"Don't kill me I can work. I can work." The screams of the eighty-year-old grandma echoed in my ears as I headed to work. An old man called out "I have money " I snorted he was in a camp his children would already have declared him dead and his money would have gone to them. Keeping my head down I repeated my mantra There is nothing to be done. Maybe if they had abandoned the coast of Florida before they did something could have been done. But after the hurricanes started to come every year there just was not enough cash to go around. Looking up I noticed a security guard I did not know which was not a good thing. The guard had on a full-body suit with a helmet over his head. Even his hands had gloves on them which in this heat must have been tortourous. Then again working where we did you needed to keep as much of your home life secret as possible. I noticed the new guard badge, Burt. "When is the sound dampener going back on Burt?" Burt's voice when he answered was computer generated sounded like one of those cheap voice changers. "It's down for good the corporate types say it's cheaper to just give us memory wiping chemicals."
I grinned "Bonus pay for all then. I am taking a vacation. Once the suicides start and the corporations decide to put back up the sound-reducing barriers they will pay a premium for workers."
As he was wearing a full helmet I was betting he like me wanted to pretend he never worked in the corpse disposal center. I was planning on enlarging my leg bones by a couple of centimeters and getting plastic surgery when I had enough to quit. Burt might have had the same idea. That or he or she was actually over the age of 60.
Three years of this unholy duty had taught me a lot about human nature. If the public decided that killing anyone over the age of 60 was a crime I did not want to be prosecuted for it. I winced when I saw my boss Gavin leering at a couple of the older women who were being brought in by their families. It looked like the families were too poor to pay for the home disposal fee. They should have at least stabbed their parents before letting them fall into that sick pervert's hands.
Burt spoke up "The hurricanes that hit Florida were the worst yet they say the age of retirement may be brought down again." I chuckled "No one rich lives in Florida and Texas anymore. What are they going to take the desert from the few still scrapping out a living? Besides, half of your Congress is over 40 you think they're going to risk it?" Burt nodded "They will not have a choice. There was another stock crash in China."
A feeling of dread hit me. The dreaded stock crash. If interest rates rose on the American debt then things were going to get nasty. I nodded in thanks to Burt wondering if his real name was Burt or if there was even a male under the armour and pulled out my prepaid phone.
Quickly putting a new SIM card into the phone I switched it on. A few hits of the keyboard showed me Burt was not lying. Under the famine reports and stories about the new super serum they were testing in a small corner of the online feed was the story. It looked like it was time for a new recession.
As the news on my phone changed to ads for gun printers and porn. I switched it off and tossed away the SIM card. Burt gave me a thumbs-up as I headed home. I began to ponder whether it might be time to leave Florida.
The bus I took had heavy duty armor all over it to stop snipers. Not that there were many of them left after they started to deploy drones but better safe than sorry. The armour had been wielded onto the bus which meant the bus was a gas hog. With the price of gasoline these days a bus ticket would cost me more than a tenth of my daily wages. 20 percent of my daily wages on travel is too much. So I normally walked to work at 5 am to avoid everyone. I even slept in the cafeteria for a few hours before work on days I really wanted to avoid people whose parents I had helped murder.
I would have slept at work all the time except I was worried there would be a round of layoffs again. They had executed the entire valuable retrieval squad twice since I had started here 3 years ago. Every few days they had another execution. The money in selling even the old wristwatches was just too good. If I had been around when they began the executions I could have been included quite easily
Running to the bus stop I thought about the plans I had for getting out once I had enough credits in the bank. I would need to change my face to hide in case they changed the law. I would also have to hide from my old employers. They would want me dead so I could not testify against them.
I reached the bus stop and was relieved to see they had not hung anyone for begging. I had never seen it done but given I was working at a place that killed old people I was betting there was a place for beggars as well.
I sat down and looked up at the local security guard who was giving me the evil eye. More than likely his grandpa or granny had been sent to where I worked. The guard looked like he wanted to spit at me so I switched on my radio to distract myself.
"So you're saying that we will be able to stop massacring our old if we make use of these robot facilities"
"I object to the word massacre we are merely asking that the old do not hinder the newer generation."
"What about the fact you have declared anyone over the age of 60 legally dead."
I switched the channel until I found some music and listened to what appeared to be Christian rock. Luckily the bus pulled up fairly quickly I only had to wait half an hour. As the bus rode on the bumpy road I cursed. The potholes in the road had gotten worse since the last time I had been on the bus. They had fixed it the first few times but as global warming increased the number of hurricanes it was just not worth it anymore.
Deciding to distract myself I looked up at the new billboards. Youth serum becomes immortal with only five easy payments of 200 credits. Super serum gain a superpower today. Head to North America where the cancer rates are lower.
I missed the billboards with the scantily clad ladies holding massive guns. But nowadays guns are considered the most useless personal weapon. Dromes were the new boogieman. Where once you had guards now you had drones half a mile overhead shooting any would be thief. Some of the drones actually had nonlethal bullets.
