Margit woke up to the sound of rats scurrying around the street. Her entire body was just knots of pain. She grunted as she propped herself up and stood in the filthy street. She looked as if she had been a resident of this street for a long time. Even the hunger was part of that package. Going through her pockets, she found that her wallet was missing. There was not much inside, but now she was really left with nothing but the clothes she was wearing. She felt tears of rage coming, but was able to push them back deep inside.
Not knowing what else to do she stated making her way towards Maclearware. It was easy to fall into debt in Umevar and easier still to increase that debt with time instead of paying it off. Her own debt was very likely larger than she could ever afford to pay. Even so, missing another day of work would not improve her circumstances in any way. As she made her way through the streets, she still found herself avoiding people, however the irrational fear was gone. Relief still did not come though as she was still haunted by the empty feeling inside of her.
On her way through the poor district she stopped at a washing shop. She along with dozens of other lower class workers entered the large room. Most of the people wore their work clothes, but some were wearing little to no clothes at all. They all stood equally apart from one another, forming neat rows and columns. A loud noise announced the initiation of the cleaning. All people held their breaths, as the mist emerged from the pipes located on the ceiling. After a while they were also splashed and dried off. The process didn’t iron out the clothes, but it was a great solution for quick and cheap washing.
With the cleaning out of the way she continued her way through the streets and suddenly heard a loud pleading female voice. She took a surreptitious glance and saw a poorly dressed woman, going up to all the others, who walked along, barely sparing her a look before hurrying on towards their destitutions.
“Please, have you seen my daughter?” She tried to show the passers-by an image on a screen, but almost no one took the time to look. Disappearances were also one of the common occurrences in Umevar beside terrorist attacks. The main difference was that attacks were more common in the industrial districts, while disappearances were more common in the poorer districts. Before the poor woman could come towards her, Margit made a sharp turn and took a longer way around through the side alleys. She was sure the woman knew as well as she did, that once someone disappeared, it was for good.
Margit made her way to the industrial district and finally the Maclearware building. Even from a distance the building seemed slightly different. It was always a nice building, but now it looked even newer. She looked at the location of her new office and realised with a shock, that the wall of the office was whole. There didn’t seem to be any sign of an attack. Unnerved, she went inside and made her way to the offices. The way was blocked at the door, but it was clearly visible that the room was clean and whole. The whole place seemed like an entirely different new building, and only the memory of the layout betrayed that she had been here before.
Wait, does this mean I got fired? She walked towards one of the scanners and swiped her wrist across, fearing to see the red indication of a person not entered into the system. It was almost a surprise when the reader displayed correct information and then even gave instructions and provided a path on her ocular display towards her new office. Despite working at Maclearware for quite a while now, she was not familiar with large parts of the building at all. She followed the directions through a maze of corridors and passageways. All along the way she kept her eye out for Gabor, but knew there was little chance of running into him, especially with all the moving around. She wasn’t sure if she even wanted to see him right now, when she hadn’t been able to make sense of things in her own mind.
As she suspected, she never found the old wolf. And the working day went on as if nothing had ever happened at all. The computer greeted her with the tasks for the day. The void she felt inside was the only reminder of the attack. She went for lunch some hours later. The chip in her wrist took care of her choice for her. She stepped in line and swiped. A standard nutrition block popped on her tray along with some pills. Supplements were a normal part of meals, but some of the pills looked different from the one she had received before.
It must be the anti-rejection drugs. She shivered at the memory of finding out about the augmentation. What did they even do to me? She was on the verge of tears, but angrily forced them back and bit into the block. It seemed slightly lighter than what she had been used to. There had always been the rumour about the food getting worse or decreasing in quantity for any number of reasons like reduced productivity or anything else deemed problematic by the corporation. The rumour didn’t stop there. Some of the wilder theories even said that slowly chemicals were added, that would slowly poison you or even control your actions. She hoped she was mistaken. It’s not even my fault. I’m supposed to be the victim. She knew however, that any complaints would fall on deaf ears or even hurt her in the long run.
