“The Reality”                               

“Life is Good, by Future,'' the car radio says. 

“I guess it really is,” The lonely driver realizes.  

The truck slows down to enter the thin gravel driveway. Inside the truck, the new suspension ached from going through such uneven terrain. Finally after twists and turns in the driveway the log cabin appears, and with it, a gigantic body of blue. The man gets out of the truck and starts to unload the back of his pickup truck. Inside the bed is a 13’ boat loaded with all of his fishing gear. This cabin was a second home to him, but yet he always forgot to duck before entering and leaving the cabin’s 6 foot tall doors. 

By the time he sat down in his cabin the sun was past noon. It was a typical 74 degree day near Cheyenne, Wyoming. Of course, there may have been a bit of lake effect from living right next to the 1200 acre lake. The cabin had been freshly bought and sold to him but yet it always felt rustic to him. 

“Maybe it’s the 100 year old oak logs used for walls,” he thought. 

Whatever it was, it didn’t bother him because he didn’t buy the cabin for a cabin. If he ever wanted a nice house, he would just go back to his first house back in Missouri. The cabin itself was nothing special, just a place to stay when he’s on vacation. Shockingly, a man of this wealth and fortune, had no significant other and no kids. He was mostly isolated from people, which is always what he had wanted. The only people he really communicated with were his immediate family. His family was a basic American family consisting of his dad, mom, and sister. He always kept in touch with his family, even when his parents lived hundreds of miles away from Missouri, but somehow his sister had gone out even further and moved to Texas. She had moved out a while ago and was even married, luckily though, the brother and sister still had managed to keep contact over social media. 

Along the 20 hour drive to Wyoming from Missouri he sometimes thought about his younger self and his family. He had no real drive to see any of his family in person, but just by keeping up with them on social media was enough to assure him they were doing well. He, himself, moved out a while ago. He had to count back in his head  how many years it was, and to his surprise to learn it was 12 years ago. Of course the year was 2034 and when thinking back to his childhood 10-20 years ago, he had to begin to realize how much things really have changed. From when he was younger, he remembered all the complaints about the world, specifically about the government. This triggered a flashback to the articles he had just recently read this morning at a gas station, and they continued to pass through his head. 

“Taxes on the rise, a U.S.A all-time high of 55% income tax!” 

“No term limits left for senators and representatives!” 

“A new bill will have all U.S citizens sign away their lives to the country, incase of an emergency declared by the government!” The article that shocked him the most was the government take down of his favorite conspiracy theorists. One of his favorite theories they made, was a theory that all government members are specifically picked by a higher hierarchy than the U.S citizens and that they were from a very shady group of people un-human-like. Of course nobody really knows what happened to the writers but I think we all can assume that they’re no longer among us living people. 

When being out in the wilderness your mind is free to wander and it was way easier, especially considering that the nearest neighbor was nearly 15 miles away. The previous owner of the cabin made a big deal towards that when he was giving a tour of the property.  To get his mind off such a seriously strange topic, the man picked up his boat and dragged it to the boat launch. The water was strangely low even though it was an unusually wet summer. This realization didn’t matter much because he was able to put the boat in the water and get the outboard motor started. This boat, surprisingly, was nowhere near as fancy as other things he owned.Certainly not fancy considering the current age of technology. 

Out of an act of conservation, the Wyoming DNR disabled all depth finders and sonar equipment from fishing boats. This was another strange move from the DNR considering they had been around and legal for over 30 years. 

The lake looked as uncertain and strange as a fish on land. Another reason the lake looked odd was  because the sun was about as bright as it gets, and there were no clouds in the sky. Starting the motor, the man had set out in the lake. Pretty soon however, the boat looked like it had a mind of its own from such careless driving from the man. Randomly, the man turned off the motor and the boat came to a halt. The man was about as laid back as could be; he had taken 2 weeks vacation, and had nowhere else to be besides fishing. He had no idea what he was planning to catch or if he was going to catch anything.  

