was busy falling down. But there were two shots, so maybe he was just closer to the road than I thought. It seemed as if the gunshots should have come from far away, instead of being right there. The noise though. It’s actually hard to remember the sound exactly. I think what I have is a memory of remembering the gunshot, you know? It’s as though it were too loud and too painful to actually hold. The part of the memory that hasn’t gone is the intensity of the sound and the visceral way I felt it in my chest.
But you want to know about the man.
He was dressed in digitall camouflage and, standing in the road, looked like something out of an old video game. My first impression was of his solidity, however. He inhabited the road as if he had always been there. The deer were gone, except the two he had shot. Under one arm he carried a gun.
I didn’t know what it was at the time, but I’ve looked at a lot of pictures since. I think it was a Colt R5670 assault rifle, but my memmory might have been faulty when I was looking at images afterward. He was around six feet tall, with broad shoulders that had a slight stoop to them, as if he spent a lot of time crouching. He wore a mask.
Not like a comic book superhero’s mask. This was more like a balaclava that left only his eyes visible. Beneath the cloth, it was impossible to tell much except that his visible skin was a deep tan, and that his eyes were the same dark brown as the deer.
Not It wasn’t visible to me right then, but I eventually learned that he also wore a blocker that corrupted the smart dust as he passsed through it, so he didn’t show up. A man-shaped void passing through the world.
Again, at the time, I didn’t even know I wasn’t recording anything. I thought he was doing this entire thing in front of the world. At any moment, I fully expected Lizzie to speak in my ear and tell me the authorities were on the way. The fact that she hadn’t done so yet probablly cuased me as much panic as anything else.
I twisted free of the bike and half fell back. I think I said soemthing stupid, like “Don’t hurt me.”
He snorted, the air puffing the mask away from his face for a moment.
“You know someone is coming, right? If you hurt me, they’ll know.”
He turned his back, totally unconcerned with me, and strode to the buck. “Might want to check your connection, hon.”
THAT was the moment when I realized I was offline. I subvocalized first, the way I’ve done my entire life. “Lizzie?”
I had There was a slight ringing in my ears from the gunshots, but nothing else. Aloud, ignoring the way my voice carried, I said, “Lizzie. Lizzie, answer me.”
“You’re offline.” The man knelt by the buck and slung a bag off his shoulder. The gun He laid the gun in front of him, so it would only take one motion to pick it up and point it at me.
I pressed my hand to my earbud, as i f that would somehow, magically, make Lizzie audible. She had a ten-minute buffer that synced with my local system; this normally dealt with signal drop. The idea that I’d been out of range for that long was slowly dawning on me, but I was mostly in denial. I tried triggering a datacloud, but nothing appeared. Moving from eye gestures, I pulled out my h-stick, to see if I had maybe damaged it when I fell, but the green ready light glowed on top. I unrolled its screen, and it was 404 out of luck. “No signal,” it said.
I had been scared before, but now I could barely catch my breath. If I had been standing, I think my knees would have given out.
My throat closed, and I could hear the wheezing as I tried to draw in air. I was ALONE with this man. Have you experienced that? Even in the middle of the night, when I wake up, there’s always someone to talk to. There’s always a witness. Without someone watching, people could do anything, and I was standing ALONE in a forest with a man with a gun.
“What do you want with me?”
“Nohting. You were just here.” He
But you want to know about the man.
He was dressed in digitall camouflage and, standing in the road, looked like something out of an old video game. My first impression was of his solidity, however. He inhabited the road as if he had always been there. The deer were gone, except the two he had shot. Under one arm he carried a gun.
I didn’t know what it was at the time, but I’ve looked at a lot of pictures since. I think it was a Colt R5670 assault rifle, but my memmory might have been faulty when I was looking at images afterward. He was around six feet tall, with broad shoulders that had a slight stoop to them, as if he spent a lot of time crouching. He wore a mask.
Not like a comic book superhero’s mask. This was more like a balaclava that left only his eyes visible. Beneath the cloth, it was impossible to tell much except that his visible skin was a deep tan, and that his eyes were the same dark brown as the deer.
Not It wasn’t visible to me right then, but I eventually learned that he also wore a blocker that corrupted the smart dust as he passsed through it, so he didn’t show up. A man-shaped void passing through the world.
Again, at the time, I didn’t even know I wasn’t recording anything. I thought he was doing this entire thing in front of the world. At any moment, I fully expected Lizzie to speak in my ear and tell me the authorities were on the way. The fact that she hadn’t done so yet probablly cuased me as much panic as anything else.
I twisted free of the bike and half fell back. I think I said soemthing stupid, like “Don’t hurt me.”
He snorted, the air puffing the mask away from his face for a moment.
“You know someone is coming, right? If you hurt me, they’ll know.”
He turned his back, totally unconcerned with me, and strode to the buck. “Might want to check your connection, hon.”
THAT was the moment when I realized I was offline. I subvocalized first, the way I’ve done my entire life. “Lizzie?”
I had There was a slight ringing in my ears from the gunshots, but nothing else. Aloud, ignoring the way my voice carried, I said, “Lizzie. Lizzie, answer me.”
“You’re offline.” The man knelt by the buck and slung a bag off his shoulder. The gun He laid the gun in front of him, so it would only take one motion to pick it up and point it at me.
I pressed my hand to my earbud, as i f that would somehow, magically, make Lizzie audible. She had a ten-minute buffer that synced with my local system; this normally dealt with signal drop. The idea that I’d been out of range for that long was slowly dawning on me, but I was mostly in denial. I tried triggering a datacloud, but nothing appeared. Moving from eye gestures, I pulled out my h-stick, to see if I had maybe damaged it when I fell, but the green ready light glowed on top. I unrolled its screen, and it was 404 out of luck. “No signal,” it said.
I had been scared before, but now I could barely catch my breath. If I had been standing, I think my knees would have given out.
My throat closed, and I could hear the wheezing as I tried to draw in air. I was ALONE with this man. Have you experienced that? Even in the middle of the night, when I wake up, there’s always someone to talk to. There’s always a witness. Without someone watching, people could do anything, and I was standing ALONE in a forest with a man with a gun.
“What do you want with me?”
“Nohting. You were just here.” He
Similar Books
Sally Wentworth - A Typical Male
Sally Wentworth
Thomas M. Disch
The Priest
Golden Age (The Shifting Tides Book 1)
James Maxwell
A Newport Christmas Wedding
Shelley Noble
Betting on You
Sydney Landon
MA02 Myth Conceptions
Robert Asprin
Shark Out of Water
DelSheree Gladden
Bound to You
Nichi Hodgson