by Al K. Line
This time it was serious.
O... M... G!
ven.GEANCE
Ven's personality could sometimes seem a little 'different'. If tested she might even be labeled with mild Asperger's Syndrome (but than so would many others). She was definitely gifted though, and with a proclivity for certain ways of thinking came certain issues emotionally. She usually kept her emotions in check when meeting new people. But when she loved she did so fiercely.
She found it rather hard to relate to most people, to their ways of perception and acting.
It led to a pretty reserved childhood, where she had few friends and spent a lot of time alone in her room. It was here, with computers and technology, that she really understood her place in the world and could make sense of it all. She had special gifts and from a young age she began to exploit them for all they were worth.
Ven had always been relatively slim, not gaunt, but angular. Her shoulder length brown hair had remained in a similar style for many years. It was always cut professionally. It always looked fantastic.
Ven loved coding, she loved the miracle of creating something from nothing. From early designing of relatively simple programs she very quickly became aware that she could use her skills to exploit others for easy money. It didn't bother her conscience at all, it was virtual and she didn't know these people anyway, or ever take time to really consider what she was doing to them. She simply found it hard to think of others as real people if they were not actually a part of her life.
She wanted something more though.
Having mastered botnet creation and implementation, always ensuring she was never traced, she began hacking into a number of private, as well as government owned research facilities. Breaking down encrypted data, mining for something that would allow her to pull off the ultimate coup. She wasn't even sure what she was looking for, but she knew that buried somewhere would be a way for her to unleash her creation in a way never before implemented. One that would allow it to grow exponentially — to control people's activities in a manner that would lead to a serious pile of cash for her and her loved ones.
Subliminal manipulation was the answer. The data she found on it both horrified and excited her.
A German research company had gone well beyond what was right and legal. They were deep into dark territory experimenting in illegal ways, and recording a surprising amount of data on what for Ven were easily crackable encryptions. She thought she had uncovered the worst ways that such knowledge could be used, but she was very wrong. The really dark groundwork she never came across or even knew existed. What she did find was perfect for her. They had created data packets that could be encrypted into images flashed at lightening speed, and in a certain sequence, at unsuspecting individuals. The results would be akin to mind control. The person being totally unaware they were doing things they had not consciously chosen to do.
It was perfect.
Hack the data slightly and the actions could be anything you wanted within reason. You couldn't make people easily carry out objectives that were totally out of character (it seemed) but you could get them to perform acts somewhat out of the ordinary. This is what Ven chose to perfect and unleash via her knowledge of the digital world.
But Ven being Ven it never interfered with the running of her house, her hair, her obsession with making sure everything bought was perfect, and with trying her best to be a good wife and mother.
It was a struggle. Many people go through life not considering who they really are, or delving into their own personality. Ven knew that she was different, and knew that she had to try harder to connect with people on an emotional level. So she tried as best she could, even if it was the one part of her life that she often failed to master.
Those days were gone the second she pushed enter and the zombie botnet became a reality.
But all her obsessive behavior came to the fore with the shock of her actions. The responsibility for what she had unleashed was hard for her to deal with — locking it down and pushing it away to a safe distance was her brain's only answer, but that way lies madness. It wouldn't stay locked away forever.
Packing for Purgatory
"Ven, what the hell are you doing?" Kyle asked not really believing what he was seeing.
"Packing my hair straighteners, why?" she snapped. She wasn't about to let her hair become a disgrace just because of the current situation. Shock had obviously set in, even Ven with her many quirks would not normally take things to this kind of extreme level of obsession and downright craziness... maybe.
"You can't be fucking serious, we are not going to have room for all your crap. We went over this last night," Kyle pointed out, getting more and more frustrated by the minute.
"Kyle, please," she begged. "I know I am being totally irrational, and I know I am being a complete fuckwit okay. Can you please just let me do this, I am going to go totally bloody insane if I don't get some order and don't try to carry on like I normally would. Yes, I know I am off my bloody rocker, and yes, I know this is really stupid, but..." tears were streaming down her face, she couldn't stop the guilt or the preposterous behavior. Ven was close to the edge of insanity, and if a pair of hair straighteners kept her away from the brink then it was probably best for all concerned that she pack them.
Variations of this scene had been going on for hours, and although Kyle was very scared and mighty concerned for Ven's well-being he still had a hard time not ripping the bloody grooming tool from her hands and slapping her until she made the nightmare she had created go away.
All through the night they had gone over and over what they were going to do and what exactly they thought the future was going to hold. It was too soon to really get a handle on the situation. It certainly hadn't really sunk in yet, but they were trying to formulate a plan. It began with packing for the zombie apocalypse.
No mean feat really, just what do you take with you if you think you won't return home, may never be able to find what you want anywhere else, and have not only yourself but a young baby, an always hungry dog and plenty of other things to consider too?
