After Angels

The ink blot bled pixels. Jennifer felt the familiar tickle of The Network as it siphoned off her thoughts as her eyes traced over the tendrils that formed…

A puppy. She had a puppy once, a tiny ball of drooling, vibrating fur and protect me eyes

Cut.

The memory flashed, signalling that it had been uploaded to the network, The pinprick up her spine barely subsided when the image started undulating again, forming a vast, mottled plume of an Angel in flight. That's what she thought they were when they first arrived, not what they officially called themselves, “Pilgrims”. Hovering in their air that seemed to break and twist around them, capturing the rainbow in the sun behind them like feathers of mosaic glass.

Cut.

The ink columns raced upwards into fingers of gray steel. The structure fractured into a grid of pulsing neon, each suspended in the air, linked with swirls cloud trails.

The screen blanked into the Rosarch Mining Company logo, the tally at the bottom informing her that she had completed 13 NFTs today earning her company $300, her commission a 2/3rd cut of that figure, $30.

She leaned back into her plastic chair, wincing as she realised her perception modifier had glitched again. She tapped the side of her head, as if trying to get water out of her ears and the cold hard plastic melted into a soft velvet as the perception modifier kicked in.

Jennifer stretched, despite not moving all day, she felt exhausted. She got up, clicking the box in her wall to grab a continuation bar. A condensed, brown stock cube that melted in her mouth to the perception selection of Foi gras. As her teeth chewed through the liquid, she noticed a faint glow at her holowindow. It wasn’t like the usual harsh neon that cut through the darkness but the beckoning warm orange as if the Sun had suddenly risen over New Server City.

She tottled over to the window, peeking at the city grounds where the usual crowd of refugees sludged in, their faces dished upwards as they took in the Pilgrims hovering over them, imperceivable in layers of oscillating NFTS. They seemed to glide past the sunken door on the side of the street that was spilling light. She was about to send for a drone until squinting, she noticed a glint of a door handle and not the usual security pad.

She gulped, She felt the elastic of an old gas mask tightening across her head and suddenly, she found herself at the door, the gray smog produced by the eternal fires of other server cities shrinking from the glow.

The knob felt warm and damp in her hand, like someone had been here before her, frozen at the turn. It opened to a sloping set of concrete stairs with darkness pooling around it. And at the bottom of it, illuminated by a single lamp on top of a rectangle of lush green, a cottage. As Jennifer stepped onto the grass, the earth sank beneath her foot. Startled, she flung her arms out to balance herself with a squeak. She yanked her foot from the ground and it came out in a smudge of brown and green that slid down her leg as she shook it. Apart from the startling texture, the material didn't seem to have any immediately harmful qualities and she glanced around, cooling her breathing and pumping heart.

Her eyes locked on a single red box placed squarely in the mouth of a clean, black barbeque. A white ribbon crossed its surface in a neat bow. She hesitated, before sinking again into the grass, the material clinging to her clothes as she carved a path through the lawn. The glinting crystal waters of the pool and the taught black circle of the trampoline lay still as she moved around them.

She extended her arm to grab at the edge of the barbeque so she could lift herself up from the waist deep material. But her fingers easily tore through the soft material she originally thought was metal. She starred at the wound, a cross section of layers that looked like a…..cake? She removed her mask and bought the material to her lips.

Sweetness and artificial flavouring greeted her tongue, confirming her suspicions. She swiped at the barbeque, eating mouthfuls of cake until the structure crumbled into itself and the red box rolled down, mired in icing. She threaded her shaking fingers through the ribbon, a feeling of relief washing through her as it came through solid. Nestling in the box was a single red locket.

Jennifer stared.

The world fell around her as the memory came flooding back. Her sister. How could she forget her sweet, poor sister. Her father had given them both the same locket on their twin birthday.

How could she forget that smile that mirrored hers? How could she forget the feathers that sprouted from her clasped hands. That creeped up, smothering her mouth that moved, invoking the name of God. But they didn’t need God, they needed the Pilgrims. They needed their medicine for the diseases they brought with them. They had sold everything they had, even their memories. But it didn’t save her.

Up in the heavens, the everlasting choir of the Queen stopped. Murmurs and snickers broke out amongst the crowd, pointing at her pale and withered chest, bare of NFTs.

