The Complete Atopia Chronicles

9



OH MY HEAD hurt. I groggily lifted it off the sheets and waited while my blurry vision adjusted to the half darkness of my bedroom. It was still early and I didn’t need to be up for work.

Wait a minute, it was Saturday. Finally, the weekend. As memories seeped into my brain, I realized that I didn’t need to go back to work this whole week, perhaps longer. Screw it. I flopped my head back onto my pillow and called out weakly for Mr. Tweedles.

“Hey, kitty kitty,” I called out, but without response. That was odd. Ah well. I conked back out.

In what seemed like moments later, bright light began streaming in through the window. It must have been fully morning. My head ached dully, so I flopped out of bed and made for the kitchen to get a glass of cold water.

Mr. Tweedles was still nowhere to be seen. Did I let him out last night? I didn’t usually let him out since he was a house cat, but I had been a little drunk.

Downing a tall, cool glass of water, I immediately felt refreshed. I should go for a run, I thought to myself. That would burn off some stress and get the gears going. There was nothing like a good run to fire up the imagination, and my mind was already cycling with ways to get back at Bertram and my boss.

So I moved back off to my bedroom to put on some cool weather sports gear, and moments later I was off jogging down my street, drinking in the cool autumn air and enjoying the crisp bite of the year’s first frost burning off in the early sunshine.

I admired the scenery, completely devoid of any ads, the streets sparkling and walls scrubbed clean, with no vagrants to spoil the view or inspire guilt. It was perfect. I jogged along 75 towards Central Park.

It was calm, but gradually I began to get the feeling it was too calm. There was a complete lack of other people walking on the streets, or even any people in cars. It was early morning on the weekend, but even so. As I made it to the corner of the park, I decided I’d better check in with Kenny to make sure my pssi was working properly.

“Kenny!” I demanded. “Kenny, could you check the pssi system for me?”

No response. I slowed up my jog a little, suddenly nervous. Maybe he was hung-over too.

“Kenny!” I yelled out again, and then stopped jogging and halted, waiting for a response.

“Kenny!” I yelled, and then screamed, “Kenny!!”

My voice just echoed back from the empty space of the park. No sounds at all. Panicking, I turned around and began to sprint as fast as I could back to my apartment, calling out people’s names as I ran.

Nobody answered.

“Pssi interface!” I screeched as I ran.

“Dr. Simmons!” I pleaded, but there was no response.

Maybe the pssi was just broken, I thought, maybe I should just try my mobile. I burst in through my front door and rummaged around my purse for my mobile. I popped it in my ear and began calling out people’s names, but still, nothing. Alarm settled into my gut. I ran back out into the street in a panic.

There were cars lining the street but no one driving them, no people anywhere, and no Mr. Tweedles. How was it possible I was walking around in the street, right down the middle and not seeing anyone? How was it possible?

My mind raced. I’d told Kenny to set the system to erase anything I found annoying. I’d given Kenny root executive control, and I certainly found Kenny annoying, as well as my doctor. My God, what had I done?

I ran down the street, tears streaming down my face, my chest burning. I would get to my office, someone would be there even on the weekend, they would see me, they could fix this even if I couldn’t see them. My legs tired and I began to walk, calming down. This was ridiculous. Don’t panic. Just stay calm.

Eventually I rounded the last block before my building, and, turning the corner, I thought of all the ways I was going to laugh this off with everyone, but then my heart fell through my stomach. My office tower was gone, replaced by some other morphed amalgamation that looked similar but dissimilar at the same time.

I began to weep, waving my arms around. Of course I’d found work annoying. In fact, I found almost everything and everyone annoying.

“Please, someone help me! I’m stuck in the pssi! Please someone help me!” I cried out into the empty streets, looking desperately around me.

I was utterly alone in one of the world’s most densely populated cities.

I let out a slow moan of dread.