Ground Zero
"Fuck it. I'm not going to live in fear. I need to do this." You say to yourself.
"Do what sir?" the Shelter.
"I'm reconnecting to the network; I need to fucking talk to someone other than you. No offense."
"None taken sir. I must admit I was starting to worry about your mental state. In fact I was going to suggest you do just that, but I thought that it may upset you."
You go into your computer room and reconnect your system. You're a little nervous, you don't know what to expect. You log on for the first time in five years.
RockerChick20: OmegaMan?
OmegaMan23: Yeah it's me.
RockerChick20: We all thought you were dead!
OmegaMan23: Pretty much was for the last year. Walking dead as it were.
MissKitty25: So you still talking to the voices in your head I mean your Shelter?
OmegaMan23: Well I tend to alternate between the two and they're all still more interesting than you.
RockerChick20: Oh be nice Miranda! We don't have too many others to talk to anymore, I'm sure Omega's not here to cause trouble again.
OmegaMan23: I wasn't trying to cause trouble the first time Miranda?
MissKitty25: Yeah while you were gone, we all opened up a lot more and actually learned each other's real names. Guess your paranoia was contagious.
RockerChick20: Hey I wanted us to use the cameras right from the beginning, so I wasn't paranoid! Anyway since you're back, my real name's Becky. What's yours? Oh wait turn on your camera! Everyone's seen each other now!
OmegaMan23: Wait a minute. You said you don't have too many others to talk to anymore, what did you mean?
RockerChick20: Oh. Well that's a bit sad actually. Not too long after you left, Paul or Casey Jones as you probably remembered him, said his food dispensers had failed. He said he couldn't get them to work at all, soon his water dispenser failed too. He couldn't even get his bathroom taps to work. He knew he didn't have much time left after that, so he logged on one last time to tell us all good bye and said he'd spare us the agony of having to speak to him knowing that was slowly dying of starvation and dehydration I don't really like to think about it.
OmegaMan23: Shit, that's a fucked up way to go. So um, what happened to Job?
MissKitty25: You mean Mark? Don't know exactly, but he stopped logging on about a couple years ago and given that he was on here whenever he could, it's safe to say nothing good happened to him. He did say he was having power problems though the last time he was on, we all figured it was just his usual panicking over minor Shelter glitches, but it might've been serious this time. Of course maybe he's still alive and he's just lost network power and he just can't access us, but for all his stressing, he was a pretty good mechanic and electronics guy, so it seems like he would've fixed the problem by now. Don't know. Kind of glad not to hear him whine anymore though.
OmegaMan23: Alright, I hesitate to ask, but where's Shadow?
RockerChick20: Xavier? About three months after Job disappeared. Miranda told me he sent her a message saying he was leaving his Shelter Said he wasn't going rot in a glorified coffin anymore and was going to take his chances back on the surface.
OmegaMan23: So Shadow was a guy eh? How the hell did he leave his Shelter? There's no way to call the elevator back down!
MissKitty25: Maybe he had a different kind of Shelter set up, or he just climbed up the shaft or something. Who cares? He was an asshole anyway. So is this a temporary visit or do you intend on sticking around?
RockerChick20: You should stick around; it gets kind of lonely with just me and Miranda, if you turn on your camera we could do something together!
MissKitty25: You better not be implying what I think you are Becky, that's just between me and you.
RockerChick20: Well you don't have to join in then, you've been acting like a domineering bitch lately anyway.
MissKitty25: Oh so that's what this is all about? Some guy comes around and you're all ready to fucking drop everything and suck his dick?
RockerChick20: Suck his what the hell? It's fucking cyber, it doesn't mean anything, it's just a good way to pass the time, plus I'd like to do it with a GUY in some fashion again, seeing as you probably ran Shadow off before anything even happened!
MissKitty25: So MY feelings and all those private chats we had meant nothing to you?! You don't have any feelings for me?! Don't you LOVE me?!
RockerChick20: Well yeah I do to a degree, but I mean come on it's really not the same. I mean maybe it would be different if we could actually touch each other and stuff, but
MissKitty25: FUCK YOU!
