by

Nathaniel Scott

It was just another ordinary day on earth. I was walking down the moving sidewalks of Los Angeles, the high rises soaring into the air as if to take off and fly into the heavens. The air was fresh and clean due to the ion cloud machine which was installed in the city two years ago. At the time it was an ingenious breakthrough in modern technology, but already lawyers are fighting over the renovation contracts because their clients can build it bigger and better. The city had made a huge turn around in history. It was said that Los Angeles used to be filled with crime, gangs, smog and whatever else you could think of not wanting in your home town. I could believe the part about the smog because I saw the city two years ago before they installed the ion cloud. There were people dying out in the streets every day from smog inhalation. Street vendors were making a killing on old army gas masks from the cold war. The crime, though, is hard to see. Just yesterday I saw a man try to take a purse from an old lady right in the middle of a park. Before the guy could make a getaway several people from the nearby area stepped in and zapped the guy with their tazer pistols. They never should have invented those things. From what I understand, when they first came out, you had to be right up on the guy to get 'im. Now you can zap the guy from 30 feet away and some people have gone into irrecoverable coma from the shock. Everybody's a vigilante these days.

I had the day off and I was planning on going over to the exploratorium to check out the new technology. The breakthroughs in computer technology were replaced on a daily basis with something new and unheard of before. The old phrase "That's impossible" didn't fit into today's society.

I decided to get a newspaper to see what was going on in the city of angels. "Thursday, March 26, 2041 Earth Fleet Challenger brings back amazing data from 5 year mission; Will Jupiter be next planet to move to?" Five years ago Earth Fleet put a CEET, a Closed Environment ExtraTerrestrial, city on the surface of Venus, but the ticket to fly was so astronomical that few ever even thought about it and even some of the rich couldn't afford to make the trip back. Since then they've built one on Mars and are now building a second one on Venus and an interplanetary shuttle system was commissioned to bring the price down. The city on Venus now has as much of a population problem as Earth.

I got to the exploratorium and stepped inside. The place was filled with suits and bustled with activity. Lawyers ran around with everybody like shadows, mimicking their movements. I walked by this one stand and one of the suits went into a spiel about his invention. He was selling programmable androids.

"Come over here, you need to see this one."

"This is the Frye LT2000. It is completely programmable to any body, any person, any thing. You can even program yourself into this thing. Finest electronic muscle fibers, closest thing to real skin, that isn't cyborg, you can find."

He leaned closer as his finished his pitch. "Personally, I would rather have skin like this, Twenty times stronger and just as soft."

I left wondering how his invention would sell. I knew a guy once that had a mind scan like the one they use for that android. He used it on his friend and transferred his mutt's scan into his friend's brain. His friend was so screwed up they had to take him downtown to the mind clinic to recall his former mind.

Strolling along through the exhibits there were a few new things: an engine with a closed fuel system, It recycled the fuel; a gravity machine which made travel at light speed possible for humans, working on some theory at the atomic level, countering the inertial pull of the acceleration to light speed generated by the new engines installed in the drones, which are sent out of the galaxy; and an improved holograph technology that made "Virtual Reality" indistinguishable from reality by the human senses. Nothing really seemed to interest me, so I left.

I had an appointment to see Rachel for dinner at the Brown Derby, so I headed out there. Rachel was the kind of girl every man wanted, but few seemed to find. She was tall and slender with auburn hair that fell to her waist. The noonday light shimmered and sparkled as it touched her hair as if to reveal strands of pure gold you've never noticed before. Her legs were long and firm from working out in the gym and playing volleyball on the beach with her college friends. She was the woman you most desired, but could never call your own. She was 21 and had just entered her 6th year in college; smart kid too. The collegiate board of trustees had named her honor-grad of her baccalaureate's program, which among 56,000 hard working students in her class was an admirable accomplishment. She had a quick mind and a strong personality and my mind and body ached to see her again.

She was standing in front of the restaurant when I arrived and it seemed that she was more beautiful then I ever saw her before. Crazy, I know, but it just seems that I'm always thinking she could never look more beautiful, and then she turns out looking like I never even knew the real Rachel I was so fond of.

"Got caught up in the mainstream Joe", she said as she flashed me a smile and swung those hips into a provocative position.

I gave her a quizzical look and forced my mind to recant over my last 24 hours looking for a "mainstream".

