Reboot? What did that mean? I didn’t have a chance to think anymore about it as my world melted away and I felt the cool touch of the bubble appear under me.
Turning around I noticed that there was a dense fog enveloping the city. The pitter-patter of rain against the bubble calmed my nerves and I felt at peace.
There were no citizens out on the street. The days and nights passed differently here but the intensity of sunlight never changed, it was always slightly overcast.
Hovering along the sidewalk, I peered into the office buildings - they were all empty. I figured it must be nighttime and that meant the citizens would be in their houses.
I recognized this part of the city, I was near Central Park. The park didn’t have a name but it seemed to be smack in the middle of the city so I had dubbed it Central Park. No birds sat in the trees, and no squirrels ran around - it was just a lonely pond with a small trail encircling it.
Approaching the park, I glanced upwards to where I knew there were apartment buildings - but I couldn't see anything through the thick fog. I crept along the empty path, enjoying the stillness of the park. The citizens never left their houses at night so I knew that I wouldn’t be running into anyone here.
Raindrops fell softly into the pond, causing little circles of water on the surface. I sat in my bubble by the pond, mesmerized by the perfect, rhythmic pattern of the rain. The rain in this world was always steady, a gentle sprinkling. It never poured rain and it never thundered.
When the streets were empty like this, I liked to test out the speed of my bubble. It could go quite fast, probably about 75 km/h was its maximum speed. The fog was starting to lift so I figured now was an opportune time to go for a little joyride. I didn’t know when nighttime had started and I didn’t like racing around the streets when the citizens were out.
I zipped out of the park and onto the main road. Picking up speed, the streetlights started to blur together in my peripheral. Pressing my hands into the sides of my bubble, I anchored myself in place as I sped along the street.
The never-ending rows of buildings stood tall and proud, never faltering in their impeccable boringness. Stoplights flashed gray but I didn’t have to obey any rules. Whipping around corners I tumbled inside my bubble, feeling euphoric in my private world.
Here, there was no authority figure, no one that I had to listen to and bend to their rules. I was my own boss. I did what I wanted.
I was God.
Phase 1 initiation complete.
The robotic voice rang clear inside my bubble, scaring me and causing me to stop abruptly. I fell forward and hit my head on the bubble, my forehead started to ache and I gently rubbed it.
The bubble had never spoken to me before the incident with the man. I wondered if something had been knocked loose when the man had shot at me. This now confirmed my suspicion that the bubble was a tangible object that could be touched.
Now I had to wonder what it meant by 'phase 1 initiation'.
Control panel access granted.
The bubble's tinny voice interrupted my thoughts, and right before my very eyes, a holographic control panel appeared in front of me.
On the control panel was a small keyboard - a red button, a green button, and a simple joystick. There was also a screen, but it seemed to only display whatever was directly in front of me.
I was scared but intrigued at the same time, it didn't make sense for the joystick to be for controlling the bubble as I was already able to control it quite well.
Curious, I pressed the joystick forward a little.
No target in sight.
Target? So this joystick controlled something that needed a target?
My heart started to pound, I wasn't so sure I liked this new feature of my bubble. But I figured I could just ignore it and be careful to never accidentally press it.
Wary of my new control panel, I continued along the empty streets. I exited off the main road onto one of the side streets, the main innards of the city were surrounded by small suburbs.
Each house looked the exact same, with a perfectly manicured lawn and driveway with a plain, gray car with no license plate or other discerning features. I floated across the lawn of one of the houses and looked inside their large, living room window.
Inside the living room was a couch, an armchair, coffee table, and TV. Curiously, the TVs here only displayed static. Looking past the living room I could see a woman in the kitchen. She sat at the kitchen table, eating something.
On the ground by her feet was a large smear - the smear extended from behind the kitchen island all the way to the room next to the kitchen which I assumed was the dining room. Normally, the citizens were very clean. Never had I seen such a mess before in this world.
Ever since the incident with the briefcase man, this whole world was turning upside down. I left the window and floated into her backyard. From the backyard, I would have a much better view of the kitchen and dining room.
Climbing the steps onto her deck, I glided over to the sliding door that looked into the kitchen. When I peeked inside, I noticed that the woman was gone.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Instantly, my palms became sweaty. I looked on the ground at the smear and followed it from the kitchen to the dining room. Laying on the dining room table was a person.
A man.
A man missing his arms and legs.
I quickly averted my eyes so I wouldn’t throw up from the sight. Without even thinking, I looked into the kitchen. On the woman’s plate was what looked like a human hand.
Behind the kitchen island was the rest of the man’s limbs.
Target acquired.
The second those word’s pinged in my bubble, the sliding glass door slid open by itself. A shiver ran down my spine, causing me to jerk involuntarily. I tried to turn around to leave but the bubble wouldn’t let me.
Eliminate target.