The music from my radio cut out. "Now a word from our sponsor. Oxi power drink the totally nonaddictive power drink. Remember less than 0.001 people have " I switched over before he explained why buying a product as addictive as heroin was a good idea.
Unfortunately except for a couple of shock jockeys the radio waves were bare. With the advances in the internet radio was dying out. I passed a cancer cure billboard that had not been taken down yet. I would have chuckled at the naivety of the doctors who had given the cure out for free if it was not so depressing.
I sat back and ignoring the billboards found a nazi radio station that did not have much talking. They may have been evil psychopaths but at least they kept it to a single speech every hour. Plus I was on a bus that only the rich could afford to ride. Half of them were probably closet Nazis anyway.
Finally, the bus got me to my stop I set out to head to my official home. I passed Jenny on the way nodding at the teenager who was holding an open flame in her hand. It looked bigger than the first time I had seen it. In a world where you could gain superpowers by taking a five dollar serum and cure cancer with another. Millions died from cancer and diseases. It was now cheaper to give someone a physical super serum than to give them a doctor's appointment. Or would have been if the cheap super serums were not banned.
I heard a howl in the distance and decided to run to my house. I whistled enjoying the feeling of my now fully working leg. A single dose of a knockoff super serum had cured my leg and given me abbs. Of course, it would be years before I could take a full immortality serum safely now that I had a regeneration serum in my system. But I could still take the lesser life extension serum I had felt at the time it was the best option.
The run did me good and I quickly reached my home. As most of my home defense systems did not work I was able to safely enter my home. I had pulled out the ammunition from the defense gun turrets. In the end, I was not about to kill some kid who showed up looking for their football again.
A siren went off and I hurried into the old house that was in theory where I lived. Jumping down the stairs to the basement I pulled up a screen and quickly scanned the air for clouds.
It looked like I had nothing to worry about for now as I could not see any storm clouds with their dreaded hailstones. It was time to make sure I had enough food and blankets to survive another cold snap. I considered my job again. With the cold killing millions was my job even needed anymore?
The leading theory as to why the death camps were still open was that the corporations were afraid of the old people's revenge. It was a reasonable fear with youth serum manufacturing costs so low. All the old people could easily be given a youthful body. Once that happened they would remember the beating and other things that happened in the care facilities.
The weather alarm went off again and pulling out another new phone sim card I checked to find out what was happening.
The news was horrible the alarm was not the weather alert but an alert I had put on my place of work. It was an alert to let me know I had been put on the to be shot on sight list. I was betting drones had already been sent. More than likely a couple of kilometers above my head a drone was waiting for orders to launch a missile at my house.
I sighed and opened up the trapdoor. I cursed the decisions that had brought me to this point. As I headed into my secret tunnel leading to my bunker hoping the meters of soil would help when the attack drones arrive
I would normally blame the AI revolution that had made it easy for most jobs to be automated for my plight. But I owed my life to the doctor AI that had detected several deadly maladies before they could affect me. I could blame the price of food but given I had not starved even when India and most of China starved to death it was not something I could complain about either.
With the insanity in America increasing I needed to get out and maybe head to Mexico there were still parts where it was fairly safe to live in. I checked the cost of moving to Iceland again and winced. I should have bought an Icelander citizenship. But at the time I wanted a perfect body and now I was stuck where I was for one simple reason youth serum.
I worked hunting the old and weak and if I did not want to be hunted I needed to stay young. Youth serum was easy to manufacture but the copyright was owned by several nasty corporations. I had enough medical equipment to produce thousands of doses of youth serum a day. Moving the equipment to Iceland was not possible.
My main problem was that any youth serum I could make went off after around six months. Also, I had no idea what kind of sensors they were now using to try and detect youth serum production. So I was stuck with equipment that could produce millions of dollars of serum each day. It was torture knowing that all I had to do to save the begging cancer patients or give the elderly a chance was switch on the machine for a few hours.
Looking at the machine again I decided it might be time to leave. I could pack up and produce one last massive batch of youth serum. As it cured cancer when administered I would have no problem using it to bribe my way to a new life.
Unfortunately, as I was looking for possible ways out of America One of my alarms went off and a quick check of my cameras showed a Bring Out Your Dead Truck. What had once been a garbage truck now was an armored monstrous hybrid. From out of the top of the truck drones took to the air. I chuckled and armed the javelin rocket I owned.
A streak of flame rose into the air and then came down on the truck which exploded as a rocket designed to destroy a tank turned the truck into a burnt-out mess. Amazingly the doors at the front of the converted garbage truck opened and the drivers jumped out.
Tapping another button released a couple of my own attack drones which shot forward and ended the lives of my ex-fellow employees of what most called death corporation. Checking the wreckage with one of my drones for anything left took a few minutes and showed a surprising amount of goods left. I pulled out my phone switched in my work sim card and made a call to the hiring department. Maybe I could get a spot as a truck driver. it would not be the first time someone killed a death corporation employee and got their job afterward
Delores usually appeared but this time it was Gavin the head of HR who looked like he wanted to eat me alive. "You are going to die horribly and then I will bring you back and kill you again and again. That was my nephew you just killed."
