(Revised, Tuesday August 21, 2018)

Yesterday, I received a message. I only ever got messages from other CEOs, otherwise occasionally the omnipresent Corpoartion Board would send me a message notifying me of something if the President was busy working on something. It read:

To CEO Randhoff of Randhoff Corp.,

The International Registry of Organizations and Networks will conduct an official audit on your property in 24 hours.

Sincerely, 
Council of I.R.O.N.

They say nothing is more devastating that finding out your company is no longer solvent. Unless one’s entire corporation loses profit, a Corporation can endure just about any inefficiency. Nevertheless, we CEOs never have time to read long messages. I imagine that long ago they did. In the many VR catalogues I have browsed while in the break room, I’ve always noticed the bright office windows that overlooked grand cities, business class seating on wingers, and of course the photo ops with staff at company luncheons.

This day, the sky was dark, as usual. Blackened clouds filled the air above the Corporation, and horizon was dotted by red marker lights atop the many industrial towers. The winds were carrying the billowing smoke from the Corporation south and east toward a particular mountain that stood rather prominent at the eastern edge of the Corporation’s border. The helmet on my business suit was foggy, so I wiped it with a hand to get a better view. The world had changed since then, and no longer was there a blue sky, wingers, or luncheons. Just us CEO’s and the Corporations we own.

I always led my corporation with the best intentions. For more than a few decades, the President of the Board and I maintained it and ensured our production was smooth and delivered in a timely manner, and that we had enough investment. I never chose this role, rather I was chosen for it. And in a time when there is less and less corporations, we few remaining CEOs are all that keeps society from oblivion.

I knew Corporation itself was not meeting its bottom line, and hadn’t for a while.

I was walking along with the President as usual when it spoke to me. “C-E-O Randhoff” it would always call me in its CEO-like voice. “You have one new assignment. Waste canal 8631 is experiencing a flow jam. Please report to the waste canal 8631 for an imenent board meeting”. It was the President’s subtle way of telling me to fix a problem. At least the President had a calm fairness to it. Other Presidents of other Corporations were worse.

As I guided the large machine by its handles down the slopes and into the canal, it was obvious something was wrong. The water was usually flowing rather rapidly from here, but right now it had come to a standstill and had begun to back up to form a temporary lagoon. Water lapped up frantically upon ramps and walkways that were uncomfortable to traverse when wet.

The source of this was immediately apparent. A large, bulky fatberg of miscellaneous junk had lodged itself into the main tunnel leading out of the Corporation. I didn’t see a root cause right away, but looking around I saw wheel tracks. Perhaps one of the Vice Presidents had been rolling around here and accidentally dropped a large payload into the former river. Whatever happened, none of the Vice Presidents were nearby, and I had to turn off the Vice President Protocol due to the audit, so none of them were available. That was why I was called here.

My primary job as CEO, after all, is to ensure that the Corporation is running smoothly and to step in when there are emergencies. Vice Presidents could only handle so much our their own. Fortunately, a President and CEO could solve just about any problem together. But it needed to be solved quickly.

The entire corporation was experiencing an outage due to the lack of waste flow. I would need to clear it out one way or another. “President, I need to ask for Board approval. I request a component to drill a clog [?].” My words immediately caused the President to hum, its various parts churning as it began the voting procedure with the rest of the board. Then, after a final wizzing noise, it began to morph. The President would extend a metal arm into the sky as other components wrapped around it to form a sort of drill. Its pernicious transformation aimed deterministically at the clog. We had done more than once this before.

I grabbed the handles on the President and moved it to a corner of the giant clog nearest to where I was already standing, carefully avoiding the waste water. Scanning this portion, I discovered a combination of Corporation sewage and large metal pieces seemed the weakest. I would have to step into the water, but my business suit would prevent against radiation. Not wanting to keep it clogged any longer, I pressed the ignition button on the President’s terminal, which began the drill’s rotation. It always perplexed me how uneven the rotation of the drill was, but the simulations demonstrated it was more efficient this way. I didn’t understand it, but I also didn’t need to know.

As the drilling began, the spinning needle melted away bits of iron and debris; predictably efficient. While the President continued its work, I began to observe the rest of it more thoroughly. I noticed a yellow piece of cloth stuck to one of some retired fuel components. It occured to me that something was wrong with it being there, because I hadn’t seen anything like it, not at least in a long time. The way the fabric was, it was obviously something nice that my President, nor my Corporation would have ever afforded me.

