"This is Greg Garison reporting to you live. We are as close to the site of the massive explosion that rocked downtown earlier as we can be. Firetrucks and Natural Gas workers have cordoned off a 4 block radius. Reports are that three stores were completely destroyed. No word yet on casualties..."
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"Ms. Dunning, we understand this might be difficult for you but we do need to understand this more."
"I wish I could answer you more clearly than I already have. I don't know why all of the systems were affected. I don't understand why the central computer..." Gloria trailed off "I don't understand why the central computer being destroyed would wipe out all of the linked systems. I've been told it had something to do with the update that was happening at the time. That somehow being in the process when the system..." she took another breath, "when the system crashed caused a chain reaction."
"But our own experts say that isn't possible."
Gloria reached the end of her patience, "Well all of my experts died in the explosion so I don't know what you want me to say."
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"This is Jenna St. James with Action Six news. Tonight as part of our "Whatever Happened To?" series we are following up on the murder of Samantha Johnson. Our faithful viewers will remember that Alicia McGovern was sent to Saint Stephens under a psychiatric hold after insisting that she was the real Samantha Johnson. When we tried to schedule an interview with Ms. McGovern we were denied access to her. After some expert investigative reporting we discovered that Ms. McGovern was no longer being held at Saint Stephens. But where is she now?
That's a good question, viewers. A good question indeed."
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James sat at the computer reading the post trying not to completely lose his shit. Those fuckers. Who does something like that? But here it all was. "Alice" and "Claude" had just been in it for the lolz. They had come back on and written a post about what an idiot he was. "We put his phone in a baggie and told him it was blocking government spying!" They hadn't actually said that, they had just implied it. The whole post was exaggerated and made to make him look like an idiot. Well even more of an idiot. He had really honestly believed they had some information about where Joanna went. But now? Now he was sure he was just a loser who had been left in the lurch. And now a loser left in the lurch and mocked.
Fuck them all.
He read the post three more times before he could convince himself to shut the computer down and walk away.
He guessed it gave him some sort of closure afterall. He was an idiot who had been left by an ex-girlfriend who he thought he was closer to than he was. That's all. It was time to move on.
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Gloria called home after the hearing, "I should be back tomorrow morning. I'm sorry that I have been gone. How are the girls? Good...that's good. Yeah....really tired. I'm not sure why they needed more hearings....our systems are destroyed. Dane is...Dane is gone, all of his research is gone. Experience It! was out of business before the gas line explosion at Memory Lane and Remember the Time! hadn't yet finalized the deal with Dane for their systems so they never even got started. There is no more technology for them to regulate...I just don't know why they made me come out here."
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"This is Greg Garison reporting on the LOCAL CONNECTION to last night's massive subway crash in DC. Though the situation could have been much worse overall; for one local family the outcome was a cruel twist of fate. After surviving the gas main explosion that killed 6 of her coworkers local woman Gloria Dunning was one of the four fatalities reported. We reached her husband for comment...."
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Miranda woke up with her heart pounding. It was the same nightmare she had had over and over again. She wasn't even sure why she found it so terrifying. In the dream she was leaving a room, or a house, or office, she was never clear exactly where she had been but she was calm in the dream, thinking about a conversation that she had just had, something about calling her Commander to get back up (her Commander?) when she would reach in to her pocket and grab her phone. And that was when the panic would hit, she would think, "MY PHONE! I left my phone in my pocket the whole time we were talking! I forgot to leave my phone behind!"
And then she would wake up in a panic. Why was she so scared of having her phone in her pocket? What harm could that cause?
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