Yesterday evening was an absolute nightmare for the both of them. Coming downstairs after the Paul 'incident' they were both in a state of shock. It was all happening too fast and was definitely not what Ven had planned. She just wanted to make the best botnet in the history of botnets, and she had certainly succeeded at that. But the realization of what she had actually accomplished was slowly dawning, and it was a heavy responsibility indeed.
As they had descended the stairs it was nearly all over for them both before it had hardly begun.
"Look at the studio," Kyle exclaimed, staring at the TV aghast as the weather girl bit into the arm of the sports guy on the floor in front of her.
"Turn it off, turn it off. Quick Kyle, and don't look at it," shouted Ven. She covered Tomas' eyes and turned away herself only to be confronted with the image of her dead husband at the top of the stairs, looking extremely bloated and pretty much mangled.
Kyle looked at her quizzically, "What? I know it's gross but..."
"The TV has Internet on it, I don't know what could happen. None of this is making sense and I don't trust anything that's connected, do you?" Ven asked. "I had killer firewalls for the 'puter, but there is nothing protecting anything else like the TV or phones or who the fuck knows what else."
Kyle went pale, paler than he already was, and made his way over to the couch to grab the remote from the side table where it always was. He flicked it to standby, then went over to the TV, still just looking at it out of the corner of his eye, and pulled the socket from the wall.
"Shit, I never even thought. That was close, this is going to be hard Ven, real hard. Everything is connected to the bloody Internet. I think even my watch might be," he said, looking but trying not to look at the face just in case it really was (it wasn't).
What followed was a very guarded walk around the house trying to think of everything that might turn them int
o zombies, and it was surprising what there was. Their phones, TVs, laptops, tower PCs, iPads, ebook readers, even printers and cameras were treated as suspicious, not knowing just what the virus could be doing and if bluetooth devices would suddenly connect to a wireless signal somewhere or other.
Two of the best hackers in the world doubted their own tech knowledge and played it very safely indeed, which you would, given the circumstances. Kyle and Ven were both so unsure about what was safe that they unplugged anything that could even remotely, in any way possible, get any kind of digital connection. It was overkill of course, but as they didn't know what was going on at any deep level yet it was more than understandable. In reality all they had to do was unplug the WiFi and turn off any 3G or 4G enabled devices, but they were taking no chances.
Going around the house was awful, especially when they went upstairs. They had to drag Paul into the spare room out of the way, there was no way they could leave him where he was and walk past him each time they went into rooms to check for digital danger, or to grab an item Ven was sure they would need. Ven broke down quickly after moving him. It took a few hours back downstairs sat hugging Tomas, with Bos Bos at her feet, before she was up to really talking and getting a grip on the situation.
Ven was not known for being emotional, so she was actually somewhat surprised herself at the outpouring of emotion she was feeling for the loss of Paul. Understanding the fact that it was her that had caused the whole situation in the first place nearly crushed her. If it wasn't for baby Tomas she knew she would have broken down completely.
Later that evening they began to discuss exactly what they were going to do.
"We have to go to my folks place, even though it will be too late. I need to know anyway," Kyle said.
"Of course. Now?" said Ven.
"No, tomorrow, we need to be ready, and we need to be at least a little prepared."
Ven was in too much of a state of shock to question this; the events so far had left her an emotional wreck. She didn't stop to question the fact that Kyle would stay with them until the following morning.
"We can go there when we leave and then we can decide what we are going to do. But I don't want to leave here without us packing what we need first. Everything could be looted by now as far as we know, and we need to be certain we take as much as we can that we already have." Kyle was being diplomatic, knowing that they would take a lot more than they needed.
And so it began.
Well, it was going to, until Kyle looked out the window, it set them back a few hours. It wasn't what you would expect — hordes of zombies shuffling along the street, all looking for brains to eat and generally doing what you expect when zombie meltdown begins. It was scarier than that. There was nothing, absolutely nothing at all going on. The street was deserted and not a single person could be seen.
"This is fucked up Ven," Kyle mused, "where the hell is everyone? You would think it would be all zombie rampaging and people running for their lives, that kind of thing."
"It's the botnet," said Ven, "they are stuck looking at their damn screens I expect. Or just doing gross shit at home."
"Huh?"
"Look, I designed it to send people into some kind of very mild and very fast catatonic state. One too quick for most people to even notice, but some were going to open their Bitcoin account straight after and I would then have free access to their details. Well, at least the botnet would. But it started with subconscious actions when they accessed all those fucking social sites everyone loves so much," Ven explained, shouting. "And that obviously didn't fucking happen did it?" Tears welling and the dawning of the responsibility coming across her face. "People are probably stuck staring at their screens, zombie or not. I don't know for sure, but I am guessing that after they are zombie'd they still try to carry on doing what they were doing before, or what they enjoy doing. It won't last, I bet, but they may be in a kind of limbo until they can get away from the screen. Paul dropped his phone didn't he? If he was sat down staring at it maybe he wouldn't have actually attacked us?"