Suddenly I heard a crash behind me. My eye reacted first to look at my President’s terminal and see what it showed. It wasn’t anything immediately useful: it showed me an animation of a man running. This had the unintentional effect of distracting me just long enough for something bad to happen. Just then, a large patch of debris must have dislodged somewhere behind me and thrust both myself and the President into the clog. Coincidentally, this forced the clog to gave way. Beams that had held it in split wide and the whole mess of debris began flowing down the river, along with the President and myself.

I panicked for a moment, thrashing wildly about. Frantically assessing whether or not my businnes suit took a puncture, I maintained strength against the flow and the debris. The President, more suited for water than I, whizzed as it churned in the flow, beeping mechanically until it suddenly and accurately fired a remote command module into a surprise terminal input beacon that we passed under. From this terminal input beacon, the President would be able to control the local flow automation, and coincidentally improve our chance of survival. I looked ahead as I bobbed up and down and saw there was a juncture up ahead and a large magnet folded out from the wall, pulling debris toward the incinerator and letting us pass through the other canal, briefly navigating a series of tubes, and then finally toward the land’s end junk waterfall where the Corporation would pour its waste.

As we approached the waterfall, there was a brief flash of light and then I felt myself falling. I knew the President didn’t like falling very much, which was fortunate. The President echoed out a square wave of discontent and transformed vibrantly into something of a rocket with handlebars and a seat for me. I boarded mid-air as the jet ignited and we immediately slowed our fall speed to a comfortable decent.

The President lifted us back up to the top of the waterfall, where there was a comfortable landing overlooking it. We came safely to the ground, and I disembarked. Once I assured my business suit had no holes, I leisurely peered out into the distance. From here, I discovered we were incidentally closest to this particular mountain. A single ray of light seemed to break from the clouds there during the day, and at night it sat basking in what could only be the moon’s shimmer. It seemed immune to the fog from my Corporation.

“President, I need to ask the Board for approval. I request a telescope.” The President chimed and whizzed, ejecting a small telescoping device from its innards, connected by one of its utility arms. I took the thing into my hand and immediately viewed into the distance. The mountain was well lit and even from so far away I could see the surface of it in detail. Bleak. dry, and lacking even the types of poisonous trees I would need to trim down at the edges of the corporation from time to time. But I was looking for something in particular on it, something I had seen before.

And so, after a moment of adjustment to the telescope, I finally found those holes in the mountain. They weren’t the main holes, though. Those probably faced away from my Corporation. But these holes were there to watch me, I assumed. After all, I had found broken components in the Corporation from time to time, Vice Presidents with nicks in their side from some rudamentary projectile, and various other mishaps that could have only been performed by a CEO or President.

It made me wonder if they were fascinating creatures, or if they were monstrous. I had never seen any thing move outside of the cave, but the holes sometimes changed, and I could only assume the rags flying above them were signals. They flapped in the wind so deterministically I had to acknowledge at least the fact that they were there on purpose. Was it to notify others that it was an entrance to their domain? Who is it they were calling out to? Was it me? Was I someone they would want? Why would they want to let this CEO in over all of the others?

This wasn’t the first time I pondered retracting myself into the wild mountains, away from the billowing smoke of my Corporation. However it was not that I did not like my President or my Corporation, and my Company, but it wasn’t anything I had asked for. Decades ago I inherited this coproration from my family who ran it before me. I never any of them in life as I grew up in the University, but they left me this place and so in essence I was determined to run it. But it was going to come to an end sooner or later, and I knew it.

And something else caught my eye as well. There below the waterfall, in a vat of excretions, I could see scrags. Their strange, violent forms rushed along the dirt near the edge of the outpour pool. They would always come scavenging for whatever scraps were available. The four legged animals were odd, viscious creatures that I despised. Whenever they came into the Corporation grounds they were apt to tearing apart the infrastructure at a whim. I couldn’t understand how their bodies could handle the radiation from the outpour, but I knew that they needed to be removed. They were dangerous, and scrags were recommended to be treated as a level 1 threat as far as the Council of I.R.O.N. had deemed in previous meetings.

