The Providence Program

The Providence Program

It was half past two in the morning and Jack Easton was in his bedroom his eyes glued to the computer monitor in front of him, only averting them to pick up his can of Pepsi on the computer table.

He was busily hacking into the bank account of a prominent executive, siphoning off a cool grand which he felt the fat cat wouldn’t miss at all.

At twenty five Jack was an accomplished hacker. He’d attained a masters degree in computer science but being an anarchist he intended to create as much havoc as possible on the web, by breaking into the records of big corporate companies, encrypting viruses in their software or selling sensitive information on to fellow hackers.

After finishing transferring the money to his bank account, he looked at the clock. It was twenty to three, his mum was sleeping loudly in the next bedroom.

Turning off his hard drive, Jack lit up a cigarette and stretched his body his muscles taut, from being in front of the computer all night, feeling glad that he had no work to go to in the morning.

On his bed he quietly dozed, until he fell into a deep sleep.

While Jack slept a build up of static filled the air and a metallic smell of ozone. Waking up he felt the static on his face, contorting his features. Staring at the computer the hard drive had reactivated itself emitting sparks, and then the monitor activated, a white flashing image appeared on the screen.

Jack was scared out of his wits. Jumping off his bed he sat down at the computer table, mystified as to what was going on.

Jack fiddled with his mouse for any response. Then out of nowhere a computer image of the world appeared each nation highlighted like in an atlas. Unsure of what he had discovered he moved the mouse to lock onto the U.K.

At once a menu appeared requesting him for a surname. Randomly he made up a name Marjorie Ayers and clicked his mouse. In an instance three women called Marjorie Ayers appeared on the monitor, Jack randomly picked one.

In a flash an image of the woman appeared as well as her personal details.

Name : Marjorie Ayers

Date of Birth : 14th May 1959

Occupation: Housewife

Date of Death: 28^th August 2034

Stumped at what he had uncovered he typed in another name John Smith. Immediately a full page of John Smiths appeared, Jack randomly picked one of them.

Name: John Robert Smith

Date of Birth: 15^th June 1969

Occupation: Builder

Date of Death:1^st July 2028

Looking at the dates of death he thought he had uncovered some kind of conspiracy. “What’s going on,” he murmured to himself. Curious of his own fate he typed his own name in and pressed the enter button. Immediately his identity appeared and his personal details

Name: Jack Brian Easton

Date of Birth:12^th February 1986

Occupation: Computer Programmer

Date of Death:14^th November 2031

This was too much to take in, was someone playing a practical joke he thought to himself. On a whim he typed in his mother’s full name. Immediately the information was displayed.

Name: Georgia Rebecca Easton

Date of Birth: 14^th September 1965

Occupation: Cleaner

Date of Death: 29^th March 2016

He shook his head in disbelief. Why was there so much information on different people from varying walks of life.Who were these people, he thought to himself. Am I being spied on, are these people spies, was his mother in on it. And who could predict deaths occurring in the future. He couldn’t think straight.

Jack stared at the computer screen trying to understand if this information was of any significance. He walked around his bedroom chain smoking continually mulling things over continuously in his mind.

Then an idea came to his head, sitting back at the computer, he typed in his father’s details. He had died three years ago of a heart attack and could remember the date of his death.

He typed in his full name and waited for a response.

At once Jacks father’s details came up, he stared at the screen.

Name: Peter Stuart Easton

Date of Birth: 18^th July 1959

Occupation: Painter and Decorator

Date of Death:12^th March 2008

Jack recoiled from the computer in shock, it was the exact date his father died. Whimpering he retreated to his bed closing his eyes tightly.

“It’s just a dream; It’s just a dream,” he repeated to himself in a mantra, unable to stare at the computer screen, his clothes clammy with perspiration.

Jack lay on his bed for over an hour before he could instil some courage in himself. Opening his eyes he could still see his father’s picture on the screen.

Reaching for a cigarette from the packet he nervously placed it in his mouth, and grabbed his lighter, but he felt too weak to flick the wheel, his hands shaking too much.

Putting the fag back in the packet he ventured toward the computer, determined to understand the program more. He thought of his mother dying in five years time and was desperate to reverse it.

Typing in her details Georgia’s details appeared. Examining the tool bar above the information, he placed his cursor on a menu icon showing a calendar.

Instantly the date of his mothers death disappeared and the program requested a new date of death. Jack typed in 9^th June 2045 when she would be eighty, a respectable age Jack thought.

Jack altered the dates of all his friends and relatives so they all could reach a ripe old age. He also cynically changed the dates of who had caused him misfortune altering them so they could live short sorry lives.

Finally he altered his own death date. He was afraid of dying and wanted to avoid it as much as possible so he randomly typed in the date of his death as the 1^st January 2456.

Feeling a sense of accomplishment he retired to his bed and fell into a deep sleep.

Jack woke up with a start next morning, the summer sun shining through the curtains. The first thing he noticed was the computer, it was turned off.

Convinced he’d been dreaming he stripped himself of his clothes and stepped into the shower, the cool water running in rivulets down his body like summer rain.

Feeling revitalised he dressed in a T-shirt and shorts and ran down the stairs and saw his mother in the kitchen cooking breakfast.

“Morning!” he called.

