LOGINShare
The Hunt For Cody
Last Updated:
2024-10-29 19:42:56The moment it seemed safe enough to move out in the morning, I headed out to the transport depot in the ration center. I needed to catch a ride to the far north. It wouldn't be easy, but I still had a few bags of sparkly things that could practically guarantee cooperation. The little things I'd swiped from Vanessa's house. Thinking about her gave me a pang... as much as I wanted to be free of her, I hated to see her suffer such a horrible death. I'd had enough with suffering in general.
I checked, and as I'd been told, there was only one truck going that way. It wouldn't go all the way. I'd have to hope I could find a transfer, but it was a start, at least.
The driver was easily bribed by the shiny diamonds and told me to hop in the back. He didn't mind doing a favor for the captain, but the officials at his destination would be far less forgiving, so he'd have
Related chapters
My Shattered World The Orphanage
I let the little girl slide to the floor as I leaned against a wall, just trying to catch my breath from that long run in the chill air. The kid quickly told the dramatic tale to the person who had dragged us in here- a woman, from the voice- describing how I had snatched her from the very jaws of certain death.As they spoke, I examined our rescuer. She had dark hair pulled into a knot at the back of her head. I couldn't quite see her face but it looked like it was only lightly lined, if at all. She was slender, of course, probably just as starved as everyone else. She wore a long patchwork dress that looked like she had scavenged pieces from every mismatched tablecloth and curtain she could find.When the girl finished her explanation, the woman turned to face me with a stern but curious look... edged with just a touch of weary amusement. "You're crazy, stupi
Last Updated : 2024-10-29My Shattered World Want Some Candy?
We took the kids into a room that resembled a dormitory. Everything was broken down, the beds were cobbled-together scrap, and the blankets were threadbare, but it was better than nothing. At her request, I told the kids a story while she supervised teeth brushing. Once they were all tucked in and had gone to sleep, she led me down another hallway to a smaller room.It had once been some kind of office. She had converted the desks into a bed. It was the first time I'd seen an effort- outside of the Dame's place- to create something comfortable and inviting. There were even bedcurtains to block out the chill breeze from the broken, boarded-over windows.Just as I thought it was odd to have something so relatively luxurious for a guest room, the door slammed behind me. I froze, a trickle of fear tingling on my neck. Had this been a trap?
Last Updated : 2024-10-29My Shattered World Candy's Secret
The next time I woke, I was confused. I couldn't remember where I was until Candy shifted in her sleep, snuggling closer with a slight murmur. I frowned, wondering why I had woken up. Surely it wasn't morning yet?My body told me that it was. It was the oddest feeling... I'd slept through an entire night with no nightmares. None that I could recall... I seemed to recall something about a purple dragon racing a unicorn, but that was probably because I'd told the kids a story about a dragon the night before.I'd been careful not to move too much, but even slight movements jostled her awake. She looked at me with a soft smile, kissing me gently. "Good morning."I returned her kiss. "Good morning. Sleep well?""Better than I have in a long time," she said, holding me tightly
Last Updated : 2024-10-29My Shattered World The Key to Cody
A few hours later, Candy surprised me with a warm shower. The only intact facility like that in the whole town, from what she said."There's a hidden tank on the roof that I painted black to absorb sunlight," she explained. "There's not a lot of water, but at least it's warm. To conserve, we should share the facilities.She was determined not to let me go any sooner than necessary, but she had a good point.After the heat chased away the shivers from the broken windows, I quickly dressed, mentally reviewing my plan. I was about to leave the bathroom when I noticed something out of place. A bottle on the counter... nearly full of pills. I picked it up and looked at it, feeling a hint of dread. "Candy? What's this?"She raised her eyebrows, shooting me a look of exasperati
Last Updated : 2024-10-29My Shattered World Outwitting a Monster
Several hours passed as the three of us were locked into a sort of sick staring contest. My legs ached from the effort of balancing on the ledge, which was narrower than I'd first thought. The ledge was wide enough for me to stand, but not wide enough to sit. The one time I had tried, I'd nearly fallen back into the lion's pit of death.I doubted I would outlast either the zookeeper or the cat. Every time I looked at the keeper, he'd just give me a raised-eyebrow look as if to inquire whether I was about to make a break for it. I never bothered to respond.After pacing for an hour, the lion came to the same conclusion I had: I wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. He laid down across the floor of the pen, watching me in hungry annoyance. Fresh meat was so close at hand, and yet entirely out of his reach.This wo
Last Updated : 2024-10-29My Shattered World A Favor Repaid
As I reached the zoo entrance, somewhere nearby, I heard a small, sobbing scream. A child... a little girl? The zoo's latest victim was possibly still alive, and I couldn't just walk away from her. If it weren't for me, she wouldn't be in here.I followed the sounds as I wound through paths, trying to ignore the pain in my shoulder. I found another pen, this one entirely glass in except for an observation area screened with wide mesh. At the bottom of the pen was a boa constrictor, stretched to its limit to try to reach the top of the screen.At the top, clinging for dear life with her fingers and toes jammed into the screen, was a little girl, no more than five. Stark naked, she was white and shaking with fear, crying and screaming, begging for her mother. As I listened, I heard her scream for her mother... to come back?