I didn’t have Vice Presidents available, so I had think fast. “President, I need to ask the Board for approval. I request an overflow wash of Waterfall 6891555.” Sure enough, the President beeped responsively, and the waterfall we were standing above began to wash off the cliff more vigorously. The run off turned into more of a beam of liquid and junk, a process designed to clean the flow-way by introducing more acidic content to the flow. I could see the sudden splashing below and the scrags reacted curiously. One was splashed openly with a great glob of the cleaning agent and was instantly vaporized. I watched with the telescope as some of the other were half burned away, the others scattering. Unfortunately I did not kill all of the pests.

The telescope was still in my hand, so after I gave thought for a moment, I looked into it again. This time, when I caught a glimpse of the holes, I noticed something had changed. The rags were no longer the same color. Before, they had been white, but someone changed them out and now the only rags hanging above the tunnels were red. I thought that was an odd occurence, something I had not seen before. Whoever these people were, they were probably hiding a beautiful secret inside of the mountain, something I was not privy to see.

The President whizzed and I realized I needed to put it on break. Unfortunately, despite all of the efficient technology, it seemed that a President always needed to rest after doing a lot of work. The President then extended its solar panel into the air – a useless endeavor since it would ultimately fail to glean sunlight from the sullen clouds. I would have to take it to the break room.

The pathways through the Corporation winded deeply like a cavern through various trees of smoke stacks and structures. The buildings were not really designed for me, but rather Vice Presidents who could traverse the walls and enter the buildings at odd angles, through their subtle holes. But I enjoyed looking at them, even if for just the purpose of inspecting them and making sure they were running as designed. The purpose of them I did not always understand but I would assume it was moving parts from one place to another.

There was a constant buzzing noise from the President. It often inconsolably resonated with the environmental drone to create an audible irritant, one that my suit could not protect against. While I had grown dull over the decades to it, I could always find a way to sheathe this uncomfortable drone of the machines by singing. And often I did. As I pushed the President, some pathetic solar panel extended to the air like a skinny fist to allow it to charge in the all but absent daylight. This was when I began to hum an ancient tune, a “Pop Song” from one of the forgotten societies of CEO-likes long ago from a time I will not get a chance to understand.

My singing, against the dark sky – an infinite skyline of darkness – and billowing towers, coincidentally began at the same time that a soft rain began. The rain was dark, but as I sang, and as the rain fell on my suit, and as I stared at a drop on my glove, I swore the first drop was clear and transparent.

When I reached the break room, I pushed the resting President inside and it hummed, now under artificial sunlighting and able to charge its panels. Moving it to a corner of the small room, it would lock into the floor for the time being in case there were any quakes from the Corporation. And so did the Corporation lurch monotonously. Of course, the droning was barely audible in here.

This break room was small, but it had everything I needed to survive, and the other bigger ones were long since in disrepair. Here, I could find that the refrigerator was regularly stocked with a bread that I could gnaw at once I had opened my helmet. There was a shower that I could soak in if I temporarily opened other components of my business suit. In the corner, I had a comfortable seating area in front of a VR set where I spent many hours practicing speaking with an AI assistant, even if I’ve never really gotten to use it until now. It was liveable, I think, and I spent some of my best hours there.

I noticed ny President began beeping in an unusual manner. The CEOs would be here soon.

The Council was the organization of CEOs that headed the International Registry of Organization and Networks. They met regularly and would conduct audits of numerous factories with their Presidents in tow. Last time they had come they spent an extra hour doing targeted audits. Considering I just had an outage, I shuddered at the thought of their arrival.

Since I had just been in a sewer, I decided to take a quick shower by opening the pores in my business suit and letting the water closet spray water all over the flesh exposed. After drying, I had just enough time to eat some of the gnawy bread, and then made my way outside to the landing promptly. The rain had stopped, and as I stared into the sky to wait for their arrival, I lamented the loss of the rain. I knew I wouldn’t ever see it again.

Staring up into the sky, I saw that the clouds suddenly parted as a large, rectangular structure would lower itself slowly from the tip of the sky. These large “beams”, as they called them, seemed to extend into the clouds infinitely. It was as if there was a much larger craft above the clouds that I couldn’t see.

