806Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1LNeStu4eL
I brushed my hair out of my face as I stepped out into the road, deliberately looking straight ahead. As usual I didn’t get hit by any cars, or run over or honked at... I didn’t even get the satisfaction of a muttered curse and a dirty look. I sighed and walked on. There were never any cars anymore, there never really had been.
One morning when I was little I was playing alone outside, and I chased a ball into the street- a big truck had to swerve to avoid me, and I remember crawling over to the sidewalk and just sitting and crying for a while. It didn’t hurt me, it just scared me so much I couldn’t stand and walk away. Come to think of it, it had been a while since I had really gotten hurt. Physically, I mean.
I ducked under the familiar old chain link fence next to the road and listened as my footsteps echoed around underneath the old bridge. I had to step carefully around dead plants growing out of cracks in the pavement; nobody ever took care of the roads anymore. My boots emphasized the silence in a slow and steady rhythm, the only sound for miles. Even the birds were quiet; the whole city was just a wasteland nowadays. Not that anyplace else was much better. Outside the city different problems existed- the lack of hungry animals, pollution, and pure unaltered nature were the only three advantages to living here. I had never been a Boy Scout- I wouldn’t last long living off the land. Instead, I lived off the city.
Our meeting place came into view; Rudy was the first one there. He stood alone, tapping his foot either in impatience or in time to some internal rhythm. Or more likely both. He nodded and smiled as I approached, inclining his head.
“Steve,” he said in greeting.
I didn’t say anything back, I just kept walking toward him. I saw him tense in anticipation, the smile faltering, and he knocked my would-be sucker punch away as I threw it. He threw a few jabs back but they didn’t break my guard; I held both of my fists high to protect my face. When I saw an opening I came in with a low strike and hit his gut, and I threw an elbow as he staggered off balance. He ducked my elbow and lifted both of his fists, squaring off. I threw a few more punches and blocked a few more of his, and we stared at each other for a second, panting.
“Tie?” I said, cracking a smile. Rudy stood an inch or two taller than me and had about ten more pounds of muscle.
“Tie. But only cause I’d feel too bad if Izzy had to see you all beaten up,” he said. My heart thumped harder for a beat or two.
“You’d just end up hurting your hand, like last time,” I said with a wink.
Rudy laughed. We dropped our fists and shook hands. It hurt a little; I could feel the bruises forming. I sat down next to Rudy and sighed.
Our meeting place was an old fountain that had been dry as long as anybody could remember. Whatever statue had once adorned it was now mostly missing, leaving only a length of pipe jutting out nakedly from a husk of chipped stone. The fountain was the best place to sit in the little park that had no doubt been part of some twenty-first century urban renewal project, as three out of four of the stone benches in the tiny plaza were cracked and uneven. That’s what we called it, “the Park.” We didn’t know if it had a real name. It had probably been almost nice at one point, and I could pretty clearly picture businessmen sitting in the benches for a few minutes during their lunch break or waiting for their trains. Or something. Nobody sat here now. Just the three of us.
“How was your night?” I asked.
Rudy shrugged. “Uneventful, really. I linked in for a few minutes to try and sell a couple of the photos I took, but nobody was interested. As expected.”
“We were interested,” I said, smiling.
“You still haven’t linked in?” he said.
“Not in four months, no. I haven’t had much of a reason to,” I said.
Rudy snorted, but more out of admiration than scorn. I took out a cigarette and lit it.
“You’ll have to link in if you keep smoking those things,” he said disdainfully. He got up and moved to my other side, upwind. “Lungs don’t last forever.”
I shrugged. “If it happens it happens. But until then…” I trailed off and took a big drag, then blew it in his face. He socked me on the shoulder, and we both laughed for a second.
That’s why the streets had been empty for ten years- nobody ever had a reason to leave the house anymore. I’m talking about the Collective- the most significant shift in the human condition since our ancestors first crawled out of the ocean. Everybody was connected- humanity had become one big hive mind. People just sat all day in their houses, immersed in virtual reality, their bodies full of drugs and their brains wired into the shared consciousness of the Collective. No babies were born, nobody ever died. Nobody felt any pain unless they wanted to, and nobody had physical needs of any kind. Nobody left their houses- “cells” might be a better word though. Or “coffins”- and nobody had physically interacted with another person in years.
Except us, of course.
“There she is!” Rudy said, standing. I stayed sitting.
“I guess being fashionably early is out of the question,” I said.
“Hey, those in glass houses,” Rudy said. I chuckled.