"The exploratorium. You promised me you'd be here at 8:00."

I clicked on my internal watch and knew that it was 8:21:58. These new watches that they implant in your brain are supposed to make you aware of the time all the time, "Never late again", they say. Damn things don't work worth a crud.

"I know. . .Your watch didn't work. C'mon, let's eat, I'm hungry." The look on her face was as sensuous as it was hard and it told me I'd better get her inside and eat.

We walked into the elaborate entryway and gave our reservations to the Maitre D'e. The Brown Derby was an old fashioned restaurant that had supposedly been around for many years. It signified the days people coveted the social life, the days when most of a persons life was spent going to large parties and showing off their belongings for a little status. The lights and decor of the brown Derby reflected those days in it's glamorous and gaudy appearance. Rachel liked it though. She thought it was cute. Personally I think people are better off staying out of places like this.

The meal was nice though, and Rachel's company was as warm as ever. She seemed to radiate with her little giggles and stimulating conversation, setting off the grandeur of the surroundings. We sat there for a little while after the meal and basked in pleasant conversation.

Rachel seemed to make something happen inside me, a burning sensation deep inside. I'd never felt that way with anyone before. Somehow I knew I was deeply in love with her. I wanted to ask her to marry me right then, but I knew I could never ask her in a place like this. I needed some place special, somewhere I could feel like my words would actually mean something. God, I sounded old-fashioned, but she made me feel this way, and it felt good.

After dinner we took a stroll through the park. The air was fresh and clear and smelled of sweet springtime. The plants were green and full, a feast for the eyes. The trees were tall and stout and gave the place a feeling of security. Rachel looked at me and smiled as if she were just glad to be with me and then she took my arm and put her head on my shoulder. I felt so good at that moment that I decided then and there that I never wanted to leave this woman's side. This had to be the place to propose.

I turned to Rachel so abruptly that she took a step back in surprise.

"Rachel, will you meet me here tomorrow?", I quickly said with an excited tone in my voice that I was sure she would decipher.

She gave me that wonderful smile again and I just melted in her arms, "Of course I will darling, just don't keep me waiting this time."

"How about 2 O'clock then"

"O.K., I'll be here". The look in her eyes held me for a second and I saw her love for me in those deep baby blues. I felt her warmth and compassion and I knew that she was mine. Suddenly I broke away and started to walk down the path. Turning I said good-bye and waved, and I felt a smile invade my face. I must've looked pretty goofy with that big broad grin on my face, but I couldn't help it nor did I care. Rachel just stood there and watched me go with that beautiful smile smugly placing her lips. I finally turned around, after tripping on my feet, and started to jog out of the park. I had a lot to do.

The next morning I woke right up, refreshed and feeling like I owned the world. I was expected at work so I called my boss and told him I had a very important engagement and I wouldn't be in. He told me that he had just received a message from the management that I was scheduled for a meeting that afternoon and I would have to come in for that. I had no choice but to say yes. The meeting was at 5 O'clock. I would just have to rush over after talking to Rachel.

I started out on my errands with a grim determination. The meeting at five would just tighten things up a little. Hopping into my City Jumper flight vehicle I headed for city central.

My first job was to get a wedding ring. Naturally I went to the marketplace. The marketplace was where everybody sold there wares. So many people were into business for themselves and their products were so developed that it made little sense to spend the kind of money the big businesses wanted, so the marketplace was built and it holds all the small vendors who now run the commerce in the city. The big businesses all went under except those which worked in one of the government regulated fields. One, that is, the self employed inventors couldn't touch.

I went down the aisle looking for a jeweler. There were a lot of people there and I passed a lot of faces, faces with blank expressions masking their features. I couldn't find anyone who would have understood what I was doing there, being motivated by love. These faces seemed to have been drained of that, if not all, emotion.

Somehow I felt alone, like I was the only living person in the world. I felt like I didn't belong in this society. Like I was an invader from another world. I secretly wished that Rachel and I could run away from it all, run to a place where there would be no one but us, alone and together.

I came to the place where I felt I had my best chance of getting the ring I had in mind, 'Turnin's Antiques'. One of the few places who dealt in anything over a year old. Turnin had a few holograph rings with interesting images, a castle, a wedding couple; very tacky. He showed me ones that stimulated a memory recall of your desire; your wedding day, or night, honeymoon, whatever. It'd be just like watching a video movie. I told Turnin that I was looking for something a little more old-fashioned, something like a gold band with a solitaire diamond. He looked at me with surprise, or was it pity?

