Utopia Project: Everyone Must Die

by Billy Dering

  Jess kept his head down as he patted the sand mound. “We have to save the girls. I can’t do this again,” he choked out and crawled away.

  Kid and Jess returned to Old Man Drexer’s and took some time to regroup. They needed water, food, and a plan. Soon the inside of the shack was almost completely dark, save for the faint streams of moonlight coming through the windows.

  “When are we leaving?” Jess sounded impatient and nervous.

  “I think we would have the best chance if we tried to get on the ship later, in the dark of night,” Kid said. “We should try to get a couple of hours of sleep while we can. We have a long night ahead of us.”

  It took a minute before Jess seemed to accept what was being proposed. “I guess that makes sense.” A moment later he added, “I wish we had some heat in here.”

  “We can’t light the wood stove. They might spot the smoke.”

  “Then I better get the blankets from the truck.” Jess walked to the front door.

  Through the edgy gray, Kid walked across the shack and into the small bathroom. Barely able to see, he urinated in the toilet. At least he hoped he was.

  After Jess returned, he laid down on the floor. While covering himself with a blanket, he asked, “I know we can find a boat to get out there, but how are we going to get inside the ship?”

  “I am working on a plan.”

  “I figured you were. I just needed that peace of mind,” he said. “Let’s just hope and pray that the girls are alright.”

  “They didn’t seem to want to harm them, just to capture them.”

  “Without the girls, what is there?” Jess pondered aloud.

  “I don’t even want to think about it. I can’t think about it.”

  Kid changed the subject. “I guess we’re seeing the prodigies of that Utopia Project first hand.”

  “Yeah, with three huge ships, who else could it be?”

  A few minutes later, Jess sat up. He had an expression of deep curiosity. “You know, I can’t figure out why they jumped over the pier chasing after us before. All they had to do was run back to the boardwalk and take the steps down to the beach. They would’ve had us trapped between them and the ocean. That’s what anyone with half a brain would’ve done.”

  “You’re right,” Kid agreed. “They weren’t thinking, just following. What we did, they did. Lucky for us, because damn they were fast and strong.” He was rubbing his wrist as he walked to the back of the room and grabbed an antique spyglass from a shelf.

  “These people are more machine-like than the news described,” Jess noted.

  Kid stood staring out a dusty cracked window facing the sea. Lifting the spyglass to his eye and fully extending it, he spotted the three ships. They were surrounded by a faint glow, and looked like ghosts in the night. He squinted as he gleaned as many details about the ships as he could, given the vague luminosity. As he stared through the spyglass, the focus changed from the ships at sea to a large crack in the window a couple of inches in front of his face. Collapsing the visual aid, he put it back on the shelf.

  “Remember the first time we stayed out on this beach all night?” Jess asked, breaking Kid’s train of thought. “You telling us all of those ridiculous stories. Ghosts of black dogs with hatchet wounds in their heads and weeping widows walking the beach.”

  “Don’t forget the moon-cussers,” Kid added. In the 18th century off of the New Jersey coast, stalking pirates would curse the moon for providing so much light that they couldn’t carry out stealthy attacks on passing merchant ships. As he thought of it, Kid stared up at the half moon in the sky. He guessed that the pirates even cursed half-moons since they couldn’t attack with absolute stealth.

  “None of us slept that night, not even a wink,” Jess said.

  “I know, but you have to admit, that sunrise was worth waiting for,” Kid recalled.

  “It was. Nothing better than having a night to kill with your girlfriend at the beach while waiting for the sun to rise.”

  Kid continued to gaze out the window. “It’s hard to believe this all started out as a harmless night of hanging out under the pier.”

  “I feel like that night still hasn’t ended.”

  “It really hasn’t,” he replied. “It’s like a nightmare you can’t seem to wake up from. All of what we’ve known, all of who we’ve known, appear to be gone. Everything that seemed so important just a few days ago is meaningless now.”

  “And what’s the future going to hold for us?” Jess sounded despondent.

  “It depends on how far this went. If the rest of the country is like this, when winter breaks and all of the corpses thaw, I see us being sick to our stomachs from a smell that we can’t escape, a smell that’s become part of the air we have to breathe to live.”

  Jess grimaced. “Just thinking about it makes me want to throw up.”

  “And can you imagine the swarms of insects? They may take over the earth.”

  Kid finally laid down on the floor and covered himself with a blanket. He wished he could sleep for a little while, knowing he would need his energy later, but all he did was toss and turn. He tried to clear his mind, but kept thinking of Sara, and he wondered what was happening on that ship. The possibilities were endless, and each one was more frightening than the next.

  Chapter 9

  December 27, 2044

  Tuesday, Late Afternoon

  New Jersey coast, Utopia Project

  Ship Number One

  The day after the event

  After leaving the room of the last captive, Elder-1 walked upstairs to the central command center. As he approached the medical suite, he noted the long line of waiting elders. It was then that he realized why they were all there.

  Raising his walkie-talkie to his lips, he said, “Elder-28, over!”

