I was deep in the bush, having just clocked out of my shift at the quantum chip replicator factory. Dead leaves and gravel crunched underneath my cyber boots. My pocket was full of leftover quantum bits. I always snuck a couple out every shift. You weren’t meant to but the ai supervisory never checked. I had built quite the collection and was thinking about how I could add the next few into the pile.

The blue sun was on the edge of setting. Walking home at the end of the shift was always good to destress. I liked the feeling of nature contrasted against the cold clinical cleanliness of my factory work. I remembered the stories that cyborg nana would tell. In the past people would have driven home in ‘cars’ on ‘roads’ but ever since the Great Eurasian Cyberwar of 2351 they had been outlawed.

As I trekked down the path my mind went to what I would eat. The blockchain payment wouldn’t land in my account til the next quarter so I was still short of v-bucks. It was probably going to be bug soup for dinner again. Maybe I could find some change for a flavour cube. Just then I heard a crunch in the distance. It sounded like a footstep. Was that someone else going home from the factory? I didn’t know of any of my colleagues that lived in the same quadrant. Again there was a crunch, this time louder. Was I just hungry and imagining the sound of some protein chew. The crunch grew louder, bigger. I looked into the treeline and there I saw it.

A 10ft tall hairy man. Stared at me with sauncepan like amber eyes. Two black irises pierced my neurological implants. Thick brown fur covered its entire body. I stood there unable to move. Stuck in place, dwarfed by the aura of the creature. I looked up at it, it stood there motionless, breathing softly. Suddenly its mouth opened. It let out a sound. ‘Euuuuuuuuuuuughhhg’ then it ran off.

I stood there looking off in the direction it ran towards. The moon shone silver off the ferns below.