Artificialis City

Story inspired by the art of Luigi Lucarelli.

It is 2143 and each hour is the same in Artificialis city. The world is in a strange place as it has been ripped to shreds by wars, famine and environmental damage. There are a few utopias that resemble Earth as it used to be, but we can primarily see humanity being reduced to a handful of highly technocratic cities where dictators have utilised algorithms to execute their greedy ambitions.

Rachel is one of the inhabitants of the Artificialis city. She used to live a simple, yet fulfilled life before destruction started ripping Earth to shreds. Now she was living underground and fixing up mechanical parts for whoever was willing to pay the highest fee, as the government was after her due to her skills. Rachel had the capacity to fix and build any machine with ease, but instead of working for the government to help them fight other governments, she was helping bounty hunters and some blind believers which were supporting the resistance. Rachel didn’t care about the war, the resistance, or anything else. She just wanted to build her own spaceship and escape Earth, explore the universe and find a new planet to settle down in.

It was a dull afternoon, Rachel was fixing up a prosthetic arm on a human called Matt. Matt was a bounty hunter and an anarcho-capitalist who sold weapons and robots in exchange for KSM. The government discovered his whereabouts and broke in his bunker. Matt managed to escape through the help of his colleagues and now he is being fixed up.

Rachel: “I told you that you’ll get caught mate.” Matt: “Yeah well, it happens to the best, what can you do. One little slip and boom. Everything is gone” Rachel: “Could have done something way better with that brain of yours you know.” Matt: “Could have, would have, should have.”

Suddenly there is a loud noise. The door to Rachel’s bunker has been bent. Luckily it is titanium and it is difficult to get in. We hear shouting: “Open up, it’s the police! We know you’re in there Matthew Roadsilk!”

Rachel:” Fucks sake, now I am in shit too. Alright, let’s get out of this place.”