Amygdala Hijack - A Genetic Engineering Sci-Fi Story of Impending Dystopia

EP. 9 - EUGENIE DRIVER

"I FOUND SOMETHING INTERESTING when you were picking up the car," Ears informed Peter as they started their route to Eugenie Driver's location. "I've been querying the varint community. Discreetly, of course."

"And?" Peter asked.

He was interested in any information on their harassers. Local police were too busy quelling the growing number of disturbances around town. These events might be as simple as a bar fight between two college students who had different views on how to handle the perceived threats, or as complex as varints versus non-varints, churchgoers versus atheists, or Conservatives versus Progressives. The mayors of most cities had implemented nighttime curfews, and concealed carry rights were suspended after numerous standoffs and killings between heavily armed groups in the streets.

The impact of the obelisk's arrival was even worse around the globe. Authoritarian governments clamped down on citizens, many of whom were beginning to revolt openly, assuming they had nothing to lose since they all might die soon, anyway.

Strongly democratic countries also had their share of growing challenges with divergent narratives being amplified and exacerbated in the media. These differences were acted out viscerally on live video to the benefit of media ratings and advertising spend.

Ears sighed. "Brother, what's left to like in the world? We were kind of getting along, even varints and nons, and we were making it work little by little. I felt humans and hybrids were adapting to the changes, despite the pace of change."

"And?" Peter repeated, winding through the narrow streets of North Boston while keeping an eye on his rear-view mirror. "I don't see anybody following. What interesting things did you find?"

"Huh, you could believe it might happen, and then it does."

"Stop beating around the bush, dude."

"The grippers. But actually, it's the mechs, the guys on the far end of the robotic augmentation scale. Increasing numbers of those types these days. The body parts these guys are augmenting makes those old Marvel comics movies appear tame. At least in those cases, there were only a few devious machines. Nobody could foresee that reality would go Hollywood full throttle when Joe Blow on the street gained the ability to mech himself or herself. But I'm one to talk," he admitted, referring to his penchant for augmenting ears onto his body.

"Ears, you never let augmentations get to you. I'm sure you were the same guy before you started your personal journey. Molli and I were lucky to find you along the way."

"It's too easy to flip to the other side, though, and perceive you're no longer human. That you're more advanced, like Homo superiorum or Homo mechanicum. My Latin's not so good, but you understand."

"I'll say it again. And?"

"And I'm seeing vicious talk in the feeds. Threats against anyone stirring the pot."

"I don't see the connection. We aren't stirring the pot, we don't have a million listeners, and there are a few dozen other pods like ours."

"With one big difference. We're here in Boston, in augmentation-central across the globe, with the top scientists and engineers. It's amplified in this town, therefore we get more notice."

"Doesn't make sense they'd be angry at us innocents, much less pissed enough to trash my garage and car," Peter complained.

"I don't understand, either. Perhaps we should get a mech on the show. By the way, I booked this guy named William, but we're using 'the Bard' as his pseudonym."

"Why that name?"

Ears wanted to show him a quick visual of the obelisk once again but was without his phone per their agreement, as was Peter. They were also unwilling to use the car's internet system for fear of hackers who might track them.