She looked down at herself and she looked so disgustingly human. The filter melting off like wax from an apple, left out to brown in the air. She screamed.

In Jennifer’s vision, the copyright enforcers appeared. A faceless circle of shadowy suits chanting Latin terms, reaching into her mind to take back what was rightfully theirs. Searing, white pierced her temple, flooding every orifice, burning her scream. And then nothing, darkness.

Her tongue twitched as she noticed the strong sting of salt in her mouth. Salt? Since when was cake salty? And then the realisation gripped her. She could see. And she was drowning in Continuance.

Jennifer snapped her limbs, writhing to the surface. And for the first time in a long time, she could see. Mountains of Continuance stacked to the ceiling, enough to sustain a small army. She must have stumbled into a storage shed. Captured and modified from the Network. It was too much for one person to have done. There must be a group against the Federation, and this time they had come to save her.

She cupped the locket gently like a small bird, running her thumb over the latch as it clicked open.

A fish

Asian Carp. They used to catch them in droves in the lake. They always had enough to eat because of them. But it was the only thing they could eat. It’s long, steely body like the blade of a sword ravaged every body of water it invaded.

She knew who had sent for her. And she knew where she had to go.

There would be the full might of the Network waiting for her outside the storage shed. But this wasn’t the Pilgrims land, it was theirs. And she felt invincible.

She cranked open the door and stared at the end of the world.

The pilgrims turned their sun dried heads with empty sockets glinting with metal towards her. But she was free from the Network now and they couldn’t control her.

She made a beeline towards a motorcycle. An object of the old world, it had no computational abilities, just a simple engine burning with fire that the Network could not control. It needed a rider and a destination and Jennifer wringed her hands on the leather of the throttle, leaving the Pilgrims hopelessly behind her.

The lake from her childhood had been gouged out, widened with cruel radioactive bones that instilled the water with an alien glow. The fish were nowhere to be seen but swans with craned necks floated peacefully on the surface. She followed the new river, the engine of the motorbike purring beneath her like a live mount.

And then, rising out of the water like the white Baleen of a gaping whale, she found the dam. Sprouted above it, waved the red, white and blue monogram that she had not seen in a long time. She hurried to the side where a crude pulley had been erected, tears pooling as she saw the pinprick of figures waving above her. She closed the latch behind her, knuckles white against the rusted metal cage. As she rose, she noticed that the water vapour that plumed upwards was not cool against her skin but getting warmer and warmer, squeezing perspiration out of her.

She spied her fathers sunrise smile over the top and she grabbed the chanting pile of relief into her arms.

“Hey! Where’s Joshua?” A woman’s face, scarred with the things she had lived through, interrupted her embrace. “He was supposed to be in the same district as you. Where is he?”

The name rang unfamiliar to her ear, twisting dread into her stomach. Another man placed a hand on her shoulder and pointed downwards to where Jennifer had come from. Ant like figures moved slowly though the planes. The distant air buzzed with Pilgrims like an agitated mosquito swarm.

“They’re coming, they're all coming” Her father muttered in awe. “How much longer until the gates open? He called to a group of figures with arms outstretched over the fires of the server city under them

“Aren't they-”

“Pilgrims?” Her father interceded,” Partially. But ones on our side. Look”

The gates of the dam widened so that the streams that were previously gently cooling the server city thickened and roared over the coals, quieting the embers at last. The group dropped to their knees as the levitating structures of New Server City began to shake and crumble.

And then, as if caught by an invisible hand, they stopped.

“Ah, it looks like the backup servers have started” he said in a flat tone that conveyed his lack of surprise but yet still tinged with disappointment.

“No matter. We have won enough victories today. Our people have taken back their memories and are beginning to awaken. Our forces grow stronger by the day. And the Pilgrims are not invincible. If we can take out one of their servers, we can take out all of them” He said

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that” Panted the Pilgrim. ”Our technology is strong, We only managed to free 10% of the people in New Server City and everyday the Network is gaining more ground on the continent”

“But 10% is sill more than what we had yesterday” her father insisted. “ The living must carry out the will of the dead and I will not leave them behind. I will not let them use our people as batteries to burn our home to the ground.

He gazed over the newly formed river beneath them, its waters icing over the haphazard metal servers strewn broken amongst the bed.

“When the rains settles, there will be work to be done”