Forever?

Adam closed the door, blocking the late afternoon sun and snooping robots. The study his only refuge in a world of constant surveillance. A scale model of the photon plant he managed for fifty years sat on a desk in the middle of the room. His latest project to combat the boredom of semi-retirement.

He grabbed a laser gun to cut some tin for the model. Balancing the metal on the edge of the desk, he lined up the cut. A drone outside the window startled him and he felt an icy stab of pain, the tip of his left forefinger fell onto the desk.

“Shit.”

Heat glowed inside his skull as his brain auditor whirred. It sent a signal releasing painkillers and Regeneron from a sac sewn around his heart. The miracle drug prickled and pumped down his arm, seeking damaged cells. Tendrils of nerve, vein, and bone curled and waved from the bloody finger stump, like sea anemone feeding on plankton. Adam put his hand flat on the desk. The strands latched onto their severed partners and pulled them home to replant the tip. His hand tingled as the flesh melded, leaving no trace of the wound.

The auditor whirred again. Sending a report of his third injury this month to the Committee. Adam shrugged, “So what?” All they could do was order a brain scan and memory wipe, which was fine by him. It would release him from painful memories. He touched the heart-shaped locket hanging around his neck. Sarah gave it to him on his 75th birthday. He tried to conjure her face but could only picture the casket disappearing into the ground. She died in a car crash twenty-five years ago, on her way to get her auditor and Regeneron sac implanted. The other driver staggered away from the crash uninjured but paralytic drunk.

Leaving the study, Adam wandered to the western window of his penthouse. Drones and migrating fruit bats crossed the blue and purple sky. A burnt orange patch tinged with red and yellow marked the sun’s exit. He remembered petitioning the Committee for the drunk driver to be culled. The Committee dictated who made the survivor list. A delicate balance of leaders in commerce, the arts, science, humanities, plus their partners. Births and deaths were outlawed, the perfect eternal society.

“Perfect” Adam spat out the word. It had been fine when the plant kept him busy 12 hours a day. Now he saw a mindless future alone except for the bots, drones, and CCTV cameras. He never cultivated friendships, people annoyed him. Sarah and work were all that he needed.

“Something to eat Mr. Young?” a food robot interrupted.

“No.”

The bot hovered. Was it going to argue with him? They fussed over him constantly. He turned away so that the flush spreading across his face didn’t get recorded.

“I need fresh air before supper.” He strode to the elevator, the doors opening as he approached.

“What floor Mr. Young?” the lift bot asked.

“Ground”

The tropical floor went by, then the ice rink, the cinema floor, and the first of the swimming pool levels. 55 floors to himself except for the robots. The sex-bots on level 17 jigged into his mind, hadn’t been there in a while.

“Enjoy your walk, Mr. Young.”

A Security bot watched from the concierge desk as he went outside. Adam breathed in deeply. The air was warm and fragrant from sun-baked frangipani flowers. He sat on a bench and leaned back, the tower looming high above him. Red and green navigation lights flashed on the roof. A blue laser refuelled a surveillance drone floating outside level 29. It blinked off and the drone slid away into the star-riddled sky.

“The laser…” an idea formed. The laser fuelled the drones, photon radiation fed the laser, and he was Chairman of the photon plant. A shiver ran through him despite the warm night. Perverse anticipation churned his gut, like waiting tipsy at a brothel. A taxi drone floated at the corner. He sprang up and ran to it.

“Photon plant.”

They flew from the city, skimmed low across the bay, over the old port, and into the industrial zone. The drone dropped him at the front door of the plant. Adam swiped in and marched up to the control room. His steps matched the electric beat coming from giant magnetos in the basement. A guard bot drifted near, the side camera swivelling towards him.

“I’ll fix you,” Adam thought.

It was hot inside the plant. He wiped the sweat from his face and pushed open the Control room door. The guard bot slid in behind him.

“Mr. Young will attend the Committee tomorrow, 25 December 2069 at 8 am.”

They suspected something. He only attended the plant for inspections or VIP tours these days.

“Acknowledge and back to your rounds.” Adam locked the door after the bot.

He sat at a terminal and logged in. Coded a virus to make the photons ineffective as a fuel. It would take them days to figure out a solution. A few days free of drone surveillance sounded like heaven to Adam. The consequences didn’t phase him at all.

He looked around the plant. Remembering times that he slept here while working on some problem or other. Realising with regret how much the plant had stolen from his home life. Cameras tracked him to the back door

A sliver of moon hung low in the sky, silhouetting the taxi drone that dropped him at the front. It now waited at the rear. Adam shook his head in disgust, the monitoring never stopped.

“I’ll walk,” he said not looking at the machine.

He rounded the corner onto the highway and saw the city skyline shining bright on the horizon. In dark contrast, a single streetlamp fluttered 200 meters away. He walked in silence down the middle of the road toward the city lights. Abandoned factories rotted on either side.

