“Children of Ava” appears in Birdy 128, August 2024, with generative art by myself. Young Maya is on the run in the ruins of Salt Lake City–but her AI companion, Ava, has friends everywhere.
Her contact’s appearance was not reassuring. Black bug-eyed lenses stared above an industrial breathing mask, part of a single piece of gear that completely covered the head. It looked at once like a military relic and something homemade. Otherwise they wore a cowl of heavy textured fabric atop what she thought was a hazmat suit. The figure was small and slight, a teenager or very small woman, most likely. They spoke first.
Don’t you have a mask?
Their voice was not so much muffled as synthetic, the timbre androgynous, tone a little flat in the common manner of AI assistants, emitted from tiny speakers on the sides of their breather.
No.
The dust is full of poison. And you could get BCV, not to mention nanomites.
Thanks for the public health warning. I don’t know how to say this, but there are some guys following me, and—
We know. Come on.
THE FELL AND THE FAE 