By Casey Douglass
As part of #fridayflash
The klaxon wailed with
a high pitched tone, making Tim jump as it always did. He opened his
eyes to the blackness around him as he heard the tell tale signs of
the mechanisms beginning to function.
A cold female voice
sounded over the audio system, ‘C shift ready to begin in ten
minutes. Engage exercise programme.’
The muscles in Tim’s
arms and legs convulsed as the electrical current ran through his
implants. He used to cry out but after seven years of this, now he
valued the sensory stimulation, even though it felt like he was being
filleted.
The darkness around him
had turned a dull grey, a few tiny led lights slowly brightening to
illuminate the small cell he was in. There was just room for his
chair interface which he reclined on, the “reality grade” screen
hanging just in front of his eyes, and the keyboard split in two and
neatly resting under each hand on the chair arms.
Another wave of current
passed through his body, the stimulation causing him to fill his
waste removal pouch which whisked everything away with speedy
silence. A tiny hiss of air freshener sounded behind him, the sickly
smell of honeysuckle making him choke.
‘C Shift prepare
for elevation.’
Tim felt the current
slacken in his body, the lights around him now shining full bright
and white. The sound of the mechanisms was building now, the two
flaps in the ceiling twitching with pent up tension.
‘Elevate.’
With a grinding squeak
they slid back, a rush of ozone entering Tim’s nostrils. With a
shuddering movement, he felt his chair begin to rise, the motion used
to be silky smooth but now it was like riding a bucking bronco. He
had requested a new one but all they had told him was “cut-backs”
and a “double dip recession” meant it was unlikely to happen. I
guess that’s what I get for signing my life away at the wrong time
he thought at the time.
The head of his chair
emerged from the holding cell. He turned left and right, noticing the
many other heads and chairs emerging from their own cells all around
him. He nodded to the woman next to him when their eyes met, her hair
was blonde but dirty and plastered to her forehead. She gave a wan
smile before looking away. Tim sighed quietly. She had only been
there a week or so and they still hadn’t cut her hair. With a jolt
the chair stopped moving, the twin flaps pushing closed around the
base. He looked around him once more, the rows of his co-workers
stretching as far as he could see in every direction, each
illuminated by the light of their screens, each one a small beacon in
the overwhelming dark.
‘C Shift start
work in two minutes.’
The
screen in front of him flickered to life, random characters and
numbers zooming across it as it performed its diagnostic tests. He
closed his eyes before the onslaught. Forty eight hours he thought.
Another forty eight hours before they switch me off again. Why do I
do it? Well, for Emma and Troy, I know that. Without the money this
brings in, we’d be destitute. I’d sacrifice myself for them one
hundred times over if I could, so I know that’s why I do it! Come
on Tim, for them! He mentally repeated it again and again, the pep
talk he gave himself before every shift, reaching down deep inside
himself for that small flicker of belief and hoping that his love for
them would fuel the flame and increase his endurance.
‘C Shift begin
work.’
The
screen gave a flicker and then flooded with words. Long words short
words misspelt words and nonsense words. He flicked his fingers left
and right over the keys, highlighting, correcting and transferring, a
small number in a green box in the upper right of his screen
proclaiming his resolution rate as acceptable.
A
food tube appeared next to him, ready for him to suck on the end when
he felt depleted but he was flying for now. The sounds of thousands
of others around him, all tapping keys quietly built up into a kind
of droning white noise that lulled him into a trance. He liked it
when this happened, it took him less conscious thought.
He
was well and truly in his rhythm when something jolted him awake
again. He wasn’t sure what had happened, but something had plucked
him from his zoned out state and shattered his mental routine. In a
daze he stared at the screen, the resolution counter now having an
amber background. The cursor highlighted two words. He closed his
mouth when he became aware it was slack. He rubbed his fingers around
his eyes and looked again. The resolution counter chimed and flashed
red.
‘Number 2466-46,
is there a problem?’
He
pressed a button beside his chair.
‘Sorry,
no problem here, just lost my place.’
‘You have sixty
seconds to get up to speed again 2466-46 or you will be penalised.
Understood?’
‘Understood.’
He
gave his head a shake, trying to dislodge a mental agitation in the
only way he could think of. Did they know where he was? His fingers
began to flick over the keys again, a smile on his face as his
resolution rating returned to green once more.
***
‘What
are you looking at Troy?’
‘Err
nothing Mum.’
‘I
know you’re sixteen but I don’t want you looking at porn if
that’s what you're doing!’
‘I’m
not!’
Troy
heard footsteps behind him as he looked down at his laptop.
‘Oh
Troy.’
He
felt his Mum’s arms envelop him as she stroked his hair.
‘We’ll
find him!’
‘I
know...I just thought I could try...to look on-’
‘I
know. You’re a good boy, I know you miss your dad.’
‘Can’t
you trace where the money comes from that he sends us?’
‘I
wouldn’t know how.’
They
both fell silent as they stared at the screen.
A web browser was
open, displaying the search result: "Tim
Gellar". Results found : 0