I watched as the lights from an elevator would come slowly lower down the beam. At the bottom, two large metal doors would open and out of it came five CEOs and their Presidents. “CEO Randhoff” The center and most prominent of them spoke first, the Chairman. He was a tall and his business suit had a profound tie. His President was a sleek machine made of a reflective polymer, probably hydrophobic and resilient. It may have even had its solar components embedded into its exterior. It was a beatiful President and I envied it. My own President made a whimpering noise in the presence of it.

“Chairman Peserton” I responded simply, but with respect. The other CEOs stirred. Chairman Peserton had a specific grin to him that I could see through his plastic helmet. His tie flapped in the soft wind that crossed the landing pad. His President made almost no noise in the few moments of silence after I spoke.

“We are here to do an audit. Do you give us permission?” That was a rhetorical question. But according to the Constitution, property was an inalienable right, as as I was the owner of this place I could only say yes.

“Yes”.

“We shall proceed.” The CEOs pushed their Presidents off and around the facility. One of the CEOs shuffled along oddly, who I recognized as CEO Frunk. He had this gross smile that hid the fact he had never laughed once. I new he had ambitions, but I wasn’t sure what they were, just the way he looked around made me uneasy. His gold-plated President whirred loudly, buzzing and beeping more than any of the other Presidents. It was either excited or processing something important. Furthermore, there was something about him that made me remember something, but I just couldn’t remember what it was.

I was uneasy, and so was my President, that sat still as the Presidents began their search for any failing components. I watched them roll around down into the Corporation area and disappear around corners and into buildings in my domain.

About an hour later, my President gave its typical beep. The message this time read:

To CEO Randhoff of Randhoff Corp.,

The International Registry of Organizations and Networks have completed their assesment.

Sincerely,
Council of I.R.O.N.

I met them outside. Four had returned, already, but Frunk was still rolling up the hill, far behind the others.

“CEO Randhoff”.

“Chairman Peserton”.

“The Council has confered and we have determined your premisis to be questionable, but you have passed all of the…” and Peserton was suddenly interrupted by CEO Frunk.

“No. No! NO!” CEO Frunk inserted himself physically along with his President into the center of the area, between the other CEOs and myself. His President beeped and whizzed maniacallly in a golden hue. “What’s that?” CEO Frunk leaned into his President that seemed to display something on its terminal. “Ah! I found something! You other CEOs weren’t paying attention!”

The other CEOs took pause to his behavior, which made me calm. They all looked at the terminals on their President to see what had been found. Chairman Peserton relaxed, but then spoke strange words that I did not yet understand.

“We know about it.”

“Then audit! Audit! Audit!” His President beeped along with excitement.

I waited patiently for the conversation to end in another settlment, one where perhaps I had to increase output for a month to make up for it. I had usually held strong against audits in the last few decades, but this this time, I felt like something bad was coming. I searched the faces of each CEO, covered in their plastic headdress and obscured by moisture.

Sadly, the other CEOs did not protest against Frunk. The way they just stood there silently, their Presidents humming, indicated to me that they did not care.

The Chairman sighed and then spoke succinctly. “We will audit.”

With that, the Presidents all began humming. Then they all spoke in their CEO voices.

“ERROR WITH POLLUTION CONTROLS. REQUIRES EXHAUST INCREASE.” Chimed in one of the Presidents obnoxiously.

“ERROR WITH PRODUCT OUTPUT. CONTROLS SET TO MINIMUMS. MUST INCREASE TO MAXIMUMS.” Clucked another loudly.

“CRITICAL ERROR!” Came out CEO Frunk’s President, like a scream. The other Presidents seemed to relinquish their output for the moment.

“CLOG. CLOG. CLOG.” It repeated. The other CEOs looked uneasy.

“CLOG. CLOG. CLOG.”

“That’s enough.” Interrupted Chairman Peserton. The President continued for a few moments, and then finally silenced. The Chairman then continued.

“It appears that you have had a clog recently. In the last 24 hours.”

“Yes. But I fixed it.”

“You did, but you did not fix the damage.”

“Given more time before the audit… I would have.”

“You didn’t find the source of the clog either.”

“I had to prepare for the audit.”

“Why don’t you have Vice President on it?”

“The audit protocol requires me to turn off Vice Presidents to maintain safety for the visiting Presidents.”

“Why didn’t you use the special measure clause to cancel the audit temporarily.”

