Hunting or domesticating any animal for food consumption was strictly banned, and it was categorically outlawed to be seen in the vicinity of a forest unless you had hiking permission. The sheep rearing and the poultry industry changed their names. Activists would flock to their industrial premises, and they were forced to shut down or change their business modes. With the closing of poultry and dairy, the 3D printing of biological consumables became widespread. The hardcore carnivores, like most of the people in the countryside, were forced to rely on these products, which rarely produced the same taste as the original non-vegetarian foods. In our group, although most were non-vegetarians, Sarah and I practised vegetarianism before switching back to meat and dairy.
Our first raid was successful, and we were able to hunt a stag, and I was the first to taste its meat. After uploading the picture of cooked meat on social media, it was a message to the establishment that the fight was still on. The images were censored before trackers were sent to search for the violators. We were using the platform with an anonymous identity and a false location to get our messages to the rest of the world. We thought that it made an impact, and we waited for it to show up. The reason we were getting new members was only this. We scrutinised the freshers by removing their neural chips and made sure there were no GPS bugs attached to their bodies.
It was one of the cold nights of March when I received a call on my satellite phone. It was Sarah.
"We have a problem. I need you immediately at home."
Her voice seemed to quiver as she hung up before listening to my response. I stood up and went straight to her house. It was located on the top of the escarpment upon which the whole town spread. The road to her house was steep, and I couldn't take my bicycle, so I hiked up to the top. I could see her staring from her Verandah into the mountain that was on the western side. I climbed up to the door of the house to see her ambling towards me. She took me straight to her drawing room to show a man unconscious on the floor.
"What happened?" I looked towards Sarah.
"I don't know, he collapsed as soon as I removed his chip," she was anxious.
"How did you do it? Did you follow the standard operations procedure?"
"I did. He was sitting on the couch, and I surreptitiously put the jammer behind his neck. It should have deactivated the chip without him knowing about it, but instead, he fell on the floor."
"Where is he from? Did you enquire?"
"He was about to tell, but.."
I pulled the shoulder of the body to see his neck, and what I saw was not normal. There was no chip on his neck, nothing. I was taken aback.
"He is not one among us," I veered towards Sarah.
Sarah looked at the body with surprise and gestured for me to move away as she wanted to have an inspection. She flipped the man's collar, and I saw a strange cut on his neck. It ought to have a machine origin. The body was not of any human being but an android body. I ripped off his clothes to see his back having stark fabrication marks. It was all silicone composited with some fragrant chemical to ooze out the smell of cologne. I retracted a bit back to think about the situation. For the first time, I saw an immaculate machine mimicking a human.