JEM

Jasmine Emerson Mya, known by her friend as Jem, would soon be 16 years old and would be forced to merge with the city’s artificial intelligence, Mona. She didn’t like the idea at all. All of her older friends that had done it had changed too much. They were moved to the trade school, and most of them would be trained in courses that they had no real interest in. She had no want to study what the AI said she should.

She sat on the only hill that was high enough to see outside the city wall, it was in the middle of the central park, but none merged would climb up there, only the young would do it, and not many of them. It took two hours or more, but she thought the view was worth it. The world outside the wall looked to be nothing but vast areas of huge trees, and a few meadows on rolling hills, as far as she could see. There were a few lakes that shined in the sunlight.

Mona had taught them to go outside the wall was to court death in a thousand ways. It was why the wall had been built so many generations ago. It was for the safety of the people. She was not sure that she believed this, after all, she had read everything she could find about history, and Man had been the only thing other men had to really fear in the world. There were many beasts that could kill or many ways to die, but for man’s first 9,000 years that was normal. Living one’s life never knowing how death would come.

She had always been interested in history, but there was limited information in the city’s database she was able to access. She had never understood this, and when she had asked about it was told it was a time best forgot. This made her want to know more, so when she would merge she knew it would not be history she would be trained in. It was as if history was being hidden from the people.

The light wind blew a few strands of her long brown hair around her face, so she found a hair tie, pulled back her hair. It was going to be a warm day, summer was coming a little early this year, she thought. There were few clouds, and she could see for miles. She loved the way the water in the lakes shimmered in the sunlight.

A mockingbird made a loud noise in the trees behind her. She turned to look at where it was coming from. The bird was given a warring, coming up the path was a young man. This surprised her, she had never seen any others there in over two years she had been coming. Most of the youth spent Saturdays at one of the many attractions the city offered each month.

The few friends she had never wanted to wast their time hiking the day away, but she loved to be out in nature, out of the crowded city. The parks were the only place one could really be alone out in the open. In the city drones watching everything that one would do. For some reason the stay out of the parks where there were a lot of trees.

The young man had blonde hair, and was about her size, she noticed and walked with a sense of confidence about himself. He had on a head bandana that showed he was from the Southside school. He was smiling as he approached where she was sitting. “Fine day for a walk in the woods, is it not?” He asked.

“Yes, it is.” Was all she could think of saying. She was taken aback by how handsome he was, now that he was standing there.

“Wow, what a view you have here.” He was looking out over the wall at the forest. “I have never seen over the wall before.” She could see the wonder in his eyes.

“I love to sit here, it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.” She smiled up at him. “My name is Jasmine Emerson Mya, my friends call me Jem. You may join me if you like.”

He looked down at her smiling face, she was cute, he thought as he sat down next to her. “My name is Jeff James’s friend’s called me JJ. What school you from?” He asked.

“I’m from the North.” She yes with a little pride, after all, it was the best school in the city. “So, this is the first time you have been here?”

He nodded his head, “Yes, I had just learned of the place from a book I was reading and had to see it for my self. I really wasn’t sure the book was telling the truth or was just a fantasy tale, but if this part was true maybe the rest is real too.”

Wow, a book she thought, no one owns books anymore, let alone read them, but he was saying he had one. She had never seen one before, all her reading was what was on the city’s date base. “You have a book?” she asked.

He laughed a little, “Well, not with me, but yes I have many.” He was still smiling, “The one that talked about this place was published some 30 years before the city was built. That was why I was not sure if it was really a place that was part of the planing of the city, or hopeful thought of the author.”

Wow, she thought that would mean the book was over 800 years old, and he said he had many. “You have a book that old? Where did you get that?” She was not sure if she believed him.

“You know that the Southside is the oldest part of the city. The first remodel was 200 years later, they just dropped the buildings and build right on top. At that time it was when Mona went online, and there was no need for a lot of the things. Banks, cars, parking lots, or libraries. I have found a way into an old library that was sealed up. Not the whole libraries, just a couple of rooms.”

A couple of rooms of books, she thought, she was not sure she would ever leave. She had read about libraries and seen pictures of them, but he claimed to have found rooms of books. She got the feeling that he was telling her the truth, but why should he? He had just met her and knew nothing about her.

“It is time to get up Jasmine.” the voice of her room said. That meant it was 8 am, she would of like to lay there for a few more minutes, but knew the voice would not let her rest. She sat up, putting her feet on the floor. “Ten days, four hours till merging.” It added.

She didn’t need a reminder of that fact, but she was not going to let that spoil her Sunday. JJ was going to meet her for breakfast than he was going to take her to his library. She was not sure just why but was glad that he liked her. She had enjoyed meeting him, even if he had not told her about the library. She had never had a boyfriend before, always busy trying to learn more about history.