Then quickly he slipped away into the back and remained unseen for several minutes before reappearing with a distressful look on his face.

"Minion", is all he said.

I looked at him not quite understanding what he was talking about.

"The man you want to see is Minion Clay. You can find him beyond the Reagan Tower", he said as his face again lost all expression.

His face grew visibly colder and I felt a chill run down my spine. I turned and hustled through the crowd, trying to get away from that place. The Reagan Tower was across from that cyborg vendor. He would probably know where this Minion was.

I pushed through the crowd, passing more and more blank, expressionless faces, wishing more and more to get the ring and get out of there.

When I got to the cyborg vendor, I asked him about Minion Clay and where I could find him. The vendor was a Jamaican with his long thick black hair braided into ropes which were tied with beads. He had been working this area for several years now and I've even dealt with him on a couple of occasions. He was good too, his cyborgs were the leading artificial-humanoids in the solar system. No one knew his real name, but people called him Jake. He dodged my first question and brought out one of his cyborgs for display, telling me that this new one had intensified strength and durability for hard labor. I ignored the machine and pressed my question, wanting only to get on with my business.

"Why do you want to talk to Minion, man?", Jake said with a depressed look.

"I'm looking for a ring, a wedding ring."

"You can find a ring over dere, man", pointing to a colorful tent down the aisle a ways.

"No, you don't understand, I'm looking for a special ring. I was told Minion would have it."

Jake looked dead, like a stone cold slab of granite. His features chiseled into a gray void.

"Over dere, man". He pointed to a dark entryway which appeared to be to the old underground transit system.

I looked over at Jake and said, "Are you kidding?"

He just stood there, immobile, with his arm still in the air, making no mistake as to where it gestured.

I walked over and stopped in front of the stairwell. It was dark and ominous. It retched with the reek of dank air. For a minute I wondered what I was doing there. I looked over at Jake's tent and he was gone, with his cyborg. I looked back at the virtual dungeon and pondered my intent for a moment. Then I finally decided that I had to get this ring for Rachel and I didn't have all day.

I stepped down into the waiting darkness and took a quick account of my surroundings. The first thing I noticed was the word 'Subway' on one of the walls with an arrow pointing down. I didn't know what it meant, but it seemed to me to be a warning of some sort. There was a long stick down both sides of the stairwell about waist-high. I avoided it. The stairs continued on for about three more flights. I continued on with them.

When I reached the bottom I found myself in a long tunnel-like room. There were two furrows on each side of me. Up ahead I could see a large rectangle box which looked like pictures of the old transit system's vehicles. I wondered why I never noticed this place before, but then again, I never wandered into dark holes before.

Reluctantly I moved toward the box. It appeared deserted, since it was filthy, dark, and covered with cobwebs. I stopped myself several feet from the apparent door. If this was a shop there wasn't much advertisement. I got the eeriest feeling that someone was watching me and I chastised myself for being stupid enough to come down here in the first place. The feeling of being watched grew stronger and I could swear that I felt cold disembodied eyes watching me. A bolt of fear ran down my back and I spun on my heels to look behind me, scared of the near tangible adversary I just felt. There was a low moan hovering in the air and a chill breeze blowing in my face. The room was bereft of brightness and color. It was a mirror image of the room I had just left behind, but one thing puzzled me; there was no attacker. The moaning was coming from my own gut as I spewed out what little air I could. My heart was racing like the wind. I felt stupid. I got worked up over nothing but an empty old obsolete 'Subway'. I decided to go back to Turnin's and get a holograph ring.

"What do you want"

The voice startled me so much, I was nearly paralyzed as I tried to force my body to turn around and meet the speaker. My limbs hung stiffly by my side and my feet shuffled in a reluctant sort of way. I turned around slowly, with my feet sticking to the pavement like glue, coming loose as I yanked with all my strength only to get stuck as soon as they hit the ground again. Finally I was able to look at what spoke. An old man stood in the doorway of the box and stared at me. He was old and hairy with a beard that grew in every direction swirling and twisting like smoke from a fire. He wore a ratty old hat that sort of resembled the Brown Derby, and his clothes were nothing short of ancient, as was he.

"I said, 'What do you want?'", he looked kind of annoyed. "What's the matter, cat got you're tongue?."