  “Here, Sir.”

  “The medical suite shall remain open until all elders are seen.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  The elders were all there to get the tiny, rice-sized tracking device removed from their necks. It was just one week ago that Elder-1 had taken a big risk in inserting them in the first place.

  December 20, 2044

  Tuesday, Midday

  Southwestern Greenland coast,

  Utopia Project Ship Number One

  Six days before the event

  The lead elder of the Utopia Project stood at a dais, flanked by the other members of the Board of Elders. He acknowledged the ten Board members up there with him, and was grateful to have so many powerful countries represented. Directly to his left was Elder-2, a Supreme Officer in the Russian Federation. To his right was Elder-3, a Shang Jiang in the People’s Liberation Army in China, which was the equivalent of being a general in the United States Army. Elder-1 then lifted his eyes and glanced around the dining room of Utopia Project Ship Number One, which doubled as a meeting room when all of the elders needed to come together. He impatiently waited for the doors to be shut and locked, so they could begin their emergency meeting. Member servers were still placing coffee carafes along all 16 rows of tables facing the dais. Steel push carts loaded with fruits and pastries were being parked in the back of the room, but no elders were partaking.

  The room seemed tense as Elder-1 looked at all of the waiting eyes. There had been such mandatory group meetings before, but never one like this. First, all electronic and mobile devices were left on tables outside the door. Then, for any of the more than two-hundred elders to enter this confidential, and world-changing gathering, they had to agree to have a tracking device inserted in the back of their neck. It was small, the size of grain of rice, and was not even noticeable once inserted. This temporary invasive measure was touted as being necessary so that the movement of all elders could be mapped and coordinated using the United States GPS satellites, but for only one week’s time. The device would then be removed. Most of the elders raised an eyebrow, but cooperated. They all believed it was just a tracker. But it was so much more.

  On
ly eight elders refused to get the tracker inserted, and were precluded from entering the meeting. Fools. They would be dead before they even returned to their country of origin. Upon leaving, all eight were required to sign a release form. The pen they were given was coated with a poison that took about fifteen minutes to reach the bloodstream, where it would propagate and attack the heart.

  He was pleased that almost every elder was in attendance, but knew it would be a difficult meeting. Many might feel betrayed so he would have to choose his words carefully. The fate of the entire world was at stake. And four-star United States Army General, Maximillian, ‘Max,’ Cramer, otherwise known as Elder-1 in the Utopia Project, had invested too much of his life in trying to save it.

  Finally, Elder-10 confirmed that the doors were closed and locked. The member servers hustled through the doors to the kitchen, which were closed behind them. The meeting could now begin.

  Elder-1 cleared his throat and started. “As you know, for 20 years, the last 19 being here on the southwestern Greenland coast, we have been developing our new society. The Utopia Project was started by America, and we,” he touched his chest, “have been proud to lead this project from inception. But given the ongoing crises around the globe since the controversial presidential election in America in 2020, and the world-wide COVID-19 pandemic, and with no end in sight to the death and bloodshed, even in the once sheltered United States, we were able to secretly partner with many of the largest and most powerful countries in the world. We had all admittedly lost control of our citizens, and the carnage and instability was only growing. The entire world needed a solution. That solution was, and is, social conditioning- the only way to truly control the masses.” He stopped and looked about the room.

  “The Utopia Project represents the ultimate collaboration of many of the largest countries in world, allies and enemies alike. Most are represented right here,” he motioned toward the other ten people, five males and five females, sitting at the dais. “Including Russia, Britain, China, India and Japan to name a few. These nations have been graciously providing financial support and ‘loaning’ top military, government and civilian leaders to assist in this world-saving initiative.”

  “But with the rapid expansion of the project, we soon outgrew our first ship and had to build two more. And as you know, another vessel was scheduled to be built next year. But most importantly we perfected our conditioning techniques, as exemplified by the society we built on these ships. And after 20 years were finally ready to start the phase-in of our harmless, yet highly effective, social conditioning in several countries. We were on the verge of the transformation of society!” He realized his voice was rising, so he stopped for a moment to regain his composure.

  An elder in the first row raised a hand and asked, “Sir, what do you mean…were?”

  “America’s president-elect and his new team do not support our project. We met with them a few days ago, in an effort to make them understand what is at stake, especially given how many countries are participating with us. Our efforts were futile. They clearly have their own agenda and had already made up their mind. They pointed to the CCP and the Civil Crisis of 2025, and to the similarities with using conditioning techniques on human beings, and told us our conditioning phase-in will never happen under their administration.”

  Murmuring and whispering swelled in the room, prompting Elder-1 to raise his hand for silence.

  Another elder raised a hand and asked. “But surely they recognize that something must be done? Our countries have all been embroiled in civil crises for decades, with no end in sight.”

  “They acknowledged that, but they believe conditioning will take too long to show any marked improvement in society’s behaviors and actions. They want more immediate results. His brilliant team has other ideas, captured in an initiative they called, Absolute Truth.” He turned to Elder-2.

