Myth Gods Tech - Omnibus Edition: Science Fiction Meets Greek Mythology In The God Complex Universe (23 page)

walkmand> Are you trying to kill -9 our user?

armd>
Woo hoo! Show me that blow in slo-mo. I obliterated that
thing!

httpd> The fridge is sending that order in
again…

parrotd> Just swipe it away…

The user
simply cried on the floor and decided not to try that stupid shit
ever again.

Chapter 5:// Going over

The user
walked out again and drew a familiar path, spacing out along the
way. Lovely tunes from his childhood blurted out to his ears and he
let the music glide him to his best friend’s house.

Thoughts
came and went to his mind.

He had
no money left. That sandwich at the clinic’s cafeteria had taken a
big chunk of his cash, but he needed it. He had just recovered from
a serious accident after all.

He
needed to get to work first thing in the morning. Mr. Robertson
would not let him take any more paid leave after he had been out of
the hospital. The insurance company had gone in and legally taken
every bit of savings he had in his account.

His
fridge was empty, and his landlord would demand the rent any minute
now.

He was
lost in thought but his reptilian brain demanded his attention and
made him jerk up. A snake charmer, some Indian guy with a turban on
his head was sitting by the side of the road and blowing his tunes
with his flute. A cobra snake, big and fat almost as the user’s
thigh, was swaying slowly to the music. The snake charmer’s gaze
fell on the user with almost a palpable weight. The user shuddered.
The snake charmer had one glass eye, or at least it looked like it
was a glass one. White like milk, giving him a very scary look,
especially when contrasted with his dark brown skin.

The user
leaned close carefully as the snake charmer carried on his tune, as
if holding the dangerous reptile by auditory reigns. He took out
his paycard, and touched it to the street peddler’s device that was
laid out on the pavement. A soft gling confirmed the transaction,
and he pulled his hand back quickly.

He
laughed at himself as he remembered that his carbon fibre
prosthetic arm had little to fear from a snake bite, but decided
not to test it anyway.

He
wished the snake charmer a good day, and the cobra to try not to
eat people today.

The
cobra hissed.

The user
walked on quick and steady to his buddy’s house.

Chapter 6:// Catching up

They logged
on the wifi
babesbabesbabes
. It was horrible,
cheap, routed from a device with no recent updates or security
fixes, hidden under a mountain of discarded clothes.

A young
man opened the door. He was wearing a bright red lifeguard suit and
nothing on top, sweetly tanned muscles all over the place and had
loose medium-length golden hair. “Hey bro, heard you were coming
out today. Oh man, soz, couldn’t wake up at all, you know? Why
didn’t you call?”

“
It’s fine,” the user said. “I needed to stretch my legs
anyway, too much lying around.”

fingerd> Finally! What a cheap slow connection this is… I
fingered her.

armd>
Ugh… I think you are bugging out or something. This isn’t a
female.

A stream
of social media selfies popped up of a juicy mature woman, posing
in hundreds of different places and locations, with lattes,
shopping, friends, bags, shoes, all triple filtered as if a toddler
had spilt drool on the lens and taken up photography.

fingerd> I think you are right. Two fingers at once! What
a day!

armd>
Heh. Heh. Heh.

The user
swiped away the stream of silicone boobs and selfies that popped up
on his vision and asked, “Do you have company?”

The
young man stroke a proud pose and said, “Of course I do.” Then he
whispered, emphasising with his hands, “perfect boobies
man!”

fingerd> Got it! This man is
[email protected] and he has recently changed his
relationship status to “in a relationship” with
[email protected]

A stream
of last night’s photos that the “couple” had uploaded last night
became the digital ghost of the party. The user looked around the
living room and could only see the aftermath, but the online
evidence completed the picture just nicely. Drugs, thongs, booze,
fondling in various positions and selfie taking for two. Lots and
lots of selfies for two. The young/old couple had the body and the
social media following to attract hundreds of likes and shares from
lonely, envious people. It was kinda artistic in a certain
way.

“
Yeah, I can see that,” the user said and swiped it
away.

walkmand> Oh don’t! Hey, did you cache any of
that?

parrotd> How many times has
[email protected] been coupled anyway?

httpd> He has changed his relationship status to “in a
relationship” and back to single again 67 times.

armd>
Busy guy.

“
She’s asleep. Not to brag, but I got stamina. Come on in,”
[email protected] said and threw some pizza boxes
on the floor to clean up a spot in the sofa.

The user
checked carefully for stains before sitting down.

Amazing Jimmy, that was his name, brought a couple of cold
beers from the fridge. It was the only thing set on his priority
list for the smart fridge’s automatic ordering, so he never ran
out. He had ran out a few times to be honest, but he had to really,
really
try
and
then had to belch really, really
loud
. He had legally changed his
surname because of the old Amazing Spiderman comics that he’d dug
up in his dad’s old comicbook subscription service. He thought it
would help bring in the girls. Not that he needed any real help in
that matter as he was a lifeguard, working in the popular Greek
islands during the summer and at an expensive 5 star hotel’s heated
swimming pool during the winter. Jimmy had a year-long suntan and
the body male swimsuit models only
wished
they had. Loose hair and a
dentist’s masterpiece of a smile brought in the girls
alright.

It
wasn’t uncommon for ladies to drown on purpose just to be saved by
Jimmy.

He
wasn’t very bright, but he was a good friend.