I again looked at my surroundings and it appeared that this old man was the one I was searching for. I could see through the doorway a smidgen and there were lots of little trinkets, most of which I could not describe. The box, although stripped of windows and appearing much like a tomb, looked of adequate size to function as a shop. I could not see why a shopkeeper would choose such a dire location to run a shop though. I began to question the sanity of this man.

"I'm looking for a man."

"And you have found one, that is no reason to disturb my work, I have much to do, now be off with you.", he said as he began to turn around and enter the box.

"The man I'm looking for is called Minion Clay and I was told I could find him down here."

He stopped and paused for a moment. "What is it that you seek, boy?"

"Are you the man I was sent to find?"

I watched him as he seemed to ponder whether or not to turn around. When he finally did, he lifted his decrepit head up to look at me and his eyes flared to a bright orange like I've never seen before. I was taken by surprise as two large strong arms clamped around my body and forced the air out of my lungs. It was that cyborg that I saw at Jake's tent, and I could hear Jake's voice from behind me.

"Don't damage him, he's for the Master, just get the old man"

I felt the arms loosen, but it had already done some damage, I was left weak and impotent. I could still see the old man with his glowing eyes in front of me. I watched him as his head rocked back and forth, apparently surveying the room and the assailants, when suddenly he reached behind him and pulled out a small tazer that looked as ancient as his clothes. He sprung forward with the agility of a man my age and flicked a switch which should have made the tazer fire, but it didn't fire, a short vibrant beam of light jumped across two electrodes contained within an inch of the gun. It was one of those primeval tazer guns. I never expected to see one of those. Just as I was wondering what he was going to do with it against one of Jake's cyborgs, he leaped right in front of me and jabbed the tazer into the cyborgs side. The charge was so powerful it jolted the cyborg back about five feet and laid him out cold on the pavement. The residual current through my body was so strong that it brought me to my knees and I gasped in pain. I had no idea those old tazers had so much power.

The old man stood over me for awhile and I assume Jake took off after seeing his cyborg being laid out like that.

The charge began to subside and it had actually brought back some of my strength. I looked up and I saw the old man looking down at me, the fire in his eyes dimmed to a smoldering ember. He extended his hand in offering and I accepted it.

He lifted me to my feet and said, "My name is Minion Clay. . . I am the man you seek".

"We'd better go inside, it is not safe to talk out here."

He took me inside and slid the door shut behind us. I was now finally able to see the full view of this curious shop. There were so many things I had never seen before. It was like entering an alien world. Everything had that nostalgia look to it. There was boxes and cylinders and various other shapes, all of which had wires protruding from them and some of which had knobs and buttons and other doo-hickeys, which I had no knowledge of.

"Want a T.V.?"

"A what?"

"Never mind, we don't have time for trivial matters. You came to see me for an answer to a perplexing question which no one can help you with." He kind of jutted his chin out and lifted his shoulders as a broad smile crossed his lips.

"No, I came to get a ring"

"A what?. . .A ring?"

"Yah, A wedding ring. Do you have any?"

The look of disappointment was clearly evident on his face although he tried to hide it.

"Sure, I got wedding rings, right this way." He led me through a strew of junk to one end of the shop. Up on one of the walls was a glass case which he carefully opened with a small key. The shelves in the case glittered with gold. I saw necklaces and bracelets and rings. He pulled one of the shelves out and placed it on a counter. There were gold bands and rings with several studded diamonds and just what I was looking for, a nice solitaire diamond ring. I had never actually seen one, just pictures. It appeared somehow unreal, like part of a dream, but it sparkled with a pleasant shine.

"That's exactly what I was looking for", I said as I reached for the solitaire.

"It comes with a matching set, engagement ring, wedding band, and a men's wedding band."

He pulled two other rings from their places and handed them to me.

"Do you like them?"

"Rachel's gonna love this", I murmured.

"Ah, I see this woman is a very special someone to appreciate such beauty. The world nowadays is out of touch with the soul. Everyone's tried so hard to commune with the soul, they've gone right past it."

He fumbled around in a pile of junk behind the counter and came up holding a silver disc.

"Now, this is what getting in touch with your soul is all about."

"What is it?"

