A Short Story by Martin Anton Smith

Neoliberalism was designed to destroy society over a 50-year time cycle. The key to this was the ruination of manufacturing/laboring jobs held by the poor & working-classes. With the “off shoring” of these jobs, the poor & working class simply turned to organised crime to fund themselves.

The rest of the more privileged population by this time were so stupid that they believed the cries of the Government-owned or Government-bribed Media, who in their broadcasts treated the constant violent crimewaves as “aberrations”. It was important to have such brainwashing so that the destruction of society was frictionless.

As the 50th year and final year approached in 2025, the unreported crime, anarchy & disarray had caused the general population collapse to a 1 million strong geo-scattered hunter and gatherer population. Yet of course this particular country – New Zealand had a ‘gated elite’ population of 100,000 which had never been affected. But of course, the same thing was happening everywhere else. This was indeed a Global happening. These few thousand elites with big plans would eventually re-label themselves the ‘Al-ito-zan’

Jan 1st 2026 was deemed ‘Year Zero’. ‘The Al-ito-zan would hold celebrations much akin to a disorganised versions of official ‘Satanist Rituals’. The ‘Al-ito-zan’ were now able to have free sovereign reign over the land. They declared a ‘New State’ – one that was effectively a new Techno Autocratic Monarchy, similar in some ways to Tsarist Russia, but seemingly simpler and less bureaucratic. They had won their war & the horrible poor & working-classes were gone.

Of course, there was something left over from the now very dead 4 million poor & working classes – their Blood. The Al-ito-zan were smart enough to collect the blood from the dead, irradiate it & store it in giant refrigerators. This was their Elixir, their health drink – their ‘Toasting Drop’.

They called this tasty drop “Zero-ade” or more colloquially “Serf-ade”. They loved the texture, the saltiness, the viscosity, the dopamine high that came shortly after drinking. Some Al-ito-zan used a spritzer, some mixed it with fine Central Otago Pinon Noir. Some boiled it down.

The Al-ito-zan partied away the Whole of Year Zero. They had now an untrammeled Elitist society, with no requirement that any action be “For the benefit of NZ as whole”; there was no organised Police or Parliament or Laws or any connection to the old Westminster based system.

In the new Al-ito-zan system from Year Zero – & New Zealand was just one of many ‘Satellite Provinces’ worldwide – there were only 3 Prime Principles:

1. Honour the Prime Al-ito-zan King or Queen (or King and Queen)

2. Never Kill a Fellow Al-ito-zan

3. The Remaining Vanquished are to be left alone as beasts to wander freely.

In year 1 the Partying had subsided. The Al-ito-zan were now purposefully avoiding mentioning the debauchery they all partook in during the entire Year Zero – very similar to the immediate week after “Office Xmas parties” were prior to the 2020s. This was for good reason as the parties in year Zero were audacious affairs fuelled from drug highs from gallon upon gallon of fresh poorly brewed SerfWine. Simply put, ‘Year Zero’ was akin to the 1969 Summer of Love multiplied by 10. Now it was Year 1, people knew that free year was over, and they had to now determine what exactly was ‘normal’ behaviour in their new elitist paradise. That year was defined by what is known as ‘a social holding pattern’.

In this environment general life was punctuated with countless hours filled by philosophical, and sociological conversation and arguments. These often-heated conversing’s, happened among the guests at dinner parties and between friends mostly in evenings. SerfWine and firm opinions would flow aplenty at these often-informal gatherings at the dining rooms and firesides of the Al-ito-zan.

“Walter, I think we are lucky to be where we are, yes – don’t get me wrong. We have at base the society we always wanted, no more riff raff and no need to pretend that we care about natures abominations. But…

“But….But what Nicholas, come on be frank, remember no one’s listening anymore, spit it out son”

“Well, don’t you think there’s something missing in the “Three Principles”?

“Well, the idea is to avoid “Laws” and things like “Police, Judges and Lawyers” , but still have a fatherly guiding hand so to speak”

“Yes, I understand that but only THREE, isn’t that insane to you Walter?

