Lifeless Immortals

Cosmo stared blankly out the window of his hovercraft as it guided itself through the narrow streets. His mind had wandered back to the time when there were people driving cars on the road, not hovercrafts steering themselves in the air. That was many years ago though, when Cosmo had been just 176 years old. Wow, it's been 312 years since that stopped, he thought. Oh, how he missed that life. He didn't really have a life anymore, because if you are never going to die, it can't really be considered a life.
Swerving right then dipping down, Cosmo's hovercraft landed smoothly on the roof of the ExperEffect building. As soon as his two feet were out of the vehicle, it started with a jolt and flew off to go park itself. Cosmo glanced down for a moment before entering the elevator that would take him inside the building. There was nothing out of the ordinary- well, for him the whole world was out of the ordinary now- except for a car. A real car. One that was on the ground, with a person driving it, stopping at each corner as if there was a traffic light. The funny thing, though, is Cosmo didn't even realize he had seen it.
Elevator rides into the ExperEffect building were the worst for Cosmo. All he could think about during the 6-minute rides to the deep underground was how useless work was. It wasn't even work for him actually. He got paid for sitting there and nodding to the mad scientists to show his agreement. Occasionally he would have to step inside a machine, get zapped, and come out feeling like he had gone more crazy than he used to be. A tiny bit of optimism was still alive inside of him though, so he always reminded himself that the zap could eventually kill him. It sounds harsh, doesn't it, but life would be boring for anyone after 488 years, especially if the world no longer had natural wonders, just technology.
During Cosmo's meeting with the mad scientists, he zoned out, just like he did everyday. It didn't really matter though, because they would just talk about the experiments they wanted to try, then program it into the capsule and tell Cosmo to step in. Everyone else was a creative scientist but he was just their experiment who had no creativity in him anymore. An experiment, that's all I ever am, he thought. It was true; he was the first immortal, first human to have an electric panel inserted in his chest, and who knows what he will become the first of, next. Once the earth was made into a giant capsule, to make everyone immortal and electrically powered, he was no longer unique. Until the scientists at ExperEffect actually made an expert effect, Cosmo would be just like everyone else.
At lunch time Cosmo took a walk around the building, just like everyday. Hunger didn't affect him as he was fed by plugging himself into the wall at night, but he, like everyone else, ate anyway for the taste. That day he bought a banana from the cafeteria and mashed it up with a fork before eating it. Mashed bananas were his very favourite food; not because of the taste, and not because of the texture, but because of the memories. They reminded him of when he was a baby- it was at the time when babies needed care from a person because the most advanced technology was the iPhone- and his mother would patiently sit there and try to feed him. He never cooperated when she did. "I wonder why I cooperate with the world now," he whispered.
Cosmo's day continued as usual and finally the scientists called it a day. Relief filled him as the elevator rocketed up. I finally can leave this prison, he thought, and go back to the prison I'll be in no matter where I am. His hovercraft swooped down and landed right beside him as soon as he exited the elevator on the roof of ExperEffect, but instead of getting onto it, he sent it back to its square of land to transform back into a house. Today he was up for the walk.
As much as Cosmo loved walking anywhere, it bothered him that he could not walk through forests full of trees or alongside flowing rivers, unless they were plastic ones in the history museum. His mind wandered aimlessly for a while, as did his body, until he realized there was something different about this walk. He stopped to think for a while. Was it something I saw? he asked himself. Was it something I normally see but didn't? Have I taken a different path than usual? He tried to remember every detail of where he had been and what he had seen on this walk. Then it hit him- he had seen a girl walking. People don't walk anymore! She must have been very, very old- old like Cosmo. Without hesitation, he spun around and starting running full-speed along the streets, the way he had gotten here. It wasn't until he found the young woman that he slowed down. She, on the other hand, was staring at the ground and dragging her feet slowly. Dirty-blonde hair that looked real, not cotton, was her only feature that Cosmo could see.
"What's the matter?" Cosmo asked her. "Is it that you've been alive for almost 500 years and the world doesn't actually let you have a life anymore?"
She looked up slowly, sadly, but with a sparkle in her eye that was there because of Cosmo, and nodded. Her face, like Cosmo's, looked like a real face, not like it had undergone plastic surgery multiple times.
"I'm Cosmo, 488 years old. You probably have heard of me under the name Joey Dansdel, the guy who was transformed into a robot. I loved that name, Joey, but I was forced to change it to a pathetic futuristic name." They both broke into huge grins. "My name's Lizzy, 479 years old. For some reason I never had to change my name when I was zapped into a robot. Nice to meet you."
Shaking each other's hand was the happiest thing that either of them had experienced in a long time. Touching a hand that felt like human flesh, rather than rubber, plastic or aluminum, was truly amazing after 400 years of not. They stood there for a long time appreciating the feeling. Half an hour passed- and that's not an exaggeration- before they let go.
