Androids and Zombies

An excerpt from the unfinished

By Nelio Cuomo Costa

“Our masters have found a way to make us uniquely the same. 

Be different.  Get a nose ring, and a tattoo, and dye your hair, be unique, call your music alternative, prejudge blindly while claiming equality.  Just like everybody else.”

Donovan put down his joint and looked up at the glowing tablet, Candidate H2 was evading another question.  H2 began to point menacingly at the crowd, that the United States must stay the course.

 A mix of the smoke and not having eaten in a day made him aware he was getting hungry again.

“Darling, all I see is two androids dancing on a stage, while the zombies yell amongst themselves, so we forget our society is dead.  I wake up sick from  the hunger, and overpopulation, the disease, leaving sores on all of our faces.”

Lorraine anxiously covers her cold sore, unsure if Donovan is speaking figuratively.

“The dualism will never stop, and the rest of the zombies inch closer and closer to having one vision.  When we ask the wrong questions, we’re never heard.

That’s why we need to spill the blood of those who prison us in their system.”

He flailed his hands in front of her, startling her.

“Peace and love isn’t the answer because the masters refuse to fight fair.

They’ll tell the media to label us as child molesters and drug addicts, and they’ll show our crying mothers on their television asking “What went wrong?”

Their androids will ask why “we didn’t finish college?” and “why we didn’t just go and get good jobs like the rest of them?”

“Years ago they told us to be bankers and doctors, but the bankers stole, and the doctors sold their souls for the drugs.  Gone are the healers, and the mediators, and an economical system based on real things. 

We’re high as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore” 

The first smirk of the night crossed Lorraine’s face.  Donovan was serious.

“Why did we choose not to latch on to a dying system that no longer rewarded us for keeping our heads down and not asking “Why?”

But you, Lorraine, you’ll need to tell them the truth.  You need to let them know that all we ever wanted was a better life.”

Donovan reaches towards her, she recoils to his touch

“They’ll say we belong to Al-Queda, and they’ll link us to their very own atrocities, they’ll claim that we’re selling drugs to minors.

You know this because they’re going to ask you to write those stories.  They’ll flash it on the bottom of the news network and they’ll make flashy graphics so it sticks in our heads, but they’re liars Lorraine.”

Tears began streaming down Lorraine’s face.  He was ruining her high.  She held Donovan’s warm hand, probably for the last time.

“But he’s my boss.  You can’t do this.”