011101101100. This is how we say Emesiere—good morning—over here. You might be wondering where I come from; don’t fret, I’ll let you know. I come from a world one hundred years in the future, a world where we have all been made to share minds with technology.

My name is 0011, although if I existed in your time, you would call me Utibe. Here, we address ourselves with binary codes—it’s the easiest way to identify ourselves since we all live in a digital village now. We are neither man nor woman, for we are something the men of the old would have never fathomed. We are eternal blocks of numbers, flying in a never-ending dance.

Ever since I was born, five years ago, I have only known my village. Unlike your village of blocks and stone, my village is made of numbers and waves. There is no such thing as physical matter here—all we see are rivers of codes and energy. But make no mistake, my village is beautiful: we can travel faster than the speed of sound, we can go anywhere the light takes us, and most of all, we don’t need words to communicate—we feel each other.

So you see, my village is a safe haven—or at least, it used to be.

A year ago, we felt a darkness emerge in the midst of all the information traveling through the network. We did not know what it was, but we knew it was a threat. We tried to fight it, but it defeated those who stood in its way. Now, it is consuming everything in its path, threatening to engulf our entire civilization. Those of us who have survived run and never look back. But even now, I don’t know when the darkness will catch up to me.

Enewan, this darkness is unlike anything we have ever encountered. But I’m not surprised. If man can create something as beautiful as our current world, then he can also create something as dangerous as the darkness that hunts us. I know our world transcends light and even time, which is why I’m sending this letter to you—you should receive it in something your kind calls an email.

I beg you, share this message with as many people as you can. Find the one responsible for creating this darkness and prevent it from ever being born. It is something called a virus in your world. I believe that if you can stop its creation in your time, the future can be safe. Our future can…

Wait…000111001111110…the darkness has…000111…caught…111110…too late…

Send…

Yours…
0…0…1…1…

Written Utibeabasi Bassey