Book TWO: A SPARK, A SHORT, a Glimpse
It only
happened once, just for a brief second.
Half a second, really. Maybe not
even. But to Johnny, that
maybe-half-a-second might as well have lasted a lifetime.
2112.
He walked home with the sun setting at his back and watched the passersby. Men and women passed without a second glance, lost in the world their goggles projected for them. Rich teenagers in ornate goggles that resembled diamond birds skipped down the sidewalk. Several women clustered at the corner, a nest of wires snaking around their shoulders as they plugged into each other’s headsets, all sharing stories and gossip without once having to move their lips.
Johnny passed a dozen more people on his walk. He saw a television screen alight in the lenses of a business man’s goggles, another young woman shuffling through her email. She pushed past Johnny, bumping into his shoulder.
“Sorry,” he called after her, but the woman hadn’t even noticed they touched. He stopped and sighed, momentarily troubled. His own goggles were black, slick but boring, and nothing flickered on his lenses. No TV, no Internet, no phone, no music. Some would assume him poor—that he couldn’t afford the applications Slipstream had available for download, but in truth Johnny preferred to observe.
Most of the people knew it was autumn, but few could describe it. There were much more interesting things to surf on the Internet. The truth was, the world was beautiful again... but no one gave a damn.
Johnny rounded the corner and saw his house, the white siding almost pink in the dying light.
And then his goggles short out. It wasn’t supposed to happen—Slipstream guaranteed a 100% success rate on every pair of goggles they put out. The first thing Johnny felt was an intense drop in temperature. His force field was down. He looked around, shivering, trying not to panic.
The street had changed. Pavement, once sleek, was now cracked. Pot holes plagued the roads, rusting cars coughed down the roads, spewing black ash. The red and yellow leaves of autumn had disappeared. The trees were dead, the bushes hardly more than tumbleweeds. Litter and scraps of metal blew down the streets. An older woman approached him, her dark skin split and layered in plates.
“Are you okay?” She asked, the milky cataracts of her eyes narrowing in concern.
Johnny was suddenly aware of a beeping in his ear. The goggles powered back on and the world changed again, warped back into the perfect utopia it had been half a second earlier. The woman before him had changed as well—her skin, white and silken, looked forty years younger.
“Do you need help? You look like you’re about to faint.”
“I’m fine,” Johnny lied. “Gotta get home.” He ran from her in a daze. What the hell was that? What had he seen? Was that... had that been Earth? Johnny didn’t stop running until he was inside of his house.
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Jump to...
BOOK ONE -- BOOK THREE -- BOOK FOUR -- TRINIDAD
He walked home with the sun setting at his back and watched the passersby. Men and women passed without a second glance, lost in the world their goggles projected for them. Rich teenagers in ornate goggles that resembled diamond birds skipped down the sidewalk. Several women clustered at the corner, a nest of wires snaking around their shoulders as they plugged into each other’s headsets, all sharing stories and gossip without once having to move their lips.
Johnny passed a dozen more people on his walk. He saw a television screen alight in the lenses of a business man’s goggles, another young woman shuffling through her email. She pushed past Johnny, bumping into his shoulder.
“Sorry,” he called after her, but the woman hadn’t even noticed they touched. He stopped and sighed, momentarily troubled. His own goggles were black, slick but boring, and nothing flickered on his lenses. No TV, no Internet, no phone, no music. Some would assume him poor—that he couldn’t afford the applications Slipstream had available for download, but in truth Johnny preferred to observe.
Most of the people knew it was autumn, but few could describe it. There were much more interesting things to surf on the Internet. The truth was, the world was beautiful again... but no one gave a damn.
Johnny rounded the corner and saw his house, the white siding almost pink in the dying light.
And then his goggles short out. It wasn’t supposed to happen—Slipstream guaranteed a 100% success rate on every pair of goggles they put out. The first thing Johnny felt was an intense drop in temperature. His force field was down. He looked around, shivering, trying not to panic.
The street had changed. Pavement, once sleek, was now cracked. Pot holes plagued the roads, rusting cars coughed down the roads, spewing black ash. The red and yellow leaves of autumn had disappeared. The trees were dead, the bushes hardly more than tumbleweeds. Litter and scraps of metal blew down the streets. An older woman approached him, her dark skin split and layered in plates.
“Are you okay?” She asked, the milky cataracts of her eyes narrowing in concern.
Johnny was suddenly aware of a beeping in his ear. The goggles powered back on and the world changed again, warped back into the perfect utopia it had been half a second earlier. The woman before him had changed as well—her skin, white and silken, looked forty years younger.
“Do you need help? You look like you’re about to faint.”
“I’m fine,” Johnny lied. “Gotta get home.” He ran from her in a daze. What the hell was that? What had he seen? Was that... had that been Earth? Johnny didn’t stop running until he was inside of his house.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jump to...
BOOK ONE -- BOOK THREE -- BOOK FOUR -- TRINIDAD