"7346767ZBC is requested in the central square in 15 minutes. I repeat, 7346767ZBC, central square, 15 minutes."
A thunderous voice devoid of any emotion rang out from the speakers which were placed everywhere. But where is that, almost everywhere ? It's like it was in a nowhere place. A place that not only had no name, but no substance.
She saw radiant landscapes, endless abundant waterfalls in the middle of lush forests with enchanting birds... She could even hear them, hear their delicious songs and their echoes, in this vast space... Sometimes, there were beaches, the famous fine sandy beaches and their coconut trees. She had also found herself near a hanging lake, above a cliff plunging steeply into a raging sea... There again, she could hear the crash of the foam falling onto the white rock. Once again she found herself in a sort of immense rock cave, which sheltered within it an oasis of plants and trees unknown to the battalion, as far as she knew...
Yet none of it was real. Here, nothing was, and each time she got closer to these places, she realized that these idyllic places were only projected images, holograms ! Yes, holograms, she had already heard of that, but she didn't know that such technology was already developed...
She passed her hands back and forth in horror through the forest leaves and other grains of silky sand... She could pierce them, as if she were a ghost. Maybe she was one after all ? Nothing had substance here. Nothing had any texture or smell.
When she was hungry, a restaurant would appear, accompanied by the smell of pizza or cheeseburger. But she soon discovered again that it was only a mirage.
As if someone or something was in her head and guessed her desires and tastes at any given moment.
Did she want to sleep? A sumptuous four-poster bed then appeared, the bed of her dreams, with finery and curtains perfectly to her taste. But to make matters worse, it could sometimes disappear before she could even reach out to check for the umpteenth time that it wasn't real.
Then she began to beg in her head that something concrete would happen, that she would be given even a pallet to rest her body, so tired from this never-ending stay. And that's what happened, in fact: mattresses appeared, a string of mattresses lined up on the floor... They seemed so real that she threw herself at them with ardor, as if miming this action may have an impact on reality. But all that happened was that she landed with a crash on the ground. The hologram then disappeared, as if to taunt her.
She found herself on this white and immaculate floor, this floor which seemed to be made of plastic. It happened to her, in moments of ultimate despair, to cry out to death, to scream so that someone here or elsewhere could hear her... Sometimes, she saw walls, in this white and infinite space... White , white as far as the eye can see and an ambient temperature allowing her to live, or rather to contemplate her decrepitude over time.
It was probably on purpose. But quickly, quickly, procrastination became out of the question. She had to quickly get to the central square, at risk of starving. The next call wouldn't happen in a long time, she knew it. Exactly how long, she was unable to say, because she had ended up losing track of time... But a long time, for sure.
Thanks to a holographic watch equipped with GPS, she was able to find her way and reach the central square, after crossing a maze of alleys with immense walls. She suspected that this place sheltered a roof, yet probably it was too high for one to see its limits...
Moreover, this watch that she wore on her wrist, this adjustable holographic watch, was not just a watch, because every day she saw at the top right of the dial a countdown that was being made. A countdown in Globals. She therefore came to the conclusion that she was losing 100 Globals every day, and had also noticed that she even lost 120 Globals when she went to the central square to collect her ration of bread and water.
From time to time, holograms appeared on the wide paths of this labyrinth of misfortune, as if to divert her attention, to distract her from her course.
Panting, she arrived there. She had less than a minute to collect her dues, after this the large iron mouth embedded in a huge pylon would close and she would have to wait... Wait. Either way, she seemed doomed to this.
But condemned to what, exactly ? She didn't even know it. All she remembered was not having worn the regulatory mask in this airport... A flight to Uruguay. Then it was the blackout. In fact, a mask was to be worn for several months and all travel outside the home had been prohibited unless a special exemption was granted on the grounds that a virus had apparently spread across the entire planet. Social distancing and regulatory coldness between individuals had been imposed for the common good. She remembered this clearly because her arm bore some marks. Someone had beaten her in the street when she had gone out after curfew. Actually, this memory had resurfaced at the sight of this mark. Members of the democratic police had even witnessed and filmed the scene to post it on social medias to make an example !
She no longer remembered before the arrest, nor after. In fact, her memory had been partly erased to leave room only for fairly futile memories such as the name of her favorite movie or her management courses in programmed artificial intelligence. But no trace of her family, her place of birth and so on... She barely remembered her name, Jenny. Or maybe Jane, something like that... But who was she ?
Perhaps, if she had had the opportunity to look at herself in a mirror, she would not have even recognized her own face ? It seemed to her that she had become an empty shell, a number neither with a past nor a future, in this gloomy white place.
Moreover, it seemed to her that she was even beginning to lose the very use of speech, by dint of being isolated like this...