Day 0
No one knows how it happened, not really, but Michael could no longer deny that something had gone horribly wrong in New York City. This realization came to him one evening as he climbed out of the subway station, tried to avoid stepping on a dead rat and nearly tripped over a homeless person who was lying across the sidewalk. The man was lying face down in a puddle of vomit, unconscious or dead. No one seemed to notice him, even though the streets were packed with after-work walkers, or perhaps because of that. Everyone just steered clear. Halfway down the block, three more people were huddled in a doorway, their cigarettes’ glow illuminating the winter twilight. It never used to be this dark at five o’ clock, but lately the smog has been blocking out the sun. Michael shivered, stepped over the body, and hurried home.
Home was a two-story brownstone. After fifteen years of living there, Michael had learned not to touch the handrail on the stairs; it was always covered in pigeon poo. As he opened the door, another slammed shut somewhere in the house. He hung his coat on the rack and went into the living room, where he was immediately set upon by his wife, Eliese.
“You’ve got to talk to her, Mike! You’ve just got to! I’ve been trying all afternoon, but she’s inconsolable, and I have to get dinner on the table!”
“Alright, alright, simmer down, would you? I’ll see if I can talk some sense into her.” The ‘her’ in question was Michael’s daughter, Cindy. She had recently become a teenager, and seemed intent on making the rest of the family suffer for it. He knocked on the door of her room, but she didn’t answer. He could hear her sobbing, faintly. He knocked again.
“I TOLD YOU I- Oh! Hi Dad.” She came out of the room like a hurricane, only to become a gentle breeze when she saw who was at the door.
“I hear you’ve been driving your poor mother up the wall. What’s the matter?”
She burst into tears. “The girls at school are making fun of me!”
“Again? Didn’t we just go through this?”
“It’s all because of that bitch Bethany-”
“Language-”
“She decided that changing your wardrobe once a month isn’t enough, and you need a new wardrobe every week now! Can you believe it? My new clothes are already last week’s fashion. Now everyone turns up their nose at me.”
Michael sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Kids these days…Where do they find the time?”
“Mom said I should just ignore them but that’s what Jessica did and last week someone put a dead rat in her locker and she had to change schools, so will you take me to the mall right now please?”
“I’m sorry, sweetheart, but you’re just going to have to deal with it. I’m not buying you a new wardrobe every week.”
“Ugh! You don’t understand anything!” She slammed the door in his face.
Michael went back into the living room and turned on the TV. Eliese gave him a disapproving look but said nothing, and sat at the table to eat dinner alone even though she had set three places. An ad came on.
“Do you ever feel like something is wrong with the world? Well there is something wrong, there’s too many other people! The people who tease your kids at school, the people who make the streets crowded when you’re trying to get home from work, the people who annoy you at your job. Do you ever wish you could just get rid of all these extra people? Well in the Virtual World, you can! Imagine: no traffic, no drama, no coworkers who heat up fish in the microwave. And there’s more! In the Virtual World, you have your dream home, your dream car, and your dream vacation, for free! You can control the weather and the time of day! All for the low low price of 999.99! Buy now!”
Michael bought.
