A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO TIME TRAVEL

Mar 21, 2023

EPILOGUE 3571 ATC

“ ‘The AP have announced the arrest of Dwayne Flynn, 81, a man they believe may be the world’s most prolific serial killer, with more than 500 victims over the last 48 years. In a bizarre twist, they’ve also discovered the remains of Stephen Pearson and his consort, Lois Kranjac, believed to have gone missing more than 40 years ago while on a dive to the underwater colony on Titan. Their bodies were discovered in two separate gaming pods from the long ago, deactivated, Virtual Reality game, After The Cataclysm.

“ ‘More details will follow.’ How does that sound? Should I release it?” the AP asked, glancing up from the data pad, waiting to send the message.

Whit nodded, looking up at the skeletal remains nailed to the wall. The skin had dried and withered over the years, pulling back from the nails used to tack the skin to the wall. You could still see the oil through the tiny hoses in the splayed arms.

“Any idea who she is?” he asked.

“She’s one of us,” the forensics ‘bot said.

“One of us? How?”

“She disappeared about fifty years ago. She was one of the two APs working on the case. She disappeared a couple of days after her partner was killed. Everyone thought she killed herself. Apparently, they were an item.”

“Obviously she didn’t kill herself.”

“This one’s not real,” the ‘bot said, looking up from the third pod.

“The boy?”

“He’s hardly a boy,” the AP said, looking through the hatch. “He looks real,” he said, looking at the bot.

“It’s a ghost,” the bot said

“What’s that supposed to mean? A ghost?”

“Residual feed from the game.”

“I don’t follow you, the game was disbanded years ago.”

“Any idea what the other pod was for then?” Whit called out, still looking at the body nailed to the wall.

“The two over there look like they died about a month ago. The empty one? Your guess is as good as mine. We’ll know more when we finish with the prelims.”

“It was his, then,” Whit said. “Flynn’s. It’s the only thing that makes sense. That’s how he had to be getting into the game.”

“So what’s with the ghost?”

“It’s not real,” the ‘bot said

“It’s pretty sick, if you ask me,” the second AP said. He was doing a search on the AI’s memory, looking for the code to open the pod’s hatch. There was a distinct click, and then a hiss of air as the hatch opened.

“It looks pretty real,” Whit said, coming over and looking into the pod. “Are you sure it’s a ghost? It looks like it’s still alive?” Whit said ,looking down at the figure.

One of the ‘bots reached in with a scanner and placed it on the ghost’s temple, looking for brain waves. There was a shimmer of light, and then the figure in the pod dissolved.

“What the hell was that!” the AP said, stepping back from the pod.

“You didn’t read up on the game?” Whit asked him.
“I didn’t read anything about that,” he said.

“It’s the ghost in the machine,” the ‘bot said again. “We all have them.”

“I don’t understand what that’s supposed to mean.”

“It’s what happens when a ‘bot is de-commissioned.”

“When you enter the pod,” Whit said, “your personality creates an avatar that lives in the game. After that, you entered the game and became the character— the avatar you chose. When you die in the real world, the avatar dies.”

“So did it die?”

Whit shook his head.

“Then where did it go?”

“It’s went back into the game. Waiting.”

“Waiting? For what?”

“For the host to die.”

“And how are we supposed to know who this is?”

“You’re not supposed to. It’s supposed to be anonymous. That’s why the game was so popular. It was the anonymity it provided.”

“How do you know so much about it?”

“Because that’s my ghost,” he said.

“Yours?”

“My mother gave birth to me in a coma. She was one of Flynn’s first victims back when it all started. She was playing the game when he killed her—or tried to. She was in a coma when she had me. But she was still alive in the game.”

“Is she still in there?”

“She died. Twenty years ago.”