Nano Bytes

In the wake of the announcement that an environmental disaster was inevitable and heading straight for them, people’s identities were falling away, giving way to their animal instinct to survive instead.

Thea’s pulse raced. She knew that if she didn’t get out of here, she’d die, but it wasn’t as if she had a choice. She couldn’t leave her apartment. She helplessly stared across the vibrant city. The thriving metropolis of Carilona was lit up. In the distance, a vast line of headlights glowed from the many cars trying to leave the city and head south while industrial chimneys pumped smoke into the atmosphere behind them.

That’s why we’re in this mess. The cars, the shuttles, the fossil fuels, we made this happen.

Trying to stop herself from panicking, she clenched her fists.

Why this week? Why did this have to happen now?

She shook her head, her blonde bangs covering her eyes for a moment before she brushed them back. Her life hadn’t been easy so far. This was just another unbelievably crappy event in it.

You should be used to things going wrong by now. Of course, there’s going to be an Ice Age on the week you’re under house arrest.

She glanced down at the implant in her shoulder. The glowing blue dot flashed beneath the skin. When they put it in, she’d been told that if she left her apartment, it would activate. The judge had been particularly harsh when he gave her a heart–stopper. If it became active, her heart would explode in her chest, meaning she was stuck here unless she wanted to redecorate her stylish apartment with blood spatter.

She turned around to face her neat apartment. The cream couch had become her favorite place to spend her sentence. With a freezer full of ice cream and a fur throw, a week in here hadn’t sounded so bad at the time. But now, it sounded like a death sentence.

I need to know how bad this storm is going to be. Is it an actual Ice Age? Aren’t we already in one anyway?

Hurrying over to the couch, she snatched up the remote and flashed the red laser in it over the center of the room. She knew that the media weren’t the most reliable source of information, but it was the only source available since the internet had gone down.

A 3D projection of the national news desk appeared in her living room. She stared at the empty desk in horror. Where had the presenters gone?

She hitched her breath. From what she could see, the studio was deserted. Frowning, she used her remote to turn the studio cameras, thankful that she’d paid extra for the interactive features.

Her heart skipped a beat. She’d expected to see someone still there, but the entire studio was empty. Other than a fern in a pot, which had been tipped over, there was no indication of life at all.

She stared at the streaming text as it scrolled across the bottom of the projection, saying the same thing over and over again:

RED ALERT BROADCAST: TEMPERATURES HAVE REACHED A CRITICAL LOW. RESIDENTS ABOVE THE SOLARIS FAULT LINE MUST HEAD SOUTH IMMEDIATELY. 900,000 REPORTED DEAD IN THE COUNTRY’S CAPITAL. RED ALERT…

She turned off the broadcast and dropped the remote onto the couch.

Nine–hundred thousand dead… That’s the whole city!

The capital city of Torlon was only a day’s drive away.

She clenched her hands into fists.

Oh, screw this. I’m not waiting here to die.

Chapter 2

Thea glared down at the flashing blue dot on her shoulder.

There has to be a way to get this thing out of me.

Experts usually did implant extraction in a clinic. But from what she knew about the tech, they were just sensors that sent out electrical impulses. The impulses frazzled your brain into sending the wrong signals to your organs.

So what happens if I just carve this thing out of me?

She glanced at the window. The snowstorm was a blizzard now. A white blanket of snow had covered everything as snowflakes swirled around in the air, blotting out the city one icy flake at a time.

I’d rather explode than freeze to death.

She jumped up and hurried over to the kitchen to get a knife.

Yanking open the cutlery drawer, she rummaged around inside it, frowning when she couldn’t find anything with a blade on it.

What the hell did the enforcers do with my cutlery?

Underneath some spoons, she just found more spoons. A bubble of panic began to grow in the back of her throat as she pulled out the drawer and tipped it out onto the floor. There weren’t any sharp implements in the pile of items on the floor.

Those fuckers! They took everything I could use to cut with.

After the trial, she’d had to allow the enforcers into her apartment. She’d thought it was to check for illegal items. But apparently, their sweep of her apartment included removing anything she could cut the implant out with.