Activation: Failed

 
“Oh shit!” said Austin, frantically inserting quarters into the payphone and dialing the number, “Come on, come on, come on!”

He looked completely out of place standing there at the payphone in a bad part of town, in the middle of the day, and dressed only in a pair of tiny black briefs. Sure, he had a hot body, but this was no place to be showing it off. Payphones were hard to come across any more, and with his cell phone dead and time running extremely short, he had no choice.

“Come on! Pick up!” he screamed into the phone.

“Thank you for calling the Activation Line,” greeted the pre-recorded voice system, “Please listen carefully, as our menu options have changed. For new activations, please say ‘New Activations.’ For extensions to current activations, please say ‘Extensions.’ To speak with a customer service representative –”

“Extensions!” said Austin, “Extensions!”

“I’m sorry,” the voice system responded, “I didn’t understand you. Please say your command again.”

“Extensions!” said Austin, as clearly as he could.

“Got it. Extensions. Please speak your current sixteen-digit rental number, or dial it on the keypad, followed by the pound sign.”

“I don’t know it!” said Austin, “I don’t have it with me!”

“I’m sorry,” said the voice system, “I didn’t understand you. Please speak your current sixteen-digit rental number, or dial it on the keypad, followed by the pound sign. If you do not have a current rental number, please say ‘New Activations.’”

“No!” said Austin, “No, no, no!”

He felt the suit become suddenly tight around him and heard a faint beeping sound coming from the transponder inside the back of the suit’s neck. He reached back, attempting to silence it, but it only got louder and faster.

“Shit!” he said, slamming the receiver against the phone booth.

“I’m sorry,” he heard the voice system say, “I didn’t understand you. Activation: Failed. Goodbye.”

Austin felt his body go rigid, his hand still tightly gripping the phone as his lost control and tumbled solidly to the ground. The suit had gone into full shut-down mode, and thanks to the transponder in the back of its neck, a collection team would be on the way shortly to manually re-activate  it – and no doubt charge Austin a hefty late fee.

In the meantime, all he could do was lay there on the ground, completely motionless.

“Damn it!” he thought to himself, “I should have kept my fucking eye on the time!  Next time I rent one of these things, I’m gonna have to shell out for an Automatic Extension, that’s for damn sure!”