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Description
She was on her way to her 8am class at the university, and in her hurry to avoid being late she cut down through the old eastern part of the downtown shops. The town had tried renovating the area, but after the riots in 2019 much of it was abandoned and in disrepair. Gangs had moved in afterward, but the automated police drones had been used back in 2021, and now almost no one even went into this part of the old town. The drones were decommissioned after some issues with their programming, and the old area was pretty much deserted. There were all kinds of urban rumors about people vanishing, strange lights and sounds, and the usual that popped up when an area became so quiet and creepy, even in broad daylight.

She'd been to a party over at a friends house, and was still in her dress from the party. The breeze was a little cool to her in the skirt, her bare arms and legs feeling the chill of early morning slowly giving way to the warmth of a spring day. She shivered a little, and walked a little faster down the deserted sidewalks that lead toward the college campus. But as she passed by the old department store, she heard an odd sound. She looked around, but nothing but empty streets and boarded up storefronts returned her gaze.
When she passed the alleyway, still darkened in the shadows from the morning sunlight, she heard a humming noise and saw green points of glowing light begin to move toward her out of the shadows. She crossed the street, hurriedly, but not moving so fast as to seem like she was scared. She didn't want whatever it was to give chase.

She ducked down the sidewalk beside an old paint store, hearing the humming growing closer. She chanced a glance back over her shoulder, and saw a hovering orb of metal with glowing green sensor arrays on the front, and a white surface. Her eyes widened. All the old drones had been decommissioned, she was sure of it. She remembered the news stories from when she was a child about all the trouble the authorities had gone to in order to retrieve them. They'd developed a malfunction, and had become unstable. But it looked just like the pictures and footage she remembered seeing on the video clips back then. Even though the drones were designed for non-lethal apprehension of lawbreakers, it was still unnerving. Was it following her?

She ducked through a gap in some fence behind the old paint store. The refuse in the fenced-in lot behind the store wasn't very pretty, but hopefully it wouldn't see her through the boards on the fences. She walked very quietly across the lot, until the humming sound got louder behind her. She turned and faced the thing, whatever it was, now annoyed that it was being so stubbornly persistent. She watched as it came up over the top of the fence, then settled back to the original height it had been hovering at, still facing straight toward her.

"Stop following me!" she turned to face towards the thing, and pointed at it as she called out to it.

The device didn't seem to respond to her words, but floated a few feet closer, and came to a stop, still hovering about four feet off the ground. The black antenna that had been pointing up suddenly swiveled down to point directly at her. She saw now they weren't antenna, but the barrels of weaponry. She froze.

A mechanical, synthesized voice came from the thing, clear and echoing out through the eerie silence of the deserted place. "Violation of code 32, section 4, part A. Jaywalking. Video evidence sufficient for conviction. No judiciary intervention required. Deploying detainment measures for aerial pickup per Beta Protocol."

She simply stared at the thing. Jaywalking? Cars weren't even allowed down here anymore, and the roads had been blocked off for years.

But then the guns on the thing fired....bubbles? She almost laughed. This wasn't much of a law-enforcement drone. She pulled out her cellphone to take a picture so her friends could have a good laugh with her.

Then the first bubble hit her. It didn't pop, but smoothly flowed over and encased her hands holding the phone. She tried to pull them out, but the soapy-looking film wouldn't let them slide out, only in further. She looked back up at the thing as the second bubble hit her lower abdomen, flowing around it just as the first had with her hands. When she instinctively reached down to try to push it away, the two bubbles merged, becoming one larger bubble, trapping her hands and phone along with her midsection. She raised her head to yell for help just in time to see another bubble about to hit her head. She screamed just as it flowed over her face, encasing her entire head. A stream of bubbles were coming toward her from the thing, and she turned to run.

She only got one step before the fourth, fifth, and six bubbles hit her, merging with the others, becoming one big bubble around her with only her legs sticking out. Her stomach went queasy, like she was on a roller-coaster drop. But it didn't go away. She stumbled, her balance off, her phone and handbag bouncing slowly around her as her hair and dress seemed to just flow around her as if she were underwater.

More bubbles hit her as she nearly fell, and her legs and feet slipped inside the growing slippery sphere. She pushed as hard as she could, but the bubble only stretched a bit. Her expression went from one of shock to one of near disbelief when she noticed the bubble, and her, were a good couple of feet off the ground! And her phone and handbag were floating in mid-air inside the bubble with her......

The last few bubbles from the drone's gun flew and merged in with the bubble around her. It was so big she could almost stand up in it now, but she was floating helplessly inside, her hands and feet unable to find any purchase on the slippery surface. She saw the ground very slowly moving away from her. No, she was moving away from it....

"Suspect detained. Signal for aerial retrieval sent. Resuming patrol."

She stared at the thing as it turned, and hovered away back the way it had come. She tried to pound her fists against the bubble, but in her weightless state, only succeeded in causing herself to spin around inside the bubble as she rose ponderously with it several feet higher into the air.

That was when she remembered. Back in those days, they had special hoverplanes that would make rounds through the sky in drone patrolled areas and retrieve any arrested suspects and take them back to the police stations for processing. But those had been decommissioned with the drones! There wasn't going to be anyone to pick her up!

She screamed for help as she rose higher and higher, but the bubble contained the sounds she made, so that only a slight, muffled noise made it outside the bubble. She knew the bubbles only went so high, but she could be up there a long time.....

She watched the ground fall away as she floated inside the bubble, helpless, weightless, and felt the gentle breeze from earlier push the bubble slowly westward as it rose higher. Her tears began to float off from her eyes around her like wobbly glass beads as she watched the town below her recede........

If only she hadn't taken that shortcut.....

