I sat in my home surrounded by my EC. I was imprisoned, not mothered. I had quick flashes of anger. Drugs kept tempering it. I fought against the drugs, but they got powerful. I was in a forced state of manic depression, like a cartoon. “What was I feeling?” I mumbled.

The System was trying to distract me. Trying to relive my pain. I had a list of activities. I found myself looking at saved images of the places I have been. When I was young. I kept daydreaming about being off-world like my Parents will be in a few days. I kept thinking about being human-like my father said. He went off the drugs. He was right, but he seems so agitated, so out of control, and moody. Is that what being human is?

Nothing I watched this evening was making it better. That brief moment in the grass seemed to be stuck in my head. I felt that with my toes, my toes, not an artificial simulated feeling. It was different, there was no denying that fact. The EC was synthetic.

My EC kept prompting me, kept nagging me. It was like a distant echo in my head that I refused to let in. The commercials felt like they were getting louder. Like a truck going through my head. I closed my eyes.

“Would you like to sleep?” It asked.

“No, I won’t quit,” I replied with my eyes still closed.

The screen flickered and ads rolled, I could not hear them. I could not see them. When it was all quiet. I could hear my ears ringing. It was a shock. It was deafening.

“This 10 minutes of silence was brought to you by…” The system chirped.

“No!”

My brain had hit a point and exploded. The drugs in my system could not mute the sound that I yelled out.

“No!”

“Do you need a Med Check?”

“No! Eject!”

“That would not be prudent, you run the risk of great bodily harm,” The System said. The voice throbbed and it was loud.

“No! Eject!”

"There is legal ramifications to your request, do you waive your legal rights to …" The System rambled on.

“Yes! EJECT!” I could not hear the system, I could not understand it. I just needed out.

I felt a rush of pain drugs enter my system. I felt a brief pinch in my groin. The Neuro tubes clicked and opened. I was thrown forward, in free fall. I saw the floor coming fast. My helper arms in one last goodwill gesture caught me, spent me around, and gently lowered me to the ground face up.

I lay there in a daze, looking at the ceiling. It was so white a sterile. I could see the flicker of the screen reflect off of it. I could hear the mumble of ads that were playing. My brain was drowning them out.

I laid there and it was bliss, for the moment. I tried to move my arms and legs but I was still in the haze of the drugs that were pumped into my body. They laid there limp and motionless.

My body started to tingle as my limbs started to come to life. First, it felt good and then turned into an intense feeling. I moaned as I clenched my hands. The thousand little needles each gouging at thousands of nerve endings.

“Do you need a Med Check?” The system asked.

“No! Damn it!”

The experience in the park at least prepared me enough to know that it will subside and it did. My body calmed as I lay there. I tried to move. I sat up on an elbow and twisted my body to the side, I felt shaky. Then I felt cold. I started to shiver. My stomach was in knots. I could feel my insides bubble up. I purged.

“The hell,” I said as my stomach cramped up again.

“Do you need a Med Check?” The system asked.

“No!” I yelled as I weakly clutched my stomach.

"Well, this is a mess," A voice behind me chuckled.

“Who…” I tried to speak but instead purged.

“Do you need a Med Check?” The System asked.

“No!”

I felt two hands from behind grab below my armpits and sat me up. I was pulled to a wall and propped up. Jon crouched by me looking in his bag. He pulled out a rag and wiped my face and the front of my Environ Suit.

“You?”

“Yep, I got a request to look at your EC,” He replied, “I did not expect to see this.”

He got up and went over to the EC. He opened a panel and plugged in his diagnostic tool.

“Can you help me?” I strained to speak as my stomach was still cramped.

He looked at me and gestured me to wait a minute. He closed the panel and typed something on the device.

“There a report was sent, I have done my duty to the System,” He said and then crouch by me again, “I don’t have any more Work Orders today, and I can take a break.”

“Help me,” I winced in pain.

“Why would you want to eject?”

“I don’t know, I just needed out,”

“Do you need help back in?”

“No,” I replied in pain and then dry heaved.

“Ok, ok, not on the shoes,” He said with a smile.

“What’s happening?” I asked as my stomach cramped again.

“You do not have any drugs in your system, your body is not used to it,” He replied, “that can be very dangerous. You sure you don’t need a Med Check?”

“No! No Med Check,” I said as I grabbed his sleeve.

“Well I might be able to get Liz here, she might be able to help,” Jon said as he pulled out a com “You can’t do this alone, trust me.”

It took forever, I was still sitting in my own vomit and my stomach was still cramping. I felt dizzy and I was sweating and shivering at the same time.

I look

ed at my EC, kneeling lifeless on the floor. I saw little droplets of red trailing to me. I looked down to see my exposed penis and to see a trickle of blood coming from the tip. My eyes closed. I was in darkness again.

I could hear voices but I could not understand them.

“Rico,” said a warm female voice.

My eyes fluttered as I tried to open them. My eye was forced open and a bright light pierced the darkness and blinded me.

“Rico, stay with me,” The voice said again.

My ears started to ring again, the voices were drowned out. The lights flooded my brain and then nothing.