THE MOMENT
Everyone knew it was coming; but, very few people knew what it meant. The world was changing in 87 minutes, there was no doubt about that. Ken felt like he was ready. It was easy to feel like that when the rest of the world was still staring at the sky waiting for the countdown to end. He knew he wasn't the only one, but it was easy to feel like he was the only one moving in his city. One of the few that wasn't entranced by the numbers counting down.
The governments had assured their citizens the countdown in the sky was intentional and it would bring good things at the end. Ken had left his home with a purpose even as everyone sat and watched the sky. But, he hadn't taken into account that everything would be shut down. The governments agreed on a worldwide day off to help the change happen more smoothly. It had been rather sudden, but the word about the oncoming change went out over a month ago. People had some time to get ready; but, not as much as some of them thought they needed.
What exactly did 'Breaking the Veil' look like in practice? None of them knew. Though, Ken felt like he was ready for the next step. He'd scoured every paragraph of every pamphlet he could get his hands on. He didn't imagine he'd spend the last moments of his current reality staring at the sky, he thought there was more to do. As it turned out, with everything closed, there was nothing else to do but stare at the sky. He could have gone back inside and watched some private media, all the broadcast and cable channels were off. But, he didn't want to miss it entirely and he sat down. His wanderings had led him to the park where there were plenty of others seated at picnic tables and on the ground, all of them looking up. He was lucky enough to find a small unoccupied table to sit and think. He still had one pamphlet with him and he flipped through it one more time.
"The AlterNet brought to you by Chroma Corp." was printed in shiny chrome letters on the front. It went through some of what to expect once the world changed using a game as an analogy. He'd read it plenty of times and the only reason he still had it was because it asked. One white page in particular. It was mostly blank, empty space except for more chrome text: "Free Node!" it said about nothing.
All the literature Ken found talked about using 'nodes' to access certain functions of the AlterNet; but, this was the only thing he found that remotely hinted about how to find a node. He glanced at his watch, then up at the sky to be sure. There was still over an hour left. His entertainment options were limited and his mind was growing bored. He was at a point where he felt like he couldn't get any more 'ready' than he was and his eyes wandered up.
In the past two hours, he'd only briefly glanced at the sky to make sure the timer was there. But, this was the first time he looked at it to look at it and, it was surprisingly beautiful. Polished chrome numbers hovered in the sky, reflecting a distorted Earth. Each digit could have been formed out of liquid, or clouds. Shapes and shadows flowed over each individual number like a lava lamp, as if any given number was alive. He only watched it for a minute, it felt like it anyway. He spent that time trying to decide what the numbers were made up from in his mind, and suddenly, all the digits flashed '00:00' and disappeared.
"Huh?" he blinked and glanced down at his watch out of habit. The full hour and change had indeed gone by and now everyone was looking around again, just as confused. Ken was quick enough to catch on and instead of focusing on the people he tried looking for anything new. "Alright.. what changed....?" he looked around.
Strangers seemed to all have the same question as they got to their feet with heads swiveling rapidly left and right looking for something new. But, there was nothing obvious.
"Something changed... right?" he kind of sighed and dropped his hands on the table. He felt something cold and stiff on the pamphlet and looked down. The white page was gone, but there was a transparent glass card under his hands now. He picked it up for a closer look and it immediately displayed the time.
"I got a free node!" Ken chuckled to himself as he slid his finger on the display upward. The time disappeared and showed him a welcome screen with a tutorial, and he knew things would be okay. Things had changed. That much was made clear with the text that appeared on his screen.
[The Veil has been broken.]
[Welcome to the AlterNet.]