An Obsidian Sky by Ewan Sinclair

Author:Ewan Sinclair
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: horror, mystery, apocalypse, satire
Publisher: Ewan Sinclair

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An Obsidian Sky

We were travelling down a poorly lit concourse on the way to the Commercial District. Our journey from the docks had been a silent one, though it had been occasionally broken by Sean’s exciting description of what we could expect to find upon arrival. He was busy humming now whilst floating childishly above us. I largely remembered what he had said. That it was truly a monument to capitalist success. That it was the second largest part of the station, beaten only by the Centre for Administration which, due to the top heavy nature of the United World, was supposed to be unsurprising.

The concourse had soon gone from empire-of-the-state to hegemony-of-the-commercial. Every few yards there were wall mounted screens each bearing a new video advert. The adverts activated as we passed them and the sound coming from them had made us all jump the first couple of times. If I was honest, I jumped every time. Despite this I was gradually calming myself down and starting to pay attention to the advertisements around me. It was amazing how much you could learn about a civilisation through what it bought.

On the surface these adverts seemed to be run of the mill. There were adverts for fragrances, beauty and food. It was only once I paid a little more attention to the words that I realised the true nature of these adverts. They were a revolution in thinking. The first one that I really noticed was an advert for a fragrance. A beautiful, tanned and blonde woman was being filmed in a provocative manner from a rolling camera angle. But it was the words which were different. The narrator voiced in the background, ‘Prepare for an evolution in scent,’ her voice was deep and seductive. ‘Be beautiful everyday.’

The voice that dripped like honey continued, ‘get the new genetic fragrance from Ar’nesh. Available from your local medicare clinic.’

Another advert poised in a slightly less serious manner featured an overwhelmed looking man. A sympathetic narrator asked his dishevelled companion, ‘are you over worked, overloaded, maxed out? Do you find it hard to get through the daily grind?’ He paused long enough for his client to nod and the continued, ‘well now, there is a solution. Ascension Working Innovations brings you a new level of reality. A condensed, fully augmented, Immersive Virtual connection. Literally see your data. Interface with your surroundings just by being there. The new Armarge Core transfers the data straight into your temporal lobes and uses your visual centres to show you the data you really need. Say goodbye to your touch-pad, embrace your future.’

At the next wall screen a more sinister advert played. Set in the forefront of a blue hallucinogenic background stood a grey haired man. Instantly it was obvious that he was a man of power. I recognised him from one of the visions.

‘Ladies and Gentlemen, over the last few years I have been telling you about the dream of Ascension. It was just two years ago that we got a hold of that dream, that we embraced our infinite capacity for power.

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