At some point in the night, what Ven speculated had happened (she was partly right) changed. Anyone infected was compelled by hunger to find flesh and devour it, brains being the delicacy of choice for your discerning zombie. If they had left the previous evening they could have made their way to Kyle's family home without quite as much trouble as they eventually encountered.
Through the night they gathered as much as they could in the kitchen, which led directly through a door into the garage. The room was a mess and the number of items was vast. Ven insisted that they take so many things that Kyle simply couldn't fathom either getting it into the car, or making that many trips with the risk of death by zombie at any moment. Heck, his spine tingled every time his back faced a window, thinking something was going to grab him at any second and rip him to bits. Or even worse, eat him alive starting with his guts, him having to watch as a zombie grinned up between bites of his own intestines.
Packing for a trip when you don't know the destination is tough. Packing for a trip that also involves a zombie onslaught is even harder. Packing when you are going with Ven is even harder still. Add to that a 'big-boned' dog, a three month old baby, and the knowledge you may never return, well, it isn't a relaxing way to spend the night after a zombie botnet is unleashed upon the planet.
This all went through Kyle's mind a number of times through the loneliness of the dark hours and the next morning. Every time Ven grabbed another useless item, such as make-up, tights, and plenty of things he had no idea what they even were, he was not so sure that he wouldn't actually be better off just having his intestines eaten while he watched... almost.
"Fine, bring it," Kyle said, defeated once again. Why they needed two bloody dog leads he didn't know, but he had totally given up trying to argue.
Bos Bos looked up excitedly, he didn't know why they had been so late going for the morning walk anyway, but it seemed like it was happening at last.
"In a minute Bos Bos, Mommy just needs to get her coat and then we will be going," Ven cooed. Not quite telling Bos Bos the truth — that they were just about to load the car and enter a world infested with crazed ex-humans — out for flesh.
At some point in the night, when their heads were slightly clearer and they could at least think a little, they decided that some devices were safe to turn on. They still didn't want anything connected to the Internet, but they rationalized that anything without a screen should be safe. Phones were out, so were TVs, computers and iPads. They even decided against using Paul's Kindle. Just to be safe they disconnected them all, piled them up and threw a sheet over the lot. It was incredible to see just how many digital devices there were in one home. And it was no different to the majority of other people's connected devices tally, it was just that Ven probably had better quality.
But radio? That was safe wasn't it?
Still unsure of just what they could trust, and certainly not bringing to the fore their technical understanding and intelligence, they settled on an old wind-up radio Ven had bought for Paul years past.
Throughout the oppressive night and into the dawn of the dead they listened with growing horror to the news of the world they now lived in.
It was carnage...
Let's take your average street in the suburbs. If you think about a regular evening in your street how many people are at home? A lot. In the day there will be less people, but at any time of the night or day the average street has people at home connected to the Internet. Mom may be watching the television, kids playing games, someone surfing the Web, following a Twitter feed on a smart phone... the list goes on. It is the same all over the world.
Those in work?
A sneaky look at Facebook, a check of Gmail, some even look at Google+ apparently. The world is Online, and all it takes is a single click from a link in an email, on Twitter, a click on a picture on Pinterest, an ad on YouTube, a website URL on your favorite blog and chances are that within
just a few seconds you are infected. There is no hiding place.
It meant that immediately after the zombie botnet went live it went viral in a way it is hard to understand. Not only were millions of people affected directly, but the chain of destruction it caused meant that nearly every device connected to the Web was infected by the following morning.
This is what they followed throughout the night. More and more reports of strange hashtags on what remained of Twitter, garbled junk and weird 'selfies' on Facebook and Instagram, even zombie clips appearing on YouTube within the first hour of infection. People couldn't keep away, no-one quite believed that the Internet could really be that dangerous. And how were they going to find out what was going on if they couldn't look at Twitter or Facebook? Catch 22 for the digital age.
Ven had no idea if the botnet had actually followed up on the stealing of the Bitcoin account data of the infected devices. She was pretty sure that the zombie botnet had not followed through and been successful with implanting auto-suggestion to actually access an account or open a new one. How could it?
People that saw the flash of images were either locked staring at their screens for roughly twelve hours, or if the device was dropped, or their sight wavered, they were on a rampage of destruction.
If you were not directly affected then you were lucky, but with nearly every household in the developed world Online at some point every day, the world was destroyed a lot quicker than you could imagine.
It was hard to get any real information. Reports from various news channels made little to no sense even for those actually reading the news, let alone anyone listening. One thing Ven was sure of was that there was no way that she could have caused all of this, could she?
