<\/p>\n
Kima reached her fingers around to the back of her neck, brushing away her midnight curls. She touched the first prong in her spine. She rubbed her finger down the smooth metal square, just smaller than her fingertip. She applied her middle finger to the second prong, then she hesitated, hovering her pinkie above the third that would activate the Sullivan Corp implant.<\/span><\/p>\n Never be alone again. She\u2019d always have a family. Impz didn\u2019t feel. They only fed, but they lived in constant congregation. They never need be alone.<\/span><\/p>\n No. Seth said he\u2019d be back soon. He\u2019d never let her down. Eventually he would. One day, he\u2019d leave and not return.<\/span><\/p>\n An owl screeched in the surrounding woods, and her body jumped, nearly knocking her off the overturned pew. She pulled her hand away and grabbed a tarnished candlestick from the floor, using it as a club. She clutched Mr. Fox under her arm\u2014the plush fox her father had given before blowing off his head with a shotgun when she was six. She scanned the derelict church for Impz, searching for azure eyes piercing the dark. She curled into the corner, her legs freezing on the stone floor. She sat below where the crucifix had hung, but it had been a long time since the Christian martyr had been removed, phased out, upgraded to God.2. A broken MP3 player collected dust on the altar.<\/span><\/p>\n She reached her hand around to her neck, hung her pinkie over the third prong. A shadow moved in the foyer.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou promised me,\u201d Seth said.<\/span><\/p>\n She let her hand fall away from her neck.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t know if you were coming back.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He clutched two cans and a bag of rice under his arm. \u201cFound these in some houses nearby, but we\u2019ve got to move. They\u2019re coming.\u201d He stopped to reload the shotgun, then he counted the few remaining shells, shaking his head.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cCan\u2019t we just stay for a little while? I need the peace.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThey looked like they were shorting out, probably hadn\u2019t sucked any volts lately. We should be able to lose them if their implants are too under juiced to transmit.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He grabbed her shoulder. She lurched back against the wall.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDamn it, Kima. Do you love me?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n She hesitated. He waited. Her throat tightened. He looked through her. She nodded, and he helped her stand.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou will leave me,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t have time for this. Again and again.\u201d He tugged her forward, pulling her out of the church. She jogged behind him and out into the rolling field. The dark wet grass licked her torn sneakers, soaking her feet. The cold moved up through her legs, and she shivered. The field lit up from the crimson Coke sign glowing in the sky, along with several other brands on orbiting billboards, killing the stars. Sullivan Corporation, the makers of the implants, boasted the largest Orb-Ad. It flashed the company logo then the image changed to seven human outlines of different sizes all holding hands. Their motto flashed: <\/span><\/p>\n Sullivan Corp. Never Be Lonely Again.<\/span><\/p>\n She heard the Impz clicking from the tree line. One emerged into the field and staggered after them. He snapped his tongue. Behind him, the others clicked in choir, amplifying as they closed the distance. She never understood why they clicked their tongues. She wondered if it was binary, a way of communicating. Zeros and ones.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe can lose them.\u201d They ran to the north forest, paralleling the city of Lansdale. They didn\u2019t dare go any closer to Philadelphia. Impz gathered in the cities, turned them into hives.<\/span><\/p>\n She looked behind, watching their blue eyes glowing in the dark. The group looked like a family from before the Liberation\u2014still dressed, still groomed\u2014but sores burst on their open skin oozing pus. A little girl chased behind her parents, and Kima felt such need to join them, to take them in hand and share in their comfort.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI used to pilot the maglev in this area, making the Bos-Wash run. I fished the river in these parts during layovers. There\u2019s a lone farmhouse a few mouths north, close to the Delaware. We\u2019ll get there and bed down.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He took Kima\u2019s arm. She might have loved him. She needed Seth. Maybe that\u2019s all love was.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhere\u2019s Mr. Fox?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n She couldn\u2019t find the plush fox under her arm. She stopped, and he nearly pulled her off her feet.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cChrist. Just leave it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n She ran back through wet grass. The family of Impz moved on her. She spotted the fox and dashed for it.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI swear I\u2019ll leave you here.\u201d He punched the air.<\/span><\/p>\n Mother Impz lunged for her, grabbing her shoulder. The mother\u2019s touch burned from body fever. She snapped open her jaw, and her stiletto tongue, changed by the evolution shift, moved for Kima\u2019s skull. Kima fell. The Impz reached for her, hovering over, rapidly clicking her tongue. Then, her chest exploded in blood. The shell knocked her back. Kima got to her feet and ran for Seth. He reloaded the shotgun.