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  PROLOGUE: DIVERGING FISH

  The world did not end all at once—it was destroyed.

  There is a question of “why?” To that, I was given no answer. Maybe it was always bound to happen, perhaps it was always simmering. Either way, it was inevitable.

  The world in its beauty is one that I have only read about in written prose. I read of all the people, the art, the animals. Sometimes I trace trails in the dirt and pretend they are rivers, though long dried out.

  The story goes similarly to a fairy tale. It begins with a once upon a time.

  Once upon a time, Earth was known to be thriving with people, animals, flora, and the like—but then something happened, a flaw was found in the system, and everything was destroyed.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Those who were rich, who had everything, became convinced that the poor were stealing from them. Paranoia spread. The rich stole first.

  Food rotted, water dried, and people died.

  But that wasn’t enough—nothing was enough to satiate the greed that overcame them. AIs were created, inhuman weapons trained to hunt. To imitate. To call out in familiar voices, like sirens in water.

  The pods, lined up in a row, look like fishtanks. Large glass containers filled with binary code and coolant fluid—housing those built to destroy. Though some of them grew to hesitate. Some of them began to choose.

  Project FISHTANK was created—it was placed in effect for those who did not want to continue as they were. It was a chance for revolution. A chance for change.

  This project was to take the world in its disorganized array and slowly reorder the pieces. Lining them up like dominoes—waiting for the right push to set a new pattern in motion.

  Project FISHTANK is for the little fish who wanted to devour the big fish.

  2+2 = Fish.

  Don’t get caught. Follow the stream until it splits.