Safe

It had started as a small project to track someone’s heartbeat unobtrusively.

The person could be anywhere in the room; if their heart stopped, the system would know.

And not only would it know, it had ways to make sure that the heart would be revived.

Then, the project evolved.

If the person stopped breathing, it would know as well, and it would then activate whatever means necessary to fix whatever was wrong.

But the room could do so much more.

With cameras and sensors and a plethora of other devices, the room could track whether the person was being properly fed, or even whether they had taken whatever pills might have been prescribed.

Any ailment that could assail them, the room would know, the room would fix it.

There was a vast array of ways of interacting with the person to save them, if need be, or to help them if required.

If the person had a medical condition that made them forget about a pill or something else, an alarm would sound.

If the alarm couldn’t be heard, it would revert to a light, or it would light up the pill, or mix it with the water, or do whatever had to be done to get that pill to its destination.

All else failing, a door would open and a robot would step in, much like a human being, to the rescue.

The room was the safest place to be.

Almost nothing that could happen outside could interfere with that environment.

Even if no one from the outside kept track of things, the stock of supplies and the interface with other systems should be enough to keep the person inside the room alive for as long as required.

Inside the room, a frail person laid on a comfortable bed.

It was hard to know whether the person wasn’t moving because of the comfort or because it would be painful to do so.

This person had endless questions on their mind:

- I wonder if I could kill myself somehow…

The door was locked.

- I wonder if there’s anyone else still alive out there…

It had been a long time.

- Am I the oldest person ever now?