Cass was huddled down in the cold of an abandoned third-storey storeroom, watching the last embers of the fire blink out. She’d skipped out of the crash site as soon as Quarters had disappeared. That strange feeling had left, only to be replaced by another, more familiar one. Cops were on their way.

The car must have had an important passenger for the cops to bother coming this far off Grid at all, let alone so quickly. Maybe there was something valuable in the mess of the wreckage, maybe she should have had a better look. She hadn’t been thinking particularly clearly at the time.

She remembered Quarters’ face in the flickering firelight and shivered. No, she’d left at just the right time. Cass shivered and hunched her shoulders together, squeezing her eyes shut to block out the memories.

When she’d first wandered off Grid, who knows how long ago it was now, it had been a night just like this. It was always wet and cold, but this emptiness, this loneliness was exactly how she remembered. She’d been thrilled at first to have made it at all. There was no point where she’d reached a boundary and crossed it, she’d just followed the directions, kept walking down the middle of the Boulevard and eventually noticed the constant neon glow had faded, the clatter and noise from the corporate attractions and their patrons sunk away. She looked around and saw dark streets leading away in every direction. It began to rain.

The Grid was miles behind her, impossibly distant and out of reach. Even if she’d wanted to she couldn’t re-enter it. Now it was a mere glow on the horizon, getting further away with every step you took towards it. There was no way back.

There had to have been a transition point, a border between life on and off Grid, but if so she’d missed it. Like every other major decision in life, she’d taken it without realising it. It was the best way to be. This way she only had to worry about the consequences.

The rain felt good. Cool on her shoulders, real. She could feel herself becoming more alert, more awake, more alive.

There was something coming.

Instinct made her step into a darkened doorway. It was probably nothing, but she knew she had to trust her first choice. She’d heard the stories of what could happen to you out here. Best to watch and wait for now.

Her spine tensed as the figure came closer. She suddenly felt very exposed in the doorway, and squeezed further back into the shadows. It was only when she began to feel dizzy that she realised she was holding her breath.

As the figure walked past the doorway she let it out and smiled. It was only a kid.

Barely ten years old, scruffily dressed but smiling. Shaggy blonde hair and a mischievous grin fixed to his face. Cass felt an immediate fellowship as his eyes passed over her hiding place. This was lucky. Her first contact might explain some things. She leant forward to step out into the street.

A thin, strong arm wrapped around her torso, holding her in place, its hand clamped down over her mouth. She tensed to fight as a hot breath whispered into her ear.

“Be silent. Quiet as a mouse.”

A male voice. Cass could feel the words, feel them through the tips of his fingers, through the pressure of his chest on her back. She didn’t need to hear them. His arms were warm around her. She waited.

The figure in the street turned towards their doorway and raised its head, sniffing the wind. It peered directly at them, and for the first time Cass noticed the strange glint in its eyes. It was unnatural, steely, hungry. She held her breath and felt the hand around her mouth drop away.

The boy in the street sniffed again, sensing something. His lips curled back to reveal sharpened teeth. Then another noise, off to the side caused him to spin away. A muffled oath and the slap of footsteps running away. The figure in the street – more animal than boy now – crouched down and sprang into the alley, scuttling after the retreating footsteps. Cass noticed her tension dripping away as it left.

The arm was still wrapped around her, no longer holding her in place but lingering nonetheless.

“A feeder, hunting for new blood. Almost got some too. Don’t worry, Simps’ll get rid of it.”

Cass stepped forward slowly and turned, letting the arm drop away. It followed her out of the shadows, leading its owner, a thin, dark-haired man. Man or boy? She couldn’t tell. He grinned back at her and raised his hand again, this time to clasp hers in a handshake.

“Hi. I’m Quarters. I just saved your life.”

Cass felt the grin on her face and snapped her eyes open. Her arms were wrapped around her legs, remembering the warmth that had seeped away now. Taken away just like Quarters had been.

It wasn’t just that he’d disappeared either, she could sense his absence completely. He was gone, wiped out of existence. He hadn’t just been taken somewhere, he’d been entirely removed.

Like the body of whoever had been driving that car.

Adlai had always considered himself too lucky to be religious. His parents had tried, Catholic schools from ages five to eighteen, church on Sundays from birth. But when there’s nothing to ask God for but a new bike, what is the point?