Last Updated : 2024-10-29My Shattered World The Sixth Memory
"Jonathan, this is absurd! He hasn't even been in the outside world for... years! He was just a little boy, surely there has to be someone else that can do the job. Someone more experienced, better trained..."I sit back in my chair with my arms folded and wait patiently for the argument to end in the only one it possibly can. There is no one else that is right for the job- that would be willing to do it, of course- but they don't want to entrust such a critical mission to the idiot kid that caused our living nightmare in the first place.Grandfather sighs and raises his hands. "Unless you are suggesting that one of the senior staff go, there is no one else. None of us are young enough for such a trip. Of course, there's always Mirele-"Mirele's father, Doctor Hansen, glares at Grandfa
Last Updated : 2024-10-29My Shattered World Fight for Life
My shoulder throbbed, but that was a good sign. Sort of. It meant that rather than being dead, as I expected, I was alive. Still fighting, but probably in a whole lot of trouble. Even in my semi-lucid state, I could tell that the wound was infected. Who knew what kinds of bacteriological nasties that monster had laced on his hook?"Mama, he's awake!"I heard steps approach and felt a cool hand on my brow. "Toby? Can you hear me?"Sure, hearing is easy. It's the only sense that doesn't require me to voluntarily move something.Responding to what I heard, on the other hand... that takes a bit more effort.I let out a low sound, somewhere between a grunt and a moan. The hand moved away and something cold and wet was put in its p
Last Updated : 2024-10-29
Latest chapter
My Shattered World Final Thoughts... For Now
One week ago, Professor Jonathan Spafford's mortal consciousness fled this world. Every time I let myself think about it, I feel the agony anew, and I have to take a few seconds to hide in his memories, to hear his voice and feel his love around me. I understand more and more what Mirele meant... but at the same time, it's different. As long as I'm still alive, still drifting in my digital home, I'll keep his memories safe until we can find a way to bring him to life, just as he turned us into living computers.I've been in contact with a few people that have such programming experience, creating Artificial Intelligence constructs, both as programs and as actual droids. Some of them worked on the droids that are now moving all over the surface of Horus, rebuilding our world into the beautiful, shining Utopia we remember it once being.They have told me that my idea is a long shot at best, insane at worst, but one of them admitted that he had worked on a project where an AI's m
My Shattered World It Hurts to Say Goodbye
Four hours later, Lance stood at Grandfather's bedside with a grim look. He had done as much as he could to treat the stroke, but this one had been far worse than before. Grandfather had no motor function left, and the only reason he was still alive was because the machines around him wouldn't let him die. He hadn't regained consciousness even for the shortest time. Lance had activated a speaker in the room so that I could talk to Grandfather directly, but he hadn't moved or reacted. Seeing him like this broke my heart. It looked like I was going to be cheated of the chance to say goodbye. The rest of the council came to his room and surrounded his bed. Candy took Grandfather's hand in hers, squeezing it a little as tears rolled down her face. "Lance, we've been talking, and... I think we should go through with Toby's idea."