"This is a compact disc!. . . You mean you've never heard of a compact disc? This one is 'Phantom of the Opera', many women have lost their hearts over this musical. Why, I remember when my wife and I first met. It was at a show similar to this. We were both there as part of an art appreciation class for our school-"

"Excuse me, I don't mean to interrupt, but I only came for the ring, and I really should be going.", I said, secretly wishing to get out of there and get to the park where I was supposed to meet Rachel.

"You don't see it do you? Your soul is being starved, why do you think you came here today?. . . You came to find solace with your inner self. Your mind was crying for compassion, romanticism, any feeling at all. In today's society you cannot find the material that feeds the soul. Your souls are dying, can't you see that?"

The old man was visibly irritated and had gotten much closer to me while he spoke, which made me nervous, wishing more and more to get out of there.

Minion backed off, and again dove into the pile of junk behind the counter. He brought up a small black box which looked like a miniature model of the boxes in the center of the shop that we passed when we came in. He handed it to me and walked over to a large wooden trunk and mumbled as he fumbled through the contents.

"I know those things are around here somewhere. . ."

"Ah, ha!", raising his hands I noticed that he carried a semicircular metal object with two oblong fuzzy spheres on the ends with a long black wire hanging to the ground.

"Here, you plug this end into there, and this end goes on your head. . .", he said as he placed the semicircular end on my head with the fuzzy spheres over my ears.

"And this goes into the player", he went on as he placed the 'compact disc' into the box he had given me.

"Then you press this button here..."

The sounds which came from the fuzzy spheres at first shocked me. I soon realized though it was music. I hadn't heard much music before, and certainly nothing like this. The music was very soothing and it made me think of Rachel, the way her long legs would shape the flowing pleats of her dress and the way her eyes would sparkle in the moonlight when we took walks in the park at night. The memories of her made my body ache again and I knew more than ever that I loved her. I really did.

"I really do!" I had no idea I had just spoken out loud. I felt warm from the blood rushing to my face.

"That's what I'm talking about." Minion said with a little smile peeking through his beard. "Take it. . .Take it with you,. . .the ring too, and don't ever forget where those feelings really come from. You can't get those from a Virtual Reality machine, you can't have a machine generate them for you, they come from the heart, my friend, the heart."

"Thank you,. . .for the ring,. . .a-and the box." I said as I slowly turned toward the door.

I had almost cleared the door when he stopped me and said, "Wait, you'd better take this too. You may have some more trouble along your way."

He handed me the tazer.

"I boosted the voltage a bit so it would take care of the new cybernetics"

"Thank you again." I had no idea what I would do with it, but I don't think I could have said no.

I didn't hesitate to get out of there. The whole thing seemed kind of spooky. I clicked on my internal clock... "12:48:13PM!!", I had to get out of there.

I jumped in my flight vehicle and sped off towards home. I got ready as quick as I could and started for the park. The sky looked like a painters nightmare, large dark streaks of gray and billowing masses of black. The sun setting off evil red glows from behind the canvas. "Damn!", just what I needed.

It was 1:33:32PM and I still had a few things to do. I stopped by a little shop on the way and bought some roses and made reservations at a real nice restaurant for dinner. After that I picked her up a special gift at the exploratorium and then headed for the park.

It was actually a little before 2 O'clock when I arrived, and Rachel wasn't there yet. That was very unlike her, but who am I to criticize? She got there about 10 minutes late and I had gotten pretty worried about her. Foolish, I know.

"Where were you?"

"Now if this isn't a switch, Joe scolding me for being late."

"I missed you.", I said, and kissed her on the lips.

"What's up? You seemed pretty excited earlier."

"Oh, I just wanted to see you again.", I said, cunningly avoiding the truth. I brought a bundle of roses from behind my back and poised them in my extended hand as an offering of love.

"They're nice", she said with a shy little smile, smelling and caressing them.

"I thought you liked flowers?", I said, noticing that she was not altogether excited about them.

"I do! Joe. . .there nice! Really", she gave me her puppy dog eyes and I had no choice but to love her.

The dark ominous clouds rolled in, warning of their wrath, but we took a walk around the park anyways. The ducks had all gone into there tall springy domicile, but a few sidewalk vendors were desperate enough for money to stay out, and then there was us. So we stopped and got some hot dogs for lunch.

The air was foreboding and seemed a little stale. The conversation, though, was just as stimulating as ever and I enjoyed being able to spend the day walking along the lake with Rachel by my side. I didn't know how I was going to ask her the big question. I knew what I had to do, but what seemed so easy yesterday was intensely difficult today.

