The city had always been noisy, with a constant hum of chatter, engines, and digital beeps weaving through the streets. But lately, something felt different. Alex couldn’t quite place it – a strange echo in his mind, like faint suggestions drifting below his thoughts. It wasn’t a voice exactly, more like a soft nudge from nowhere. “Stop for fast food,” it would say, or “Take the next left.” At first, he shrugged it off as daydreaming. But then the nudges became more explicit, more insistent, like someone was whispering directions he hadn’t asked for.

These nudges had become more than a distraction, and his days programming computers for pods at Better-Motors headquarters had become longer and longer. Today, he’d arrived at the office at seven-thirty am and didn’t finish until almost six-thirty PM.

As he passed the receptionist, Keilani, he waved to her and wished her goodnight. ‘No time for a life,’ he said as he headed for the door.

‘Leaving already,’ Alex said. ‘I’m stuck here until the office closes. I’m going out with a few friends. You should join us.’

He paused at the door and rested a fist on his chin. This gesture made it look like he was seriously considering the invitation, but who was he kidding? He was out with a bunch of outgoing friends of a coworker. ‘I’d love to, but I have a’.

‘That’s okay,’ she broke in. ‘I was only speaking figuratively. I don’t think we’ll have room in my friend’s Mega-Pod. I guess one of us has to ride in the trunk.’

His eyes widened. ‘Oh, I didn’t hear that. Maybe some other time we can hang out.’ She backed up, seemingly taken aback by what he said. ‘I didn’t mean it like that. I’m sorry. It’s just that going out is for pretty people, not guys like me.’

She gave an embarrassed laugh. No mirror was present, but he imagined if he could see himself, he’d be as red as a beat. He started out the front door but stopped when he noticed a milkshake cup with the cartoon bear logo sporting the name Freddy’s Fries sitting on her desk. ‘Freddy’s, strange. I went there for lunch today.’

She looked up from her iPhone 30 and looked perplexed. ‘And.’

‘That’s a weird coincidence, isn’t it?’

‘Not really. Everyone here loves Freddy’s.’

‘But I never go out for lunch. I even have a sandwich sitting in the break room fridge. But I felt a nudge around 11 am. It’s like someone grabbed me and spoke into my mind.’

She took her eyes off him and started looking at her phone again, seemingly disinterested in the conversation he’d started. ‘I guess that might’ve happened,’ she said. ‘But it’s not something I noticed. Maybe you should get that Cortex chip updated. Sounds like you’re getting false ESP signals.’

He smiled and wiped the sweat from his hands onto his pants. ‘Who knows then? Maybe I saw a subliminal ad while doing research today. My chip might need a reset. I agree.’

Keilani looked up at him. ‘Alex, good night. Get some sleep.’

He gave a half smile and waved once more before leaving.

His small Pod wasn’t too far, just a few blocks away. It gave him plenty of time to shake off the embarrassment from his awkward conversation with Keilani.

As he walked along the streets of Lumina, he noticed the sun disappearing along the eastern horizon, making its red shine at a blinding level even with his eyes. The noise of all the banana-shaped pods driving by along the street track would help drown out the noise of all the other city dwellers bustling around him. Still, it wasn’t enough to mask the phantom nudges crawling around his brain, saying, Find the source. The messages were present here. It wasn’t just a chip failure.

The Autopilot of his Pod would be taking him home anyway.

The loud beeping from his Pod’s speaker jolted him awake, and he realized he’d already arrived at his prefab modular home at Park 7B-Meadow Edition. These were on the outskirts of the humungous city of Lumina, which put his commute a little over an hour each way. Alex had read about drivers in the twenty-first century making commutes like this, but at that age, they had to drive themselves.

His prefab home had been shaped like a radish, and the others in his neighborhood each had their design based on buyer preference. His next-door neighbor’s prefab modular home was shaped like a squash. The old lady across the street picked an upside-down carrot for her home. As with pod shapes, the US government offered tax incentives for buyers who picked fruits and vegetables for their homes. It was a part of their Live Long and Prosper program to promote healthy eating, but people his age knew that wasn’t the real reason. It was propaganda to make people forget that most of the food being sold by Fogul was synthetic. That program started five years ago when he bought his first home at twenty-three.