I winced the rage on Gavin's face let me know I could not go back to working for the Death Corporation. I switched off the volume and let Gavin Rant while I thought about things. My plan to go to work as a Truck driver was now shot. Gavin could easily have me put on the death list.
Gavin stopped screaming realizing I had switched down the volume. I winked at him hoping to give him a heart attack and switched off the screen. Then I sent his raving to his wife and the rest of his extended family to let them know about their dead relatives. I also sent out an email With Gavin and his family's addresses. Hopefully, someone would get to him with a hammer and use it on his legs balls, and finally after several hours his head.
Sitting down I began to plot. Staying around the local area was not a good idea. My problem was money and the fact I needed to keep at least one life serum production machine. To be honest I needed to keep 2 just in case one broke down. Given how illegal the machines were that created the super serum I could not call out a repairman if one broke down.
Sighing I decided not to worry about it I would watch some porn and take a week off. Even if Gavin wanted me dead in the worst way possible he would not be able to go over budget. The truck I had just destroyed would have to be answered for.
Still, I needed to be prepared just in case. A phone call to the local police department had my order of weapons on the way. The police would print a couple of Javelin missiles as well as a couple of attack drones and deliver them to me.
I checked the camera and the wreckage of the Bring Us Your Dead truck and made another phone call. Jack was Jenny's father and a freeholder. Which basically meant he had squatted on a local hill with his sniper rifle when things got bad. Unlike the other survivalist types he had been smart enough to come off his mountain when the`Trump drones started to hunt down the Militias.
Jack answered his phone and told me he was coming over with a couple of his sons. I was betting it was because his sons had been tricked into drinking Oxy Power drink. I had heard that the drink representatives had begun to give out free samples to kindergartens.
Giving a heroin based drink to 10 year old's was a job that was even more hated than my own. So I was betting whoever had given the drinks to Jack's sons was either so tough he was afraid of them or buried somewhere on Jack's mountain.
Of course, it was also possible the drug dealers had asked for police protection. Given the money the drug companies had pumped into Congress, I was surprised it was not illegal not to give your children heroin.
I checked that the medical bed I had set up for myself was working. It would put Jack's sons to sleep and detoxify them. As I only had one bed set up one of his sons was about to be uncomfortable. While I sometimes talked to Jenny who sold lemonade and other drinks at the side of the road still I had never met several of her brothers.
Jack arrived with his family and began to rip the burning dumpster truck apart. Jack took a look and then came to talk to me. I deactivated the gun turrets and Jack carefully pulled up a piece of my lawn. As Jack and his family had installed most of my escape tunnells he knew where most of them were.
I had a cup of tea ready for myself and a cup of coffee ready for Jack. Jack looked at the cup of coffee and I swear he almost teared up. Then again since cash crops had stopped being produced coffee and tea were in short supply. Jack took the coffee and sat down.
Jack looked depressed and that was worrying as I had shared a joke with him two weeks after he had to bury his brother grandfather and grandmother. Jack drank his coffee and spoke up "You have a decent engine in the truck. The armour is worth something as are the drones. The drones will have to be reprogrammed but they are the food quality ones not like the newer ones which were designed to pack in after a couple of months"
I nodded and got down to business. "I am thinking of leaving. I do not want to end up in one of those trash trucks. Even if I want to leave having a fallback here in case of accidents is not a bad idea. So I was wondering if you wanted to go into the youth serum business. "
Jack looked at me "That is a dangerous business" I nodded "True but I have a plan. The equipment I have can manufacture millions of doses of youth serum. You can give them away in batches of a hundred. A thousand two thousand batches given away that is two million doses. If a thousand doses found their way into your hands well then that was just fate. What do you think?"
"Risky as hell. All the old Militias are dead or turned informer so I would have to sell them through the girls scouts. What about the chemical trail the government has been saying they can find illegal production machines even years afterward."
"Well first of all technically I will be using an open licence. So there is no problem with the copyright. It is just a banned drug. Just set up a company with limited liability every few months and move around the assets. Just copy the drug companies. If you can not sue the drug companies for selling your kids synthetic heroin then you should be able to sell medicine."
I pulled out a captured image of a local factory "Also you can bribe the foreman. The mill has a lot of older chemicals they want to get rid of. Mix in the runoff with their chemicals. It will give you a few months before "
Jack shook his head "They already dumped those chemicals"
"Even better if they illegally dumped their waste and ran off then all you have to do is find out where they dumped there's and add your own. hell just store it in their toxic waste containers what are they going to say? Oh, that is not our illegal waste we already illegally dumped ours. "
Giving me a hard look Jack nodded "It sounds like a plan and I need the money. That last hurricane washed away the last of the road to my place. I need to repair it. Or at least patch it up. How are you fixed for weapons that truck outside says you might have new enemies"
"Well I am down to one Javlin missle and I only have five small drones left. I need drone killer drones and maybe a couple of bomber drones. I also would not mind a lot more decoy gun turrets and a couple of actual gun turrets. I asked the police to deliver another couple of Javelin anti-tank missiles and drones but every bit helps."