"What are you doing with your life?" Lizzy asked, sounding like she was genuinely curious.
Cosmo thought for a minute, then replied, "I get paid for sleeping with my head on the table in the conference room at ExperEffect. The scientists talk about all the crazy ways they can advance the robotic features of humans. To test those, they have me step into a small capsule, program something in, and zap me. Nothing ever happens but my hope is that the zap will one day fail and I will be killed."
Normally someone would be horrified to hear a person say they want to be killed, but Lizzy wasn't. She understood. She no longer wanted to be on the planet either.
"All I do all day," Lizzy started, "is drive around. Since the world started changing rapidly, I kept very good care of my car. I still have it! Amazing, isn't it?"
Hearing that reminded Cosmo of something.
"You were the one I saw driving this morning, weren't you? I didn't even realize that I had seen such a rare sight!"
Both of them laughed. Laughter was something that was very uncommon for the two of them at this point. They spent the evening together, eating mashed bananas, walking through the history museum- for them it was being in their real lives, not a museum- and driving around the city in a real car, one that had to be controlled by someone, and was not capable of coming off the ground. When it got dark, Lizzy showed Cosmo where her house was so he could come visit her anytime he wanted.
Before he walked back to his house, he looked into her eyes and said very seriously, "Lizzy, please promise me that if I ever do die because of experiments that the scientists think they failed, you'll go to ExperEffect and demand that they do the exact same thing to you. I don't want you to have to continue on alone in this machine that's the world."
"I promise," whispered Lizzy.
Then they stared at each other for a moment, and Cosmo turned around and walked home. He didn't want to leave but they were both tired and needed to be charged. It's okay, we'll see each other again tomorrow, he thought. Little did he know that tomorrow, the mad scientists would find a brand new crazy experiment to try.
The next morning was exactly the same as always for Cosmo, except he had something happy to think about- Lizzy. Lizzy's morning was not very exciting either. She sat at home on her couch, waiting for a call from Cosmo, or an exciting news story. Finally one came. It caught her attention when she heard "ExperEffect". An image of a man with goggles, a white lab coat and messy gray plastic hair appeared on the screen.
"Two minutes ago at the ExperEffect building," he said excitedly, "a formula of buttons was created, and it might be able to make us mortal! Not that it will come in any use since nobody would want to die. The formula was created by us scientists at ExperEffect, and tested on Cosmo, robot 28603, at 1:26 today."
Twenty seconds later Lizzy was in her hovercraft. Yes, the situation was so serious that Lizzy was willing to use her hovercraft. In a minute and a half she was on the roof of ExperEffect, then in the basement. She was greeted by the scientist she saw on TV.
"Have you come to meet the brilliant scientists?" he asked her smugly. "Would you like to see on the screen how someone's battery panel can be wrecked by the laser, making them immortal?"
Lizzy pushed him aside and told him she just wanted to talk to Cosmo. She found him lying on a leaned back chair. His head was tipped back slightly and he looked as if he was terribly sick, but he was smiling. It was a weak but passionate smile. The scientists probably thought he was crazy being happy right now, but Lizzy could clearly read his expression. It said, yay, I no longer have to be stuck in this fake, unnatural world! Just like he became the first immortal of his time, Cosmo became the first mortal of his time as well.
"Lizzy," he said quietly. "Remember what I told you? Remember what you promised me? Keep that promise please."
"I promise I will," said Lizzy truthfully. Then Cosmo shut his eyes and Lizzy heard the crackle of his batteries shutting down. He passed away peacefully, content with his life and ready to end it.
Lizzy sat there observing Cosma's lifeless face. Actually, it had been lifeless for many years, until yesterday when he found her. Quietly she backed out of the room, deciding to ask the scientists to kill her battery panel tomorrow. On her walk home, she stopped at the history museum and sat down in the middle of the plastic forest. For the last day of her batteries working- it shouldn't be called her life- she wanted to be in a forest, even if it was manufactured.
Being deep in thought must have made Lizzy look sad, because a young robot human walked passed and asked her what's wrong. She said that she's fine and nothing's wrong, but this is what she actually thought: What's wrong is the world. It doesn't give people a chance to live and be unique. The worst part, she realized, is that it was her generation's fault. Everyone was too obsessed with technology and just wanted more, so more was created, and what happened? The earth itself and the life inside it turned into a type of advanced technology, that gave nobody any opportunity. Yes, at that time she spent all her free time playing useless games on her iPad and watching comedy shows on TV, and now, after 479 years, she became aware of how bad of an idea it had been. The guilt she felt would not last for much longer though, because the next day, she was gone, zapped into a state in which she would never feel anything again.