Sean tried to wear jeans after the shower, but they felt wrong on his legs – so he settled on sweatpants and a loose shirt. Proper enough. Or, if not, Omega could just shove it. Speaking of which…
"The car is waiting, please hurry up!" it blared at him through the speakers.
"Yes, mom!" Sean responded, exasperated. This whole thing was a terrible idea because, if nothing else, he should've had breakfast first – before agreeing to anything in the first place. He ignored the live-but-unpowered speakers in the other room and left the flat in sandals. Yet another excuse to bail out if the car turned out to be too cold.
A quick flight of stairs down, and a clean, modern compact was indeed waiting in front of the building, parked along the curb. He assumed it was for him because the back door of the white car opened as he looked around. He didn't like it: one of the newer models, clearly too much automation, electronics that could go haywire for no apparent reason. But he also noticed a pizza box in the back seat.
Of course it had to be a pizza.
He groaned, but found himself already salivating, so he stepped across the sidewalk and only then noticed that there was no driver. He froze in his tracks, already in front of the open door, and stated: "I'm not getting into… this…"
"It's the best we could find on such short notice," Omega explained through the car's audio system. "We understand you're wary of–"
"No-it's not… I… I can't…" he mumbled while clancing around as if searching for a way out. The street and sidewalk were mostly empty – merely the usual post-Singularity Monday morning traffic. Then he breathed in to complain some more and…
Sean instantly recognized the smell, even if only barely noticeable. A freshly baked pizza, steaming hot on the car's back seat. He stared at the closed box and swallowed – but his mouth was quickly refilling with saliva. He couldn't tell the specific flavors from smell alone, but between meats and cheeses… garlic… olives… whatever else, it felt sublime in his nostrils as he sniffed deliberately again. He noticed a voice had told him something.
"What? Sorry…" he apologized instinctively and swallowed again.
"We said: it will be just this once," Omega seemingly repeated from the car, "and you're perfectly safe, we promise." A tiny pause. "Please."
Sean stared at the box for another moment. So tempting, right there. He swallowed yet again, closed his eyes, but the heavenly aroma was still there – he couldn't – he had to – so close! He half-realized what Omega was doing: a food trap, like a piece of cheese in a mousetrap, except…
"Fine. I'll just… I'll…" he uttered in a trembling voice, then got inside and made sure to close the automated door behind him by hand. The car had already started driving itself.
"We're already very late, so the drive might be a little rushed," Omega warned, but Sean was hardly listening.
He moved the box onto his lap and opened it, the smells exploded around him. Rich. Irresistible. He swallowed saliva again and picked one slice out of six as if it were a treasure. To him, in the moment, it might just as well have been. The slice felt off in his hands: extra-thin crust but too moist, oily, heavy, tantalizing, delicious – he took a big bite. His taste buds were overwhelmed, almost electric. He shut his eyes to enjoy it fully. Chewed. Best pizza he had ever tasted.
No, best thing he had ever–
"…hey-hey!" Omega's voice finally broke through to him.
"Wha–" he started with his mouth full.
"The supplements," Omega explained, talking over him hurriedly, "small packet in the box, far-left corner. Take them with the first bite of–" Sean gulped, half-instinctively. Omega pivoted instantly: "Okay, then with the next. It's important."
"But I don't do… what supplements?" Sean asked, mostly eager to continue eating.
"Just take them." Omega insisted. "Now. Please."
Sean had never heard it be so firm before. Not even– Yeah, never! So he lowered the slice but remembered he was supposed to take them with the first bite. Or second – so he bit into the slice and started chewing, then put the pizza down to examine the small packet. Inside, he found… a dozen or so differently shaped pills and pellets. His first concern was that Omega might be trying to poison or otherwise chemically manipulate him, but… wouldn't it have just put that into the pizza?
"They're probiotics and vitamins, some enzymes to help you–" Omega started explaining preemptively, but he just gobbled up the contents of the packet and swallowed them all with the chewed-up pizza bite. Omega added, "There. Don't forget to wash it down – electrolyte solution on the seat where the box was."
Sean looked at the seat with suspicion. The car turned into a side street and he glanced out the window at the passing residential buildings. He knew this area… he could almost remember where– But pizza was far more important, so he grabbed the drink and took a big gulp to make Omega shut up.
Omega did not shut up: "There you go! See, it wasn't so–"
"Can you stop talking? It's bad for digestion…" he cut her off and this time it listened. He resumed eating the pizza, now paying more attention to the taste – it was surreal. But so good! Extra bitter, somehow – he wondered, 'How can pizza ever be bitter? Or metallic…' – but he couldn't stop eating! The oily inner texture felt like a smoothie, almost, but chunks of meat… chicken – he assumed. Every time he emptied his mouth, the food left a strange aftertaste all over, but he could not stop himself from eating – even if one of the ingredients was battery acid.
He paid more attention to the car: the steering wheel was completely still, so presumably steer-by-wire, but not fully self-driving. He figured Omega must've hacked the electronics and borrowed the vehicle from its rightful owner. Or maybe just stolen it from some parking lot.
It only now occurred to him, between finishing the first slice and washing it down with the drink, that the car was moving uncomfortably fast through a residential neighborhood. He would've shouted at any driver, but… technically his mouth was already full of the second slice.
Suddenly, Sean noticed another detail up ahead. He gulped the half-chewed food and called out, "Thaa– That's a red light!" but the car had already slipped seamlessly through the flowing traffic before he even finished the sentence and that instant left Sean bracing in his seat for… for what? Nothing had happened.
"It's fine," Omega remarked.
Sean looked behind him, out the back window, and the traffic continued flowing uninterrupted. No crashed cars or screams – though at this speed they would no longer be audible. It was as if they teleported through the red light of a two- to three-lane intersection.