The clouds finally gave up their quest to warn us and the rain came tumbling down. We ran for cover under one of the large oak trees and I laughed in spite of our foolishness. Rachel just smiled. She seemed kind of quiet and reserved, like she was holding something back.

The time for my proposal was growing near. My appointment at work was getting closer and I knew I had to get it over with and get out of there. I took a deep breath.

"Rachel, I've got to ask you something"

"What?", she said, as she turned her head and looked at me.

"I-I-, Well, I wanna know-, Ah-, I mean, I wanna ask you-"

"Joe, just get it out, what is it?"

"Ah, Will you marry me?", finally getting it out I pulled the ring out of my pocket and presented it to her.

She smiled.

"Sure"

I didn't quite know what to say. I smiled, and the pressure broke with a wave of relief just as a torrent of rain hit us, but I was kind of expecting her to get a little more excited. I hugged her and smiled again and said, "I love you".

"I love you too"

The experience was a little weird, but I guess maybe she was overwhelmed. We ran over to one of the buildings on the street that had an overhang to get out of the rain, both of us were soaking wet, her clothes clinged to her body, telling of her shapely figure. I showed her the whole ring set, the compact disc, and the tazer and I told her about my experience, and all along she just nodded and smiled a lot. I even played the compact disc for her and it evidently didn't have the same effect on her.

We both agreed that it would be a nice little quiet wedding and we decided to finalize it later.

I kissed her good-bye and trotted off to work.

On the way over I had to think back, and what had happened made it all seem like a dream. I felt weak, like I had been dragged around the block, but then again, I almost had. Rachel was the most important thing in the world to me, but had I done the wrong thing? In a world full of technology, a world that communes better with machine than man, was it wrong to reach for the long lost passion of the human soul. I felt a burning inside of me. I felt a desire to run away from it all, run away and hide in seclusion down in the deep dark bowels of the earth, somewhere away from man and machine, I wanted to be alone.

I got to work and Michelle, the secretary, greeted me with a labored smile and directed me to Howard, my boss's, desk.

Howard was a only in his thirties, but already had a bald head. He wore coke bottle glasses and always had a stupid grin on his face. He would come into work with a cleanly pressed shirt tie and jacket every morning before the others and unlock the door, standing behind it greeting all his employees as they walked in.

I rapped on the door, not knowing rather to knock brightly in glee or softly in despair.

Howard didn't even look up as he spoke, "I want you to talk to a man named Dr. Wiseheart, he has something very important for you".

I couldn't help but ask, "What?"

"You can find him in the alley behind the building"

Again, "What!"

"You're job depends on it Joe, now go!"

He never once raised his head and I was really starting to get worried. I had never seen Howard like this. Howard was a man who would come over to your desk and say something sprite just to make you a little happier. "A kind word goes a long way", he would always say, and I have never seen him scold someone about their work performance, he had a way of counseling people that made them want to do more, work harder and unite with fellow workers. Something about this whole day worried me. I was beginning to feel sick.

I turned around and left the room. I couldn't bare to think what was in store. My palms were getting sweaty. In the elevator on the way down a thousand things went through my head. I thought of several things I had done wrong in the past, but Howard would never have reacted so strangely to those, they were only small mistakes, human mistakes. But yet I wondered. What scared me the most was that I would be confronted with something I had not done, something insanely bad. I feared that I had hurt Howard in a way that could never be repaired and the waiting went on.

The elevator stopped and I stepped out into the lobby. I could hear a little sprinkle against the window, but the rain had pretty much stopped. I walked around the side of the building and followed the alley way back down to the back of the building. I couldn't help but wonder why anyone would want to come here for a business meeting. I secretly wondered if Howard had hired someone to beat the hell out of me.

The alley was full of trash and sewage and the rain made the smell rise like a high tide, assaulting the senses with waves of stench.

"Mr. Solace, I presume?"

I turned to see an old man in a white laboratory coat that extended down to his ankles. It had splotches of green stained all throughout it. He was a tall gangly man and his clothes looked as though they were desperately trying to cling to his side to avoid slipping off. Looking at Dr. Wiseheart I noticed he too had splotches; all over his face. Weathered splotches of age, curious signs of unhealthy skin. This man must not have gotten out much. I had never seen him before, nor had I heard of him. My first inclination was to ask what he wanted with me, but he answered that himself.

