Short Story: Drone the Throne

The crescendo of tiny whirring rotors atop the massive wave of deadly drones thrilled Jess as they rushed over her head and buzzed down the hillside toward the constellation of city lights ahead. Her phone chimed, breaking her wonderment, and she opened the incoming text message excitedly knowing what it must be. She didn’t recognize the number, it always changed.

“Swarm over San Francisco now! Big tech’s turn for judgement?”

She didn’t know much about the rich that ran the town, but they’d been very unpopular on her social feeds the last week. There would be a lot of options tonight, so she opened the chat she always consulted.

It was busier than she’d ever seen it. A flood of messages slowed her phone and made it hard to scroll, but there were some names that stood out. A whole wall of messages reading “PETER THIEL!!” was hard to miss. She recognized the tag in the usernames of everyone spamming that one, they always picked winners.

A few other names went alongside into the notes as she filled out a payment on her phone. She paused on the amount. She only had a couple thousand dollars available, enough for groceries this month maybe if the hyperinflation slowed down a bit.

Footfalls thudded in the dust behind her. “Jess!” yelled Meg, her younger sister as she ran to join in the vacant lot next to the complex they were lucky to share a small studio in.

“Did they hit yet?! I don’t have my phone but I heard the neighbors freaking out. It’s here tonight?”

Jess was happy to see her sister so animated. She needed this.

“Dude they flew like right over my head! They’re like HERE here.”

Her phone chimed to interrupt them with another text:

“Bet on tonight’s swarm with payments to 0x1ca9EB2a5C213d417269134b80111F57e1644105. Authenticity token: 80f5cfc3247fa7db313640f507969d77b2ff5b243cc7e4f6cc220180e803c3d1”

Meg crowded in over Jess’s shoulder to look.

“Make sure it’s real, Toni got scammed last week.”

A slew of messages from people in the chat who knew what to do with the token confirmed the address was legitimate. Jess copied it into her payment and was about to hit send when she felt Meg’s hand clamp around her arm hard enough to hurt.

“Jess what the fuck that’s everything!”

“I know but we already can’t make rent. Like you said nobody can and they can’t evict everyone right? And I put Zuckerberg at the top literally everyone is creeped out by him.”

“Uh I don’t know who that is and yeah we don’t need it for rent but FOOD dude!”

“Too late time’s up!” Jess yelled in a panic as she sent it.

Meg stayed attached to her arm for a moment, slowly loosening her grip and listening to the occasional hum as the drones swarmed around the city in their holding pattern. One flew just in front of the hillside, passing briefly under a streetlight’s glow.

“That one was big. They look tiny on TikTok.” Meg said in a monotone, trying not to lose it over being potentially broke now. Food stamps were cancelled nationwide right after Thanksgiving last month so it was a scarier thought than it had been before.

“Yeah Toni said they use the big ones to blow through walls so the small ones can get to people but they try not to use them much since the explosions are kind of big.”

“Oh yeah. Well everyone knows: don’t stand next to billionaires.”

It was a common quip these days, but Jess giggled at it anyway and felt a bit better about betting all their money. It was for a good cause after all, and they would have ran out soon anyway no matter how much work they could find. It seemed like everyone did at some point lately.

Her phone chimed again, the wallet app this time.

“Meg we won! I mean not a lot I think a lot of people had the same picks but we made like two grand”

“Oh fuck yeah! Thanks for locking it in I didn’t think they’d do a swarm on a Sunday night.”

Meg’s clamp on her arm had turned into a gleeful hug and they stayed huddled close for warmth as the cold night made them both regret not putting coats on. No way they were running back inside now though.

Lots of steps came from behind with the sounds of a growing pack of spectators looking for high ground.

“Everyone figured out this is where to be!” said Meg as she turned to see their friend Toni among a handful of other neighbors making their way over the lumpy terrain and discarded appliances.

“Anything happen yet?!” yelled Toni.

There was an explosion among the skyscrapers. A man neither of the sisters recognized stopped in his tracks and raised the binoculars he had the foresight to grab. The crowd let out an “Ooooh” in unison and Meg laughed a bit, realizing this was basically the Fourth of July even though it was December.

“I think that was one of the big ones I was telling you about!” said Toni as she resumed her walk to join the sisters on their little embankment. “They’re opening the walls to let the killers in.”

“Yeah they’ve got a big hole in the side of one of the towers in SoMa!” said the guy with the binoculars. “I just saw another explosion inside. I didn’t have time to see the list so I don’t know who they’re going after.”

“Here I have it pulled up” said Jess, starting to hand her phone over as he neared. She paused briefly realizing she probably shouldn’t give her most expensive possession to a stranger, but did it anyway. Something about the moment felt safe.

“How do they even know where to find these people?” She asked as the guy scrolled it.

Toni turned to answer, always happy to justify the hours she spent watching videos about the drones and the still unknown group that ran them.

“They have this website on the darknet where you can get paid if you give information that leads to a good hit.”

Meg was a little surprised: “Wait I thought when we bet on who would be most hated all the money went back to people who picked the top ones?”

“Well almost all, but so many people bet in the prediction market now that the five percent they keep let’s them pay a bunch for information and still have money for more drones and stuff. I think they even pay people to launch the drones for them so they don’t get caught now that pretty much the entire government is after them.”

“They got paid by some companies too for killing competition and stuff right?”

“No that was totally propaganda. Everyone can see where their money comes from by watching their crypto wallets. They said this in their video after the first swarm, they’re just running a public service, and only make money from us telling them who to hit. Supposedly all that money just goes to more parts and explosives.”

The guy with the binoculars had finished reading the list. Jess noticed his hoodie read “DRONE THE THRONE” in huge block letters as he handed the phone back and said:

“That’s a big list tonight. I recognize a lot of those names. Mostly investors this time, not CEOs so I guess the prediction market is getting smarter. Bill Gates is safe, did enough charity I guess. He’s usually in Seattle but they would have got him later. Musk was on there but got scratched due to the ‘No government officials’ rule which is kind of crazy but he’s been hiding underground since the swarms started anyway. The drones are getting better really fast but I don’t think they can punch into a bunker yet.”

A silence fell for a moment as a small trail of explosions chased a lone car down the freeway, too far away to make out the individual drones. There was another little “Ooh” from the crowd as it disappeared in a fireball, and a few teens that had just joined were brazen enough to cheer raucously.

“Well, maybe they’ll figure that out soon” Jess said as she pulled Meg tight and wondered if their winnings would be enough to keep them from having to move into the tent city with their parents after Christmas.