OUR STATUS, OUR STATE
The story continues - sorry for any mistakes.
I wanted to finish it today but I did not manage, time is almost up and I'll do my best next week.
Chapter 8: Lifechanging choices
Author notes: hope no one feels triggered or offended by this, I am inspired by a documentary I watched; it concerned Jim Jones and his "jones town", what a tragedy! A mass-suicide happened in late 1970s which has impressed (and scared) me without limits - how a single person can manipulate minds until the most extreme point.
But after Albert's death in previous chapter I didn't want to build further drama so I just made the president take control of his robots to force them to work and stop protests, no more deaths or awful stuff.
I have several points of view here, as they introduce when the virus is going to stop the second apocalypse in time...
Author note 2: president's name is Greg Arvil - Arvil is anagram of viral. It's completely intentional.
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President Greg Arvil's perspective: first weakness?
"Scott", I said when the crowd dissipated; "my ear hurts! Take care of me or else..."
Still standing on the stage I looked around: no one could be seen any longer, just my slave remained with me and he proceeded to wipe my ear. "Nothing, master", he smiled at me; "it's just been some broken glass coming from nowhere. Let's go to your place and I clean you properly".
Scott has always been so devoted to me since I took him away from his parents; I caught them giving him forbidden paper books and I set their whole house on fire, saving the teen's life just at the right moment. "You see all this spit dirtying my shirt", I pointed my finger toward a saliva stain dripping from my chest; "all those who booed at me some minutes ago, are the ones who murdered your parents. You remember who has saved you, right?"
He nodded silently while cleaning any single trace of strangers' spit from me; "master, I am ready for my mission! I will go and get Elias. Time for doubts is over for me now."
"You have to be careful there", I warned, but a doubt formed in my mind: "oh, slave, tell me the truth! Are you trying to get super powers from those folks in Bugdom?" I squeezed his wrist firmly; "thanks Lord there's still this negative boy around, otherwise I'd have burned their town instantly! Those HIV positive pacifists will end sooner or later, it's matter of time. I programmed the virus for war, not for their bullshit."
I fastened a leash on Scott's neck and pulled him close to me, forcing him on all fours: "and don't stand up, or speak, till ordered! Understood?"
"But you paid me ... you told me I could contact the world again... You remember the elections campaign?"
"Few pure human survivors won't bother voting again", I smiled. "Everything became automatic for these last elections but I'm afraid anyways..." I looked into his eyes, pulling his leash even tighter: "THINGS MESSED UP", I screamed. "Since my trusted vacuum cleaner revealed that boy's existence to me, and worse that he had been your friend too, you must forget our previous plans. You do as I order and go down to Bugdom town when I decide so."
And with a mischievous grin I added, "they have no right to vote, just artificial intelligence votes now and it's trained by me. That stupid human cop with his team will not manage to ruin Europe again. Never more."
"I couldn't even guess this conclusion for your event", Scott whispered; "seeing the crowd around you I was sure they were your followers, our allies. But after that glass storm suddenly hit you, I realize we could have a spy hiding around. Tell me what to do, master!"
"WHAT DID I SAY! DO NOT SPEAK", I yelled slapping his face and guided him across the deserted road without taking care of the stage and anything else left behind.
Rare living creatures passing by simply ignored us so we could walk straight to my comfort zone and when arrived, I pushed him in front of my house's door.
Just a fingertip on the lock and it slowly opened, ready for us to meet all my other servants; in silence as they're trained, they began licking my shoes clean but I sent them away: "Number two, get Bella out. Immediately."
"What a miracle", I thought staring at their tongues as they disappeared in creatures' mouths again. When I built all of them from what was left of humans after the war, I could never guess they could work but damn, from all notions I made them learn from resources I banned from human survivors, their culture on how to treat their owner came out really good.
A tall human-like robot, dressed as a cop, whispered a "yes Lord" and left, just to come back with a huge and heavy box. "Training skips today!" I prompted my electronic servants. "Go downstairs to prepare food for master."
"Reward", said Number Two; "no reward, no obedience." It was shaped like a male human in his 40s, strong muscles coming from lab cultivated cells and a metallic skeleton inside; it turned its head toward me and tried to lick my ear, just to discover the bandage Scott applied there some minutes before.
"Go to work, timewaster", I barked but it stood in front of the staircase door holding it with its hands, other servants forming a queue behind it. "And if I don't move, other won't! You'll skip lunch today, old fart!"
Through decades I have acquired many experiences in repressing human protests with any means, could I at 100 years old fear some robots trying to dominate me? "No one of you will have rewards", I shouted again; "not today, and never more!" With the press of a button I reset all their knowledge database to "chores only" and all of them began to step through the door under my control; I typed a recipe on a keypad I wore at my wrist, and locked the door as soon as they all disappeared down the stairs.
"But Master", now that we were alone again Scott spoke to me; "Number Two was so kind! He has asked for help when you got injured by the glass and he was gentle with me as well!"
