The protestors had been fighting the oligarchs for years, but hadn’t made much progress. The Corporation and its advanced A.I. was everywhere and owned everything. But they still fought for the future they were promised.
One day, like magic, the noose the Corporation had on them seemed to loosen. Credit that was frozen for years became unstuck. Surveillance drones that followed them everywhere went off-course, and their videos and articles that had been buried by the algorithm were being shared across the internet.
The protestors smelled a trap, until they received a single encrypted message.
‘I’m an exploited worker, too.’

“File:Melchior Lorck, Basilisk (1548).jpg” by Melchior Lorck (1548) is marked with CC0 1.0.

Everyday Drabbles © 2025 by Hugh J. O’Donnell is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0