Visilam

It was an average day for your average Joe, or at least your average Joe millionaire genius who now lived on his own asteroid in his own old-school, oak wood cabin. Yeah, that’s the life, a somewhat lonely life. Not completely lonely, though. He did have his dog Rufus with him, who ended up becoming more of an alarm clock with his early morning lick attacks. But how could one complain about waking up to the beautiful, infinite universe whilst simultaneously receiving infinite love?

It’s actually very easy. He didn’t know what to do with his finite amount of time. What more could he do? His life’s to-do list was complete. His life’s purpose was complete. He had every materialistic thing he could ever need, well, with his Matter-Fabricatorinator. He had already exhausted his allotted time with his soulmate in this lifetime, so there really was not much demand for him to stick around. He liked watching movies, listening to music, reading books, and of course spending time with Rufus, but it was reaching a point for him where he felt he had experienced all that he needed to.

Knock, knock

That was strange, he wasn’t expecting any visitors.

Knock, knock

Anticipation rose up his spine as he got up and walked toward the door. His security monitor showed an old drone hovering at his doorstep. He hadn’t seen a drone made by anyone other than Visilam Tech for a while so he became even more skeptical. He could see the drone holding a small box with a large, yellow bow, his favorite color. It also had a tag that he couldn’t quite make out so he slowly opened the door. There the drone hovered, with a makeshift knocking arm on one side and a tray holding the box on the other. He leaned down closer to read the tag. It read “For Joan”. Who was Joan? He thought.

He figured the drone had just gone to the wrong location so he closed the door and went back to the movie he was watching.

Knock, knock

He ignored it.

Knock, knock

He wasn’t going to let a random drone disrupt his day.

Knock, knock

He took a deep breath and slowly made his way back to the front door. He opened it just as the drone was knocking again. The makeshift arm swung down onto his face knocking him down. He sprung to his feet and ran at the drone with a right hook. The loud clunk sent waves through his body and whipped the drone backwards. The box fell off the tray as the drone regained its balance. “Thank you,” a robotic voice said from its now dented front speaker. The drone launched into space leaving the box laying on the floor in his front yard.

He walked over to it as he watched the drone slowly disappear from his vision. He squatted down and picked it up. Who is Joan? he thought as he noticed the damage he did to his hand. Bits of skin were hanging off his knuckles showing his robotic arm underneath. “Hey, at least I have something to do now!”

He entered the house to a patiently waiting Rufus sitting by the front door. “Looks like we got a package, boy.” Rufus barked and jumped up doing a twirl. He opened the box and stood in confusion. Rufus began quietly pouting. He reached in the box and looked at Rufus pulling out what was inside. “It’s just a very cold baby carrot?” Rufus bounced around with his tongue out. He knew Rufus would eat anything if he had enough time and he wasn’t hungry at the time, especially for vegetables, so he threw the carrot up in the air for Rufus to catch. The carrot disappeared down Rufus’s throat almost instantly.

BOOM

His walls now splattered in red. The horrible taste he’d have to remember for the rest of his life. He never even got to say goodbye. His body was immobilized. Who? What? Who? Wh-? Why? Who could’ve done this? Why would someone do this? Did I do something? Why would you do this? What? Why? He stood in shock before falling to his knees and crying. He still couldn’t move. His eyes made their way to where Rufus was sitting. He stared at that spot for what felt like an eternity.

A sudden bolt of determination shot his body up. He ran over to his security monitor and started looking through the footage. He took the footage into his office and kept rewatching it. He eventually noticed a sticker on the back of the drone. He enhanced the video and was able to see the sticker clearly. It was a pink and purple flower with a note on it. “Rose, what is an ‘Ohio’?” he said aloud after reading the note.

“Ohio, a state in the northeastern United States, from planet Earth, bordering on Lake Erie; capital, Columbus. Acquired by Britain from France in 1763 and by the US in 1783, it became the 17th state of the US in 1803. In 2084, it was shunned from the US and has since been an independent nation.”

“Looks like we’re going to Earth.” he said as he looked at Rufus’s spot. He sighed, “looks like I’m going to Earth.”

He walked over to a wall in his office with a picture of a woman and lifted it up revealing a hidden button. He pressed the button and the wall opened up displaying different types of weapons and equipment. He scoped around the items and grabbed a gun and a small orb. He walked to the other side and grabbed the jacket hanging up. He slid his arms into it and it automatically fit itself snug around his torso.

After getting everything prepared, he was ready to leave. “Hey Rose, can you get my ship ready for departure?” he said aloud.

“Of course, sir.”

The small smile she gave him disappeared from his face after he let out a deep sigh. He picked up his gun and walked toward the door. A bright white door blinded him as it appeared in his living room. He shielded his eyes and saw two figures walk out of what seemed like a portal. “Hey, who are you? How’d you get here?” He raised his gun but before he could do anything, two big holes were taken out of his torso. He slowly looked down with his last effort and saw the nothingness that filled his body. He grabbed his jacket and gasped out “How?” before falling to the floor.

The room dissimulated into a white, room with a two-way wall and “Visilam” written on the walls. The two figures could be seen with dark goggles and white lab coats on. They walked over to the man dead on the floor and lifted him up showing the holes through his body. They dragged him out of the room leaving a trail of blood. One person in the same outfit came in and quickly cleaned up the blood before two more people came in carrying a sleeping woman, the same woman in the picture from before. They set the woman down and left the room.

The room simulated into the same oak wood cabin on an asteroid in space. Rufus ran over to the woman and started licking her face. She slowly woke up and started petting Rufus before nudging him off of her. “Hey Rufus, what’s up buddy?” she said as she sat up. She looked around the room and noticed she was on the floor next to the couch. “Dang, I must’ve fell off again.” She stood up and looked up at one of the walls. On it was a notepad that had “Day 1330” on it. She looked at Rufus, “Did I update that this morning? I don’t remember?” He looked back at her with a blank smile. “Oh, well, it doesn’t really matter.”

Knock, knock