The prefab modular ones were generally cheaper than the older type houses built from the ground up and, in some cases, incredibly cheaper. His home had only cost $20 million, and he only had three more years to pay it off.

Silence filled his home; the same could be said about Park 7B-Meadow Edition. He grabbed a Fogul Meal from the freezer and nuked it for two minutes. Fogul had all sorts of meals. Most were low-calorie and typically had meat and vegetables with rice or potatoes. They were all synthetic. Simplicity wasn’t just a choice for him and the others at Park 7B but an ordinance. Ordering food for delivery was allowed, but traditional cooking was against Park’s regulations due to safety issues.

Crime, in general, was also not tolerated; if someone broke a law, they were out permanently. His Pod had passed a fifty-foot barbed wire, electric security gate, which had auto-authenticated while he slept. Large batteries underneath the houses powered all the homes, and each appliance was connected wirelessly. Park 7B - Meadows had no police or fire department; in most cases, neither was needed. However, there was a security office to arrest residents who had committed a crime, who would then be turned over to the nearby Solarian authorities. However, there were rumors that all police had been replaced by androids who would fulfill arrest orders from Solara’s AI Warden Unit, which they called Saturn.

Each home had fire extinguishers, but the no-cooking rule and the fact that most appliances were fire-safety-proofed at the factory level meant that fires were infrequent.

He ate and then went online to play Rush. His game was interrupted when someone started pounding on his door. The time on his microwave clock was ten PM. Seeing the time, the aggressive pounding made his blood run cold. He approached his front door cautiously, peeking outside before he dared unlock and open it. He recognized the man outside as the one who lived down the street.

Alex opened the door but frowned at the man. ‘Bart, it’s ten o’clock. The hell’s wrong, man.’

Bart Reznor was a short, stubby man who claimed his receding hairline started in twelfth grade and stopped growing before graduating junior high. His house was plain rectangular. Alex figured the man didn’t buy into Solara’s ‘live long and prosper’ program.

But Bart didn’t appear to be here to have a good time. Alex saw panic in the man’s face. At the same time, the sweet aroma of naturally processed fermentation was present as soon as he opened the door. ‘My place is a wreck,’ Bart said. ‘Can I crash here tonight?’

Alex shook his head. ‘I’ve only got one bed here. Sorry.’

Alex started to close the door, but Bart stopped it with his arm. ‘Wait a minute. You don’t understand. I can sleep on your couch. Please let me in.’

Alex closed the door on Bart’s arm. ‘Get your arm out of the door, you drunk.’

‘Let go of my arm.’

‘When I open this door, you’ll let your arm out,’ Alex said.

‘Okay, just let me out,’ Bart said. Alex opened the door just a bit, allowing Bart to remove his arm, which he did, but Bart ripped the door open before Alex could.

They stood face to face, and Alex’s hair stood on end at the thought that this crazy drunk guy might kill him. Bart burst through the doorway and nudged him backward.

Alex backed away from the lunatic and sat on the couch. ‘Beat it. Or I’ll call Park Security.’

Bart sighed. ‘Listen, you could at least help me rebuild my house.’

Alex gave him a dirty look and folded his arms. ‘You just broke into my house. Why should I trust you?’

Bart said, ‘You’ve heard it too.’

‘Heard what?’

Bart’s eyes were crazed. ‘The voices in your head. Telling you to do things.’

Alex fell off the couch and rubbed his eyes. ‘Oh, those. Well, it looks like it’s over now.’

Bart sat down on the couch and gave Alex a hand up where he sat beside. ‘You must’ve received the same message. “Find the source.”

He looked at Bart, then down at the floor again, and repeated it. He wasn’t ready to admit to this guy that he was hearing voices in his head. But if the man knew about it, he could extract information from him. ‘I guess I got something like that. I’d call it a nudge. How did you know.’

