2898

    Leanne sat on her chocolate-coloured suede sofa, reading a magazine. It was raining. Leanne hated rain. Everyone in the 28Th century did. It wasn’t surprising, considering how much technology had developed - even something as simple as a 21St Century umbrella had some sort of mechanical contraption whirring inside. The machines were always made of a superiorly strong metal that had been found and mined in the 24Th century- silicis minutor canis. It was practically indestructible except for the fact that it melted at the slightest drop of water - an annoying, but easily remedied effect - a quick coating of a newly - developed plastic, SiZCoN, protected the machine inside extremely well - and so it should, because the coating hardened to the strength even a hurricane could not destroy.          
        Basically, the same person who invented SiZCoN plastic was the person Leanne was reading about in the magazine - Malandra Sizcon - an extremely wealthy woman scientist who had earned her fortune through her many technological discoveries- including how to successfully clone animals and her discovery of the SiZCoN plastic, had officially earned herself over 3 quadrillion Syidell - the equivalent to more than 1.5 trillion pounds in the “old” English money. Pennies and pounds were replaced AGES ago.
        It was still raining, only more heavily now. She could hear the harsh - sounding pitter patter PAT, pitter patter PAT on her SiZCoN coated Skye-lite (the modern skylight) It was getting worse every second…
        Then the lightning started. With a sigh and a flick of her long, jet black hair, Leanne stood up, closing her magazine. She’d always hated storms, even though in this modern society no-one feared them anymore. Technology had once again seen to that, as it had with everything nowadays. Leanne, worried by the storms as always, ran up the stairs of her loft/studio, just as a huge rumble of thunder nearly deafened her with its noise. She crouched down in a corner, scrunched up as if to protect herself. That was when she heard the sizzling sound next to her.
        She looked up at the desk above her. The noise was coming from her VidiEyE, a personal, compact computer that had been- obviously-
Created by Ms. Sizcon. As Leanne kept watching the VidiEyE, she realised the SiZCoN coating around it was evaporating before her very eyes. That wouldn’t be good news.
         No matter how scared she was of storms, Leanne, knew that the SiZCoN evaporating was much worse… it was definitely not meant to do that, something was terribly, terribly wrong. Then Leanne looked at the VidiEyE’s screen. One word glared out from the pitch-black screen, flashing on and off. ERROR. ERROR. ERROR.
         Just as she was about to get up, Leanne heard her PoD ring.  
         “Leanne? Has your VidiEyE reacted too? The whole street’s on the blink!”
         Leanne recognised the voice - it was Alicia, her cousin, but she also happened to be Leanne’s best friend. What was Alicia on about at a time like this?
         “Leanne, something’s happening to my VidiEyE…” There was a rustle at the other end of the PoD and a video showed up. “Look.”
         The VidiEyE on Alicia’s side of the PoD showed up lots of information, mostly in binary: 010110110000101000100101110. This scrolled up, followed by more and more data, all in binary. After about 2 minutes, a single message flashed upon the screen. Alicia was touching the screen of the VidiEyE at the time, unfortunately. Two words: COMPUTER VIRUS. Leanne closed her eyes as she saw the look of shock registered on Alicia’s face - the computer virus had sent out a shockwave from the VidiEyE, paralysing Alicia. She crumpled to the floor, dropping her PoD. The screen went black, until an arm picked it up again and turned the video on - a robotic arm had emerged from the VidiEyE. It clutched the PoD in its grasp, crushing it with superhuman strength. Just before the PoD was completely crushed, Leanne noticed Alicia struggle upwards just before the screen gave way. She could lip-read what Alicia was saying. “Goodbye.” Then all was black on Alicia’s end of the line.
         Leanne put her PoD down, just as she noticed Binary flashing up on her VidiEyE screen. The same code: 010110110000101000100101110. She knew what was going to happen next, yet she was rooted to the spot, too petrified to move. COMPUTER VIRUS. The last thing Leanne saw.
          “The technological society of the future- destroyed by their own creations. All because of a deadly computer virus.” There was a crackle at the other end of the line, a scream and maniac, un-human laughter. The machines had accomplished their final goal. Control of the world. Human error made them too smart. Their final mistake.