I was standing in the office of Pantheon, filling out a form. For those of you not in the know, Pantheon’s in the business of almost everything: weapons, food, cars, goods for children, et cetera. In general, they made over half of everything you’d want to buy in any supermarket. What was I doing in this place? To be honest, I wanted a job. My plan was quite simple, considering that I didn’t know much about this world. At some point, I had appeared here without any useful skills, and now I wanted to try and get a job in the largest company.
“My name is Danila Kornev,” I said, my tone hesitant. I was only becoming more nervous as the delay stretched. Then the moment came when my fate didn’t depend on me anymore. The door suddenly opened and I overheard a fragment of the conversation being had with another candidate.
“The information about your skills, that you tried to conceal, will be included in your work file.” Judging by the scared look on the face of the short, bald man who nearly ran into me, it was not a good sign. Probably, when he had filled out his form, he had written about false accomplishments and this was the logical result of him lying. Considering the widespread use of information technologies, and retention of any information in the databases, it was not only cheating but also a sign of low intellect. As for me, I filled up all sixty sheets of paper absolutely honestly, carefully writing the phrase “I don’t have any” under every question that described my professional skills and experience.
Honestly, I was afraid of more tests and additional questions—I thought I had a great chance to become a laughingstock afterward—but everything turned out quite differently. Some lady just gave me a chip with an access code for the first task. They probably searched the files for omissions, but my lie had been so big that nobody had foreseen it. The people of the future seemed to be quite naive in certain regards.
I guess I should point out the fact that the date on my calendar was fifty years ago only two days prior.
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“Welcome, Danila. Go to the gravity platform, and you will be taken to your area.”
As expected, I met nobody in the corridor. The company did not give us even a small chance to make any agreements in advance. However, I didn’t mind; after all, I had nothing to say to my opponents.
Sitting in the cabin, I could finally enjoy a comfortable chair, some tasty food, and natural alcohol. I hadn’t eaten for what seemed like a week. In the old world, my life hadn’t been much easier. It was not only that I had been a student who had just finished university, but everything was more straightforward, and more difficult, at the same time—Doomsday arrived. Without any special effects or warning, it just happened. One day people began to die. I am not quite sure about this part, but I hadn’t met anyone for two days and had started to think that there were no people left alive, except for me, in the whole city. Then, one day, after going down to the first floor of the hotel where I was living, I found that all of the corpses had disappeared. Considering that the floor was covered with chunks of dead flesh and fragments of bone, I assumed that someone, or some thing, had devoured them. Something that was very angry, with big claws. After that, I moved to an apartment with the thickest and most durable door that I could find. Unfortunately, it didn’t help—I was visited in the morning. Have you ever seen a metal door bending due to blows? It was not a pleasant sight, and I would not recommend it to anyone. I had made peace with death as something unexpected suddenly happened, and I appeared in the center of a big city, amid its noise and bustle.
To be honest, I was stunned. I stood still for an hour, without moving even once. I was just starting to realize what had happened and, as I understood later, it had been my salvation. When I appeared from out of nowhere on city cameras, I received a yellow status, which included the full verification and control of any of my movements. If I had taken a step or showed at least one unusual reaction, I would have been captured and spent my whole life in a laboratory, surrounded by people in white coats.
However, no deviations from the norm were revealed during the standard time, and I was given back a green status. If someone had tried to find out any information about me, they would have revealed a secret for certain. On the other hand, they would have had to do it in the first place.