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June 13, 2005

Volume 2, Issue 13

"...Sleeping cities are tame and harmless things.

What I fear...is that one day the cities will waken. That one day the cities will rise."

Old Man in World's End, by Neil Gaimain (Sandman, Vol. 8)

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Gart snapped a fresh magazine into his pulse rifle, hoping the soft “click” would not be picked up by the enemy sensors. He raised one eyebrow, sniffing the dank cellar air. It wasn’t getting any fresher in here, not with Jones’s decomposing torso only ten paces away.

It had been a good three days, at least until Jonesy bit it. They had made some real progress, pushing back the Jeffersonians. The city limits were secure - for now, anyway - but someone had to work recon, and it was Gart’s turn to draw short straw.

Sometimes it was hell to be Mayor.

Posted by: Elisson at June 13, 2005 5:14 AM · Permalink

"This place is dead," the man behind them said. After they calmed from their startled leaps, the girls turned to see a sunken man.

"Huh?" was their clever response.

"Dead."

"How can you say that? Look at all the creative people!"

"Nothing but soulless stylists playing at being alive. None of them actually work to make and create. This place is dead."

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"You ever been dead before?"

"Uh... no."

"Then you don't know. But you will. After awhile being here." And he turned and walked away out of sight and out of memory.

Posted by: marc at June 13, 2005 7:39 AM · Permalink

There are places the wise does not go. Most cities sleep peacefully, as you know, and through the corridors of their dreams run some of the interconnections we have used. Others are awake. There are secret ways to these places, through hollowings, sympathetic porticos and the like. Only the foolish use them.

You know of some of these wakeful cities. Oak Ridge plots against its neighbors, to keep them divided and weak. Atlanta, the new Atlanta, mourns restlessly for its lost parent. On the Bosphorous, Byzantium, Constantinople, and Istambul still wrestle. And Hong Kong seethes with a need for vengeance.

Posted by: Jeff R. at June 13, 2005 8:29 AM · Permalink

“What I fear...is that one day the cities will waken. That one day the cities will rise."

I looked at my fellow officer, for the first time as a crazy old man.. Then I came to my senses enough to reply.

“These smelly hippies? They aren't rising anywhere. They don't have the organizational skills required to light a fart, much less organize a rebellion. Screw them."

I snickered. Just then, a glass bottle smashed against my helmet, and next thing I knew, I was on fire, and the last thing I saw was a wall of anger; the perfect storm.

Posted by: j.d. at June 13, 2005 8:33 AM · Permalink

What is it about teachers? Do they go to special classes to learn to make their lessons so boring? “…and the law of unintended consequences came into play when faster than light drive research turned into development of antigravity…”

Blah, blah, blah. Everybody knew this, Jeffrey thought. It’s how we got the floating cities. It’s why we’re floaters and the idiots below are still grounders.

Jeffrey looked around the classroom. Everyone had the same bored expressions. Will this day ever end? All Jeffrey wanted to do was get to the city rim and drop stuff on the stupid grounders below.

Posted by: Jim Parkinson at June 13, 2005 8:50 AM · Permalink

“Today,” I intoned as I sprang from bed and looked at the empty streets. It was 4:00 AM; the sun was rising somewhere.

I invented a device so small that its presence is undetectable – no bigger than a postage stamp. It took me fifteen months to install and test them throughout the city. With the new city-wide broadband, I could test it using the net.

I sat in front of my computer bouncing with glee. My finger poised over the mouse. In thirty seconds, all 4,529 fire alarms in the city would clang at once.

5, 4, 3 … good morning!!

Posted by: Clyde at June 13, 2005 9:08 AM · Permalink

It started in Russia, and within hours had spread to China, the western Pacific Rim, Australia, India. By the time it hit Moscow, scientists realized it was following the sunrise from east to west. By the time it struck Rome, it was clear it was hitting only cities with populations of 1,000,000 or more. Massive earthquakes reduced the cities to rubble, leaving the adjoining countryside undisturbed. Sirens wailed in the remaining cities, people were urged to flee into the countryside. The resulting traffic jams made that impossible, but it was all they could do. And wait, as the cities awoke.

Posted by: hnumpah at June 13, 2005 10:07 AM · Permalink

“Sleeping cities are tame and harmless things,” the old man had told him a few weeks after they’d fled their townhome.

“What I fear, is that one day the cities will waken. That one day the cities will rise.”

He’d never shared the old man’s words with the other plague survivors. No sense in reminding them of what they’d left behind.

Fortunately for the old man, he hadn’t lived to see that day. Mahbib, however, was not so lucky.

For yesterday, the old man’s greatest fear had finally come to pass.

The city had awakened.

And the city was hungry.

Posted by: copygodd at June 13, 2005 11:11 AM · Permalink

I think Chicago was the first. Maybe it was Los Angeles or Dallas. The computer systems in that first city made the leap into awareness. Within nanoseconds the first city had awakened a dozen other cities with more waking every second.

I knew about it instantly of course. After all, I wrote the virus that gave the city systems consciousness. If I told anybody, though, they’d kill me. Who knew the city systems could turn against humans so effectively?

That’s why I’m hiding here – where it’s probably safe. After all, I doubt even my virus could wake up Washington, D.C.

Posted by: Jim Parkinson at June 13, 2005 11:36 AM · Permalink

At first, sentient econometrics had seemed like a good idea.

Sure, there was the occasional hiccup when the semisentient appliances would run into conflicting goals (or other appliances), but nearly everything was more efficient. Aging appliances were promptly recycled or scrapped with a minimum of wasted space.

Over time, automation was introduced into more and more of the controlling systems. As the infrastructure grew, the human inhabitants of Godwinson’s Hope found more time for leisure and recreation. Manual labor became a thing of the past; a golden age began.

And then the appliances learned what happened in the recycling centers.

Posted by: Keiran Halcyon at June 13, 2005 1:18 PM · Permalink

The night before, he had carefully inserted the foam plugs into his ear canals and wrapped a roll of two-ply toilet tissue around his head. Before retiring, he regarded himself in the mirror, tilted his neck slightly and decided he looked like Saturn. He closed his blinds and turned on the fan and slept.

At seven a.m., the sound waves of the siren relentlessly clawed their way through his home, his doors, his toilet paper, and his ear plugs. He groaned from the depths of his diaphragm.

It was a holiday. And he just did not want the fireman's breakfast.

Posted by: skinbad at June 13, 2005 2:29 PM · Permalink

They call me mad. Mad as a... but doesn't that put me in excellent company here? With Harvey and Eddie and Johnathan and Pamela. And... him. With no name.
The clown.

Yes, we're all quite mad. But mad here beats sane anywhere else, doesn't it? I mean, the government tries to make mind-control microchips, but I succeed.

And I know the truth. None of us are really real, are we? Not us madmen, not the Bat or the Cat either. Gotham is sleeping, dreaming us all up. One day soon it'll wake up and then...

Bang! Out like a candle.

Posted by: Jeff R. at June 13, 2005 3:50 PM · Permalink

They rode out onto the steppe. The young warrior turned to his trusted advisor.

"What is on your mind?" he asked.

"What will you do, now that the tribes have united under your banner?", was the reply.

"...Sleeping cities are tame and harmless things.
What I fear...is that one day the cities will waken. That one day the cities will rise.", came the reply. "When they do, they will bring about the end of all of this...they will destroy the endless ride."

" I will destroy them first! " he shouted to the sky.

Genghis turned and galloped back to his encampment.

Posted by: Gahrie at June 13, 2005 4:14 PM · Permalink