Description
She was on her way to her 8am class at the university, and in her hurry to avoid being late she cut down through the old eastern part of the downtown shops. The town had tried renovating the area, but after the riots in 2019 much of it was abandoned and in disrepair. Gangs had moved in afterward, but the automated police drones had been used back in 2021, and now almost no one even went into this part of the old town. The drones were decommissioned after some issues with their programming, and the old area was pretty much deserted. There were all kinds of urban rumors about people vanishing, strange lights and sounds, and the usual that popped up when an area became so quiet and creepy, even in broad daylight.

She'd been to a party over at a friends house, and was still in her dress from the party. The breeze was a little cool to her in the skirt, her bare arms and legs feeling the chill of early morning slowly giving way to the warmth of a spring day. She shivered a little, and walked a little faster down the deserted sidewalks that lead toward the college campus. But as she passed by the old department store, she heard an odd sound. She looked around, but nothing but empty streets and boarded up storefronts returned her gaze.
When she passed the alleyway, still darkened in the shadows from the morning sunlight, she heard a humming noise and saw green points of glowing light begin to move toward her out of the shadows. She crossed the street, hurriedly, but not moving so fast as to seem like she was scared. She didn't want whatever it was to give chase.

She ducked down the sidewalk beside an old paint store, hearing the humming growing closer. She chanced a glance back over her shoulder, and saw a hovering orb of metal with glowing green sensor arrays on the front, and a white surface. Her eyes widened. All the old drones had been decommissioned, she was sure of it. She remembered the news stories from when she was a child about all the trouble the authorities had gone to in order to retrieve them. They'd developed a malfunction, and had become unstable. But it looked just like the pictures and footage she remembered seeing on the video clips back then. Even though the drones were designed for non-lethal apprehension of lawbreakers, it was still unnerving. Was it following her?

She ducked through a gap in some fence behind the old paint store. The refuse in the fenced-in lot behind the store wasn't very pretty, but hopefully it wouldn't see her through the boards on the fences. She walked very quietly across the lot, until the humming sound got louder behind her. She turned and faced the thing, whatever it was, now annoyed that it was being so stubbornly persistent. She watched as it came up over the top of the fence, then settled back to the original height it had been hovering at, still facing straight toward her.

"Stop following me!" she turned to face towards the thing, and pointed at it as she called out to it.

The device didn't seem to respond to her words, but floated a few feet closer, and came to a stop, still hovering about four feet off the ground. The black antenna that had been pointing up suddenly swiveled down to point directly at her. She saw now they weren't antenna, but the barrels of weaponry. She froze.

A mechanical, synthesized voice came from the thing, clear and echoing out through the eerie silence of the deserted place. "Violation of code 32, section 4, part A. Jaywalking. Video evidence sufficient for conviction. No judiciary intervention required. Deploying detainment measures for aerial pickup per Beta Protocol."

She simply stared at the thing. Jaywalking? Cars weren't even allowed down here anymore, and the roads had been blocked off for years.

But then the guns on the thing fired....bubbles? She almost laughed. This wasn't much of a law-enforcement drone. She pulled out her cellphone to take a picture so her friends could have a good laugh with her.

Then the first bubble hit her. It didn't pop, but smoothly flowed over and encased her hands holding the phone. She tried to pull them out, but the soapy-looking film wouldn't let them slide out, only in further. She looked back up at the thing as the second bubble hit her lower abdomen, flowing around it just as the first had with her hands. When she instinctively reached down to try to push it away, the two bubbles merged, becoming one larger bubble, trapping her hands and phone along with her midsection. She raised her head to yell for help just in time to see another bubble about to hit her head. She screamed just as it flowed over her face, encasing her entire head. A stream of bubbles were coming toward her from the thing, and she turned to run.

She only got one step before the fourth, fifth, and six bubbles hit her, merging with the others, becoming one big bubble around her with only her legs sticking out. Her stomach went queasy, like she was on a roller-coaster drop. But it didn't go away. She stumbled, her balance off, her phone and handbag bouncing slowly around her as her hair and dress seemed to just flow around her as if she were underwater.

More bubbles hit her as she nearly fell, and her legs and feet slipped inside the growing slippery sphere. She pushed as hard as she could, but the bubble only stretched a bit. Her expression went from one of shock to one of near disbelief when she noticed the bubble, and her, were a good couple of feet off the ground! And her phone and handbag were floating in mid-air inside the bubble with her......

The last few bubbles from the drone's gun flew and merged in with the bubble around her. It was so big she could almost stand up in it now, but she was floating helplessly inside, her hands and feet unable to find any purchase on the slippery surface. She saw the ground very slowly moving away from her. No, she was moving away from it....

"Suspect detained. Signal for aerial retrieval sent. Resuming patrol."

She stared at the thing as it turned, and hovered away back the way it had come. She tried to pound her fists against the bubble, but in her weightless state, only succeeded in causing herself to spin around inside the bubble as she rose ponderously with it several feet higher into the air.

That was when she remembered. Back in those days, they had special hoverplanes that would make rounds through the sky in drone patrolled areas and retrieve any arrested suspects and take them back to the police stations for processing. But those had been decommissioned with the drones! There wasn't going to be anyone to pick her up!

She screamed for help as she rose higher and higher, but the bubble contained the sounds she made, so that only a slight, muffled noise made it outside the bubble. She knew the bubbles only went so high, but she could be up there a long time.....

She watched the ground fall away as she floated inside the bubble, helpless, weightless, and felt the gentle breeze from earlier push the bubble slowly westward as it rose higher. Her tears began to float off from her eyes around her like wobbly glass beads as she watched the town below her recede........

If only she hadn't taken that shortcut.....