2 Ham and Cheese

(he closes the door and looks at her sleeping, later, he sits on the chair and places his head on the table)

It is not the most comfortable place, yes, but, at least I will be keeping an eye on her. What in the world is that machine? I mean, if it is a portal of some sort… this could be amazing! And dangerous. In the right hands, we could do wonderful thins, in the wrong hands… we would turn other worlds into the present Africa, a black pitched wasteland that you need a mask to walk and work. After the implantation of all of the major fabrics in Africa, it took only 5 years to be impossible to breathe. In one year, 1/3 of the animals were sick, some were extinct. Now, only Steambots and the huge enterprises Watchers go there to inspect and ensure their full functionality. You would think that, well, its all the way down to Africa, you live, what, England? England… England is dead, there is no England, Scotland… only Midland. And yes, the smoke came all the way from there to here, the air here keeps getting darker, hotter and more polluted each day. Heard a few days ago that in a matter of months we will need to use masks to live normal lives. And that guy said that we could use coal normaly? That guy needs a kick in the noggin, if you know what I mean. Well, I think I should sleep now, its, what, 3 am? Yeah, ill be waking up at 6 so… long day tomorrow, I am sure.

( he slept, and from his sleep, came a nightmare. Beings made of flesh and machine came to him, trying to eat him. they walked and their libs would sometimes break and fall, only to be replaced by mechanical parts, they would be replaced by a grotesque way, as if the machine would come from the inside, not an implant. The pipes coming from the back of the mutated would shoot steam and spit blood. He tried to fight them with all he could, but when they got their skinny, twisted little hands on him…)

— Hey! Wake up!

— Aaah! What the fuck was that? Where are they?

— what? Who?

— them, the machine people with the, ugh, the machine parts bloodied and sickening…

— hey

( she placed her hand on his forehead, he was burning)

— you had a nightmare… you are burning in fever. You should rest. Lay in my bed, let me take care of you, ok?

— ok… wait, no, I have things to do

— no!

( she pointed at his face and made a face of order. He looked at her and obeyed, he could do nothing.)

— I don’t even know why and how you do this.

— well, you took care of me, let me help you this time.

( she grabbed another pillow and gave to him. she sat on the chair and looked at him.)

— so, what have you been up to, Luis?

— Nothing much, just working. How about you J?

— ooh you know, experiments.

— those experiments will end up killing you, you know that right? you remember the last time?

— you don’t have to remember that…

(she placed her hand on her left leg, it was not real, it was an implant made from Luis with wood and iron. It uses the weight of her body as she walks to make her move, so, if she tries to run, she will be able to “kinda” run.)

— Hey… Luis.

— Yeah?

— I wanted to ask you something.

— Sure.

— Would you help me to make this creation happen? For real, I want it to be stable.

— you mean “stable”

— you know what I meant, I want it to work, I want to be able to open it, get inside and get out.

— you know the danger…

— I know, but do you know the possibilities? a new world, Luis. Free of this sickening air, free of pollution. Don’t you want that? Don’t you want to have a family in a world different than this?

I wanted a world with you, no matter the one, with you in it, I would be happy.

— That… I have to think. You know, I am kinda hungry. Aren’t yo-

— O fuck!

( she got up and… “ ran” as fast as she could to the kitchen.)

Well, maybe she forgot something or she was making. Wow, her house changed so much, I can see her old hat I don’t know why she don’t use it anymore.

( she appeared to him with two plates with a sandwich in each plate.)

— what is that?

— what do you think, silly Willy? It is a sandwich.

— a sandwich? Wow, you must have a lot of GCs to be buying ham and cheese, this shit is expensive these days.

— haha… yeah… money… buying…

— ooh Juliana don’t tell me you…

— just eat! Go on, before you lose your appetite

( he ate it and it was divine, the taste of the cheese and the ham were perfect.)

— it was great! The cheese was…. Hmm and the ham… by the machine… alright, now tell me, how the hell you got these things?

— well, you know Stewart?

— Lil Stewart? The Rat?

— yeah…

— Don’t tell me you are dating that thieve again…

— Luis…

— How many times I told you! He is not good for you, he is a bad influence and he will get you in trouble! Have you seen what they do to trouble makers? Thieves? What, you will start killing as well? I bet he kills too.

— you know what? I don’t need to listen to your bullshit, I give you food, I give you shelter.

— shelter? Food? I came for you! You were bleeding in your couch yesterday.

— and? Did I look like I was in need of help?

— You… Fine!

