Today's mood: I Can't Feel my Face
We stand in the shadow of a War Machine. Shattered core. Shattered rivets. Hunched. Limp. Three holes digitally burned into its forehead. Its captive dangles from a broken chest cavity. Legless and freshly castrated.
He looks at Robot and speaks through bloody bubbles, voice rising in pitch as oil fills the broken tubes inside his chest. A final word. A final warning.
Robot's still. The connection's quiet. Only dread remains.
We stand in the shadow of a War Machine. Shattered core. Shattered rivets. Hunched. Limp. Three holes digitally burned into its forehead. Its captive dangles from a broken chest cavity. Legless and freshly castrated.
He looks at Robot and speaks through bloody bubbles, voice rising in pitch as oil fills the broken tubes inside his chest. A final word. A final warning.
Robot's still. The connection's quiet. Only dread remains.
Words flicker from within. Robot lowers his hand, delicately pulls a data-card from the blue and orange Pacific Sunwear fanny pack drooping fashionably from his waist. It's black. Three pronged. A perfect rectangle. A signal scrambler. Only to be used as a last resort. Soon Robot will no longer be Robot.
A port opens in his head. The data-card connects with a twist. Robot waits. Robot braces. A two second delay. The hiss of fresh static. A low frequency buzz follows. Rises in pitch.
Particles burn velvet through the connection. My eyes dilate. My lips tremble. The gears within wage war on my nervous system as the frequency increases. Every breath is fire. Fluid drips from holes I swear were not there seconds ago.
The shrimp creatures are manic. They buzz. Chitter. Form into a cyclone of three inch pincher and barely contains threats.
One belly flop later, I’m flat and low. Arms outstretched. The floor promises it will never hurt me.
Memories flash: A sunset. A woman's smile. Teeth stained with blood.
A wrist.
A razor…
Please. Make it stop: The Noise. The chitters. The vibrations.
The colors. The razors. The chaos.
Robot did this to me. Robot wants me to see this. Robot wants me to feel this. I scream through the connection.
Robots response is a glitch. Squares appear in my vision. Multiply. Collapse. They speak of a dead world. A code within a disease. I'm infected. We are all infected.
The squares melt. Dissipate. A moment of clarity later I understand my
purpose.
I understand everything.
Robot drops to the ground with the subtly of a train wreak. Sparks. Becomes epileptic.
The frequency peaks. Syncs with Robot's serial number. Deletes it. Replicates it. Replaces it with a fabrication. Robot's memory core ruptures. Bleeds numbers and code. The ones and zeros are endless.
***
The frequency subsides. Robot is fetal. Knees tucked to his chest. He rocks himself, driven by a need for a forgotten normality.
The connection's weak. The beeps only a whisper. The pain fades. I miss it. I feel naked without it.
Then a surge. A seconds pause. Robot apologizes in fragmented binary.
The connection tells me he means it.
The connection tells me everything will be OK.
The connection flat lines.
The Shrimp drop. Red light blinks within the chest cavity. A click. The hum of a speaker. A voice: Soft. Digital. Feminine.
SYSTEM REBOOT IN 27 MINUTES
The voice is very proud of this sentence.
Outside, moonlight glows orange on the endless field. A bird chirps. A War Machine crumbles. This is the world Robot will wake up to. Until then, I hang limp from brain wires.
I understand everything.
Robot drops to the ground with the subtly of a train wreak. Sparks. Becomes epileptic.
The frequency peaks. Syncs with Robot's serial number. Deletes it. Replicates it. Replaces it with a fabrication. Robot's memory core ruptures. Bleeds numbers and code. The ones and zeros are endless.
***
The frequency subsides. Robot is fetal. Knees tucked to his chest. He rocks himself, driven by a need for a forgotten normality.
The connection's weak. The beeps only a whisper. The pain fades. I miss it. I feel naked without it.
Then a surge. A seconds pause. Robot apologizes in fragmented binary.
The connection tells me he means it.
The connection tells me everything will be OK.
The connection flat lines.
The Shrimp drop. Red light blinks within the chest cavity. A click. The hum of a speaker. A voice: Soft. Digital. Feminine.
SYSTEM REBOOT IN 27 MINUTES
The voice is very proud of this sentence.
Outside, moonlight glows orange on the endless field. A bird chirps. A War Machine crumbles. This is the world Robot will wake up to. Until then, I hang limp from brain wires.
I drift to sleep.
I forgive Robot for everything.
