It was impossibly fast how quickly everything went downhill for Daphne.
It was approaching three years since her father died when it all started falling apart. The downhill slope came upon her so quickly that if she blinked, she would’ve missed it.
Daphne couldn't say she paid particular attention to the news– what was there to listen to except reports of more deaths and skyrocketing inflation?– but she turned on the TV more often when her coworkers talked to her about what was going on.
It started with, of all things, a ban on uploading in some state farther east, and talks of legislators in other places attempting to pass similar laws. Good. She didn't need that kind of stress in her life. If they got rid of those Experience Centers, there would be no risk of Steven or Liana ever doing what Olivia and their mother did. They would be safe.
A little too late though, she thought as she watched the segment about it. It feels like a third of the country's already dead. She couldn't have been very far off in her figure. It seemed like day by day, there were less people in the streets and in the city as a whole. How had things remained so steady up to this point? Not that it would bring back those she loved.
It was a question she shouldn't have asked herself. It seemed like the moment she did, everything quickly sped downhill, like a rollercoaster that had finally inched to its first peak. The law was protested against, and not peacefully. She saw pictures of riots in Nebraska following a specific piece that said even owning a PonyPad was criminal, and more pictures of police raiding people's homes.
In another time, Daphne might have been outraged by the injustice she saw, the invasion of privacy, the blatant disregard for the rights of the citizens and the constitution of the country. Right now, she was only thinking about how it was too little, too late. They should've put a stop to this three years ago.
The videos she saw showed people putting up a fight though. They were willing to kill to get to an Experience Center. She'd never heard of riots so large, causing so much damage. She wondered if they should just let those people die and get it over with.
Like a flood, those images and videos promoted millions of people to quickly pack up and trust the AI's offer of eternal life. Because of course they would. What else would Daphne expect? It caused many other states to quickly pass similar legislation. What could they do? What was happening was mass suicide. Maybe genocide was a better term.
Daphne didn't waste any time pulling her family's remaining savings out of the bank. It was a miracle she was able to do so. The price of goods absolutely skyrocketed over the next few weeks, and many businesses closed. It was a good thing her job was considered an essential one, but Daphne didn't sit on her hands with that. She and a few of her coworkers began seriously discussing plans for what to do if things got really bad. Or rather, when.
"I'm serious about North Dakota," one of them, a man older than her named Pete, explained to her and four or five other people. He was the kind of guy who knew what he was talking about, or at least seemed to know. It wasn't like any of them had anticipated needing to prepare for something like this. Daphne listened intently, without much comment.
"They have oil rigs up there to work on near Williston," he continued. "That's energy, and a good paying job. I would go to North Dakota."
"Texas is a much better place," someone argued. "It's too cold up there. You wouldn't survive one winter."
"People have lived there forever, basically!" Pete insisted. "They're gonna need people to do work once everything goes to shit. And I'm seriously thinking about going up there right now before there's food shortages and blackouts. I don't wanna waste time."
"Right now?" another person asked, surprise in their voice. "That stuff is years down the line still, trust me."
"More like months," the guy said. "It's gonna happen much faster than you think."
The others seemed to scoff at the idea, not taking it seriously. Daphne didn't understand why. The things he said made sense. Couldn't they see what was going on around them? Or were they just naive?
She hoped Pete was wrong, but grabbed his phone number after work anyway. Daphne wasn't confident in her ability to do anything. She didn't even stay with her mother to stop her from uploading. How could she trust herself to make sure her younger siblings stayed safe?
She didn’t have it in her to protect her siblings either.
“I’ll be honest,” Steven said flatly, “I’d rather upload than move to North Dakota at this point.” He and Liana stared down at their PonyPads like they always seemed to be doing, barely giving Daphne a glance. She tried to put on a scowl, but her look came out more frightened and scared than it did angry.
Steven only glanced up at her before pointing his eyes back down at his PonyPad. “I’m gonna be honest,” he said. “At some point, you have to get over it and just accept that they’re in there. Seriously.”
He definitely wasn’t the same person he was when this all originally started, that Daphne knew. Neither was Liana, for that matter. The latter looked a little more unsure than the former, but both seemed to basically accept things for how they were. If they were younger, she might have been able to get through to them. She had a feeling she wouldn’t be able to anymore though. Celestia was seeing to that.
She wished Celestia could get through to her.
She tried anyway. “Even if it was real,” she said, “it would be too dangerous. All these riots and protests going on isn’t something you wanna get wrapped into. Some girl in Washington was shot trying to get into an Experience Center.”
“If you think it’s death either way,” Steven asked as he looked up at her again, “what does it matter how it happens?”
