The next day, his coffee machine broke. The barista who usually smiled at him looked through him like he was vapor. He called his mother; the line was dead. At his desk, his boss slid a yellow memo across the table. It said: “You are now designated a ‘Loner.’ Please report to the Regency Hotel by 8 PM. Your animal preference?”
He opened the file in a hex editor. The code was not 0s and 1s. It was a long string of repeating words: HOTEL. FOREST. LOBSTER. HOTEL. FOREST. LOBSTER. But buried in the middle, a tiny fragment: VEGAMOVIES.IS – GATEWAY PROTOCOL v.0.9 – DO NOT REDEEM.
He jerked back. The movie resumed normally. The man on screen was now in a forest, holding a rifle that shot tranquilizer darts at “loners” running wild in the woods.
In a near-future dystopian society, being single is illegal. Single people are arrested and transferred to "The Hotel," where they have exactly 45 days to find a romantic partner.
He double-clicked.
: David eventually escapes the rigid rules of the Hotel only to find a different set of extreme rules among "The Loners" in the woods. 🦞 Why a Lobster?
“Thank you for choosing me. Now you will never be alone. But you will never be loved, either. That is the fine print.”