“Jasmine, would you care for a list of today’s attractions?” The voice asked. She didn’t like the voice much, it was not male or female, that could be why.

“No thank you.” She picked out a pretty pink and white flowered wrap around dress, she hoped, he would like. She looked at her self in the mirror. The dress showed off her small frame well, she thought. She was happy with her choice.

As she finished brushing her hire, the voice said, “Would you care to see the latest trends in hairstyles in the city?” She nodded her head, her reflection blurred and her hair changed. It was now blue, 2 inches long-standing up, with one strip about 8 inches long on the right side that stood and lead to the right and was bright red.

She shook her head no, and it changed to a huge teased out ball that was rain-bowed colored. Again she shook her head, this time it was a mass of tight curls, her natural color. “I’m fine the way it is, thank you.” Her reflection returned. She was never one to follow city trends. “Please make me a school bandana to match my dress.” She said.

She picked out a light pink wristband and head out the door, thinking of just how much Mona was part of the everyday life of living in the city. She was watching there every move. There were cameras all over the place, and the wristbands they all had on. She knew where they all were all the time, and was listing to their every word. She just hoped that she was unable to read her mind, but was sure that Mona could reason out what she may be thinking.

She wondered how many others had thoughts as she did. As she passed others who were merged with Mona on the street, she smiled at each as they passed, most smiled back but she could see in there eyes there was something missing, that the youth seem to still have. They told the youth that when the merge happened that they would never feel sorrow, alone, or disappointment again. This sounded good but the changes that she had seen in her friends that had merged may be too much of a loss. She didn’t want to have that happen to her, and she was going to find a way to stop it from happening. Maybe one of the books JJ had could help her in some way.

She reached the cafe, and JJ was already there at a booth, when he saw her, he stood up smiling, “I’m pleased you showed up, and in such a pretty dress.” She was blushing as she sat down across from him. “I ordered coffee, sugar only, hope you like it that way.” He said as the panel in the wall opened up, there were two steaming cups of coffee.

He had gusseted right, or had he, she thought, thinking about Mona had made her far too suspicious of everything. They talked about their schools as they ate, then out of the blue he asked her, “What do you think about merging in ten days?”

She almost dropped her fork when he asked. How did he know about when that was? She had not told him, she had not even told any of her friends when it was. “How do you know about that?” She said a little louder than she should have.

He looked around to make sure no one was paying any attention to them, lend forward a little, “Mona knows all, and if you know Mona so do you. Come to Southside with me and I’ll tell you more.” She must have had a strange look on her face. He smiled and added, “I could show you what I found, you know what I told you I found.” He winked.

What was going here, she wondered. He knew things that only the city database would know about her, and now he willing to show her the library if she went with him to the Southside. Was this some kind of trap the Mona was using to force her into a merge?

How would Mona know that she didn’t want to go along with the merge, could she really read her mind? Whatever the reason there was no way she was going to pass up the chance to see books for her self and to learn what he meant about his statement about knowing Mona.

Jem had never been to the Southside before and really seen little differences from the North. What she did notice was there were a lot more youths there. She wondered how far she should trust JJ. She liked him a lot, it was why she had agreed to have breakfast with him, thinking he like you too, now she was not sure what his motivation was, but she was going to find out.

JJ led her down an alleyway to a green door, he looked both ways, held a finger to his lips, so she would not say anything, and entered. It was what appeared to be a gaming room for the youth, but there was no one at any the stations. They walked to the back of the room where a young man was working at a computer. He never looked up, as JJ removed his wristband and set it down on the counter.

He looked at her, nodding his head too her. She removed her and sat it next to his. The young man pushed a numbered disk across to JJ, who picked it up, put it in his pocket, motion her to follow him. He moved to one of the game stations.

He motioned her to sit down in one of the seats as he sat at the other, he then pushed the start button. The play screen in front of them slid up out of the way as the two-seat moved into the wall. She heard the screen move back down behind them, then felt they began to slowly descend. “We can talk now, and Mona can’t hear or see where we are.” JJ told her. “She thinks we’re in the game room having fun right now.”

She don’t know what to say, she had many questions but was not sure where to start. She had never thought there was a place that one could go in the city that Mona could not watch. He smiled as they stopped, “Ever thing you have been taught about human life inside the city will change today.” The wall in front of them raised.

He was right about that. For the next 20 minutes, she saw things that she had only read about in the city’s database. Like young women that were near given birth, in the city if a woman was with child they were sent to a clinic till delivery, then the city took control of the child as the mother went back to their life. None knew who their parents were, but here there were women breastfeeding in the open.