( he grabbed his coat, wore it and got out of the house. The fever felt more like fire, the anger was all over his body. He entered in Bessy and looked at the house, he saw her looking at him and showing the middle finger. He started the vehicle and drove home. There, he drank a glass of water and looked himself in the mirror.)

— alright… breathe… remember the last time?...

Last time… last time was a disaster. I called the police and almost got her in jail. You know what? Check the Steam Pipe, there must be a message to you, maybe work.

( he opened the small closed door, which was the door of the Steam Pipe, where the bottles kept the messages inside. There he saw only one message. He opened and he saw the mark on the bottle, a huge C was on it.)

— Ooh? Is it…

( he opened the bottle, it was from an old and dead friend of his, Kyle.)

It reads:

“ To Luis Sirota the Third,

Hey Bro! how are you? How is life? Still don’t want a job here? Dude, I am telling you, your life would get infinitely better! Better health, food, water, women… haha, you still in love with that Juliana girl? You know, last time… I am sorry, I didn’t wanted to end like that. Listen, do you want to meet me in my office? From there we can go to a bar or restaurant, anywhere you want!

From your friend, brother and lovely lover =)

Kyle Church

Vice-President of Coalhorn Enterprise.

— Aah fuck.

He wants to meet? Last time we ended up discussing and we almost went to each other’s throats. Sigh, fine, I guess looking at a friendly face would be good. He gave the message this morning, alright, I’ll be going to his place. Before I go, I ought to take a shower and wear a nice suit, those fancy people hate middle classed folk… imagine their hatred for poor people.

(he turned on the water pump and the heater, but before he placed more coal in the generator to make the water hot.)

Aah, shower. How nice it is to take a nice hot bath for 10 minutes, I will only take a 2-minute bath, I don’t want my water bill to come high. Water is something rare these days, so, it’s expensive, really expensive. And when the tax collector come, I don’t want to have less than what I consume. Specially after that horrifying law they made of the Might Makes Right, which is not nice. You see, this law, makes every law enforcer have the freedom to use any means of violence needed to guarantee that the citizen understood what needs to be done. So, if you don’t pay and they see that you didn’t learn your lesson, they will the kick the shit out of you and say that you have one week to pay, but you will be so fucked up that you won’t be able to move for at least 4 days. And they don’t hire normal people, like, actual officers to do this job. You see, with this law, another initiative was created by the government in partnership with the police and Cellar Cities, Cellar Cities is a jail but the size of a city, actually, they pick the most destroyed and fucked up cities and just make a huge wall around it and throw people in it to starve, kill, rape and do anything that needs to be done to survive. As I was saying, they created this initiative, called Integration of the Isolated, which they pick up some of the people from these places and they gie them jobs in our society. You would think, well, this is rather nice, the person would be integrated in the modern society and be granted a job, right? no. They don’t earn payment, they will be working for days out of their schedule, the more they work, the faster they get out. Those that are in the Cellar for life, work to get inside the Oven, which is a room where the worst convicts are placed and they simply fry them up, they heat the place till the person turns into a black figure. And they are not given jobs like farming, engineering or things of the sort, no, they are given jobs specially designed to keep the middle class and the lower class in order for the rich and powerful. They come to collect the money, beat the shit out of those who are not working right, kill the right people for doing wrong things and so on. And you can imagine that they are not the friendliest of all people, to ensure that they are not able to fit in to the society, they are lobotomized, I don’t know how the surgery works, but, they do something in their brain, they essentially become mindless brutes, they are capable of thinking rather fast and being smart at times, but most of them are just brutish and stupid as rocks. Once I saw one of them painting a rock purple, he screamed “big berry!”, after eating he died with the thing stuck in his throat.

— Oh fuck I’m here for, what, about 4 minutes? I need to get out of here.

( he turned the pump off and turned off the generator. He went to his room, got his best, but rather old suit, it was from his father and he wore it. Before getting out, he felt that his fever was still high, so he decided to take a pill before going out. He opened a box that was under his bed, where he keeps his most treasured things. There, he keeps some medicine, a picture of Juliana and Flint, his pistol, which was a flintlock.)

— alright, I think this should do the trick. Now, I should be going there.

( he ran to Bess, turned her up and drove to the region where his friend lives. He drove for two hours till he reached the wall that separates the wealthy people from the middle and lower class. There, he saw guards, those lobotomized people holding huge clubs and even some steambots with steamguns, the newest technology from Coalhorn, a gun that shoots bullets automatically. He drove to the gate and a man approached him.)

— Name and what is your busyness?

— My name is Luis…

— Oh! Sirota?! What are YOU doing here? Last time I saw you, you almost started a fight with one of my superiors.

— yeah well… I have an invitation from him. would you mind calling him?

