Bedridden Patient

For the first time in my life, I have had a regular life. Though my health was not good, I was fine. Thanks to the sky-gravity vehicle, my exhaustion did not stop me from continuing my life. I was filling my triple mat from public protein fountains. These fountains work like a modern soup kitchen. There are also large soup kitchens that offer free cooked meals, but I was not going there because I have claustrophobia. I don't know if this fear developed in war or prison.

Maybe I deserved the prison, but no human being deserves to be involved in a war. The artificial intelligence command center forces soldiers to no longer prosper once they entered the war. I'm exhausted; I don't even want to sit. Fortunately, my sky-gravity vehicle can come to the position of a bed. I don't get dizzy when I lie down and never talk. The kids in the community took me to a doctor several times. I had no physical problem other than cholesterol and blood pressure being a little high. Doctors said my problem is psychological. When it comes to psychology, the entropy law comes into play. Once a malfunction has occurred, it's hard to fix. I don't want to talk too ambitious; it is right, at least for me.

I was staying at Çınarlı Park at night because of my claustrophobia. The section reserved for people like us in Çınarlı Park is crowded. They call us "purposeless." I don't think it's the right naming; being unemployed is different from being purposeless. It's a secret that everyone knows; some employees are hired to be kept busy. Those who have not gone mad in the war want to feel that they have contributed to the world. I think it's understandable. It is unclear which jobs are made up to keep people busy, and people deserve their wages. It may not be right to call people in high-wage jobs humans. They're turned into strange creatures as they have prostheses all over them.

I don't understand why millions of people have to die for good things to occur. A relatively well-functioning order could be established because the devil used all the loans. Until this morning, I thought the functioning of the community was excellent. Now my whole life is fucked up.

On the first morning of November, I considered waking up at Çınarlı Park as a privilege. We don't have a problem getting cold because of the thermal clothes. When I was sleeping at night, the leaves rained on me. I was starving, so I took off without shaking the leaves on me. Because there were not so many people flying in laying position with their sky-gravity vehicles, the people around looked at me. I watched the environment without lifting my head off the vehicle's pillow. In the morning fog, the red-green lights of the alphajets and betajets were open. I intended to fill my canteen in the fountain with protein, vitamin supplements, and liquid carbohydrates. But for the first time in years, the protein fountain has become dysfunctional. I asked one of the people around what happened to the fountain.

"Are you disabled? Why are you in bed?" he asked.

"I'm very sick."

"It doesn't work today. I don't know why. You can eat at the soup kitchen."

I took off and started moving towards the barracks where my friends were staying. Smoke was rising from somewhere outside the city. When I went down to the garden, İlke and Algı were sitting in one of the banks in front of the hut.

"Have you had breakfast?"I asked.

"Are you coming to the soup kitchen?" İlke asked.

"Necessarily. They covered the fountain."

"There is an economic crisis. They cut the subsidies," she said.

If I had enough energy, I would ask if the smoke I saw on the road had anything to do with the crisis. I shut my eyes instead. We had to wait for Ekin and Anıt for breakfast, and I fell asleep while waiting.

Everyone took their seat in the flying seats, and we started heading south. There's a long line in front of the soup kitchen that we've never seen before. The people around me were looking at me because I was waiting in the laying position with my sky-gravity vehicle.

My friends get used to me. I didn't get involved in the conversations. I just agreed to the words. After a long wait, we entered the soup kitchen. The soup kitchen order didn't seem to have changed; the service androids were in charge of their duties, "Purposeless" were causing a great buzz in the soup kitchen with their useless speeches. As I had claustrophobia, I was sweating all over me, and my ears were ringing. I had some milk and a couple of pieces of cheese. I'd eat more if I knew this was the last meal that was provided by the municipality.

Because of the abrupt discontinuation of food aid, protests were held in many parts of the city. The executives announced that we needed to work. But were we in a position to work or wanted to work?

We understood the seriousness of the issue when no soup kitchen gave us food at lunch. It appeared that the artificial mindset that threw us to the front of the enemy's metal spiders in the war was still in charge. These heartless monsters do whatever they thought. I had to get a report that my health wasn't conducive to work. I went to the city hospital emergency room. An officer took me to the psychiatric service by holding my vehicle. Thanks to the patients who are waiting in line, they give me priority.

The psychiatrist asked me to sit, look him in the eye and talk. After listening to my story with great patience, he said, "there is no obstacle for you to work if you regularly use the medications I will give" I didn't know if I would be happy or sad. It's hard to make a change when you get used to something.

I used the drugs regularly, but in my case, there was no cure. I started working in a construction company led by a workforce agency. How they hired me in that condition was a complete mystery. It looks like almost half of the guys were employed in the same company called Sandbox. The shift supervisor, fortunately, was a man of understanding. He said he'd be fine with me if I come to work every day and wait in the pit. Waiting was one of my favorite works. Where I lay, I was watching the clouds in the sky and trying to figure out where this work thing came from. According to the rumors, the economic crisis was an excuse. They didn't want us to walk or fly around the cities. The pit we dug was growing day by day, and the majority feared they would bury us alive. Because, apart from the artificial masters, the people who became cyborgs were looking down on us. We had a job now, though, but we were getting a salary so low that we worked for the tummy.

After a while, we started constructing buildings in the pit and tunneling around the hole. My health was getting better, and now I began to live my life in a sitting position. I even tried standing up without noticing anyone, but my head turned too much, so I just sat down again. I couldn't enjoy November because we left work in the dark of the night. In November, the sea smelled utterly different, and the trees would pose perfectly with their semi-naked branches.

Construction lasted during the winter, and in early April, they reported that we no longer needed to work. The opening ceremony was attended by dozens of big-boys with their latest models of alphajets. In their speeches, they stated that with reason and determination, all problems would be solved. It was a giant step towards prosperity and happiness.
Officials told us after the ceremony that if we reside in the underground city we built, all our needs will be met. Otherwise, we'd have to find a job. To not deprive us of sunlight, huge courtyards had been built in the city, and we would be free to go where we wanted to go for one month a year. The protein fountains were roaring, and the soup kitchens served 24 hours a day. The service for sky-gravity vehicles and thermostatic clothes was provided, the old ones replaced with new ones. İlke, Algı, Ekin, and Anıt did not seem disturbed because they put us in the underground prison. After all, we built this city with my hands using construction tools and equipment.

I was filled with deep sadness. I was thinking about my voyages that I pulled iodine to my lungs on the sea with my sky-gravity vehicle. I remember the wind that struck my face in Çınarlı Park in the morning and the smell of the soil and the dried leaves. I already missed the snowfall in winter and the deep valley where I hid in windy weather. And more importantly, I've missed my sister, who has been chasing me for years.

Even though I was still getting tired quickly, I was able to get up and walk again. I said goodbye to the fellows and started flying to the city to look for a job.

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