A few years into the near future, Earth is no longer livable. Life is lived online and accessed via bloodstream integration to join a world like the one you’re living in now.
“Dude, I think they messed up. That girl who loaded in over there has Ern’s Name ID,” Kevin nudged his friend beside him. Malcolm looked up to see a girl their age looking very confused. “Oh yeah, they fucked up again. She probably thought she was about to spawn into a Taylor Swift concert or something.” Kevin snorted. “Yeah, or a book club.” He laughed mockingly, “‘Oh my god, why am I at a skatepark, so yucky.’”
The boys made their way over to where the pretty girl was still looking around incredulously. “Hey! Chick! I think they gave you our buddy Ern’s spawn location after they mixed up your samp—” The girl’s head immediately snapped toward the voices, her eyes lighting up. “Malcolm! Kevin!”
She almost tripped over herself running toward them. Now it was Kevin and Malcolm’s turn to look confused, each glancing at the other for a possible explanation. The now relieved, bubbly girl ran up and hugged both of them.
“Dude, I thought I was dead, or they corrupted my file, or I ran out of blood, like I dried up and they couldn’t pull DNA, or, or, or… it was just black…”
The boys made eye contact for the tenth time without saying a word. Malcolm was the first to speak up. “You’re Ern?”
“Yeah.”
“Ernest Tyler Olivers?”
“In the flesh.” He flashed a smile that made them both blush. “I’m not sure what happened. But I’m alive!” Kevin hadn’t said a thing until now. “This shouldn’t be possible. We’re exact copies of our bodies from the real world. We thought someone else got your nametag. We’ve gotta tell Doc, he can probably escalate this to Code Enforcement.”
“Hold up, hold up, hold your horses,” Ern said, holding up both dainty hands and signaling them to calm down. “Maybe this isn’t such a bad thing. This is insane…but like… in a good way!” The boys looked at each other. Maybe this wasn’t a mistake?