“How do you mean Nicholas? Do you think there’s something missing or some of them are wrong?

“Both”

“Come on genius, explain yourself” (Walter takes a long slug of SerfWine)

“Ok Walter lets start with what’s wrong, well not exactly wrong but incomplete. Point one says “Honour the Prime Al-ito-zan King or Queen” but it doesn’t give any detail on what that means.”

“yes, that’s a fair assessment, but there’s reasons for everything, I mean we don’t have the details”

“Don’t you think that’s a bit strange? To have total ambiguity and no details AT ALL on what “Honour the King or Queen” means – I mean it’s rank insanity to my mind Walter, surely you agree?”

“Nicholas, don’t you see we don’t need details – in this society we TRUST the King or Queen, and we have no reason yet to question them – I mean the changeover to paradise has been perfect – not a single Al-ito-zan died! Why the mistrust?”

“Walter, doesn’t the fact we haven’t even been told whether we either have a King OR a Queen or Both yet ring alarm bells?”

“Well, we don’t really need to know do we? I mean the point is to obey a prime figure who we know represents us perfectly”

“I agree with you 99% on that but It doesn’t quite sit well with me Walter, call it a ‘gut feeling'”.

“Nicholas, you sound like a man from the 1920’s, don’t expect perfection yet, blimey it’s only one month through year one!”

“Well, that’s just one of my concerns – let me continue”

Walter tells Nicholas to “wait a second” casually and slugs back the last of his SerfWine. He gets the bottle only a meter away sitting on the mantlepiece. It sits above the now slightly less roaring fire. The bottle is still half full and he pours it quickly for himself and then tops Nicolas up.

“Isn’t this SerfWine great Nick? Look at the boy, you can tell he was going to taste delicious!”

Nicholas looks at the back label Walter shows him, it shows a picture of the late teenage boy who was eliminated for the crime of being working class poor. he was a strapping lad, and the photo was taken before he knew his fate, so he had a genuine smile. Nicholas wasn’t usually emotional, and he had hated them like everyone – but he felt slightly off. he shrugged in off and continued his argument.

“Ok well next problem is with point 2 “Never Kill a Fellow Al-ito-zan ”

“Oh come on, don’t tell me you disagree with that”

“No of course not, but ask yourself this – how would anyone know if I was to say stab you and burn you in that fire, I mean there is no Laws, Police or Judiciary”

“People know I exist; they’d know something was up”

“But the point Walter is this: No one would know what to do or what would happen – there is no guidelines given to us! Isn’t it weird that I’m trusted 100% to never hurt you or another fellow Al-ito-zan?”

“Hmmm, yes I see your point, but we have paradise now and no one would ever need to hurt anyone, I mean we have all the resources and land to ourselves”

“For now we do, but what about in 100 years Walter – things can change for the worse can’t they, I mean look at History look at the year 1929?”

“That was a Stock Market Crash, wasn’t it? Then that spurned The Great Depression and World War 2. Yes Yes, but Nicholas that was well before the change, don’t use those dark ages as your personal Chrystal-Ball! Thats insanity, everything’s well now, all the ducks are in a row!”

“Is it Walter, I’m not 100% sure”

“Apparently you are 99% sure but I’m starting to think you’ve exaggerated; you sound almost like a -dare I say it – a counter revolutionary!”

“You are dramatic, must be a hangover from our drama class days at school – King Lear, wasn’t it?

“Yes, how embarrassing that performance was, oh well at least I was the king! You were the Fool if I remember correctly – are you reprising your role now Nick?”

“Touché, touché, very funny – now let me go to Point Three”

“Oh no, there’s more is there”

“Afraid so son, and I’ve barely started, I’ve got to talk about the missing points yet!”

Walter groans, takes a hearty slug and eyes the next bottle of SerfWine in the lattice shaped wine holder on the wall.