Bart put his arm around Alex and smiled. ‘If you let me stay the night, I can help you figure out who’s doing this to us. I won’t tell ya how I know.’

‘I’m not even sure it’s real. I might have something wrong with my cortex chip.’

Bart shook his head in agreement with something he’d said. ‘A corrupt cortex chip. That’s a lead right there. Come on, please.’

Alex sighed. ‘Okay, you can crash here tonight, but I’ll call security if we have any problems.’

Bart patted him on the back and chuckled. ‘I promise I’ll be on my best behavior.’

Alex stood up and headed for the bathroom. He turned back to Mac and yawned. ‘I have to get up at six tomorrow morning. I better not hear any noise. Got me?’

Bart gave him a salute but gave no other response.

The following day, Alex started out the door but had forgotten to put on his face, which felt funny, so he looked in the bathroom mirror. His artif-face needed adjusting, meaning today would set him back just a bit. He finished in about five minutes and ran out the door into his Pod. Bart had already left, thankfully.

Before leaving, he noticed that a few of his fake shrubs were missing, and someone had scuffed up his artificial grass. Seeing it annoyed him, but he put the Pod into the drive and set it for Lumina. He could have security pull the cameras and file a complaint with the HAS later.

Once his Pod self-parked in the cheapest lot, he started his long trek to Better-Motors HQ. While crossing the Sixt Street Bridge, he thought of Dupri Coffee. Again, he felt the nudge commanding him to stop in and get himself a Frappuccino and a strawberry muffin. He was unable to resist it. The wait was shorter than usual, but he couldn’t complain. He saw his neighbor Bart a block away, holding the same items he had. He passed by with a simple hello, but Bart chased after him to speak. Alex picked up the pace.

Bart eventually caught up to him and grabbed him by the shoulders. ‘Looks like you heard it too. Where does it come from?’

‘You mean the nudge. I don’t know. I felt them yesterday while I was down here, but back in Park 7B-Meadows, they were gone.’

Bart looked toward a billboard sitting on top of the Fogul Building. It was an ad for Dupri Coffee, with the Frappuccino and strawberry muffin appearing deliciously in the backdrop of the ad. ‘Maybe it’s something down here. Something might be emanating from behind the ad.’

Alex rubbed his chin. ‘But I felt the nudge while I was crossing the bridge. That’s pretty far from here. It has to be something else.’

An android cop passed by and started staring at them. Bart noticed the cop and got close to Bart’s ear, whispering, ‘They’ve got tunnels underneath this city. I work for the city; I can get us access.’

Alex nodded. He was skeptical, but if he could see these bunkers and tunnels, he’d believe them. ‘Alright, what time do you get done?’

‘I should be done by six PM. I’ll text you when I’m ready and tell you where to meet me.’

Alex smiled and gave the man his number. ‘By the way, your ears are crooked.’

Bart looked perturbed momentarily, then started playing with them before walking away. Bart could be annoying, but he did have some exciting ideas, and having a city employee could be helpful. The quirky guy was something else, that’s for sure.

‘You listened to POP 60 on the way here, right?’ Bart asked.

Alex lowered his head. ‘I did, why did you?’

Bart patted him on the back and laughed. ‘Yep, don’t fret. We all indulge sometimes. That might be a lead.’ They then went their separate ways.

When he arrived at BM-HQ, Keilani smiled, giving him a simple smile but saying nothing to him. It was better than being ignored like she did with half the people here, and after the awkward conversation yesterday, it was better than nothing.

His eyes widened when he noticed the strawberry muffin and Frappuccino on her desk. ‘You got the nudges too, Kel.’

She looked up at him with suspicion. ‘What nudge. I just felt like eating this okay.’

‘But so did my neighbor Bart and me. Let me ask if you listened to Pop 60 on your way here today?’

She nodded. ‘So what?’

‘Solara runs the radio stations in Lumina. Fogul sponsors them.’