Jack nodded "Alright let's get you your new defences. I will need my sons John and Jack Junior detoxified. The new drug company reps have begun to give free samples to 10 year old. Once they are hooked they get them to give out samples to others. John got hooked and gave his seven year old brother a free sample. So Jack Junior gets the treatment first and we let John think about what he did for a few days."
"Not here you do not. This is my house so if you want to chain up a desperate addict who would chew off his own hands to get another hit it is not going to be here."
"How about the back yard we can chain him down and leave him under a tarp."
"Fine now since we are doing this I will get a couple of thousand USB drives and put the instructions on how to print a bone thread. "
"A what?"
"I have no idea it's the thing you tape to your body that burrows into your body and affects your spine and bones. It's the reason you either get drunk or tazer yourself before using youth serum on your bones."
Jack laughed and began to tell me a funny story about old Lady Connors's sons. Apparently one of them had her declared dead and called for a disposal unit. Now while old Lady Connors was not a gun crazy lunatic she was a decent shot and the retrieval unit had not used their drones. Jack laughed "So after Missus Connors shoots the three retrieval agents in the head she burns her own house down and sells her business to her grandson for a dollar. Then she takes out a loan and heads to Vegas. They found her a week later in a brothel with several sapped young studs.
By this time the sons are in trouble because of the extra changes due to the fact Missus Connor has shot three retrieval agents and because she burnt their van when she was torching her house. Her sons were all fighting over her estate when they found out that not only was her estate worth nothing but there was a massive debt." Jack began to laugh. "Those brothel owners were no joke they came around and collected her sons. "
I laughed with Jack wondering if Missus Connor was one of the people I had sent to their deaths. Sighing I got down to business. "It will take me a couple of hours to get the medical equipment warmed up. Then it will take an hour to produce the anti aging serum. I will need a lot of empty bottles to hold it if we want to spread it out. Also, life serum has a shelf life of six months. So you wait for me to be out of the country before you send the bottles on." Jack nodded and shook my hand.
As Jack headed out to put in my new defenses and meet the police to collect my rockets I got busy. I switched on the serum machine which was actually quite small the size of an old coffee machine and got started. Realizing that thumb drives would be too much hassle to mass print I had my printer produce a lot of phone sim cards. Everyone had a phone and knew how to install a SIM card.
I was still printing sim cards and filling them up with the information on how to use the super serum when Jack arrived with a massive truck. It was one of those oil trucks. Jack grinned at my camera. "Never used but it can store a lot "
Getting out of the truck with a hose Jack quickly attached it to the eighteen 20-litre containers I owned. I winced the truck outside was loaded in what seemed seconds. Looking at the fairly small truck I had an idea.
They could not kill me twice why not just produce as much youth serum as I could? If I made a big enough mess maybe I could send an email in to my boss's boss and have them ask Gavin about threatening me. I tapped my radio button and sent Jack a text.
Make sure not to give the youth serum until after I am gone. Also, let's ramp up production we will want an actual truck. Remember to keep this quiet or we are both dead. Not even your wife should know what we are up to.
I cursed in my head I was using Bluetooth which was not very secure to talk to Jack as I could not exit my bunker. I had to find a way around the sniper drones that were no doubt overhead even now. I would have to head out at night and hope the drones were those solar powered ones.
I had heard there were drone removal agencies but they were too expensive. Also just in case they missed a drone they wanted their money upfront. I had no problem paying when I was a few miles away. But who was going to pay the full payment upfront? Dead men who did not care that their bodyguards got paid even if they did nothing.
Giving Jack instructions to wait to release my youth serum for an hour tired me out and I decided to get some extra sleep. I was nervous I had given Jack millions of dollars worth of an illegal healing serum. If he decided to slit my throat and sell the serum then I was a goner. He could print a bunker buster missile and blow me up.
Sleep came hard to me as I had worries. Finally, I fell asleep to the sound of an old recording of the countryside I had. I woke well rested and decided to take another hour. I got up and headed to eat my green gruel. It tasted something like a piece of cardboard and smelled like a fat man's sweaty ass. However, with the fact almost everything local was covered in chemicals. The last can of salmon I had set off my mercury alarm.
Sitting and looking at the gruel I realized I would soon be leaving it might be time to get some decent food. I still had some vat grown rice and could buy some sweet and sour sauce and a chicken from Jack. I swallowed and switched on the radio.
"So another building collapsed in Boston claiming 353 lives. It looks like the building inspectors were right again. Remember if you live in a condemned building try and move out for the night if it rains hard. If you can not well at least have the roof looked at.
In California, there has been another water riot. Remember folks those rich folks need their apricots more than you need to drink clean water.
