The Girl Who Was Only Three Quarters Dead

by Craig H. Bowlsby

About the Author: Craig H. Bowlsby's recent fiction includes, “The Day the Earth Didn’t Stand Still” in Neo-opsis science fiction issue 32, July 2021 (Victoria); “The Last Run of Old 248” in the JayHenge science fiction anthology on Joining Forces, June 2021 (Sweden); “The Last of the Shamrocks” in Aethlon the sports literature magazine, issue 36-1, 2020 (USA); “One Day in Tom’s Life with Ice Cream,” in Neo-opsis science fiction magazine, issue 30, 2019 (Victoria).

Excerpt

I could see about fifty nude bodies, scattered through the warehouse, lying on gurneys, and covered in wires, tubes, and electrodes. Winding my way through the maze, I looked for the gurney numbers. A white-smocked technician in the middle of the operation ignored me and banged a portable machine with his fist. The whole room, the size of a basketball court, pinged and jingled like a huge arcade machine.

Suki was number 13.

I found her gurney and then shouted up at a guy on a catwalk, riding a desk. He spied me and nodded, and then tapped a few buttons on a console. Suki’s gurney hummed and bleeped. Her small, naked body seemed protean, unmade. She looked very skinny—very dead. Which she was. She’d committed legal suicide two years ago; it was all the rage, even in Vancouver. The Feds called it Dormancy but everyone else called it Deadland. So, now she looked like a test-tube zombie. Anemic, with dark, skid-mark brows. Roughly shaved head with chestnut coloured fuzz. Pert nose, small mouth sucking on a big tube. But it was better than final suicide. Which I guess was the point.

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