  The second highest-ranking elder stood and cleared her throat. Elder-2 began, “With Absolute Truth…” Her native language was Russian, so she tended to speak slow and enunciate every word. “… the 48 United States GPS satellites would continuously record the planet 24 hours per day using advanced infrared video imaging coupled with thermography. They would be able to see people everywhere, even inside buildings and homes, and they could zoom in on a square-inch anywhere, and from any time, past or present. And as far as the use of thermography, we all know it is far more effective than fingerprinting or retinal scans as a means of personal identification, which is why we use it,” she patted the thermographic scanning device clipped to her belt. “But in conjunction with the infrared video imaging, they would use thermography to scan the entire world and locate individuals via satellite within seconds.”

  Holding up a hand, Elder-1 resumed speaking. “Thank you Elder-2. The president-elect touted Absolute Truth as the ultimate deterrent because most crimes would be captured clearly by the infrared video, and the perpetrators of the crimes would be easily identified, located, and caught using the thermography. With people being tracked and recorded 24 hours per day, Absolute Truth would change people’s visible behavior and how they act, but would not change what people feel and believe inside. Therein lies the philosophical difference versus our approach—our conditioning actually changes people inside; their perceptions, beliefs and internal responses. After being conditioned, a person truly sees a cobra snake as beautiful. With Absolute Truth, a person says the cobra is beautiful while really finding it repulsive.”

  An elder in the middle of the room raised his hand. Elder-1 acknowledged him, so he stood. “Why wouldn’t the new president just do both until he proved which way was better? If he did, he would see why our approach is superior.”

  “They cannot afford to do both, and were looking for any excuse or justification to shut us down and free up the billions of dollars that support our project every year, funds that the project cannot survive without. Well,” he paused, “they now have that excuse. We have just learned that a confidential memo from inside our project, with distorted but incriminating details, is now in the hands of a reporter named Lily Black at the Washington Post. We will be headline news by tonight, and will be for days to come.”

  Another elder asked, “How did a confidential memo get out? Do we know who the traitor is?”

  “The memo was authored by Elder-62, our former lead psychologist who deserted us a few weeks ago. But this plays right into the new president’s hands. This will stir up the public and make them hostile, leading to protests and condemnation, before they can even be presented with the facts. The new president has already said this morning, that once the news breaks, his response will be that he will shut our project down as soon as he is sworn in.”

  That was the flashpoint. A cacophony of angry and incredulous voices erupted in the room. Several elders jumped to their feet. Elder-1 again raised his hand for silence. “Sit. We have a plan.”

  He waited for the group to quiet down before continuing. “There are already threats to remove us from our government, military and civilian positions in our countries and to press charges based on the information in the memo that was released.”

  “What is our plan?” asked an elder who was still standing. “We must save this project!”

  “Take your seat. Before we discuss the plan, let’s first look at our options. It is simple. We let them shut down our project, or we assert our collective power and save it, and the world. If we let them shut us down, the world will soon end. It is already on a crash course with complete destruction. Overpopulation will strangle our planet, but not before the earth is destroyed simply by the behavior of its inhabitants. For decades, the world has seen one civil crisis after another, growing in number and intensity, heading toward a critical mass. We have small, unstable countries with nuclear capability, terrorist organizations, militias, gangs, religious zealots. Members of these groups are gaining power, becoming more implanted and intertwined within the political, corporate, and social structures in many co
untries, all preparing for the inevitable war. Everyone in this project agrees that the only way to cure the ills of society is through conditioning, otherwise you would not be here. So shutting down the project will result in the end of humanity, and the end of the world, entirely.”

  Elder-1 took a deliberate pause.

  “What makes our group so strong is that we share a common set of beliefs, and a vision of a better world. A simpler one, without the stress the old world lived with and manufactured every day. In our world members are raised with a foundation of innate conformity to rules and expectations. All model citizens. The rise of the Utopia Project has been unprecedented in human history, and our collective power far and away eclipses the individual power of any single country- including America. The only viable alternative is to assert our collective power and take control of the world and we have the ability to do so. With the advent of the neutron beam system being added to the 48 United States GPS satellites, we can once and for all wipe the slate clean and start to repopulate the earth with the perfectly conditioned 20,000 members we have on our three ships. That will be the start of the new world. It is the only option, otherwise our project is shut down and the world will never be saved.”

  Elder-155 from Japan raised her hand. Elder-1 acknowledged her and she jumped to her feet. “Sir, to clarify, it is being proposed that we wipe out the entire world using neutron beams?”

  Elder-1 gave an assured nod. “Yes. It is unfortunately the only way.”

  “We are able to access such a secure weapon system and use it for such purpose?”

  A knowing smirk came to Elder-1’s face. “We already have full and complete access to the satellite system, and tested it this morning when activating the trackers we all have implanted.” He turned and nodded at the elder who had helped accomplish this.

  Elder-41 looked stunned, and even aghast, that he had unlocked the system for such a purpose.