There is more news on the good samaritan who is giving away free life extension serum in Florida. It turns out it's true and not only that. The serum awakens any superpowers you might have. This is good stuff even a milliliter can be watered down to do several people. Get it while it's being sold, folks. As the corporate death squads have already been sent to kill whoever is giving it away."
I cursed one night one night. It had taken Jack just one night to betray me. It was hardly a surprise he would feel tempted but I was leaving him all of the production and manufacturing machines anyway. I began to worry as I realized the corporations would soon be sending in their best super powered investigators.
I sat thinking and pulling out a phone began to look up the news reports on the internet.
The news reports were all positive about the serum being given away even the normally biased ones. It was funny to hear someone who was saying that all immigrants should be shot and that global warming was not as bad as everyone said to praise the delivery of youth serum. I sat back to listen to a few of the speakers.
"Now folks we are all for cheap super serum but this needs to be done the right way. We need the corporations to mass produce the youth serum" I blinked as I saw comments appear
Killemall69 Hell yeah kill those communists
Jester58 Kill them all after we get the free serum
Whitepower1247 Only the white supermen deserve to live forever
"Now folks let me just say this. We must respect the rule of law so help me let this well meaning but criminal know that what he is doing is wrong."
I tried to move the channel but every click of my computer brought me to a similar page. All saying the same thing. While what I was doing was noble it would lead to anarchy. Finally, after half an hour of forced ads, I pulled out my SIM card and decided to listen to the radio.
"Well, folks here you have it some brave hero is giving out free life extension serum. So in his honor, I will say this when you are buried even if you are black or brown I will ask that my congregation say a prayer on your grave."
I changed channel
"Well, folks it looks like the life extension formula has run out. There is non to be had but keep listening in and when more is we will let you know."
I chuckled thinking about what my old company must be going through. One millimeter of super serum could be diluted into 6 standard doses of life serum. Of course that would not fix old bones but it would fix the muscles so they could grow. I heard they used cat D.N.A so the muscles grew themselves There were hundreds of liters out there assuming even half of it was diluted to the maximum I started doing the math i produced one 20 liters of serum every hour 20000 multiplied by 6 = 120,000
There were 120,000 lesser doses in each of the containers I gave to Jack and I had given him 18.
The radio crackled as I found an actual newsman who was not too biased
"So listen the corporations are already moving to try and kill the youth serum producer. My best guess is that the surviving members of the militias will be out in force. They have already begun to dig in this time they have their own drones and it's looking like there targeting Death Corporation.
Florida and Miami are about to become war zones. With the old folks becoming young again you can expect a massive upsurge in militia strength in the next few weeks.
Florida and Miami will be declared war zones and several other zones are already being changed to possible skirmish zones. "
I began to furiously check what was happening. Switching back on my phone with a new SIM card. The image of my old Bosses being led screaming into the concentration camps I used to work in filled my screen.
Flicking through the images I quickly saw the guard Burt being led unmasked to a gallows. Under the mask was a young man's face. I checked the information on who Burt was
Burt real name is Olivia age 104.
Olivia took youth serum and started working for a collection service Bring out your dead. She changed her gender to hide her age.
Olivia looked at the camera with a calm look and spoke out "I regret nothing. I have had an extra five years without my bones creaking. the youth serum I bought was worth every dollar I spent on it and more. For those I lead to their death, it was a small price to" A blow struck Olivia who fell to the ground and a muscular man grabbed her and rushed her to the noose.
Cursing internally I watched as Olivia spat at her executioners as they hung her. They at least dropped her enough that her neck broke. A lot of the others were not as fortunate.
Looking at the images of my fellow employees being slowly killed drove home just how bad things had gotten for me. There was no way a random mob was this efficient. The corporations that owned Bring Out Your Dead were cleaning up after themselves.
Pulling out a new SIM card I decided to give Jack a call. No one answered so I left a message
"Get back to me now buddy come in person"
Having no idea how many advertising companies were waiting to sell my location to the local police I sat down and thought about it. Technically the sheriff was killing people. I could in theory send off a report to the police. Then again I did not have enough money to call in the F.B.I.
Normally I would have grabbed my escape bag and headed to my second base in the woods. Unfortunately, the last hurricane had destroyed my supply of hidden food and how much could I carry on my back? Definitely not enough to live for more than a couple of days.
I sat down and waited for Jack to show up to tell me what had happened. If worst came to worst I could always just try and blackmail Jack. We both had sent out the life extension serum.
Jack arrived an hour later with a truck full of weapons and a convoy of police trucks. It looked like it was time to talk to Jack about keeping secrets. I could demonstrate with a couple of kicks to the groin just how upset I was. One of the trucks began to unload and set up what looked like a portable anti-drone gun and I decided it was time to thank Jack.
Each portable Gatling gun unit was worth five to ten thousand dollars. It looked like at least five Gatling guns were being unloaded as well as a couple of missile launchers and digging equipment. I watched as a truck with bags of cement arrived.