After work Margit decided she would need to find a new place to live. The impact on her finances would be significant, but she didn’t want to spend another night out in the streets. Just getting her wallet stolen was one of the more lenient things to happen when you let your guard down in Umevar. Anyway paying off what she owed now would probably take longer than her life expectancy, so adding a bit extra wouldn’t really change her situation all that much. She felt it was unfair how despite keeping the same job, her life was well on its way in the direction of extreme poverty. She shivered. Will they eventually force me to undergo augmentations to become a better worker? It was possible. A lot of the people in the streets were what remained of people who had undergone these augmentations. Having entire limbs replaced with machinery to help with your job or even having ports inserted to accommodate exoskeletons wasn’t out of the question when it came to repaying the debt towards corporations. Both options came with a lot of pain and dependency on anti-rejection drugs. Any benefits could be stripped away at a moment’s notice, leaving just the side effects. The working people were squeezed for all they were worth and then discarded like rubbish. Even the compulsory brain and ocular implant meant as much as years of anti-rejection drugs, though the cost was at least covered by the city in this case.
She was still walking the industrial district, lost in her own thoughts when a black van stopped right in front of her. Before she knew it a crowd of people surrounded her from all sides, blocking her escape and also the view. Two men stood either side of her and escorted her firmly into the van, closing the door behind them. The crowd outside dispersed. The entire event happened so fast Margit wasn’t even able to say anything before sitting in the seat of the van.
“Who are you? What do you want fro-” Before she was able to finish her question one of the men held both her arms and the other plugged a cable into the side of her head. Her vision was overwhelmed and soon she was floating in complete darkness.
The bastards! She squeezed her arms in anger. They had forcibly thrust her inside virtual reality. She breathed deeply and concentrated, trying to feel her real arms and legs inside the van. The feeling was too vague. It took considerable resources to circumvent protection and force someone in this state without approval. Years ago she had had the skills and tools that would make escape from this situation trivial both from the VR and from her captors. The combination of the relatively peaceful times and the recent tragedy left her both soft and rusty, as well as unprepared. Using VR was one of the popular pastimes in Umevar, however Margit almost never used it as it came at a great cost. Most officially available entertainment required expensive subscriptions. Using underground content on the other hand could often come at a very different cost.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
Margit diverted her focus into the absolute darkness around her. She accessed the settings editor and slowly she began giving the world shape. She imagined herself standing in a clearing in the middle of a forest of giant spruces. The world however fought back, twisting her creations. The land she stood on formed a staircase that lifted her up and the entire world began twisting in on itself until she could see the forest even when she looked up.
The world began losing detail and the forest gradually became just basic geometric shapes. As her concentration began dwindling the colour of the world began draining away. Even that monochrome abstract world then gradually faded away leaving her once more in the darkness. Not knowing what to expect next Margit decided that the best thing to do was to try and get some sleep.
She woke up as soon as the van stopped, or rather was awoken by her captors. Everything was dark around her, but she felt her genuine body and all its aches. She realised her head was hooded.
“Come on let’s go,” a voice next to her said.
“Wh-”
“You will talk later, now stand.” The voice was firm, but she was nevertheless gently guided out of the car. She walked for a while, going through a couple of doors, hooded all the time and holding the forearm of one of the captors. The footsteps around her told her there were many others all around. At long last she was lead through the final doors, where she was sat upon a chair and her hood was removed.
She blinked at the strong lights in the room. There were no windows. The bare walls, ceiling and floor were all the same dull grey. Finally her eyes focused on the only pieces of furniture in the room, the desk and the chair behind it. The occupant of the chair was a middle-aged woman with grey wavy air, that just reached her shoulders. She had her elbows on the table and rested her chin on her hands, gazing at Margit. For once Margit had had enough of being interrupted so she decided she would not be the one who starts talking. She matched the woman stare for stare, no matter how uncomfortable she was. The woman gave a smirk and straightened.
“Miss Margit Papp, welcome to our humble hideout.” Margit continued staring at her. “You can call me Flora. First I would like to apologize for the rough treatment, but it is essential for out location to remain secret. I’m sure you know that you knowing would put us all in an awkward position.”
“Yes, I understand Ms Flora.”
“That would be Mrs Flora if you insist on honorifics.”
“Right. So I imagine you want something from me.”
“Naturally. I am aware of the horrible tragedy you recently underwent. I am very sorry for it, but I am in a position where I can enable you to have some closure. Revenge if you wish.” Flora waited for a moment, but Margit made no response. “We are a group, that fights against factions led by the AI.”
