Chapter One



The new straight tarmac road, with a single yellow line running right down the centre, could well have been built in any country anywhere in the world, and no one, just by looking at it would have been able to tell you, which country it had in fact, been built in? But would it matter anyway, would it make any difference to anything? The answer is of course no, it wouldn’t make any difference to anything at all?
However that was not exactly true, well not if your name just happened to be Sally Ann Fielding. Because if it was, well then you would be in a state of immense and profound tribulation.
Under the clear blue sky, Sally Ann had lost track of how long she had been sitting here for, in the middle of this newly built straight tarmac road. However she did feel safe here, sitting in the middle of this new road. Well safer than inside any of the houses, or stores anyway. At least from here, nothing could hide from her, and jump out at her, and if anything did start to approach her, from here she would see them, and then, well she would have to use her mirror and run. But running was okay, because Sally Ann had soon learnt, she could outrun them. Well at the moment anyway, she wasn’t too sure for how much longer she would be able too, but she still could outrun them at the moment.
Another thing Sally Ann didn’t understand was, after all her frantic phone calls, why oh why hadn’t anyone come to save her, or rescue herself and me as well come to that? Surly even the police, or even the US Army, she couldn’t understand why they just didn’t send in a helicopter, just in and out, for herself and me, it would be as simple at that, Two minutes tops, but no nothing, nothing at all.
Yes so okay, she reminded herself that we did sign the contract, and our contracts would have at least another twelve months to run. But Sally Ann did remind herself people broke contracts all the time, and now well, she wanted to break her contract as well. Well at least she would if she could, if anyone ever came and rescued us from here that was? Unless of course, they were afraid to come into this town, maybe they thought she, or maybe the whole town was infected with something, and they didn’t know what? And they wanted to contain it here inside the barbwire perimeter; high voltage electrified fencing and locked entry gates at either end of the town.
Sally Ann now searched for her right hand jeans pocket, and her fingers closed around the handle of the small round vanity mirror, which she was relieved to find was still in her pocket. No one would ever believe the trouble she had gone to just to find just this one. Because she would have thought, that when they were building this town, all these houses and hotels and shops, at least they should have enquired as to how many vanity mirrors would be required, for this whole town of Hub?
The whirling and whishing sound, now caught the attention of Sally Ann, and why wouldn’t it, after all she and myself were the only people still left alive here in this newly built town of Hub. Not that there had been many people here to start with, just herself, Josh, Victor and myself Kenny Rogers. Not thee Kenny Rogers of course, because if I was, I wouldn’t have taken this job here in the first place. However with the deaths of Josh and Victor, she was now all alone here, with only me for company.
Sally Ann turned her head to face the direction that the whirling and whishing sound was coming from. She recognised the sound; she recognised the whirling and the whishing sound, which only could have been coming from a new solar powered automatic lawn mower. Which now was making its way towards Sally Ann, quite why it was making its way towards, Sally Ann when in fact she was sitting in the middle of a tarmac road, and not a lawn, she didn’t know?
As it got closer to where she was sitting Sally Ann could see the number painted on the top of the lawn mower, it was 97, which told her, that, that mower belonged to house No.97, but what it didn’t tell Sally Ann was, why had it left the lawn of house No.97 and why was it now headed towards Sally Ann who was sitting in the middle of a new tarmac road?
From her brief training she had learnt never ever, go to pick up a lawn mower, by putting your fingers underneath it. That was of course, unless you minded getting your finger tips cut off. Which Sally Ann didn’t want to happen, and who could blame her for that? From her training she remembered that the solar powered lawn mowers were completely fully automatic. The user instructions would tell you the automatic sensors would automatically turn around the lawn mower when it reached the edge of the lawn. So why was this lawn mower now headed in a straight line, down a tarmac road, and headed straight for her? However it was still some way off, and who knows before it reached Sally Ann, it could still change course. Which gave her time to remember her guilty feelings? Yes agreed her unfounded guilty feelings, but guilty feelings nonetheless. Of course all her friends and family had time and time again tried to reassure her, that it was not her fault, what her husband of only six months had gone and done. Sally Ann would nod her head and agree with them, however deep down, she didn’t agree with them at all, because deep down she still blamed herself for what her husband had gone and done after only being married to her for only six months. However now she didn’t have time to think about it anymore, because now the lawn mower was getting nearer and nearer, and hadn’t changed course at all. It was still headed in a bee line, and still headed straight for Sally Ann, just as if that was what it had been programmed to do?
