Been a bit of a tough week. I've had a hard time writing because of a sport injury to my shoulder, but I managed to scrape together this terrible short story that I have always wanted to delve into. Not sure if I'm happy with the results, but considering that my shoulder turned yellow from bruising ater I spent several hours forcing myself to make this deadline, I'm okay with the results, for now. Maybe I'll write a sequel to this later on, or something like that. Sorry for any terrible typos, but this week I'm just happy to have gotten something written. Anyway, with that, here is my second week story, Breakdowns.
-----
I flipped the knife through the air, shattering one of the bird-like holograms that zipped around the room. I smirked at Zac’s hovering face and executed a spin kick, shattering another. I was playing at a pro level, on pace to break my record. One of the holograms turned from its normal pattern to try and knock me out of the round. I ducked and punched out with my left hand dissolving the light particles. I laughed and yanked another knife from my belt. I hadn’t felt this carefree about playing Shatter since I had first started competing. I lashed out with my knife, hitting one hologram, and grazing another so that it crashed into the nearby “forest”.
Another hologram dived at me, causing me to contort my flexible body in order to avoid knockout. Instead of continuing on its course and letting me be, it abruptly swerved and shattered against me, ending my round and fun for the night. The game shut down and the “forest” dissolved into a large circular room. A door directly behind me opened up, letting in the sounds and sights of the arcade. Since 2078, the influx of artificial intelligence had begun to grow, giving those who chose it, a life of luxury and freedom. Zac and I had jumped on board immediately, signing up for life in a two thousand square foot apartment and AI servants doing everything we needed.
I stepped out of the door, frowning. Zac looked to be just as perplexed as I was about how I had lost the round.
“What happened man?” Zac asked, with an upset tone, “The whole system cut out a couple seconds before the game shut down. I didn’t get to see your end game!”
“I’m not totally sure. Maybe it’s a new variable, a secret they don’t want anyone to be prepared for.” I said. “Makes sense that they would cut out the cameras if that’s the case.”
Zac screwed up his face, and then broke into a grin, nodding like crazy and pounding me on the back.
“You're right on man, that’s gotta be it! You’ve already got the leading score of the night so I don’t wanna hear what happened. I’ll see for myself tomorrow when they broadcast the replays.”
I smiled wanly. I was still disappointed that my score wasn’t as high as it could have been. I was covered in sweat and feeling a bit groggy after being in the game for so long, so I didn’t feel like chilling out at the arcade anymore. I pulled Zac’s arm and motioned toward the exit. He understood and, thankfully didn't protest much, but waved a sad goodbye to several of the local guys and girls.
When we stepped out of the arcade, the hot wind blasted against our light athletic clothing until we reached the sheltered Dock. I slid the thick glass door open and let Zac through. Zac led the way to the earliest departing pod.
The grey door slid open upon our arrival, revealing a pod with two seats available. Three other teens who were sitting inside, glanced up at us, before looking back at their handheld Companions. I sat down next to Zac and the pod door zipped shut, allowing for take off. We all pulled down our harnesses and strapped our lap belts. With a gentle feeling of acceleration, we pulled off for our ten minute trip across the desert and forest of California.
Four minutes into the trip, I noticed that something was wrong. The normally smooth trip was interrupted when a thud echoed off of the side of the pod. The other three teens looked up, frowning at the interruption. Zac made eye contact with me and looked back down with a roll of his eyes. Every now and than, a rodent or small bird would make its way into the pod shafts, creating a bump or slight disruption in the otherwise smooth ride.
Another bump occurred several seconds after, followed by several more. The pod ride became violent, jostling us together in the already cramped seating arrangement. The pod slammed to a halt, throwing us into our restraints. The girl across from me had squirmed out of her shoulder harness after we left the station, and was lying against the curved floor at my feet, her arms and legs askew. A series of heavy blows erupted from the walls and a dent appeared in the flooring, rising several inches up.
The other guys began to look up. Zac pulled a bit feebly at his harness, gasping for breath. The teen across from me was screaming as he yanked away from his restraint and rolled the girl onto her back. The last guy was hanging against his harness, blood dripping from several gashes on his head. I felt around in my curly hair, feeling a huge knot and the sticky feeling of blood. My stomach dropped a bit, but I grabbed ahold of Zac, checking him for injuries. He shook his head, coughed, and managed to undo his belt, standing shakily to his feet. The teen at our feet had ceased screaming and commenced loud sobbing, his whole body trembling with adrenaline and mourning. Another loud bang erupted from above us, the ceiling dropping several inches, accompanied by the sound of screeching metal.
"Not normal man, not normal," Zac choked out, his hands shaking a bit, he fell back into his seat. I sank to my knees beside the guy and girl, putting my hand on his shoulder. I looked into his face, the tears streaming from his eyes and blood running from several large cuts in his arms.
I put my hand over her mouth, and felt warm breath flowing around my fingers. I shuddered with relief.
"She's alive man, she's alive!" I said loudly, squeezing his shoulder. "Help will be here with meds and she'll get a healing chamber in minutes, she's not dead, she'll be fine."
He looked up at me, shaking his head. Another loud screech echoed, this time the side wall being bent inward.
"You don't understand, you don't..." He began coughing, spitting blood and shaking. His eyes began darting around, and he shook his head fearfully. I stood up, leaving him be. The other passenger was fine, probably just a minor concussion.