"I have been following you for some time now. I have had you in my mind for over a decade. I have known all about you. I have waited for this day longer than you and your pitiful generation of Homo Sapiens could ever imagine possible"

He spoke with an edge that revealed his insanity. He was a man about conviction, but to a selfish purpose. He was a lunatic.

"You have no idea. No idea of what we are, what you're going to be, no idea.", he walked closer to me, stepping into a puddle, so that we were standing face to face across the alley. "You are looking at the singular most advanced mind on this planet today, not to mention the new ruler of the world. I have the power of absolute and complete control over every person in the world. No one will rebel, no one will deny my power, no one will ever question my authority. I am the last human being on earth. I am the creator of the new world"

I was absolutely overpowered by this guy, absolutely amazed that someone could be so stupid. This guy was a certified maniac. I wondered how he got overlooked by the mind clinic. I wondered why I was still here.

"Oh. . .with the exception of you, of course. You are the last obstacle in my path, if you could truthfully call yourself an obstacle. I have conquered the world with the exception of you. As we now know it every single person you see on the streets today, every person in the world is one of my cyborgs, implanted with the original persons brain pattern, but being my cyborg, under my complete control. . .Every person!". He cackled and seemed to ponder the thought to himself for a moment basking in it's glory. "Now, all I have to do is replace you and everything will be mine. You have the privilege of being the last human on earth besides me. A lot of good that does you huh?", he laughed at this with a wheezing hiss of a laugh.

"You are absolutely mad. Do you know that?"

"Mad? Why son, I am no more mad than the pinnacle of your modern day scientists. I quest for power, when everything has been stripped away, all that lies behind is power. No one throughout the history of the world has ever achieved world domination. NO ONE!...I have re-written time. I have re-arranged the stars so to speak. I am alone in my own world where I am God!, and I control the elements! I am the one who says what is mad and what is not." Once again he hisses a wicked laugh, "I control everything"

I was finding it hard to believe that one man in the limits of a lifetime could re-populate the world with cyborgs and turn every one of them into shadows of every human life in existence and make them slaves, but an eerie sense of fear and destruction filled my heart when I saw the look on his face. He was not crazy, he was an eccentric, fully capable of what he had claimed. A mindset that is so rare and so powerful that their impact on history has time and again proven their awesome forbearance. I started to get worried, it just seemed like the pieces were falling together. The people at the marketplace, Howard, even the people on the streets, and Rachel, oh my God, Rachel! The sudden realization struck me with a blow that took my wind away. What if it was true? What if Rachel was gone?

"And you my friend are all that's left on my agenda. You are all I came for." He pulled a tazer of sorts out of his pocket. This one had prongs that were a foot long and curved in to make a point at the tip of the gun, obviously this one was long range.

"This won't hurt a bit. It is designed to kill the victim instantaneously without damaging the brain in any way. It isolates the brain and holds the necessary charge to preserve the exact data of the brain for several hours. No data loss whatsoever."

All I could think of was how the hell am I going to get out of this one when suddenly I remembered the tazer Minion had given me, but how was I supposed to use it from this far away, obviously at a tactical disadvantage.

I pulled the tazer out of my pocket and pushed the button to release the charge. It vibrated in my hand and flared with a small blue beam of light. Dr. Wisehart cocked his eyebrows and mumbled "what?" as he chuckled to himself. Noticing the puddle of water Dr. Wisehart was standing on I threw the tazer at him and he shied away the tazer landed in the puddle of water and sparks shot up Dr. Wisehart's body and consumed him in a white light. The crackling was audible with an eerie sound to it and a thin line of smoke sprouted from the convoluting doctors body. The body fell to the ground with a thud as the charge dissipated. Random sparks flying through the puddle like wisps in the air.

"Yes!", I roared, "Yes!, Yes!, Yes!" I had taken out my opponent and my life was no longer in danger, just the rise of adrenaline in my body felt so good. I was the victor, the champion, I had beaten the one man who had beaten the world.

Then I had the most horrid thought, what if the doctor had told the truth? What if he had replaced every human being with cyborgs? What happened now? I Suddenly felt so cold and damp, such a deathlike sensation. I coudn't think of anyone to turn to. I didn't know where to go. A fear crept inside of me that arrested my soul and siphoned it out of me. I dropped to my knees and cried.

I was alone.