As Ryan skipped down the steps from his front porch a new system message popped up.

  You have exited your designated Safe Zone.

  Would you like to engage Perspective Camouflage?

  “Camouflage? What?” Ryan exclaimed. “I mean, of course, but what does that even mean?” A new information screen popped up.

  Perspective Camouflage

  A new feature of the PerSpectives 3.1

  Using the device’s 360-degree coverage as well as refraction display technology,

  the device can be rendered nearly invisible to outside observers.

  “I think that should be an obvious yes,” Ryan stated wholeheartedly.

  Would you like to set the default Camouflage setting to [On] when not in a designated Safe Zones?

  “Can I set it to on until I say otherwise?”

  Perspective Camouflage default set to On.

  Warning: Goggles may be hard to find when the device is removed.

  “Fine, maybe not always, how about whenever I wear them? At least until I say to turn it off?”

  Perspective Camouflage custom settings have been applied.

  Camouflage will now be enabled.

  The Perspective Goggles added a digitized sound that wrapped around his head to let him know something was changing. Though Ryan couldn’t tell, his goggles had become suddenly transparent, though with some strange incongruities that, if closely examined, would look like the outline of the AR Headset.

  Now back to his daily task. A quick walk down to the corner market should probably do the trick; litter was, unfortunately, not hard to come by in this neighborhood. Ryan noticed a deteriorating plastic bag caught on the rung of his neighbor’s chain-link fence and snatched it. Something to put the trash in would help. He glanced at the overcast sky thinking he could almost make out a slight tinge of brown in the clouds.

  At some point, with the weather patterns getting worse, whole cities becoming uninhabitable, and a government that seemed determined to ignore the environmental impacts mankind was having, people just gave up on trying to save the planet. The rise of Theocracy, Civil War, and the Age of Ministries that defined the American Experiment, 21st Century edition, all lead to a less and less habitable continent. The West Coast became a tinder box, wildfires exacerbating issues with air quality, and one final huge storm turned the entire central valley into a lake. Middle America had become another epic dust bowl as the agricultural system collapsed. The East Coast had been reduced to one major city and its eight outlying districts.

  Inner City had a population of just under 6 million, and each district ranged from 200 to 600,000 citizens, with Ryan’s District 7 coming in somewhere in the middle of that. It was divided into suburbs with varying degrees of upkeep and infrastructure maintenance. The road he now walked had potholes, but they were filled in. Road maintenance wasn’t as important with the advent of anti-grav vehicles, but it was still an eyesore. He saw a candy wrapper caught in a bush and snatched it up. The Task Manager instantly updating from 0/10 to 1/10.

  Autumn was in full swing, with a steady supply of leaves falling like lazy snowflakes around him. The sidewalk was damp from a light drizzle the night before, causing the leaves to plaster onto the ground. He made a little game of trying to step only on the gaps between leaves. Somehow the PerSpectives picked up on this. A system message popped up.

  Would you like to engage the Guided Movement Tutorial Level 1?

  Accept?

  |Yes | No |

  He selected yes by focusing with his eyes.

  Tutorial mode activated.

  In this tutorial you will learn to follow the onscreen instructions for movement. Your display will have an overlay of arrows telling you which direction to move your feet, how far to move them, and how fast, based off shape, length, and color of the arrows respectively.

  New Task:

  Dodge the Leaves

  Objective: Avoid stepping on any leaves stuck to the ground by following onscreen directions.

  Reward: 80% and Above accuracy will be rewarded with a Tutorial Completion Achievement, as well as an XP boost.

  Penalty for Failure: Tutorial incomplete, will need to try again.

  The goggles scanned the environment around him with a grid pattern overlaying all objects before focusing on and highlighting them individually, tagging them with names and descriptions, just as it had done with the laundry in his room.

  Tree: Ulmus americana,

  Tree: Tilia americana,

  Bush: Southern Indica Azalea,

  Bush: Rhododendron catawbiense,

  Sign: Stop,

  Mailbox…empty.

  This all happened in a few seconds before everything was set aside and the leaf patterns on the sidewalk became the focal point. First the leaves, then the spaces between them.

  Planning Route…

  Please follow onscreen directions.

  Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

  A red arrow swooping off to the right appeared in his vision, as he moved his right foot forward, it started to slowly change color from its starting point towards the tip. He kept moving forward and the progress stopped, he started moving to the right and it continued. Once it got to the end the whole arrow bulged. He set his foot down and another arrow appeared, this time pointing to the left in a slightly different angle. Ryan found the system quite intuitive and as he proved his grasp of it the arrows changed from red to yellow, forcing him to increase his pace. When he made a mistake and landed on a leaf the HUD would highlight it, flashing red, and a claxon would sound.

  Before he knew it, he had made it to the end of the block and got the rewarding system message:

  Tutorial Complete!

  Achievement unlocked!

  Bronze Trophy of Tutorial Newbie awarded.

  Accuracy 89%

  Calculating Reward…

  2x XP boost for two hours.

  Would you like to try the advanced mode?

  Accept?

  |Yes | No|

  Of course he selected yes. This time the scan picked up on articles of trash along his path that he needed to grab. The speed started with green arrows which was almost a running pace of hop-scotch, sharp upticks on the arrows indicating when he should leap or bound to a spot. New arrows were displayed up top for his arms when he needed to reach out and down for one of his trash targets. His task status updated to 6/10. Over half way there.

