Author Ivan Nemet, Medicinska škola Osijek
Out of all of life’s mysteries, the one you’d think wouldn’t be possible to solve was The Future. Ironically, by the year 2022 the option to see the future was already possible thanks to Soothsayer Inc., which became the world’s most popular company as the news began to spread. Eventually, it became the richest as well. What? Did you think the future was going to be “free“? Of course it isn’t free! In fact it is actually quite expensive. Not on the same level as those “mega yachts“ all the rich people are crazy for, of course. If I had to rate it, it would probably be around what a somewhat rich teenager’s allowance would be. That seems like a strange way to put it, but that’s the exact amount a young man named Ben paid to see his future. Ben was a weird kid, he wasn’t outgoing or physically fit, but he was a hard-working student and cared more about his future than anyone in his class. So you can only imagine what it was like for him as he entered Diviner Mall, thinking he can finally put all of his suspicions to rest. „”Oh dear….“ he muttered to himself repeatedly as he was looking at the guide a Soothsayer employee gave him, showing him where Oracle Hall (Public) is located. His eyes were so focused on the guide that he didn’t even notice the man he bumped into. ”Oh, I’m so sorry, Sir, I wasn’t…….,“ he paused as before him wasn’t any ordinary man, it was Dr. Saul Mraudscaffer. The CEO and lead scientist of Soothsayer Inc. as well as the weirdest person Ben has ever seen. He was an old, tall man with pale skin and longish hair that looked weirdly sharp. He was wearing a white suit that had some kind of climbing codes on it. . However, the weirdest part of him was his eye. He only had one blue eye that seemed like a mixture of technology and organic material. Ben wondered why such a rich person would choose to digitize only one eye. However, his thoughts were interrupted by the man’s deep, grovelling, Tim Curry-like voice. “Be careful, young man!“ he warned sternly, “This is no place to have your head in the clouds!“ Ben tried to apologize but was cut off again. “I don’t have time for this, the public Hall is on floor 1. All you’ll need is your assigned number to get in,“ he explained and left. Ben followed his instructions, went into the hall to the room that had his number on it. It was an empty room with only one giant screen and a headset attached to the ceiling. Instructions that appeared on the screen said: “Please put on your headset and look at your screen, it will trigger a reaction that will allow you to see your most likely future (percentages included).“ Ben did so, thinking he would finally be able to calm down after this. He thought wrong. What he saw was horrible: he was a failure, his city became a mess, and everything around him was destroyed, he was all alone. The percentage rubbed salt into the wound: 77%. Horrified, Ben ran out of the building and went back home. He couldn’t stop thinking about what he had seen and refused to accept it. He came back to the establishment next month, and the month after that, as well as the month after that. Nothing changed, it only got worse. He came back again in December, the day of the World conference, when very few people were there. Nothing changed even then. Ben, crushed and depressed, snapped and in a fit of rage ripped the headset off and threw it at the screen, breaking it. Security reacted immediately and tried to arrest him. Ben panicked and, not wanting trouble, broke through the ventilation shaft and crawled through it. A security guard took his phone and said: “We have a problem.“ Meanwhile, as Ben kept on climbing and crawling through the giant maze of the building’s ventilation system, he was startled by an alarm. He fell through a vent shaft into a dark room. He switched on a nearby light and saw a big computer. On the screen you could see one big room in Oracle Hall (Private). That hall was filled with UN ambassadors, all donning headsets. By pressing a button, Ben could see what they saw. They all had a different future. To the American ambassador, the Russians cause World War III, but to the Russian ambassador it’s the opposite. They all had high percentages. As he was digging through the computer, he found a file called ”Archives“ which held multiple possible futures for its staff, including Dr. Saul’s. All of his futures had him ending up the richest man alive, safe and sound as the world around him burned. All except one, that is. Strangely, the percentage of that future grew higher as Ben looked at it more. Ben realized what this means but his shock was short lived, as behind him was the Doctor himself, furious. His eye was glowing red, his suit was now black, the codes on it were glitching. “OK, you got me. I rig the percentages, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know the future. I know yours, it’s great! Just come here and I’ll show you.“ Ben didn’t buy it. He took the USB stick holding the archives and slid under doctor’s legs. He managed to get into the projector room and inserted the “Archives“ stick. The ambassadors realized the deception and angrily took their headsets off and exited the room. Horrified Saul made one last attempt to grab Ben, but tripped over him and smashed the projector room window. With Saul finally gone and his company exposed, Ben left the building. At that moment he knew that the future is in his hands, his hands only.
