The Electronic Commandos by D.A.Sanford - HTML preview

Prologue

I am a typical old fart. I hurt, I’m grumpy and I sit eating my mush watching the news. I hate those commercial for identity theft. I usually turn the sound off. Identity theft? That’s a laugh. The reason I sit here eating this shit and watching news is because there is nothing else.

That does not mean that there is nothing else interesting. I mean there is nothing else period. I have not been a victim of identity theft. I am a victim of people theft.

I sit here in this room. One complete wall is glass. I yell at those weird looking things that must be children. Ugly grotesque children. I would say that even their parents would find them ugly but the parents are butt ugly too.

“Quit banging on the glass! Your tentacles are leaving slime all over. The cleaning bots don’t even bother anymore.”

This has been my life for a year. Even the bathroom has that glass wall. I now see why those monkey’s throw shit at those people staring at them. I will admit, I have done just that.

I have seen some of those who visit start to protest this abuse. The kidnapping of species as a sadistic show. I have heard something about AI’s and this being a cemetery planet, not a museum. The display’s that people wanted their deceased relatives in should be enough.

I’d kill myself but there is nothing to use. Believe me, I tried in the past. Everything is unbreakable, or should I say unbreakable with my strength, I tried to use my eating utensils but the plates and spoon dissolve within a short period of time. Only rigid enough for that one use. Like a paper plate.

Food here tastes like cardboard but must contain what I need to stay alive. There is one thing I have found related to food, I kept a small portion of it aside. I was able to find that it took on a black color after a day or two of sitting.

The walls here are a sterile white. I have written on the wall, so that the visitors see, a disturbing sign. It is still there because nothing but my food and air comes inside my room. The visitors who can at least read my language see an ominous statement. I know the ones that can because they cringe and usually run away,

WHEN THERE IS AN EMPTY ROOM AVAILABLE, YOU’RE NEXT!

Waking up is a big disappointment. I’m still alive. Depression always sets in. I can’t change the channel. The room does not have any door whatsoever. I only remember waking up in here. I can only tell time by the visitors. They are here, it’s day. No visitors, it’s night.

The kids banging on the glass is my wake up call. I have decided. I’m not going to eat or drink. I’m done with this farce. One thing I have found, after a few days, I am no longer really hungry. I do wet my mouth to ease the dry but I know that the not drinking, I can feel my body start to shut down. I sleep more.

Once more, I wake. This time those children must be pissed. The banging is very loud. Then the unthinkable happens. I hear the glass break.

A group of peoples come in and I am now being placed on a cart and they are rushing me away. I turn my head to the side and see that most of the rooms have had the glass broken. They are empty. thinking to myself, This is it. Despite all those visitors, this hell hole is disposing of the exhibits. Good, bash my skull in like they do in an abattoir., shoot me, I don’t care.

Why the fuck are you putting me in a bed? I spit out the liquid they are trying to force me to drink.

“What the hell are you doing? Just kill me and get it over with you bastards.”

They chatter then a small green person comes over. “You have been rescued. We are not here to kill you. Please drink. It is a healing potion.” She is pleading with me.

“I’m old, tired and only want to die. My memories are a horror. You want to help me, let me lay on the grass under a clear sky and let me go to my final sleep.”

“We will do that if that is your wish.”

They wheel me for a while then I need to close my eyes. It’s almost too bright and when I reopen my eyes, I see grass and other species just lying on the grass with someone sitting next to them. I guess that most of us have chosen the same thing.

She sits on the ground next to me and tells me that the AI of this planet was corrupted by another AI. That AI was created by a greedy race. They were making vast fortunes selling tickets and staging scenes for families of the dead.

”You were put into an exhibit of species in the universe.”

I saw one of those tentacle beings being laid next to me. It was chattering and pointing at me. That one’s attendant talked to my green attendant, she then told me that it was apologizing to me. It saw my sign and his children laughed. They went to leave and his family was captured. He was on exhibit but he has learned that his family has been used as material in one of the grave scenes.

Not even caring, I looked at the sky as the clouds pass by. She holds my hand and I fall asleep.