His father had noticed Adlai’s fading interest and tried to revive it by taking him along to a different church. Charismatics. Lots of people dancing around singing in tongues, having visions, being touched by the Spirit. All mighty exciting for an impressionable twelve year old, you would have thought.

Unfortunately all Adlai saw were ugly, handicapped and poor people. It made him realise consciously what had been running around in the back of his mind for some time now. Religion was for those less fortunate than him. Like government care. It would be greedy of him to try and take a share when he so clearly didn’t need it.

Yes, government care was a good comparison. He could do without it, so he should. In fact, to stretch the point a little further, he should start investing in his own religion. Sort of a private health cover.

So he started skipping Sunday mass, disappearing instead to the park with a good book. Happily shivering away in the cold, squinting in the fading light of the afternoon, immersed in other worlds. He made the decision to give up on organised religion altogether.

Of course, he didn’t tell his parents that. His mother had started out with such high hopes for her son. Born near the start of a new millennium, the whole world open to him. Religion was a duty, it was part of life. You just did it, no questions asked.

The household itself wasn’t particularly devout. They were as secular as the next modern family when it came to entertainment, no censorship came into play. Adlai was free to read, watch and do what he wanted, within reason, and like all teenagers he soon discovered that what his parents didn’t know couldn’t hurt them. And when it came to the modern plaything of choice, the computer, his parents didn’t know very much at all.

Books were all well and good, but when it came to religious experiences something that engaged all of your senses, not just your imagination, had a distinct advantage. Hand held consoles replaced his book in the park each Sunday. By the time he hit sixteen and virtual reality finally became a real possibility, there was no going back.

Back then you couldn’t just jack in to the nearest port and go. You needed a powerful computer to run the latest software, nothing portable, and ports were right at the bleeding edge. Adlai finally had to bite the bullet and face up to his parents about his Sunday activities. He was sixteen and could make his own decisions, there would be no more sneaking off to the park. They’d tried their best, raised him well, but a large part of good parenting is knowing when to let your children go, and it was time to let go of the reins and give him his head.

They didn’t buy a word of it, but Adlai didn’t care, so long as they bought the computer. Every Sunday when his mother went to church to pray for his ungrateful soul, Adlai wandered up to his room and plugged himself in to a different kind of religion.

After all, who needed God when you had VR?

Detective Babbage stood off to one side of the smouldering crash site and silently doodled in his notepad. The other detectives were scanning the area, tablets in their hands plugged into the ports behind their ears, soaking up sense data from their assigned six by six squares of the crash grid. Babbage preferred his notepad. It helped him think, and it annoyed the other detectives, which was always a bonus.

“We’ve had frequent complaints about you from both your fellow officers and the clients we serve, Babbage, as I’m sure you know. Subtlety is not your strong point.”

He was back in the captain’s office, receiving his new assignment.

“I merely endeavour to uncover the simple-“

“Yes, yes Babbage. Uncover the simple truths behind the act to better illuminate the crime. That’s the point man, not all truths are simple, in fact most aren’t. They’re always wrapped up in consequence. I’m more concerned, however, with the complaints from within the force.”

“They disapprove of my methods.”

“You’re damn right they do. Disapprove of being constantly made fun of as well. Why do you feel the need to intimidate them with your little notepad? Surely the standard recorders are just as effective. More so.”

“Captain, as I’ve mentioned to you in the past the very act of forming my observations into words allows me to clarify and arrange my ideas. I find things easier to compute.”

“And that’s exactly what you are Babbage, a computer, a fact you should never allow to stray too far from your mind. Computers process data and come back with the answer expected of them. They do not have sudden flashes of intuition. This is what makes the other detectives nervous. There should not be a ghost in the machine.”

Babbage grinned to himself now at the memory. Ghost in the machine. He liked it.

“Enough nonsense. How you do it is beyond me, and frankly I don’t care. Just know that there will come a time when others do care. People do not trust what they do not understand. They may suffer it while it serves their purpose, but once it ceases to do so they will turn on it with something very close to glee.”

Well now, we should make the most of things while we can then shouldn’t we?

He flipped his notepad closed and strode over to the flaming wreck. Steam from the constant rain was curling around the feet of the nearest other detective. Gantry was his name. Useless fellow.

“Hullo there Gantry! Any luck?”

