U2

In a world divided into 25 isolated Utopias, humanity survives by control. Only the chosen are permitted to reproduce. Love is regulated. Intimacy is forbidden. And anyone caught breaking the rules is erased from the system expelled without a trace. In Utopia 23, individuality is a relic of the past. No one has names. We are only numbers. Mine is #4537. I was raised alongside twenty-six others, a group bound by quiet rebellion. In secret, we gave each other names. We strived on these small, fragile acts of defiance in a world that stripped us of identity. But secrets don’t stay buried forever. At sixteen, I was assigned my life: an apartment, a career, a future already decided. A teacher. Stable. Predictable. Ordinary. By eighteen, I am expected to accept it all and live the hierarchy, the silence, the loneliness. Because here, love doesn’t exist. Not legally. Instead, people fill the emptiness with androids, manufactured companions designed to imitate connection. They’re flawless. Obedient. Safe. And far beyond what someone like me could ever afford. Until I find one. Hidden deep within the black market, I stumble upon an android priced far too low. It’s an impossible deal that should have made me walk away. But something about it feels… different. Too real. Too aware. Android 6X3. An android made to protect. Recalled years ago for a reason never released to the public.