“Ok point three “The Remaining Vanquished are to be left alone as beasts to wander freely” why did they leave the last fifth to survive? Don’t you think that’s a bit odd? I mean it doesn’t make sense? We don’t need them for SerfWine, we have huge stocks from the cull and perfect blood replicators after that.”

“Yes we do, but I suppose the King or Queen wanted to show benevolence – you know kindness”

“Walter, you are my best friend, we’ve known each other for 35 years as school mates, but I have to tell you when you say that you sound like you still are a schoolboy”

“Pish Posh! Ok assuming you have reasons to doubt, pray tell me why they are still here then Nick – come on “The Fool”.

Walter was now quite red in the face, having finished his wine at twice the rate as Nicholas, and already halfway through the next bottle.

“Well, I think it might explain the Trust element of the principles – or should I say explain it away“

“Go on Fool, keep the joke going”

“Well don’t you think 1 million freely roaming hardy battle hardened Serfs would be perfect spies? This would explain that the TRUST that is implied but unworkable is actually just a ruse. The true system – one that IS workable is in place and consists of a surveillance state – the very souls who are the remainder of the Vanquished Serfs!”

“Oh Nicolas, don’t embarrass yourself! You sound like an anti-moon landing kook from 1980’s! Why would we go to all the trouble of a free society for us Al-ito-zan, and then add a layer of surveillance from the very people we want nothing to do with other than to drink their blood! PERPOSTEROUS”

“Walter, have you heard that old saying “eliminate the impossible and what’s left must be the truth”

“I’m opening another bottle, and then we change the subject to something fun – do you think the parties of last year will return?”

“Ok but you must admit my theory explains all the inconsistencies in the three points – We don’t need to know there’s a King or Queen or a King & Queen because there isn’t one – there is only a hidden surveillance state. We will never kill a fellow Al-ito-zan, because they will kill us long before that via the roaming secret police/execution squad the ones that by necessity are roaming ‘totally free’ and untrammeled – ex Serfs”

“That’s quite enough Nicholas!”

Walter is now visibly angry, his face beet red and sweat is dripping off his nose. He throws his dreg filled glass into the now embers-only fireplace, the crash sound echoes and a few bits of glass bounce back at their feet. Being well bred both Walter and Nicholas allow the emotion to suddenly dissipate.

“Walter, sorry I went to far, I was just fooling around, of course you are right I pushed things to far – as always! I don’t really believe that stuff, I just love to play contrarian – you know that better than anyone Walter”

“Okay Okay Nick, sorry I don’t know what came over me”

“It was just too much blood, that’s the blood talking – that batch of SerfWine is too potent, I’ll complain to the vendor – he’s a bit shonky even if he is well bred.”

“Yes, do that, do that – I’m ok now I’ll just sip some water, can you get me some”

“Yes of course Walter – take a seat for a moment”.

Nicholas went down the hallway, in the hallway he past all of his 20th century history-based posters, WW1 posters of trench warfare, another of the Spanish flu, one of the Moon landings another of the Berlin Wall falling.

He thought to himself that he better keep his ideas to himself – no one must know of his spouting off what could be twisted as ‘counter revolutionary thought’ because this would certainly break Principal 1 – “Honour the King Or Queen Or The King & Queen”. But then he laughed as he heard himself think. He suddenly became himself again – lacking in confidence. He felt stupid for thinking they were all being deceived by some “hidden surveillance state”. He was just an idiot, like he had always been, and that’s what he told himself now.

He suddenly started to dread going back to see Walter. He had more than embarrassed himself. His mind started to race “what if Walter tells Stacey about what I said? What if she tells her nosey gossipy wife, then she her friends, then them their husbands and then everyone else? But then he told himself he might be ok as there probably is no police or reporting system anyway – the worst he’d be is deeply embarrassed for a week or two. But then he thought “what if I’m right and there is a hidden surveillance state”. He was pretty sure if there was, it was still in its infancy and imperfect – I mean he had seen no roaming ‘Vanquished Serfs’ in his country estate.