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cEvery Impz in two miles will be on us now.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDid you mean it?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He sighed. \u201cNo.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n *<\/span> *<\/span> *<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n They lost the Impz in the forest and made their way north, climbing up the hills in what was once Washington Crossing Park, heading to the Delaware. Once in awhile, they\u2019d encounter a sniffer Impz as it tracked deer or groundhogs in the wood. Some Impz gained extrasensory abilities. Animal brains didn\u2019t satiate like human\u2019s, but with the population of regular humans dwindling, the Impz got desperate. Kima hadn\u2019t seen a cat or dog in the last six months.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWas that damn fox so important?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI grew up alone, stuck in the foster system. My first set of parents locked me in the basement and collected the checks. My next father felt me up.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI know,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019d say sorry, but it wouldn\u2019t mean anything.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n She gazed up at the crowded night sky, searching for a hint of starlight. Her father had taught astrophysics at Penn. She never knew her mother. Somewhere above the Ariadne Satellite cogitated and thought, consuming the minds of those with activated implants that had been the next evolution of cell phones. Direct brain interaction with the internet had evolved humans to the next level. Parents had implants surgically installed at birth so it could grow into the brain, develop. Human minds depended on them now. Ariadne, the great mother A.I., looked after her children, tended to them, even decided that they were a danger to themselves and took control. It happened in a millisecond, then vampires swarmed the earth.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhy do they try to eat our heads?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe power systems are internal for the implants. They can be charged through the prongs, but if that isn\u2019t available, the implants can feed on extra brain chemicals such as dopamine, neurotransmitters. We\u2019re just batteries to them. I was working on a upgrade to use solar power gathered through implanted photoelectric cells in the skin. I had my implant deactivated to test it when the Liberation happened.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n She\u2019d neglected to pay her Sullivan Corp bill, so they\u2019d deactivated service. That accounted for most of those not affected.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cFifty percent of users didn\u2019t survive the Liberation. Had a brain hemorrhage. According to the user statistics, only about twenty percent of the population remained normal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAnd became Impz food.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cEnough of us just have to survive and outlive them. Then we can start over. Once a generation, a plague shall be visited.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n They trudged through a stream, and Kima slipped in the mud. It soaked her sweater and jeans. She clung onto Mr. Fox, nearly losing him in the water. Seth helped her up. They walked through fallow fields where corn and wheat once flourished, heading to the farmhouse. She couldn\u2019t see any roads and hoped this would be far enough from any Impz to notice. The gardens grew fresh vegetables, and an oil lamp burned in the window, glowing orange in the night. Seth knocked on the door.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWait. What if?\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cNah. They wouldn\u2019t be burning an oil lamp. They wouldn\u2019t know how.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The white paint on the door had mostly chipped away. The curtain parted in the window. The door opened a crack. A shotgun barrel slipped out.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll shoot ya if you\u2019re deadheads,\u201d a smoker\u2019s voice rasped. \u201cGot enough rats on the farm.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMa\u2019am. We\u2019re not liberated.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAin\u2019t Jehovah’s Witnesses? I shoot them too.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no more church left in the world. Sullivan Corp bought it out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The door swung open. Kima\u2019s nose twitched at a sour smell that reminded her of pickled eggs or maybe old liquor. A layer of filth covered the couches and chairs in the living room. A faded portrait of a navy admiral hung over the collapsed fireplace.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWell best come inside,\u201d she said. \u201cDon\u2019t get many visitors these days.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The old woman fixed her hair, though most had fallen out, exposing the patchy dry skin of her scalp. Her gut bulged under her flowery dress.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhere did you get that scar?\u201d Kima said, shocked by the length of the scar tissue down the left side of the old woman\u2019s cheek.