TELE second draft

TELE

...onse oonse oonse oonse...

Bleep! Excellent! You have completed a new record! Only two drop-offs to next level!

Oonse oonse oonse oonse oonse!

With the sweet tunes in your head, it was such a buzz to race full throttle down the narrow streets, up the infinite winding staircases and through the lavishly decorated courtyards. But it had been a busy morning trying to get through the fifty odd door to door emergency electronic cigarette capsule deliveries. As Bruno whizzed through the city, black lava stone walls covered in restless images stretched and blurred into spaghetti-shaped beams of light. There was no time to stop and look though, the orders had to be completed before dusk if there was going to be any hope of a moving up to the next level. He'd always wished he could do something more like those first person shooter games and get paid for it. But anyway, half the time the job was exciting enough, the competition gave the day urgency and purpose, unlike school.

In fact, leaving school had been a good move in the end, although it hadn't exactly been a conscious choice, it just kind of happened. Bruno's mum knew she couldn't make a fuss now, and besides, she couldn't really afford to pay the fees anymore. After his dad had suddenly passed away three years ago, a lot of things had changed, maybe it would have been different if his mum had taken him back rather than finding yet another lover.

In those last few months his dad had seemed so lost, so on edge all the time, especially after losing his job. If only his father had come home rather than moving back in with grandma.

There they were again, those glossy emerald eyes framed by that lifeless marble mask. The rest of the world disappearing as dad's lifeless body lay rigid across the bed... No one had ever explained why... but deep down I knew.

'Come on focus, that was the past... just a couple more drop-offs'...

Anyway, since then school, friends, and life hadn't made much sense. His mum had got married again, obviously, and there was a new baby too. And there was Bruno, with his pale elongated face and Elvis style quiff, the embarrassing leftovers from a failed marriage, out of sight, out of mind. But he didn't care, life was getting better now, he'd been lucky to get a kind of job, and even earn enough credits to buy his own augmented apartment, car and all the Obey baseball caps he could dream of, not bad for a sixteen-year-old.  He'd also made friends from all over the world, most of them were older than him, but they were far better than the idiots at school.  Tonight was the end of the month too! He'd beaten all the records... if he was in luck, he might finally get picked out by Amazon.

'That's it, no need to look back, no need to look back, no need'

_______

'Bruno...'

'Bruno!'

Fabiana opened the bedroom door to say goodbye before she left for the gym, but she knew her son wouldn't notice with that thing on his face. It was just a meaningless habit, from some forgotten obligation she had once had. She instead stood at the door and admired her newly manicured hands and nails for a moment. She did love him but she had just been so young when he'd arrived... But, did her hair look okay down like this? ...She couldn't stand his father's obsessive need for order and cleanliness, all the designer clothes ironed and starched for his boy... Had the blonde streaks been a mistake or had plain black gone better with her features? ...Now that he was dead and gone, her new found freedom was only slightly tinged with guilt. Life was better now, much better.

Fabiana gazed on absent mindedly through her hands at the scene in front of her as she played with her hair. Through the slits in the now permanently closed shutter, the lanky teenage boy was dimly lit by the beams of dust filled light that invaded the room. As the beams of light searched the confines of the dark putrid abode, they revealed the untouched books and stationary that the well-meaning but long gone uncle had naively bought. The beams of light waded through the soup of old Nike and Adidas trainers, Obey caps, T-shirts, Lego bricks and pizza boxes that clung to every surface. As they slowly crawled up the wardrobe, the muted grime ridden reflection of a man holding a baby struggled in vane to attract the attention of the mother and son left behind. With a click, Fabiana abandoned the room and returned to her career and family.

'click'

_______

 ...'just one more drop off'

It was getting hard to concentrate after ten hours of non-stop deliveries and Bruno could feel a draining sensation as if his stomach was being tugged down and strangled. He'd been trying his best to put it off but it was definitely time.

'Better order some food for when I finish up.'

Speeding down the never-ending via Roma, the main high street, Bruno took the chance to take one hand off the controls for a second without veering off into one of the abandoned boutique shop windows. He made the order by tapping on his usual, hotdog and chips pizza bookmark from the favourites menu on his wrist interface, he didn't even need to look anymore.

'Should be able to get this last drop-off done before it arrives'

He'd been trying to ignore the shivers that ran from the side of his face and trickled down the back of his neck. However, this and the dull ache creeping in behind his retinas was normal around this time of day, there was no time to blink. It didn't bother him that much, just needed a couple of pain killers after his meal to set things straight. Up popped the image of a smiling pizza on the GPS display, it would be about another ten minutes, just enough time. After he'd dropped the last capsule into the post tube of number 46, he parked up at the closest charging station and pressed pause. He dropped the sticky controller on to the bed and took a deep breath.

  

Bruno reluctantly removed the VR helmet with two quivering limbs and slowly swiveled round to immerse his filthy stinking toe-nails into the sea of sweat drenched clothes and plastic. "Mum!' he croaked without expecting an answer as he rose to his feet. The movement and newly disturbed stench caused him to retch and belch but there was nothing to bring up. Then under the buzzing and whirring sounds from beyond the potholed shutter and the muffled pulsating beats from the headphones, a faint raspy exhalation came from the teenager as he prepared himself for the long journey ahead. 

A squinted glance at the e-tattoo on his wrist indicated that the pizza would be here soon, after which he could take another pill and get back to to his virtually augmented reality life.

Opening the bedroom door, he was greeted by the glaring alien environment of his mother's new family. The smell of nappies, baby wipes and cleaning detergent flooded his nostrils and chiseled though his sinuses. He tried not to look at the nauseating cream-coloured curtains or the leopard skin sofa and instead focused on the front door. The headache was getting bad now, every drag of his feet seemed to cause his brain to shake and rattle in his skull. Then suddenly a shrilling high-pitched drill sound penetrated the corridor and his throbbing head. The pizza had arrived. 

