The Base Humanity Integration Project
Episode 4: The Letter
A cyborg child with steel feet did a
slam dunk into a basketball hoop fifty feet into the air. The other
cyborg children attempted to steal the ball away from him and
replicate his move. Allen didn't notice them keeping score. He didn't
care for any sport besides soccer. He thought the ball must have been
reinforced somehow to withstand the force the cyborgs were slamming
it with.
At least the trees in the park looked
normal. The sap from the trees looked like tears, he thought that
maybe they were uncomfortable in the cyborg world like he was. Just
by sitting there he attracted odd looks. A base human such as himself
seemed like an obnoxious splatter of black on the uniform canvas of
the cyborg world. He remembered how little Jessica thought his skin
looked sick.
“Hey clear-face.” Jacob Samson
said, little bits of black plastic lined his jaw and tore the air as
he spoke. The entire family decided to take him to the park as a
welcoming present. “You're handler's here. I hope he's here to take
you back.” Allen turned, diverting his attention from his food to
Mr. Woods who sat at the table gently.
“You must be tired Mr. Ross.”
Woods knelt backwards, his penny colored skin reflecting the Sun like
a sword would. “What with adjusting to your new family, and all
their,” Woods then turned to Jacob and gave him a glare,
“eccentricities.” His bright yellow eyes glanced all around the
table, checking out each individual family member. Woods then pulled
out a small, yellow envelop. “Now then, you know that its difficult
to get things in and out of the borders of your country considering
the volatile political situation but fortunately according to The
Base Humanity Integration Project policy you can receive letters. So
here you go.” Woods held out the letter to Allen. Jacob then
grabbed the letter straight from Wood's hands, ripped the envelop
open and read it to himself. The cyborg's eyes zipped across the
paper, reading it in seconds. The cyborg's expression turned blank
before he handed the letter to Allen. “Here,” he stopped for a
quick moment. “Clear-face.” Allen read the letter to himself.
“Dear Allen,
How are you dear? It's Mom. We're
holding in pretty good with the financial aid we got because of your
enrollment in the government program. The aid's helping us a lot and
getting Anne her treatment. Be sure to tell that family their really
helping us out. Dad and Mr. Smith lost their jobs to some of the
military cyborgs, so we're giving some of our aid to the Smith's to
help them get by. The cyborg government's takeover been hard on us,
they've taken over a lot of roads and schools. I hope they've been
good to you, I heard that The Base Humanity Integration Project is
the best thing the government did when they took over. The Smith's
are hesitant to send their girl over there, could you write us back
telling us how it is? Things are as usual with us, though the cyborg
government has been crowding the roads, so the only restaurant is the
old, worn down burger joint down the road. Dad walks through the
government barricades to get to the grocery store for us, he's met
some of the cyborgs and said they're really nice. Sometimes they help
him carry the groceries to our home. Are the cyborgs over there nice
to you? We all give you our best wishes and want to hear back from
you really soon.”
And at the bottom of the letter were
three signatures. One from Allen's father, one from his mother, one
from his brother and one forged one of his sister's. Anne had lost
the ability to write when her condition worsened, so Allen's Mom had
to write for her.
“Thank you Mr. Woods.” Allen put
the letter into his pocket.
Glad to have the story continue!
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