He had to make a call – if he was right, and did nothing Walter would blab, the story would grow and he would almost certainly be found out. From his love of 20th century History and Sci-fi he guessed that Surveillance State – if it was real would torture or imprison him. Or perhaps, he’d be killed and replaced with a duplicate advanced AI robot and no one would realise he was gone. He decided even though he couldn’t take that chance – he would have to kill Walter by bashing his head with the kitchen pestle and he can simply drag his body and throw his body in the artificial dam near his house – there are many big rocks that litter the place it would look like he tripped hit his head, blacked out and fell in the water unconscious and drowned. In killing Walter – a fellow Al-ito-zan, he would of course break ‘Principle 2’. But no one would know it, so who cares?. Despite lacking general confidence Nicholas was always forthright when he had a good systematic plan.

Tears welled up as it sunk in what he was to do. He would miss Walter dearly as his only ‘best friend’, his old school friend. No other adults over 30 still had ‘best friends’ but Nicholas and Walter were still best friends. He had flashbacks of all the good times he and Walter had had, the bike rides, the swimming, both being bullied nerds in high school, the heavy drinking as they were coming of age at university.

He grabbed the pestle from by the sink, filled Walter’s glass and began to walk back. he’d give Walter the drink and spin some story about the pestle’s potential rareness and not being able to read the makers mark on the bottom of the pestle. He’d simply ask Walter to read it and then as Walter leaned in, he would do the business and kill him with a few lusty firm blows. As he was walking down the hallway suddenly Walter was already there, with his hand behind his back. Nicholas was startled and jolted backwards, dropping the pestle and water and in so smashing the glass on the old hardwood wooden floorboards.

“Oh, I was waiting a while for the water so I thought I’d see what was keeping you”

“Walter, boy you scared me! Sorry the tap has been playing up…now I’ve dropped your water”

“Oh don’t worry spilt milk or spilt water still doesn’t make me cry! Let me help you clean it up”

“Haha sure, sure thing Walt”

Nicholas’s plan was now disrupted, and not being a seasoned killer and only ever having been the one being beaten up versus dishing it out, he decided he’d abandoned his plan to kill Walter entirely. Walter was coming towards him now; he would just act naturally and go with the flow. He lent down and started picking up the pieces of glass and at the same time surreptitiously pushed the pestle out of sight with his foot. Walter was now right next to Nicholas both crouching down heads perhaps a foot apart. He bent down, he first picked up by far the largest shard of glass, which was triangular with a pen knife shape and still connected to the glasses thick base.

Nicholas was almost finished the sentence “Walter, I’m such a clumsy idiot” when Walter suddenly moved swiftly and lacerated Nicholas’s neck from ear to ear. In the same motion he turned Nicholas’s body so that the blood spurts would hit the wall and not land on him or in particular his face. It almost seemed Walter had done this many times before.

Nicholas slumped back, and felt his life slowly drain away with the large pool of blood now trickling from him. With the last seconds of life, he looked at Walter. Walter stood up and said “You were right to question the Three Principles Nicholas, this is why they told me to keep an eye on you. You were mostly correct in your analysis”. Walter then slowly transformed before Nicolas and his quickly dying body. In a period of no more than three seconds Walters ‘wealthy man’s clothes’ changed to Vanquished Serf like rags, and his face morphed to a weather-beaten and unrecognisable dirty face. He then smelt an unfamiliar stale sweat. In Nicolas’s last moments he saw the man’s lips move. As his vision and hearing slowly faded out, the man said coldly, loudly and robotically:

“Principle 4: On behalf of the King Or Queen, an Authorised Vanquished Serf, can be instructed to kill an Al-ito-zan if and only if, said Al-ito-zan transgresses or intends to transgress one some or all of Principles One, Two or Three. Principle 4 is only advised via a need-to-know basis.”

Published by Martin Smith Creations ltd (NZ) all rights reserved, no commercial use without written acceptance and permission by Martin .A. Smith. Contact via martinantonsmith@gmail.com