"What the…" he simply uttered.
"As we said, it's fine," Omega reiterated. "We merely rearranged some traffic so there was room for this vehicle. Others aren't in as much of a hurry."
Sean looked around and ahead. It seemed fine, so he took another bite of the slice he was holding – though only now did he notice that a meaty chunk had dropped onto his shirt. He ignored it. Instead, he glanced outside and… many cars still had drivers in them, except they were mostly busy with anything other than driving. Some were even resting their eyes , ostentatiously.
"A lot has changed since you last drove," Omega commented, and Sean took a moment to process this revelation. The traffic was already half-automated a week ago, but now it seemed like the transition had simply completed.
"Am I in a hurry?" he asked after swallowing, at this point simply bewildered.
"Yes," it answered. Sean did not dwell on the question.
Instead, he focused on eating, drinking, and processing what had just happened. And what was still happening – the car was racing down a two-lane street, passing cars driving in the same direction, and fast! He scanned the sleek dashboard, all digital of course, 67 miles per hour. Probably a 30-40 limit around here, this was insane. But nothing had happened so far, and the whole situation made him feel somehow important . Maybe. Or a soon-to-be traffic casualty. He stuffed the last of the second slice into his mouth and fastened his seatbelt.
Strangest of all, he hadn't felt the speed before, and even the turns were smooth enough. He was still freaked out by all this when his hands reached for the third slice.
"Two slices will be enough for now," Omega protested before Sean could lift it to his mouth.
He still bit into it, mumbled through the food: "Nuh-uh!" as a sign of micro-resistance against the new AI-overlords. Chewed as if his life depended on it, then gobbled another large chunk – he hardly paid attention to how strange the taste was. Garlic sprinkled on top, maybe some savory parmesan powder, mixing with the fine, aged cheese topping to produce a cheesier-than-cheese taste. The slice was halfway done by the time he stuffed his mouth full on the third chomp.
"Okay," Omega said, and the car broke. No, braked aggressively – though it felt like gravity turned horizontal in an instant as the seatbelt snapped against Sean's torso. He lost his grip on the greasy slice, and the box flew from his lap – but he saved the mouthful of pizza, at least!
"What the hell!" he protested after forcing the food down.
"Any more and you'd go into nutrient-shock," Omega explained.
"But…" he started, looked down. "The mess– That you 've made!" Silence, the car darted ahead, regaining speed. Sean protested, "Ugh, do we have to go this fast? Do you have to break 'all' the traffic laws in existence?"
"It's fine," it insisted.
Sean unwittingly rested his hands on the leather seat and it felt a little nasty: the sticky, greasy skin wanted to cling to the slick leather. He moved them onto his lap and looked down at the pizza chunks, plastered all over the back of the seat in front of him and on the floor. Some of it on his clothes. He sighed, scraped what little of the thick sauce remained on his shirt, glanced left and right for a suitable surface to wipe it on – but then just licked it off his fingers. He was still hungry for more, but he wasn't going to stoop down to pick it up from the floor… or maybe he could? What was it, five-ten-second rule? Fifteen?
He shook his head and asked, "What was it anyway, the pizza – it didn't taste like anything I ever–"
"All the good stuff," Omega cut him off.
Sean frowned at the not-answer, but resigned himself to being a passenger – though in hindsight his role felt more like some kind of… cargo all along. He tried to relax, found it difficult at this speed – especially since the turns were far less smooth now. In the end, he just sank into the seat and rested his eyes, pretending it was a dream or some kind of hallucination. The car's interior felt unusually quiet without Omega nagging all the time: the air-conditioning was barely audible, and the car was obviously soundproofed against outside noise.
He felt intense warmth spreading through his chest, a rush of anxiety – presumably after having the food taken away from him! He noticed the sports bottle with the electrolyte fluid on the floor and picked it up to take a big gulp, thinking, 'I can still drink to spite it…' – and he held onto the bottle like a life raft. He steadied his breath to calm down, but his heart wouldn't allow it. And he kept taking sips of the foul drink – what he assumed battery-acid fluid after years of use must taste like: sharp, intense, somehow both alkaline and metallic… sweet and salty… and yet still addictive?
Sean was alerted by the change in lighting and, when he opened his eyes, the car was already slowing down in a tunnel. "Where are–" he tried.
"Almost there," Omega not-explained, "and maybe follow the white rabbit once there."
"What…" Sean was more confused after that last remark. "No, it's not– What is this?" he asked. No response, so he unfastened his seatbelt and leaned to look out the window. The tunnel seemed to be new, pristine-clean, and unlike anything he had seen or known about in the area. 'Where are we!' he thought.
Five seconds later, the car stopped in an underground… some kind of travel terminal, maybe? But seemingly devoid of people or traffic, and nothing like an airport – Sean was growing ever more confused. The door opened for him to leave, but he looked at the steering wheel… as if it could give him any answers. He asked regardless: "But where– What is going–"
"Go already, or you'll be even-more-late !" Omega instructed. Sean stepped out of the car, completely lost, turned around to look inside in hopes of any sort of hint as to what he was supposed to do – but the car was already driving away. Omega added as the door was closing: "Just follow the white rabbit, bye-have-a-great-time !"
Sean wanted to shout something, to run after the car, maybe throw something at it? Only now did he realize that he was still holding the sports bottle in his hand, so he took a sip. He winced at the drink's sharpness… but it still felt good on his palate. His only thoughts in the moment were variations of: 'What just happened!' Then he heard a purring-chirping sound from behind him. He turned around to see…
A white rabbit. Of course.
He stared at the animal as it licked its front paws to clean its mouth… then turned its head toward Sean for a second – as if staring back, before finally hopping away into the structure.