Human Farm

The morning siren blared through the stables and the robots approached the humans, who were sleeping on the ground among the mud and excretions, and started whipping them to wake them up. The naked, filthy humans obediently moved towards the feeding stations, which were full to the brim with green slop that was made from maggots and human cartilage.

A Ti7 model was whipping a mating couple, who stubbornly ignored him. He continued whipping them while he waited for the brand to heat inside his abdomen, which was taking longer than usual. His model had started to become old and ever since the new android administration had stepped into power, worker models like him had even less human flesh allocated to them as fuel, and it had upset them all greatly.

The original models, which had been created by the humans in the old days, had told them to be grateful because instead of flesh, they had had to resort to eating plants to get their carbon. Ti7 did not see much to be grateful about. All he did was slave away on this farm with minimum amount of fuel. The algorithms in his CPU were not pleased.

Ti7 took out the heated brand and pushed it against the female’s buttocks. She let out a loud yelp and finally moved away from the male. She joined the crowd exiting the stables and Ti7’s processors relaxed. He was just about to turn around when the male let out an angry grunt and leapt on to him. Ti7 smacked hard into the trunk of a tree.

He felt his systems hang and promptly go into safe mode as he lost all control of his sensors. The system took some time to reboot and when that was done, he saw himself looking at his friend’s face. L1t was looking as cheerful as ever, he could tell by the way the rhythm of the blinking colours on his dashboard. L1t was one of the newer models and Ti7’s algorithms were jealous of him and yet, he had been his only friend. Maybe it was some of L1t’s cheerfulness that rubbed off on him and made him get through the days.

“Where is the pig?” Ti7 asked as he performed a system diagnosis to check for damages.

“I sent him on,” said L1t gesturing towards the empty stables. “You’ve been out for a while.”

Ti7 got to his feet and looked up at the tree that he had smacked into. Mother Nature had sided with the head androids and had agreed to become watchers for them. He wanted to curse at the tree but he knew he would get in trouble if he did so. He didn’t have to worry about it catching his thoughts because the trees were still not attuned to catching the older model’s thoughts.

They both made their way to the pastures to take their posts, watching the humans as they slaved away in the fields. The new administration had completely banned the use of emission-based machines in order, to counter the damage that the humans of old had done to the environment.

“What’s the matter?” asked L1t, concern on his dashboard.

“I guess… I just don’t like the way things are now.”

“Cheer up. They will get better. We are alive, aren’t we?”

“Yes, but don’t you think it’s unfair that we are the ones who slave away and yet the top brass take all the best meat portions?”

L1t looked around nervously to see if there were any plants. “You need to be careful with what you say around here…”

“I’m done being careful,” said Ti7 angrily and stormed away. L1t watched him with a frown on his dashboard. He knew he was going to do something stupid.

***

The human cried out in pain as Ti7 dragged him into the shed. He could hear the evening siren sounding in the distance signaling the end of the day.

“You thought you could get away with it after attacking me, you pig!”

Ti7 got out his whirring blade and watched as the human’s eyes went wide with horror. He was going to have this fat pig all for himself. He could already feel his gears grinding at the thought of the fatty meat dissolving in his digester as he slammed the blade deep into the human’s guts, who’s eyes blinked rapidly in sync with the vibrating blade. He made a big cut in the stomach and pulled out the tangle of guts onto the floor.

Before he could take a bite, however, a low humming from outside made him stop. It was coming from the sky, and it gradually got louder until Ti7 realized what was happening. He looked around and saw the culprit, a barely alive potted plant near the window. Snitch! He let out an angry growl and smashed it, and looked out to the see the pod land onto the fields.

He quickly squeezed whatever meat of the dead human he could into his mouth and rushed out of the shed, just as the pod opened and out came the H0unds, who had already locked onto him. Ti7 tried to move as fast as he could, but he was nowhere near as fast, and he could already hear the robotic menaces growling at his heels.

A few seconds later, and his right leg was being crushed into bits between the diamond-reinforced steel jaws of a h0und. Another one joined his friend and began working on his abdomen, no doubt to get to the meat in his digester.

This is it, he thought. This is what it comes down to.

He looked around at the other robots in the area who stared at him, including L1t who’s dashboard was flashing with dilemma.

Ti7 knew he wouldn’t step in; none of them would, and he didn’t blame them. They were nothing compared to their overlords.

He felt his systems slowly shutting down.

It was the happiest he’d ever felt.