“You’re eco-terrorists. You are the basically the same as the ones who attacked me.”
“We wouldn’t be talking if we were.”
“Then what? Also led by AI? Is a simple Shell really capable of that?”
“Slow down. Maybe we are a kind of terrorists, but a different kind, you will see soon enough. Also you are right Shells couldn’t really lead people, but can and are used by actual leaders. However there is a new type of AI. They call them Cerbs.”
“So real deep AI actually exists.”
“Seems so.”
“That’s rather vague.”
“It doesn’t really matter to you right now. What you should know is that a Cerb is controlling various factions of eco-terrorists, using them to eliminate any threats to itself and its plans. And of course to advance those plans as well. We will put an end to it and we want you to join us.”
“Wait I can’t just-”
“You don’t need to answer right now, that is why you were brought here this way in the first place. Take your time and consider it. It should go without saying that you wouldn’t be doing this for free. You will be well compensated. If you do well we might even be able to afford a biological reformation to heal you. You might even regain your reproductive ability.”
Margit stared at her wide eyed. “My what?”
“Did they not even tell you? You must have realised that there are some augmentations inside you. In the attack some of your internal organs were severely damaged including your uterus. This was all in your medical file. The augmentations can make up for most of the lost functions, but not fertility.”
If Margit hadn’t been sitting down she would have collapsed right there. The void inside her became an abyss. She was completely stunned, there was no feeling but the emptiness. Flora continued speaking for a while, but she didn’t hear anything. “I will think about it,” she stammered. Flora nodded to the guards, who gently led the hooded Margit back the way she had come, again under the hood. This time she simply went along as she was guided, unresponsive to everything else. Even inside the virtual world she did nothing. Before she knew it she was back on the street, almost exactly on the same spot where she had been picked up just a couple of hours before.
After swaying on the spot for a few minutes she came back to her senses and shivered. She was even a bit angry at herself for becoming like this, since in truth she had suspected that this could be the case deep down, but hearing it confirmed was still a great shock to her.
“Well if no one else needs me, I can get back to finding a place to sleep,” she grumbled to herself. With her new financial situation she knew she had to move even deeper into a poor district, where the prices were lower. She took the Underground to one of the stations far away from any industrial district and then continued walking to reach the true slums of Umevar. As she proceeded down the streets, she noticed they gradually became dirtier and dirtier. To her surprise however even here she could see a few pale Abelos diligently but mindlessly performing their tasks. Their work was no match for the littering. She was approaching a street corner with an unusually large amount of people. She crossed the street and as she passed them over on the other side she saw that some of them were eating and others were standing in a line. A couple of expressionless Abelos were pouring some kind of stew in pots and handing them out. Her stomach rumbled and the thick smell made it worse. She clenched her fist and walked on without a second look at the scene. I’m not that hungry. I can still make it on my own.
After a while she finally found what she had been looking for. It stood out, as it was both the brightest and the cleanest part of this district of Umevar. From afar it looked like two large boxes, separated by a narrow path. As Margit came closer she started making out the details. Despite the late hour the construction was lit in a bright light. There was even a sign displaying the name and slogan: JoPods, for all your nocturnal needs. The two large boxes were in fact many smaller ones stacked two high and about a dozen wide. Each smaller box was a pod meant as a cheap sleeping option. She went to the screen at the edge of the stacks of pods and checked availability. Three vacancies at the top. At least I don’t have to go to the underground part. She looked at the price and grimaced. She could afford it or rather her request to add the cost to her debt would be accepted. She did the approximate calculation in her head. I will never be free. At this rate my debt will last 70 years if I work with overtime every day. I will only sleep, commute and work for the rest of my life. Alone. Even if I could have a family it wouldn’t be fair to them. Not that it matters now. I can’t even choose for myself. She felt tears coming out, a mix of sadness and rage. She swiped her wrist over the scanner and swore under her breath. She became a tenant of pod number 13. It was the upper pod, so she had to climb past her new neighbour that lived half a metre below her. She opened the hatch and entered the 1 metre by 1 metre by 2 metres that belonged to her now. At least for as long as she could continue paying off her debt. She crawled inside and allowed herself a moment to feel sorry for taller people. Every pod had the same dimensions, so stretching in bed was a luxury reserved for the shorter people.