I look at clouds in the distance, shading eyes from sun with hand. It's been 255 weeks since I've last seen a plane. My horse, Dazzel, is tugging at grass sprouting between cracks in the road. They warned us we were running out of IPv4 addresses, but nobody listened.

256 weeks ago I was at my job in the factory, stamping an IP address on every bullet. We used them for everything back then, thinking the good times would never end. A week later, planes started losing DHCP leases and crashing. One of them, carrying my husband.

On my waist is a holstered revolver, its fraying leatherwork digging into my side through its weight. Each bullet is stamped with an IP address that could have been used by my husband's plane. That weighs heavier.

Each bullet I fire is an attempt at penance, stamped with proof of my sin. Their trails of blood trace across the land, fingers too important to let heal as they try to claw us back from oblivion.

My name is Enata Macey, and I helped kill the world.

Read and subscribe for alerts on my short fiction here:
https://universalshards.com/p/the-bitspace-arrogance
The Bitspace Arrogance

A short story

Universal Shards
@SwiftOnSecurity but Dazzel is okay, right?
@SwiftOnSecurity I bet you'd be cool AF on psychedelics.
@SwiftOnSecurity Yessssss. I’m not sure how RFC1918 space (or other special networks like carrier NAT et al) fits with this bullet addressing scheme. If the planes are gone, will TCP/IP over avian carrier still be available?
@SwiftOnSecurity Questions like that are why I should not necessarily read my email right after the cat walks on my head and wakes me.
@SwiftOnSecurity what'd you do, give @chuckwendig control over your account today?
@SwiftOnSecurity long form swift posts 🤤 thank you Elon
Wellness check on @SwiftOnSecurity please.
@SwiftOnSecurity wow I really need to re-read Station Eleven
@SwiftOnSecurity first post I see on mastadon gave me more existential dread than I needed.
@SwiftOnSecurity So glad the microfiction continues. ♥️