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m Kipper Lee. And they can see us you know. The machine in my head broke before it happened, but even so they can watch your thoughts. I hear them humming from me teeth. Whispering. My teeth try to bite me, so I pulls them out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n She opened her jaw to reveal a toothless mouth.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll put the kettle on.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Kipper Lee moved them into the kitchen, and Kima sat at a rickety table. Seth sat on a crate by the window and held back the grimy curtains, watching the grounds. He held his shotgun at the ready. Kima noticed his cheek twitched, a sign of all the tension building up underneath. Kipper Lee filled a kettle with water from a well tap and turned on her solar stove still charged from the day. She sat down and played with a rusty screwdriver she plucked from the table.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou live around here?\u201d she asked.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI grew up in New Jersey,\u201d Kima said. \u201cSeth is from Sullivan Corp City.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He frowned at her for revealing his old hometown.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSo you worked for the shortsighted bastards then, did ya? The ones who rushed out a product and didn\u2019t think of the future.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He sighed. \u201cI didn\u2019t make this happen. I was a little cog in a grand mad machine. This was all of us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s between you and your judge,\u201d Kipper said.<\/span><\/p>\n The water boiled, and she set out cups. She didn\u2019t use teabags and just filled them with hot water. \u201cSugar?\u201d she asked, moving an empty crystal bowl forward.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou kids headed out west to the surf and sun? Going to make some babies?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Seth coughed.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cNo ma\u2019am. We\u2019re headed to a military reservation. We heard this signal over the radio. The remaining military has set up a safe zone, some kind of distortion field that disrupts Ariadne\u2019s net signal. Most soldiers weren\u2019t affected because they had their own encoded system on a private server. They say it\u2019s safe. A new start.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n She shook her head then puckered her lips. \u201cAlways a promised land. Same dream, different fools.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Seth twisted his head and stood up from the crate. He turned down the oil lamp to sickly glow. \u201cShut up. They followed us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Kima\u2019s stomach clenched.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll just be gone for an hour. I\u2019ll lead them away.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n She grabbed his arm. \u201cYou won\u2019t come back.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cNo time,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m going. I\u2019ll be back.\u201d He leaned forward and kissed her. She returned it out of reflex. He ripped himself away and slipped out the door.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIs that your baby?\u201d Kipper Lee said, pointing to the plush fox. \u201cUgly brat.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n *<\/span> *<\/span> *<\/span><\/p>\n The grandfather clock chimed and rhymed one time. Kima curled up on the dirty couch, cuddling Mr. Fox. Seth had been gone a few hours. Whether by his own choice or if the Impz fed on his brain, he\u2019d abandoned her just like they all had.<\/span><\/p>\n They had survived together since The Liberation. At first, those who survived but had been liberated didn\u2019t harm anyone. They powered up normally and just sat in the streets or their homes, gazing off to no particular points. They no longer spoke nor seemed to have any need for food. Then the power went out.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDamn chatter box radio in my teeth,\u201d Kipper Lee shouted from the kitchen. \u201cWhy don\u2019t you ever play Jason Mraz or Coldplay?\u201d The kettle flew out and crashed into the wall above Kima.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAre you feelin\u2019 poorly, Ms. Lee?\u201d Kima got up and stepped into the kitchen.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIn my head,\u201d she rasped. \u201cThey can hear my thoughts. They know my fantasies, my dreams.\u201d She drove the screwdriver into her flesh and ripped it apart like she pulled down a zipper. Flesh bubbled out, exposing red jaw muscle and bone, and blood poured down her side and chair into a floor puddle. She drove the screwdriver down her neck, and the blood shoot out and splattered Mr. Fox.<\/span><\/p>\n Kima ran from the house and out onto the porch. She reached for the prongs.<\/span><\/p>\n Seth stepped out of the night.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDo you think they fear? Or hurt?\u201d she asked.<\/span><\/p>\n He sat next to her, catching his breath. His chest pulsed quickly, and he squeezed the water out of his drenched pants.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI fear. I hurt. You have no faith in me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t take it personally, baby,\u201d Kima said. \u201cI\u2019m just living real.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n *<\/span> *<\/span> *<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n They followed railroad tracks\u2014old and abandoned since the magnetic levitation system was installed\u2014north to the GPS coordinates reported on the military\u2019s broadcast. They avoided Allentown, walking along the side of the highway filled with rusted vehicles. They slept during the day in abandoned houses and fled in the night, under the watchful family of the Sullivan Corp Orb-Ad. They climbed the hill from the valley.