#58 - A Thousand Miles
Zero
He does not walk or talk or sing or stand or sleep or eat or do any of the hundreds and thousands of things his brain is telling him to do. He is sprawled out in red fluid, wrapped in artificial materials, plastics and metals, threaded with tubes and stuck with needles, a battery for the machines.
One
He stands underground, in a cave, surrounded by people. He is still. They move around him, getting on with their lives, having seen this all before. This is the real world to them. To him, it is still somehow Wonderland, the fantasy world at the bottom of the hole. He keeps expecting to wake up, though he knows he is already awake, has already woken, for the first time in his life.
Zero One
He is blind. He stands on metal, surrounded by metal, talking to metal. There is metal in his body. Everything is artifical. He sees gold light. Tiny machines scuttle behind him, beside him. Move in front. Robot voices, talking loudly. He has come as far as he can, and now he will go back. Inside.
---
In the final flash, everything burns away into light, and he steps beyond it, beyond flesh and thought, and waits to see where he will go next.
He does not walk or talk or sing or stand or sleep or eat or do any of the hundreds and thousands of things his brain is telling him to do. He is sprawled out in red fluid, wrapped in artificial materials, plastics and metals, threaded with tubes and stuck with needles, a battery for the machines.
One
He stands underground, in a cave, surrounded by people. He is still. They move around him, getting on with their lives, having seen this all before. This is the real world to them. To him, it is still somehow Wonderland, the fantasy world at the bottom of the hole. He keeps expecting to wake up, though he knows he is already awake, has already woken, for the first time in his life.
Zero One
He is blind. He stands on metal, surrounded by metal, talking to metal. There is metal in his body. Everything is artifical. He sees gold light. Tiny machines scuttle behind him, beside him. Move in front. Robot voices, talking loudly. He has come as far as he can, and now he will go back. Inside.
---
In the final flash, everything burns away into light, and he steps beyond it, beyond flesh and thought, and waits to see where he will go next.