those in her duffle. The little
locks of the lockers surrendered easily to the butt end of the P90
but most of them weren’t even locked.
She settled back, and tried to relax.
So, this was the end of the second day after the end of the world.
(Or Autar at least) The locker room was a bit cozier than the bank
safe, and it was ‘in a good neighborhood’. She hadn’t seen a zombie
in the park, at least not yet.
Having the time to examine some of her
loot, she put on the goggles she had confiscated. Of course she was
familiar with the notion of VTag equipment, but not being military,
she never had a chance to play with it before.
A translucent display came to live in
front of her eyes, complaining about not being associated with any
VTag network. Regan fumbled with the buttons on the side of the
goggles’ frame and started browsing the goggles’ interface. It
wouldn’t let her join a network that was apparently in the area
without a password. Fine, she’d start her own. She left the default
name ‘New VTag Network’. The option for ‘private’ came up in the
process. Sure, OK, private sounds good, whatever.
Once she was on her network of one, she
managed to figure out how to place an actual VTag. The middle of
the display in the goggles sported a little crosshair. She lined it
up to one of the sinks, and hit the appropriate command.
Pop! A friendly, circular icon appeared
on the sink. It reminded Regan of a lifesaver. Text below it waited
to be named but Regan just left it at the default ‘VTag01’. Now no
matter how she wished to move, the sink would appear to have the
icon and its text pinned on it. She leaned her head so that a
corner of the wall was in the way, but the display still faithfully
tracked the position. Through walls, through her hand, through the
other side of the planet if need be.
Still wearing the goggles, she looked
at the two paperbacks she’d salvaged from the lockers. They were
trashy things, but they beat staring at the ceiling. She flipped to
the first page of the first one. After half a sentence, Regan
rolled her eyes and dismissed it as crap. She put the book down in
her lap and used the goggles to put a VTag on the book, and labeled
it ‘This sucks’. She tossed the book against the wall, but the VTag
remained where the book had been, hovering just a bit above her
lap. Alright, so VTags don’t track moving objects. That’s
nice.
She pressed another button, and
suddenly the wall rushed at her. She yelped in surprise then
laughed at herself. It seemed the goggles also operated as
binoculars. After toying some more she managed to get the game of
zooming in and out.
After picking through some of the more
mundane items she’d obtained, she thought it would be wise to
examine her gun a bit more. She discovered the safety. She wouldn’t
have known where to find it before. Lucky for her it was off when
she needed it to be. She also found out how to switch it from
single shots to full-auto. It hadn’t even really occurred to her
that it might have a setting like that. She was firing single shots
up until now, and that had been enough so far. However she now had
a pile of ammo and access to more, so she flipped over to full
auto.
There was some other little plug that
came out on a little wire but it wasn’t labeled, so she left it
alone. On the front end just under the muzzle there was a laser
sight built in, but it didn’t seem to be working.
The need for sleep came calling. She
settled in and glanced at her door barricade. She left the lights
on for safety, but dragged the sleeve of someone’s pullover over
her eyes.
The solitude began to creep up on her
again and she missed her brother. In all the fun of setting up a
safe spot for the night and toying with the VTag goggles, she’d
lost focus a little. She wasn’t even sure she’d find anything at
AutarLabs. For all she knew Harold was out and safe, or worse, got
killed somewhere. Either of those scenarios meant she was
locks of the lockers surrendered easily to the butt end of the P90
but most of them weren’t even locked.
She settled back, and tried to relax.
So, this was the end of the second day after the end of the world.
(Or Autar at least) The locker room was a bit cozier than the bank
safe, and it was ‘in a good neighborhood’. She hadn’t seen a zombie
in the park, at least not yet.
Having the time to examine some of her
loot, she put on the goggles she had confiscated. Of course she was
familiar with the notion of VTag equipment, but not being military,
she never had a chance to play with it before.
A translucent display came to live in
front of her eyes, complaining about not being associated with any
VTag network. Regan fumbled with the buttons on the side of the
goggles’ frame and started browsing the goggles’ interface. It
wouldn’t let her join a network that was apparently in the area
without a password. Fine, she’d start her own. She left the default
name ‘New VTag Network’. The option for ‘private’ came up in the
process. Sure, OK, private sounds good, whatever.
Once she was on her network of one, she
managed to figure out how to place an actual VTag. The middle of
the display in the goggles sported a little crosshair. She lined it
up to one of the sinks, and hit the appropriate command.
Pop! A friendly, circular icon appeared
on the sink. It reminded Regan of a lifesaver. Text below it waited
to be named but Regan just left it at the default ‘VTag01’. Now no
matter how she wished to move, the sink would appear to have the
icon and its text pinned on it. She leaned her head so that a
corner of the wall was in the way, but the display still faithfully
tracked the position. Through walls, through her hand, through the
other side of the planet if need be.
Still wearing the goggles, she looked
at the two paperbacks she’d salvaged from the lockers. They were
trashy things, but they beat staring at the ceiling. She flipped to
the first page of the first one. After half a sentence, Regan
rolled her eyes and dismissed it as crap. She put the book down in
her lap and used the goggles to put a VTag on the book, and labeled
it ‘This sucks’. She tossed the book against the wall, but the VTag
remained where the book had been, hovering just a bit above her
lap. Alright, so VTags don’t track moving objects. That’s
nice.
She pressed another button, and
suddenly the wall rushed at her. She yelped in surprise then
laughed at herself. It seemed the goggles also operated as
binoculars. After toying some more she managed to get the game of
zooming in and out.
After picking through some of the more
mundane items she’d obtained, she thought it would be wise to
examine her gun a bit more. She discovered the safety. She wouldn’t
have known where to find it before. Lucky for her it was off when
she needed it to be. She also found out how to switch it from
single shots to full-auto. It hadn’t even really occurred to her
that it might have a setting like that. She was firing single shots
up until now, and that had been enough so far. However she now had
a pile of ammo and access to more, so she flipped over to full
auto.
There was some other little plug that
came out on a little wire but it wasn’t labeled, so she left it
alone. On the front end just under the muzzle there was a laser
sight built in, but it didn’t seem to be working.
The need for sleep came calling. She
settled in and glanced at her door barricade. She left the lights
on for safety, but dragged the sleeve of someone’s pullover over
her eyes.
The solitude began to creep up on her
again and she missed her brother. In all the fun of setting up a
safe spot for the night and toying with the VTag goggles, she’d
lost focus a little. She wasn’t even sure she’d find anything at
AutarLabs. For all she knew Harold was out and safe, or worse, got
killed somewhere. Either of those scenarios meant she was
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