Do We Have a Winner?

A heart-shaped locket peered out from among the rubbish. “Do we have a winner?” Kim sarcastically sang as she reached into the pile.

That damn jingle had been stuck in her head after getting caught by a passing vid drone that morning. She had gotten so good at avoiding them too.

Kim pulled away the refuse to see the familiar face of Honey Rabbit, the cheery mascot with the heart-shaped locket on the front of every box of Lovely Hearts, who seemed to have a never-ending affinity for her heart-shaped puffs of 'Rice®'.

These cereal boxes were a good bet as so many of them were thrown away unopened, even an overly sugary mediocre breakfast food was better than nothing at all.

She felt a small pang of joy to find a sealed bag inside that seemed to be in mostly pristine condition other than some stains, the source of which she didn't want to know about.

The use-by-date was partially obscured but at least the year '2143' was still visible, “A few years old, but we've had worse” she thought as she tucked the bag into her pack. With careful rationing, her group could add almost a whole day to their life budget!

“Hurry it up Hagger!” grumbled a voice over a nearby loud speaker, “you don't have all day”.

Kim wasn't too worried, while they could charge a Company (a group of a few dozen) a higher rate to scavenge, hill owners made the bulk of their income from 'Small Businesses' like her, singles or groups of fewer than ten people, and she had paid for her time.

Of course a Corporation, the only remaining super powers, could simply 'buy out' the hill and everything in it (including her) at a moment's notice, but this was a possibility almost everywhere these days. No sense in fretting too much over what she had no power to change.

Dealing with hill owners was painful, but unclaimed garbage piles were a thing of the past, and there were few other places to find food and materials at such a low cost.

One thing in her favour was that these 'Hillers' only charged by weight at the end of a 'Hunt & Gather', so the return on investment could be much higher if anything truly valuable surfaced.

She allowed her mind to wander just a little as she continued her search, one eye on the loot, the other on the sky.

A few hours of 'hagging' later, Kim started down the embankment with a full pack, heading toward the large metal plate that incorporated a precise set of scales and a gate all in one, the only way in or out of the fence surrounding this particular mountain of waste.

It had been a good haul today.

She suddenly froze at the sound of an all-too-familiar buzzing nearby...

Scanning the area, there was no sign of a drone, but the sound was unmistakable.

There was movement over to the left, another hagger on the next hill over had made a run for it. "There's your first mistake" Kim uttered under her breath. One of the simplest methods of avoiding detection was to keep still, surely everybody knew that!

Not a second later the vid drone swooped down from above the hagger like a bird of prey.

An explosion of bright flashing colours completely surrounded them while the catchy melodies of at least three separate jingles that she could recognise started ringing out among the trash heaps.

The cloud of light clung to the hagger as they retreated down the slope shouting “Fucking flying flashbangs!”, a sound that was almost as familiar as the drones themselves.

Kim took the opportunity to begin moving carefully toward her goal, if she could make it to the gate she would be safe in the no-fly-zone around the owner's office.

Given that the adjacent small habitat was surrounded by hanging clothes and children's play equipment, there was a good chance that this particular Hiller had paid for a small volume of ad-free space around his home. There she could wait out the drone until it moved on.

Vid drones were a constant hazard, seeking and following a person in order to bombard them with advertising until they either bought something or more often paid a small fee to 'temporarily unsubscribe', allowing them immunity from harassment for a time.

It was a delicate balance, unsubscribing too early meant being vulnerable again sooner (and even intentionally targeted more often), therefore costing more over the long term, but being enveloped by holographic projections and noise was draining to the senses and presented its own practical obstacles.

Kim was nearing the bottom of the hill when the music stopped...

Immediately crouching down, she muttered through clenched teeth “You paid already?!”. That was their second mistake, this other hagger surely couldn't afford anything the ads were selling, but also clearly hadn't bought a good 'infovid' on drone evasion, or perhaps they couldn't afford one at all. Information, like any other resource had a price, and no one would teach them these tricks for free.

Regardless, the drone had taken it's fill and was now in search mode.

“Eyes on the gate!”, the voice in her head chanted.

She slowly pulled her limbs in to form a ball, the AI could easily recognise something as simple as a humanoid shape among background visual noise. If she could just get her back facing the drone, her custom-made 'scrap suit' would make her appear as just another collection of junk.

The buzzing approached, magnifying the internal dilemma of whether it was better to stay and hide or run for the gate, it couldn't be more than a hundred metres!

If she could make it to the safe zone (if there was one) the drone would have to leave her alone, and the money saved on unsubscribing could keep another few hours on her group's life budget, and every little bit counted.

She decided to hold position, the risk of fleeing was too great.

While she would happily destroy each and every one of these menaces with her bare hands if she could, caution was the best option, and any small victory against them was worth the effort.

“Eyes on the gate!”.

The buzzing was right above her now, the drone methodically surveying the hill like a giant hornet searching for it's next meal.

She didn't realise she was holding her breath, trying desperately to keep her hands from trembling.

“EYES ON THE GATE!!”, her internal voice was screaming now.

The seconds stretched out. During these moments, she could no longer hear the drone, or even the voice in her head. For what seemed like the longest time there was nothing, only the gate...

The silence was blasted away in an instant by a cacophony of singing voices.

“INSURE TODAY, ENSURE TOMORROW!”, “DO WE HAVE A WINNER?”, “FEELING HAGGARD? THEN YOU NEED...”, “BUY NOW AND SAY WOW...”, the sweetness of the happy melodies juxtaposed by the sheer intensity of so many ads clashing at once while vivid neon-coloured images swirled around her like a storm, all fighting for attention.

Kim stood up, letting out a heavy sigh of frustration and acceptance.

These things seemed to be getting better every week at finding their targets, or maybe she was just getting worse at hiding, at this point it hardly mattered.

She had already paid off the drone she ran into that morning and she was determined not to squander any more of her group's time by paying this one.

“If I can make it to the gate...” she told herself, holding a hand in front of her face, trying her best to mentally block out the sensory overload of sight and sound.

With her eyes fixed on the last known direction of the gate, she pressed on...

By Nathan Eggins

30-Jun-2021