On the screen of the control panel a picture of the woman that I just seen flashed up. Along with a number that was changing, 35m. 36m. 37m. 38m. I supposed that ‘m’ stood for metres.
Looking up into the house, I noticed that the front door was open and someone was running out. My bubble propelled me forward through the house and out the front door after the woman.
I tried desperately to turn my bubble around or at least slow down, but it refused to listen to me.
The woman was running erratically down the empty cul-de-sac. Soon, there would be no escape for her unless she was planning to run through people’s backyards. She whipped around cars and jumped over bushes, the bubble was gaining on her.
The control panel showed the woman running, she was outlined in red with the words TARGET plastered overtop her image.
I felt powerless, I couldn’t do anything to stop my bubble but I also couldn’t do anything to help the woman.
Target in sight.
“Please, shut up!” I screamed at the bubble.
Failure to comply will result in termination.
My whole body was shaking and I wanted to throw up, what did the bubble mean by termination? The bubble didn’t give me much time to think about it as all of a sudden a new figure popped up on the side of the control panel.
Oxygen percentage 21%.
I stared at the number, the blood pounding in my head.
Oxygen percentage 20.5%.
Are they going to kill me if I don’t murder this woman?
By now the woman had disappeared into the backyard of a house. My bubble stopped abruptly and we floated silently in front of the house. On the control panel, a line of text appeared.
To become God, eliminate the unholy.
The door to the house swung open, I could hear a faint scream coming from inside.
Sweat was now pouring down my face and I was finding it harder to breathe.
Oxygen percentage 20%.
“Fuck,” I swore under my breath. It was either kill or be killed.
There wasn’t much waiting for me back in my world. I had never been the favourite of my parents and now that I had lost my job, I would be a disgrace to them. They would probably rejoice in the fact that their least treasured daughter was dead. My siblings would be able to inherit the house and money once my parents pass - never having to worry about splitting anything with pathetic Emily.
My little apartment would be quickly cleaned out, everything tossed in the trash. I didn’t own any valuables or anything of importance. My whole life could fit in a suitcase if I wanted. I was no one.
Oxygen percentage 19.5%.
Now it was really getting hard to breathe, my vision started to blur and my head hurt. There was only one person that I cared for deeply, Rita.
If I could never see her again, would I be alright with that? Would Rita even miss me? I already missed the smell of her perfume and the way she licked her bright, red lips.
Oxygen percentage 19%.
I moved my bubble forward, entering the house. Pressing my ear to the shell of the bubble, I could hear noises coming from upstairs.
With my vision swirling, I propelled the bubble upstairs. Peering into each room that lined the long hallway, I didn’t see anything.
There was one more room at the end of the hallway, I figured it must be the master bedroom. The door was slightly ajar but when I approached it, it opened wide enough for me to enter.
A grisly scene met me. The woman had made her way into this house and found the citizens inside, presumably sleeping. In just the few minutes that I had been outside the house, she had already managed to hack the head off the wife and gut the husband.
She had stuck the wife’s head on the bedpost and it was staring directly at me. The woman was busy doing something to the husband’s body. I could hear the muffled sounds of her chewing something.
My stomach lurched, I did not want to know what she was eating.
Closing my eyes, I grabbed a hold of the joystick.
Target in sight.
Swallowing hard, I pressed the joystick forward.
An ear-shattering boom erupted the second I moved the joystick. My bubble flew backwards and slammed against the bedroom wall.
Unholy eliminated. Oxygen restored.
I felt a cool breeze rush into my bubble, opening my eyes I saw the bloody, disfigured mess of the woman plastered against the other wall.
My ears still ringing, I turned around and left the scene.
Leaving the house, I heard the door swing closed behind me. With a click, it locked itself. Was nobody going to come to clean up the mess?
Floating back down the cul-de-sac, I saw other citizens moving around inside their houses, they seemed completely unfazed by the earth-moving explosion that I had just caused.
I made my way into the city center, tears were flowing freely down my face and collecting on the bottom of the bubble. Citizens were starting to leave their apartment buildings and head to work.
Near the park, there was a transport station. I was ready to leave this world forever, I never wanted to come back here ever again.
Approaching the transport station, the gray dome shimmered, welcoming me home. Docking the bubble I waited impatiently to be sent back to my world.
Phase 1 incomplete.
I hated that voice.
“What more do you want?” I squeaked out, my whole body vibrating with anger and fear.
Eliminate three unholy.
I blinked in shock, this bubble wanted me to murder three more citizens before I would be allowed to leave?
A flash of anger ran through my body, what sort of twisted world was this? Feeling frustrated, I grabbed a hold of the joystick and aimed it at a random citizen walking on the sidewalk.
“You want me to kill people?! Fine, here you go!” I thrust the joystick forward.
No target in sight.
It wouldn’t let me kill completely random people.
Eliminate the unholy.
I let go of the joystick.
“Fuck this world.”