He was walking on one of those decrepit sidewalks that were usually found beside the well-maintained walkalators right next to the main road, unused by the general public who preferred their ground to aid them in reaching their destination faster, because the few seconds they saved gave them a sense of satisfaction and time-management. He thought that was largely hypocritical because they all spent a few hours in the Arcadiums near their workplaces anyway. And they all looked the same. Not the same in their looks, exactly, but they were all nearly the same age, with perfect physical proportions. They were all… in the prime of youth. That was it. Not a single soul on that street was old or infirm or even middle-aged. In a century that had been hailed as the Age of Individuality, why was every face so generic? The answer lay in every major pharmaceutical’s hands. The key to immortality, the greatest obsession of mankind, had finally been found. The gene that caused aging in humans after reaching physical maturity had been isolated, and an easy suppression and reversal process had been implemented for the happy consumers, in the form of the drug Yuvenix.
But of course, there was a price. Always a price, he thought and smiled wryly.Those who could afford to buy the pills, and keep buying them, were immortal. The people who could not afford it would die of old age. An ingenious way of reducing the rich-poor divide, another thought said. In one way, youth was just as addictive as heroin or cocaine. And the fear of dying became that much more potent when a man knew it could be avoided forever. In short, everyone was hooked. He was one of the few people who could afford Yuvenix, but chose to stay away. And why? There was so much to see in the world, surely extending his life by a few years was worth it? He could choose to die whenever he wished by simply stopping his intake of the drug. He could go back to his love, who had left him a few years ago because of his refusal to buy Yuvenix. Then he remembered why he had refused. She had begged him to take the drug, having already reversed her looks to her twenties. She had pleaded that they could relive the early days of their marriage, enjoy their youth again and forever. “We can correct all the mistakes we’ve made, we won’t be the same foolish kids we were back then!”. He had frozen in shock, thinking of how wrong it was for people to be given a second chance at the lives they had willfully spent. He turned stone-faced then, flatly refusing to have anything to do with it. “Senile old fool!” she had screamed when she left the house. He gave a bitter laugh at the thought that the drug was in a way responsible for ruining the last years of his marriage.
Suddenly he heard footsteps coming from further up along the footpath. Surprised, he looked up to see a woman who appeared to be shuffling slowly along the cracked stone slabs. As she came closer, he observed her wrinkled, withered face and a tight bun of thinning white hair behind her head. She looked even older than he was. There were soft lines around her eyes and lips that showed she smiled a lot. Even now, while she walked towards him with an intent gaze upon his face, it appeared she would burst into a smile any moment. He took the opportunity to seat himself on a creaking bench whose paint had peeled off eons ago. The lady quietly sat down beside him. They were silent for a while, attracting curious and often disdainful glances from passers-by.
Finally the woman turned her head towards him and smiled. He tilted his head towards her and without thinking, smiled apologetically. He immediately felt odd about it. Why was he apologetic, when he had committed no crime? But the lady shook her head, and he knew she was saying it was not his fault. Then she spoke, “You are not to blame. And yet you are. A family is tainted for a crime committed by one black sheep. You stereotype a community for the vices of a few people. An organism is to blame for the negative attributes of its species. As part of the species, you are at fault.” He thought he knew what the crime was, but still prepared himself to ask this question. As though reading his thoughts, the woman gave a lopsided smile. “You already know what I’m talking about, since you’ve been speculating it for quite some time now.” Shocked, he opened his mouth to protest, but was unable to form any words. She raised one gnarled finger to silence him, and continued, “You always knew that there is a balance to everything. Did your species think that the laws that govern the universe were no longer applicable to you, simply because you had the gift of seeking knowledge. Surely the several millenia of observations should have awakened you to the fundamental principle of all existence?!” She looked exasperated and almost… angry. “There are always consequences, no matter how slightly you tip the scales. And this” she waved her hand at the pacing crowd,”has gone far beyond that. I am afraid this world will indeed end in fire for your kind.”
Struggling with his tongue, he finally gasped, “But there must be something!… What did I do?! What can we do? Surely you don’t mean…” And then it dawned upon him that the lady had been using the term ‘you’ and ‘your species’…as if she wasn’t part of it. He found himself unable to do much except notice how his spine seemed to be freezing, and his heart was thrumming desperately against his chest. The phantasm just sighed. “No, there is nothing. I only came here because you are one of the innocent ones. I have come to spare you the pain of witnessing.” Very slowly, she smiled sadly at him before caressing his forehead lightly with her fingertips.
His body was found a few hours later by a police patrol, without any identification on his person. The body was incinerated the next week without ceremony, as no one came to claim the deceased who, by his looks, must have been rather poorly off.
A week later, governments all over the world reported thousands of unexplained deaths of non-yuvenized populations. The general response was one of inaction, since in most countries non-Yuvenized people were socially marginalised.In less than a month, there was a general acknowledgement of the fact that every human on Earth was Yuvenized. A year later, news spread of a man who committed suicide by lying face down on a highway. His family reported that earlier that day he had burnt his entire hand without any apparent pain. Further investigation revealed that the man’s behaviour had been increasingly eccentric in the past few months. His family had complained that he had been spending millions of credit on entertainment modules and behaving increasingly savagely, deliberately eliciting violent reactions from people. His psychiatric report showed a rapid mental deterioration, from acute depression to total numbness, resulting in dementia. Within a week, several incidents were reported of rampages by people showing similar symptoms. In the ensuing panic, it was speculated that the virus that had wiped out non-Yuvenized populations might be mutating into a virus that was destroying neurotransmitters. Other philosophers attributed it to isolated cases of psychological disorders caused by realisation of one’s own immortality. While the subject was being intensely debated, the isolated incidents kept growing, causing mass hysteria which in turn led to accelerated deterioration of the psychological conditions in affected regions.
The last human record was written 342 days later on a wall, by a mutilated woman crying incessantly. It was followed by a deafening metallic screech, and silence.
P.S. I have not seen the movie ‘In Time’, nor borrowed any ideas from it. I was thinking about this a full month before that (as people have told me) insipid movie came out. :|
