{"id":8422,"date":"2015-03-02T09:00:05","date_gmt":"2015-03-02T14:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gadflyonline.com\/home\/?p=8422"},"modified":"2015-03-13T12:40:53","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T16:40:53","slug":"underground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/underground\/","title":{"rendered":"UnderGround"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Circuit<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAre you sure about this?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cStop scratching.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry.\u00a0 It itches.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it itches, but I\u2019m prepping your head.\u00a0 You\u2019re lucky I went to med school.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cVirtual med school.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSit still.\u00a0 Okay.\u00a0 This might still sting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDid they catch the other guy?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know they did.\u00a0 They\u2019ll catch you too.\u00a0 Facial Recognition.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you think the baseball bat\u2019s for?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was for me.\u00a0 I guess, in a way, it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s that, or I run into a wall.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat about your family?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat about them?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll have to say good-bye.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only interaction we have is our meals, and nobody talks.\u00a0 We\u2019re all too eager to return to our own personal world.\u00a0 I won\u2019t miss that, and I need to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOw!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI told you that this will still hurt.\u00a0 I\u2019m cutting into your head.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDamn it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do you need to do this?\u00a0 It\u2019s insane.\u00a0 To unplug yourself?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou ever hear of the Underground Railroad?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI could upload it.\u00a0 Give me a second.\u201d\u00a0 Pause.\u00a0 \u201cWhat about it?\u00a0 It\u2019s ancient history.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHistory that needs to repeat itself.\u00a0 We\u2019ve become slaves, but to a different master.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you happy?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you really?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo.\u00a0 I thought this creation would solve all problems, but there\u2019s no free will anymore.\u00a0 No free thought.\u00a0 Just control.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I\u2019m taking back control of my life.\u00a0 Ow!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cStop being a baby.\u00a0 The chip\u2019s out.\u00a0 What do you want me to do with it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCrush it.\u00a0 With your foot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the system will read you as a flatline.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the idea.\u00a0 What do you think they do to people who remove the chips from their brain?\u00a0 You never see them again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat if they get you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cReady the baseball bat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen what?\u00a0 Everything\u2019s electronic.\u00a0 How will you live, eat?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI worked all that out.\u00a0 The whole time I thought of everything, I imagined Maroon 5 playing a concert in my head.\u00a0 I hope they liked that music.\u201d\u00a0 Pause.\u00a0 \u201cGood job.\u00a0 Is it crushed?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLike a bug.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen, I guess this is good-bye.\u00a0 Thank you, my friend.\u00a0 Why are you handing me the scalpel?\u00a0 What\u2019s that for?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy turn.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo.\u00a0 I can\u2019t ask you to do that.\u00a0 I can\u2019t.\u00a0 You have a family.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLike yours.\u00a0 Zombiefied to Technology.\u00a0 Do it.\u00a0 It would be nice just to be one inside my head.\u00a0 I almost don\u2019t remember what that\u2019s like.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost a dream from a long time ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is going to hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPayback\u2019s always a bitch.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat will come when we start to play Baseball.\u00a0 I promise to be quick.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you think our lives will be like afterward?\u00a0 Without control?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMe neither.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you sure about this?\u00a0 Okay.\u00a0 Let\u2019s begin.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Melissa R. Mendelson has been working for the State of New York for the last five years. \u00a0She is also a published short story author and poet. \u00a0Her poetry has been included in Names in a Jar: A Collection of Poetry by 100 American Poets (Amazon, 2007). \u00a0Her short story, Whispers in the Night, has been included in Espresso Fiction: A Collection of Flash Fiction for the Average Joe (Amazon, 2012).<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cAre you sure about this?\u201d
\n\u201cI\u2019m sure.\u201d
\n\u201cStop scratching.\u201d
\n\u201cI\u2019m sorry. It itches.\u201d
\n\u201cI know it itches, but I\u2019m prepping your head. You\u2019re lucky I went to med school.\u201d
\n\u201cVirtual med school.\u201d
\n\u201cSit still. Okay. This might still sting.\u201d
\n\u201cDid they catch the other guy?\u201d
\n\u201cYou know they did. They\u2019ll catch you too. Facial Recognition.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":8423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,200,219,217],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8422"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8422"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9072,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8422\/revisions\/9072"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}