PART FOUR: IN AETERNUM
In Aeternum - (adverb) to eternity, forever
Dillinger supposed that he couldn’t keep existing as the only real being in an artificial world. Where man had overthrown all creatures including themselves - where the Earth was merely a shadow of what it once was.
Humanity’s upbringing would only lead to humanity’s downfall, he realized, and now that they didn’t even qualify as humans, the future only held zeroes and ones on a computer screen. It’s horrifying, in a sense - it’s a Hell he does not want a part of.
He sat in the bathtub, the wheelchair in the other room, staring at the photograph propped against the mirror for the last time. His entire body was numb from the painkillers, the water stained.
It doesn’t feel like his time yet - but it can’t hurt being early to the one luxury everyone hates.
That night, the robots bled oil and Dillinger bled red.
⁂
In another part of the city, Dillinger slowly gained consciousness.
There was something over his face. And his arms, and his legs, and -
He screamed and lurched up, throwing off the white cloth that had been shrouding him.
It was dark. His eyes adjusted quickly to the dim lighting, and he noticed the rows and rows of tables with large, white shrouds set atop suspicious shapes.
Dillinger realized that it was a morgue.
Then, he realized that his hands looked very different.
He was sixty, and yet his hands were not wrinkled or frail. They were large and calloused.
His fingers flew up to his face and the top of his head. His cheeks were smooth. The top of his head had feathery locks of brown hair.
He scrambled up, his body dressed in a simple white robe. Dillinger sprinted past all of the tables. He couldn’t remember that last time he had used his legs this easily - the last time he was fit enough to run - but he was intent on finding a mirror, a slab of shiny metal, anything.
There was a small computer in the corner of the room. He skidded over to it and snatched up the papers on the desk.
Specimen 87 - Different ideals regarding nature, see clause 244
a) Strange ways of thinking, persuasion not enough
b) Conditioning was enough (see sub-clause)
- NEW UPDATE - Dillinger Conan Davis died 2 minutes and 18 seconds ago.
c) More experimentation is needed to to fully convert all specimens
“New specimen …” Dillinger looked at the black, reflective screen of and found himself staring back at his thirty year old self.
“No. No.”
He had died? Had he died? No, it wasn’t possible, he had just left the Head Center after checking in for his rations!
Why was he back here? Why?
Dillinger scanned the room frantically for a syringe or a scalpel. Dillinger had gotten to die, why had Dillinger gotten to die and “Dillinger” gotten stuck in perdition?
Robots don’t feel pain.
And suddenly, he was tearing away the artificial flesh on his arms and his neck, and ripping - pulling away the wires, sparks exploding and melting the circuits, and -
- UPDATE - Dillinger Conan Davis died 5 minutes and 2 seconds ago.
- NEW UPDATE - Dillinger Conan Davis died 3 seconds ago.
Somewhere in the rows of metal tables, another figure in a white shroud stirred.