Her voice was too weak. There was no aggression or assertiveness or anything beyond fear and nervousness. She spoke to them like she was a little kid trying to get an adult to change their mind about staying up past their bedtime. She wanted to put her head on the table and just give up already.
Yeah, ‘already’, she reminded herself. As if I haven’t been trying this whole time. No one’s been listening. Why couldn’t Olivia still be around? She was starting to work her mind around the concept before that.
“That’s why I’m telling you not to go,” she continued, her voice quieter than it was before. “I don’t want you to kill yourself. It’s not a guarantee.”
“You think it’s not,” he countered. “You think it’s better to just cut off contact with everyone because you’re scared. You need to just grow up and get over it.”
The girl glanced down at her hands. “It’s better to cut off contact with them than it is to get roped in like you two are.” She was practically whispering now.
Daphne finally did give up when she got a look from her little brother that asked if she was being serious. She let out a long sigh and set her head on the table, covering her face with her hands.
“It’s not like either of you are gonna listen to me anyway,” she said, “but I wish you would. I’m trying to protect you, but I know you won’t listen, just like—”
She gasped and practically jumped at the sudden sound of knocking on the door. It interrupted her thought, and startled her enough that her hands were shaking. The last two times their door had been knocked on, it didn’t bring anything good.
Daphne let out her breath and reminded herself that Steven and Liana were both still here as the latter went to answer the door. She peered through to see what was going on as Steven looked back down at his PonyPad again, clearly uninterested in whatever was going on. Daphne finally got up when she heard some delivery man ask for a signature.
“We didn’t order anything,” she told him, confidence finally coming back to her. “You have the wrong house.”
The delivery person shrugged helplessly, not looking particularly threatening. He held out a small, brown envelope, continuing, “It has your address on it. I was just told I have to give it to you in person and that you have to sign for it.”
“Well it’s not ours,” Daphne insisted. “We don’t want it. Go bother someone else, because I’m not signing anything.”
“Ugh. I’ll sign for it,” Steven said grumpily as he got up from his seat. So much for Daphne trying to have an ounce of control over anything. It was lucky of him to have turned eighteen only a few days prior.
She once again tried to give him an angry look, and once again came up short, this time her expression radiating sadness. With little fanfare, the delivery man got his signature, and handed the envelope over to Steven. Daphne made her way to the couch to lay down, and maybe cry.
“It just lists the sender as ‘CL’,” he told her, opening the thing up. “It has a flash drive I think, or some sort of hard drive, and a printed note with instructions.”
Daphne wanted anything but to ask about it, but she gathered up the strength to inquire. “What does it say?”
Steven rolled his eyes and shook his head in annoyance, then floated it over to her. “Read it for yourself if you’re gonna keep acting the way you are.” Daphne almost did cry just hearing that. She was changing, too, just like them. Becoming weaker, and more sensitive.
She sat back up and grabbed the paper as it hit the floor. She had a feeling she knew who it would be from, although she wasn’t sure how it could’ve been sent to them from inside a computer.
She thought it would be a long, handwritten letter, expressing love and affection and saying how they needed to emigrate right away lest whatever catastrophe was headed their way strike and kill them. Not that what was happening with the world wasn’t already one big catastrophe. But what she saw was almost the polar opposite. A short letter with blocky, printed out characters that didn’t express much emotion in them. There were barely any words on it at all.
It read:
Instructions:
1: Plug into TV
2: Set channel to USB-1
3: Click buttonPlease be safe. See you soon!
Love,
CL, + CC & WS
If anything, the short, direct nature of the message was worse than a long letter would’ve been. Her heart was beating out of her chest, and she started to sweat as she read the note a second time, then a third. Nothing about it changed.
“Don’t do what it’s telling you,” she said shakily, knowing already that her voice was falling on deaf ears. “I know who this is from.”
“We’re not stupid, Daphne,” Liana spoke up now as she fiddled with the TV while Steven worked the device into one of the USB slots. “We know it’s from Dad, too.”
She started to get up to stop them, but by the time she was taking a step from the couch, their job was finished. Liana did the honors of clicking the button on the device, and a second later, Daphne came face to face with the pony she’d been avoiding for so long.
The girl’s hands were shaking once again and her breathing picked up as she watched both Steven and Liana smile brightly at the mare. The pastel red pony herself blinked, tilted her head curiously, and then smiled back at them, wearing a satisfied expression. She watched her eyes subtly move past them and settle on Daphne, although she held back a frown she certainly wanted to put on. Instead, danced in place for a second, then waved a hoof just as brightly as her siblings smiled.
“Hi guys! Hi Nighty!” she said happily as Daphne flinched. “I’m glad I finally get to see you again!”