“Early for you isn’t it.” replied Georgia, noticing the time on her watch.

“I’ve just cooked you your breakfast. Three rashers and two runny eggs sunny side up” she said.

“I thought I’d go for a run through the park, don’t want too much stodge it’ll lead to an heart attack.” Jack said wrestling on his trainers.

“What should I do with all this?” She said in astonishment, showing Jack the frying pan.

“Just chuck it,” replied Jack just as he closed the front door.

It was bright and shiny outside a cool breeze blowing, ideal conditions for a run. Setting his stopwatch at the bottom of the driveway he began his run down the road towards the park, totally unaware of a black volkswagon van tailing him.

Jack felt like a new man, turning over a new leaf. He was determined to get back into shape again. His girlfriend Jenny had begun to bore of the relationship, complaining he spent more time on his computer than he did on her, he was determined to put things right.

Jack approached the park when suddenly the volkswagon pulled up in front of him, and the sliding doors opened and two stocky men burled him in dragging a piece of sack cloth over his head before speeding off.

The two burly men told Jack to keep quiet while the van driver drove to the destination. The endless twists and turns disorientated Jack to the point he hadn’t where they were heading.

The van drove for an hour, Jack was hyperventilating under the sack and was gasping for air, one of the kidnappers told him to keep calm.

A short time later the van drove over a bumpy track Jack was tossed around, until the van came to a stop.

The van doors opened and a terrified Jack was hauled out, the sacking still over his head. Jack sensed he been taken to a farm due to the stench of manure in the air.

Jack was dragged to an abandoned barn where he was plonked in a chair. The sacking was removed from his head and six burly men of differing nationalities stared at him.

“What do you want” demanded Jack staring defiantly at the men.

“What we want, is you to tell us what you know” said a voice behind him.

Jack turned his head to see a slim middle aged man dressed like a throwback from the seventies, dressed in silver flared trousers and a baggy polo necked sweater,a silver medallion displayed over his top.

“Sorry we had to drag you here so roughly,” said the man who came closer to Jack,” we just want to know your knowledge of the program.”

“What program?” barked Jack feigning naivety.

“You know as well as I do you received something on your computer you shouldn’t have. Just tell us what you know and you can go,” said the man calmly

Jack now knew he wasn’t dreaming last night and what came up on his computer was delicate information.

“Okay!” said Jack, feeling increasingly intimidated by the presence of the men.

”I’ll tell you what I know and you explain to me who you are.”

“Fair dues” said the man.

Jack explained everything that happened last night, omitting the part where he altered the death dates, saying he didn’t know how important the information was.

The man listened carefully and trusted Jacks word. ”So nothings been altered.” said the grey haired man.

Jack just stared at him and shook his head.

The man agreed to his part of the bargain, and pulled a chair up to Jack.

“My name is Cassius Van Hillman” explained the man, “and these six men are my assistants. We belong to a group called the Immortals.”

“Never heard of them” Jack admitted.

“Well we were secret until our program was infiltrated, by you!” said Cassius.

“And what is your purpose Cassius” asked Jack.

“The Immortals are responsible for controlling life and death on your planet directly from a ship in outer space. My assistants each control life and death rates on each continent on earth, we primarily deal with death,” explained Cassius.

“And how do you control death?” asked Jack.

“Well my assistants work around a computer on our ship deciding who to be given long and short life cycles. We just think of a date and a year and enter it on the database” Cassius admitted.

“You mean you deal out death at the drop of a hat?” said Jack in astonishment.

“Yes you could say that” replied Cassius.

“Your playing god with peoples lives. How can you be so flippant?” said Jack incredulously.

Cassius smiled at Jack. “Your right about one thing, I’m the one you could call god” admitted Cassius.

“But what about being the judge; the almighty; the supreme power?” asked a mystified Jack.

Cassius just smiled ”I’m none of them things, when you die, you simply die. There’s no heaven or hell no judgment day, you simply pass away to nothing, such as the other species that inhabit this planet, we’re all cut from the same gene cloth at the end of the day. I just invented the Providence Program as a way of simply controlling the population of the planet.”

“But what about babies who die, having never had a chance at life how can you be so callous.” barked Jack

“But your holy men say they go up to heaven Jack, so the families feel solace from their so called god” said Cassius sarcastically.

“Your one cynical bitch aren’t you,” spat Jack.

Cassius kept quiet telling him he would soon be returning to his ship in space.

Having seen and said enough Jack demanded a lift home. The caucasian Immortal who was the only one who could speak English, drove him back. Parking outside his house, Jack got out of the van, vowing to keep his revelation a secret for the rest of his days. On entering his bedroom he dismantled his computer to sell on, putting him off hacking for life.

January 1^st 2456

Jack lay in bed surrounded by his family in hospital. Having lived for nearly four hundred years and seventy years he prepared for everlasting sleep, feeling constant torment throughout his long drawn out life outliving wives, siblings and grandchildren, feeling grief acutely at each passing member.

It was a long arduous journey so arduous in fact that he spent his days continually trying to end his life, but the Providence program prolonged his agony, attracting feeling of horror and hurt amongst his loved ones whenever a suicide attempt was made, never able to understand his torment. Now the long wait was over, he could hear the fanfare of fireworks outside as Jack took his final breath.

THE END.

By Dean Carroll

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