The Chase for Sensation

An alert appeared to her inner calendar and the month appeared to her. In all of the sixty days in that month, there was only one task (other than dog ‘walking’). That task was a conference call for her place of employment. It was two weeks ago, and had been canceled for lack of content to converse about. Kay-99 gave a mechanical – timed – bark. It needed to go outside. In truth, it didn’t, it had no bladder and ate no food, but somewhere in its programming, they left the desire for the outdoors. M7 willed them both to leave the home.

The day was scheduled for sun. So there was sun.

Kay-99 led the way down the same path they had trod for countless years. They rolled on next to the fake, oxygen-producing trees. Their wind feature was activated and shook slightly. M7 passed by a neighbor, each only shifting their blob bodies like a popping bubble to say hello. They went around the designated track as they had already done a thousand times. Only now, M7 noticed something. Red warning lights lined an offshoot of the path, saying it was not the way to go. For whatever reason, her systems found a slight increase in blood pressure; for a sliver of a second, M7 was excited, then quickly her balance was restored. She had read the word before and long forgotten what it was like. But, once she got a taste, she needed to find it again.

Like a concept, the chair eased her forwards onto the restricted path. Every mechanical instinct told her, no, go back, this is not the way! But, a deeper desire to continue was lit. It was as if, after being blind for years, she could finally see, and the glimpse of green was more precious than anything else. She continued down the path, adrenaline pushing into her heart unlike a word, but like the meaning it holds. This excitement activated the long dormant sweat glands. The chair wiped it away and cooled her off, but more came. She continued as if she had just awoken from a drunken daydream.

Kay-99 followed its master as it was programmed to do, all the way to a mining quarry. From the lithium years, there were still numerous gouges in the earth from where the excavating bots had ripped rock and stone for power.

Vast, it was, both in height and width, it spanned farther than M7’s visual core could analyze. It was fear, she thought, something that nobody had even experienced in a very long time – she could feel. Her systems tried to fight it, but no drug could halt the warm, shaky lightness that overtook her. Kay-99 barked, its noise echoing through the quarry, and M7 laughed. Pushing forth like a spring thaw came a noise of joy, maybe the only one she had ever uttered.

Chasing this feeling, she was drawn to the edge. She looking down into only a bottomless haze. Intelligible cognition was lost, and the MD followed her lust for more sensation. The round wheels pressed effortlessly over the drop.

“Ah.” M7’s Blubber body fell, many hundreds of feet towards the unforgiving ground. As she approached, most unknowingly towards death, the more alive she felt.

Splat!

Like pancake batter to a hot pan. The chair, however, was practically indestructible, it activated the revivification programming.

–

M7 was rolled out of bed. Was given an orange to taste. Sour, sweet, slightly bitter. It was supposed to taste that way, but once again, she had lost the sensation. She had not lost her memory, though. The freefall played over and over in her head. There was nothing more to be done, and without a second thought, she was out of the house, Kay-99 close at her rear.

Down the path, she ignored her neighbor’s blubber and dove into the restricted area even faster.

Once again that burning sensation approached.

M7 rolled right up to the edge where she had splat.

She spoke, “deactivate medical care.” the constant whirr of the chair lessened. The air grew calm like a stealthy breath. M7 caressed Kay-99’s fur one last time, then she rolled herself off the edge.