You know what everybody needs in this world? To become dangerous.
That’s the only equality. That’s the only freedom.
I plugged the leading wire into my neck-port and donned the skeletal mask.
“You’re six feet deep in over your head, Frode.” Ashmedai was on his perch again, looking down at where I worked on the floor.
Night had fallen again outside and the poor incandescent light remaining was straining my focus. My skin was crawling with nervous energy, I was so beyond ready to act. Tonight was the night I moved on my goal.
My entire life had been leading up to this, I realized. So many sleepers in their skyscraper coffins would pass up this day as ignorant as the last. With them nothing would change and as the city’s rot progressed they’d play their luck that the next fleshy harvest fell on another door. Every day the same.
But not for me. Whatever happened tonight, I would never forget.
I laughed as I stood. The mask in my hands was a patchwork of electronics, wires wrapping around my neck, running into me and behind into a backpack. The mask itself was Jerry’s faceplate, a white skull marring the front.
I felt bad about dismantling him. But he would live on. We could both evolve. Continue reading