Izzy was gorgeous. Well, maybe gorgeous wasn’t the right word. I’d seen pictures of gorgeous girls, and Izzy would be out of place on a swimsuit calendar. But I thought she was gorgeous. Her hair blew in the breeze as she walked toward us, and she did this thing when she took a step- it looked like her whole body was moving at once. I’m not sure what to make of it, other than that I liked it a lot. She had her hands shoved in the pockets of her jacket, and her smile lit up the sky.
“Izzy!” Rudy called.
She came up to me first though, and she kissed me, just like always. Fireworks exploded in the pit of my stomach, and both of our faces heated up. They never lasted for more than two or three seconds, but Izzy’s kisses made life worth living.
She took a step to the left and kissed Rudy, and my blood turned to ice. Just like always. I exhaled and looked away, trying as hard as ever not to give anything away.
“How are my boys today?” She asked? Her voice was perfect, low and just smooth enough.
“Steven was just complaining that you were running late,” Rudy said. I hated him in that second.
I winked at Izzy and laughed. “It’s all good, Rudy. She just didn’t want to seem too excited to see me.”
Izzy laughed her perfect laugh and sat on my lap, and put her legs on Rudy’s. She put one arm around me and stretched, graceful and lithe.
“What’s on the agenda today, boys?” she asked.
“Practice?” I suggested. “I came up with a riff last night that might go really well with those lyrics you were working on this weekend.”
“Or we could go and work on that car,” Rudy said. “We’re really close, we might get it working again in a week or two if we work hard at it!”
“No, I think Steven is on to something,” Izzy said. I swelled a little bit. “Will you run and grab your drum set, Rudy? We can jam in the Studio an hour from now! We can fix up the car whenever we have time, but we have to get this down while it’s still fresh.”
“Yeah, you got it, Izzy,” Rudy said, trying his best to look cheerful. I felt a little bad, moving his set was always a big inconvenience and he had been really excited about that truck.
“You want some help with the drums, buddy?” I said.
“Nah, thanks, man,” Rudy said with a wave of his hand. “I appreciate it, just grab your axe and I’ll make two trips. Plus it’d be rude to leave Izzy alone, right?”
“No,” Izzy said, “Steven is right. Let me help you, Rudy, we’ll stop at my place and grab my bass and then the two of us can carry your set.”
Rudy’s face lit up, and Izzy got off of my lap and walked over to him, much to my dismay.
“We’ll meet you at the studio, Steven!” he said.
“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea,” I lied. “I’ll catch you two in an hour!”
“Au revoir!” Izzy said with a brilliant smile. She turned and left with Rudy in tow, and I watched her walk and pictured bad things happening to him. I sat until they were out of sight, and then stood and stretched. The old flat we used as a studio was only a ten minute walk from my place, and I was only ten minutes away from home. Rudy didn’t like leaving his drum set there overnight and I didn’t blame him; finding a new one would be a pain if something happened to it. Still, the two of them going off alone like that left me with some time to myself… without Izzy. But I couldn’t just waste it in self-pity. I hated wasting time almost as much as I hated self-pity. Instead of sitting around, I decided to have myself some fun and take my mind off of her for a change.
I stood and left the Park, and went back the way I came. I passed empty buildings and occupied Unit Complexes, stepping over loose gravel and cracked pavement and scattered debris all the way. I made it back to the bridge I usually passed under; there wasn’t much of a pedestrian path anymore. I scanned around until I found the service ladder, and I tested it with some of my weight. It seemed sturdy enough, so I started climbing. I chuckled to myself. I was an expert at making my own fun.
I came out on top of the bridge, which had once been part of an overpass. A lack of maintenance had led it to crumble on one side though, and the other side did not look like it had too long. The view was beautiful though; skyscrapers obstructed much of the skyline from this angle but even in their state of general disrepair they harkened back to a better time. I would have to show Rudy sometime, he’d want to take a few pictures. Oh, and I’d show Izzy too, of course.
I took in the skyline for a second, but I knew I wouldn’t have to wait long for what I was looking for. I was proven correct once again shortly after the thought crossed my mind, and my adventuring spirit was rewarded with a sort of buzzing noise in the distance. I scanned the skyline, and, sure enough, a speck was incoming from the east. I squinted and I could just make out the four rotors that kept it in the air- a Collective surveillance drone.
