THE MOMENT
Connie stared at the phone in her hand and reread the words several times. Her eyes flitted up to the network icons, but they didn't show any connectivity. She focused on the new icon in the center of her screen. Connie did not have a lot of distractions available to her as she moved throughout the country and keeping her home screen organized was one of her small pleasures. She had no signal and hadn't seen another human in at least a week. But that morning she had a brand new icon sitting in the center of her wallpaper, standing out from the rest.
It was a red pair of scissors pointed downward with the text: [System Update Available] under it. Connie did not need to debate it too long. As suspicious as the icon was, things were different now. Three years ago she never would have tapped the icon for fear of what data she might lose track of. But, her phone wasn't showing any connectivity, despite the mystery icon appearing from nowhere. And beyond that, she had nothing to lose.
Her old identity was useless in the new world. Her credit cards, bank, and other once important numbers amounted to nothing that helped her survive; she did that on her own. The pictures she enjoyed seeing were all backed up on portable storage and as far as Connie was concerned, that's all she needed.
Over the past three years, she learned she didn't need other people. Connie refused several invitations out of guilt at first. The last thing she wanted was to add another mouth to a group that had several children to feed. But, the more time she spent alone, the more comfortable she got. Connie felt confident about her ability to survive anything, and she was willing to risk losing the device just to see what the icon did.
As soon as Connie touched the icon, the screen went white and a large pair of red scissors took up the middle of the screen. After a moment, the scissors faded and several paragraphs of red text appeared.
[System Update 1.3.S:
This update adds 16 Unique Souls and an improved afterlife experience, as well as several bug fixes and Q.o.L. updates.
Unique Soul #55: La Lechuza, The Owl - This Unique Soul..] Connie stopped reading and scanned the rest of the text. She felt like she was reading patch notes for a game she never played, and wondered how it got on her phone. At the bottom of the wall of text, a red button said: [Install Update?] in white text.
"Sure," Connie chuckled to herself with a shrug as she pushed the button. "What's the worst that can-," Connie blacked out before she finished the thought. She went limp and fell backward onto her sleeping bag.
When Connie woke up she felt more rested than ever. She felt full of energy and ready to go; but, she also felt comfortable. She sat up and took a confused look at her surroundings. It wasn't the abandoned home she picked out the night before. She was asleep on a large bed with comfortable, clean sheets. Brilliant sunlight poured in through the two windows against one wall and the rest of the room was tastefully decorated and looked lived in.
"What the hell?" Connie mumbled to herself as she tried to get her bearings. The memory was fuzzy, but her phone was the last thing she remembered. She glanced around to the cherry wood nightstand and found a transparent pane of glass sitting upright in a way that made it resemble a phone. Something inside Connie recognized it and she reached for the node.
When she tapped the front, it came to life to show her the time: 7:58 a.m. She unlocked the device and it showed her familiar homescreen - a picture of a beach sunset she took herself. All her icons were where she left them, except the scissor icon was different. The text under it now read: [System Updated Successfully] She tapped the icon and it filled the screen with white again. This time, it loaded a much shorter text; only a small paragraph.
[This Universe has been updated to the latest version. Your new life has been assigned randomly. You may make changes for 24 hours, after that, your life will be finalized. On behalf of Sharp Development, enjoy!]
"Whaaaat?" Connie looked from her node to the room around her. The more she studied it, the more she realized she liked it. She initially thought it was tastefully decorated, but if she had the chance, it's exactly the kind of décor she would have picked for herself. She looked back at the node and checked the top corner. She was connected! "..is this real..?" Connie wondered.
She wanted to open a webpage to check. She hoped whatever changed, it meant the world was almost normal again. Not that she knew how she would handle 'normal'. As much as she wanted some confirmation that things were definitely different, part of her was scared. Either she was dreaming, actually insane, or, somewhere, somehow, someone learned how to update the universe. She didn't feel quite ready to wrestle with that thought yet. Fortunately, a distraction came along.
Before she could open her web browser, the bedroom door swung open and made her jump in bed. A neatly-dressed pre-teen with perfect black curls walked in wearing a school uniform. She stared at Connie with mild frustration.
"Mom! I'm already late for school, hurry up!!"