Gantry’s eyes flicked up from where they had been scouring the ground and formed themselves into a set of displeasure.

“Babbage.”

He acknowledge him with a nod and tried to get back to his work.

“Any discoveries?”

The fact was that apart from his notepad the one thing that helped Babbage get his thoughts in order was bothering other people. Especially other detectives. They were easy targets.

Gantry raised his head again.

“Nothing to report so far. Why don’t you access the Grid and download the full report yourself. You’ll sense everything I am.”

“Including me?”

Babbage grinned indolently into his face.

“It is doubtful your presence is an important factor for this crime scene Babbage, so no. Now if you will excuse me I-“

“Ah, but how do we know that Gantry? Who makes this decision as to what is and is not important information? For all we know I’m the most important part of this crime scene, we just don’t see it yet.”

Gantry didn’t bother with a reply, just wandered off to another section of ground and started scanning.

“What did I tell you Adlai? Useless to a man. May as well be working with a bunch of robots.”

Her heels rang down the alley, bouncing off the sheer walls surrounding her. Cass could feel the hum, feel the disturbance in the air. She couldn’t hear it as such, but it was there to be felt and recognised. There to be read all the same.

She reached her senses out to the surrounding area. There was nothing yet, but it was only a matter of time. This far off Grid stayed pretty empty most of the time, but those who wandered these lanes were best avoided altogether. They needed to get in and out of the crash site quickly, strip the car of what they needed and go before there were any ugly confrontations.

Cass could handle herself, they all could. As long as they didn’t run into any professionals.

The others had already reached the car, she could feel their eagerness, almost smell it. She rounded the corner and stopped as the flames from the crash lit the corner of the wall in front of her.

Deep breath.

Cass closed her eyes and forced her breathing back down. She sent her senses shooting out around them, searching for trouble. The night was stretched out around her like a calm pool of water, no disturbances, no ripples in the skin. Just the crash site itself and…

Cass focused harder as the wave washed across her. There was something.

She tried to pin it down and found herself turning on the spot to face the wave. Towards the flames, towards the heat and steam. She opened her eyes and stared straight down the lane towards the burning wreck. That was it. Something off, the same familiar dread she’d felt when the car had approached them. Part fear, part something else. Danger.

She trotted down the middle of the road towards the site, more carefully now, following the path the others had taken. The feeling was definitely getting stronger. Part of her wanted to sprint after them, after him, make sure he was ok, but the wiser, animal side of her protested. Go slow. Know the enemy.

Her belly tightened as she got closer to the corner. She gritted her teeth and forced her feet, which no longer wanted to move, further forwards. Five more steps and she was around the corner.

The road opened into a large square, in the middle of which was the wreckage of the car. Orange flames were still licking across it, but most of the fuel seemed to have burnt off already. It didn’t look dangerous. Pieces of metal from the car and rubble from the buildings were strewn behind it where it had skidded down on its belly. Where was Quarters?

He was there somewhere, she could feel him, though only faintly.

A dark shadow flitted across the wreckage and Cass automatically crouched down. What was that? She crept forwards on her haunches, keeping an eye on the burning light of the wreck.

There it was again. Hunched over, rocking back and forth across the front of the wreckage, as if searching for something. Then it stopped and raised its head. It was Quarters.

Cass began to stand but suddenly froze in place. Her legs wouldn’t let her be seen. There was something very wrong here. It was Quarters, but there was something strange about him. His eyes were blank, completely empty and lifeless. Glazed over and alien. She sank back down into the shadows and watched.

Where could the others be? There was no sign of them at all, just Quarters and emptiness and…

Cass sank even lower as the light from the flames threw up another shadow, off to the side of the wreck. A single figure, standing tall and very still. A woman. She was watching Quarters too.

He was on all fours now, crawling back and forth in place, faster than before, almost panicked. Finally he turned towards the other figure and crawled directly towards her.

Cass wanted to cry out, to reach out and stop him, but couldn’t. The feeling in the pit of her stomach was all consuming now, rushing up her spine and over her mind, stopping all action. All she could do was watch as the figure opened its arms and Quarters disappeared into them.

Then it was gone, all of it. Like somebody had flipped a switch, the feeling emptied out of her and she found herself on her feet, facing the empty, burning wreckage. Quarters was gone. The figure was gone. Everyone was gone.