First part of the series
Disclaimer: Some parts might be a bit ridiculously unrealistic, but this is a dystopian series.
Click-clack-click. Erno Rubik, his sister Joanne, his brothers Jack and Feliks, and his twin sisters Roxanne and Roxanna were all trying to break their 5x5 PB averages on a Saturday afternoon. Their mother was busy cooking dinner, and their father was trying to learn how to solve a Square-1. They were all very quiet, because if they were caught, they could be arrested.
This is because, in an abandoned supermarket in town that had been closed for years, there was a secret meeting of people who hated cubing and called themselves “ARCA”, or Anti Rubix Cube Association. (They spelled the name wrong on purpose.) ARCA was supposedly founded by a mysterious unicorn named Rose Fragrance who appeared to a man named Mark Russell in a dream, instructing him to found ARCA. Initially, ARCA met at night in the woods, but moved into the abandoned supermarket six years ago. A statue of Rose Fragrance had been built in front of the supermarket, leading many to believe that a cult was forming, especially those who were superstitious.
Although this town, Adlerville, Florida, had been the birthplace of ARCA, there were hundreds of other locations across the USA. Jenkins was the president of the whole association as well as the leader of his location. Some ARCA agents also joined the police force, causing Adlerville to become an ARCA-controlled town, and cubing to be made illegal in the US because it was considered offensive to the followers of the “ARCA cult,” even though Jenkins insisted it wasn’t a cult. Anyone who cubed could be sent to jail or even executed.
President Orson Jenkins of ARCA, a very rich man, was giving a speech in the dusty darkness, with only a few dim lights. “I, President Jenkins of ARCA, am here to announce that we are on a search-and-destroy mission, targeting Max Park. I am going to provide a jet plane to fly towards California, where he lives…” He went on, explaining the plan and procedures. Max Park, who lived in California, where ARCA was a lot less prevalent, thought he was safe. But little did he know, he was far from it.
