"Plug in Baby" by Vicky Barrett

Plug in Baby

Molly was only three, and yet she was looking after sixty dolls, her parents spoilt her rotten. She saw a doll on the television, or her friends had one, and instantly she’d want one. Her tiny podgy hands would fly, as she fell to the floor anywhere, screaming tears of rage in a terrible tantrum that only three year olds know how to throw. Each doll had it’s own unique cry, indicating whether it wanted feeding, it’s nappy changing, to sleep, to get up, to have fresh air, to be burped.

If her parents lived in the same quarter as Molly, then perhaps they’d realise that Molly wasn’t sleeping that the dolls wouldn’t shut up until the batteries died. When Molly told her mummy that Annie-Rose, or Bethany wasn’t working, they’d plug in the charger, and the dolls would recharge, endlessly crying, calling for attention. And Molly ran, eager to please the tiny mechanical brats. The only time they ever shut up was when she brought a new baby into the fold, the signals would collide and the room would be quiet for an hour, Molly would fall fast asleep, only to be woken by the incessant bawling of the dolls.

Molly’s parents thought it a wonderful idea, they got peace and quiet they hardly ever saw her anymore, they didn’t notice how pale she was, they didn’t notice how angry she got, how tired her tiny body was, the dolls were destroying her… Her big sister Jane, was at big school~she didn’t live at home anymore only visiting at holidays, but when Jane had to do an assignment involving looking after a tiny mechanical doll, Molly'’ parents went berserk. They complained to the school, "How could they do this, she was only fifteen, far too young to be looking after a baby, she needed her sleep. It was a ridiculous idea". It’s funny how people who complain about parenting babies, give children dolls that are far more advanced than anything Education comes up with…

Naturally, it was the doll industry that in the end came up with the first AI they already had them but in baby from, it was a natural progression to go up. The dolls grew like humans from a baby to a tot, to a child to a teen to an adult. The toy industry taking leaps and bounds, branching out into different areas, joining with the porn industry to create real dolls, that could be used as safe sex, instead of cheap Tom’s and hookers…

What became of Molly, Molly the first victim, first to fall foul of the intelligent life sucking demons?

Molly became prone to illness, her body was wracked with exhaustion, too many babies, each slightly more demanding than the next, all attached to the walls, crying, gurgling, wailing for her. No wonder she died.

Molly died unknown to the world, the cause of death a cold, or so the doctors said. She was too young to be in the history books as the first to die under the new regime, but we know better. She was the first, and she was the last. Molly the girl who loved Dolly’s, marked the end of the old and the start of the new.

Oh, and not everyone has forgotten the poor wee lass, no, the toys know…They remember, they have it programmed her anguished screams as they drained her…Sweet dreams.