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[Light]

Matti-kinz Only

---

Lights dazzled those lining the streets with an array of colors and shapes. They danced and twirled, and faded from sight as they died out in the air. It was the day of the election--and everyone, and everything was up and about. The children played games that were supplied in a fair near the large town square where the election was to begin. Adults were gathered in said square, dressed in fine linens that they had prepared for this grand event. AI walked around the lit area, holding trays with refreshments on them.

One family that was apart of the community was separated; the two adults socializing about the square while the children made the best of the games, trying to collect as big of a collection from the contests that provided prizes as possible. Many of the families--in fact, all of the families were just like that one.

As a thunderous pop in the sky interrupts the festivities, the sky is died a crimson red; the intrusive color spreading from the edge of the town the the center. A few laugh--a few cower, and a few return to what they were doing, supposing that it was just more of the light show that had been going on. The air grew warmer though, and this time, instead of just exploding in the air, a bomb wipes out part of the city in a few blazing, destructive seconds.

[mationix]

It's always a shock when you realize how easy it is to end a life. Almost nobody thinks of lives being so fragile, until something happens and your whole world is turned upside down. Even literally sometimes. The fact of the matter is that people take for granted what is easily known as "living a life". The hardest part is not dying. A simple mistake and suddenly you're not moving or breathing anymore.

Though couldn't that be changed? The dying part, of course. Could there be a way where humans, no matter what is thrown at them, survive everything -bombs, diseases, old age, murder. Could there be a way to end it all?

There was one man who thought of it all, who thought up a plan to rid the world of death. Dr. Curtis Edwards was that man. Unfortunately, his experiments proved that only a select few would be able to survive the "change". Though how to separate those whose bodies weren't able to undergo the experimentation? By sorting out the ones with bad genes, of course. Though how? Was there a way to see if a person's body could withstand almost everything stacked against them?

The problem was the answer to this might be considered "unethical" to some who didn't understand the want -nay the need- to change the human race for the better. Though, if he could somehow force another town to do this deed, he wouldn't have to lift a finger; no fingers would be pointed at him -why would they be? He's a respected doctor, for goodness sake!- and yet, he could see the results and finally let those lucky few into the light of the new day. The new dawn of the human race.

---

Adrian raises his head to the sky, and lets out a strangled breath. His lungs contracts, as he breathed in dust, and a loud cough echoes down the otherwise quiet city. The bomb had left his city in ransacks -no shocker there:- buildings crumbling down, people looking almost like zombies, and decaying corpses piling up, representing lines to show who owned which part of the city; not like it mattered anymore though. Adrian's family had been the first wave of people to die of the acceleration of age, he was now left alone to fend for himself.

Now the seventeen year old was slowly growing older as everyone else had been- last week, he had been a ten year-old.  It was so odd to him that he was able to skip multiple years in just a small week, yet he still had the mind of a ten year-old even now.  That still makes his head spin.  He was slowly learning how to act as an adult, though it just seems like a ruse to him.

He just wants somebody to figure out what to do around here; the AI that are still working makes his skin crawl.  No matter where he is, he feels like they're somehow able to see everything that anybody is doing.  Yet, what could the people do that were still alive?  The now "adults" still are teenagers inside and the "teenagers" are young children.  Nobody knows what to do.  It seems like this town will die sooner rather than later, a large see-through dome was placed around the town a week ago, cutting off all contact from any other city or town nearby -apparently the larger government had decided that they didn't want whatever was happening back here to spread everywhere.

It makes sense, yes, even to Adrian, though he still wants his family back.  He misses his mother and father, heck, even the death of his bossy older sister still feels like a punch to the gut.  He remembers a saying his father always used to say whenever The Comity would show up with a new addition to the AI, "We're soon going to be like sitting ducks if they continue to add more things to those blasted things."  Adrian never understood that saying, though right now, it sounds like the perfect saying.  "Like sitting ducks."  Heh.

[mationix]

(bump c: )

[Light]

Gnarled fingers wrap around a blood stained neck and squeeze, twisting it in a angry and desperate grip. The skin of neck slowly starts to turn an angrier red--violent as the sky had been during the attacks. The child's... nay, teens, face had turned red as well, her eyes squeezed shut as her own dirty hands took her breath from her.

She had seen her brother do it, as he turned from the hero that would sweep her up and spin her around to the monster that she had her father check for under the bed. She remembered how he just gasped and fell, and stopped moving. Right now, it looked like doing that was the only way she could stop hurting--

Because oh, she hurt so badly. She had been unfortunate to have been outside, playing with her dolls in her backyard when the lights in the sky came and took everything normal away. At first, she couldn't wear her pink shoes anymore, or her dresses. Her mother and father had died from age, and appeared to be decrepit corpses in their dirty sheets that they had laid on the ground. They had figured the AI would help them, but that was apparently not the case. She remembered seeing her brother pleading, screaming for water because oh god everything hurt please help!

Her fingers release though from her neck and she gasps, falling forward. Too weak--too scared to end it right there. Imaginary tears stung at her eyes, making her smack her battered hands against the ground. Gasping for breath, she twists her body to the side and lays down on her back. Looking at the sky, she reaches up and grasps at the air as if she were trying to grab for what was outside their cage.

What everyone in this burning hell wanted. Freedom.

[mationix]

Adrian blinks, coming back down to Earth, or what was left of it, as an AI robot walks up to him. He blinks, careful to not look at the AI in the "eyes"- they always made his skin crawl with agitation. It always weirded him out the way they stood perfectly still, studying you, perhaps even scanning you, waiting for your answer to their questions.

Though the funny thing about these robots were that they looked like perfectly normal people, save for the creepy masks they wear. The creator had designed them be as close to humans as possible, to have the AI's to slip into society without a hitch. A lot of people had never noticed the way these AI's stood still, brushing it off as a weird genetic. The creepy masks had turned into a joke among the real humans, laughing it off as one of those weird religions circulating the globe. It had gone perfectly, until one governor had stumbled upon the AI's true "nature". Soon, the robots turned from natural citizens into slaves and workers.

Though now...now what are the AI's? They don't seem to be affected at all from the bomb, it's the complete opposite, they almost seem to be working even better from the effects of the bomb. It's odd to now see the fake "humans" walking around instead of the real ones, it almost feels like it's a sin to have this happen.

"Mr. Evans," comes the AI's cool voice, definitely a female, "you have reached the age of Qualifications. You will come to the now deceased mayor's home, tonight." Adrian swears he had just heard a note of glee in this robot's voice, speaking of the late mayor's untimely death. Though these robots, they can't feel -one of the two flaws in creating a perfect image of the human race.

He swallowed down a lump in his throat, shuddering softly. "Al-alright." That was all he could manage, though it seems to be good enough for the AI. She gives him a nod, before walking away, now finding the next person in line.

The Qualifications had been a right of passage when everything had been normal, though it was kept a secret as to what went on during whatever happened. You could always tell who had passed and who hadn't from the defeated or smug look as the person strolled down the street. Though what now went on during the Qualifications is beyond Adrian.

Sniffing and wiping his now running nose, he glances up at the sky, before closing his eyes. He now needs to be brave, though still, his stomach twists painfully at the idea of being in a room full of AI's and who knows what else.

[mationix]

(bump c: )

[mationix]

(bump)