“
Hey, have you seen that snake charmer next street? Really
weird guy. He has a cobra. A big one,” the user said.

Jimmy
leaned out the window, but the snake charmer was around the corner
so he couldn’t see. “Really bro? How awesome is that? We should
check it out with Bibi when she wakes up.

“
So, who’s the new
girl
,” the user said mocking his own
choice of words.

“
Tease all you like bro, this lady, is like,
experienced
man,” said
Jimmy, bobbing his head up and down. “Like, years of experience, ya
get my drift?”

“
She looks damn fine for her age. Where did you
meet?”

“
At work. By the pool. You know how it is, she was bathing
nearby, we chatted, then got a drink, one thing led to
another…”

“
I
don’t
know how it is, honestly. Never happened to me before. I
usually have to chase them with a harpoon or something.”

“
Ya just gotta smile more ofter bro,” Jimmy said and flashed
his amazing smile. “Anyway, she’s some bigshot manager or
something. She really likes me. Like, really-really likes me. She
told me she wants me to go with her to her niece in France or
something.”

“
Nice
. Nikaia in Greek. It’s a
gorgeous Mediterranean city in France,” the user corrected his
friend, but there wasn’t any trace of mockery in his
voice.

Jimmy
the Amazing opened his can of beer and recalled his conversation
with Bibi, staring idly. He pointed at the user and sipped deep.
“Yeah. Yeah, that makes more sense now that you mention it. Nice
the city. Do they have lifeguards there? They must have, right?” He
whispered, “she’s loaded bro. Like millionaire. Like a one with a
million after it.”

The user
rubbed his chin and said wearily, “Now that you mention it, I have
a favour to ask…”

He told
his friend about the financial situation he was in, and that he
would show up to work tomorrow morning and beg for a shift at the
construction site. Jimmy had already visited him at the clinic and
had seen the extend of the damage to his body, there was no need to
embellish things at all. He was in no better financial condition
than Leo, but the weekend was still far away so he wouldn’t have
blown it all on partying and booze yet.

“
Sure thing man, whatevs. I’m here for you,”
[email protected] said and rubbed his strong
chin.

He went dead serious. “There is a price though. I can’t
just
hand
you the
money, you gotta earn it for yourself.”

Chapter 7:// Paying back

The PAN
was abuzz.

walkmand> I don’t get it.

rfid>
CF02032533139342DFDC1C35

armd>
It’s crystal clear. Our beloved user wanted a testament of my
superiority in arm-wrestling.

parrotd> Ok. I can understand that. Man has always had a
fascination with machinery. But what about the rest?

The
daemons metaphorically looked up at the row of photographs
[email protected] had posted up only minutes
before. The first one was of the two men, sitting across on the
table, doing arm-wrestling and the user clearly beating the
life-guard in strength.

The rest
were like this: the user with a “Vader” black helmet, angrily
choking the air and the life-guard struggling for breath on his
knees. The user with an outstretched hand, a mean face, and the
subtitle, “talk to the hand.” The user and his friend next to each
other doing a “Vulcan salute,” whatever that was. A 6 sec video of
the two headbanging with metal music in the background and doing a
gesture with their hands. And on and on.

armd>
The user loves me.

walkmand> I provided the soundtracks!

parrotd> Shut up everybody.

No one
did.

Chapter 8:// Calling on

Back in
the
cafeclnc
wifi
the datarate was still low even though there were barely any users
this time of day.

Leo the
user checked the email he got from the Apollo Clinic. It said to
come pick up his dog. It wasn’t actually his dog, but he had had to
claim ownership for them to perform surgery on the poor
creature.

parrotd> The user needs instructions!

httpd> Coming, coming. This connection is slow.

The
clinic’s instructions popped up on his veil, in his field of
vision. He was to walk around the back of the building, where they
had brought in Aibo, his newly acquired responsibility.

The user
saw the instructions but looked towards the cafeteria.

parrotd> Did he crash?

armd>
No, he is hesitating again.

parrotd> Must be a processing speed issue. Was there any
head injury in the patient file?

walkmand> Oh, he wants to see the girl
[email protected]! I’ll give him a
tune.

A rap
song with the words, “Go for it” in angry repetition blasted the
user’s ears. He took a step forward, then another. A nurse blocked
his way and stared at him for a minute but it didn’t deter him. He
went to the cafeteria and looked around.

She
wasn’t there.

The user
slapped his forehead and looked at the time. Her shift must have
ended. He did a u-turn and headed around back to get his
dog.

Chapter 9:// Checking out

Around the
back of the clinic was an employee, who was tired and yawning
constantly. The user showed him his ID and swiped it on the man’s
device. He presented a tablet with terms and conditions, the user
scrolled down at the bottom and signed with his fingerprint. Then
the employee asked for a check-out fee and the user swiped his
paycard with the money he borrowed from his friend. He picked up
the key to the cage and stepped outside in the chilly
afternoon.

The user
whistled and hopped a bit as he sang to the tune of “Who let the
dogs out.”

He
stopped in surprise when he saw the waitress from earlier, sitting
by the cage, snacking on her dinner.

“
Who… Em…” he said eloquently.

“
Oh hello!” she said, her stuffed cheeks turning into a cute
smile. She covered her mouth as she chewed down.

The veil
showed her social media presence, the one he had seen before.
[email protected] seemed to be a sweet ordinary
girl who wanted to visit Spain someday. A perfect match for a
blue-collar construction worker with no real prospects or career to
speak of?