“Canceling an audit is an immediate failure of an audit.”

“… We are concerned.”

“CLOG. CLOG. CLOG.”

“We feel that you have lost too much stock in your Company. Randhoff Corp has fallen in its production significantly in the last year. Your President also does not seem aware of these issues.”

“No. We are, but…”

“That is why we…”

“… no…”

“… believe that Randhoff Corporation is no longer solvent.”

“No…”

“CLOG CLOG CLOG”. CEO Frunk began laughing maniacally along with his Golden President’s monotonous mockery of me.

“SILENCE CEO Frunk!” Chairman Peserton angrily spat. His President, the shiny chrome machine that it was, extended an arm and pointed what appeared to be a profound laser at the golden President, which silenced itself immediately. The other presidents wearily stood their ground. Everyone was quiet for a few moments.

“We will begin the vote. All in favor?” All of the CEOs raised their hands.

“All against?” No one raised their hands.

“Then it is agreed. Your corporation is to be dissolved immediately.” I fell to my knees. My President whizzed sadly. The moment was too intense for me. I remember feeling like everything had ended and I was going to die. Retired Presidents were usually scrapped. CEOs typically were sent to a place called a Retirement Home. I was old and would not survive there.

But now, amidst my pouting on the ground, there was a beeping noise coming from the golden one. Everyone turned to it, because now CEO Frunk was smiling at the others, leaning against his President.

“Guess what I just did?” CEO Frunk asked rhetorically.

“Stop playing games, CEO Frunk.” Chairman Peserton announced. “What is it?”

“I just bought Randhoff Corporation.” The other CEOs pulled back.

“What?” The Chairman exclaimed. “So soon?”

“You don’t remember? We changed the rules a few months ago. My President designed a new system; a better system. Now, we can buy Corporations as soon as they are no longer solvent.”

“Then it still needs a vote of a majority of the Council.”

“I already got that!” CEO Frunk pointed to the other CEOs who guiltily stood in silence.

I hardly knew what was going on. In my own misery, though, somehow I decided to take a look at my President once again. On its terminal, I could see just a faint image… a GIF of a CEO running.

“What is the meaning of this?” The Chairman seemed perplexed.

“I bought Randhoff. What do you think it means?” CEO Frunk gestured his arms outward. “Oh, but it also means my corporation, Frunk & Frunk, is now the most valuable contiguous corporation in the world. And you know what that means? That makes me the Chairman!”

Chairman Peserton was now CEO Peserton, apparently. I had never seen something like this before in person, but I vaguely recalled when Peserton came to power 10 years ago. Unfortunately, this was not an ideal moment to learn more. I stood up and hid behind my President for the moment while the fight continued.

“You are not!” CEO Peserton was visibly upset with this announcement. The other CEOs seemed to gain more posture.

“Ooops, I guess I am. And guess what else? As Chairman, My first move is vote to dissolve Peserton Incorporated. All in favor?”

“WHAT!” The other CEOs all raised their hands in silence. “THIS IS MADNESS!” CEO Peserton grabbed his President and began to make a manual request.

“All against? What you’re not going to vote against, Peserton?” CEO Peserton was too busy trying to get his President to act.

“Ah, then we dissolve. And the new rules are that we instant-retire. All in favor?” Chairman Frunk continued as his President grew massive swords from its hulking mass. The other CEOs raised their hands while backing up with their Presidents in tow. The Golden President swung its sword-like-appendages at CEO Peserton and his Chrome President.

There was a short battle. The Chrome President fought to protect its CEO, but was ultimately stabbed before it could grow its own weapons in defense. Pulling out its parts across the ground, the Golden President went for the CEO who it punctured madly wiht its many sharp ends. CEO Peserton bled widly, his blood flush all over the landing pad within a few moments. Some of the blood landed on Chairman Frunk’s headpiece, which then he retrieved a yellow cloth from his pocket to wipe it off.

I didn’t have time to see most of this, because I had already started running with my President. In the distance I heard Frunk yell “Retire her, too!”

Fortunately, the casters I had put on my President weeks before were great at carrying me downhill quickly without rockets. I needed those for the jump I was about to make.

The President whizzed and then spoke in its calm tone. “Ready, CEO Randhoff”. It still called me CEO, which made me happy in the moment.

