SHORT STORY THE TWILIGHT
THE TWILIGHT
Automatic traslation from the original story in Spanish. Not checked manually
The sixth dawn of 2084 was approaching, according to Adam’s calculations. It had been many years since he had been able to calculate their accuracy. Furthermore, he was absolutely convinced that his time was almost up.
In fact, he broke his leg and couldn’t go get food and, at his age, resistance to malnutrition was almost zero. He was 102 years old, was born in 1982, two years before the date George Orwell had used in his dystopian novel “1984.”
He smiled, Orwell had been right about the loss of freedoms and values, but not that there would only be a dictatorial and manipulative world government. In this sense, the opposite had occurred.
He remembered the beginnings, it all started with what became known as climate change. The problem was said to be the emission of greenhouse gases. Things changed, too slowly, but the same people always paid for them: the people, who became increasingly poorer.
Since the 2013 crisis, protest movements began everywhere. The population was increasingly dissatisfied. It occurred to someone pulling the economic strings that to avoid discontent and stop climate change, it would be necessary for a significant part of the population to disappear.
It was not prudent to use the resource that had been used for centuries: war, since, in a globalized world. Becauseit would end up harming large investors and that was absolutely inappropriate.
To solve it, work was done on developing a virus that was not excessively lethal. But before causing the epidemic, it was essential to have the antidotes ready, in case something went wrong that would not harm economically powerful families.
Meanwhile, this discontent among the population was causing situations that some political leaders quickly learned to use to satisfy their egos and, of course, their pockets. Extremisms, nationalisms and all the harmful “isms” began to appear, which they knew how to sell well to a vulnerable and therefore easily manipulated population.
Just when the situation in many places was beginning to be worrying, the antidote was finally available and the virus could be launched with sufficient safety. Many elderly people were killed, but the younger ones either did not die, or their long hospital stays left the public treasury trembling.
When they realized that it was not so easy or profitable, they released the vaccines with unprecedented speed in a matter of weeks, in order to vaccinate the vast majority of the population of rich countries. Their accounts had not been squared, but at least popular discontent had been neutralized.
Shortly after, they decided to wage small, major wars in various parts of the planet, in Ukraine, in many areas of Africa, in the Middle East… They tried to generate tensions and insecurity to, as far as possible, continue to keep the population calm. In addition, the manufacture of weapons gave good returns.
But then new problems arose, the ambitions of many politicians, generally not very intellectually gifted, led to the beginning of what would later be the dismemberment of the countries of Europe, ending up turning them into hundreds of tiny microstates that were completely unviable, irrelevant and without the capacity for subsistence.
In the midst of all the chaos, strategies through AI emerged as a possible solution to all the ills, which after a few years practically controlled everything, so human beings could not generate wealth and therefore went hungry.
I was one of the architects of AI and, finally, without entrusting myself to either God or the Devil, I added a series of algorithms in the large AI control centres, which in fact we no longer controlled, so that they would do what was necessary to recover well-being in the world.
Once I introduced them, within a few days the artificial intelligence was eliminating the human species at a rapid pace. I never thought how clearly, we were the obstacle.
With all the speed I was capable of, I took refuge in a cabin, which I had built years ago hidden in the middle of nowhere. I only took with me an android that I made without connecting it to the AI, to help me survive by hunting and searching for food to survive.
A few months later, the AI once considered that it had completely eliminated human life, went offline, so as not to waste polluting energy so that the planet could regenerate. They never located me and thanks to that I have reached the age of 102. A few days ago, the android broke down and I had to try to find food,
Thanks to this I saw that in the two decades that humanity no longer exists, the planet once again enjoys an exuberance and beauty to which it was no longer accustomed. Some species of animals have evolved and seem to structure and communicate much better than before. Perhaps one of them will be the dominant species in the future.
A week ago, upon returning from a foraging expedition, when I was going to bed, I tripped so badly that I broke my leg. With a lot of effort, I managed to lie down and I couldn’t move anymore.
I feel very close to my end. Maybe it will be today… I don’t know, but I feel faint. I’m looking out the window and I see that the black of the night is tinged with indigo tones, shortly after they are dark ultramarine, and then they turn violet. Next, the carmine gives way to the twilight that confidently displays its reddish nuances that announce the arrival of a new day.
I feel an enormous emotion and a happiness that makes me border on Stendhal syndrome… So, I ask, perhaps I pray that my eyes do not close before I can contemplate my last evening glow…
The hours pass and the arrival of the reddish tones confirms that I have been heard… Twilight begins… the reddish ones give way to carmine, then to violet, immediately afterwards the ultramarine that I know will give way to indigo, to that will displace the great black blanket of stars of the night…
I close my eyes; I know that I will never open them again… A smile appears on my dying lips when I realize that, in part, I have helped save this wonderful world… I sincerely hope that the new predominant species does better than usual, that we did….. ………..
The Twilight – Short stories series – Copyright ©Montserrat Valls and Juan Genovés