Years of slouching had strained my back even in my early adulthood. The consequences of a lazy posture would have caused my back to pulse as I carried the jelly fiends, but the strength of my Bite eliminated it. It didn’t bother me much that I had burned through my reserve. What ate me from within was much more of a moral conundrum. My past choices no longer affected me because of a tech implant. If too many people sided with such an ideal, our society would collapse into carelessness. As I thought, I realized we were too late. Without a cure for techbone, most people still risked getting implants all for the sake of convenience and pleasure.
Boyband dropped his two fiends on the ground. I was glad to see that they didn’t splatter upon impact. We laid them out evenly, as the rest of the film crew joined us.
“Will these do?” Bank asked the female rep.
She walked down the line, pausing for a moment to scan each of them. “The second and fourth are too small for my liking, but they’ll suffice for the initial testing.”
My mental fortitude wavered. What use was there in compliance if we could never escape? Tortuous memories of the neon centipede returned as I looked at Bank whisper to the Techvax reps as they removed their filming equipment. If the centipede had been only for a system assessment, I couldn’t fathom the horrors of what he might do to ensure my cooperation.
Boyband’s shaking had stopped as he cast his stare down to the jelly fiends, probably having the same mental crisis that I was. I wanted to help him, but how could I ever find the motivation if I lost it for myself?
The need for a socitab burned, but I cast it aside, letting the addiction be clouded out by a need to give Boyband the life he deserved. He was a privileged shac, but no one should live their days out as a pawn of some corporation.
“You.” The male rep pointed at me.
“What?”
“Grab the one next to the kid.”
“Why not have him grab it?” I looked at Boyband. His eyes remained on the fiend. “And why do you need six?”
“Shut the zeg up and do as they say!” Bank shouted.
I walked over, grabbed it, and hauled it towards the crew.
One of their crew members set up a tripod with a violet cube on top. He tapped it and the vicinity the size of a room, changed to look like a Violet penthouse, complete with white-violet chandeliers, a window with top-of-the-city outlook, and countless other amenities worth more than I had ever owned.
“Right here.” The man tapped his foot on an altar in the center of the room. I laid the writhing fiend down on it and latched it in with a grav-switch on the back. Any limits to hologram technology I had previously believed in were cast off.
“Alright now.” The female rep removed a syringe from her suitcase and handed it to Naoma. “This’ll just be a trial run. Follow the script and we’ll correct as needed.”
Naoma nodded and rolled the syringe between her thin fingers. “Just me, the fiend, and the boys?”
“Zeg no!” The male rep laughed. “Just you, the fiend, and the cure.” He waved me away.
She uncapped the needle and flicked it with a violet fingernail.
“Careful, girl,” said Jackson.
She glared at him. “They said this is just a trial run.”
“But the vax is the real thing,” the male rep said.
“He’s right,” the female attested. “I wouldn’t use it on yourself yet.”
Naoma scoffed. “So it''s not ready, and you’re shooting an ad?”
The female rep sighed and turned to Bank. “Is she going to do it or not?”
“Jackson?”
“Hihow, Bank.”
“Get your star to cooperate.”
“Naoma. Are you compliant?”
Her snark dissipated with her prideful reluctance. “I will comply.”
Regardless of my derision for her, her subjugation was horrific to witness.
Everyone ceased their chatter as she took her place next to the fiend, sparing it a single disgusted glance.
“Ready?” a Techvax member said from behind an array of multi-lensed cameras. He wore a headset too aged for what the company flaunted. It looked like a virtual reality headset from twenty years ago, but the quality of the video would prove it''s worth. Regardless, I had no intention of watching it.
“Ready?”
Naoma nodded.
Boyband turned to watch the crowd with a trembling stare.
I fell from my pensive observation and lost all other concerns in the wake of his needs.
The director with the vintage virtual reality helmet raised his hands. As he did so, the cameras focused on Namoa and the altar. “Rolling in three, two.” He pointed at her and nodded.
Stolen story; please report.
How much did everyone else know what would happen? Had she had any rehearsal while we fetched their fiends?
Instrumental pop played through surrounding speakers. The octaves were much higher than her usual background music and too spunky for her often melancholic style. It was loud enough to set the scene and mood, but I knew they would have to add it in later edits.
She looked into the frontmost camera and its multiple lenses, but I could see the faint flashing in her eyes as she read from her neurospace. With the abundance of edits they would have to do, it would have almost been easier to cast an AI Naoma in the advertisement. Even though these people treated us like slaves, they still held to some ethics. Whether the decision came from ethics or a hatred for artificial minds didn’t matter. The outcome was the same.
“Our world needs saving,” she began with perfect posture and a confident smile. “We all know someone who has been affected by techbone. We’ve all felt its sting. While other leading medications help to alleviate symptoms, I choose Techvax.”
She removed the cap from the syringe and stepped towards the jelly fiend. “A cure is no longer a fantasy.”
The fiend writhed as she leaned over to administer the vaccination. Its boneless appendages flopped like tentacles, though it could not escape.
