He loved Pepper, a pitch black lab with the energy of a thousand batteries. She had been with him for over ten years and although she wasn’t a pup anymore she still had enough energy to achieve any mischief she set her mind to. Lucy loved her too. They moved from their small apartment in the city to a house outside the city limits for Pepper. They figured that since she was alone when both of them were at work she should have at least a large garden to run and play in. The trouble was that Pepper often chose to bring the garden inside. Pepper was nowhere in sight, probably still playing in the garden he ruled. He decide to leave and let Lucy deal with the mess.

The commute to work was pretty long, over an hour long, but it did give Aaron the chance to catch up on some reading. At least that’s what he was telling himself. All he did nowadays was scroll through all the social media accounts he was on, looking at shit posts. He felt them rotting his brain to shit but just couldn’t turn himself to do anything else. He felt himself devolving into a lesser being but just couldn’t care. His attention span had become that of a marooned jellyfish.

Most of the commute happened by train followed by a few stations by subway. The car he was in smelled like urine. All cars smelled like urine but this one had something special. It was like he could smell the piss through his pores. There was homeless man a few seats in front of him, facing his way. The man smiled towards him. Not the spare-some-change smile, but more like a I-know-your-soul kind of grin that sent chills up Aaron’s spine. He took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes. When he put the glasses back on he saw that the homeless man was gone. Probably moved to another cart.

The switch from train to subway was never easy. The station where he got on the subway was always busy, people were always talking loudly, slamming into each other, each feeling entitled in a way. Mindless sheep herded towards the slaughterhouse. Each day they went there and came back less human.

“Flesh and blood robots.” Aaron thought. He chuckled to himself thinking what a stunt Hollywood had pulled on all people. Nowadays when you heard robot you instinctively thought of a metal machine, but few people knew that the original definition of the word is ‘slave’. No post-apocalyptic scenario where machines rule the world trying to exterminate us. Robot Armageddon is here and each man, woman and child is playing their part willingly. There is no Resistance, no way out.

...to be continued...