Matt sighed as he breathed in the air of the street around him, it smelled clean, which would seem odd to anyone not living in this time, but seeing as there were no emissions from cars and vehicles and all the trash was carted off by fully automated robots there was not much that could smell bad.

Hell even the streets were swept by bots to keep things as clean as possible.  He looked at the tall silver and white buildings that surrounded him and sighed, it was getting dark, it was about time to get home. Pulling a starter chit out of his pocket he walked over to his ecycle.

The damn thing was a relic, and antiquated piece of the past, near 100 years old, but it still looked new, what was the word? Ment? Something like that.  Most people rode around in flying cars that were auto piloted, not that there were any other kinds, according to history they had released flying vehicles to the general populace and it had been catastrophic.

Apparently people of the past had enough trouble driving on the ground, getting into wrecks and crashes and what not, and once you added a full third dimension to the equation,it had not been pretty.  It had apparently set the development of the flying car back years until there was a sufficiently intelligent  A.I. to drive the car for people.

Matt looked his motorcycle over, it was a sleek white with a blue strip, and straddling it he picked it up off the kickstand and slid the starter chit into a slot on its back, causing the bike between his legs to purr lightly.

It was an old thing from back in the day when people had banned gas powered vehicles, this electric bike used charge packs that were the size of a can of soda and could keep the machine going for over 200 miles on one charge. Matt had an adapter that he had up in his apartment, he had to have it special made so he could charge the packs, cost him an arm and a leg, but he loved the bike.

He loved the feel of it, and the wind in his hair as he rode it.

It felt good, like he had control, nothing like riding in one of those auto piloted flying cars.  

Turning the bike around he rode it out of the company parking lot.  With the invention and mass use of the flying car rodes had changed, they were narrower, only wide enough for two cars to park side by side with a scant four feet or so inbetween, it was here in this narrow passage he rode his motorcycle. With a practiced ease he weaved through the rows of cars, taking the trip back to his apartment at a breakneck pace.

He arrived and parked his bike in a small garage that was just for him, and once he stepped out he watched as the garage was lowered into the ground, storing it until he would need it later.  He looked up at the building he lived in.  it was a small 40 story building, dwarfed by the ridiculously tall buildings flanking it on either side.

Its lack of stature however was not the thing that made it stand out.  It was the fact that instead of being white and silver like every other building in this city it was a remodeled and renovated old world building constructed out of concrete and brick.

There weren't too many of those left in this city, and he was proud to say he lived in one of them. Something about the solidity of the stone, and the warmth they produced was comforting.

He took the stairs up to the front door two at a time and was about to open the door when he saw his reflection in the mirrored silver surface of the door.  He had a short red beard, and his hair was close cropped, with the sides shaved clean down to the skin, it wasn't a mohawk, it was too short and much too wide to be that, the entire top of his head was covered, and even an inch or so of the sides as well.  He smiled, was that really him? He looked into his blue eyes,  yep, that was him, he didn't think he had smiled that much in a good long time.

Was he really that excited to go on a date?

Yes, the answer to that was yes.

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He hadn't been on a date in well over two years, not since her…

The smile slipped off of his lips as thoughts of her invaded his mind. He shook his head, driving them out, but as he did that damned necklace worked itself loose from under the shirt and gleamed there at him, casting a light into the reflection accusingly. Slowly he grabbed it and lifted it up so he could see it.  On its chain two small circlets hung, one a solid gold, the other a small silver band adorn with a clear rock.

A diamond.

Thats right, he hadn't gone on a date for over a year now, but then again how could he?  No matter what someone told him about how she would have wanted him to move on it really didn't help.

She might have passed away  but he still felt like he was cheating on her.  He started to regret agreeing to go on that date, but before he could work himself up he shut that thought down.  Taylor was gone, she had left this earth, she had been gone for quite some time, it was time to move on.

Not to forget.

Never to forget.