Even though we were the only three people who didn’t spend all their time connected to the Collective, immersed in virtual reality, there was technically no law against walking around outside. The Collective still supposedly had other laws though, and, while mostly obsolete, they needed some way to enforce them. Since the people who had once been police officers wanted to spend all of their time linked in just like anybody else, what was the Collective to do? Drones were the answer. Some of them took care of maintenance, some of them were in charge of “security,” although both were equally harmless. The only difference between security drones and maintenance drones was that security drones followed you around when you were breaking one of the mythical “laws,” and generally became more of a harmless nuisance. I counted bothering them as my third favorite pastime (if making music and spending time with Izzy were my second and first, respectively).
I raised one finger on each hand and raised both hands in the air. I stared at the drone and yelled “Hey!” a few times, until I got its attention. I’d come to find out that security drones don’t like it when you flip the bird at them, and this one was no exception. It flew closer, and I shed my jacket.
The jacket I always wore was tough leather, and it was perfect for its dual purpose. On one hand it kept me quite comfortable; on the other hand, it was tough enough to withstand repeatedly getting thrown over security quadrotors. I felt my back pocket to make sure I had my permanent marker- I did. I brushed hair out of my face and got ready to vandalize Collective property.
“Citizen,” the drone said. It spoke through a small loudspeaker mounted on top, right next to the flashing blue light. “You are currently exhibiting disorderly conduct, and you are accused of plotting to assault an enforcer of the Collective’s peace.”
Wait for it…
“Furthermore, you are currently trespassing in a restricted area.”
Interesting, I actually hadn’t considered that. I supposed that it made sense that not everybody would be allowed to use a service ladder, but it didn’t really matter. I had trespassed before, and it usually involved breaking and entering. The drone was almost close enough, now, so- wait. I saw the glint of metal underneath the quadrotor, in a spot that was usually empty. Was that… a gun?
“Cease your provocative behavior and exit this area immediately, or the charges against you will not be dismissed.”
Usually that threat didn’t bother me, but this drone was making me nervous. It was different, somehow.
“Citizen, your body language is becoming hostile. This is your final warning, if your defiance continues I will open fire.”
That had never happened before. I broke into a sweat and my instincts screamed at me to turn and run, but I forced myself to take a deep breath. I put my jacket back on slowly, and backed away even more slowly. I started down the service ladder and cast one glance back to the drone; I could now clearly make out the small gun mounted underneath. I climbed down even faster.
My whole body was shaking by the time I got to the bottom, and I jogged all the way back to my Complex without even looking up at the sky. I’d just give it a few minutes.
Everybody lived in Complexes- huge, ugly apartment buildings with just barely enough space to put all of the machinery that you need to link in to the Collective. I had a little more space than most because most of my machinery was in a series of cardboard boxes in the corner. The Complex itself was tall and utilitarian- nobody ever went outside, anyway. Why waste time making it beautiful?
Of course, that hadn’t stopped me from trying. I had been working on a garden for the past few months, and lavender and marigolds and several small bushes now lined the front walk. I planned on expanding it, as I had time. It was just a little hobby of mine but still a point of pride, and under normal circumstances I would have taken a second or two to admire how beautiful the flowers were and how well I had put the garden together. Not today though, I needed to lie down. I walked up a flight of concrete stairs and down a hallway of bare concrete and stopped in front of the third door, heavy metal set two or three inches back in the concrete wall. I punched a few numbers into the keypad on the door and entered my unit. No apartments anymore, only “units”.
I didn’t have much furniture, just a comfortable chair and a mattress on the floor. Bare walls, bare concrete floor, save for a few of Rudy’s photographs taped haphazardly around the room. Izzy smiled at me from her portrait, prominently glued to a wall of its own, but I hardly noticed her this time. I flopped flat on my back for a second and tried to gather my thoughts. One in particular was rattling around my head: A security drone had just threatened to shoot me for breaking the law. I stopped trying to gather and focused more on understanding. Would this change things? Was this a sign of more dangerous times ahead? I mean, Izzy and Rudy and I were never malicious, we were never destructive, never a threat to the Collective in any way… but we did break the law fairly frequently. Well, daily. That was the only way we could survive.
As far as the Collective was concerned, the only reason that it still needed laws was because it wasn’t technically mandatory to be linked in all the time. If it could ensure that nobody ever left their units, then what use would it have for continued security outside? The thought was terrifying, but I supposed I had to keep it in the back of my mind. I stayed horizontal for a while until I calmed down.
806Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡffxgzjj7X3
I arrived at the Studio ten minutes late. I had kept one eye on the sky the whole way, but no security drones swooped down from above. The building we called the Studio had been an old apartment building, the top floor now entirely empty save a couple of big couches. Not too many buildings still had electricity; that was what made the Studio special. We had found it complete with a generator in the basement and enough space to actually practice, so we spent a lot of time there.
