Bask In The Rust (Hospital)

Note: I'm not sure how reddit works, I just like the show.

(This is a flash fiction (<300 words) I wrote for an English class. The prompt was create a dystopian future affected by rapid technological changes)

Bask In The Rust

The hospital sat on top of the grey hill. The nervousness of dropping a slippery child during birth and shaking nerve damage from holding a scalpel too long was replaced with certain medical expertise, unflawed in any manner. At least that's what the commercials said. The learning process for machines had become vastly quicker and cheaper than training flesh, thus nearly half of hospitals have now been replaced with fully automated care facilities. People have come to trust these hospitals more, what with lower rates of death, infant mortality, and major surgical complications. Although there still are some people who prefer the flesh’s touch. This will change soon as flesh is not necessary for the practice.

Artificial intelligence (as it was once called) is now just another resource as common as the toothbrush in one’s bathroom. 

Due to sterilization protocol it has prohibited flesh from entering the building and due to information security the flesh that is in need of medical attention is promptly sedated before any care is administered. By all means this hospital has the highest quality of care and treatment. No different than an old flesh hospital with impossibly perfect physicians. 

Only one condition may differ. The dead are not buried here. It is part of the contract. A risk that is taken.

The hospital deposits a contract out of a metal box at the front gate. The family must sign. For the highest level of care there is a cost, and that is no longer money, not insurance struggling for the dime one holds onto so tightly. But the flesh. It is not common, but some cases are impossible even for a perfect mind. A perfect machine. 

The machine solves its only flaw. It wears the flesh. It becomes more like man.