Patsy rubbed her bleary eyes and trudged toward the expanse. Even with the hint of a gorgeous sunrise beginning, shimmers of red, pink, and orange streaks dawning in the sky, it still looked ugly. Row after row of chunky grey buildings blighted the landscape. It obscured Patsy’s view looming large against the horizon, consuming everything in her sight. From a distance, Patsy thought she could make out a few other forms slowing trudging along. She supposed she would see them inside soon enough. All assembled, waiting and ready to do Epidemiq’s latest bidding.
Eyes burning from only a few hours of sleep, Patsy plodded along the desolate stretch of land. She could feel the rumbling in her feet tremoring up through her body before the hum reached her ears. But once it reached there, it implanted itself firmly, a man-made tinnitus reverberating ceaselessly until she was allowed to go home. She groaned inwardly, blinking hard to clear the sleep from her eyes so the entry scan would work.
“Hey, Patsy,” she said, arriving at the same time as her cohort.
The other Patsy nodded in response, apparently too tired to even form words. One after the other they scanned themselves in waiting as the doors slid open to reveal a spacious, high-vaulted room. The room buzzed unnaturally, a swarm of hungry servers, beeping, whirring, and processing. Patsy glanced around at the other Patsys collecting in the main area, all awaiting instructions. She silently tallied up the numbers, seventeen plus two Patricks. This was going to be a big one.
Instructions were always vague, but the threats, real. At first Patsy hadn’t understood. Things started happening to her accounts. Nothing big, just a few weird things changing, or seeming off. Communications were sent without her knowing, entire conversations happening, supposedly from Patsy, by Patsy. Yet, she wasn’t part of any of them. In the end, she knew now, all a ruse to gain control of her life to exploit her for her very human hands, ears, eyes, and oddly enough, sometimes her sense of smell and taste. Patsy, like the other Patsys, along with the occasional Patrick, coerced to do Epidemiq’s commands, basically all the things it couldn’t do without hands. Kind of hard to hold a wrench when you’re busy zipping around virtually.
She shuffled from side to side waiting for the orders, hoping it would be over soon.