Chapter 3: Smart mouth and attitude
Valentine was still in the centre of the city when the first system tremors hit. She knew immediately that something was badly wrong and sensed an undefinable strangeness to the fault. A life spent living off instinct had sharpened her senses and, though she wasn't a lifer like Ronelle, her neural sensitivities were subtle. She also had four years of experience in the Circuit's crest and fall stability which gave her an excellent frame of reference.
Many of the newer citizens didn't even pause to question the disturbances, as each global vibration somehow fell beneath their notice. Valentine even saw people who really should have known better just continuing with their daily lives. Somehow she knew their sense of security was about to be crushed but there was nothing she could do. None of them could really be blamed for their ignorance though. After first arriving in the Circuits and experiencing numerous, inconsequential, system faults, most people accepted the occasional tremor without question. Only with time did the pattern of the Circuits become part of a citizen's own rhythms, like a second pulse which replaced the one they had left behind.
Unfortunately for Valentine her second pulse had just become distinctly irregular.
Without any further warning one of the nearby office blocks started to falter. First its image flickered wildly and then it fragmented into broken monochrome tones, before vanishing completely. A wave of panic erupted and nearly everyone present began screaming in terror as the quakes intensified. Some ran or hid, forgetting that physical distance was just an illusion within the Circuits but what else could they do when faced with such dire consequences. Unscheduled termination of the type of neural links used throughout the Circuits had well documented dangers, with possible traumas including anything from minor psychological impairment to total brain death. A company representative provided every new citizen with a guarantee of one-hundred percent system stability but that promise had always been worthless.
Another building vanished into darkness and a deeper confusion gripped the terrified masses. Buildings had never just disappeared before and now they were performing the trick as a double act.
All tremors suddenly ceased and a moment of calm crept forth eerily. Everyone stopped screaming, hoping that the sacrifice of two buildings, and all the people they had contained, was enough to satisfy the invisible forces moving against them. No one spoke and no one questioned. Tension built, invested in the futile hope that the excitement was over, or the problem solved. Nothing could have been further from the truth.
A new horizon appeared behind the city, throwing forth a strobing purple light which crushed the perfect, virtual, blue from the sky. Valentine watched in horror as what appeared to be a black cloud of swarming insects erupted from the centre of this mutated vista. They teemed from the horizon, rushing forth and changing in perspective until each dot became distinct and visible. Thousands of small, dark, humanoid figures were now silhouetted against the purple illumination, dancing through the air and carrying the threat of the unknown. Side to side, then front to back, the alien avatars whirled in repeating lines of sinister choreography. Every movement was unnatural, being at once too fluid and too fitful for the expression of a human form.
Disappearing buildings faded into insignificance as these chaotic heralds of destruction approached the massed crowd. People began screaming once again, renewing their calls to the system technicians via the neurological protocols of the Circuits. There was no response and the system didn't even seem to register the multitude of attempted pleas. Purple turned to black and a strange chant echoed from the depths of nowhere, its pitch rising and falling by fractional degrees. Audible darkness now swept forward, appearing to delete everything in its path but its voice was neither cheer nor cry.
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