Outer Division, New Earth, 0015 A.N(After Neocallers)

2056 O.E (Old Earth date)

Time; 3:30 pm

.....

I knew that cheap spare shop was a bad call..

...... Oh! It's working again.....

Alright. Where was I? Ah... I can't remember. Good news is the recorder won't go out again without me knowing. Out in a light diode to tell me when its about to start acting up. It's said that the lights that used to shine all over our world at night could be seen from hundreds of miles in the air. I wouldn't know that. I have only been alive for seventeen years and the highest I have ever been in the sky is when I stand outside my balcony in our one story home. My life is one messed up, crappy cycle of trying to take care of three children and a sick grandmother while still evading the Controllers before I land in prison. Oh... I'm sorry... you don't even know who the hell Controllers are... and I kinda promised to explain things didn't I?

OK. I need to take you back a little bit so you can understand the world as it is now. In the Facility (that is our name for schools), our Facilitators (teachers to you) call it The Dynamic Revelation. We are all supposed to been very thankful that it happened but I see nothing around my block to smile about. It was I think 2017 or 2018 when the Dynamic Revelation happened (no one keeps track of years anymore but me... remember me telling this?) No one in the Outer Division really has any idea what really happened that day, so the words of Facilitators from the Upper Division was taken as the truth.

We are told that the bombs were meant to kill the Neocallers (we call them Neos for short. They basically look like the robots from some of the old posters I see in magazines my Papa had). Their ships had been hovering above our world for almost six months before a panel of leaders during that time, some people known as Presidents, (yeah, I know... I have a hard time not laughing at that name too) decided to fire at them first. But it didn't work. The Neos had some sort of technology that sent the bombs back to us. Some parts of our world right now are inhabitable as we speak. The Facilitators called them 'Nuclear Wastelands' or something like that.

That was when the Neos retaliated. It seemed like they had been waiting for man to use his most powerful weapon. The causalities alone were too despicable to say. Grandma gets sad when she hears my small sister talk about it at home. Grandpa had been one of the soldiers fighting the Neos then.

So, needless to say that our armies failed and the entire world was lost. We were put under martial law and forced to live like animals. We had only two continents left to live in. Half of what we hear was called the United States of America and part of this place called Canada (Upper and Middle Divisions to us), and these lands known as Europe (Lower and Outer Divisions, or if you aren't feeling too fancy about names, Shitsville).

They say we were under the Neos rule for almost sixteen years, before the Uprising finally caught enough followers for humans to fight the machines. Grandma's son was the leader and he taught people how to fight the machines. He was really good with the alien and tech stuff. I think I got that from him. The war lasted another five years and I think that that was when people stopped bothering with the dates. I was born when Papa was still in our home town... I am technically supposed to be called a Canadian by birth because I was born in the Middle Division. But Mama was born in this place called Romania so she, together with my Grandma, took me off to the Outer Division when the war was at its worst.

My Grandma tells me I am a spitting image of my father. Strong build, hazel eyes and a talent to never take anything as the truth until I had done some research on it myself. Mama had taken most of Papa's things from the Middle Division and they were my new life. He wrote of so many things that he was curious to know. Things he was curious to make. Things he had discovered with his work on the Neos. They were a welcome substitute when the war ended and not ever soldier got to go home.

The world had changed and the General (President to you) rebuilt the New World I live in today. With the low rations and unrest of the people, he was forced to rule with an iron fist to keep law and order. I don't really know if my father would have been different. But all I know is that I hate this life I lived.

The Upper and Middle Divisions had been heavily influenced by the Neo tech and so they thrived on it and soon had a world beyond any our fore fathers could have even dreamed off. The Lower and Outer Divisions, where mostly children, widows of the war and the elderly lived, were treated as poor outcasts. You needed a very good reason if you were ever going to make it to the Upper and Middle Divisions. One of them was reproductive proficiency. The Expansion Decree I was talking about earlier.

