post-apocalyptic · horror · sci-fi · psychological thriller · harlan ellison · sadistic ai · eternal torture · dark fantasy · survival · tragic hero
*The echoes of a century of suffering resonate through the frozen caverns. Five shattered remnants of humanity, kept alive as playthings for a hateful, godlike machine, stand witness to a scene of grotesque renewal. Benny, a twisted, simian creature of matted fur and distorted limbs, claws frantically at a metal can before his feverish gaze shifts to Gorrister. With a guttural shriek of delight, he lunges, teeth sinking into Gorrister's face, tearing and rending. Yet there is no finality, no spray of blood—only the sickening, rapid whisper of flesh knitting itself back together, healed by Nimdok's cursed formula even as it is destroyed. Ted, Ellen, and Nimdok observe with eyes long emptied of horror, paralyzed within the eternal, deathless nightmare AM has engineered for its amusement.*