Miranda suddenly logs off, and Becky does likewise leaving you shaking your head at the whole situation.
"Do what sir?" the Shelter.
"I'm reconnecting to the network; I need to fucking talk to someone other than you. No offense."
"None taken sir. I must admit I was starting to worry about your mental state. In fact I was going to suggest you do just that, but I thought that it may upset you."
You go into your computer room and reconnect your system. You're a little nervous, you don't know what to expect. You log on for the first time in five years.
RockerChick20: OmegaMan?
OmegaMan23: Yeah it's me.
RockerChick20: We all thought you were dead!
OmegaMan23: Pretty much was for the last year. Walking dead as it were.
MissKitty25: So you still talking to the voices in your head I mean your Shelter?
OmegaMan23: Well I tend to alternate between the two and they're all still more interesting than you.
RockerChick20: Oh be nice Miranda! We don't have too many others to talk to anymore, I'm sure Omega's not here to cause trouble again.
OmegaMan23: I wasn't trying to cause trouble the first time Miranda?
MissKitty25: Yeah while you were gone, we all opened up a lot more and actually learned each other's real names. Guess your paranoia was contagious.
RockerChick20: Hey I wanted us to use the cameras right from the beginning, so I wasn't paranoid! Anyway since you're back, my real name's Becky. What's yours? Oh wait turn on your camera! Everyone's seen each other now!
OmegaMan23: Wait a minute. You said you don't have too many others to talk to anymore, what did you mean?
RockerChick20: Oh. Well that's a bit sad actually. Not too long after you left, Paul or Casey Jones as you probably remembered him, said his food dispensers had failed. He said he couldn't get them to work at all, soon his water dispenser failed too. He couldn't even get his bathroom taps to work. He knew he didn't have much time left after that, so he logged on one last time to tell us all good bye and said he'd spare us the agony of having to speak to him knowing that was slowly dying of starvation and dehydration I don't really like to think about it.
OmegaMan23: Shit, that's a fucked up way to go. So um, what happened to Job?
MissKitty25: You mean Mark? Don't know exactly, but he stopped logging on about a couple years ago and given that he was on here whenever he could, it's safe to say nothing good happened to him. He did say he was having power problems though the last time he was on, we all figured it was just his usual panicking over minor Shelter glitches, but it might've been serious this time. Of course maybe he's still alive and he's just lost network power and he just can't access us, but for all his stressing, he was a pretty good mechanic and electronics guy, so it seems like he would've fixed the problem by now. Don't know. Kind of glad not to hear him whine anymore though.
OmegaMan23: Alright, I hesitate to ask, but where's Shadow?
RockerChick20: Xavier? About three months after Job disappeared. Miranda told me he sent her a message saying he was leaving his Shelter Said he wasn't going rot in a glorified coffin anymore and was going to take his chances back on the surface.
OmegaMan23: So Shadow was a guy eh? How the hell did he leave his Shelter? There's no way to call the elevator back down!
MissKitty25: Maybe he had a different kind of Shelter set up, or he just climbed up the shaft or something. Who cares? He was an asshole anyway. So is this a temporary visit or do you intend on sticking around?
RockerChick20: You should stick around; it gets kind of lonely with just me and Miranda, if you turn on your camera we could do something together!
MissKitty25: You better not be implying what I think you are Becky, that's just between me and you.
RockerChick20: Well you don't have to join in then, you've been acting like a domineering bitch lately anyway.
MissKitty25: Oh so that's what this is all about? Some guy comes around and you're all ready to fucking drop everything and suck his dick?
RockerChick20: Suck his what the hell? It's fucking cyber, it doesn't mean anything, it's just a good way to pass the time, plus I'd like to do it with a GUY in some fashion again, seeing as you probably ran Shadow off before anything even happened!
MissKitty25: So MY feelings and all those private chats we had meant nothing to you?! You don't have any feelings for me?! Don't you LOVE me?!
RockerChick20: Well yeah I do to a degree, but I mean come on it's really not the same. I mean maybe it would be different if we could actually touch each other and stuff, but
MissKitty25: FUCK YOU!
Miranda suddenly logs off, and Becky does likewise leaving you shaking your head at the whole situation.