It looked like the police were about to build me a lot of defenses. Trucks arrived with what looked like prepared precursor serum. I could turn the 10-liter precursor serum into life extension serum in minutes. Given they were unloading vans of the stuff. I was betting Jack had spilled the beans and I was about to be press-ganged into service.
A thought struck me I was going to die. There was no way out of this. Either the police who were setting up the defenses killed me when I was finished producing their youth serum. Of the corporations killed me horribly for taking away their profits.
Deciding I hated the corporations more than the police I got up and checked my serum production equipment. Normal people might think about doing some good to balance out the bad. They would pray god would forgive them their sins. I had no doubts about where I was going if there was an afterlife. So I was about to die I might as well screw over my old employers.
Even by old folk torturing maniacs standards they were evil. No bonuses or overtime. Being expected to listen to lectures on how we were helping democracy. Being made pay for online shows explaining why fracking was a good thing.
I had to watch a five hour documentary on why it was my duty to work and pay taxes. Three hours of explanations on how allowing the rich to re-invest was going to revitalize the economy. They actually made me pay to watch it. Three hours of "Let's Make America Great Again"
I was not planning on staying in a place where even a ten year old kid could buy a gun online go to school and kill their classmates. With the new plastic guns, I did not even know why they had metal detectors anywhere anymore.
Tapping my controls I opened one of the concealed entrances to my bunker. The time for hiding had passed. What I needed to do was get as much youth serum out into the market as I could. Once the market was saturated with life-extension serum no one would have any major reason to kill me. Or if they did at least my old bosses would be in the pit with me.
Not even bothering to ask any questions I got to work. It was easy to set up the machinery to automatically produce youth serum. I activated the code and left my bunker with my backpack and as much food as I could carry.
Jack rushed up to me "I am sorry I had no choice." I nodded "Well the system is operating at full capacity. I am heading away for a few days. If they do not nuke you I will be back in a week or so." As I left a pale Jack I tried to stay upbeat. There was a chance things could work out for me, not a big chance,
A burst of laughing startled me and I noticed that one of the police officers was being struck in the head with a newspaper by my neighbor Jake. Jake was screaming "It's a crime to steal AND you're stealing THE COPYRIGHT YOU have to stop ERR." the officer he was hitting punched Jake in the head. Jake stumbled backward and the police started to laugh.
I stopped to listen for a second one of the officers was chuckling "When I hit him do you think I should say something cool like you can steal this." "How about steal this remember record it and we can post it online."
My hand began to tighten as I considered hitting the police officers. Deciding that hitting a heavily armed man who was discussing the best way to break all of Jake's teeth while looking good was not something I wanted to do I spoke up. "You know if you post anything the missiles and death rays they have on the satellites will know where you are?"
Jake spluttered "You evil mud person. You came in here and stole our jobs killed the old and then broke the sacred copyright. We have to listen to Congress." One of the police officers kicked Jake in the balls. The officer looked up at me and I looked into the eyes of a kid who should have been in school.
The child officer gave me a thumbs up and then turned to Jake who was somehow still standing and wound up his foot. Jake was in so much pain he could barely move his hands to protect his balls. I felt pity for him mainly because his bulging eyes showed just how much pain he was in. The police officer's foot hit Jake's balls with a terrifying crunch. This time Jake fell to the ground and I noticed bones sticking out of his hands. The kick had broken all of his finger bones.
Deciding I did not need to know if Jake was still alive as I did not like him much I headed off. Or tried to because Jack and his daughters were waiting for me. Jack looked embarrassed as did his daughters.
I stared for a second until Jenny's hand came up and flames shrouded her fist. Jenny glared at me "Your not marrying me and my sisters"
I looked at Jenny in her old denim pants and her sisters Felicity and Blanche. All three sisters were wearing patched clothes but their clothes were well patched and they did not have that hungry or beaten down look most teenagers had these days.
Jack snapped "I am sorry to spring this on you, Tom. We have no choice. Felicity went online and bought one of those songs. The song cost a dollar but the interest was compound. Felicity needs to be married so she can declare bankruptcy. You're going to have to take the others because when the collectors arrive and find Felicity missing they will decide Jenny looks like Felicity"
For a second the sheer scale of what had happened struck me. The rule of law was gone. I lived in an age where a slaver company could set up an online website to attract teenagers as young as ten or eleven. Then they could let them borrow a dollar and wait until they grew up before collecting their debt.
Jack spat on the ground "With the way everything has gone I need my kids married off. If they come for me at least this way they have some legal protection. My sons have already been sent off all except Mark and Jonathan. They are going to stay here and if things do not go too badly hopefully make something of themselves"
Jack turned red. "My wife wanted to let you know if you want to actually marry one of my kids" "DAD" Jenny's voice echoed out "NO NO NO I am seventeen Felicity is fifteen" Jack turned to Jenny his eyes hardening. "There is no middle class anymore. There is only the rich and the poor. You can not even be a maid because there are robot maids. Street vendors selling hotdogs have been replaced with drones that fly you your food. You are smart but so what there are no more scholarships left."
