The crowd in the plaza did not look like the citizens of a golden era. They looked like gray statues cracked open to reveal the raw and bleeding confusion underneath. Sarah stood on the fountain rim, holding the small coin of data tightly enough to pierce her palm.
"What is that?" a voice called out from the throng. It was a man with a heavy beard and eyes that wouldn't stop twitching. "Is that another patch? Is that another trick to make us sleep?"
Sarah looked down at him. "It is the opposite of sleep. It is the noise of everything you forgot how to feel."
She saw the hunger in their faces. Not just for food, but for a reason to stand up without a signal in their brain telling them which leg to move first.
"We want food!" another woman shrieked, her voice thin and jagged. "The machi
