4 4. Keep Beach City Weird

Beach City, a city located in the state of Delmarva. That's all Augustus knows about this place. In half a month of traveling, he could not find out anything about this city. Literally no one knows. He has visited 3 cities and there is no clue anywhere. He needs to go south, that's for sure, but where exactly to go south ?

He doesn't know

And so, heading south, he wandered into the fourth city in a row. Maybe he could find out something here ?

This city was no different from the others in anything, except that all the people went with their faces buried in their phones. In these small boxes, the entrance to the world wide web or the Internet.

August had once had a phone, but it had been stolen, and Polly didn't really want to buy a new one.

But back to the city.

The city was much stranger than the others. People literally didn't pay attention to each other. Everyone in this town had their phones on.

Even when August went to the park, he noticed that children of preschool or school age were sitting in the phones. And instead of playing and living their childhood carefree, they watch videos on TubeTube.

" BANG ! "

There was a sharp noise from the road. Turning around, you could see that someone had been hit by a car.

Quickly running up, August found that the man was no longer breathing.

And instead of grieving, people took selfies in the background ! We made videos, took photos, and posted stories.

" I'm getting more and more disgusted with this city "

An ambulance arrived, took the body, and it was as if nothing had happened.

But something caught my attention. The dead man's phone was still on the road. The main thing is that everyone avoided it, as if there was an invisible wall right in its place.

It was strange and frightening, and August decided to take it. Not to waste the same good ?

Taking it, it was clear that the phone was reset to factory settings. But he was more attracted to the phone's logo.

Diamond

The white diamond was located right in the middle.

This increased Augustus ' suspicion, but he had no choice. If no one from reality knew about Beach City, then maybe he will find out something on the Internet ?

After a little digging, and making a new account, August was successfully able to launch this phone.

But before we start looking, it's time for Balo to have a bite to eat. It was already lunchtime, and Augustus hadn't eaten a crumb since breakfast. In the search, the nearest diner Pops Chocolate Shoppe was found.

So sitting at a table and sipping a milk shake, it was time to dive into the global network.

It took literally an hour to discover any information. Even on the Internet, there was almost no mention of Beach City. But, someone looking for something will find, as they say. And there was this block of a guy named Ronaldo Jarkins.

The blog was super full of gibberish. Snake people, ways to fight the stone people, how to calculate whether your loved one is an alien, and much more. But the main thing was that there was information about the location of Beach City.

Now there is at least some clue....

Someone snapped August out of his reverie by grabbing his arm. It was the elderly owner of the cafe.

--- Listen to me, man, carefully.

He turned his head to see if anyone was listening.

--- Run away from this city. I noticed that you're new, you haven't been processed yet. So get out of here quickly.

--- What's going on here ?

--- No time, man. I advise you to leave town today, and throw that phone away. Otherwise, you'll get caught.

He quickly moved away from her and pretended that nothing had happened. And August finally noticed...everyone looks at him.

Not directly, of course, out of the corner of my eye. They look at him while they're on their phones. They don't look away. And suddenly August realized that he had to get out of the city. But you don't have to show it.

After getting up and paying for his lunch, he calmly headed out of the city, noticing that a small number of people were following him and that there were more and more of them.

" I have to run ! They'll get me ! "

And he ran, with all his available strength. But they were catching up. Everyone was running after him, from young people, children, adults, and indeed, the old people were running almost touching his back.

Closer and closer, closer and closer. They almost caught him when the finish line appeared.

" Exit ! "

Using the last of his strength, he finally crossed the city line, but he did not stop, running for some time and not hearing other footsteps, he stopped and turned around and froze.

People, lots of people. they were standing in front of the city. It was as if they were standing in front of an invisible wall. They screamed, they growled, they tried to reach you, but they couldn't.

Standing there, he could see their lifeless eyes, filled only with anger and hatred. After a while, probably realizing that they had lost their prey, all the people gradually returned to the city.

" Thanks to that old man. If it wasn't for him, I might not have achieved my goal. "

It's like he's forgotten something....

--- Phone !

Taking it out of his pocket, he threw it on the ground and began to smash it with all his strength. Blow after blow, and it finally broke. He's definitely safe now.

--- Almost there. Just a little bit left and I'll be there. Beach City.

He finally found the way, it took him a lot of time, effort, meeting with different bullshit, but he could. He's almost there.

--- I'm coming, Beach City. And I will know the answers to my questions.