#35 - Walk4U

“Those. What are they?”
“Walk4U, kid. Where’re your parents?”
The girl wiped her hand down her dungarees, leaving smears of what I hoped was chocolate. “Over at a table eating lunch. They said I could play. You’re a Walkee?”
“Yup.” I rattled my newspaper, hoping she’d get the hint.

A standalone short sci-fi story about being too lazy to move your own legs, and the technology that makes it possible. What if you were able to walk on cruise control, someone else putting in the effort so that you can check your emails, browse the web, play a few moves in that game you're so in to? 

I can't deny that I've borrowed a little from Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror here; there's an episode, '15,000,000 Merits' which deals with people cycling to earn points that they spend on digital items for their digital avatars. The suggestion, by the end of the show, is that there is an overclass that do not cycle, that instead reap the reward of this cycling underclass, perhaps through the energy they create.

A lot of my inspiration comes from sources such as Wired or New Scientist, and this story is no different - specifically this story. Electrodes guiding people on their way, easily overcome but also quite easy to obey. While this bodes well for people who have difficulty controlling their own legs, due to physical or neurological illness, I can't help but think that eventually people will take advantage of it...

As always, I would love to collaborate with you! If you have short fiction that you would like me to include as a standalone episode of Pocket Fiction, drop me a line!

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Music: “The Pyre” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). 
Licensed under Creative Commons: By attribution 3.0.