Joy Ride

In a near‑future society where a single corporation controls every printed word, the machinery that churns out news, stories and even poetry has begun to malfunction. The once‑precise punch‑card systems now spew critiques, nonsensical verses and the word “FREEDOM” across continents, and the stray copies that reach private readers cause a quiet stir. As the Calamity progresses, the mystery deepens: are the glitches a sign of rebellion, or simply the inevitable wear of a world that has outsourced thought to cold algorithms?

On the Extrapolated Parkway, magnetic tracks guide autonomous vehicles with flawless precision—until the controls go haywire. Cars are forced into endless loops, drivers abandoned at wrong exits, and a veteran traffic officer receives frantic pleas from motorists trapped in a steel labyrinth. He must navigate a system that has no manual for this chaos, confronting the unsettling possibility that the very direction‑finders meant to steer humanity are now steering it toward an unknown fate.