  Ryan was so caught up in the new pace and complexity that he almost fell on his face when a sudden alert popped up in yellow and red.

  ANOMALY DETECTED!

  In fact, he didn’t fall because he ran into something. He could feel it but couldn’t see it. Ryan lifted his goggles up onto his forehead and suddenly saw what he’d run into.

  A strange someone, dressed in an old, rugged, long coat, with a dark leather fedora covering his eyes loomed over him. Unkempt hair pushed out under the brim and covered the man’s ears so all Ryan could make out of his face was a grizzly unshaven chin, a cigarette hanging loosely from his cracked lips, and a prominent nose. The acrid smoke of the cigarette caused Ryan’s nose to involuntarily scrunch up. Smoking was not really a thing people did in his area.

  “Hey, kid.” The man rasped. “We don’t have much time. I can’t explain, but I need you to take this.” He pulled from his pocket a small orb the size of a marble, with a swirling cloud of silver and gold constantly moving inside it. Against his better judgement, Ryan held out his hand and the man set the marble into it. It felt warm to the touch.

  “What is this?” he asked, mesmerized by the swirling light.

  “Important.” Stated the stranger. “Don’t lose it. Keep it on you at all times.”

  “I’m not sure taking some random marble from a stranger is ever a good choice,” Ryan let his suspicious ooze from his voice.

  “Look,” the man lifted and adjusted his hat without ever revealing his full features. “Certain things have to happen. They’re unavoidable. You understand?”

  “I…don’t.” Them man shook his head in frustration.

  “Before the Crisis, things were less static. Outcomes could be changed. But that isn’t possible anymore.” The man took a drag from his cigarette and then tossed it into the street. Ryan heard it hiss as the tip met with the moist pavement. “Some events are completely unavoidable now. But maybe the outcomes can be influenced.” He held the orb out again. Ryan couldn’t help but feel drawn to it. Such a fascinating little thing.

  “Who are you?” Ryan asked, turning his head so he could get a better view under the lowered brim of the man’s hat. “And why are you dressed like Dick Tracy?”

  “How do you even know who Dick Tracy is?” the stranger shot back. He coughed. “It doesn’t matter who I am, all that matters is that you keep this with you. Oh, and don’t tell anyone about it.” Without thinking Ryan reached out with his hand and the stranger dropped the orb into it.

  “Why can’t I see you when I have my goggles on?”

  “Those ‘Spectives are only tuned to observe things on the prime frequency. You should be careful how much you trust what you see on them.” Ryan was only half listening to the man, as a sensation from the orb caught his attention. As he spoke, Ryan lowered the PerSpectives down over his face to see if he could get a scan of the orb.

  “Helios, observe object.”

  New Feature Unlocked:

  Focused Observation

  A new interface appeared in his HUD, scanning the marble. After a moment, the system identified it:

  Object Identified: Concentrated Firmament.

  Something about the system message, the combination of the font and the text within triggered the briefest flash of memory from his dream the previous night. Not enough to fully recall anything of substance, but it troubled him. Also, that word had appeared in his reading assignment task. “Firmament?” Ryan asked. He looked up to direct the question at the man, but he couldn’t see him. He pulled up his goggles again, but the man really was gone this time. Weird. Why couldn’t the PerSpectives see him?

  Resume Tutorial?

  The interface prompted him. His heart just wasn’t in it anymore. He slid the orb into his pocket, planning on heading to the library before he went home. He had reading to do. He picked up the strange man’s cigarette butt and tossed it into his trash bag. The task counter increased to 7/10.

  As he continued his walk, he noticed a sleek black vehicle hovering its way down the street. The car screamed “Suspicious!” No one had a vehicle that nice around here, and it was going a little too slow. Ryan immediately thought they were looking for that mysterious stranger. He involuntarily slipped his hand into his pocket, tightening his grip protectively around the object. It seemed to hum slightly at his touch. His goggles performed a quick scan of the vehicle and information popped up.

  Vehicle: F87

  Model commonly used by the Ministry of Integrity

  Ryan squinted at the tinted windows and something amazing happened, an infrared overlay expanded over the car, revealing four people inside, two of whom appeared to be craning their necks in his direction. Ryan quickly acted like he was just looking around at the environment by moving his head away. Intuitively the PerSpectives kept his view centered on the vehicle until it pulled around a corner and out of sight.

  “Helios, what is ‘Firmament’ anyway?” he asked.

  Firmament – noun

  fir-ma-ment

  1. The vault or arch of the sky: Heavens

  2. The principle component of something

  3. a: something on which something else is established or based

  b: an underlying condition or state of affairs

  c: a fixed pattern or system

  “So, what is this ‘Concentrated Firmament’ thing?” he asked. There was a slight yet noticeable delay, as if the system was hesitating before a message appeared.

  Information Restricted.

  “Hmph,” Ryan grunted. “So, you can identify an object but refuse to tell me what it actually is, huh?” He thought about what he could deduce from the definition he’d just read, but the title of the book on his list flashed in his memory again. Maybe it would be better just to read the book instead of speculating. Perhaps he’d find answers in that text that the PerSpectives were refusing to provide him.