'Five more years! If I could have held on five more years I could've taken early retirement instead of--' Brian's train of thought screeched to a halt.
Fired. He'd been fired. A month ago. And his former employer was contesting his receiving unemployment. The hearing hadn't even been scheduled yet.
Admittedly, he had spent about a week in bed, except for when the need to use the toilet became overwhelming, or his hunger forced him into the kitchen to consume some tuna straight from the can, cereal straight from the box, or something similar. Still, he hadn't missed the due date for contesting his employer's-- his FORMER employer's claim he didn't deserve unemployment.
It had been a shitty job-- janitorial-- but it had more or less paid the bills, had some benefits, including retirement. He had just turned 51 when they told him that they decided his punishment for too many sick leaves, and too many tardys would be termination.
Hell, how was he going to afford to refill his Prozac prescription without insurance? The bottle was almost empty. His other meds weren't any better. On the other hand, despite all of the medication he was still depressed, anxious, and had high blood pressure, so maybe they weren't actually doing anything other than making their manufacturers money.
He stared into the mirror on the medicine cabinet. A fat man with brown hair greasy from more than 12 hours in bed (thinning on the top, near the back, of his head) stared back. He'd never spent a lot of time in the sun, or smoked (tobacco, that is-- but not a lot of the other stuff, either), so he had relatively few wrinkles. Hazel eyes, looking brown in the bathroom's poor lighting. Not a lot of body hair, but not abnormally little, either. His body hair showed more white than his head hair. A sagging gut hid his privates from easy viewing. He'd gained even more fat since his firing, which had been giving the appearance his dick was shrinking. At least he hoped that was the explanation.
He also stank. When was the last time he'd showered? Good question, no answer.
Grabbing his deodorant (also running low-- why did everything have to run out at the same time?!) he slathered his arm pits with the somewhat better smelling substance and went to his bedroom to get dressed. He didn't know where he was going to go (his gracelessly aging Ford needed gas, too), but just getting out of his apartment would be an improvement. It was also starting to smell bad.
Brian had just pulled his shirt over his head when the doorbell buzzed.
"Just a minute!" he called out automatically. The small lobby was across the building from him, and there was no way his voice would carry that far.
Pulling on a pair of jeans-- the pair which already had the belt threaded through the loops, his wallet pocketed, and car keys in the front right pocket-- he hit the intercom button.
"Yes?"
"UPS <something garbled by poor wiring>."
Shrugging he hit the door buzzer. He hadn't ordered anything, so it probably wasn't for him, and, since it was the middle of the day, the recipient probably wasn't home.
A knock sounded on his door.
Puzzled, he open the door to find a UPS man with a package and one of those electronic signature clipboards.
Brian scrawled his signature and took the package.
"TransDem Labs?" Who the hell were they, and why had they sent him something?
Opening the package and reading the enclosed letter both clarified and confused him. Clarified by informing him that he had been randomly selected to test a "Chronovac"-- and confused by claiming said device could alter reality. If someone had invented a reality altering device, why would they send it to random people? Wouldn't they use it themselves? And this was the FOURTH version?! Why hadn't he heard of the first, second, and third version?
Well, he could alter his non-plans for the day to accommodate trying to figure out what this thing really did, he supposed.
Placing the CD in his old computer he set it up to load and install the software. While waiting he took the remote control like device and played with it.
It was completely dead.
Feeling foolish, Brian flipped it over and looked for a battery compartment, only to find a USB port and no panel to open to install batteries.
Right. Everything was now charged up by connecting it to a computer via a USB cable. Doing so made a small red light come on. Checking the instruction book, he found out that was the "charge" light.
So it was going to be a while before he could do anything with it.
He reopened the instruction manual, and found a lack of instructions. Sure, it told him how to put the CD-ROM into his computer and load up the enclosed installer-- something he didn't need to be told how to do-- and where the USB port was on the "portable emitter" and suggestions of where to find it on his computer (equally unneeded-- they were all over the place on computers today), a suggestion to check their website for updates (which the program would automatically do, according to them), and where the "Alteration Radio Buttons and Sliders" were supposed to be on the screen and the emitter (which had them labelled.)
"I should have been a technical writer," Brian grumbled. Apparently no qualifications were needed, except, maybe, a willingness to work for next to nothing.
The manual advised him to stay near the machine and wait for prompts from the installer.
Sighing, he started a game of Solitaire.
After a number of games of Solitaire, and an amount of time which seemed forever (but was closer to 15 minutes), the installation was done, and the light on the emitter green.
"Retrieving and Installing Updates" blinked on the screen for a minute or three, before being replaced by "Done" which disappeared after a few seconds. Then a menu came up which read: Run Program, Load Modifications, Visit Website, Save and Exit, Exit, Check Program Info, Other.
Selecting "Run Program" Brian started up the Chronovac.
"Scanning Area" replaced the menu and then was replaced by a menu entitled "Subjects" which listed name, age, species, condition, and location. At the top of the list was "Brian, 51 years, human, fair health, Chronovac." Underneath was the neighbor across the hall's dog "Maxine, 4 years, canine, agitated, apartment across hall" his upstairs neighbor's cat, his neighbor on the left who apparently was playing hooky from work (health read good/asleep) and nothing for his left hand neighbor. Just in range outdoors was his landlord's son Jake, mowing the lawn. His health was good/slightly overheated. There also was a button for Area/Location, and one for More.
Now what? Hovering the arrow over the selections did not pop up a small explanation window, and there was no "Help" key.