Fast Fiction Challenge: The Future is 1800
Title: The Future is 1800
Word: automaton
Challenger: tempest_mrc
Length: 200 words exactly It was six o’clock and he pushed himself away from his desk.
Silently.
Around him, his department registered the time and all ceased their work, in some cases stopping mid-sentence. Computers were already saving the work ready for them to recommence their tasks when they returned, though those that were now walking in silence to the exits neither knew this nor would have cared had they been told.
As each of them left through red doors, across the room, green doors opened and an equal number of people walked into the space now vacated. As each of the newcomers sat in front of computer displays, they were recognised by iris scans and, in rare necessary cases, by fingerprint. And their work commenced. In silence.
Those who had left walked slowly downstairs into a large basement, where they took their assigned positions and slept.
And while each thing that used to be a human being was unconscious, their brains were reordered, new instructions downloaded and each was now ready to work through the night. Each automaton awoke, looked at the large clock set in the wall and knew it was now six o’clock.
In the future, it is always six o’clock.
© Lee Barnett, 2006
Word: automaton
Challenger: tempest_mrc
Length: 200 words exactly It was six o’clock and he pushed himself away from his desk.
Silently.
Around him, his department registered the time and all ceased their work, in some cases stopping mid-sentence. Computers were already saving the work ready for them to recommence their tasks when they returned, though those that were now walking in silence to the exits neither knew this nor would have cared had they been told.
As each of them left through red doors, across the room, green doors opened and an equal number of people walked into the space now vacated. As each of the newcomers sat in front of computer displays, they were recognised by iris scans and, in rare necessary cases, by fingerprint. And their work commenced. In silence.
Those who had left walked slowly downstairs into a large basement, where they took their assigned positions and slept.
And while each thing that used to be a human being was unconscious, their brains were reordered, new instructions downloaded and each was now ready to work through the night. Each automaton awoke, looked at the large clock set in the wall and knew it was now six o’clock.
In the future, it is always six o’clock.
© Lee Barnett, 2006