Mind

Gerard opened his eyes. Slowly he sat up and pushed away his sheets. Rubbing his eyes he scrambled out of bed.

“Bathroom.” He told the computer. The colors of his sleeping room blurred and a new setting formed. There was a bathtub and a shower next to it, a toilet, a sink and a dresser. He peeled out of his black shorts and T-shirt and climbed into the shower. When he was done he grabbed a towel he frowned.

“Large towel.” The light purple towel in his hand doubled in size. He dried himself.
Fastening the towel around his hip he went to the mirror. He blow dried his jet black hair, which had gotten too long. But it didn’t matter. This was his last day using his body anyway.

“Dressing room.” A door appeared at the opposite side of the room. Nothing made by the PLM could be taken outside, so the clothes were stored in an attached room. Gerard walked towards the door and entered the room behind it. Quickly he slipped into underwear, a pair of black jeans and a dark blue shirt, his favorite clothes.

Then he walked back into the PLM room looking at his reflection in the mirror one last time.

“Exit.” He left the room through the door which had just materialized and walked down an empty hallway.

“Gerard!” A short boy ran up to him, hugging him quickly. “Jenny told me that your scans were at 100% yesterday. Are you going tonight?”

“Actually right after breakfast.” Gerard explained.

The boy looked down to his feet.

“It’s okay Frank, don’t worry. Your brain will be ready soon!” Gerard smiled.

“That’s not it, I’ll miss you, Gerard.” Frank was still focusing on his feet carrying him down the hallway. The boys entered a huge, fancy room, which was dominated by the color brown and was bathed in the light of many candles placed on chandeliers.

“It’s not like we’ll never see us again. I promise it won’t even be a year until you can follow me!”

Frank didn’t seem to be completely convinced: “Yeah, but you don’t know how it is going to be like. I’m scared of leaving my body. “

“Don’t worry.” But Frank was right. Nobody had ever returned to tell them how it was going to be like. He really didn’t know what to expect.

They walked over to the buffet, which had been set up by the kitchen robots. Frank loaded a lot of grown-in-the-lab bacon on his plate.

The two boys sat down across from each other at the only empty table and started eating in silence. When they were done they left their plates on the table and a robot emerged to take them away.

Outside Frank explained that he had to go to philosophy class. Gerard pulled him into a long hug.

“See you soon!” he told him, then walked off. Frank stood in the hallway for another minute.

Gerard arrived at a shiny metal door. He took a deep breath and entered.

“Good morning, Sir! Please tell me your full name, so I can identify you.” A robot, the DR, rolled towards Gerard. He was designed to not look human, so that there would be no confusions.

“Gerard Way.”

“Identified as Gerard Way. Please sit down in this chair, Sir.”

Even though there had been the possibility to create robots as intelligent as humans, they were only equipped with the essential.

Gerard sat down. The process that was going to follow had been explained to him several times. His brain was going to be copied exactly and integrated into a computer system. There would be so called “space” for him alone and “space” to communicate with other minds. It was supposed to be the perfect way to exist, but Gerard had always had a hard time imagining how that would work out. When his mind was fully detached, his body was going to die.

“Please put on this helmet.” The DR presented a tablet with a fragile red construction on it, which Gerard put on his head.

“When you are integrated into the system, there are only 139 humans left to grow up.” The DR stated several other facts, which were supposed to calm down his patient. He checked once again whether Gerard’s brain was fully developed. This had to be done, because the brain stopped evolving in the system.Then he asked Gerard to lean back.

The boy did so and closed his eyes. He heard a click and felt a buzzing in his head. His body started to feel distant.

Notes

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