The Fading Hearts

Chapter 4: The Bot-Age Times

CHAPTER 4: The Bot-Age Times

I walk through the entrance door to my place of work with great trepidation. I've never been the most punctual of employees, but today's tardiness breaks a record, even for me. worst thing is, I can't even blame it on Joshua. I'm automatically scanned as soon as I enter through the door. I pray to the bot-gods that the heinous criminal offense in my bag not be detected. Hunh, paper. Paper?!? Who even knew they manufactured it anymore? Miraculously, the newspaper is not detected and I'm able to walk to my cubicle without the slightest hitch.

"aren't you a punctual one?" Phie calls out to me as I discreetly slide into my cubicle.

"Shhh!" I chide.

We work in the marketing department of a company that collects and sells vintage machines, another line of work that is gradually dying out. For humans, at least. Three marketing bots have been introduced in our department in the last year and a half. Needless to say, they are doing a much better job than we do. None of us has been fired yet, but if it does happen any time soon none of us will be surprised. And if I get fired first no one will be surprised either. As I said, my performance as an employee isn't stellar.

When I'm sure Phie is completely absorbed in her work, I pull out the newspaper. Hiding it under every single equipment on my desk, I begin reading.

THE BOT-AGE TIMES

Issue 5/July 2098

BOT-AGE REBELS' HEARTS FADING?

Forty eight years ago my grandmother, renowned author and ancient Eastern medicine consultant Green S. Buttercup and I were having a pretend tea party on a set of vintage early century cooking set when she collapsed. I vividly remember this incident, for she was in the middle of telling me about her marvellous dinner with queen Victorickles the thirteenth (which is the basis of my debut children's novella 'The Vournies of Queen Vicktorickles') She collapsed for a total of ten seconds, which to this day are the most horrifying ten seconds I can think of.

The next few months were spent in and out of hospitals. Grandma wasn't sick, she looked and felt healthy as a horse, but the panic of her ten second collapse sent her into a frenzied worry. She worried so much; in six months it looked as if shed aged five years. My sixty year old grandmother who'd always seemed ten years younger now looked her age. In a year she looked ten years older than she really was. By the time grandma was sixty four she looked like a ninety year old. What was baffling not only to us but to the doctors as well was how healthy she was. It was as if her body was aging much faster than her internal organs. And then one doctor found something. Her heart had shrunk to the size of a month-old baby. Grandma died two weeks later, her other organs in tip-top condition, her body in ruins.

Over the years more patients reportedly came to hospitals with similar symptoms. Thirty year olds that looked seventy, seventy years olds that looked like, well, things that should be dead... The government's funding to the research on this curious 'Fading Hearts' illness was surprisingly unenthusiastic. Other donors seemed to turn a blind eye towards this strange malady as well.

It did not take a genius to connect the dots. People who were choosing to opt for early century medication instead of what the Bot-Age has to offer... People who were choosing to steer clear of Bot-Age machination and instead held on to early century mostly human-made machines... All these people complained of the same thing: perfect health and rapidly aging bodies.

Zhon Oliferr, most persistent of the last crop of human journalists (and arguably the very last of them) did a story on this strange malady, but it never aired on then news channels. He too, turned from fifty to seventy in two months, and died.

Some thirty six years into Mr. Oliferr's death, little progress remains in terms of research on the 'Fading Heart' syndrome. The syndrome has spread to every part of the world, and thousands have died as a result. The syndrome however 'miraculously' remains relatively unknown among the common masses. You would not believe how many people still don't know about this disease.

The rumour mill is filled with every conspiracy imaginable regarding this strange disease that all governments seem determined to keep under wraps. Is the syndrome purported by Bots-in-command to gradually wipe off the human race? Was the syndrome instigated by Bot-manufacturing companies to scare people into buying their Bots and consequently keep a steady flow of sales? Or the most bought into conspiracy theory: is the Bot-world building a new stronger species dubbed the 'Bot-age Roman' and planning on eradicating us all afterwards? Is the 'Fading Heart' syndrome just another sophisticated way of killing off the few people left who will not succumb to the allure of the Bot-age?

Governments have been known to kill their people in the past. From the plague, to the seventeenth century London fires, to smallpox, to the world wars, to AIDS... Could this be another of the Government antics?

There are so many questions that need answers. There are so many Green Buttercups and Zhon Oliferrs who have dedicated their lives to serving humankind, only to age at their prime, with hearts that fade into oblivion as they watch helplessly.

Join the movement. Donate to the Fading Hearts underground campaign and help us research on this killer disease. A dollar is all it takes to save a life.

By Blossom Buttercup