'Nearly there', he murmured, 'nearly there...'

________

Flavia pulled up her headset for a second to rub her eyes as she flew towards the block of flats before her with the pizza. Through the remotely connected stereo lenses you really felt like you were there, you hardly ever needed to physically go out. The city even looked better after they'd used augmented reality to photoshop all the rubbish away and cover all the walls with commercials. Don't OBEY! Just change it! and other brightly coloured slogans from Amazon and their partners fought for your attention as you flew around between jobs.

...There it was number 28, 3rd floor, one hotdog and chips pizza.

The only problem with the larger loads was waiting for the customers to open the door, you couldn't just drop it in the post tube. It was better than the last dodgy job though, administering that product had been a far more emotionally draining experience.

It hadn't taken long for the Cammora to capitalize on the Web 5.0 power vacuum. All those poor old-world idiots who had buried themselves in the 'junk' needed their fix... The pay was worse now with Amazon but after that nasty episode three years back it was better to play it safe.

'Come on, open the bloody the door!'

Bruno twisted the handle with both hands, then with all his weight tugged the door inwards. As usual he was greeted by the sights and sounds of a pizza carrying drone. He gazed into the two glossy lenses and wondered who it was this time, maybe it was one of his friends. For a moment he was reminded of something darker but he managed to suppress the image.

Flavia stared through the lenses into the green eyes of the undernourished spotty teenager in front of her as she scrolled down the menu of the automated voice responses. Was he okay? He looked kind of familiar... Naples was small though, she'd probably seen him around somewhere... She pushed the thought away and pressed the X button.

'Enjoy your meal!' gargled the drone

The pizza was lowered into Bruno's arms and the drone whizzed off down the staircase.

______

Exhausted by the journey Bruno just stood there for a moment and stared out through the stairway window. Piles of black bags, glistened in shimmering orange as the setting sunlight squeezed through the smoggy air. Hovering above, drones of all shapes and sizes danced and hummed with the swarms of flies and mosquitos. There below amongst the waste an immigrant family scavenged through the bags for something to eat.

Just then Bruno's wrist lit up, each flash accompanied by an urgent bleeping sound. A rush of adrenaline released itself into his bloodstream and with half a slice of pizza in his mouth he slammed the door behind him and clumsily shuffled back down the corridor. As he reached his room half the pizza had been gobbled down but there wasn't time to eat the rest. He flung the box into a pile of cuddly toys in the corner and half jumped, half fell back onto the bed and frantically pulled the VR headset on.

_______

As Flavia the pizza delivery pilot flew through the air she marveled at the spectacular city below. Everything was perfect now, from the multicoloured palazzi down to the crystal clear waters that surrounded the volcano. The Technology Enhanced Living Environment or 'TELE' for short, had given everyone the opportunity to see the city through more positive eyes. After its construction, augmented reality drone tourism had really taken off in Naples, all the unpleasantness had simply been deleted. Not a perfect solution but at least it was easier than trying eradicate the organised crime networks that, for a fee, accepted all the rubbish from Northern Europe. The few people that had had honest jobs lost them in the digital revolution, but luckily, the new generation of gamers were more than capable, and willing, to work for the virtual economy. If only the rest of the world would embrace the change, rather than cling on to their dated world view.

_______

'Ah! that's better'

There was the real Bruno again, reflected in the augmented wardrobe mirror, or at least his avatar was, proudly standing there with his tanned muscular physique, heroes jaw bone structure and red spiky hair. As he chewed the remaining salty hotdog morsel, he selected a cap and watched his avatar's unmoving but reassuring grin. The bleeping signal had now transferred itself to the wall display in the lounge so he hovered over as quickly as he could to download the message. Outside the virtual apartment window, beyond the virtual swimming pool, the pristine augmented environment feed filled him with pride for his beautiful city once more. This was his reality not that disgusting tramp infested dump he'd left behind. The old world was just a wind up for most of us out there. It didn't matter how hard you tried, only the privileged princes and princesses empowered by the monetary system could pay their way through school. Now there was no filter for success, soon we wouldn't need school, teachers, parents or governments, we would be able to be anything and anyone. Amazon would make sure of that!   

When Bruno got to the virtual display, in his virtual lounge, the avatar sank himself into his black virtual sofa and hit download. Sweat gathered in Bruno's tightly gripped fists and his mouth went dry as he waited impatiently for the loading bar to make its frustratingly slow progress from left to right.

...Download complete...

...Finally, the message on the virtual wall screen zoomed into focus...

Dear Amazon employee,

Congratulations!

As you know, automated drone services have proved to be unreliable in recent years and Amazon is now expanding its human piloted delivery services to other sectors globally. This means more job opportunities for people like you!

After careful consideration of your GPS track record we are pleased to inform you that you have been selected for a drone piloting job in a variety of exotic international war zones. You will be on the front line of the digital revolution, eliminating pockets of resistance to the virtual economy. You will also be given the opportunity to develop and transfer your already efficient and accurate deployment skills through the delivery of a variety of exciting products.

In accordance with current employment laws for your age group, you will receive an extremely competitive virtual compensation of 1,000,000 credits per month. This can obviously be used on all of our virtual and augmented reality products and even on a limited selection of food and drink items delivered free of charge to your door. If you should choose to accept, please click 'proceed' at the bottom of the screen to upload your virtual signature and start making a difference.

Just change it!

Thank you for your time.

Amazon and our partners

Proceed