But he needed to move on, no one should tread water, you had to keep on swimming or risk drowning.  He wiped away the one tear that tracked its way down his face and pulled the door open, nodding to the desk clerk he made his way to the elevator and made his way up to the 31st floor.

His door opened and with a sigh he stepped in. “House activate,”  he called out, and at his command the Vi that controlled the apartment sprang to life.

“Welcome home Master.” a silky female voice called out, as the far wall shimmered and his personal computer turned on, displaying its content on the entire wall.  

“Hello Vis”  he said, calling the Virtual intelligence by its acronym: the Virtual interactive system.  It seemed much better than calling it that…

“You have thirty-three mail items,”  she said. “Would you like them displayed?”

“Only those that are important, chuck the rest.”  he said pulling a beer out of the fridge and sitting down on the couch, he pulled a sip of it savoring the taste, he couldn't have any of this through the work week seeing as any alcohol in his system was grounds to get fired, but he had three days, so what was one beer?.  Much to his annoyment the mail was all unimportant.

Setting the beer down he pulled out a cord from the desk  and a set of sanitation wipes, he felt the back of his head and found the port there in the back of his skull.  It was standard issue all around the world now, it was called the caser.  A device that was in the skull that could interpret the signals of the brain, and even send signals to the brain.  It had started out as a military device, like all good tech, designed to allow soldiers to show everything they had seen through their own eyes, it had then allowed doctors and scientists to study and treat all sorts of wounds and mental illnesses.

And then someone had decided to use it to make patients in pain hallucinate certain things by sending signals to the brain, apparently this was the first real virtual reality. They had used it to create a relaxing environment for poor tortured souls in the hospitals.

It hadn't taken long to move from there to personal video games.

And Matt, like most people was a fan of video games.  He wiped the port in the back of his head clean, making sure the connection would be as good as possible. And plugged the cord in, reclining into the couch, he looked at the cord as it snaked across the room to a plug in that came from the square box that was his computer.

“Lets play a game Vis,”  he said.

“Might I make a suggestion?” the silky voice of the Vi called out.  That was odd, Vis usually just did what she was told, she didn't often make suggestions.

“Sure...”  he said, curious what she would suggest.

“Over the past year and a half you have purchased fifteen titles that fall under the open world post apocalypse genre, as such I have found and downloaded a new title for you,”  she said, “You gave me the authority to download any software that I deemed reliable and non harmful to systems.”  she stated.

When he had said that he was talking about software updates for herself so he wouldn't need to update her manually, he would need to re word that latter, but he was to tired to worry about it right now. “Lets see what you got.”  he said, and up on the wall screen popped up a splash screen for a game.

New Earth Online.

He sighed, “Vis, I don't like Vrmmos.”  he said, it was not that he was against the gameplay or anything, it was simply that he dealt with people all day everyday at work, and here at home he really didn't want to.

“I am aware of this, but I have deemed this a good fit for your play style after watching many recordings.” she said.  He mulled it over before coming to a decision.

“Why the hell not, lets try it.”  he said. “Launch program.”  he said, and he felt a tingle at the base of his skull, closing his eyes he waited for the familiar nauseating feeling of dizziness Vr always started with.

Instead he got a sharp shock, like someone had slapped the back of his head hard.

With a yelp he opened his eyes, ripping the cord out of the back of his head. He rubbed the back of his head and looked angrily at the cord holding it at arm's length almost like it was a snake. “What the hell?”  he growled.

“I am sorry Master, it would seem the game has crashed, causing a backlash.”

“Well that is a promising start...”  he grumbled.

“I will run a full diagnostic-”

“Don't bother.” he said, that would take hours and he simply wanted to play something, drive out those old memories... plugging the cord back in and settling on the couch once more. “Just start it again, launch program.”  Vis did it, and this time he felt the telltale dizziness and drag as the caser intercepted his brain’s signals and translated them into computerized responses.  Everything was black, until a large splash screen showed up in his view.

Welcome to New Earth Online it read…