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s close. See the cordon up on the hillside? Almost there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n She scanned the hill. Seven radio towers encircled it. A silver light pulsed on each of their crowns. Walls lined the top of the hill interspersed with watch towers. A mass of Impz swarmed along the invisible barrier, at least five persons deep, surrounding the hillside, probably going on for miles. The countryside clicked from the choir of their tongues, beating on her ears.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve come so far just to die here,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI have a plan.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n He tugged on her hand, pulling her forward. He led her behind an old barn. Most of it had collapsed, and she ducked down behind a tractor.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cGive me a few minutes, and when you see the crowd break up, run. Just run through and don\u2019t stop. Get over the finish line.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n She grabbed his thigh and drove her nails through his pants and into his skin. \u201cYou\u2019re leaving me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He paused then wiped his face with the bottom of his shirt. \u201cTrust.\u201d He broke from her grip and bolted from the barn, flying like a comet into the mass of Impz. He cried out as ran, yelling nonsense but with warrior\u2019s intent. The outer Impz turned and spotted him. They charged, and soon chunks of the mass detached and stormed. Seth turned around and ran away from the barn, leading them away. When she saw the break in the siege, she jumped to her feet and struck her forehead on the tractor\u2019s iron hide. The shock threw her back, and her head spun. She shook it off and ran, pumping her sore legs, making for the passage through the Impz. She didn\u2019t turn back, trusting Seth to return soon after circling back, leading the Impz far. She struggled to ascend the hillside. Her calf muscles burned, but she ignored the pain. She ran through a few stragglers who gave chase and reached the base of one of the towers. She collapsed. One of the stragglers tripped and fell through the invisible cordon. His body convulsed. His mouth foamed. His azure eyes dimmed, then he struggled no more.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSeth?\u201d she yelled. She scanned the valley below. Seth\u2019s shotgun reported and flashed from the center of the mob, but she could see only the mass of Impz. They\u2019d stopped running and hoarded around him in the field.<\/span><\/p>\n Two soldiers patrolling atop the wall stopped and called down to her. \u201cMa\u2019am. Talk. Now!\u201d They aimed their pulse rifles at her. The coils on the weapons buzzed as they charged.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHe lied to me,\u201d she said. Her lips stiffened. \u201cHe knew.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cJust hold tight,\u201d one of the soldiers said. He reached for a radio in his gray fatigues and requested a rope. \u201cWe\u2019ll lower it down and pull you to safety.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n She leaned against the base of the tower, her back aching against the hard metal. The mass dispersed from the field and seeped back to the perimeter. She tugged on Mr. Fox, ripping one of his legs off. She reached to her neck, touching both leads. She shed her emotional weight, sloughed it off, letting go, releasing memories of her father, her hard life in foster care, even Seth. She sighed through a gentle grin knowing the pain would end in electronic nepenthe, in radio wave panacea. She stood up and took a step towards the mob, her brothers and sisters, mothers and father. They\u2019d welcome her home. They\u2019d been waiting for her. She touched her pinkie to the final lead. Her mind\u2019s eye filled with initialization commands and diagnostic code. A white flash washed through her mind and cleansed all the human rubbish, the detritus of wild mental evolution, all the pain, all the fear. It cured her of hope, and she laughed in relief. Then she flew. She flew with her family, her body still on earth, and her thoughts died and blew away. Mr. Fox dropped from her arm. She merged into the mass.<\/span><\/p>\n The Orb-Ad sign above flashed its motto:<\/span><\/p>\n Never Be Lonely Again.<\/span><\/p>\n Never Be Lonely Again.<\/span><\/p>\n Never Be Lonely Again.<\/span><\/p>\n END.<\/span><\/p>\n By T. Fox Dunham<\/span><\/p>\n Kima reached her fingers around to the back of her neck, brushing away her midnight curls. She touched the first prong in her spine. She rubbed her finger down the smooth metal square, just smaller than her fingertip. She applied her middle finger to the second prong, then she hesitated, hovering her pinkie above…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,2,11],"tags":[13,17,18,20,21,28,29,30,56,72,76],"class_list":["post-413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","category-astounding-stories","category-neural-nets-uplinks-and-wetware","tag-13","tag-ai","tag-android","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-blade-runner","tag-cyberpunk","tag-cyberpunk-stories","tag-cyborgs","tag-matrix","tag-science-fiction","tag-short-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astoundingoutpost.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n