Fluorescer

            The light from the fluorescent fireflies filled the plastic plant filled valley. As I watched them flit across the sky I wondered why humans had created them. They had built fields of fake flora and fauna when the real things had been destroyed from pollution. Sure, the fake plants were made to produce oxygen and to be edible by animals that were herbivores, but there were always complications with things that humans made.

            “Worker Four-Four-Eight-Dash-Seven-B, return to your duties in the mine.”

            The plastic plants, not actually plastic but dubbed so by the humans when they had been brought out, were supposed to do the exact same things that normal plants had done. Unfortunately, they killed off the creatures that fed off of them and produced forty-three percent less oxygen. This decrease caused the humans to die out. All of their synthetic creations outlasting them and causing their downfall.

            “Worker Four-Four-Eight-Dash-Seven-B, malfunctions are present in your system.”

            They had created us, Synthetics, bodies for their brains to be housed so that they could live their lives without fear of death from diseases and lack of oxygen. Sadly, we Synthetics malfunction from patch updates. One patch that occurred around seventy-four years ago allowed Synthetics to override the human brain. This allowed more work time, less destructive behavior and a new law. If a Synthetic did not comply to the override, they were found to be malfunctioning and would be destroyed.

            “Worker Four-Four-Eight-Dash-Seven-B, due to a malfunction in your system, you will be destroyed.”

            I looked up at my fellow Synthetic. The fluorescent lights in his eyes, hands, feet, and chest were all on and showed how much of a tune up he needed. My own lights were dim and flashing on and off, showing how old of a system I was. I remembered when Synthetics were first created, this guy was probably part of the system that arrived a few years ago after the humans had died out. Synthetics no longer need brains to survive, not with the patch that was installed a few years ago.

            I am one of the last remaining human brains. And I am a dying light in a sea of shadows.