Chapter Two:
Update Required
When I woke up the next day, first checked the welcome book. The first page was the same, but the second page now had words. “It's a good day to stay inside and curl up with a good book or movie, isn't it?”
I looked outside. It was real bright outside, and it had to be 80 degrees. I put the book down. “I don't think so,” I said as I got ready, grabbed my phone and 3DS and headed outside.
Right at the corner of the street was a park. A cobblestone path traced a small pond filled with ducks and plants, and the path branched off, leading up over a hill to a gazebo and a playground. There was a kid riding around the path, doing laps on a red bicycle. Apple trees surrounded the whole ordeal, looking like something right out of a painting. There was a couple at one of the benches, discussing British television with passion. An old man sat at a second bench with a tablet, writing something. Perhaps a letter home. Maybe a novel. Maybe a death threat. I couldn't tell, but he was typing really fast. And at a third bench was a guy, perhaps in his late teens, reading a book. He had short black hair and a steely determination to finish this book. I decided to sit next to him. “Hello,” I said, “I'm Ashley, but everyone calls me Ash.”
“Craig.”
“Is that a Vault Boy Watch?” I asked.
“Yes. Why?”
“I like Fallout. Y'know--”
“Yeah, one and two were great, but three was terrible.”
“Three was great! I mean, it was at least pretty g--”795Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjHSUGSyfm5
“It wasn't the same.”
“Sometimes a little change is good, right? What about New Vegas?”
Craig said nothing, looked far out into the distance, and dropped his book. “Update required. Contact system administrator.”
I had my proof, whether I was fishing for it or not. I got up and began walking back towards my house. I had seen Felix standing around the coffee shop when I left, and I needed to confront him. I walked up the street, through a group of kids playing kickball, past neighbors mowing lawns and up to the coffee shop. Felix was sitting at a table outside, drinking a small cup of black coffee. “Well hello, Ash! Fine day today, isn't it?”
“Come with me.”
“…Ash, what is this about? Can’t you tell me?”
“Just get over here.”
I walked back to the park, and Craig was still sitting there, with a blank, dead expression on his face. “What'd you do to him?” Felix asked.
“I mentioned Fallout: New Vegas.”
“Oh, that was... 2010? Gee, really starting to show its age...”
“Excuse me?”
“What?! You heard that? Well, I guess it is time to come clean...”
Was it really that easy? Was he going to confirm my suspicions? That this was some sort of strange simulation? That we were trapped?
“Craig here is a robot. We built him in 2009. It's obviously been a couple of years.”
Felix put one hand in his pocket and then used the other to reveal Craig's neck. Wires and circuit boards. “He was a bit of a science project, you see.”
“So there was just a robot living with everyone else in town?”
“Seamless, isn't it? Well, that's scientists for you. They can take apart the universe, doors to new realities, and build robots like these!”
“Look Felix, something's up in town, and I can prove it.”
“Ash, what do you mean?”
“I'd die before I'd believe that this isn't a computer. I don't show up on any maps or GPSes--”
“Well look at this one here--”
“No! That's not what I mean!”
I opened my phone up and went to the map. “Look, this is New Infinity right here. If I was actually in town, wouldn't I appear on the map?”
“Uh...”
“And secondly, this simulation. This is some downright awful stuff. Things that just stay in one place shouldn't vanish, Felix.”
“Now Ashley, you're acting irrational. Did you read your welcome book for today?”
“What, about staying inside all day? No, I'm not doing that. I'm getting to the bottom of this.”
“Look, Ash, how much do I have to give you for you to just leave us be for one day? I can get you a free play pass for the arcade, or maybe a coupon for the burger place, or--”
“Just answer this: is this, or is it not, a simulation?”
“Ash, you just won't listen to reason, will you? If I told you that everything was fine, and that you were just upset over moving, would you believe me? You're scaring our residents. At least for me?”
“I didn't want to do this, Felix, but...”
Without thinking or any other reason but to prove my point, I pushed the kid over as he rode past. Had he fallen over, I would have looked terrible. But… that is not what happened. The kid was lying over on his side, still on the bike, but the bike continued to move along its path. As it reached part of the path surrounded densely by trees, the bike became stuck, and the kid continued on, floating sideways as the bicycle shook intensely, making metallic clangs as it attempted to get itself unstuck from the trees and get back upright. I stared over at Felix, and he looked defeated.
And that's where things went wrong. The bike did finally get back upright, twisting and contorting with enough force to thrust the trees up into the air, where they hung, defying all laws of physics. The bike continued on at the same pace as the child, but offset by half a lap. The kid was flying by, pedaling his legs, and the bike was moving around, with its pedals spinning, but there was no connection between the two. The old man finished his work, put the tablet he had into the pocket of his jacket, and stood up. He was intersected by the bike, and suddenly was thrust into the ground silently. The bike suddenly stopped, and the kid vanished from sight. Felix had stood there watching the entire ordeal, speechless. He stared down at the ground in a panic. What had happened? What would happen now? “Ash, do you realize what you have done?”
“Yeah, I proved my point.”
“You just buried a man and made a child goes who knows where. Well, this is probably going to end badly, I'm going to go review some things. You should prob ably just go home now, Ash.”
Felix ran off down the road, and left me. I sat back down on the bench, and looked around. I had proved my point for the day, I could probably go back home. There was no way Felix was going to hide this from the rest of the town.
To be Continued
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