He picked up one of the poles and clicked a button to release the line down to the bottom, effortlessly he dragged his lure around at the bottom of the lake. He really had no idea where to fish and he figured that spot was as good as any. He had learned that on the port side of the boat was a giant weed that almost made him lose his line. He tried casting his fishing pole out in front of the bow and letting the line sink down in the astonishing depths of the water. He had felt a couple of bites, which wasn’t a surprise since he was using an artificial lure he knew the fish would love. It wasn’t long until he pulled in a nice 16” bass from the depths of the lake. When he released the fish he noticed the incoming clouds and the nearby trees shaking in the breeze. 

Differently, when he casted, he casted to the starboard side of the boat and once again, let the line sink down. This time, there was just a massive tug on the other end. 

“Oh, great!” the man sarcastically told himself. This tug didn’t feel like it came from some giant fish but rather a rock or a fallen tree. The man started his electric motor and began to chase the tug on his pole. The line slacked as he approached the spot of the hook-up. He killed the motor and started fighting the giant whatever, which was on his rod. The more he reeled, the more the thing fought. His fishing line was strong, he made sure he bought the most durable line for reasons just like this. While he reeled the line up, the shape of the object was becoming more and more unrevealed from the shadows of the deep water. 

The wind had massively picked up and the sun had now been replaced by clouds, this didn’t stop the man because he had finally won the fight. He instantly pulled up his phone and started recording. The object had been revealed to be a giant safe. The safe had to be at least 3 feet tall and an astonishing 18 inches wide. On top of the giant safe was a light that kept on flashing. This safe looking thing was certainly active. Not knowing what to do, the man wrapped his fishing line around the edge of the seat and slowly towed the safe to shore. Once to shore, he beached his boat at land and successfully got the safe on land. This safe was a different kind of safe, instead of having a code or number lock, it just had a very simple latch that moved back and forth. When the man opened the safe, an ear piercing sound rang throughout the air. While muffling his ears, the man dug deeper into the safe like it was a bag of potato chips. He then noticed a large stack of files at the bottom of the safe. On all of them, words stamped “Top Secret” stared back at the newest viewer of the file. Inside the file on top was all the paperwork involving Area 51. After digging deeply though the text, the man was shocked as if 12,000 amps of electricity were running through him when he learned that Area 51 was an intergalactic portal to a dimension that aliens live in. 

While he read that file, the wind made his back chill and gave him a shiver and then a few seconds later he heard sirens pull into his driveway. He had just now realized what he had done. As the armored vehicles started speeding closer and closer to the man’s cabin he just had to accept his fate. He walked back to the cabin just in time to witness the truck make the last turn and head straight for the cabin. Out rushed three military soldiers, all suited up as if this was a warzone. With his arms up, they grabbed his arms and wrapped them in handcuffs behind his back. He was then promptly ushered into the back of an armored vehicle. He was then given a shot of anesthesia that knocked him out for the ride.

When he first opened his eyes, he sat on a bed in a closed off room. A, what looked to be a nurse came up to him and told him an interrogator was coming. Five minutes later the interrogator walks in and guides him to an interrogation room. He sits down and stares at the interrogator. 

“How did you get those files?” The interrogator questions. 

“I found them in a safe,” the man replies. 

“Where did you find this safe? The interrogator replies. 

“At the bottom of the lake,” the man provides. 

“Yeah, okay,” the interrogator says sarcastically 

“You don’t have to believe me,” the man responds.

“The safe should have never fallen out of government hands!” the woman angrily says 

“Well someone messed it up along the way” the man jokes 

“You shouldn’t be the one joking when you’re the one who is going to have to be in trial and imprisoned” the woman says comfortably 

The interrogator reaches for the phone and calls in one of the federal judges

there. The judge, an old balding man properly suited, sits down next to the interrogator. 

“After breaching U.S privacy and endangering the citizens of the U.S you, Mr.

Samuel Brown, have been proven guilty and punished to a lifetime in prison, you have one last day of freedom as a citizen and not as a felon” the judge says smoothly.  

Samuel is handed a phone and thinks of everyone who he can call. He calls his mother, his father, and then finally his sister. They all say their goodbyes and share their sadness and pity. 

“This is the reality of the U.S government I suppose,” he thinks. 

“But who really is in charge here? He wonders in his head, then suddenly a speaker in his room turns on and angles itself toward Samuel. 

“I guess you'll never know,”