001␛
the bullet train came to a smooth halt in front of the platform that held roughly five hundred people on it. the air was humid from all the body heat, but sooyoung didn't mind it. she had to get from mitan to eden as quickly as possible. her mother had called her last night, panicking and incoherently rambling about androids and "scary goth children that left metal scraps outside the door". sooyoung knew her mother was probably not taking her medication, so she decided that taking leave from her job and traveling back home would be necessary.
the bullet train opened its sleek doors and passengers rushed out onto the steel platform. the loud clattering of loafers and heels made sooyoung's head hurt. i should've taken train 8251-z like i always do, sooyoung thought, but nooo, train 8254-a is better according to jaina. after the train was drained of all humans, everyone that was patiently waiting could finally enter the train.
although sooyoung wore combat boots, the sound of her footsteps didn't hurt her ears as badly as the lighter-weight heels and loafers. sooyoung found this to be slightly odd, but she ignored it and continued on into the train. once on, she snagged the nearest window seat she could find and opened her bag. sooyoung pulled out her laptop. now would be a good time to finish looking over her emails and check neonet afterwards. neonet was a new social media network that was extremely popular amongst the youth. it had overtaken the ancient networks and become the king of the social world. if you were anybody that was anybody, you had a neonet.
abruptly, the intercom crackled. it's crunchy white noise permeated the air. in an eerie unison, all heads tilted towards the ceiling and waited for words to pour from it. "we are now leaving for eden. i must notify you there is a delay on the tracks fifteen miles ahead because of an android accident. please have patience and thank you for your time," the conductor announced. annoyed mumbles and angry sighs could be heard all around the train.
sooyoung rolled her eyes. it seemed like android accidents were happening more and more often now. while walking to work in mitan, there always seemed to be an android malfunctioning on the corner of the sidewalk. there was always a video on neonet of androids glitching in stores and restaurants. sooyoung felt an odd emotion, a mixture of anxiety and pity, when she saw these robots having meltdowns. she wanted nothing more than to take them home and try to figure out what bugs were causing these bizarre occurrences, but that was illegal and sooyoung could get her mechanical license revoked for it.
i wonder if anyone has posted about this accident on neonet, sooyoung thought. instead of checking her emails, she took out her phone and opened the neonet app. videos of the accident littered her timeline.
"woah, woah, woah," sooyoung muttered to herself, "there's a lot going on here." she clicked on the first post she saw, which was a two minute video. she placed her buds in her ears and began to watch the video. teeth chewed through cold fingernails. sooyoung had no clue what she was going to see, but she guessed she was prepared for anything at this point.
"hey! you fucking androids, get out of the human section! stupid talking trashcans," a male voice on the video yelled. he was clearly angry. the camera-work was very shaky, but it was still very clear in quality.
"we're sorry, but we're waiting for our master to come back," one of the androids said. it was a little girl android, with a physical appearance of around ten-years-old.
"yes, we were instructed to wait here by our master. our apologies if we are bothering you," the other one said. this one was a boy android. he had a physical appearance of between fifteen to eighteen years old, but from the angle of the video, sooyoung couldn't tell.
