I tried to invite Tanya, but another message appeared, saying that parties can only be formed post-apocalypse, please wait until after the apocalypse begins.

I told Tanya the screens or windows (from now on, I’m going to call them screens, unless I forget and then I’ll call them windows), I’d discovered and asked if she had found any. She said that she’d discovered all of those and another window called “Spells.”

“Cool!” I said. I’d always wanted to be a wizard or magician, not counting the second-grade talent show where I appeared as “The Amazing Monsoon!” The less said about that the better, but I just want to say that I didn’t know that the rabbit couldn’t be stored in a black, plastic top hat’s hidden compartment overnight.

I told her some of the tricks that I’d learned about the interface, being able to close windows with no gestures, minimize them, changing the opacity, etc. She thought that was pretty cool and we both sat there quietly playing with our interfaces in the now deserted soda fountain.

Finally, I thought of another window that I’d like to see and thought “Help.”

“Finally,” said a voice. This time, it spoke. There was no text at first, but then a window appeared:

Help

* Internal

* External

* Setup

“Jackpot!” I shouted. When Tanya looked over, I said, “try Help!”

Being a proto-nerd, I quickly selected Setup. A nerd, by definition, is someone that is a single-minded expert in a particular technical field. All my life I’d been searching for my particular technical field, I felt that just maybe I’d discovered my field – Apocalypology! Setup contained the following capabilities: Turning on Badges, Setting Badge Information, Restricting Badge Information, How to Access Help. It turned out that a badge was an area that appeared over the object’s head (if it possessed one) which contained the Badge Information. Otherwise, it just appeared over, or on top of, besides the object. By turning it on, you gained the skill to see whatever information you’d defined to show up in the badge information. As I looked at Tanya, I played with the information that I could display. I put into the Badge Info: their name, their title, and their profession and level in their profession. In this case, it turned out that Tanya’s full name was Tanya Slovakia, her title, profession, and level was left-off (which I assumed meant that she didn’t have one yet since the Apocalypse hadn’t officially started). I figured out that I could display the text in different colors based on how the person felt about me, so, at first, I opted for Red (angry, violent towards me), Yellow (if the person was neutral), and Green if the person felt positively toward me.). I tried to make the text display more long term emotions if that made any sense. I wanted to know how the person generally felt, not how they felt right now. Tanya’s text was green. Very cool, I thought. I also decided that I wanted a hit point or remaining health bar underneath their information, the longer it was, the more hit points they had; however, I decided that it shouldn’t be too long, so I defined the bar as both thin and less opaque (fewer hit points) to more hit points (solid, fatter). This was also done in a gradient - red, orange, green with green being the healthiest. I also wanted the person to have little badges, a shield (for fighters), a wand for magic users, a dove (for healers), etc. And finally, I told the help function to not show me help on anything that was not either living or dangerous, unless I asked for it. I may rethink that, but when I first turned on the help, suddenly everything acquired a badge, “Tanya’s Jean Shorts, Tanya’s Red Blouse: Favorite.” It was too much!

I was able to do so much customization to the badges because the process was so simple. I just thought about the changes that I’d like to appear and then either the change would immediately happen or it wouldn’t. If it didn’t, well, it didn’t. Under the “Restricting Badge Information” section, I learned that it was possible to hide some information or even most information from other “players.” This was the help system’s name for us. Unlike some “games” it didn’t seem to differentiate between human players or animal or even “monster” players. I was assuming there would be monsters. Anyway, the help system didn’t really put an emphasis on humans. I’m pretty sure that a dog could customize his view as well. I wonder if my pets if I had them, would have a picture of dog food over my head outlined in Green. Anyway, I decided that I’d only display my Nickname and try to hide everything else. It turns out that depending on the person’s ability in viewing or hiding information, what you may think you’ve hidden, may be visible. Bummer! I could think of some Titles that I’d just as soon not have appear.

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Anyway, after I learned all of that and hid what information I could, I went back and added two more badges. One, a circle with a slash through it to show that information that I’d requested was available but restricted by the user, and two, an eye that ranged from either fully closed to fully open. This supposedly would show me how much I could depend on the information that I was being shown. Evidently, The Collective, didn’t like liars, because even though they allowed people to show lies in their badges, they would then show that information was a lie. Well, not which part of it, but the fact that some of it was and how much of it was. After I found out about this, I tried to put a status bar on that would show the honesty of the transaction or interaction that I was undergoing with the player, but nothing happened. Maybe my level wasn’t high enough yet?

