On The Fly

In this episode, Chapter Nine – Shadows in the Grid (Previous episode) – The Disconnected Generation . The first flicker came just after midnight. Marvin sat at his kitchen table, scribbling notes about the park gathering, when the overhead light shivered, dimmed, and went out. The hum of the refrigerator ceased, leaving a silence so complete it seemed to press against his skin. Norman, standing near the door like a watchman, tilted his head. A faint glow pulsed from his chest cavity, the hydrogen core humming steady, almost reassuring. “Localized outage,” Norman said, calm to the point of detachment. “GridBot will stabilize in sixty seconds.” But sixty seconds passed. Then another. The street outside remained cloaked in darkness. No backup generators started. No emergency lights blinked alive. Greenwood lay as still as a painting. Marvin pushed back his chair, his heartbeat quickening. “This isn’t just an outage, Norman. Something’s wrong.” Norman’s optic sensors brightened, their pal...