The Excluded (a.k.a. The Cyber Dead)

Stephen is disconnected. His high-end laptop is as dead as the proverbial doornail. His artificially intelligent phone is nothing more than an expensive paperweight. It has only been a few weeks but already he's become use to the isolation. He walks down the street as seldom as possible these days, but when he does, he takes the four small walls of his apartment and the cramped space between them with him.

On paper, Stephen is still alive and well. But paper is irrelevant. Social networking pages, portable telephone numbers, television. These are the things that connect a man to the world today. Without them, he floats through his days alone and free. Total freedom. Who knew?

Stephen has a family. Or he did. He hasn't spoken with them (or anyone else, for that matter) in the past few weeks. They might be worried. He hopes they are. But he has disappeared before. Never for this long. But it's happened.

The last time had been for three days. There had been no particular reason for it. Stephen finds that very few actions are motivated by reason today. Instant gratification tastes oh so sweet. And why not? If the book of Genesis is to be believed, it was the want for more than instant gratification, the need for reason, that got us into this whole human mess in the first place.

And what a mess it is! Unless I’ve been misinformed (which we must take a moment to realize is certainly very possible; we’re all so gullible in the long run), we (and I mean humanity as a whole) couldn’t make it two generations into this whole thing without letting our homicidal tendencies get the best of us. Oh to be the logical creatures that we pretend!

Stephen thinks too much. He recognizes and acknowledges all of the above with minimal reluctance. He just can’t help himself. (Thank God Stephen’s not homicidal!) The thinking in and of itself isn’t the problem.

People wouldn't mind, but Stephen has a bad habit of thinking out loud. He'll babble on and babble on and babble on in Babylon. Are you paying attention? No one ever asks him to be quiet but he can tell that they're thinking of nothing else. So he did one time.

Stephen unplugged. He turned off the lights and unplugged the phone. He shut down his laptop and locked the door behind him. He walked outside into the pouring rain with nothing but a bad idea in his head and a few dollars in his pocket.

He'd turned up a few days later physically tired and broke. Yet his heart had been so light. Stephen’s introverted inclinations disappeared for a moment. Walking to his parents’ door, he’d smiled at every person whose path he crossed. He’d even gone so far as to wave and speak to the familiar faces. Every one of them politely waved back and brushed him of as quickly as decorum would allow. The false smiles would disappear before they’d even turned completely around. Stephen had thought to himself that the rain must have washed them away.

Stephen’s heart grew heavy again. He’s been gone for these weeks trying to make a point to the people he loves. He’s not online yet still he exists. The physical interactions let you know you’re not alone in the universe. Prolonged isolation, modernity’s most prized possession, has even managed to convince a few that there is no universe. They just possess extremely active imaginations. It’s an interesting thought but something in Stephen just won’t let him buy into it. Even if he could, the discomfort of being an ineffective god would probably bring him back to the same conclusions he’s already reached.

Stephen is going home now. The wilderness that starts just south of what once was 8^th Avenue has given him the solitude he’s needed. He hopes someone has noticed his absence but that’s not really important.

As Stephen walks into the city at twilight, he sees the sun burn a brilliant red on the horizon like it never has before. He pauses for a moment. It dawns on him, ‘neath the rays of the setting sun, that he hears absolute silence. Yet for once in his life, he hears everything. The city is dark.

As Stephen gets closer and closer to the city, he realizes that something is very different. He begins to see people in the street. Bonfires burn freely in the alleys. People sit in large groups, larger than he’s ever seen, gathered round the fires like the ghosts of cavemen. Then it hits him. He hasn’t seen an operational vehicle yet. Neon advertisements seemed to have disappeared. The streetlights are out. All of the lights are out. Stephen is not alone anymore.