The Awake Chronicles: Be a Better Monster

Be a Better Monster

Be A Better Monster. That’s what the poster says. Before me hangs a defaced picture of Uncle Sam with fangs and a snarling jaw line is pointing. The unknown artist has replaced the word Soldier with Monster.

This is what society thinks of us. Monsters.

It’s not far off from the truth. We are monsters. A new breed of human.

Better. Faster. Stronger.

Their so called evolution and improvement embodied in the guise of perfection and they still despise us.

No thoughts. No food. No sleep.

We represent a part of the world gone mad. A part of the world that 90% or more of the population doesn’t’ know about. We are sent out to eliminate any free thinking individual and destroy artifacts of an insufficient past. If you aren’t the solution you are the problem. There are several factions of resistance. For the most part, those living in joined isolation are oblivious to this war without weapons.

Be A Better Solider was a brilliant ad campaign. Ten years later and it’s still running.  Its arrival marked the first time Uncle Sam solicited the civilian and military populations to step up to meet the challenge of duty. So many others were blinded by the propaganda just like I had been.

Mindless Automatons. Militant Goons. Brainless Voids.

Control is no longer an option. Once they have a hold of your head, there’s no way you’re getting it back.

Unless you’re like me.

And there aren’t any others like me.

Another dose of awareness produces a feeling of nausea as I watch the exterior walls of the Compound. I can’t control the device in my head that releases the chemicals. It’s the thing that separates me from humanity; this thing that reproduces a drug at a phenomenal rate and releases it directly into my bloodstream.

The exterior gate of Compound A opens. Across the yard there’s a truck unloading shipment. It’s the truck that brings another group of recruits in.  Human livestock. These ones have already been stripped of their basic autonomy. Arms and Legs locked into chains, row by row braced by the neck, forward they march. It wasn’t like that for me. It was much worst.

AWAKE!

I’m a free thinker in a controlled system. A better soldier. One that surpassed their agenda with my leap in evolution. Unlike the others.

 No eat. No sleep. However, I’m sentient.

There is no place for something like me. I’m a better monster. A soldier that understands the aftermath of what has happened. With the ability to disconnect from everything at will. Reconnecting when the situation demands.

Something like me is dangerous.

It wasn’t one day that brought the change. The revelation was slow in coming like a dripping faucet. Little by little everything seemed familiar filled with more meaning. Faces becoming recognizable instead of blending in. Grasping for things that I no longer needed. Knowledge. Rest. Sustenance. Thoughts began to fill my mind constantly. Attempting to recall a life before this one.

Memories. Images. Feelings. These things are free flowing without significance. Objects send emotions without meaning. Every moment is spent visualizing the world in a new way. Often I recall a simple life before the change. Finding outlawed artifacts brings the most intense feelings. Tiny beeping devices full of sound provide a surprising calm. Books filled images and words are full of unexpected comfort. Everything that is foreign finds a place of familiar to my mind.

Coming to the realization that I chose this existence provided the most confusion. That I could possibly give up my humanity to become this abomination. Blindly pursuing the fulfillment of a better life because the propaganda claimed it was easily attainable. It was supposed to be an improvement. I was supposed to be changing things. The posters encouraged anyone to take up arms and fight for the basic rights of freedom. But that wasn’t what they were selling.

There was no war. At least not the kind they wanted you to believe. Enlistment was a successful search for the optimum candidates.

Healthy. Strong. Willing to serve.

In the beginning everything seemed like a test. Doctors spent days embedding devices directly into the skin and brain to monitor bodily functions for any signs of weakness. Week after week of conditioning and reconditioning while men in white coats stood by and took notes. Then came the performance enhancements combined with constant intensive training to produce more efficient thoughts and movements. Drugs drilled into the system and released like toxins via an implant in the brain. They would build up the mind and body, only to tear it down over and over again. Each time would drastically change your thought patterns. Unavoidably aware of everything, as sleep became unnecessary. The basic senses stripped away to nothing. Any feelings of pain or emotions slowly became a thing of the past.

Countless recruits don’t survive the basic conditioning. If you survive you will soon forget it. The final stage strips away the psyche and forces the conscious mind to recede. It’s a process that they’ve now perfected and used to eliminate fear in the resisting masses. A compound that once injected then transforms the unwilling into a pliable marionette.

Propaganda enslaves those without hope.

The uneducated, the drug addicted, the impoverished homeless on the streets, and the children without anything to relate to, have no rights. This leaves them open to military selection and vulnerable to the most brutal of testing. Many are placed in formal arrest for crimes that aren’t warranted. Being told this is their only chance for freedom.

Most will never make it through stage one. Freedom is a lie. 

Freedom is no longer a choice. If you fit a profile then you’re numbered.

The raids are organized in shifts. The squads are programmed to track the numbered people down. Once they’ve acquired their target they will destroy anything in the way. Most of the time, these raids take place in the civilian zones; intruding upon unsuspecting people that are unaware of the truth. The sirens announce the arrival of the squads. Homes are raided and families dragged out. Children separated from families. Tied up and forced into metal boxes. Women are typically executed. Men are formally charged and arrested for conspiracy. Some will become soldiers. Others will undergo military testing. Most will be imprisoned or executed for their false crimes. It is an atrocity.

If there’s a chance to prevent this from happening I have to reach for it. For me, leaving isn’t an option. I’m a monster that will never reconnect with humanity; an evolutionary advancement that they weren’t prepared for. They’ll never find me. I’ve been working and moving throughout the inside for nearly three years. I’m in a position to release at least three of those men from Compound A this week.  Next week maybe four. Productivity is down to an all time low thanks to my efforts to free the enslaved.

 I’m reminded that these efforts are not in vain every now and again when I catch a glimpse of defaced propaganda. Its evidence of those few that still walk with a free mind and continue to spread the truth.

That small part of society that can still think for itself. Thankfully to them, we are monsters.

Be a better monster. Be a better creature. The mind and body are the most powerful things a person has. They can always use maintenance and improvement. Just remember there are no shortcuts. And make certain that you are doing it for yourself. Changing for anyone other than yourself will not make you happy. Digressed…

This started out as a piece that I was going to barter last month. Long story. It changed. Another from the AWAKE series. So… the idea for this goes back to my research and interest in WWII. Hitler was trying to make a super soldier. IE: A soldier unhindered by fatigue, lacking compassion, highly aggressive, etc. Very few people know that Heir Dictator was responsible for distributing Meth to his soldiers. My thinking was... what if a soldier broke out of that brainwashing and became a better product because of this new freedom. Anyhoo, still working in circles… there is more. enjoy! m.