EYEHEARTZOMBIES

“Well, like you probably guessed, I live in Mile-High City. I already told you I worked in Data Logistics. Uhm.” Joseph scratched his head. “I really don’t know what all to tell you.”

“Just start with the day you came out. Yesterday, right?” Silas tried to prod the boy into telling all he knew. The Legion really didn’t know enough about the Light. Fighting a battle without some intimate knowledge of your enemy just didn’t work. He had lost enough men to bad intel. He stopped reminiscing quickly as Joseph started into his story.

“The day started out like any other, I suppose. I woke early in the moring, like I always do….”

= Joseph half-reclined in his bed, a contraption somewhere between bed and chair, strapped in at the chest and hips. A small, metal shower head was pressed against the skin of his left arm at the elbow, tubes leading away from it to a few small clear cylinders filled with different colored liquids. The first tank, a light pink color, burbled and gurgled as compressed air pushed the mild stimulant through the tubes and out through the diffuser at high pressure. The drug passed through Jospeh’s skin and began to slide through his circulation. His eyes fluttered open, but he didn’t see yet. A minute or two later, the middle cylinder, this one a medium green, bubbled. This was a stronger stimulant, to both wake the user and fill him with a hunger. It was breakfast time and Joseph couldn’t imagine being more starved. Of course, he felt like that every morning, but the thoughts came regardless. Thirty or so seconds later, the last tube shot its contents into his arm and he was fully awake and feeling fine. The bed released him and he stepped out of the small closet that the bed occupied. It slid back into the wall, closing behind him. It would pop out again tonight after work, Mass, and exercises were over. Joseph stepped over a metal grate in the floor and pressed the button to call for a shower. A minute or so later another fine mist, this one as clear as the mountain streams it come from, fell on his naked body. Its pleasant warmth enveloped him for exactly five minutes while he scrubbed and shaved. The mist cut off with a strong click and Joseph stood where he was, waiting for the air dryer to start. Not ten minutes later, Joseph was dressed and kneeling to say his prayers to the Light. =

“So, hold on a sec. I’m not really familiar with your day-to-day stuff. Sorry to interrupt. You get shot with stuff every morning just to wake up?” Jonas wasn’t sure he was hearing this right.

“Yes. And we get two shots at night to help us sleep like we should. The Light demands good health, and good health starts with sleeping like you should. ‘To bed after your lives, early the next day to rise.’” Joseph looked at Jonas over the candles like he had just sprouted a pair of horns.

“Right, right,” Jonas said. He didn’t want to get into any sort of theology this late at night. “And, so we can help you stay in good graces, what time are you supposed to go to bed, Joseph?”

“By my schedule, it would be twenty o’clock.”

Twenty o’clock. Even their idea of time was screwed up. “Alright, I think we can handle that. It was barely getting dark when I came in here. You should have another few hours before then. Please,” he gestured toward the boy, “continue.”

“So, I started to say my prayers, like every morning…”

= “Hear us, oh Lighted leader. Hallowed is thy path. Thy guidance brings us to Heaven’s bright shore. Give us this day our daily life, and allow us not to fall to Darkness. Thy will is Word. Our lives for the glory of the nation. Amen.” He stayed on his knees a few moments longer, focusing his thoughts on the Will of the Light. He stood, brushed non-existent dust off of his knees — funny how some gestures were just instictual — and grabbed his bag from the hook it hung on near the door. The door slid open and he stepped out into the hall. The twenty-ninth ring on the fourth floor was most likely the same as the twenty-ninth ring on any floor, and the same as any ring on this or any other floor. The walls and floor were sheer white, while the ceiling was covered in LifeLights. =

“Wait, sorry. What be LifeLights?”

“You don’t know what LifeLights are, either?” Joseph sighed. “They are lights — electric lights — that don’t just put off light. They send out vitamins and minerals, too. ” Joseph must have seen that Jonas didn’t understand all of this either. “They act like how the Sun use to. So we can be healthy and happy and have all that we need without dealing with this diseased world.”

Jonas was about to ask just what was so diseased about this world, and just how did the Sun do anything different now than it did before, whenever that was, but he thought better of keeping this going any longer than it had to. He was already pretty sure that the boy wouldn’t be going back to Mile-High City. He nodded like he understood completely, and motioned the boy to keep telling his story.

“Anyway, the LifeLights buzz a bit, and I happened to notice them this morning. That’s kind of funny, ’cause that’s part of why we get some of the injections; to help us live happier lives by not noticing little annoyances like buzzing lights….”

= He kept hearing the hum until he reached the cafeteria. The buzzing was replaced here by the hum of the small crowd in the dining room. Maybe a hundred people were sitting at long tables eating their meals or standing in line to receive them. Joseph took his place in line, tray in hand. He stood happily watching the telescreens that made up the giant curved wall of the dining room. A blue sky shined down on deep green grass. Joseph caught sight of a small brown shape in the distance. He wasn’t completely sure, but he thought it was a rabbit. He had seen a few last year in the zoo on the twentieth floor when he had had a day-long break. He had even gotten to touch one. The line moved forward and Joseph took his servings for breakfast: a spoonful of scrambled eggs, two slices of bacon, two triangles of toast, and a small glass of orange juice. Well, they called it orange juice. He knew from his work that real orange juice was not only scarce nowadays, but was actually _bad_ for you. He was glad that the Light had seen fit to give them something safer and better for them. He made his way over to a table where he could see the telescreen better. Yes, it was a rabbit. He smiled in his mind, to himself, proud that he had been able to make out such a rare creature from such a distance. =

A sudden clap of thunder made Joseph jump in his chair and broke the his story. The two guards jumped to their feet, too, knocking a few of the candles over as the bumped into the table. Several super-bright flashes followed closely and more booming come pouring from the sky. Jonas could see Joseph quaking in his chair and he reached a hand through the maze of candlesticks to place it on the boy’s. “Go see that everything is alright,” he said to the two guards. One of them glanced at Joseph. “We’ll be right as the rain that’s likely pounding down out there. Go. Do you not think I can take care of myself and this one?” The guard nodded and followed his partner out through the flap.

“What do you say we stop at breakfast and go see to this storm,” Jonas smiled at Joseph, hoping the boy wouldn’t give in to his fears and want to stay in the oven the tent had become in the stifling, muggy air.

Joseph, wide-eyed and growing paler by the moment, just nodded.