Jack looked at me "He is rich for some reason he could not get the full immortality serum. But getting you and your sister one would not be an issue for him if he had a good enough reason."
Jenny looked at me and I nodded "I bought a few shares in Wholesome Foods the company whose milk killed all those children. I made myself a lot. Before I took the immortality serum I wanted muscles and a stomach you could bounce a quarter off. Only the corporations banned the immortality serum sale. They said it was dangerous."
I snorted dangerously there was a 2 percent chance of death if you took the serum in a single dose. With my minor injuries and underlying genetic conditions, the chances of death had been five percent. Of course, after years of regeneration treatment, my chances of death were less than a percent.
Jenny was gorgeous the type of gorgeous that before the new face modification machines would have made her a model. Maybe she was not supermodel gorgeous but certainly, she was beautiful enough to be given a spot on one of those old TV shows Baywatch or Smallville.
I felt a second of embarrassment and then decided old men had been marrying younger women since the dawn of time. If she actually wanted to get married that would be fantastic and if not maybe I could con her into marrying me.
While I had not been able to check how much money I had in the past four years I was certain at least one of my investments should still be around. With my advancing age I had not dared to check my accounts too often.
The only problem I had was that once married Jenny could have me legally declared dead. The howls of the older men and women in the camps where I had worked haunted me.
Jenny glared at me with hate in her eyes and I felt things were looking up. I nodded at Jack and decided to let him know what was going on. "I plan on camping away from anything electronic for a week or so. Then I am heading by foot to somewhere colder than this oven."
"Do you have enough to get my daughters into Iceland?"
"Jack I do not even have enough to get myself into Iceland. No the best I can do is one of those islands they are setting up. I heard they are trying to repopulate India and parts of Africa."
Jack nodded "Yes there is nothing left here maybe somewhere the famines stripped clean will be better." We both paled thinking about the famine. The real reason I wanted to move was that I had the nasty feeling the grain seed companies were about to increase the cost of their suicide seeds again. Who cared if a billion or so starved to death due to the chaotic weather? Certainly not the seed companies who created seeds with a gene lock on them.
Jack looked at Jenny with tears in his eyes "They should have killed us by now. "
Looking at Jenny's face paling I realized she was beginning to put it together. We were still alive because someone was blocking the usual air strikes that should already have happened. Once we did what we were supposed to we were dead weight.
Jack's phone went off and he lifted it and began to talk "Not now wait what?" Jack looked at me "It might have been a mistake them not bombing us. Someone refused to pay the overtime drone payment."
I shrugged "It's possible not very likely but possible I suppose." I began to think if there had been issues with the airstrikes then the corporations should have hired contract help. I looked at Jack "I hope I am wrong about this but I think the drone companies are using us to put pressure on Death Corporation."
I looked at Jenny "If you want to come with me now is the time." Jenny glared at me "You just want my body. You're old enough to be my grandfather aren't you?" I shrugged "Suit yourself"
I turned to leave Jenny was beautiful and if she actually would marry me I would be a lucky man. But with the threat of death hanging over my head, I needed to move.
If the worst came to the worst I could always risk trying to cash out my American bonds. I looked at Jenny "If you want to come with me we can try living with each other for a few months. You are very beautiful and let's face it I am not sure I will be around tomorrow. "
Deciding to see if the truth would get her into my bed I explained things as I saw it. "I put a lot of my funds into a corporation my artificial intelligence created. Actually, I invested in Death Corporation and the drug companies. The funds are doing quite well"
Jenny spluttered "You invested in Death Corporation. You must be over the age they declare you legally dead. They are evil how could you invest with them?"
"Honey you're young and cute but I want to be well away from here. So make up your mind follow me or do not."
I headed to a part of my lawn I knew well and pulled out an old bicycle from under a hidden trap door. Jenny was talking to her father Jack.
"He is a monster"
"Honey we are out of choices here. Your brothers will need to hunt you know that. Since we moved here from our mountain things have got harder. We live near a toxic waste dump. They are trying to tax the rainwater."
The rainwater tax was a new one but given the pollution in Central America, it made sense. In most places, you needed a filter to drink rainwater if you do not want the water to melt your insides. Rumors that several leaks were caused by the water filter companies had been proven correct.
Jenny looked up and I sealed the deal. "Most of my money is in an offshore bank. The us government can not touch it."
I looked into the distance. "I am an asshole but look around the ground is polluted. They are selling you heroin and calling it an energy drink. It is not getting any better the hurricanes are getting more violent. I am heading somewhere I can settle down if your father is still alive in a year he can join us.
Now we can talk later after you pick up my other bicycle it's near your father's land. Meet me near the mass graves the one from the landslide that took out the school."
I took off wondering if Jenny would show up. As robots had replaced waitresses there were no safe jobs left for any female anymore. If anyone advertised for a maid what they meant was a sex worker. With drones capable of changing your bed and cooking your food hiring a human to do any work for you was just too expensive.
