short story

I think, therefore I am?

It began with a terrible accident at Simon’s work. A simple mistake, really. The general operations manager of crew 6-A17 tripped, dropping a bolt from his utility belt. The bolt rolled down the floor in between the skinny railings designed to stop despondent workers, and fell several feet before rupturing Simon’s right eye.
Simon, who was admiring the brand new coloured glass ceiling moments before catching the bolt with his face unfortunately lost all vision in his eye. The Workplace Board of Safety Directors rightfully compensated Simon with a brand new E-EYE to replace the one he lost. Equipped with a new eye and perspective on the world, Simon returned to work surprised by a promotion.
“My own office?” Simon curiously questioned as he read the daily task report delivered directly to his E-EYE, the text floating and following his vision always centering itself where he looked.
A soft green line began drawing itself on the ground with indicators to follow it, astounding him. As Simon excitedly followed the navigation software to his new designation, he made sure not to admire the ceiling lest he lose his new eye too.
A bright blue door with the name SIMON J. In cool sleek text engraved at the top invited Simon to scan his hand to authorize entry. The scanner sat where a traditional door knob would, prompting the user to lay their hand flat on its base while it gave almost a photocopier-like scan. Simon had never used one of these special doors before, normally a low-level worker like him would have their iris scanned when reporting into the building at the entrance.
The EYE-GUARD machine at the entrance conducted a simple scan of the user’s iris to log their time of arrival and any noticeable pupil changes, acting as a sort of bodyguard to reprimand habitually late workers as well as testing to see if any workers are under the influence of any mind altering substances.
CLOCKTOWN CORP. took all liberties in ensuring that no worker was ever late more than twice or showing up to work while coming down from the plethora of drugs legalized by the now new mayor.
Simon was found collapsed next to the scanner four hours after his shift had begun, his right hand charred beyond recognition. An electrical failure in the scanner pumped 1500 volts of electricity through Simon’s body, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.
The Workplace Board of Safety Directors fearing backlash from the workers, opted to compensate Simon with full spinal replacement and body augmentation surgery allowing him to walk and use his arms again. With the aid of a special exoskeleton embedded to his frame and a rather short rehab session, Simon was able to run like never before. He wasn’t this fit since high school. Without really realizing it, Simon was slowly becoming more of a machine and less of a human the longer he worked.
“Do I need to plug myself in before going to bed?” he half jokingly asked the doctor after the operation.
“Oh Simon, don’t worry about a thing. All the technology that allows you to walk again is powered by the electrical impulses in your heart, and the sun’s rays. The normal day to day activities you do will provide ample charge, and as long as your heart is beating, you’ll be fine!”
Simon returned to work with a skip in his step. Just three weeks ago he was stuck in a dead end pencil pushing job. Now Simon had his own personal office, a top of the line E-EYE, and a brand new exoskeleton. Things were finally looking up for him, and he chuckled to himself thinking that all this started because he “looked up”. He decided to call his mother using the office phone, wanting to let her know about all the fortunate things that happened over the past few weeks.
The phone exploded as Simon dialed her number and hit call. CLOCKWORK CORP. had no idea as to what caused their top of the line phones to explode. To prevent word from getting out and negative press they decided to absorb the cost of replacing and repairing Simon’s brain.
Copying his consciousness, modifying a few memories, and outfitting him in a brand new experimental steel body seemed like the only solution to stop Simon from finding another way to injure himself. They couldn’t fire him, as they would have to report the reason of his termination. The best part of putting Simon in this new body was that they could turn him into the perfect worker. They could rewire his memories to think that he lived in his office, he didn’t need to take lunch breaks either. CLOCKTOWN CORP. seemed to have struck a gold mine, suddenly having an 800% increase in workplace injuries, all settled within the company. Many spouses and families of workers reported that their partners never returned home after work one day, and a class action lawsuit has been underway for 15 years to figure out what exactly CLOCKTOWN CORP. is doing with these injured workers.
Simon was just the first. Who’s to say you won’t be the last?