Crowd: A Dystopian Social Network Thriller (Final Draft)

Stats of Fire

Camryn watched the riot on his hyper definition wall-screen while eating popcorn. The sharp resolution and pulsating colors of the screen technology made it look as if the riot had unleashed in his own studio space.

He even twitched when a rioter threw a molotov cocktail or received a baton smash from an armored police officer; it was better than any of junk Hollywood had produced.

The streets burned; rioters and police battled like medieval factions clashing into each other. An armored vehicle arrived carrying a giant box-shaped radar on its trunk. Camryn had heard about this technology being developed by DARPA but he had never seen it in action. Hundreds of Red Blockers rolled into fetal positions as if staging a massive play.

It looked surreal, to say the least.

Camryn wiped his greasy hands on his pants and watched the real-time approval ratings of Jessie Kwong and Diego Lunar. Thousands of comments flooded into the Crowd newsfeed per second. Even though it was only Esperanza affected by the riots, the whole city and its suburbs talked about it.

Camryn stood up from his oversized couch and walked toward the windows. In the far distance, smoke billowed into the air while police sirens echoed.

A quick glance at the ratings showed that Jessie Kwong was leading in live polls. According to the profile comments, about eighty-three percent of citizens aged eighteen to thirty-five hated the way Mayor Lunar had been handling the protest riots. And thanks to the many Crowd camera drones flying across Esperanza, every concerned citizen could see the violence in hyper-resolution; the shield bashing, the baton clobbering, the experimental anti-riot weapon...

Camryn flipped open the full stats. Every time the live footage showed the armored police troopers enclosing the protestors, the comments spiked. It didn't help that the officers looked like armored soldiers from an oppressive space empire.

"Police violence is so sixties, Mayor," Camryn said to the window.

Jessie Kwong released a quick video which went viral two minutes after it was posted by her assistants. The approval of her message shot up. She received the most online support from the same young age bracket that despised Diego Lunar's police operation.

The cliché proved to be right again.

The future belonged to the next generation.

***Author's Note***

Thanks for taking the time to read the showdown--it's almost over! I'd love your feedback, so feel free to comment. If you like the chapter, you can vote for it by clicking the star below. You can also add "Crowd" to your library if you like to continue the journey which will be updated 4 times a week