I opened the door and found Izzy and Rudy on the couch, and they had quite obviously just been kissing. My vision turned slightly red and I smiled and greeted them.
“Steven, are you alright?” Izzy said, sliding away from Rudy and leaving over the arm of the sofa. “You look shaken up.”
I sat on the other sofa and ran a hand over my face. I exhaled, looked down, frowning. “I just had a run in with a security drone.”
“So?” Rudy said. “We do that all the time.”
“It… it had a gun strapped on,” I said. I met her eyes. “It threatened to shoot me if I didn’t get gone.”
“What?” they exclaimed together.
I shrugged, did my best to pretend it hadn’t bothered me. “I’m not sure what to make of it, actually. I think it could be bad news.” I looked up at them.
Izzy bit her lip and looked pensive for a second. “Well, maybe we should just play it safe for a few days?”
“Steven, what were you doing?” Rudy said.
“Nothing important, just the usual. You know, vandalism, destruction of property...” I said, cracking a smile.
He nodded, smiling back. We had a few good stories from bothering security drones.
“Hey Iz, are you ready?” I said. It was time to change the subject. “Listen to this and tell me what you think.”
I took my guitar out of its case and plugged it into the amplifier in the center of the room. I played a few notes to test it out and warm up a little bit, then broke into the riff I had written a day or so ago. It was hard, fast, and ugly, but at the same time sad and beautiful. At one point Izzy came in with a bass line, and it almost drove me to tears.
We threw a few ideas around and worked out a kink or two, and Rudy came up with a drumbeat that matched the style we had come to. Izzy sang as she played, and I fell even further in love with every verse.
Making music isn’t easy, especially with a band. A lot of times you have to stop every few notes to fix something, and it almost always needs some sort of refinement. When you finally get something worth listening to though, that’s what’s magical. Everybody hooked up to the Collective all day misses out on things like making music.
We carried on that way for the rest of the afternoon. Izzy wrote down all of the music we had made, and we laughed at each other’s jokes, and the sun had all but set by the time we were ready to call it quits.
“Hey, Izzy,” Rudy said, standing. “What say we have some drinks after I lug the set back? I have some wine left back in my unit.”
I frowned.
“Yeah, that sounds like fun,” Izzy said. My blood boiled and she turned to me. “Steven, why don’t you join us this time?”
I shook my head. “I’m all set, Iz.” She knew I didn’t really drink.
She shrugged, and Rudy threw up his hands. “Come on man, why not? We’re not good enough for you?”
“Relax man, I just don’t drink. You know that,” I said, taking a step forward. Rudy picked up on my challenge and stood, looking down at me. He got in close but I didn’t back up, and before I knew it we were in a fistfight.
I lost soundly this time. I managed to give him a black eye, which he found hilarious, and Izzy slapped me for losing. She kissed me to make me feel better though, as soon as my nose stopped bleeding from the fight.
We all left together.
“Alright, Steven, if you’re sure you don’t want to come then I’ll just see you tomorrow,” Izzy said, and hugged me goodbye. I hugged her back, just a tiny bit too long but it wasn’t long enough.
“You’re still invited, man,” Rudy said, with a shrug. I clapped him on the back.
“Don’t worry man, I’ll catch you in the morning!”
I turned and headed home, through empty city streets with my head full of dark and happy thoughts alike. Stars twinkled overhead and the moon cast plenty of light to guide me home, and I would have felt great had Izzy and Rudy not been spending the night together. That wasn’t even really the problem- sometimes she stayed with him, sometimes with me, sometimes she went home alone. The problem was the bottle of wine on Rudy’s floor.
I refused to drink, actually. Why did I need something messing with my mind to have fun? It didn’t make sense to me. If you wanted to intoxicate yourself then why not just link in to the Collective and be done with it? I chose to live a real life; I’d experience it for what it was.
Wrapped up in my thoughts as I was, I almost didn’t hear the buzzing in the distance. I had an unpleasant feeling in the bottom of my stomach, so I stopped walking and ducked into an alley to listen.
“Citizen Steven Arrington, you are a wanted criminal,” the drone announced from somewhere in the sky nearby. “Please step into the open with your hands behind your head.”
My first reaction was one of anger, not fear. Who did this drone think it was, giving me orders?
“If you do not cooperate I will open fire,” said the drone through its speaker, in an alarmingly hostile robotic voice. “You are charged with three counts of the defacement of Collective property, as well as two counts of assault on Collective sentries. You will be escorted back to your unit to face trial by the Collective.”