I pressed the button to ignite and the President took off with me attached. Its arm shot up and spun around like a helicopter, a maneuver I had never tried. Its rockets fired off underneath and we were sent flying into the air rapidly. I gripped its handles with fear. I needed to get out of the Corporate zone, which was no longer mine, before the Vice Presidents found me and eliminated me too – or worse: if the Golden President caught up to me.

In the air, I had enough time to figure out a plan. The President would land somewhere near the edge of the Corporation at this rate, I aimed for it to be the landing we found near the waste waterfall we found earlier. We could then go out together into the mountains and maybe find that mythical village. They would take me in, I knew it. They had to.

As the rocket President landed safely on the platform, and as I was just about to get the telescope out to see what color the rags were, I heard a blasting noise from behind. Turning around, the Golden President was there, having just landed behind us.

My mouth trembled and I strung the words in a fast, syllabic rhythm: “I would like to ask for approval of the Board to destroy the Golden President and protect me”.

My President did its best to then transform into the most menacing form it could. Suddenly it had a hammer swinging arm with puncturing ends and a large flat metal surface that must have been to protect it against the blades. It turned on its rocket and slammed suddenly into the Golden President, knocking it over. It retorted by swinging its blades into the body of my President. I waited for a moment but decided it would be best to get out of there. I began to climb down the ladder next to the waterfall just as my President gave a desperate blow to its opponent.

The smashing, ringing, and blasting continued, only growing more silent as I descended towards the waste pool at the bottom of the waterfall. I had never really scanned this section before, and it showed. Not like I could scan it now without my President. And my President was most likely retired.

Finally, I reached the landing platform for the ladder was falling to pieces, probably melted by the acidity of the waste here. It smelled more than usual. When I checked my business suit’s meter, it was pretty clear that I would not be able to wade through the water here, especially without my President. I thought about what the President must have felt in its last moments before the Golden President had stabbed it through too many times. It made me careful enough to hop slowly between each metal surface I could find jutting out of the acid lake. I did this for about an hour or two. I don’t know why the Golden President didn’t come after me then, but it should have. I wasn’t going to last long out here.

But somehow, I made it to the edge of the lake. And standing there at the precipice hanging over the acid lake behind me I found myself standing on “dirt”, but I had never seen it this close. Even if the mountain was made of it and I had observed it many times, spending time inside the Corporation had limited my senses so that I had never experienced something so ubiquitous as “dirt”.

I refrained from exploring it, because now my primary objective was to climb this mountain and make my way to top. However, I had to adjust to the strange feeling I had moving without pushing the President around with me. My President was most certainly doomed in its current state and I would never see it again, but I knew somehow that I probably could survive without it if I kept my wits about me. Either way, there was nothing left for me to try because retirement awaited me back at the landing pad should I choose a cowardly retreat from the unknown.

But I would need courage, because without my President, I was an easy target for the scrags. But it was at least reassuring that the monsters I saw down here were all dead, probably from the flush I issued earlier from the waterfall. Their carcasses laid unredeemable on the dirt, and that was satisfying to my immediate needs.

So I climbed the mountain, or at least the first mountain. My business suit was quickly worn out at the feet from the debris and rocks, used much more to the flat, metallic surfaces found throughout my Corporation. But it was durable enough that after some adjustment I found myself comfortable enough to traverse the first hill until I gained a closer sight of my destination mountain.

It was further away than I had presumed in my observation with the telescope, but now that I was underneath it and moving quite fast, I realized I could reach it within only a few hours. There it stood above me, basking in a faint light, just within arms reach.

I did forget something, however. I clearly took my access to water and that stale bread in the break area for granted. It was not something I had thought about regularly as I had never really grown a passion or consideration for it. Rather, I decided that it was simply a means to an end. Well, the means was now gone and I had an emptiness in my stomach.

And balanced on this dire hunger I climbed the foothills further, now reaching a point where I could look back on the Corporation I had left. At this specific vantage point, I found the charred remains of a Vice President from my former Corporation that had ventured too far. I did not know why it had so many punctures in it, but could only assume that it was due to the many rocks in the nearby area. Without the President I would not be able to evaluate or understand anything. And that reminded me of the now far away Corporation I had spent decades of my life in, there visible across the horizon. For so many years I managed and developed it in order to pursue profit and solvency for the sake of I.R.O.N., but earned only a demise.

