Executable Penitence

Rodney glanced at his computer's clock, 3 a.m.
He had spent all night playing games and downloading pirated roms in the background.

He closed his copy of "Most of a Week at Hug's" and got ready to go to bed, that
is, after sorting out all of his newly downloaded games. Many people would've
been fine with letting them clutter the "Downloads" folder, he wasn't like those
reckless people though.
After 20 minutes or so of making new folders and subfolders, Rodney found
something strange, a copy of his favorite game "Jet The Jerboa", but the format
was all wrong.

Instead of being a .zmd (Zebra mega drive) that could be processed by an emulator
it was a .exe, an executable program.

In most circumstances he would've tossed it into the recycling bin anyways, and
maybe it was the delirium induced by the lack of sleep, but he felt some kind of
morbid curiosity drawing his cursor closer and closer to the file.

However, he was painfully aware of the hour, and he had to work tomorrow.
Pirated games may be free, but someone's got to pay the electricity bill.
So, he shut down the computer and went to bed.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

His phone alarm sounded at seven O'clock, he felt like trash.
After considering ditching his livelihood for five more minutes of sleep, Rodney
finally decided to get up. He shredded off his dirty clothes and took a bath.

After changing into his work uniform and having a healthy reheated pizza slice
for breakfast he was off for the day, unaware that his computer was left turned
on.

Next Page

home