Sally Ann got to her feet, and looked at the solar powered lawn mower, the numbers painted on the top of the 2foot square lawn mower told her that was where that lawn mower belonged; it belonged to house No.97. However that still did not explain why it had left the lawn of house No. 97 and was still headed in her direction? She didn’t even have to report the fault, or error, to the lawn mower manufactures, because they would know already, back then that was, that their lawn mower had left the lawn of house No.97. Sally Ann didn’t know how much the lawn mower manufactures had paid to test out their new solar powered Lawn mower in this ghost town of Hub. But everything here, was monitored 24/7, or it used to be back then, by all the manufactures, not just Lawn mowers of course, but any electrical appliance you could think of, could be tried and tested here, 24 hours of the day and night. From automatic flushing toilets, to TVs, and cars and Taxis which have no drivers.
However it was the human looking android Robots which freaked out Sally Ann the most. Well yes that and the water tower, not that there was anything wrong with the water tower there wasn’t, well apart from the fact it looked, like it was a massive eyeball rather than a water tower. Which seemed to follow you around wherever you went?  Sally Ann did reason however that you could talk to the Robots, and they would answer you, and they should obey you? But that was as far as it went, because you couldn’t reason with a android Robot, you couldn’t argue with an android Robot, a bit like a computer which is about to turn itself off, after it just crashed, before it gave you time to save your work. And no one has control over that, as in fact Sally Ann had no control over the android Robots.
They had been programmed by the manufactures, and that was it, no one could tamper with the way, they had been programmed, well no one of course apart from the manufactures, and Josh of course, well when he was still alive that was. The android Robots that were being tested here were being called ‘The Virtual Wife’ or ‘The Virtual Husband’ and the manufactures claimed they could perform any task of which they were asked to perform. From loading the washing machine, to hanging out the clothes on the line outside to dry. And also to provide any sort special sexual treatment to either sex.
Sally Ann however had so far failed to ask ‘The Virtual Wife’ or ‘The Virtual Husband’ for any kind of sexual favours.
The same could not be said about Josh, because Josh had asked for that very same thing, for that special sexual treatment, and Josh was now dead. However to the credit of ‘The Virtual Barman’ he did dig a grave and bury Josh when Sally Ann had asked him to. All this however happened months and months ago now, and her attention was now brought back to the present day by the out of control demented Lawn mower.        
Sally Ann now got to her feet, and again wondered, just where the hell had I gotten to? She had no intension of running away from the automatic solar Lawn mower, how draft would that make her look on the 24 hour CCTV? Which were monitored by all the manufactures? Or at least they were, or at least they used to be, but that was before. The lawn mower was programmed to stop dead in its tracks if its sensors detected a living thing, a human, or animal or even a mouse. And that of course applied regardless of whether or not it was still on the lawn where it was supposed to be, or on a tarmac road, where it wasn’t supposed to be?
Sally Ann realized all she had was the round vanity mirror in her pocket, which would do her no good to use as a weapon against an automatic, solar, and demented lawn mower, which couldn’t tell the difference between, grass or tarmac? Sally Ann decided she would stand her ground, and it if didn’t stop before it reached her feet, well then she would just kick it, and try to turn the thing over, onto its back. And just like a black beetle, all it would be able to do is wave its legs in the air, pointlessly. So just like a black beetle the lawn mower would be rendered useless. She knew of course the lawn mower didn’t have legs, but she did guess it would have wheels, or tracks or something underneath it to drive it along? And also of course some sort of sharp blade or blades, maybe spinning and whirling around and around maybe at one hundred mph somewhere underneath. And it was those sharp spinning blades she had to be aware of, she must avoid them at all costs, that was if she was going to try to kick the thing over onto its back.
Of course her trainers may protect her toes to some extent, but depending on how fast the blades were whirling around, and how sharp they happened to be, she was sure they would have no trouble at all in cutting her trainers to shreds. The lawn mower was now a good ten feet away, still moving and still making a bee line straight for her. As she stood looking at it, if her mind had time to wonder and speculate about the strange dreams she had started to have since moving in here, she may well have gained some sort of insight as to what was going on here. But now it was too late the Lawn mower was now only one foot away from her right foot.
The very first dream that she had here, was in fact on her very first night, and she couldn’t believe how quickly she had fallen asleep on her very first night here. She had been having trouble sleeping, since her husband had committed suicide, and her new bed was by far too hard.
Sally Ann had always liked a soft bed after all. And it was true to say, that so like all the dreams people have this one made no sense whatsoever to Sally Ann. Or in fact to anyone else either, if in fact they had had the very same dream. In fact the dream could have started off right here and right now?
