“Have any of you tried to log out today?” The Cat Lady asked. Darien raised his hand.
“The door to my apartment was locked. There’s no public space anymore either. It’s like we’re trapped in here.”
“I thought so. He’s trying to maximize the number of infections and overload the system. That’s what the hole in the sky is. An overload. And it will happen again.”
“But why? What’s his end game?”
“His virus is malware stolen from my AI cats. They observe The City and learn. His zombies are slow, but learning, and soon The City will be theirs.”
The City: 100: Darien
February 13, 2015
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The City: 099: The Cat Lady
February 12, 2015
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“Because they’re building something else.” The old woman appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the group of teens and twenty-somethings. “The virus overwrites an Avatar, boots the user, and replaces it with a massive AI module.”
“What happens to the user?” Paulo asked
“Forced to log out, but it’s an unsafe boot. Somewhere between ten and fifty percent will suffer acute Boot Syndrome. Midas hushed up the figures about the problem. It’s why I quit in the first place.”
“I’m sorry, who are you?” Nora asked.
“I’m The Cat Lady, and I believe you have something of mine.”
The City: 098: Michio
February 11, 2015
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“We’re getting distracted,” Dawn said. She was only fifteen, but determined to take charge, as usual. “We’re safe here from the Zombies for now, but we need to figure out what’s going on here before we can stop it.”
“From my data a virus was released into the system on corporate channels at three PM City Local.” Michio said. He was one of Hiro’s buddies. “About an hour later, a second vector spread the virus in the from of a programmed explosion, that also created the rip in the sky above Midas Tower.”
“So Midas is the source, but why?”
The City: 097: Sibeal
February 10, 2015
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Xue cracked her knuckles and bit back a scream of frustration. The large group gathered in a hidden spot in the park. Over forty people had answered, but not Ingmar They had the manpower, but what they didn’t have was a plan.
“What’s wrong,” Sibeal asked. She was one of Aoife’s friends.
“I can’t reach Ingmar. We were hoping to get his input.”
“On what?”
“This.” Nora set a green collar down on a picnic table. He examined it.
“Where did you find this?”
“On a cat, of course.”
“Cats aren’t a part of The City’s programming. Who made this?”
The City: 096: Tobias
February 9, 2015
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Tobias had been taken at gunpoint to the bank by Renee and Mina. With Joseph booted, he was the ranking manager. They took him to the vault and demanded he unlock the terminal with his keycard. When he refused, she reached into his inventory and grabbed it.
“We don’t need you, just access.” She plugged it in and the machine chirped as it came to life. She typed feverishly for five minutes before the machine shut down and faded away. “There. Now we’re all very rich.”
“Midas will never let this stand,” Tobias said.
“Silly man. We own Midas now.”
The City: 095: Chandra
February 6, 2015
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Chandra saw the man by the door boot the hero before he got the gun away from the kid, then point the weapon at him.
“You left your goddamn phone on?” Norm asked. There were four that she could see, all with guns. There were others in the back, doing something in the vault. She just came in to check her balance before logging off.
“Sorry sir. Something weird is going on outside.”
“Something weird? You idiot. You’re off the team.” Norm never got a chance to fire. The glass doors burst inward and the zombie was on him first.
The City: 094: Paul
February 5, 2015
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“What is going out there?” Paul was the cook, although like the maid and the butler, there was nothing in the virtual house, so he was very well connected to The City. And the things he had heard disturbed him greatly.
“The City is changing. The system that runs it is breaking down under stresses it didn’t know it had, because Sizemore was more interested in playing make-believe than using what he had. Resources are being realigned.”
“And those people, the ones with the virus?”
“They aren’t attached to real people, not anymore. They’re just code, and they’re learning.”
The City: 093: Rita
February 4, 2015
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Rita was ostensibly the maid, but the beach house never got dirty. It was the one thing she thought they should have implemented but they never did. She supposed it would have been too complex a task, to model the path of each grain of sand realistically. But cleaning would have given her something to do all day. She took Babbage’s coat and hat instead.
“What happens now, sir?” He looked at her with that fixed grin, like he knew some joke that she couldn’t fathom.
“I wait. The program is running, now I just need for it to finish.”
The City: 092: Mark
February 3, 2015
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Mark’s official title was Head Butler. What he really did was security, bookkeeping, and keeping up appearances. The house had a fabulous kitchen filled with gleaming chrome objects resembling appliances. The house had been painstakingly designed by a team of architects and engineers, and it was the ultimate shrine to skeumorphism. It was fitting for the mansion of the owner of a city that only existed in digital displays. Doris held the door as Babbage entered.
“Welcome home, sir.” The man smiled. Behind him, the sky above the ruins of Midas Tower pulsated with green and violet light, like auroras.
The City: 091: Doris
February 2, 2015
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The gate on the palatial beach house buzzed just before sunset. Doris answered from the security desk. “Yeah?”
“It’s me,” Bob said. “I’ve got the new boss.”
“What the hell happened out there?” She had heard garbled reports of security clashing with CPD.
“Hell if I know. This guy’s spooky, though.” She checked the cameras. It was the limo, alright. She let the car in and called the rest of the staff to greet their new employer. Sizemore’s City beach house belonged to Midas, and had been a part of the sale. They gathered in the entry hall and waited.
Hugh J. O'Donnell 