After walking for ten minutes, he saw lights growing brighter ahead and felt a low rumble shake the road. Stepped aside and watched an old-fashioned truck bounce past. Diesel fumes and the stink of animal dung assaulted his senses. He gagged on the long-forgotten smells. The truck turned through factory gates and sounded its horn at a massive roll-a-door.

“Must be an abattoir” Adam thought.

A high-pitched scream made him jump. Pigs could sound human when they sensed death but that sounded like a woman. He whipped out his phone and pointed the camera at the truck. The roll-a-door opened, he zoomed in. Saw pink and brown balls on a conveyor belt. Tubes filled with red liquid attached the spheres to an overhead tank. A robotic arm placed a small black box into one ball, another blood-freezing scream.

Adam groaned as he understood what he was looking at. Bloody disembodied heads on the belt, live tissue for brain auditor testing. Where did the people come from? Everyone who didn’t make the list should have gone in the cull.

The factory door closed. Adam struggled to stand on legs as sloppy as custard. He leaned on a rusted 44-gallon drum and pushed up. The drum fell, making a hollow boom when it hit the ground. Panicked, he looked around, saw a driver bot emerge from the truck, and head towards him. It stopped, then rushed back to the building.

Adam didn’t wait, he felt guilty running away from the victims but what could he do? He bolted back the way he came. Sirens howled spurring him to run faster, heart thrashing. Puffing hard he ran into the photon plant’s street but stopped with a jolt when he saw a pair of Committee drones refuelling from the plant’s laser. Two men at the front door talked to a guard bot.

Sidling behind a long-dead oak tree, Adam watched the men board the drones and fly down the street towards him. Bark crumbled as he pushed in tight on the tree and held his breath. Engine noise faded as they rounded the corner towards the factory, he exhaled hard.

Tried to control his breathing as his heart beat way too fast. How did the auditor deal with a heart attack? After a few minutes, his breathing calmed, Adam peeked around the tree but couldn’t see any sign of life. He needed a hiding spot fast. Didn’t want the Committee to know he had discovered their foul secret. A gloomy side street led towards the old docks.

Adam went past decaying warehouses and onto the wharf. Rats scuttled in and out of a building on the left side of the jetty. He looked to the other end and saw a ladder leading to the water. Perfect. Climbing down he stepped onto a slippery wooden beam. Holding the ladder while his eyes adjusted to the dark. A medium swell slapped against the pillars of the wharf, spraying him with a salty mist.

He saw a large drainpipe further along and started towards it. Encrusted barnacles provided some traction, but it was hard to keep balanced. He reached the next pillar and grabbed it, resting for a moment. His heart was throbbing again, he felt the locket's weight on his chest. Sarah’s face floated before him and a faint image of his grandch…

An electric shock ran through him from head to toe; guilty memories swamped his brain. He remembered waving the two little families off on what they thought was a holiday paid for by him. Memories wiped years ago returned in bits and pieces. How many wipes had there been over the years? Did Sarah know the truth? What sort of peop....

High-powered lights lit him up from either side.

“There he is!”

The sudden light and noise caused Adam to let go of the pillar. He slipped and fell backward into the water his head submerged for long seconds. Spluttering to the surface a wave smacked into his open mouth. He flailed about for something to grab onto.

A soft object floated past, he snatched at it. The spotlights found him, lighting up a few square meters. Adam saw he was hanging onto a headless torso, several more floated by in blood-red water. He screamed.

A giant dorsal fin flashed by freezing the scream and blocking the spotlights. Water swirled around him. He let go of the body and fought his way towards the ladder. The lights followed his violent splashes. He reached the bottom rung and started to pull himself up.

The shark hit hard, mauled his legs, and tore them off. Adam felt a tremendous heat as the auditor went into overdrive. One of the drones floated a few meters above, propellors thrusting a downdraft onto him. There was no pain but a lot of noise. Megaphone screeches mixed with the blood pounding in his ears.

A rope hit his head, he grabbed it, but the lights cut out plunging him into darkness. The drone’s engine sputtered to a stop and there was a giant splash as the machine fell into the water. The computer virus worked. He floated still for a minute and then there was a massive surge as the giant shark took the rest of him.

His head dodged the rows of teeth and he edged down the gullet. Bone and muscle pressed in hard on either side, working up and down to force him into the gut. Shocked that he was still alive, Adam almost fainted as the auditor spun faster and faster. Claustrophobia hit, he couldn’t move, there was no room, he was stuck.

A terrible realisation dawned. It took 24 hours to grow a limb, less for body organs and tissue. Regeneron would repair the damage done by digestive juices. He had lost two legs, his pelvis, a lot of intestines, and other organs.

The future for him and the shark would be interesting.