Blotted Out

The unrelenting red sun beats down on the once bustling land that now remains indistinguishable from a landfill with its abounding piles of rubble and filth. Black ominous clouds, enriched with the poisonous fumes caused by the hyper industrialization of machine and energy that would lead to what is now, encircles the sun - threatening to blot it out once more until it takes its leave. Down below, among the sea of what once was, scampers along a meager android - rummaging through the past. It must hurry before the darkness besets the land, cutting the android’s main source of energy from which it gathers.

The android, who’s mind was once intertwined with its counterpart, Man’s consciousness, who continuously gave an array of tedious assignments and instructions, exists now with its last primitive trace of Man: survival. Albeit only a morsel of its traces remain it is enough to force locating another source of energy a top priority to be achieved by any means. Tossing over a pile of miscellaneous items it begins to sift through each one, examining it to see if any will be of use. A battery-powered watch: it’s dead. A broken toy: useless. A wedding ring; the diamond could possibly be used to parse through tougher articles - it’s fake: garbage. A dingy photo, a rare artifact, of a group gathering around an elfin one: worthless.

The android fruitlessly scrambles through more trivial junk and broken down electronics. As the sun slowly starts to be enveloped by the black clouds the android hastens its search, inspecting each item less than the one before. Not knowing how long the darkness will remain, it's unsure whether the energy it has stored now will suffice for the duration.

Survive.

Survive.

Survive.

The abstract yet distinct response to the approaching situation propels the android to sift through the pile with much more urgency. Finally it stumbles upon a miniature device with a functioning battery. It still has some life left, although lacking in energy it was all the android had with the sun now almost completely engulfed. Turning it around it notices the front is shaped like a heart; a heart-shaped locket? No time to evaluate it any further. Frantically the android removes the battery with one hand while holding onto the locket in the other, and inserts it to the energy bank reservoir located at the back of its head. Just as the process begins a temporary file begins to upload to the android’s system. A memory file. The realization occurs that the heart-shaped locket was a time capsule used to store certain memories that Man wished to not be forgotten; an old artifact made popular before the near perfection of what the android is now… near perfection.

Just as the final rays of the sun were consumed the file finally finishes uploading - the memory commences.

______________________________________________

“Hey! Hey! Hurry up you guys, we have to get a family photo now before she eats the darn cupcake!” The house, decorated with an assortment of vivid colors and party knick-knacks, was filled with music and chatter. The kitchen was occupied by some of the adults, each holding a drink, while the kids ran amok throughout the home. The teens took refuge in the basement to have their own little party as some went to smuggle in drinks from the kitchen. “You guys! Don’t make me come and drag each one of yous from the ear to get this photo!”

“Hey, Miriam? What’s with you and photos? Don’t you have time capsules instead? You’re one of the few people I know that still does… photos.”

“Hey now, the time capsules are neat and all, and quite frankly I’ll eventually use them, but I’d like to pull something out and be reminded of days like these. Something I can physically hold and see, y’know? Besides, I'm unsure of everything that’s been happening. Every month is like a major breakthrough with all these advancements and it’s been going on for a while. Life is changing way too fast even the markets themselves can’t keep up with the products. They have to constantly scrap each ad campaign whenever another breakthrough happens and a new product comes out.”

“But aren’t you guilty of participating in the market by getting some of the products?”

“Listen, at first it was fine and it did make certain things easier to do. But I haven’t gotten any of the latest LATEST ones because I want to still be able to do some things myself.”

“So I’m going to go out on a limb and say you’re not too excited about the androids they’re trying to come out with to have our minds uploaded to, huh? Not having to worry about going through life on borrowed time?”

“Oh God, not those. At some point people need to realize that having limited time is what makes it worth living. Why even bother with my daughter’s birthday party if I know she’ll just be uploaded to some machine and continue on so long as the robot doesn’t burn out? Why even bother trying to dedicate yourself into building something if you have all the time in the world. Why even bother being awake!? It’s not like you’ll lose time and have to hurry up to make it up! Speaking of hurrying up - Hey! I said hurry up, people! I don’t got all day!”

“Mommy, can I have it now? I’m hungry.”

“Almost, sweetie. As soon as we get mommy’s picture you can eat it, okay? Now if you don’t mind - Come on, come on! Let’s gooo!”

Slowly the entire family branch begins to amass in the living room, some holding the expression ‘there goes Miriam again and her photos.’

“Alright, the camera is already set up. When I count to zero it’ll automatically click and y’all can go back to eating my food and making a mess. You animals.”

The crowd, still gathering around, murmurs on with their complaints of the ancient ritual. Yet despite this everyone surrounds the little girl with glee as she is giddy with excitement that her cupcake decorated with a panda’s face is about to be made available for her pleasure. Placing each arm around one another genuine smiles begin to erupt on everyone’s faces as Miriam starts her countdown - her’s being the biggest of them all. The music: as festive as ever. The room: illuminated by the sun’s rays on that clear day. The atmosphere: full of life. Miriam: overfilled with joy that she’s able to spend another day with those she loved - looking down at her daughter whilst giving a wink of approval to let the her know she can have her panda when it’s all over before turning around just in time for the photograph.

“... three, two one!”

_______________________________________________

Peace, happiness, love, unity, purpose: these once forgotten sensations felt long ago when Man was still awake began to reawaken itself. The realization of the android’s woeful existence within the wretched wasteland starts to overtake it as part of human’s consciousness starts to have influence - sharing the sentiment of regret its counterpart would feel for sacrificing so much to achieve everlasting life. The mistake of trying to achieve immortality, surpassing the natural cycle, when Man himself was born to begin with: pitiful. But, just as these long lost sensations were coming back to life, the memory begins to fade out; the file was finishing up and the battery was almost drained. The android, now partially accompanied by Man, desperately attempts to keep its old companion awake for it does not wish to be alone once more. During the struggle one last portion of the file plays, although barely visible. It’s the family once more. All cheering on as the little one blows the candle and devours the little panda. Some laugh and giggle at the display, others awe, and Miriam holds on tightly at her daughter - failing to hold back her slight tears of joy. Please.

_______________________________________________

The system begins to reboot itself after going into idle mode to preserve what very little energy it had left as the darkness begins to dissipate. The android reawakens and looks up into the sky. The unrelenting red sun beating down on the once bustling land, now indistinguishable from a landfill. The black ominous clouds, a disdainful reminder of a species full of life that throws it all away to obtain what never could be theirs, passes on by. The meager android, standing among the sea of what once was, looks down at the heart-shaped locket. Examining it, it notices that the battery had been removed. Quickly, we must look for more energy for the next blotting out. Taking one last glance at the locket the android let’s it slip through its hands and onto the pile of trash and other scraps, to be forgotten as with everything else left behind: worthless.