"He", I repeated; "you call a machine like a male human. What did I teach you about pronouns? You remember, I am the only one who can be presented as 'he/him'", you all must be addressed with 'it'! Much easier. And 'they' is plural only. Fuck, I still must give you lessons, slave!"
I sighed in pain, reliving the terrible decision I made in 2029 after my first election; "it took a nuclear war to end that stupid pronoun debate, you weren't born yet when humans claimed the right to use 'they' as singular and now what are you bringing back to surface? Let's go to my room and get ready for your mission."
We walked along the hallway until my master bedroom pulling Scott's leash with the big box tied on it, my free hand drying a tear in my eye; what was happening to me, to the world I lovingly rebuilt from the apocalypse!
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Scott's perspective
Bella
"Are you crying, master Greg?" I asked when he unfastened my leash; "I've never seen you like that."
"Just cold", Greg said, "and that glass, please check my eyes if they have been hit somehow."
Since he took me as his slave he's been such a dominant master, but now on his 100th birthday he surprised me reversing roles. It was my turn to comfort him like a kid. "I won't end up like that man", his broken voice said, "about one thousand people died for him, you know that story? And then he killed himself... No... I'm not like him. They all escape from me, I count nothing."
I stared at the box, then the ceiling and master's bed, then at Greg once more; his authority mood seemed completely faded. "I had an idol, in 1978 everything happened and I was a young man, I have dreamed of all people following him for so long, especially when I was hospitalized in 1980s and learnt what that AIDS was... Oh, an era ago! I wanted to recreate Arvil town using Jones town as a model, but without deaths. I wanted a dinasty of slaves, and then..."
"Then you have me", I replied with a caring smile. "You think I'm not enough?" On all fours as I was trained to stay, I sat on my heels listening: he talked about his days in hospital, male and female nurses taking care of him and his secret desires to have sex with all of them. "Sex freedom has caused all that pain", he continued, "I can't allow others to suffer what I suffered myself. So I have decided to access experiments and after the first pill I started hearing voices..."
"Scary", I whispered and took a step forwards toward the box leaning in front of Greg's bed. "You'd rather tell me about this one..."
"DO NOT TOUCH IT", Master grabbed my wrist and pulled me backwards. "I was saying, my mission was to prohibit sex freedom for humanity hoping to stop AIDS spreading! When I became a politician that's was my goal and I achieved it. But..."
"But all went out of control, are you meaning this?"
"Think of it, people started giving the virus deliberately to each other! I hoped it could be a sort of cult, someone commanding them and easy to eliminate but no. They were spontaneous, so I created a bomb cave under the ground and confined every known positive down there."
"Makes sense, they can do whatever they want with no harm but what about unaware people, what did you do?"
"Try to guess", he gave me a terrifying look. In silence Greg walked across the room, checking on every corner and space; "I'll tell you a secret, slave, but remember if you share it around I'll cut your tongue off. You hear me?"
Again my gaze pointed to the mysterious closed box and I firmly tightened my mouth, teeth blocking lips inside of it. I took a deep breath and counted till ten, in my mind. It was an old trick I learnt when I still lived with my poor parents.
"War", I finally said; "you just destroyed a continent because you wanted to stop a virus..."
"Not exactly", he replied; "You know what old humans said in previous era? 'If you can't beat them, join them'. The virus can be useful for my army and it helped me to create robots, where do you think reasoning ability came from?"
"The ... The virus... The virus talks..." I sensed that news from my formerly friend Elias when he told me about his parents talking with objects, now Greg telling me he heard voices while hospitalized? Two and two brings four, it's inevitable. But I left the conversation fall. "I'm maybe joking", I said, my face red; "I didn't want to offend you..."
His hand suddenly pressed on my throat and he pushed me down on his bed, finally opening his secret box.
"Bella", he grinned at me, his menacing voice in my ears. "No more Scott, your name will be Bella from now on, understood?"
"No ... no ..." I tried to speak but I suddenly felt something poured down my throat. "Swallow", he ordered, and it was the last thing I remember before passing out.
No idea of how many minutes or hours passed, I only know I woke up in another room with a mirror on the ceiling. "Bella, open your eyes", Greg ordered, and I couldn't recognize what I saw! "It's not me", I thought while looking at myself. I wore long hair, my face completely transformed by a sort of leather mask he put on me. My body, my arms and legs, everything covered in a rubber like substance I couldn't even recognize or take off anyhow.
"Time for you to go and get Elias, its consent or not. Bring it here to me!"
Every attempt to speak was unsuccessful: my throat could not reproduce any sound and my tongue was paralized, I just could open and close my mouth.
"You're a woman now, a lady which Elias will recognize for sure. It'll follow you with no doubt. Go, Bella, go!"
I looked again at the mirror not believing to my eyes: the face reproduced in my mask looked familiar, I had seen it when I was a kid, maybe... A face reminding me a name.
"I know what you're thinking", Master Greg slapped my rubber covered ass; "dressed this way you could win the jackpot and give me back Elias, his father and the virus."