After your communication with your Mantis friend, you decide to head toward the Industrial district of the city to see what morbid curiousity lies ahead. High on Life™, you stand on a busy sidewalk, nearing the industrial district. Devoid of color, the world around you turns into an even greyer machinescape. The skyscapers shoot up to the sky like cubic & rectangular metal plants, the night sky above a reddish black. You keep walking toward the industrial district, aimlessly. You've already been consumed by Life™. You accept your fate. Will you embrace it? Will what lies ahead in your discoveries change everything?

"After your walk deep into the industrial district, you notice a suspicious looking building, with NEW LIFE LTD. branding all over. You notice no-one around, so you cautiously approach the facility. You remember the Mantis' advice to not look into the windows. But being zooted on Life™, your judgement isn't exactly in working order. You peek in the soot-covered window of the industrial brick building. The putrid smell of something permeates the air and sticks to your clothing. The smoke stack looming above the building doesn't let up. Stepping on a cinderblock to get a better look inside, you soon locate the source of the odor. A vat of lifeless humans. Some infant humans. One of their lives is in your arm. One of their lives is in a glass ampule in your coat pocket. You vomit on the concrete beneath you."

Seeing the biological processing machine makes you sick to your stomach. Paired with the black vapor emitting from every orifice the building has to give. Panic sets in. You decide to run. Run far far back into the city where you retreat into an insular madness from the atocities you just witnessed. Real human babies. Lives. Snuffed out for the sake of a pharmaceutical dollar and a human addiction. Cannabalistic. Maniacal... Morals and Needs are at war. You decide to stop back at the Mantis' shop. You break down on the floor in front of them, not even bothering to use telepathy. You're babbling, incoherent, an absolute mess. The Mantis telepathically communicates: "Son, i've seen this all before. You looked in those god damned windows didn't you?" "It'll be alright buddy. Look. I knew this would happen. Humans are too curious to heed such advice, heh heh." The Mantis hands you a sealed and pre-loaded syringe with what is labeled as "Buprenorphine HCL 0.5mg/mL". "Here, shoot this. So that you can at least get that fucking 'god-knows-what' corporate-opioid out of your receptors first and foremost... This shit will knock that Life™ opioid off your brain for good." You IV the Buprenorphine. You feel a bit of a typical opiate rush, but in low intensity. You suddenly start to feel partially human again. "Now", the Mantis says. "Relax here for a bit with me and then the next step is to get you the fuck off of the Life™ itself." 'How? Do I just go back to being depressed? Do I just abuse this stuff you gave me? Am i just supposed to- ' "Kid. I've been alive for 649- well 650 this year - YEARS, and let me tell you. You don't need something to live. These corporations have brainwashed generations of you Humans into thinking you need something to supplement life. Life is all around us, kid." The Mantis holds one of many Life™ vials laying about the shop in his hand while talking, verbally this time in English. Rolling the vial back and forth. Studying the tiny air bubble within. "Look at this stuff. All this is, is some poor Human baby, Human soul's life... snuffed out and processed... All so that it can be pushed on people that half the time don't even want it- all to make money from recycled unborn souls... hell even sometimes BORN souls." "AND THEY SAY THAT'S TO CURE DEPRESSION?!" The Mantis scoffs. "I injected this stuff... I -", you stutter, introspecting on the gravity of the situation. "I may be addicted, kid. But i've been addicted to Life™ for almost 50 years on this damned planet. You still have a chance. Your Human morals might just have saved your fucking life, son." "Us with Mantis genes... we tend to let things like in-humanity slide sometimes... its an unfortunate reality from eons ago when we were ingrained to treat Humans as slave beings. I'm still self-aware of the atrocity behind this shit, kid. But I just don't have the morals to quit. In a way I envy you..." "...I dont think i'd even quit this junk if it were Mantis infants being ground into powder... my own kind, man... it's a shame, really.", Mantis laments. Your grief is interrupted by the muffled sound of House music coming from a club, just down the block. You let out a heavy sigh. "I think i'm going to go down the street and dance for awhile, do you mind if I stay here tonight?" you ask the Mantis. "You can stay here until we get you off of that shit. It's my goal, kid. So i'll leave the side-door unlocked for ya. But ya'know that club is a Life™ club right? ... I highly advise against going to that club in your current situation, kid." Mantis concernedly states. 'I didn't know that Life™ clubs even existed... ah well, shit. This Buprenorphine stuff really does help the cravings for Life™ like you said Mantis... maybe I could just double up and go have some innocent dancing." "I can sense that you do infact, trust yourself in this scenario, kid. Sure. Let's give it a try." The Mantis prepares and hands you another dose of IV Buprenorphine before heading to the club to stave off cravings for Life™ while you're out. You shoot the second dose of Buprenorphine. As you light another cigarette, you strut to the club as distant Deep house plays in the distance...

You approach the seedy club with an unusually small door. No bouncers in sight. In fact, no people in sight on this dark rainy night... You open the door to around 3 dozen creatures, sharing seemingly old-school, rare intoxicants, injecting Life™, drinking & smoking various plants, having a good time with one another. You notice humans, extraterrestrials, some races of which you've never encountered before, all enjoying each others' company. You decide to hit the dancefloor when suddently a shady looking extraterrestrial stops you and asks you if you want an ampule of Life™. 5 seconds of silence passes before you shout "Sure!' You slip it in your pocket and thank the stranger. After 3 hours of dancing the night away, you walk outside of the club to head back to The Mantis' Shop to get some sleep. You feel around in your pockets and remember the ampule of Life™. You smash it, almost aggressively so, on the cement below, making sure to crunch the thin glass under your boots as you walk back to the shop...

It's been a long couple weeks here at the shop. Mantis has helped me kick Life™ for good. I'm now just on my detox medications that Mantis provides for me, and doing well. Lying on the cot in my section of the shop and reading an article on my HoloPhone, and Mantis over working on a soldering project commissioned by a customer. We hear a knock at the side-door. Very few people use the side-door... A familiar face! The Pleadian is here, and he is looking absolutely rough. "Hey you guys!", his voice cracking and ragged, sounding strung-out. "I brought a whole case of ampules over I thought maybe we could all get fucked up together?" The Mantis and I make eye contact. Knowing me and my comfort zones as well as he does at this point, we already know the plan. In one smooth motion, Mantis rises from his seat, approaches the Pleadian, grabs the box of ampules out of his arms, and simply says in English: "Listen bud. Shit's changed around here. If you wanna come buy some shit, thats one thing. But this ain't no Life™-House anymore, okay? I already saved one fucker from this shit", Mantis says gesturing to me. I wave and the Pleadian waves meekly back. "Pssh, I'm actually glad ya referred him to me, otherwise he would have probably ended up like You or I.". the Mantis says passive aggressively. "But to answer your question, yes. I plan on getting very fucked up tonight. Alone. The kid doesn't mind watchin. How many is in here 12? Well hey thanks for the gift bud, I'll see ya when you get clean." The Mantis shuts the door. The Mantis and I burst out laughing. Laughing through telepathy is a strange feeling. The Mantis prepares a shot for himself. He says: "Don't you get no fuckin' funny ideas, wiseguy." "You don't need Life™, You're living the real deal this time around." We both smirk at each other. A heavy sigh is breathed by both. "Thanks Mantis... and hey I've lived with you all this time and I don't even know your name!" "Haha, oh! The real name I was given the day I spawned was 'Mantis'." "...well, huh..." ================= FIN, MOTHERFUCKER.

The moral of the story is: Don't abuse Life.