Some more time passed and as I went behind a hill and my view of the Corporation was obscured, I realized I was growing quite weak. I was not going to make it to the tunnels and the white rags. I was going to probably die on the side of this mountain. And as I sort of crawled up the mountain weakly, I looked around at an open field of dirt that had little stems of a strange matter growing out of it. Large, round protrustions like a fungus but stockier that was being grown with some hint of intention, organized in rows across the dirt. There was sunlight here, and I could tell by the way the rocks were organized that this was intentional. It must be an artifact of the local settlement, but I didn’t know how they could have the technology or capability to know how to do this.

But in that little valley between the mountain and one of the hills, I noticed that there was a thick fog around here. The fog was dark like the exhaust from the stacks in the Corporation that pumped billowing smoke, and I wondered if recent operations had sent the dark clouds this way.

But that’s when I noticed that I wasn’t alone. It happened as I fell to my knees and helped myself to a few more weak breaths in this small, quiet valley. My eyes fell on the corpse of something that had the shape of a CEO… a body that seemed freshly dead and suffocated, unable to breathe perhaps because of the dark air settled here. I was glad I could breathe, and the curiosity of the moment reminded me of how lucky I was to have my business suit still. It must have been one of the settlers nearby and I wondered to myself why they had forgotten to wear a suit, seeing as it was so obvious to me.

But someone else had been watching me here this entire time. Clearly not a CEO, since they too did not have a suit on. They came up to my side wearing something that looked like a mask with similar casings as a business suit’s, but modified and not attached to the body. They stood there watching me shortly, and I assumed it was to scan me. I knew this despite my current incapacitation because they did not touch me or try to hurt me. They must have gestured to others because soon I was surrounded.

They grabbed me and carried me at some point and I had little will to resist. When they took me to the tunnel, I noticed the rags they hung over the tunnel were red right now. Was this then a signal for when people were safe to go inside?

Once inside, I stared around wildly with my eyes. It is nothing special, though, and when I looked into the faces of the settlers, I saw that they looked not too dissimilar to me. I found them to be and therefore naked, proto-CEOs. They could not have possibly been CEOs themselves, as they did not have the sockets in their spine and skin for a business suit.

They took out what appeared to be similar to my bread, showing it to me, and my mouth immediately watered. I grabbed with what little strength I had and took the bread, eating viciously. When I finally looked up from empty hands, I could see the rest of the room which was adorned in parts; things from my former Corporation that were being used in various capacities. Metal sidings for walls, crossbars for structural integrity in the cave, tunnel lanterns to light the area, and a stack of Vice President arms fashioned into long spears.

They were making strange, uncomfortable sounds as they surrounded me curiously. This is when suddenly, one of them stood in front of me and everyone silenced. It opened its mouth and screamed my way and I trembled as what little sanity I had left was shaken from me. They must have been someone important to them because when this one spoke the others were quiet. Its voice was loud and sharp. It had lumps on their chest and they seemed frightened of me, or mad, or scared. I wasn’t sure.

There was something in this one’s hand: a small sharp metal fragment with a pointy end. It seemed an ineffective tool, but I supposed that without a business suit it would be sufficient to pierce skin. The others looked around as if waiting to decide. Another voice came across. It was softer and it touched me on the shoulder and uttered some words that I found strangely comforting.

But others chimed in now and there was an argument. I was not given a chance to understand this debate. But when it finally came to the end, the one that had been nicer to me backed away into the shadows. This happened as the one with the pointy piece of metal emerged again. It would wave it at me until it shoved it under a plate of my business suit. It screamed again so close to my face that I barely recognized the blood begin to leak out of me from the perforation in my skin.

It began to peel my suit; others began to help. They pried it mostly off and after a sudden pop of one of the components coming out of my intravenous sockets, I felt weak. I was paralyzed. Some of them began frantically shouting but with a sort of satisfaction in their voices that made me feel sick. These settlers were just monsters, after all, it seemed.

Time was short. I could hear the eager shouts of their leader but suddenly I could no longer see them. I used my remaining strength to reach out and touch them, but they reeled back.

And so I collapsed and transpired into this final moment where I am talking to you, the universe. In all of my loneliness I never realized how desolate you are now that no one will ever understand my journey.