Vampires and Slaves

VAMPIRES AND SLAVES

Dr. A comes by — after I get on the transplant list.

“Congratulations Mr. Fussell” “Please, ‘Mark’. And not ‘Mr. Mark’, which seems to be very popular among the RNs” “Ok. Mark. You are now on ‘the list’… and I am here to discuss it with you. You appear to be mentally stable under stress & significant unknowns, are willing to do what the doctors tell you to do, and are a generally ‘productive’ (even slightly ‘manic’) individual. These were the prime considerations that we used to put you on that list.” “I assume that and my general health” “Yes. Kind of.

The list I am talking about is a different list. The liver transplant list is just a ‘cover’. You are now on the hemodialysis list.” “Isn’t that just for my kidney functions until I get a transplant? I thought I was already getting dialysis?” “You are and aren’t. This will take a bit of imagination and acceptance on your part. Please keep any open mind for a few minutes”

“Ok, I will try to hold off my questions for a bit” “You were admitted to Stanford ICU on March 28th. A day later, you passed”

“Passed what?”

“No. Passed. Passed away. You never woke up from the

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ammonia spike.”

“I seem pretty awake” “Yes, you are now awake… but not alive. On March 29th, Stanford decided you were a good candidate for the hemodialysis program. So you were moved to ‘V5’ and were brought back.” “I am ‘back’ but not alive?”

“You are something different. Informally we call you Vampires. But you aren’t really much like the myth. The core characteristic is that you need human blood: you get the ‘nutrients’ you need to continue functioning from blood.” “That does sound very vampiric” “Yes, but in exchange you purify the blood similarly to a kidney. When you are hooked to a dialysis machine, you get other peoples’ blood, purify it, and return it to them.” “O….K….”

“You do ‘net’ take some blood, but not a lot from any one person. And you can handle a higher flow rate than the patients, so in four hours, you can process the blood of a dozen people. If you take about 10%, you drain only about a half a liter. And we can give that back as saline without the patient being harmed.” “O…. K….”

“So, as long as you do dialysis, you can function between sessions. And by doing dialysis, you enable a dozen people to live”

“O…. K…. That sounds very fair and pretty logical. Except the ‘you are dead’ part. I don’t feel dead. The machines say I am alive. The tests say I am alive. I act like I am alive.” “Yes. The machines and tests are lying. Try not to breathe for a bit”

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“Like… hold my breath?” “Yes, hold your breath… until you _need_ to breathe”

“Well, that is a small and simple task”

“I realize it is not, but I just want California to follow in Berkeley’s footsteps and not prevent homeless from using public/government lands to live. We will do our best to get them off it, but on their own terms. We could use money for that, but that is a different pitch.” “So you want me to vote for bill 2022-0401?” “Yes, along with as many of your friends as possible”

“Ok. I will work on it. And will call you if I need some details.” “Call, and I will come ASAP. Thank you.”

I drive to Home Depot — to talk with David about a mass purchase of siding, lumber, bolts, etc. My goal is to make twenty ‘very small’ houses. I recently acquired a light-industrial unit off Old Middlefield, and believe we can build twenty units in about a week. Probably two weeks, but the target is one. There is no problem with the order, and the price is fine: about half of what Virginia gave for the units, so the other half can be used to pay for the labor involved. If we get it done in two weeks, that will be fine. We might sell some of the units to defray costs, but the bulk will be donated: given to people living in tents or worse.

30 minutes later — I give in and start talking.

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“I don’t need to breathe? Except to talk?”

“It may mentally help you talk, but you don’t really need to do it for that either. It appears you communicate through suggestion. More by visual contact than anything else. There may be some telepathy involved. Either we don’t understand it yet, or it is above my pay grade.” “You don ’t understand the ‘things’ you are using to keep people alive? That is keeping tens of thousands — ” “hundreds of thousands”

“Ok. Hundreds of thousands of people alive. So there are tens of thousands of vampires wandering around?” “Yes”

“And you don ’t understand them?” “Yes: we don’t understand them. But they appear to be pretty ‘human’. So possibly somewhat safer than AI. You have seen the Matrix?”

“Well, that went badly for humanity, but rampaging vampires doesn’t seem very good either.” “No, but we do test you and decide whether to go forward” “Where backwards is to kill me?”

“Possibly… but living dead don’t have many rights … including the right to complain.”

“So I am a slave?”

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