She pressed the syringe into the torso, right where the sternum would have been. The fiend let out a screeching hiss that caused many of the crew members to cover their ears. After a few seconds, its arms stopped moving, and it went still.
“With Techvax, techbone will die with–” She shook her head and laughed. Her eyes regained their focus.
“Agh, cut!” the director groaned.
“Hey, Naoma, what''s up?” Jackson stepped forward cautiously to remain behind the cameras.
“Who wrote this zegging script?”
Her remark was her usual condescending sting, but it was a step out of her expected compliance. She was on the border.
We could break her again.
I looked at Boyband but held the plan back for a moment. We could break her now, but I was sure there would be a more opportune moment to do so undetected. Boyband would relish in a grand feast of teeth, but our survival was much more likely if we could slip away undetected. Drifting into the Red sounded just as abhorrent as working with Techvax, but I was willing to test our chances.
“The marketing team,” the director said. “Back into position, let''s try again.”
Naoma let out another mocking chuckle. “I think the script needs touching up.”
“Ah, come on,” the male rep said. “It''s not like your lyrics are any better.”
It''s not like she writes them, anyway. I tamed my grin. I lost it after noticing Boyband’s shaking hands. He was getting worse, but we still had time. We needed it. Zeg, by the light please give it just a few more minutes, kid.
“Am I the only one who sees the problem?” She picked up the jelly fiend’s arm and dropped it. It slapped against the altar, dead with the rest of the body. “‘With Techvax, Techbone will die’. You really want me to shoot a commercial where I kill a jelly fiend with a lethal injection? Is this really your solution? Aren’t there better ways to kill these things? Come on, Anton. Reef is actually going to tie its name to this guk?”
The male rep raised his hands and shook his head. “Nah, you’ve got it all wrong. Have you ever tried to kill a jelly fiend? No, I didn’t think so. There’s a reason we ship the damn things here. Smash them, cut them into pieces, and they’ll still crawl around. That. That death that you caused is actually a cure. The injection wiped out the parasite within, leaving only the corpse to remain. That is what the cure is. These jellies are no longer people, only a grotesque husk for the parasites to use. If we use that injection on one of us, it will kill the parasite within, preventing the volatile reaction between the parasite and light-powered implants that cause techbone.”
Naoma shook her head and looked back at the jelly fiend. “I still think it is a touch too–wait.” She crouched down to look at it with her eyes only a foot away from its face. “It''s moving! Your cure doesn’t even work!”
“We clearly stated that it is still in its trial stage,” the female rep said.
“So you are going to sell a product that might not even work?” Naoma said. “The entire Republic is going to invest all of its hope into a cure. You can’t deceive people like that.”
“Naoma!” Jackson shouted.
She raised a finger, her glare still on the female rep as she stepped away from the altar.
Jackson stepped forward, his mouth open and ready to reprimand.
Boyband’s hands were in pale fists that shook with his down-turned glare.
We had to do it now.
I moved close enough for the sides of our feet to touch and whispered. “Coerce her. Now.”
His breaths were just as unsteady as his heads. His enslaving appetite ate at him like the parasite they spoke of.
“Devóne.” I pointed at Naoma, as Jackson drew closer to her. His call for compliance had to be on the edge of his tongue. “Tell her to come here and free us now.”
My confidence in Boyband had undeservedly dwindled.
“Naoma,” he called. She turned with the film crew to look at us. The control in his voice frightened me. He had become a true predator, equipped to deceive his prey into walking onto his mouth. He kicked the jelly fiend beside his feet. “Why don’t you take this one?”
She looked at Jackson. He shrugged.
“Come take this one,” Boyband demanded.
Jackson stepped forward. She put her hand on his shoulder and proceeded toward Boyband without her producer.
“Might want to keep a hold of his handle,” I said.
“Let me help you,” Boyband demanded.
She nodded.
“Do you know how to take this suit off?” he whispered.
She scowled at him, relaxed into her typical demeaning smile, and nodded.
“Set us free.”
As she reached for the back of his suit, I knew that a mere breath lasted until hell was set loose in the form of two imps.
I prayed that she actually knew how to free us from the suits but knew that it would be much easier if we remained compliant.
Life would have been easier if I had stayed in Medislavia, ignorant and passive. I had chosen otherwise and would have to again.
“Wait until we''re both good.” I whispered to him.
He nodded.
Everyone watched us except for a few members of the film crew as they adjusted the equipment. I could only see two light rifles on the backs of two guards but was sure that someone had to have hidden personal protection. Even if they hadn’t perceived us as threats, no well-minded group would ever enter the Red Districts unarmed. Having faced a glowbones, I now knew that their weapons would be ineffective, but it was the thought that counted.
The light in Boyband’s jumpsuit dissipated, leaving him in pure black clothing.
“Hey!”
“What are you doing?”
“Bank?”
“Anton, make her stop?”
“Stop that!”
She moved and deprogrammed mine before they could make sense of their shouts.