Crowd: A Dystopian Social Network Thriller (Final Draft)

Traffic Riot

The next day, Rain woke up half an hour earlier to ensure she arrived at least twenty minutes before the official appointment. It was her first day at work, and she wanted to show her employees how ultra-punctual she was.

A swiss clockwork on steroids.

Rain wrapped a female business suit around her figure and slid into the auto-ride she had called fourteen minutes ago. "Special Advisory department, Downtown."

Her words rang with pride. In fewer than forty minutes, she'd be an official Crowd advisor. She still couldn't believe it.

"Your wish is my wealth," the car AI said and closed the doors with a soft whoosh.

The vehicle hummed from the parking lot and integrated into the early morning traffic with perfect precision.

A mechanical bee joining its swarm.

Rain was just too busy to care. Her fingers tapped on her thigh as her AR lenses fixated on the digital tutorial being projected in front of her eyes. She had consumed the course five times in a row, but needed to repeat it until every lesson burned into her brain cells.

After rushing each lesson with a sigh, Rain switched to the local news feeds to distract herself. A unisex anchor greeted her with a media-proof smile. "Welcome to CaliNews, the number one feed for all your city reports. Our program is proudly provided by Bloomer News Media."

The anchorwoman with the short-trimmed hair crossed her fingers. Rain couldn't tell if she carried makeup, but her skin and suit glimmered. "Election is coming up and the race is hot. The candidates aren't holding back their contempt for each other. According to Norcal 100 polls, Jessie Kwong's popularity has decreased by four percent this week."

Her co-host continued her line of thought. "Kwong's also been an advocate of the social credit network Crowd, citing its implementation has played a major role in helping citizens."

The woman spoke again. "Meanwhile, incumbent Mayor Diego Lunar has shot up the polls, leading by eleven percent. He's also been an outspoken critic of Crowd, claiming its influence over daily life is a dangerous violation of personal rights. He said Crowd was just a tech-tool invented by soy-boys with too much money on their hands."

"Let us have a quick check on the latest debate."

A clip played on Rain's feed.

Senator Kwong spoke. "I'm sorry my opponent is clinging to the past.

The world is changing, Mayor Lunar, whether you like it or not. New technology such as Crowd has helped us deal with socio-economical issues that your administration has failed to address. I will focus on issues that affect the daily lives of our citizens such as affordable housing, full-day child care, citizen pay transparency and healthcare that benefits the many, not just the few."

Diego waved her away. "Under my administration, urban crime has decreased by almost seven percent, a fact that you conveniently left out in your self-serving speech, Senator Kwong."

Blah blah.

The clip ended. The two hosts blinded Rain with their bleached teeth again. "You can check out the full debate on our feed channel."

The host coughed up a chuckle. "It's more sounding like a pro and contra debate about Crowd than a mayor election, right, Steve?"

"Sure does."

The newest debate hadn't revealed anything new about the election. Rain had already made up her mind of whom to elect.

Mayor Lunar had failed to solve any of the major problems that had plagued the city. He was the cliché of the cliché, promising change but delivering more of the same with the attitude of a sledgehammer. Rain doubted Jessie Kwong would bring the change the city desperately needed, but at least she was pro-Crowd. Maybe she and Camryn Sikes could work together, mixing politics and technology.