“Here is your special latte with extra cream, please enjoy and thankyou for visiting us”,
the mechanical voice echoed in the cafeteria. Arthur carefully held his precious latte which had cost him half of his monthly salary, checking where he was heading next.
“A late night firework show sounds good, the last patch of green is a bit costly though…”,
Arthur murmured. He remembered the time when it was green everywhere.. the small sparrows chirping while jumping along the branches, the withered leaves that twirled in the wind, the gentle sunlight that wakes one up in the morning… It was all gone now.. and what was left on Earth now was the last patch of green, a small piece of land with flowers carefully preserved in the ways of the old days, which is opened for public once in a month just to see fireworks.
Arthur sat on the metallic bench, watching the crowd speeding forward in orderly fashion, trying to savour his latte with his barely functional tastebuds. A sigh escaped him as he glanced at the sky or what was left of it. There was nothing but multiple artificial moons and remnants of spacestations up there as a proof of how far the technology has reached. It was almost evening now.
Arthur slowly walked along with the flow of the crowd, boarding the maglev shuttles to reach his home. He stood in front of a large multistorey building among the many, entering the lift with a number of others. His home was Small.. just big enough to fit in a table and chair with preinstalled plug points and a view to those towering metallic jungles. He was able to squeeze in a small bed as well but it was quite cramped. It was all he could afford with his meagre salary like the rest of the residents. Arthur stayed alone.
He had lost his family years ago in the series of apocalypse that hunted down human beings. He had somehow survived, arriving at a government shelter and signed up for whatever tests and experiments they wanted to do, just to stay alive. What was the price..? Looking at the room with almost no personal things, Arthur could feel the answer resonating in his mind. The price to survive for all these years was the privileges he once had as a human. He had givenup his ability to touch and feel, to taste, to smell, he had givenup every bit of those small happiness to survive.
Arthur tried to remember his family, but only a faint outline was all he could musterup. For the past few years Arthur could feel his mind and body giving out under pressure, as if reaching the end.
He could remember the day when he realized his precious taste buds failing him, taking the last joy away. Arthur slowly layed down on the bed, thinking of how it became like this. Researchers back then were able to extract the human mind and implant it into robots to withstand the apocalypse. When our bodies failed to withstand the price of atrocities we had done, the easiest way to survive was this. Arthur was one among the thousands of trial runs done back then, to understand the compatibility of robotic body and was a great success.
Then with the giant leap in energy research and all, better bodies were produced with seperately paid selective features of senses to satisfy human desires. People with money were able to afford a better body, better living space and even better sensory feelings. It was as if the only things that made humans equal were destroyed… The rich had the right to exclusively taste and feel what was once tasted and felt by everyone alike.
Arthur remembered what his company had told him that day..
“Your body is not in optimum condition.. it’s slowing down the efficiency. Either you
upgrade to a better body or quit the job.”
“It was easy for them. Upgrading to a new body was impossible..”
Arthur mumbled as he watched the fireworks blooming over the buildings through the window. It was his lastday as Arthur… When the clock strikes twelve, he will cease to exist in the world even as data. And may be tomorrow his old body will be recycled to make up something new. Arthur thought as his battery failed with a beep, the beauty of fireworks reflected forever in his marble eyeballs.
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Written by Akhila D
Poetry of Reality 