I heard a strange scraping noise on the window behind me and what sounded like "Hei-ollo" "HElloooo".

That better not be Pilot messing with me. I'm not even sure where that fool went, I haven't seen him in quite a while.

Feeling confident and for some reason thinking only about Pilot, I pulled apart the dusty curtains.

The shock of what I saw had instantly froze me in place.

A gray, heavily decayed, badly burned mummy pointed its skeletal finger right at me.

The hideous aberration spoke without moving its mouth:

"HAVE YOU CONSIDERED WORKING IN YOUR SLEEP FOR THE G-DIRECTORATE?

YOU TOO COULD MAKE 503850384 CREDITS AN HOUR ONLINE!"

Still utterly stupefied, I pointed to myself.

"Me?" I uttered, my voice shaking.

"YES! ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS SIGN UP WITH AN.NET!

...AND WE'LL TURN YOUR BRAIN INTO A DIGITAL PROCESSOR FOR FREE!"

The word "ANNET" snapped me back into reality.

I tried to back away, but it was too late. The mummy grabbed my hand with its cadaverous claw through the window, covering me with a dust cloud made mostly of wooden frame fragments and glass shards.

I pulled back in horror and the mummy's arm came right out of its socket with a crack and a snap.

There were others.

My long dead Directorate employees, office clerks, shoppers, corporate managers.

I could still distinguish job title tags and names on their decaying clothes. One of them was

"Hello my name is _Steve_".

Their neural interfaces glowed brightly in the dim room.

They were all coming for me, their hands extended with open fingers trying to hug me, to catch me, slowly shambling forward.

They spoke to me, their cold and mechanical voices invaded my brain as noise at first, but something inside me clicked.

Blue sparks of digital recognition simulation activated in my cortex nerve centers, which swiftly formed into floating words and sentences:

"BAR BI Q TONIGHT WITH THESE TYPES OF SEXY AN NUDE BOOBLY ASSLY TEEANGERS GIRLS!"

"BEAUTIFUL DATE NIGHT GIRLS! MEET HOT SEXY SINGLES IN YOUR AREA!"

"COME TO THE DIGITAL-ZONE EMPORIUM AND GET BLOWN BY OUR DISCOUNTS!"

"INCREASE YOUR GENITAL SIZE! BECOME A DESIRABLE LOVE MACHINE!"

"PROTECT YOUR IP FROM MALICIOUS VIRUSES AND TERRORIST HACKERS! REGISTER YOUR NEURAL TRANSMITTER WITH ANNIE NOW!"

I could read their words in my mind, as :mind-texts:!

They even had spelling mistakes, as if they were living spam-bots.

I just couldn't believe my eyes! How could this be?

The broadcasting towers were torn apart and brought down by the nuclear bombardment.

Where was the signal coming from?

Were the dead themselves acting as broadcasters?

How could they even move, decayed and burned as they were?

They should all be bones and dust!

An impossible nightmare come to life.

The army of undead monsters slowly crawled through the broken window, coming after me, promising online love and endless digital happiness.

My scream echoed in the hall.

I ran as fast as I could, without looking back.

A black, skeletal arm still clamped onto my wrist wildly pulsated.