The final area under help was “How to Access Help.” It turned out that you could access it in either a static method like reading a screen or hearing a voice or active by Imu. Imus were a little figure (think Tinkerbell, but genderless and less cute) that would appear and interact with you when you’d ask a “game” design type question. Kind of like a familiar spirit in some stories, but far less committed to your success. Although they did come with a little bit more attitude than a textbox. The thing was that evidently, you could only choose which way once. After thinking about it, I chose Imu and the “How to Access Help” feature vanished. No matter how I tried, I couldn’t summon the option back.

“Be careful about selecting which option of “How to Access Help” I warned Tanya. “It doesn’t seem to be changeable.”

“Huh?” she asked.

“Under Help Setup,” I said.

“Woah!” she said. “That option wasn’t there until you mentioned it.

I wasn’t sure what this meant other than the “game” was different for everyone. I also was sure I did not like it. I tend to like things that are straightforward, rules that you can figure out and then either obey or disobey. This fluidity was a little difficult for me to cope with. How do you cope when everything might be up for grabs? What happens if gravity becomes optional.

Just them my Imu spoke up. “Do not worry!” it said. “Only the player’s interface is mutable. Otherwise, every player exists within the same construct. Physical constants may change, your environment may be more dynamic than it was in the past, but the reason for change will not. For instance, you may be able to fly at some time in the future; however, another player who follows the same development path will also be able to fly.” This was both reassuring and a little frightening. Me, flying? But on the other hand, me flying!!!

At this point, I started getting a little worried about my mom. I thought that she would have called me by now. I looked at the countdown timer again and it was just at 1:00. I dialed her number, but I got this weird “All circuits are busy, please try again later message.” Just then, I heard a noise in the back of the store, the sound of something like a can being knocked off a shelf. I looked at Tanya and she was looking back at me. “Did you hear that?” I asked.

“Yep!” she answered.

“Ok, stay here and watch the front! I’ll go check it out.” I put down my phone and still carrying my Big Bucket of Clean, one arm wrapped around it, the other holding my hammer, I headed for the back of the store. I got through the convenience store part and was looking around the back, toward a big fake Teepee (again, not sure what this had to do with the five civilized tribes (Oklahoma’s tribes of Indians)) when this woman’s voice came from behind it.

“Ok, relax! I’m coming out!”

She stepped out from behind the Teepee.

‘She is beautiful’ was my first thought when I saw her. She was obviously Indian, okay, Native American. Tan skin, black hair, long almost to her waist bundled into a ponytail by a red beaded hair clip. Her hair was loosely braided and tied at the end with a couple of pieces of braided, beaded leather. Black eyes, a beautiful face with a straight nose and rosebud lips. She was short, about 5’4”. Well, I guess that’s not short, but compared to my 6’2” it seemed that way. She was dressed for some reason in what looked like a pseudo-legitimate, native costume, leather dress that was beaded, long soft boots that came to her mid thighs, and leather tie strings dangling from her arms and shoulders. It looked like something a designer dreamed up as what an Indian woman might wear.

“Uh, hello!” I said. “You know we’re closed right?”

She smiled and said, “You mean I can’t get a pizza at the end of the world?”

I laughed and said, “OK, why don’t you head to the front and sit with Tanya. I heard something fall and need to check it out. She can probably make us all a pizza while we discuss what you’re doing here. She’s worked a couple of shifts at the Pizza place. Tell her I want mushrooms, hamburger, and double cheese on mine. By the way, you can call me Monsoon! What’s your name?”

“Janet Lee” she replied.

“Good outfit!” I said.

“Yeah, there’s a story behind it”, she said.

Just then in the back corner where the restrooms were located, I heard another sound. This time it sounded like something was squelching around in one of the bathrooms. Not the restrooms, but the Trucker’s showers/locker room area. Gripping my hammer, I headed that way.

Turning back as I walked away, I repeated that she should head up to the front, that Tanya was the only other person in the store, at least, that’s what I thought.

“Be careful!” she said. “I didn’t see anyone pass here, I don’t know what it could be. But I did hear the door open.”