THE MOMENT
"What are we looking for?" As far as Jubilee was concerned, she was alone at the moment. She'd lowered her guard and she was very much distracted. The sudden question made her yelp and spin around to stare at the floating gold and white orb. She'd been walking on a dirt road on a pleasant cool, cloudy day and kicked up a fair amount of dust with the quick movements.
"Oh, sorry...," she sighed. "I forgot you're aware now...," she replied. Her mother, Jenny, upgraded the A.I. on Jubilee's camera drone with a Unique Soul, and sapience came along with that. She was used to treating the drone as a tool and ignoring it when not in use, and there was a bit of a learning curve now that it was essentially a new buddy.
"Don't worry, I'll keep reminding you," the camera said with a playful tone. "But in the meantime, you've been wandering aimlessly. Are we looking for something? Should I have been streaming this whole time?"
"NO!" Jubilee shook her head. "Sorry, no. I don't feel like streaming right now," she sighed and dropped her shoulders while she spun around slowly. She had no idea where she was.
"How many Earths did I walk through?" she asked.
"This is the 14th since we left the house. You've averaged about a block and a half on each Earth. All Earths manifested similar weather patterns. Cold, grey days with no sun. It looks like you're in a mood," the drone said. She had a teenage girl's voice to further add to the 'new best friend' appeal.
"I don't know if mom's coming back...," she sighed one final time, then turned to continue up the road again. She didn't know where she was, nor where she was going. Her heart was hurting, and moving forward was the only thing she knew how to do.
"The details she left seem to indicate that we won't know if she doesn't. She will have never existed."
"You're only saying that because mom programmed you," Jubilee shook her head. It took a minor effort to avoid lashing at the A.I., though it helped that she was feeling blue about everything and didn't have the energy to get worked up. The drone was sapient now, but that didn't mean it understood feelings yet. It had the capacity to learn them, but the upgrade was a Christmas gift before her mom left. It hadn't even been a week yet. But, she stopped walking at a sudden realization.
"Mom programmed you," she turned to face the hovering ball. She stared into the large green lens that denoted its front. "She knew she was leaving, and she programmed you before she left....," she tilted her head as she stared at it.
"I think there's trouble happening over there," the drone said. "Behind you," she encouraged Jubilee to turn around, and she did.
Black smoke was burning at a farmhouse in the distance and Jubilee started running.
"Should I start streaming?" the drone asked.
"NO! People might need help, we don't need to stream emergencies. Uhh, unless I'm fighting. Then you can start streaming that," she added as she kept up a speedy pace. The pair arrived at the farm house relatively quickly, and they found a crowd of farmers gathered around in a serious manner talking over each other. They seemed calm, if loud, and Jubilee looked around until she spotted an older woman standing apart from the crowd.
"Everything okay?" she asked as she approached. The elderly woman turned and nodded at her briefly, then gave a just as quick shake of her head.
"There's danger about...," she said. "The farm folk have had enough, we're organizing to track down the culprit."
"Danger? What's going on?" Jubilee asked.
"We're on the hunt for a cereal killer," the old woman answered. That came as a surprise, it wasn't the trouble she would've expected out in the farmlands.
"A serial killer?" Jubilee asked. Though, it was just thinking aloud as she processed the idea.
"No, a CEREAL killer," the old woman replied.
"Isn't that what I said? Serial Killer?"
"Oh, is it? Sorry," the old woman smiled. "My hearing isn't what it used to be. And, not with all that commotion happening either," she gestured at the crowd. "With any luck, we'll have that cereal killer caught by sundown."
"How many people have been killed?"
"What?" the old woman asked. "Who's been killed?!" she asked.
"I don't know?" Jubilee shrugged. "You're the ones looking for a serial killer."
"What does that have to do with people being killed?" the old woman asked.
"There's a serial killer on the loose!" Jubilee said.
"Ohhh," the old woman smiled and shook her head. "I apologize, you're probably not from the area. To clarify, we are not looking for a person who commits serial murders. We're on the hunt for a person who murders cereal, the foodstuff. But, I can see the confusion, serial and cereal sound exactly alike. Without seeing them spelled, you'd never know."
"Huh? How do you murder a bowl of cereal?" The woman's smile grew and she laughed again.
"We're farmers, and there's not a lot going on out here. We try to add some excitement where we can," she said. "Our grain crops, wheat, oats, etc. They're 'cereal grains'. Some damn fool has been setting fire to the fields and burning all our crops. But, you gotta admit. A 'cereal killer' sounds way better than ' a damn fool has been burning our crops.'"