This is a short story I wrote a little while back. It’s not done but close enought to throw up on the old Shotgun site. Feel free to comment on it if you like.
Murder on Myspace
When the ozone layer finally dissolved to nothing the US Government was forced to act. Large underground habitats were designed and built in record time but not fast enough for the ¾’s of the population who perished from illness, starvation, and rapid skin cancer. Due to disease the habitats were separated in to small cells called life pods that became the living space for each individual human being that survived what was now called the “Surface Catastrophe”. The human race would spend the rest of their existence in these life pods. Food was pumped into all 6,978,352 8×8cells 3 times a day by a gigantic processing machine in the center of the subterranean complex. With no actual physical contact possible due to the fear of disease, all survivors interacted through the networking program Myspace. Cuthbert Bremer lived in life pod # 967,484. He had been seven years old at the time of the “Surface Catastrophe” and was now 28. He spent his days reading over the history that was available in the Network, the archive data base that was available to be streamed into all the life pods. The rest of his time was spent eating, sleeping, exercising, or communicating with other pod dwellers through Myspace. His myspace page reflected his personality and his intrests. He had spent the last few years writing out his frayed memories of the world before life pods, describing his mother’s face and the feeling of sunlight on his skin before he was no longer allowed to go outside. Others shared their memories of the surface as well in comments on his blog. One of those pod dwellers that had posted had a page called “Sarah All Alone”. Her comments had caught his eye when she posted a picture she had been able to hold onto through all of the years since moving underground. It was of a group of friends at the ocean, all gathered around a campfire on the beach. Looking at that picture was like looking into a fantasy world that only existed in someone’s imagination.
C: Hi. S: Hi. What can I do you for? C: I was wondering about the picture. S: Yes? C: Where did it come from? S: From me. I found it in my stuff. C: Which girl are you? S: None. C: ? S: I just found it in my stuff. I don’t know where it came from.
Cuthbert waited almost an hour before writing more.
C: Do you remember where you lived? S: A forest. Near a creek. C: Really? S: I think. Sometimes I wonder if I just dreamed I did or read about a forest on the network. C: I lived in a town near the ocean. S: I never saw the real ocean. C: Don’t worry. It was over-rated. Way too cold.
From there Cuthbert and “Sarah All Alone” became top ten friends on each other’s myspace pages. Every day Cuthbert left at least two comments on Sarah’s page and Sarah did the same on his. Every morning Cuthbert would squirt coffee out of his pod spigot and turn on his screen to see what his friend had left him while he had been sleeping. Whatever she posted either gave him a chuckle or had him typing intently away at his keyboard in response.
S: How do you drink that shit? C: Coffee? S: Yes. C: I don’t know. I like it. S: It’s not even coffee. C: ? S: Do you think it tastes like coffee? C: I guess. S: Did you drink coffee on the surface? C: No. S: Then how would you know what it tastes like? C: It doesn’t really matter. S: ? C: Drinking it reminds me that there is a morning, and that morning is different from night. S: Hmmm. Maybe I’ll have a cup.
Some nights they would punch in their request for food at the same time so that they could eat at their monitors and type while having dinner. Sarah typed out her thoughts almost as fast as they popped into her mind. Cuthbert at first struggled to keep up but over time was typing almost at her speed. He would even speak while typing to exercise his voice. He didn’t realize it but it was the first time a sound had come out of his mouth in seven years. They discussed other people’s pages and how they wanted to change their own. Cuthbert described his family and explained that they were most likely dead since all survivors usually reconnected through Myspace. Sarah believed her family had perished as well but still held a faint hope that they may still be alive and just disconnected. One day Cuthbert surprised Sarah by making her beach photograph the background of his profile. He also used Photoshop to insert pictures of the two of them on to the beach as well. It looked strange with the artificial lighting of the life pods mixed with the bright natural light of the ocean picture.
