The Future Is Not A Utopia

" As I stepped out of school onto the balcony, I whistled for a helicopter. As an orange chopper flew down, I reached for my PayPal card. Normally I wouldve taken a hovercar, but on Fridays it was impossible to get anywhere since the air-traffic was standstill. I had my e-backpack in my hand, in its  cozy case. The homework took up 1.2 gb, and was on the backpack. Choppers cost 5.50, and hover taxis cost 3.20. "where we headin at?" the pilot asked. "88 north drive, belt dorm drive, uptown." i replied. In about 30 mins, we arrived. I stepped on to the dorm hall. Why does everything has to be so complicated? Dad once told me that when he was also 22, they didn't have water covering the ground. Everyone traveled on ground, until 2040, when the north pole melted and the sea level tripled its height. I was born in a hospital, "somewhere above ground" as my mom described.she died two months after that, and I never got to see her. Shit, must've been cause if me, I sometimes think. Year of 2056 is the year of gaming son, my friend told me. Yeah, only two games came out that made above $100,000. When I entered my room I heard the usual bullshit: "Name?Destination?card?" I hate the stupid shit system, but if I broke it, I could be kicked the shit out of the university,not cool.i got home and took a beer and turned on the tv.

Usual stuff on the television: kids shows, MTV, news and aha gamers channel. This channel told people guides, cheats and news on upcoming games. My SR950 PC  powered any game literally: sky combat 3 or defend the flag7 . I put superfood in my microwave, which was pretty much the only food left now. Popcorn this time. I scanned the homework assignments: professor Robinson (robie) gave us a sheet of 100 questions, 50 of them in paragraphs. I usually aced these questions, but they were very time-consuming. I wondered why 1.2 gb?

And then I heard a knock on the door.

I looked through the peep hole and saw my friend holding an m16 assault rifle. What the fu- "get your shit and get outta here!¡!!!" he yelled, obviously forgetting I was standing the f**k in front ofhim. I saw an an annihilator hovering above and knew that shit was serious. I ran to my bed, opened the drawer underneath it and revealed my weapon collection-AK-47 with bullet strap, armor, mask, acr with scope, pump shotgun, pistol, and  a couple of grenades. I put on the armor, mask, put my ak-47 and bullet strap around the armor, attached my acr on my back, shoved a handful ofgrenades in my belt pocket, and my pistol in my other pocket. T's for the best, I thought.  As I joined my friend, I asked him what was going on. "it's..some sort of deadly virus...." his voice drifted off. I immediatelly understood.  Scientists have been talking about it since I was 11, in 2045. Everyone thought it was a myth. I followed him around the dorms. We saw blood on the walls and on the floors, but nobody was there. We even saw a head on the floor, laying in a puddle of blood and brains. I was scared as shit. Even though I had my guns and friend beside me, it felt like we were being watched. Just as we turned to go downstairs, we saw a freshman that I knew, lying on the floor  , green and burnt skin, flesh showing, no eyes, one arm only with blood dripping from where his arm was supposed to be. If this would be a video game, I would be like ehh.. But this was real. He started to moan. Huh? 2 seconds later he got up, screaming like the f**king banshee. My heart almost fell out of my mouth, no joke. I pulled the trigger at his head. After 10 bullets, he collapsed, his head somewhere on the stairs. I reloaded, and me and Chris jumped out of the dorms. We put on our hovershoes, and floated above the surface of the water, hoping no dead freshman popped out of the water and bit our heads off. "maybe we should just uhh.. Get your car,Chris " he pulled out some keys and immediatelly a BMW coupe on hover wheels appeared, as if spawned in the classical Grand Theft Auto.miss that game so much. We got in and flew through the streets of manhattan, seeing towers in flames, FBI swarms everywhere. We drifted through broadstreet, and flew through som alleys, breaking our side mirrors. Even though it was only 5pm, it looked as dark as midnight. Eventually we saw an empty building with a chopper parking lot. We thought that at least we were safe for now, but don't assume. Soon enough we saw swarms of these....creatures on the top of the building. Don't even ask how we got here. I pulled the pin and threw a grenade at a group. I looked through my scope, firing anyone off the building. Me and my friend stood back to back, not willing to give up. A couple of hours later, I was out of ammo and grenades except for my pistol which wasn't great for zombies. Apparently, my friend had a double barrel shotgun in the trunk of his car, which dealt epic destruction to these creatures. But that as out of ammo in 2 minutes as well, and these creatures had us surrounded. I remembered my fathers words: avoid being surrounded and you'll have an advantage over your opponents. I tried to look for an exit, and saw one, very thin and narrow. If me and Chris jumped through quick enough we would make it. Unfortunately my pistol took 20 shots to kill one thing, and there was atleast 1000 of them . All of a sudden, I felt a sharp pain in my back going up to my neck. I collapsed on the floor. My body felt as if it were on fire. I wanted to scream, but couldn't open my mouth. I wanted to get up, but couldn't move and couldn't see a shit. This was the end for sure, I thought. And it was. I felt a heavy wave of sleepiness rush over me. I fell asleep. Forever."

-Paul Timofeev

Press release, brochure holders, plastic forks, enamel paint, modified synthetic flowers, record player, headphones, record, international flag table cloth, potatoes, squid ink, cinderblocks, candles, fabric, projected digital animations, flash lights, collages, musically-based performances, effects pedals, special elixir - collaboration with Cindie Cheung (chilled chrysanthemum tea with homemade almond milk), etc.