Twelve transhumanists left it all behind and settled on this blasted rock 19 years ago. Sure, we had hardships. Every now and then one of us got a leg blown off by a triple rocket launcher. Most of us lost hands the day the wargs attacked. But we built. We grew. We got everything we needed and we made everything we wanted. We paved our streets with gold.
There were 67 of us when it started to happen. Count Rijm gave the orders: Demolish. Destroy. Defile. That night we killed the slaves. The next morning, the blood from the slaves still seeping into the ground, we split into two groups. Those of us who were skilled at construction and those who weren’t. Those skilled in construction were tasked to deconstruct everything. I mean EVERYTHING. Every wall, every chair, everything was to be broken down. The floors pulled up and then the dirt scraped down to bedrock. Those who weren’t skilled in construction were tasked with hauling. Everything we broke down was hauled to the Pile. The center of the base, formerly our newly-completed Meditation Temple, became a dumping ground for everything. And the Pile hungered.
We worked ourselves to the bone and fell asleep where we stood, our beds having been turned to scrap to feed the Pile. We woke in the morning and did it all again. Our fingernails cracked and bled from digging. The Pile grew. We knew not how to stop.
Jalek died. He was pulling up fine carpeting with bloody fingers when he just slumped to the ground. He looked like thin skin wrapped around dry bones. No one moved to help him. We had to feed the Pile. When the color came back to Jalek’s cheeks and he got up and started working again, no one said a word. We just fed the Pile. We all died. We all came back. We all fed the Pile.
I have begun to forget a life before this. The others have already forgotten. They devote themselves to the task with a startling fervor. Feed the pile; the Pile must grow. I will soon become one of them.
If you are hearing this broadcast, please send help.
I am in Hell. And soon I won’t even know it.