I spun to face Zac, just as the pod shook, and flipped upside down, dropping far enough for me to realize what was happening before smashing to a halt. My back hit the curved wall and my feet left the ground momentarily before I dropped forward onto my stomach, hands shielding my face. I saw the floor flying toward my face and my head hit the ground, sending me into darkness.
Indistinct voices swam through my mind, images sweeping through my eyes and pulling me into wakefulness. The crying boys face came into focus, his hard, gray eyes examining me closely. He shook me, yelling something I couldn't quite hear. The white walls blurred around my vision, and red spots grew and dissipated like stars. The curved walls seemed to roll around my vision. Zach's face joined the other's and they both pulled at me, yanking me to my feet.
I tried to stand on my own, to keep from hindering them and their safety, but they kept a tight hold of my arms and supported me. The door to the pod had been ripped off, leaving sharp, thin lines of gleaming steel to gleam dangerously outward. As they pulled me out, my leg caught the edge of the frame, slicing cleanly into my leg and leaving a thin stream of blood along my gray sweatpants.
My vision began to clear as the pain in my head and leg grew worse. Adrenaline pumped through my body as I looked around. My surroundings were just as I envisioned they would be. The black traveling tubes rose up into the sky at least fifty feet into the trees. A gaping hole in the bottom of the pipe revealed where we had fallen through. Green light pulsed from the energy wires and shone dimly in a wide area around us. Wires hung down from the hole, sparking and glowing a bright red, jumping around and brushing up against the tree branches.
The pod had been flipped right side up and was badly damaged. Huge dents were punched into the walls, and the door was nowhere to be seen.
Zac and the other kid had stood, allowing me to lay still. I shook my head, trying to clear the pain. I felt around me and tried to sit up. The ground around me was covered in leaves, trees rising up from the ground and vanishing into the darkness outside of the neon light.
I managed to slouch forward and rest my head between my knees, the world spinning around me. Zac left my side and entered the pod. The other teen crouched beside me, thankfully refraining from touching me. He began to speak, his voice was surprisingly calming, and my mind began to slow back down.
"Hey man, it's just a wreck. Were all alive. You've seen this happen on the news boards. They'll send help, it always happens. Let's just hope..." His voice trailed off, as he looked around warily, his face tensing up. At that moment, Zac came back out, dragging the girl. My therapist decided she was more important and leapt up to help Zac lay her down. I stood slowly, taking deep breathes and trying to relax. I stretched my arms, just as I did before many of the arcade tournaments. The adrenaline began to back off, letting me know that I was out of any immediate danger.
The entire pod system was still in development, being called experimental and possibly dangerous. The news boards and been punctuated about once a month by a pod wreck. The causes were never clear, although many pinned the blame on coding mistakes and human errors. I knew that the pods were made to withstand crashes of several hundred miles per hour, allowing many of the victims to survive the great velocities of near sound speed travel.
I walked over to the pod, leaning against it as Zac dragged out the last guy. He appeared to be in the worst shape, blood dripping from multiple head wounds, and his arms dragging the ground. I sat down, my back against the pod, waiting for my head to clear and the pain to subside. Zac made the two teens on the ground as comfortable as possible, and stood, looking tired and scared. I groaned and the other teen glanced at me, as if registering that I was still here. He grunted and pulled at his pocket, revealing a package of painkillers. He tossed them my way. I grabbed at the package, snagging it with my fingertips. I feverishly opened the package and stuck the long plastic strip to my forehead.
The pain immediately vanished, leaving me with a heightened sense of fear. Although pod wrecks had happened before, this would be the fifth one this week. Code didn't break that often, and even then it always mended itself, stronger and better than it had been before. This many outages in one week seemed more than a coincidence. Zacs voice echoed out of the silent forest.
"The guy, Brian, who's with the crying girl? She's had this theory man, that the structure they've had for coding doesn't work like they think. She thinks that because they've built it to fix itself, it's 'over fixed' it's own coding. She has a whole info board about it. Brian opened her Companion and showed me while you were knocked out. We waited a few minutes after we all fell. Brian was out of it and pretty crazy until he showed me."
I frowned, my cognitive functions returning the more I thought about it.
Maybe the accident in the arcade wasn't an accident, but the code, literally, forcing me to fail. It all made sense, actually. But what had attacked us before we fell? A sudden sense of urgency struck me.
"Brian, Zac, what attacked us before we fell? I remember the walls being punched in. And... And the door was ripped off! What happened, what would have caused the pod to rip itself out of the tunnel?"
Realization hit me. I turned to the pod, as Zac and Brian did the same. My eyes widened and my breath started to shake. There was no one in that tunnel but us and the pod. The pods communicated with each other, coordinating destinations and avoiding accidents. What if the pod had attacked itself? Maybe the overload of knowing that both the girl and I, who had connections with the computers recoding themselves, had caused the pod to self destruct. To do all in its power to destroy us.
The realization hit all of us, leaving us stunned. Attacked by the lifestyle we had all chosen, abandoning the real world for one that would turn on us in the end. Authorities needed to be alerted as soon as possible. The implications of a self writing code where overwhelming.
A grating sound echoed high above us, a shadow making it's way across the green light. If the pod hadn't succeeded, security bots were definetly up there, making their way down the wires now. No medics would be here until the pod arrival time passed. Staying stationary was no option now.
No comments:
Post a Comment