'complete'

On my desk, in my cubicle, in my office building, on the twentieth floor, my boss sets a bowie knife. She steps back slowly and stares at my forehead. She pats the gun at her waist. She says, "You must stab every person in the office across the hallway." She hands me a badge. "It is official," she says. I say, "I can scrump ten thousand hallways until batch dawn twenty-three." I say, "I am." I'm in the hallway with the knife. Every man has Gene Hackman's face. Every woman is Gene Hackman's daughter. I'm in the other office. My boss is in her office. I am watching my boss fill out a report on her computer. Her computer screen is black. Her cursor is yellow. She is using outdated unix-based software. She types, 'complete'. I am on someone's desk. I have the knife in my hand. The blade is very long and very shiny. Gene Hackman's daughters are crying. The Gene Hackman's are resolute. I am Gene Hackman. I am resolute. I stab myself, then my daughters. My blood is orange. The carpet is orange. I stab Gene Hackman. I stab myself. My boss is in her office. Her computer is old and noisy. She presses a button. The button is labelled 'enter'. The computer screen says, 'execute'. There are many dots on the computer screen. The office building is an office building and I am on the twentieth floor and I and every other Gene Hackman and every daughter of Gene Hackman are carefully dead.