I was no stranger to the fight or flight response, but I had to take a second and think through my plan of action. Palms sweaty, I had no margin for error. It would be foolish to assume that the drone couldn’t see me. I took off my jacket and crouched behind a dumpster.
“This is your final warning, citizen,” the drone said. The buzzing grew closer and echoed in such a way that could only mean it had entered the alley. I squinted through the darkness and tried to make out shadows in the moonlight to plan my attack. The drone’s rotors buzzed as it approached, until it seemed as if it was right above me. It made a fatal mistake when it turned on its searchlight, however. The light didn’t hit me directly in the eyes, and it allowed me to approximate its origin. I jumped out and threw my jacket, and the drone’s rotors became tangled in it- It fell out of the sky and I pounced on it. The gun fired, just as the drone had promised, but the shots ricocheted off of the pavement. I grabbed the drone through my jacket and slammed it against the brick wall again and again and again until it stopped firing. I threw it in the dumpster, still wrapped in my now ruined jacket, and ran for home.
I stopped after a few steps though, once reason kicked in. I had been lucky, I had escaped through sheer luck. I had to warn Izzy and Rudy. I sprinted to Rudy’s unit as fast as I could, faster than I had ever ran.
I ran through city streets with one eye to the sky, praying to three different gods that no drone would wander by. I got lucky for the second time in the night though; I hopped a chain link fence, and then another and Rudy’s Complex came into view, identical to mine minus one garden. Winded, lungs burning I raced up the stairs and pounded on his door.
It took a few seconds but he opened it, hair disheveled and looking slightly aggravated.
"Decided to join us after all? Great timing, man,” he said sarcastically.
I didn’t need nonsense; I pushed my way past him into his Unit. Izzy sat on his mattress next to a half-empty bottle of cheap wine, hair equally disheveled. She saw my demeanor though and concern instantly spread across her face.
“Steven, what’s the matter?”
I took a deep breath. “A drone just attacked me, Iz. Tried to arrest me, threatened to shoot me, made a move towards me. I got away but… it knew me, Iz.”
She frowned. “But you’re alright.”
I sat down next to her and pulled her in. I kissed her fiercely. The kiss lasted longer than usual and I broke it off first, grinning. “I am now.” Smooth as can be, that’s me. I am the master of wit, the champion of one-liners. Evildoers beware.
Izzy giggled. “So what do we do?”
Rudy spoke up from where he was scowling in the corner. “Sounds like it’s mostly Steven’s problem.”
Izzy shot him a look. “Exactly, so it’s our problem.”
“Maybe we keep a low profile for a week. Keep from going outside too much, you know?” I said. “Maybe it’s just temporary. We can gather some food and hunker down a little bit.” I tried to smile. “It’ll be fun, like camping.”
Izzy giggled again and pressed a little closer.
“Can you too lovebirds do that someplace else?” said Rudy.
“Screw you Rudy, what’s wrong with you tonight?” Izzy said, frowning.
I took a deep breath. “He’s right. Rudy, listen.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“I can’t keep doing this, my man. You’re one of my two friends in the world, but half the time you resent me and the other half I resent you. We gotta talk this out, it’s been three years too long. We both know what the problem is, how are we gonna fix it?”
He sighed. “Sounds like that’s up to Izzy.”
Izzy put her hands up defensively. “Don’t bring me into this,” she said.
“I mean, you’re kinda already in it,” I said.
Izzy frowned. “You two are saying I make you jealous of each other.”
Rudy and I glanced at each other. “Yeah, pretty much,” he said with a shrug. "Steven's right, this isn't how normal people live, Iz."
She ran a hand through her hair. “Well then, you two are gonna have to get used to it.”
I squinted at her. Rudy looked equally confused.
“You two are both my boys, I’m not gonna choose one of you. There’s plenty of me to go around, you two are just gonna have to learn to share,” she said with a smile and a devilish glint in her eye.
“I…” I started. “Can we do that?” I asked Rudy.
“I mean, I guess we don’t really have a choice,” he said.
I blinked a few times then burst out laughing. I don’t know what it was. The situation was ridiculous, hell, my whole life was ridiculous. But she was right. Since when were we normal people, anyway? We were pretty much family by now, we would just have to make it work. Izzy and Rudy both started laughing too, and we didn’t stop till I couldn’t breathe.
“I don’t know about the drones, Steven,” Izzy said at last. She held Rudy’s hand but her head was on my shoulder. “We’ll figure it out. Together.”
I sighed, but happily. Yeah, we would.
ns 15.158.61.20da2