( the man grumbled to himself and called a steambot)

— You, 609

<>
— Ready to obey.

— go to the Vice- President’s office and ask of he is expecting anyone.

— Understood

<>
( the robot went running. for 15 odd minutes they waited there, Luis looked at how the Lobotomized treated each other, they were worse than animals, sometimes they punched one another for no reason, and the one who got punched forgot what happened to him the moment after. Soon, he saw the robot coming and talking to the guard, who came to him.)

— Alright Luis, you can pass.

— Thank you.

( he drove inside the quarters of the rich and wealthy till he finally arrived inside to Kyle’s office. His office was a huge house made with wood, marble and steel, the housemaids were all steambots. He got out of the car and already saw one of the robots coming to him.)

— Greetings sir. I am Wilson, Mister Kyle’s Butler. Would you want me to hold your jacket?

— um… sure.

( he gave the jacket to the robot, who quickly placed in his arm in an elegant way.)

— please, follow me.

(inside, he saw the robots cleaning, the walls were huge as always, he saw a portrait of Kyle’s father mounted on a huge metallic horse, a symbol of the Coalhorn Empire. Wilson led him to Kyle’s room, till he finally arrived.)

— Here we are. Sir, Mousier Luis is here.

( Kyle screamed)

— aaaah yes, leave us please, thank you.

( the robot made a sign of appreciation of obedience and left. Luis entered the room, the only thing he could think about is that the room was bigger than his house. He walked to Kyle, who was sitting on his chair, looking through the window holding a glass of wine.)

— Hey Kyle…

( Kyle stood in silence, after a few seconds he got up. He noticed that his friend was drunk, and that he had a letter in his hand. Kyle got close to him and hugged him.)

— brother!

— Hey! Hahah ok, settle down, sit on your chair.

— no no no no shhhhh… shhhhh

— what are you shh shhhing for?

— yoou are druuunk…

— yeah… right… so, I have to go, I need to work.

— no, wait, I have to tell you something.

— alright, I am listening.

— first off, you are looking great. I love the beard, really suits you.

—… I have this beard since I was 21.

— and you look hot with it.

—… thanks… so, what do you want to tell me?

— ooh yeah.

( he gave him the letter.)

— I, Kyle Church Coalhorn, son of Jacob Church Coalhorn, owner of the Coalhorn Empire, am giving you a job as my Chief of Engineering. With all the perks in it.

( Luis closed his eyes and placed the letter on the table.)

— we already discussed this Kyle, my answer is no.

— Come one Luis, just imagine the possibilities!

— no.

— Why not?

— I don’t want to. It’s not right.

— why is it not right?

— I work where I live, I help those who need helping and…

— you will still help them, they will just pay you a decent amount, a fair number of cogs.

— Golden Cogs isn’t everything…

— No? Look around you! Everything works with Gold! You need to accept this by now, or live just like those Eastworld Medievalists who need to work like animals to plant food to eat and survive.

— have you seen their land? Have you seen the air? They can actually breathe there!

— They are animals!

— they are not animals, they just chose a different way of life.

— My father helped you! He accepted you to my family, gave you food, bed and even payed for you to go to school. Did you forget that?

— why are you throwing those things in my face?

— because it saddens me that his favorite “ son “, the one who knows how to work with machines, live with the common rabble and not with decent folk.

— common rabble?! Decent folk?! Have you seen the streets of you “decent” folk? The only fucking difference is the amount of money, they still buy large amounts of alcohol to drown their sorrows. You go to school, but for what? You did well, and I am proud of you, as a friend, no, as a brother, I am proud of you, you made it into countability, mathematics… how can your father want an engineer ? he has robots to do his work.

— Robots can’t create. They can only replicate.

— so?

— so that… we are in need of new inventions. We fear that there will be a war soon and we are in need of an engineer, a good one, with a creative mind, to make better things, better machines, weapons…

— so… in the radio, what your old man said about creation… your father only think about weapons?

— what else can we create?

— how about a way to make energy without the need to destroy the earth? Remember Africa? The Blackmarsh, as we call today, was filled with life, now, is a place of darkness and black matter. Only your robots and other company robots and huge fabrics work there, and you think I am not right to not work with you? I prefer to work with the, as you say, common rabble, for I will be helping people for a good price, I won’t be stealing their money for a half assed job like your fucking robots do.

— Well… Get out! leave! But listen well Luis, if the government dictates, you will be obliged to obey.

( Luis went to the door, opened and slam the door. He grabbed his coat from Wilson and got inside Bessy. He looked on the window and saw Kyle looking at him showing the middle finger.)