S: Cuthbert? C: Yo. S: What do you think it’s like up there now? C: The surface? S: Yes. C: Dead I guess. Probably a lot of water. Maybe some animals survived. S: But you don’t really know. C: No, of course I don’t know. S: What if it’s fine? C: Fine? S: What if it’s livable? C: C’mon, that doesn’t make any sense. S: Why? C: Well, for one, why the hell would we all be living down here if it was livable up there? S: Maybe only a few people are living up there. C: Who? S: I don’t know. Rich people maybe. People that could afford to go to the surface. C: But why would anybody want to go to the surface? S: Don’t you? C: Not if it’s going to burn my skin off and make me unable to breath. S: So you’re happy living in a prison? C: It’s not a matter of being happy. This is life.
Cuthbert and Sarah didn’t speak as much after that. No longer did she post comments on his page and he made it a point to ignore her. He found her questions annoying, almost to the point of anger. Maybe it was because he had the same questions himself. He still checked her page everyday and after a few weeks he started to notice it changing dramatically. All her photos were taken off and were replaced with blurry images that were claimed to be actual photos of the present surface. Most of them were completely too blurry or dark to make out, but there were a few where Cuthbert could see some trees and possibly a few human figures. In addition to the photos Sarah started to post large documents, testimonials from different people on Myspace that had either experienced a glimpse of the surface or knew someone who had. One poster named Changed4Life had written this description: “I received a message one day that I was needed in an experiment to supply information for the Network. I remember it being obvious that the message had been sent in mistake because they kept referring to me in with a strange code name and not my Myspace name. A few hours later an opening appeared in my Life Pod that I had never known was there. I walked over to look inside and found it to be a metallic shoot that went up and down, disappearing into darkness.” “Without warning some kind of force sucked me up into the shoot and blew my whole body up through the tube. I screamed as my body turned and flipped, following the course of the shoot. A huge pressure and rushing sound blew into my ears and I was unable to cover them which made it excruciating. It felt like I was being blown around for hours but it may have been just a few minuets.” “When it stopped I couldn’t move my body at all as I tried to get my bearings. I was also blind from a heated light that engulfed me. My eyes started to adjust and I found that I was lying on a carpet of thousands of bright green threads. They were soft, and sort of moist. It seemed to go on and on into the distance forever, although my eyes never fully adjusted to the light so who knows. That light was the most powerful thing I could ever imagine.” “I only had a few seconds more to take in my surroundings before the same force that put me there pulled me backwards and back into the shoot. I was twisted and turned for what seemed another eternity before I found myself back in my Life Pod.”“I don’t know if what I found was the surface but I sometimes wish it never had happened. All I do is wait for another message to come to my page and tell me that I’m needed to assist the Network. A lot of people say that I’m crazy and that I made this up. I wish I had.” Another poster named StickGuy108 had his own story: “After blasting through this tube for what seemed hours I was sitting in dirt. Real dirt!! I started crying when I saw it. I was sure I was dead and had made it all the way to heaven. Just in case I was wrong I scooped up a handful and put it in the pocket of my pod suit.” “My eyes were adjusting to the light and I started to make out something in the far distance. It was shimmering, kind of like your monitor when you switch it off after you’ve been online for a long time. I was felt a soft force blowing against my face. Wind!! It blew the dirt around me up into the air. I squinted my eyes, trying to make out the object in the distance. It was white, and shined like a star. I’m not sure now but for a second I could have sworn it was a city.” Below the post was a photo of a couple of grains of dirt, all that was left from StickGuy108’s strange trip after he was sucked back into the tube and into the bowels of the Earth. Cuthbert scrolled threw and checked the page everyday for whatever new developments Sarah had added. He found all of the stories fascinating but probably the ravings of crazy people. It just didn’t make sense that everyone would live underground while the surface was hospitable. Sarah wrote a new blog every couple of days demanding answers to the questions her page raised. Her frustration and rage were present in such titles as “What is the Truth?!”, “Is This Living?!”, and “Who Is In Charge Here?!!” Hundreds of people went on to her page and left comments on her blog, but no one had any answers. They only raised more questions. One day Cuthbert logged on to click to Sarah’s page and read up on any new developments. He scrolled through his friends and then went back thinking he had missed her page. He did this three times before he came to the conclusion that she was no longer on his friends list. Maybe she had dropped him. He went to the Myspace friend search and typed in Sarah All Alone. Nothing came up on the screen. Thinking she might have changed her name he started going through all the Sarah’s that had pages. There were 6,735 Sarah’s which took almost 4 days to go through. In the end Sarah was nowhere to be found. Cuthbert tried to remember some of the people that had posted on her page and began searching for the names. He found a girl with the page name Carrie Kansas and posted a comment reading: “This is a friend of Sarah All Alone. Have you heard from here lately?” A few days passed before Carrie wrote back with an instant message:
CK: Hi. Who were you looking for? C: Sarah All Alone. Have you seen her page around? CK: Was she the one with all the surface stuff? C: Yes. CK: No. Last time I saw her page she was describing how she was trying to find the opening in her Life Pod. C: She didn’t change her name? CK: Not that I know of.
