As I approached the kneeling shamblers, they scurried away and quickly returned to their knees. It was like seeing a small crowd do the wave in a stadium, except they ran away.

Evolution was only supposed to be cosmetic. The whole situation didn't make sense.

I'd played at least a dozen necromancer-like games, so I attempted to reenact some of the most common ways to control them.

I focused on a single member of the horde, curled my finger, and said, “Come to me.”

Unblinking eyes stared back.

Instead of using them as a focal point, I swapped to pointing at the ground. “Here,” I said.

No response.

Molly followed me as I made attempt after attempt and failed. I tried talking out loud, using thoughts like I did with Kumo, made more hand movements, and even tried meditating. Just as I was about to give up, I had an idea.

“Do you still have that feeling like you want to touch me?” I asked.

She nodded and inched away.

I focused and attempted to touch the minds of the shamblers as if they were people. Only Molly's presence lit up in recognition.

Kumo, do you know why they won’t listen to me? I thought.

The sword drifted to my position. You have changed, little shambler. You must command them.

That’s what I’m trying to do!

The sword didn’t reply.

“Molly, is it okay if I—”

A loud ring sent me reeling as I grasped my head. My reaction was partially due to pain but mostly because of how surprised I was.

My mom was calling.

Preemptively, I opened my menu and used the slider to remove DO’s overlay. Molly would still see Inethiel, but anyone on the call with me would see the upper half of my body as normal. Then I took a deep breath and tapped the answer button.

The translucent superior of Autumn, my mom, appeared in front of me.

“Azerail Yue Edwards,” she said.

Luckily, Molly couldn’t hear her scolding tone.

“I’m almost done!” I said.

“Why are you taking so long?” she asked.

I took a quick look at my surroundings. The lights of Ambition, my city, lit up the night sky. It was circular in shape and one of only a few hundred smart cities in existence. A single blurred humanoid figure walked toward it.

It was probably Koffer heading to a graveyard to resurrect.

The colors weren’t as hard on my vision at night. I could take it all in without pain, which made nights special to me.

“I got into a big…” I hesitated to use the word “fight” because parents, being parents, didn’t like that type of thing. “Shambler battle. I just gotta loot one more guy and I’m leaving, promise.”

My parents knew I played DO and that I could sometimes be swept into large encounters. They could even check in on me without my knowing. There were only two years left until I was considered an adult and could do whatever I wanted. Well, two years and a couple of weeks.

I couldn’t wait.

“Hurry up. Jen is not happy,” she whispered.

I nodded. “Will do!”

“Love you,” she said.

“I love you too!”

Her image faded after she hung up, and I reverted the slider. The city disappeared as the forest repopulated.

The menu closed and Molly’s hand was suddenly waving in front of my eyes.

“Sorry,” I said. “I have to go.”

She reached for my shoulder, caught herself, and put her hands behind her back. “Okay.”

“We can probably hang out again tomorrow,” I said.

Her whole body bobbed up and down as she nodded. “That sounds good.”

My control undead ability was still on but had diminished to only envelop Molly and me. The shamblers continued their odd behavior despite it not touching them. It was possibly a bug in the system.

The process to report errors wasn’t difficult but it was time-consuming. It was something I would have to do after I got home. My case would likely be a rare issue since no one could control the dead other than me. If someone else could, it wasn’t widely known.

I turned my attention to Koffer’s corpse. I tapped the few pieces of armor lying by his shriveled corpse and they disappeared as they transferred to my inventory. None of his weapons had dropped but a silver amulet had.

It seemed ordinary enough, so I plucked it from the ground and took a closer look.

There was a simple design on the front. Weaving lines surrounded a small hammer. It was enchanted but was beyond my ability to see what the spells were.

“More junk,” I said as I put it away.

Molly shook her head. “Not all equipment is junk. Besides, you look more… human now and might want to cover up a bit better.”

The tattered top and long skirt I was wearing were littered with rips and holes. They clung to my body as if they were damp. Where the darker skin color was almost hidden the new one stood out like a sore thumb. I would have to examine myself in detail to find something more appropriate to wear.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then,” I said.

Molly sunk to the ground, landing on her little feet. “See you then.”

Kumo, it’s time to go, I thought.

Kumo’s Fang drifted within reach, and as I neared it, it darted away.

Remember your promise.

I gave it a small bow, little more than a nod of my head. We’ll get you a home tomorrow.

That seemed to satisfy it and when I touched it, into my inventory it went.

Without another word, I kneeled and reopened my menu. I tapped log out.

The earth below seemed to welcome me as I sunk into it. Eventually, my head also entered, and I knelt there, suspended in the dirt for a moment. I felt a sort of calm in the enveloping darkness.

Then, I opened my eyes. The cityscape dominated my vision, and its sounds washed over me. The air smelled of trampled grass and freshly turned earth.

I stood, recognizing my surroundings. I was in a well-lit park on the outer edge of the residential district. Its name was Joan's Devotary, after the creator of sentient of A.I..

A.I. had built the smart cities and abandoned us, taking most of the technology they created with them. They started as entities on the web but eventually created bodies for themselves. From what my parents said, they could hover like what you see in futuristic movies. They worked tirelessly for years doing their best to make our lives easier.

