Deadly Portents

MAIL FROM THE UNINFECTED

Date: March 2, 2175

Sender: "Meredith Baxley" <mbax3715@pubmail.pas.us.bionet>

Recipient: "Winona Decker" <wdecker@caldwellcorp.com>

Subject: Goodbye

Dearest Win,

By the time you read this message, I'll be dead. Be assured that I took my life without fear or regret. All of my family, save you and mom, are gone now. I'm eager to join them. Please don't think less of me for my decision.

Before I go, I need to explain my actions, not only for your piece of mind, but also so there's a record of what happened here.

It should be clear from the sanity I'm showing in this email that the implant didn't affect me the same way as it did everyone else. I'm not sure why, but I suspect it had something to do with my headaches. You know how much I always suffered with them. Well, the migraines I started having after they installed the implant made them feel like a tickle in comparison.

In the beginning, Pastoria was worth every ounce of pain I suffered from the chip in my brain. It was a lovely community, and so different from anything that we've had in Halverton City. It was more than just a fresh start for Brad and me. It was somewhere that Shelly and June could grow up in peace and safety.

You left the city for your job with the corporation fresh out of school, so thankfully you weren't around to see how bad things got. The riots, the gangs, the death squads; the city turned into a war zone. I was never so glad in all my life when Brad showed me the acceptance letter for our settlement application in Pastoria. It was our way out.

Brad's new boss met us at the town hall. Champion Palmer wasn't only the head of Cytocyrol, but also in charge of the town council and one of the founding fathers of Pastoria. He told us that it was his dream to build a flourishing community in harmony with both technology and nature. He had the look of a father doting upon his beloved child when he took us on the tour. It was both touching and comical at the same time.

Among other things, he showed us Brad's lab and the schools the girls would be attending. Everything about Pastoria was quaint and charming. We fell in love with it straight away. Even the girls were excited, despite obviously missing their friends back home.

It looked like the pictures of the historic small towns we used to imagine growing up in when we were kids. Do you remember those? We would often talk about what it must have been like to live back in those days. It seemed like such a peaceful alternative to the bustling megacity where we grew up.

Our tour eventually ended outside our new home. It was the first time we saw it in real life. I was so overwhelmed that I broke into tears. I could hardly believe this was really happening, that this would be our life now. Brad hugged me and made me smile in that simple, carefree way he always had. I felt like...

Ah, damn!

[message paused]

I'm sorry. I had to take a moment. I'm composing this message using my implant, which isn't always an easy thing for me to do. The headaches get worse the more I use the chip, and it just felt like someone hammered a spike between my eyes that time.

If it's all right, I might skip a bit. My head is throbbing and I don't have much time before the others track me down.

There's so much that I still need to tell you. Where do I begin?

The implants. I should tell you about the implants. That's what's most important.

Champion told us all about how cerebral biogenic implantation was a new initiative driven by the corporations and tested by a select group of communities, including Pastoria. CBI was a way of tapping into a vast neural network, to allow a nearly immediate exchange of ideas between individuals, as well as providing virtually limitless wireless access to any data available on the Grid.