It was all the rage after a year of sweating it out with jobs and kids. Taking a vacation was a right of spring, especially after the ultra cold winter and blistering summer. Seems a waste to dwell on all this now. The sky is permanently etched by clouds and gray, greenery has receded like the hairline of a young man whose genes betrayed his good looks. People have left the cities for the endless shanty towns that connect them. A simpler life we all thought. What we got was chaos and disrepair.
They were all over the city, quonset huts on stilts, no windows, no apparent door. Mega-tek used to be an on-line video retailer. People still wanted theater experience but with mistrust and terrorism we avoid the old dark palaces and crowds. Mega-tek devised these self sustained video huts, you rent the key and help yourself to an eye-full and a mind-full. Mega-tek is a huge, self sustained complex in the city. They have access to every video footage on the planet. At least that's what I heard. No one goes to the city anymore, who's running the show? I don't know.
I found a key while rummaging for coupons, that's todays currency. The key is a coin shaped disc about the size of a quarter and twice as thick. Has the logo and instructions in texting script. Walk under the unit, stand on the spot. The place is on the edge of town, somewhat desolate. I stand on the spot beneath it's stoic form, a small light greets me. I watch an overhead trapdoor slide away and the earth at my feet raises to meet it. Needless to say I am scared. I come up into a ring of lounges surrounded by a ring of screens.
I sit and the screens burst into life, cartoon like instruction, commercials, offerings of syn-food refreshments. I just cried out, 'what happened to us?' All went dead at first as if putting all kidding aside. Then one by one each screen took it's turn retailing history. I don't know how long I was in there. I was OK but out side things were worse, it seems. Maybe it was because of all I saw. Some virtual vacation I said. I took out the coin looked at it again, it read, 'toss it for someone else to find.' I can't go back, I've been changed...................This story clip inspired by this equipment storage unit construction picture off the net.
Old sketch from old 'knowtbook' of a livingroom suite that could apply to this story.
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