Chapter 1, Part 1
The Subtle Control
This is Part 1 of Chapter 1 of "Corponations", a dystopian sci-fi serial about a world where corporations have replaced governments and AI controls humanity.
… I know, wow, much original. Such sci-fi. Just bear with me.
You know when you watch an accident happen, as a participant or an observer, and while it's happening in slow motion you're wondering why it feels like it's scripted somehow? Yeah, that's a bit of my day.
Self driving cars are safe, they said. Been more than a hundred years since an accident, they said. Well, we all know anything can happen. But when the whole fleet is controlled by an AI whose sole job is to manage everything on the road and keep accidents from happening… It makes ya think.
Maybe. Maaaybe it wasn't just an accident.
The taste of copper floods my mouth. Or what's left of it.
I can definitely see that my mouth is in another GPS coordinate...
Wait. Is that my whole face?
My Papel augment is still transmitting. Yes, that's the eye that popped out and rolled to a corner of the dashboard, still recording everything in crystal clarity even as my organic parts fail.
There's something almost tender about how the emergency response drones are already descending, their flexible arms extended like angels' wings.
Subject viable for preservation protocol, I hear through the static in my skull. I'm thinking I should've worn something cute.
So this is how it happens. Not in a hospital bed with affairs in order and loved ones saying goodbye. But here, on scorched asphalt, looking at myself having a literal out of body experience.
Preservation... protocol?
Cibel’s theme - sketch
Next Part: Coming 18th June. Subscribe to follow Cibel's journey.