Crowd: A Dystopian Social Network Thriller (Final Draft)

Don't Sting the Yung

Camryn Sikes peeked through the curtains. A mass of tech-nerds lurked in front of the stage, half their eyes pointed at the host and the other half probably checking their profiles. The dim lighting washed the rows into one giant silhouette.

"Must be hundreds out there," Camyryn said.

Lory stood behind him, like a second shadow. "Eight hundred and forty-two, to be exact."

Camryn's intestines contracted. Twenty-four hours ago, his confidence had surged like Superman in space. One-on-one interviews were no problem, but almost a thousand persons in the audience? A cramp molested his stomach and forced him to bow.

"Breathe in Camryn. Three times," Lory said.

He followed her advice and could feel the cramp releasing. The sweat fall still plagued his face, even here, in the dim-lit backstage.

"Show her the true value of Crowd."

A crew member pinged Camryn. "Fifty seconds and you're on."

Camryn nodded. He had survived pitch disasters and lawyer armadas. He'd take some questions from a random valley girl. He, the one and only Sikes, inventor of the most revolutionary network of all time.

Yes.

The confidence returned.

The energy spread through his body like a battery power pack.

Lory walked up to him. Her breath touched the back of his neck and felt oddly refreshing. "Just remember to focus on what you want to tell the audience. Keep the tech jargon to a minimum and tell stories. Everyone loves a good story."

"Why don't you join me?"

She pulled back and gave him two thumbs up.

The crew member urged Camryn to go. Now.

"Maybe next time," he mumbled to himself before he pranced across the stage. Spotlight burned from the far left like a supernova. The bright shine swallowed the massive audience and turned into a mush of abstract silhouettes. Probably for the better.

"I have been calling him for months but now he finally offered to engage. Everyone in the audience, please welcome Camryn Sykes."

About half the audience clapped, one third silenced like a golem collection. About a dozen failed to care at all.

Wait and see.

Camryn pulled up his left arm to shield himself.

"Are you okay?" Eden asked him.

"Couldn't feel better."

"Then let's get straight into the game."

Camryn sat down in front of her and scanned her appearance. Eden wore a customized tech shirt, probably self-printed. Same crimson streaks in her ashen-black hair, as well as glitter pulsating on her porcelain cheeks. Her eyes glowed in corporate blue.

Beautiful in a techno-hip way.

"Crowd has experienced incredible growth over the past months, reaching almost thirty percent market penetration of the population in California. But Crowd has bought so many other companies it's hard to tell what its main focus is nowadays. Is it a search engine? A ranking mechanism? A recommendation tool? An online marketplace?"

"The short answer is all of it. It's the everything application, helping to build a better society for all of us, not just the few."

He realized he just sounded like Jessie Kwong's campaign motto.