Reid Forrester, man, late 20s, approx 6'', living in London, unemployed, barely getting by by doing odd jobs and virtual contracting. Walking down street to get food for evening from local shop, pot noodle, egg and bread. Car runs off road, uncontrolled, swerves toward Reid. He dodges at last moment, avoiding damage, but car hits wall, person inside obviously killed instantly. Reid is obviously shocked and dazed, but is so fatigued that instead of trying to help he just walks around the car and carries on. As he''s walking around the run down corner shop to get food, a flourescent light fixture above breaks and falls, which happens to hit person who had just pushed past Reid to get to something on the shelf. Bulb breaks, person is burned by the bulb and scratched by the glass, and starts screaming that they''ve been electrically burned and can''t move their arm. Reid just walks away from the person, and buys his handful of items from the scared/shocked store clerk and leaves. On walk back home, muggers attempt to rob Reid, but Reid claims he has nothing to steal, exhausted and sounding despondent. As one of the muggers gets angry, he goes to swipe with knife at Reid, but trips and knife swipes past Reid''s face, instead cutting deeply into other nearby mugger. Reid sees a sudden gout of bright red blood spout from the other mugger, and knows that they''d hit an artery which would almost certainly kill the other mugger. Reid leaves quickly in the confusion, hearing the other two muggers screaming and trying to save the third. As Reid goes back into his apartment block and is walking up stairs, set of old heavy cupboards falls down stairs, barely missing Reid as he ducks back around corner of stairs. They cupboard smashes into the wall, cracking but still holding together, and deeply denting the wall. Person was trying to move cupboards and lost control, doesn''t apologise and almost seems angry at Reid, forces ￡10 into Reid''s hand and says that since Reid has accepted it he can''t sue them or anything. Reid is actually cheered up by this, thinking how that covers food for a couple of weeks. Eventually he gets into his apartment, and looks around. No lights, no kitchen appliances, no decorations, small and dingy. He puts the food in chiller box which is wrapped in multiple layers of cardboard and tea-towels to try to insulate it better. He walks to pile of rough blankets in front of old laptop with a cracked screen and missing keys, wraps up in the blankets and tries to go to sleep, fighting through hunger cramps.


    Middle of night, a window smashes in. Laughter and jeering heard from street, drunken yobs. Reid props up cardboard sheet against the window and pushes the cooler against it to hold it up, the night is cold, wind blows in around the cardboard but there''s nothing that can really be done for now, so Reid goes back to sleep. Wakes in the morning, shivering, cold. Room''s temp has dropped drastically, frost is seen outside and around the window. Reid feels weak and tired, he shuffles over to the chiller box while still wrapped in the blankets and gets out apple which he begins to eat with very small bites, chewing each for a long time. Begins doing assorted coding work on his laptop through the day, has eaten the entire apple, including the core and stem. He went down the stairs and found some of the debris from the smashed cupboard and takes them to prop up against window to block more airflow. In the evening while still working, Reid is still cold, and tired from poor sleep and malnourishment. He drifts off to sleep, not realising he has knocked over a bottle of water he was drinking from. Reid wakes up a bit later, there is a fire from the laptop which is now ruined, the room is filling with smoke and Reid is coughing and spluttering. Pulls cupboard debris out of window, climbs out onto fire escape ladder and begins to climb down, still wrapped in his dirty blankets. When he arrives at the floor level, he runs to and grabs nearby pedestrian and tells them to call the fire fighters, there is a fire in the building. Person is obviously scared of Reid as he is dirty and looks deranged, but sees the fire and calls fire fighters and police. When the police arrive, Reid is delirious from smoke inhalation, malnourishment and tiredness. He is panicking about his room and is shouting at the police to extinguish the fire, and is struck with truncheon because he looks deranged. Reid wakes, and cannot sense anything. He begins to take stock, testing motion and trying to actively feel around. He determines he is laying on his back in pool of cool but not cold water, with warm but still air on his face and body. Reid does not feel hungry, or mentally/physically tired, but feels a ''soul tiredness'' that is difficult to explain. Reid looks at his arms to see he is still emaciated, but is clean, remarking it''s been years since he''s been this clean. After taking stock, he hears a derisive, nasally voice asking if he''s done. Reid struggles to sit up, his body feeling weak. He sees a plain, ''default white'' mannequin-like body, standing with it''s hand on it''s hip a few metres away. Reid also ''feels'' a massive body behind it, formless yet orchestrated in it''s design, a perfection reserved for machines in the form of a creature too vast and fractal to fully understand. ''What happened?'' Reid asks, it responds in the derisive tone, ''You died, obviously, and through no small effort.''.


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