Tevun-Krus #96 - A Very Merry CyberPunk Christmas

Christmas Reboot - A Short Story by @sleepingdraco

Christmas Reboot

By sleepingdraco

At twelve you really are nowhere close to being a man and yet you feel nothing like the child you once were. Christmastime felt bittersweet to L.T. but he kept up the Santa charade with his parents because he worried otherwise he wouldn't get any gaming paraphernalia and he really needed the latest Teegarden virtual reality visor. He sat before the massive screens of his gaming console beating the crap out of some 30-year-old who lived in another solar system.

His parents had left him home alone by himself while they went to a Christmas party. He'd finished eating a half a tub of ice cream straight from the carton and debated ordering more to be delivered. His mother would probably drink enough wine at the party that she wouldn't notice if he hacked her shopping app.

It was hard to keep track of time while gaming, but L.T. vaguely heard the front door slam through the din of the online battle–good thing he had decided against that ice cream delivery. But when he spun around in his desk chair, prepared for the usual argument with his parents about why he needed ten more minutes of gaming, he was surprised to see a burly elf instead.

L.T. rubbed his eyes and felt his face to see if he was wearing his virtual reality goggles. If he was, maybe he had to reboot and erase some malware that had creeped through his anti-virus software. Nope, this guy was standing in his room and he wasn't friendly by the looks of the blaster he had pointed at L.T.'s head.

L.T. took a slow deep breath and tried to suppress his fear. From the thousands of hours he'd spent gaming he knew it was best to focus and survey the scene before reacting to danger. The elf looked like he'd seen better days. He wore a prosthetic left leg and his left arm was replaced by a rather worn-looking wooden bat. The elf breathed through flared nostrils fitted with oxygen cannula. A total artificial heart, an unmistakable noise L.T. remembered from his grandfather, banged loudly behind his chest plate. A newer-looking bionic eye scanned the room rapidly. He was shorter than L.T., but looking at the elf's hairy, muscular remaining arm, he didn't think he could take him even if he could knock the blaster out of his hand and avoid the wooden bat.

"Hand over this lovely computing system of yours little boy, or else," hissed the elf.

"Or, else what?" L.T. tried to make his voice sound as deep and nonchalant as possible.

"Or, else your dear old Santa gets it." He motioned across his neck with the bat.

"Santa?," repeated L.T. He couldn't suppress a laugh.

"What? You don't believe me?" yelled the elf. He grabbed L.T. by the collar and yanked him up from the chair. Face to face with the intruder, panic flooded L.T.. His breath stank and L.T. nearly retched. The elf dragged him across his family's apartment, past the lit Christmas tree, to the front hall. He shoved L.T. roughly against the door. "Have a look outside yourself."

L.T. only had to stand half-way on tiptoe to see out the peephole into the grungy corridor outside. Sure enough. There, gagged and strapped to an electric wheelchair, was Santa Claus, or at least some poor slob dressed as Santa. From the wide-eyed look on the red-clad prisoner outside, L.T. surmised he wasn't in on the heist.

"Oh, ok." L.T.'s voice shook. He stumbled back into his room followed by the elf who kept his weapon raised. L.T. got down on hands and knees and crawled through the food wrappers and dirty clothes that littered the floor beneath his desk. I really should clean up down here, he thought as he brushed against the phone charger his mother had accused him of losing a month ago. His right hand sunk into something sticky that might have been left over from Halloween.

He slowly began disconnecting the wires of his gaming system trying to think of ways to stall for time. He wished his parents would come home and rescue him. "Do you want just the monitor and computer, or all the accessories as well?" he asked, fighting the urge to cry.

The elf opened up a colorful cloth bag and motioned inside of it. "Pack it all in, sonny. Pack it all in. And hurry up!"

"Ok," said L.T. as his knee struck a hard metal box. A shiver went down his spine. His Kepler rebooter! It was probably the best present his mother had ever given him. Despite the fact that she wouldn't even let him use swear words, she'd gone against her morals and bought it off the dark web. It was capable of rebooting and reconfiguring back to factory settings the harddrive of any electronics within five feet. She'd bought it for him for his 10th birthday after he'd lost two consecutive computers to viruses.

L.T. poked his head out from under his desk. "Want this too?" he asked, holding up the box. The elf cocked his head to one side and reached out for the device. Before it touched his fingers, L.T. detonated the Kepler rebooter.

The elf's bionic eye whirled madly in its socket and the thud, thud, thud of his heart stopped abruptly. He crumpled to the ground. Knowing he had just seconds before the elf's various electronic body parts rebooted, L.T. bound up and dragged the elf to the door. He unbolted it and pulled the elf out of his home. Then he quickly untied Santa and loosened the gag in his mouth.

"Thank you son," said Santa standing up and reaching into his vest pocket for a pack of cigarettes. L.T. caught sight of a pistol with a silencer inside Santa's coat. "I'll take care of this wayward elf from here," said Santa with a nod and a wink. L.T watched him light a cigarette and inhale deeply. Santa motioned towards the apartment with his lit cigarette. "You get back inside and lock the door."

L.T. nodded, wide-eyed. Santa stood backlit by a dingy bulb on the wall, and the smoke, it encircled his head like a wreath. The elf's eye stopped spinning and a groan came from the floor. Santa quickly put a heavy steel-toed boot on the elf's face.

"And son," said Santa before L.T. had shut the door.

"Yes, Santa?" replied L.T. noticing Santa reach beneath his coat again.

"I'll see to it that you get that Teegarden virtual reality visor you've had your eye on."

"Thank you." L.T. closed the door and turned the bolt with trembling hands. He turned on some Christmas music so he couldn't hear what would happen next in the corridor. Maybe he'd use his mother's shopping app to order some more ice cream after all.