She saw areas that gambling was going on, and booths where there was food that was outlawed as bad for people sold. She had no clue that stuff like this could be going on. There was drug smoking going on as if it was an everyday thing. She found it hard to believe all of this, her whole life would never be the same.

By the time they had reached a small office her hands were shocking a little and she tried to hind the fact from JJ, who told her to have a seat. There was a desk phone there, and it rang to her surprise. JJ picked it as he sat down behind the desk, “Yes, she’s here.” He smiled at her as he hung it up. “Well, what would you like to know first?”

“Why show me all this, how do you know I won’t go tell Mona what you have shown me?” She said in a shaky voice.

“I believe you feel the same as I, and that is to merge with Mona is to give up your self. As you saw there is another way to live if we are aloud too. We should be able to make our own choice as to how we live, don’t you agree?”

She had to agree with how he thought, but that didn’t enplane why he was showing her all this. She nodded her head, “Why show me?”

“First and for most I really like you. Second, we believe you may have some information that we could use.” What, she thought she didn’t have any information that was not in the city’s database.

“Who is we?” She asked as someone knocked on the door, open it and in walked three adults. This shocked her, and now she was really seared. There were adults that were not merged with Mona.

“Jem, this is Ted Coffey, Mitchell Watters, and Megyn Tucker. They are the founding members of the Inner City as we call it.” JJ told her.

They were all in there 30’s, she thought, how could they have gotten away without merging? Mitchell was the first to speak, “Jem, may I call you that?” She nodded her head, “Well Jem, we know this is all really strange to you right now, but we have reason to believe that you have seen some information that is very important to us,”

“Yes,” Ted added, “You see we have the ability to watch what Mona is watching without her knowing it. It’s not important for you to know how we can, right now, but this is how we have been able to live our own lives, not under her control.”

Megyn Tucker led on the desk and said, “We know its a lot to taken in all at once but have reached a point where we are overtaxing the resources at our hand, and if we are to survive we need to make a move.”

Mitchell spoke up again, “As you may have noticed that Mona has been removing or changing what we are shown of the city’s history.” She had not noticed this but was not going to tell them that. “We had checked the logs and you have seen more of the city’s history than anyone in over three hundred years, and it shows that a lot of this history has been removed from the database not long after you had accessed it.”

Jem shook her head, “You think that I may have seen something that could help you. I a sure you that my memory is not that good, nor can I think of anything right off hand that could be useful to you.” She was having a hard time dealing with all this.

Megyn smiled at her, “No worries my dear, we have ways to help you remember everything you have ever seen if you will agree to try.”

Two days later, she had been told everything there was to know about what they had called the Inner City, and just what it was they wanted with her. They had been hiding from Mona for almost 20 years and it was getting hard too. They had grown to near 3 thousand and it was harder and harder to feed that many. There was room to hide in the underground, but food and power were their biggest concern. She could understand why.

Ted and Megyn had found the ruined lab that had crated Mona when they were only 12, and learned that it was the back door hooked into the system, but they were only able to make small changes and still stay hidden. In the last year, they began to search for away out of the city. They wanted to live their lives the way they wanted not the way Mona wanted them too.

She could not blame them at all, she wanted the same thing. They had searched the database for the blueprints of the city’s sewer system, but it would seem that Mona was ahead of them, and had deleted them. The log showed that she had been the only person in over two years who had accessed that file, and they thought they could retrieve it from her.

They believe that it could show them a way out of the city, and they could start a life of freedom. She was all for the idea and would do what she could to help after all she wanted to go with them. Merging with Mona terrified her, and no matter what it was not going to happen.

Megyn led her into a small room with a chair, that was ringed with computer planes, with blinking lights. “Have a seat, and we will get this over with.” She told her, as she began to push buttons and throw switches, here and there.

They had told her that there was a risk to what they were going to try, it having never been done before. She didn’t care, people had a right to live the way they wanted. In her study of history, she could understand that at one point having given control over to artificial intelligence may have been the right thing to do, but that time has passed she thought.

It didn’t take long and the had the information that they needed, and it did hurt her at all. JJ had been monitoring from the next room and rushed in. He really did care for her, as much as she cared for him, she thought. He hugged her with a sense of relief that she was okay, and it made her feel good that he did. The information was just what they needed, and they were all acting as if she was some kind of hero, and she didn’t feel too good about it. She was no hero, just someone wanted to live free.

On the morning of her 16th birthday, JJ and her stood just inside of the opening of the sewer in the city wall. The view was stunning, trees and plants as far as they could see. They were going to be the first humans to be outside the wall in almost 500 years. Now they just had to relearn to live without most of the technology they took for granted. Her birthday would now become a new independence day for mankind.