Cuthbert sat in front of his monitor for hours trying to figure out what to do. He went in to his photo archive and clicked on the photo that Sarah had sent of the beach. Maybe her dream had come true and she had found her way back to the surface some how. Maybe she was on the beach at that very moment, lying on the sand as the waves crept up and covered her body, fresh air blowing through her lungs with the sun pouring down on her face. Somehow he knew that wasn’t the case. Something was wrong and Cuthbert was desperate to know what it was. He changed his Myspace name to “Where is Sarah???” and posted this blog: “I have a friend names Sarah No Name and she has vanished. She is a smart good spirited person, and she deserves to be spoken for. In the last few weeks leading up to her disappearance she had become obsessed with the surface and I’m worried that has something to do with her no longer being on Myspace. If you have seen any kind of a sign of her anywhere please contact my page. Thank you.” He spent the next few days posting his blog as a comment on as many pages as he could. One night he came upon StickGuy108’s page and left the comment. A few hours later he got a message back: “Whoever you are, stop asking about Sarah. You’re putting us all in danger.” Cuthbert immediately replied. “Why!!?? What do you know?? Where is Sarah???” Nothing came back that night. Sitting there in front of his monitor Cuthbert started to doze off. He got out of his chair and collapsed into his pod bed. He dreamt of men chasing him, men without faces. He was running through shadows with the men throwing knives at him and shooting at him with guns and flame throwers. He would find doors he thought he might be able to escape through but then would open them to find brick walls on the other side. He woke up the next morning unrested and covered in sweat. He sat back down at his monitor and started to log onto Myspace. A screen popped up saying that his password and screen name did not exist. He tried again but kept getting the same message. In a panic he clicked on the Network Contact icon and typed that he was having problems with his account. A few seconds passed before a message popped up on his screen.
NETWORK: Your account does not exist. C: That’s impossible. I was just logged on last night. There must be a problem with the Network. N: There is no problem Mr. Bremer.
A cold shutter went through Cuthbert’s body. Nobody had ever referred to him by his real name since the Surface Catastrophe.
C: Who are you? N: I’m a representative for the Network. C: Why is my account gone? N: You used it in an inappropriate way. You violated the trust of the Network. C: What does that mean??!! N: You were asking inappropriate questions on Myspace. C: Where is Sarah No Name? N: Remember that we must all respect the state that we are in. We are all lucky to have survived the Catastrophe. C: Where is Sarah?????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The screen suddenly switched to the Network logo. Cuthbert slammed his fingers onto the keyboard but the screen did not respond. He screamed in rage and punched the monitor. He jumped up and slammed his body against the wall of his Life Pod. He kicked and punched the walls and floor until he fell onto his pod bed exhausted. His whole body shuttered in painful sobs. He fell asleep and when he awoke his pod meal had come through the dispenser. He sat in silence, staring at the logo on the monitor. He stayed like that. His Pod Meals popped out of their slot and landed on top of the last uneaten meal. The cold image of the Network logo continued to stare out from Cuthbert’s screen. He barely moved, only rolling over when his hunger wouldn’t allow him to sleep. He thought about Sarah and hoped she hadn’t given up like he had. After a few hours he stood up and looked around the Life Pod. There were no sharp surfaces any where. There was nothing to hang a sheet from. He lay back down on the bed and closed his eyes.