My Shattered World Reunions
A full month passed and we had managed to restore at least partial function to most of the critical systems. Communications, transportation, utility services, the replicators, and a basic shell of the entertainment system. As things stood at the moment, aside from illness or injury, there really was no reason for anyone else to die from the Crash. Not easily. We got the system of surveillance cameras back online, and for a while, Mirele and I would use our break times to just watch happy couples getting married in parks that were slowly coming back to life. We'd watch new parents stroll along streets with their newborns, and we'd watch older couples, the rare survivors of their generation, as they would walk through their towns and reminisce. Once the general story of what had taken place was finally revealed- and the people could use the Net again- an electi
My Shattered World Voice to the Voiceless
When Grandfather rolled in the next morning, looking much better than he had the previous day, I was reasonably sure that I was ready. Mirele and I had let Candy in on the plan and practiced with her for an hour. It was about as good as it would get without giving it entirely too much attention. That would require ignoring what was supposed to be our real job. Putting our shattered world back together. As soon as he had rolled up to the computer and looked over the screens to check our status, I figured it was time. I could feel Mirele near me and caught a wordless wave of encouragement from her. It was now or... well, not never, but I knew that if I waited too long, I'd lose my nerve. "Good morning, Grandfather." His head lifted so fast, I saw him wince as it kinked a nerve. He stared into the camera. The voice
My Shattered World Memories
For the next hour, I wandered around the hard drives with the data files. I learned all kinds of things about audio systems, about how sound mixers worked, and how we could alter the samples to mimic what I recalled of our own voices. The thing was, I needed to use Mirele's memory of my voice and my memory of hers, because what we remembered of our own voices wasn't accurate to what others heard. Our memories were filtered through our heads and typically sounded much lower than our real voices.I then dove into the process of altering and creating a ton of sound clips for different syllables, creating a small dictionary of voice clips. This was how they had done it in the old days and I knew there had to be a more efficient method, but I wasn't a programming genius.Yet. By the time I was done, I would know more than any computer engineer in existence.
My Shattered World Eyes for the Blind
We'd been given a task to perform, and we took it seriously. Perhaps a bit too seriously. In our laser focus on getting the systems back online, neither of us noticed that Grandfather had been trying to get our attention for several hours. I finally spotted the data stream as I was flying back and forth between several of the sector computers, getting all the droids active and back to work.Initially, it looked like he was just being conversational, asking us how things were going. The last few messages sounded downright panicked. I think he was afraid that we were indeed getting lost... getting so deep into the system that we were losing contact with the outside.I felt so bad for panicking him. We needed a better way to do this, some method for him to signal us. A summons command, or something like that."I think there's supposed to be one programmed in, but I'm not sure why it isn't working," Mirele said as she started to explore the inputs again."Maybe it's
My Shattered World Ruling the World, 101
I had no idea how long I'd been digging in the files before I finally located the highly sensitive files that involved the actual functions of the hunk of rock and metal that we called Horus. After a quick consultation with Mirele- I had discovered that we could communicate with each other without having to vocalize actual words- we decided to pull a copy into our server since it was critical data. We couldn't risk damaging the original copies held by the Ten. I went through the files... there was so much here, it could take months to comprehend it all. Fortunately, whoever had designed the Ten had done so in a way that actually made it pretty user-friendly for the central control systems. We didn't have to know everything about how they worked, we just had to know whether the data we received from the systems were telling us that they were working right, or whether something was wrong.
My Shattered World Talking to the Outside
Mirele had to get my attention again, pulling my back from my fascination with the complexity of the system. "Do you have all the inputs and outputs figured out?" she asked.I took another look around... it wasn't long before I had figured out where everything was coming from, and I was encouraged when I realized that I actually understood what it all was. This wasn't all that different from our practices. The only real difference was that we were now fully and permanently engaged in the server, with no sense of the outside except through our peripheral devices.I missed it, to a point, but having such incredible clarity and speed of thought was a decent trade-off. I had Mirele with me... the only thing that would have made it perfect was if my grandfather was in here as well.I focused on the output where Mirele wa
My Shattered World My Wife, the Computer
"Toby?"Ugh, not this again. I was so incredibly tired of having to be woken up after blacking out.Wait... I was in a computer, so how the hell could I have passed out?"Exactly... you didn't pass out, you just lost your orientation. Now pay attention to me.""Mirele?" I asked."Duh, who else? There's no one else in here, at the moment, anyway."I couldn't see her, since I had no eyes, but all at once, I sensed her presence as I would have through the wires before we'd been dragged in here. I was so relieved... I was afraid that she would be fried like Lance had thought might happen."In case you haven't noticed, my father has a bad h
