to make the best of it.

Neviah decided to stop to see what the security guard had to say. “Ma’am where are you going? The nurse informed me that you woke up.” In a dazed stance, Neviah replied “How long?”. The security guard replies, hesitantly “one hundred.. years…” Neviah didn’t know what to do with herself, and the security guard wanted her to come with him to talk to the nurse. [[Go with the security guard and see what they want.]] [[Calmly walk out of the hospital to explore.]]

Neviah sprinted out of the doors in hopes to find an escape from the terrible dream she was in. Where would she go? What would she do? Her mind racing at a million miles an hour. She didn’t realize it, but she had just started sprinting across a busy street outside of the hospital, and unfortunately for her, she was struck by a car, leading to her death instantly.

Neviah went with the security guard up to the 51st floor to visit the nursing staff. The dr's informed her that she had been in a coma for the last 100 years after being hit by a car while crossing the street. Somehow she had still been alive even after 100 years. How did this happen? What were her choices? To continue the testing that had been done on Neviah, the dr instantly induced her into another coma so they could continue testing on her. This was the end of Neviah.

Neviah, distraught with this newly found information, walked outside. She noticed that there were many different changes to this city, none of which she had seen in her pre-coma life. The city was filled with chrome and glass, overlooking a blue sea. Neviah didn’t know which way to go, but she noticed many robots out in the public, or what she thought were robots. They resembled humans but seemed to have some sort of robotic arms and legs.