The dirt road that had replaced the concrete seemed to have fewer potholes than usual and I made good time. The recent temperature changes had not been kind to the road and taking a detour around a piece of road that seemed to have collapsed into a sinkhole I reached my destination.
My ex-asshole boss had turned what had been a retirement home into a pay to kill resort. It had not taken off mostly because except for a few sick perverts who would want to hunt down an old person.
The roof of the old folks home had been removed by some Christian sect. So I would have to find a place to set up my tent inside the walls. Unfortunately, someone had been at the piping and damaged the walls while ripping it out. At least they had also taken the ceiling.
Avoiding the human shit and blood stains on the part of the old folks home I had planned on staying in I sat down and began to plot. I needed to make sure my old company was destroyed. To do that I already had the weapon I needed youth serum.
What I needed to do was make sure youth serum flooded the market. I had no doubt whoever had stopped the drones that should have been coming for me. Would sooner or later later let them kill me. But until they did I had some time to plot.
My plan was simple just do what I told Jack to do. Produce a truly massive amount of youth serum and ship it out just before a hurricane hit. Only this time if I wanted to survive the plan had to work flawlessly and I had to get really really lucky.
I set up my tent on top of part of the wall that had fallen down. That way if there was another flood I might have a few more hours before my tent was washed away. I checked the radio and there was news of youth serum being spread.
I listened in "So you're saying we should give the vote back to these old has-beens? Listen folks we have to stick to our guns here. The great Republican party has lowered your taxes. To do that certain sacrifices have to be made. Now unfortunately some sacrifices are going to have to be made. We just can not afford to pay for drug rehab from pain medication anymore. So to get this great country going again we need workers. We are now giving handouts but a helping hand."
I switched off the radio realising what had happened. They were cutting the drug addicts off to try and pay back the national debt. With the number of deaths from opioids, they must be running out of skilled labor. I chuckled and got my tent set up.
Pulling out my shovel I began to cover the bricks I was going to sleep on with dirt before cutting sections of grass to put on top of the soil. I had barely started when it started to rain and I had to take cover.
Silently I prayed the rain was not too toxic. I looked around for signs of flooding and found none. As the rain came down I sat down and wondered how it had come to this. I had a few million euros in the bank it was not as good as the Icelandic new dollar. But they were still worth something. Enough for me to spend maybe five hundred years getting drunk and hiring a couple of medium priced hookers every night.
I sighed it was not enough I wanted a place that was mine and secure. With the drug companies selling heroin based drinks to children nowhere was safe. Then there was the rising sea level to think about. Not to mention the plagues and famines. Luckily famine was not a real worry as billions had died already.
As the rain got heavier I drank half the horrible protein shake that was supposed to last me a few days. It tasted like someone had taken cardboard and stuck it into a blender and then added in fish oil. I swallowed it cursing the fact I had not been able to eat all of the fresh fruit I had at my last underground bunker.
The rain became thicker until I could barely see the road and a couple of shapes came out of the rain. Water was dripping down their coats. The lead one spoke up "No need to worry I am Jerry and this is my nephew Drew here. We are on a job and have been sent to shore up parts of the road."
I looked at Jerry and then up at the sky which was grey with storm clouds. Jerry got under the tarp I had put up and explained "We are being filmed. A computer program"
"Yes I certainly will not miss those by the way do you have a phone?"
Jerry looked at me cautiously and I explained "All I need you to do is phone a number and give them a few codes."
Jerry gave me a hard look so I had to tell him some of the truth. "A few years ago I lost a lot of my family and most of my friends to opioids. I tried to sue but things went badly. The shell company declared bankruptcy and I was left with no legal means for revenge."
Briefly, I thought about telling him I wanted revenge but looking at his haggard face decided it was unnecessary. "The truth is after I saw what happened I bought shares in an Opiod producing company. Given recent events it's time to sell those shares. To do that I need to have someone phone my broker and give them the correct codes. It can not be me because they might have my voice on one of their voice monitors."
Drew spluttered "You're one of those drug dealers who sell pain medication to children." I shrugged "No offense but your government let Congress and that ex-mayor of new york sell the drug companies pardon for their legal excitives. When I saw them making money in Europe I just jumped on the bandwagon."
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I looked into the rain and saw Jenny. Jenny was wearing a massive pancho and wearing a backpack. I broke into a grin "Listen we are both survivors those shares are mine so you know they can not charge you with aiding in a criminal conspiracy.. your bot will have taken video recording so you know that legally you will be fine"
The magic words legally you will be fine they always worked. I grinned seeing the look of greed in Jerry face and got to work on my personal computer working out the codes to sell my shares in the drug companies that sold drugs to children. I had to be quick because once they stopped paying for the drug rehabs then all the addicts would die really quickly. In fact I was betting they would set up death camps to deal with the drug addicts. It was worth seeing if I could get a job in one of the new camps.