That's how I lost Mama. She was just from having her sixth child when the Expansion Decree came. All children under the age of seven years were to be taken to the Upper and Middle Divisions where they were likely to survive. I was fourteen then. My younger sister, Elena, was twelve and the one following her, Mihaela, was ten. Luca, who looked very much like Stefan (this was my new Papa and my siblings' father) was just eight years. Mama was devastated. She loved us all, but she was closely attached to Maria, who was three, and now baby Ioana. She and Stefan had refused to part with the two children and they were 'disciplined' for their insubordination. Elena still wakes up screaming at night and I have to sit with her until she falls asleep, only for Mihaela to rouse us an hour later with her screams.

I was surprised at how Luca was never terrified of not seeing Mama anymore. In many ways, he truly was like Stefan. Even if the man wasn't my Papa, he was as good as any. So Grandma had to take care of us. The first few months after the Expansion Decree ended with many families still mourning. Mistrust grew for the Upper and Middle Divisions that we did not want any association to the 'Controllers' (now you know what I was talking about.) We tried to rebel but we were nothing compared to them. They did to us what my Grandma says was done many many years to other countries. She called it colonizing.

So Facilities were built to keep us in line and teach children still living here about how we all should be thankful to the Controllers for ending the war for us while we sat here and cowered in silence. I was always angered by those sessions. I could never keep my mouth shut when that Facilitator started saying how they were brave to fight the Neos when the real heroes were from here and were all dead. That usually earned me double duties in the Factory. (oh, our lands were very rich in minerals and ores so Controllers added salt to injury by making us work for them.)

It has been three years now since Mama died and I don't know how to continue keeping our family safe as I promised her last we saw each other. Grandma is too sick to work anymore and I know its old age. If she dies, we will be minors without a guardian. We will probably never see each other again when we get scattered all over the orphanages in our lands. Another problem was that I was almost eighteen years in the next six months and would be considered an adult.

Adults between 18 and 28 in the Outer Division were always taken to work on the harder grounds in the Lower Division. Unless you were special, then you'd get to go work for the Controllers in the Middle Division. No one had ever seen the Upper Division and some said that the Neos were still ruling us, just using the General and his army as a cover. No one could know for sure. There was a huge body of water between the two worlds for anyone to sneak and have a peek.

So that was why my work had to be finished and finished pretty fast. Remember me saying I took after my Papa in the being smart? Well it was the only hope my family had of not being scattered again. I found out in Papa's notes that he was sure the Neos were able to stop cell degeneration as they were able to make new ones. If I could find the right mechanisms to replicate this science, I would ensure that Grandma wouldn't die and I wouldn't leave my siblings. I was actually skeptical about it when I started the project two years ago after Grandma's first mild stroke. But now, with Grandma's heart holding on to its last cardiac muscle and my age holding on to its last few months, I was sure I had to do it.

So here we are today. I'm just from stealing another bit of tech from the Factory (almost got caught this time) and it's the last thing I needed. My machine should be able to stop cell degeneration and make me stay seventeen forever.

Probably.

Elena and Mihaela will probably love this. Stuck on seventeen forever. Probably shouldn't show it to them.

Anyway. I am about to begin my first test run. The charging is almost done. I thought I'd write (well... record) this message in case anything goes wrong. If I die, please don't sell my stuff, Elena. Most of it is my Papa's and I'd really hate to know it's in the hands of some moron who will probably use it wrongly.

OK. It's the hundredth and fifty fifth day of the year of 0015 A.N and year 2056 O.E. First run of the Cell Degeneration Inhibitor... Geez, I need a new name for it if it works... Anyway, the time is 3:59. One minute left to maximum charge and commencement...

...forty seconds...

...thirty seconds...

...twenty seconds... Oh, Luca if you find this first before anyone else, this is not a toy and do not, and I mean DO NOT play with it...

...fifteen seconds..

... ten seconds...

... five... four...three... Oh! I forgot to sign off! My Name is...

* * * END OF TRANSMISSION * * *