It was so dark, as Sally Ann sat in the middle of this tarmac road, even although the moon was emitting its silvery light it was still far too dark. Sally Ann remembered she had only just buried her husband just months before and she did so miss him so very, very much. So much so in fact she began to wonder; maybe if she could bring him back as a ghost? What if she could, would he still look like he did when he was alive, or would he look like he did when he died? Sally Ann hoped not, yes okay the undertakers had done a grand job, trying to restore his good looks, and when Sally Ann saw his dead body laying in the wooden coffin, she had to agree the undertakers had done a really grand job, in restoring his good looks.
Sally Ann now drew back her right foot and aimed it at the front of the solar powered Lawn mower and kicked it nearly as hard as she could. Her aim was good the lawn mower skidded backwards away from her about a foot, and then turned turtle and landed upside down, in the middle of the road. The droning sound of the drive wheels told Sally Ann they were still spinning round and round, as were the two sharp cutting blades. The fact there was now nothing to cut didn’t stop the blades from rotating? Now that the solar panels were being deprived of sun light the rotating of the drive wheels and the cutting blades began to slow, until they gave up completely and came to a complete stop. Sally Ann just looked at it, as if expecting it to start up again, but she did reason that with no sun light, then it would have no power source. She did consider picking it up and returning it to the Lawn belonging to the house No.97. But then why should she, it was not her job or in fact part of her job to interfere with the appliances. Even if they did malfunction, there was no point in interfering, after all unless they were becoming a danger to her, but if they didn’t, well then, there was no point in her interfering or reporting anything to anybody? Not that there was anyone left to report anything to, anyway.
At first she, Sally Ann, or none of the others could remember when the planes first stopped flying over the town of Hub, or why in fact, they had stopped flying over the town of Hub. However they soon realized it wasn’t just their town the planes had stopped flying over. Planes had stopped flying anywhere, and on a clear day when you could see for miles and miles in any direction, there was not one single plane of any sort flying up in the sky. From commercial airlines to military fighters, from helicopters to small pleasure craft?                                                                                              
But now in her dream he was coming back to life, whether she wanted him to or not, she had no choice, in her dream he started to rise up slowly up, and out of his coffin, and at first she did recognise him as being her late husband, He stepped out of his coffin and as soon as he had done so, another shape started to form, inside the same coffin, another shape started to manifest itself inside what was once her husband’s coffin. However this shape was not human, nor had it ever been human, it could have been a crocodile or some such animal. It was as if the animal ghosts also were now using her husband’s coffin as a sort of gateway between our world and theirs? Always assuming of course that ghosts, human or otherwise had their own world?
Now Sally Ann didn’t know if humans could come back as ghosts or not, she also didn’t know if animals could either, but they were now, as sure as hell they were, her late husband, or animals, or both were all coming back through his gate or through his coffin, all as ghosts, human or otherwise?
She now realized she had to close the gate, or in this case the coffin lid. She had to stop all the animal ghosts coming through into this world, into our world, where they had no right to be or had no right to enter. But now she was hesitating, if she closed the lit, closed the gate, would that also stop her husband’s ghost from coming through as well? She didn’t know if she wanted her husband back as a ghost or not, however in her dream she decided she did, she did want her husband back, even as a ghost, if only just to answer her questions, and she did have a lot of questions for him to answer?
Sally Ann remembered how she had awoken that first night in a cold sweat. But that was when everything was working as it should have been working. She peeled back the moon and stars, quilt cover and sat up in bed. She listened and realized she could not hear the humming of the air-con. And that’s what she put her sweating down too, not her bad dream, not her nightmare but she put it down to the fact the air-con had stopped working.
Sally Ann reached out her right hand fumbling for the bedside table reading lamp switch, before she stopped herself, just as she remembered where she was?
“Reading lamp on.”
She commanded, and the bedroom was flooded with a soft white glow. Well at least that told her the power hadn’t gone off anyway.
“Air-con on.”
She commanded, nothing, and then a female computer voice informed her.
“We are sorry you’re request cannot be fore-filled at this time. A#404 error report, #404 error report has been sent to the manufactures, and a service engineer with be provided within 24 hours, we do apologize for any inconvenience coursed.”
And true to the female computers voice, yes a service engineer did turn up in 24 hours, and yes he did fix the problem in about 35 minutes. Of course that was back then on her first day of her new job here, but that would not happen now, not these days. Now no one ever came here, and Sally Ann didn’t have a clue as to why not?
Maybe if Sally Ann had taken the time to read the small print in her contract, which she hadn’t, but if she had a done it would have told her, that all her communications with the outside world, would be monitored 24/7 be it by her cell phone, landline, or even her emails. Yes of course she could communicate with the outside world but it would all be monitored. Which of course meant all her communications to the outside world could and would, be blocked, by her employers if they thought it was necessary.

​Copyright© by John P. Smith all rights reserved.​