#92: Anette - Shopping

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When Anette woke up she was still warm. She hadn’t been warm in so long that she had been afraid to wake up. She was afraid that she would awake to cold. She didn’t. The Omni-Suit was more comfortable than any bed that she’d ever slept in, in her life. She had slept for a long, long time.

She opened her eyes and saw water. She was submerged. The Omni-Suit kept her warm, dry comfortable and anchored to one spot. While she had slept the water level had risen and she had been covered. Odd how it didn’t seem to matter.

She noticed a cat-fish floating nearby. It wasn’t just any old cat-fish either. It was wearing a ball cap, sunglasses and carrying a book.



.

Hi” the fish said. Oddly enough Anette could hear it.”Have I got your attention?”

Anette was a child of her time. She knew about Computer Generated Images (CGI) and Artificial Reality from movies. She’d seen the Matrix, Ready Player One and Howard the Duck. This must be something like that.

Nope...It wasn't. This was reality. Just not the reality she was used to.

“Yeah I’m ready” she said

“My name is Julie” The catfish said “and I got some ‘Splaining to do to you. Are you ready to listen?”

“Today is the first day of the rest of your life.” Julie said “ It’s going to be a good day.”

“Where am I?” Anette mumbled.

“You are where you were when you went to sleep. However, thanks to the efforts of DragonForce, The Maggi, me and others you are not likely to die today.” The voice of a kindly young girl told her. “Every thing is going to be OK .”

“Then why do you look like a catfish?” Anette couldn’t help herself.

“Because I can. A little humor to lighten the mood...cool huh? You look like a pufferfish” Julie replied. “We’re underwater. One must adapt. ”



The kindly voice explained what had happened, how it had happened and her options, Anette was no longer sleepy.

"Well, here's another nice mess I’ve gotten myself into." she said “I don’t guess it’s my fault that The World As I Knew IT Ended though. What to do. What to do.”

“You don’t have to do anything dear.” Julie told her. “Your ride is on the way. Relax and have some more energy drink. It will be here shortly.”

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Julie and Anette swam along under water, safe from prying eyes. Anette’s PufferFish shape wasn’t very fast. Julie’s catfish shape was somewhat faster and scouted head. It was hunting for carbon. When Julie found something with carbon in it she gobbled it right up.

Julie ‘splained. “Avatars are equipped with Molecular Furnaces and SmokeForges although not very large ones.”

“What might that be?”Anette asked. She knew. She remembered from talking earlier. She was making conversation. They were bonding.

“We make stuff out of SSmoke. This Avatar and your Omni-Suit are made from SSmoke. SSmoke can come in real handy. You can’t never have too much of it.” Julie said. She was intentionally bonding with Anette. It would make her new life SO much easier to adapt to.

Anette giggled “I know, I know. but I can’t help laughing. Who’s ever seen or heard of a Cat Fish with Bling?”

“It’s how I store it !” Julie said with a sniff. “Catfish don’t have scales. ”

The odd plastic bag or empty soda pop bottle took mere seconds to process. One gulp and it was gone. It took a surprisingly large amount of plastic pollution to make one tiny crystal though. Once they found an automobile and had to stay for a few hours to do it justice. Julie had the avatar eat the tires, anything plastic on the car and had it drink the gasoline. The car was pretty much stripped to bare metal when she was done. They’d even taken most of the paint. Julie had significantly more Bling when they left.

They continued on. They laughed. They had a grand old time and somehow Anette managed to forget for entire minutes that her world had collapsed around her and everyone she knew was dead. Eventually a Manta Boat arrived. It coasted to a stop then opened it’s mouth.

“This thing is supposed to ‘eat me’?” Anette teased Julie.

“Life’s a bitch” Julie agreed.

Resigned to the inevitable, Anette allowed herself to be slurped up like a piece of spaghetti into the MantaBoat. It had tickled and been kind of gross both at the same time. Once inside, she discovered that her PuffinPod had transformed into a cute little blue jumpsuit tastefully accented with sparkles. She had other jewelry too. The CatFish had transformed into a


small blue dragon to match her jumpsuit. It sat on her shoulder.

“The MagLib has a bucketload of dragon programs in it for some reason, other stuff too of course.” Julie said. Anette noticed that Julie was no longer a Catfish. She was a young girl apparently not much older than she was. Oddly enough she was floating in the air inside the manta boat.

“If you don’t like this one you can pick something else for an avatar.” Julie said.

“A what? What’s a MagLib?” Anette asked, she had been thinking about clothes. If the whachamacallit had thingamadoodles perhaps it had clothes?.

“It’s real name is about a yard long. Naomi said. “ I’m Naomi, glad to meet you.”

Naomi was an older lady who had apparently been driving the boat. She was floating in the air too. She shook Annette’s hand..then hugged her.

Anette attempted to project the expected excitement and gratitude. “Glad to meet you too. Thanks for saving my life.”

She didn’t fool Julie for a minute. “Whatzamatter? You seem distracted. You can tell me.”

“I’m Soooooory. I really am. I feel so ungrateful and self-centered.” Anette wailed.

“You’re none of that. I know better. Come on now. Spit it out. What’s on your mind?” Naomi told her

“sniff It’s clothes!” Anette wailed “I’ve been wearing these same rags since Momma and Dadda were killed. I don’t think that I’ve removed them since then. I hate them...and I feel guilty for hating them.”

Naomi looked at Julie and raised an eyebrow. Julie nodded. Naomi asked Annette.”Would you like to go shopping?”

“OH Would I?” Anette almost swooned. “Yes I would very MUCH like to shop for clothes.”

So they did that.

. They went shopping.

A few hours later they hadn’t QUITE tried on every item of clothing designed for women since the beginning of time. Not quite. It had been close. Anette was pleasantly exhausted. She could barely keep her eyes open.

“Now settle back, relax and enjoy what little scenery there is.”
Naomi told her.

“Will I see you later?” Anette asked. “After I wake up? WILL I wake up? Is this a dream? Have I died?”

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The Next Episode Is
#93:Henry Drake : On the Bridge…
The Previous Episode was
#91: Anette - Left for Dead…
The First Episode was
# 1 : Prologue…
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Book One: SoulStone
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