Transitioning From Web Developer to Comic Book Author:

Flying Drones and Theft

I was working for this large software company and I had to go into the office for some reason. Outside, in the parking lot, dozens of scanner drones flew around, identifying anyone within walking distance of the building. I was scanned at least half a dozen times. When I entered the lobby, Lena was there. She needed to do something for school and I was wondering how she could get in without an ID badge. They were very strict about access. No card, no entry. I checked my wallet, hoping I could scan us both in but I couldn’t find my ID card. I opened pockets that I didn’t even know I had but it was nowhere to be found.
“Looks like we’ll have to sneak in,” I told Lena.
One other security measure for that day was that everyone who entered had to be wearing a special T-shirt. The company had just launched a new product, so everyone had a black shirt with the company logo and the name of the new software. Two girls at the front desk handed us a couple of shirts and said we should put them on outside. We started to leave but they called after us, “if you’re going to change in your car, you should take one of the couches by the main entrance. You can carry in out and haul it up the stairs to the parking lot. Just bring it back when you’re finished.” I thought about this idea of hers and realized there was no need to do what she suggested.
“We’re not taking one of your couches.” They would have none of it and we had to lose ourselves in the crowd in order to escape.
We went to my car to change and when we were finished, Lena suggested we check on our backpacks that were in her car a few blocks away. That was a good idea since earlier there was some strange guy eyeballing our stuff when she parked it there. We hopped in my car and sped out of the lot, a scanner drone chasing us and blaring sirens to identify ourselves. We went faster. It only chased us a couple of blocks. Lena checked the car and came back with the news that our bags with our laptops had been stolen. Although, she didn’t say it right out. She said, “I heard theft increases 54% after the first time.” I knew by that statement that it was gone.
Dissapointed, we went to my old work place, a bar, to have a drink. Some friendly acquaintances asked me whey they couldn’t log into my file server. They were having all kinds of issues with it. I wrote down my IP address for one of them and he asked me to also write down the IP address of Yahoo mail because he wanted to do some hacking. “I don’t know the yahoo IP addresses off the top of my head. You can look them up though.” He didn’t seem satisfied.

Dang. I do need to wake up earlier. I’m just getting started but I have to eat breakfast and get out of here. I meant to wake up at 6am (that was when my laptop got stolen and I woke myself up to feel better that it was just a dream, knowing that my laptop was right downstairs).