Sunday, December 27, 2015

"Prison at the End of Time" a short story by Craig Zimmerman

In 1977, Jerry was convicted of murder and was given life in prison without parole. Unlike a lot of his fellow inmates. Jerry freely admitted his guilt. It was a drug deal gone bad and two people ended up dead.

Sometime in the mid 1980s, Jerry was approached about volunteering for some kind of experiment. For several months he was injected with a substance. He never did find out what it was.

After the experiment was over, Jerry didn't feel any different and he once again settled back into the routine of prison life.

Years  went past , guards and administrators grew old and retired, but Jerry remained as he was. At 55 years old, looked and felt like   the 32 year old he had been  when the experiment ended.

The prison doctors examined him over and over. but had no explanation. Apparently, there were no records anywhere of the experiment that Jerry had volunteered for in the 1980s.

More years past, guards and administrators retired. His latest lawyer tried to get Jerry released on the fact that he had served over 60 years of his sentence, but he was denied release.

In the year, 2050, scientists found a way to end crime by some type of new behavioral modification and the prison began to empty.The scientists tried the behavior modification on Jerry and released him.

The world of 2050 was confusing and bizarre. Jerry committed some minor vandalism and they put him back in the pen. Eventually, Jerry was the only prisoner left in the penitentiary. He suspected that law enforcement authorities didn't quite know what to do with him.

In the year, 2108, Jerry was moved to a new prison built just for him. Other then him, there were no other humans in the prison. Mechanical guards and workers did everything.

Centuries past, Jerry no longer saw any humans. It occurred to him that something may have happened, but he didn't care that much he was content.

A thousand years went by, the prison was no longer functional and Jerry  walked out into the world. He could find no people or any indication as to what happened to them. 

Not knowing what else to do, Jerry went back to his old prison and started to grow his own food. A 100 thousand years past, something was wrong with the sun. Even if Jerry could have diagnosed the coming Supernova, there was nothing he could do about it.

The sun exploded a few months later destroying Earth and the rest of the solar system. Jerry's sentence was over.






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