Era of Madness

Losing yourself

Sat on the edge of the cliff beside John, Tyler was livid to the point colors almost left his face already.

'An era of madness... that's how it look like?'

As a person who grew up in Glactia-62's sector V, Tyler thought he pretty much lived a shitty life, and he wasn't wrong.

But this...

In the factory below, every man and evey woman of every age were wearing the same simple clothes, with numbers written... no, carved on their foreheads like tatoos.

They were simply working on small, complex-looking pieces of technology, each and every of them moving their hands with concise and precise movements, as if they done these their whole life. And actually, they probably did.

Their bodies were almost all thin, just not enough so it would make their work harder. It seemed like the ration of food each was given was calculated to the gram, just enough so those poor people could still work without weakening from the hunger, but not enough so they could ever feel full.

Suddenly, a pained scream tore through the factory, even vaguely reaching Tyler's ears. Following this, a mechanical voice echoed through the factory, soft and pleasant but devoid of any emotion:

[Human#348993 commited an error, and unfortunatly had to be sanctionned. Number of sanctions left: 8/30. We hope that you'll stay determined and do better in the future, courage]

"He said the guy had eight sanction left" Tyler said, turning to John "So what happens when the number gets to zero?"

John's face didn't change as he answered on a forcefully calm tone:

"Just what you think, they're gotten rid of" he said "But trust me, the worst is still to come"

Suddenly, another pained cry echoed, followed by the same announcement. This one was far more high-pitched, and Tyer finally realized something. At first he couldn't see it because of the distance, but now, narrowing his eyes and focusing, he could see it: among the soulless workers, he discerned faces that could only belong to kids, or members of the eldery.

Some of the kids seemed just old enough so they were even able to make the good manipulations, while some of the eldery looked just young enough so their bones won't suddenly fail them.

"You noticed? Everything is calculated so they can take the most benefits possible out of each of those mindless slaves that could've been humans" John said. "Their sleep and pause times, their rations, all of that is calculated as precisely as possible"

"That's... fuck... what kind of hell is this place..." Tyler said, unconsciously biting his fingers.

"You think this is the worst? Then know that the number of sanctions too has been calculated as precisely as possible. Thirty, it's the average number of errors committed between the moment one of those slaves becomes big enough to work and the moment they become unable to. Like that, they can stimulate the workers as much as possible without reducing their value too much, and all of that with a simple chip implanted in their neck"

Yet another horrible scream of pain pierced Tyler' ears and his heart, and this time, the message was even more chilling:

[Human#348993 commited an error, and unfortunatly had to be sanctionned. Number of sanctions left: 0/30. No sanction left, game over protocol started. Thank you for all your good and loyal work]

The voice wasn't even cold. It wasn't anything. It wasn't human. Despite all the pain that was inflicted here, the responsible didn't even make the effort to let a true person monitor it, instead letting a mindless artificial intelligence do it.