Story Starters

The Assumption

Hey guys! This is my own one and  you can use ideas or inspiration from but please no copy and paste! Thanks :)

Suddenly I'm awake. I'm standing on a small wooden stool, as if being shown off in a department store. However, I don't recognise my body. Where once there was flesh there now appears to be only metal. I can blink but I cannot speak.

All I can see, when I look around are featureless walls. There are neither corners nor curves, just an endless white travelling far into the distance at any angle you look at. There is no one else around that I can see but I don't feel unaccompanied.

My memory begins to return.

Every year, one citizen of the country of Ivona is selected by the government to be used for scientific and technological research and analysis. Each January, a different aspect of the human body is chosen and the finest from the population in that category is given the honour of being studied. We call this 'the Assumption' as the one chosen is taken up to the top of Haven Plaza, the tallest tower in the centre of Sakura, Ivona's main city.

In each and every instance, the one chosen is never heard from again. The official story goes that they are given riches and peaceful quarters away from the harshness of our daily lives amidst the rubble of what's left of the townships. It's been a while since we, the people, believed that story.

I was one of the lucky ones, with a family and housing on the edge of the chaos. I had an important job lecturing at the University in advanced analytics, which included a security shuttle ride each day that passed those without any luck at all.

I didn't see it coming. I thought the test that all of the staff was required to take was a standard thing. On the shuttle ride home, a colleague asked if I'd deliberately got a few questions wrong as he had done. And then it hit me.

I was afraid. The results from the previous years provided a lack of security and assurance. When I got home my family cried. My friends cried. I cried. I hoped they would never come.

I'd never imagined I would be the one chosen. I work hard. I keep out of trouble. I try not to stand out. No one from my town had ever been chosen before. We tend not to be the fastest or strongest, so we never envisioned any of our neighbours to be chosen for the Assumption. I guess I was too distracted by being good at my job.

They came to my house a few days later. They congratulated me and told my family what a great honour it was to for me to be selected. I don't remember much of the journey, torn away from my children as my thoughts were largely panicked and scattered. I do remember the gates at Haven Plaza though. The large iron gates that exposed my unavoidable future.

I remember the reception office; it was as sparkly as newly polished diamonds. Not a single dent or crack dared to flaw the room. It smelled like a fruity range of lotions and sanitisers. I didn't stay in there very long, as I was rushed off to one of the nearby rooms. It was dark with a small, glowing lamp on a desk in the middle of the room. I was asked to sit in one of the chairs and to wait.

After what felt like hours an older woman in an impressive uniform came in. She had shiny, dark hair pinned perfectly in a low bun. She thanked me for my sacrifice. She told me how I would be contributing to the government's creation of a perfect humanoid by using the best qualities a human could offer. Just imagine, she told me, soon there would be no more need for people to suffer. In fact, no more need for those people at all. Only the rich and powerful were needed in this new, envisioned civilization.

Was that the intention behind these annual sacrifices? Use the poor and the suffering to create a better class that will ultimately replace them all? Slaughter them one by one, in the process of constructing better cooperative slaves? Classify this community as second-hand toys; when you tear them open for their parts, no one asks you twice?

There was something in my water. That must have been it. I remember taking a drink, my hands shaking and heart breaking at the thought of never again seeing my daughters. It all turned to black.

Somehow I managed to wake as the procedure took place. The drugs they'd given me had immobilised my body. I felt my face drain of all colour and warmth. I was too light-headed, however, to comprehend what the medical examiners were doing.

It then became apparent of what the surgeons were using me for. Of what they would be studying this year, using my motionless body. It was clear. It was obvious why they would select me.

I was a top grade student and a highly regarded professor. I was selected for my brain.

Now I'm in this machine. I am this machine. Perhaps I can control more than just my thoughts...