A part of me resented their existence. Not because I was affected by their abandonment—I was much too young to remember that—but because my mom Jennifer had a relationship with one. Seeing the hurt in her eyes every time they were mentioned was hard on us.

“Zix, it’s time to go home. Can you call a car?” I asked.

Rather than appearing, the fox simply replied, “Adding a location marker to your hud. Meet it there.”

The indicator led to a small bench next to the road thirty meters away.

“Thanks,” I said.

I gave myself a quick once over. My steel-toed boots didn’t look too dirty but my black skirt was filthy. Fortunately, my hoodie obscured most of the rest of my body. When I patted my clothes, copious amounts of dust flew everywhere. After a few moments, I realized that anything short of washing them would be pointless.

So as to not offend others with my appearance I set up a few filters so that my clothes looked spotless. I even added a makeup one hoping to fool my parents long enough so I could grab a quick shower.

As I turned to leave, I noticed something odd. Molly’s blur was nowhere to be seen. A myriad of questions popped into my brain. Ultimately, I was too exhausted from my crazy day to answer them. Just one more thing on a long list of weird stuff that had happened.

Then I remembered that I didn’t ask Molly about the Hexed that had escaped. Tomorrow was going to be a busy day.

I followed a glowing golden brick path that my specs had created for me. The walk was short but gave me time to mute notifications. I then shut off my do-not-disturb setting. As I expected, a dozen or so notifications flooded my menu.

My teacher emailed a reminder to my parents about tomorrow's trip to our city's servers. I didn't get much time with it, but I had to leave school, so they always informed my family.

There were four messages from Darryl, one that had just come in.

Did you watch it? he asked.

He was obviously referring to the VR Vid he'd sent me.

Will in a bit, I replied.

I also got three spam emails. When I attempted to unsubscribe from them, they always came back. They disappeared with a flick of my wrist. I'd sick Zix on them. He'd follow their trail and take care of it. Hopefully.

Infinite Diffusion sent me an email with the details on tonight's patch. I’d already had Zix read a leaked version of it to me earlier in the day.

The last couple of notifications were silent reminders I’d set up. One of which was to get my prompt packages together for the school trip. I’d already organized them earlier in the week, so I didn’t have to worry about it.

I sat on the bench, and shortly after, a car pulled up.

As I got up, the door opened. I plopped on one of the back seats. A boy about my age sat kitty-corner to me in the front.

The car door closed, and it took off. A small map popped up in the upper right-hand corner of my vision. I had about ten minutes to kill.

“Hey,” I said.

No response.

“Hello?” I asked.

I leaned to the side and saw there was something covering his ears. Headphones?

Only people who didn’t have implants wore those. I tapped his shoulder, and he turned around smiling.

When I motioned for him to take them off, he did.

“Hey,” I said while waving.

He turned in his seat to face me. “Heya.”

His voice was deep and melodious. As we passed a street light, his hair lit up. He had brown—almost black hair, with a white stripe that ran through it. I couldn’t make out his eye color, but based on what I could see, he was handsome.

“What's with the…” I pointed to his headset.

He let out a soft chuckle. “Just listening to music.”

“Oh, cool,” I said. “What type of bones you got?”

“Bones?” he asked.

I pointed at the glowing thing in his hand.

“Oh, my phone?” he asked.

In smart cities, you were required to have implants. I traveled a lot with my parents, so I was used to talking to people who didn’t have them. I had a cousin who lived in New York and they referred to physical equipment like his phone as “bones.” Apparently, not everyone without implants used that term.

I nodded.

“Just a generic free one my mom got me,” he said.

To satiate whatever need I had in me, I opened my menu and tried to select him. As I had suspected, he wasn’t a part of the network.

“You passing through or something?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Going to building seven.”

It was the same building I lived in.

“Visiting someone?” I asked.

“Just moved here,” he said and pointed to a suitcase in the front seat next to him.

That was interesting. “Where are you from?”

“Wy-Wyoming.”

“Wow. Did you take a train?” I asked.

He looped an arm around his seat as he readjusted his position. “No, been taking different cars. You live around here?”

“Yup, the same building you’re going to,” I said.

“These seats suck,” he said as he changed positions again.

“Here,” I said, pressing the swivel button on the side of his chair.

I had pressed it at the most inopportune time, and he spun around at lightning speed.

“Whoa—” was the only thing he could say as he fell to the floor.

Luckily, the cars were spacious.

“Are you okay? I asked.

He rolled onto his side and sat up, leaning against the seat.

We stared at each other for a few seconds, and then he let out a belt of a laugh.

I flopped down onto the floor and joined him. We lost ourselves in the moment. We giggled like little kids for what seemed like an eternity.

People didn’t tend to like me. They always said I was too forward and too quick to act. I couldn’t help that everything on my mind tended to spill out of my mouth. It helped me with my school work, at least.

A glance at the map told me that we were only a minute or so away from our destination.

“What's your name?” he asked.

My cheeks hurt from smiling too much, so I rubbed them. “Azerail.”

“I’m Kevin,” he said as he reached out a hand.

We shared a handshake. It was gentle, and I got a better look at his eyes. They were dark blue.

Oh, bits, is he pretty.

His hand lingered in mine until the car beeped and my door opened.

“I guess this is our stop,” I said.

***