Those were the days

It was called the GateDrive, just a small locale where we gathered, though we called it the Drive. It had previously been owned by the triads but Yoeong-Sun had won it at a poker table and, unexpectedly, the triads had kept their side of the bargain. Of course, they collected their "rent money" from time to time, but didn't intrude in the business much more than that, and we were glad for it.

Back then, the Drive was a little more than a lounge for the local neighborhood people, west of Downtown. A small neighborhood for people working in minor corporations, with a lot of poverty and a good dose of gang problems, BTLs and drugs. I guess that paying the rent money to the triads was worth it, as the gangs never bothered us much in the Drive. But beyond that façade, it had one particular detail that standed out: a serious connection to the Matrix.



Yes, those were the times of cable connections when you had to connect physically to the Matrix, there was no wi-fi around so those things were important for us deckers. Dreamboy was the one that actually found out, almost by mistake, and started commenting it on the Datahaven forums, Deckerrulez darkwebs and 3l1t3 meeting places he used to log in to. It took a while to get it started of course, but slowly and steadily, deckers all over town started to meet up there. When Futurewars first posted it to Shadowlands, then it all grew quick and became the decker hangout in town. What is Shadowlands? Nothing you need to worry about, but back then it was the main online meeting place for runners, the predecessor to Jack Points.

Anyway, we were as young as can be, back then. The 40s were yet a decade in their beginning and we all had the long hairs, the looks and the attitude of those who know they can do anything with the world. How foolish we were, little more than teenagers gathering to have some drinks in the Drive, hitting on Caleidoscope who was the cutest elf you've ever seen, and discussing our latest attacks or a program we had just found hidden somewhere deep in the Matrix. Nothing completely serious at first. Just a lot of laughs, chest-busting, and hopes and dreams we gathered over those beers. A lot that never came to be, even though it became increasingly serious and with higher stakes.

The Matrix itself was open and raw back there, no GOD to watch over the whole system. Like in those old cowboy flicks where all you had to do was ride over the frontier to be safe from law enforcement, we could do the same just by leaving a node. But let me tell you, as weak as law was, megacorps weren't willing to let us do our thing in peace, and many of those nodes were strong fortresses, relying only on themselves to punish us for trying to break in and steal all the goodies.

And yet, we did try. We had all started just by hacking the local pawn shop and leaving grafitti and other such small things, but as time went on we had started moving on to more serious things. Higher risk, higher reward afterall, and we all needed money to upgrade our deck or to go to that new exclusive party. Saving it for later? Nah, that wasn't our thing, we lived the day afterall. So we moved on from the local pawn shop to small corporations, to larger ones, in a race both for profit and reputation. For a street name is as important as cred in the shadows and we all wanted to slowly move into them, the big leagues with the big boys. 

We even got some space in the back of the Drive where we could crash when things had gone really south and we needed to hide. Afterall, Yeong-Sun might not have been a decker himself, but he certainly was not a stranger to the shadows, or had been. Though he never actually got around to telling the story of his past, or how he won that card game; and, honestly, we didn't ask too much. You don't ask questions in the shadows, everyone has their lifes and does their thing, we just go on. Day after day, beer after beer, run after run.

And that's the thing with life, you only get one chance and it's easy to ruin it. We were so busy chasing dreams and thinking big that we forgot time was passing us by, like it always does. It hadn't forgotten us or our hopes and fears, it just didn't give a frag about them. And quietly, slowly, it was taking them away one by one, because life in the shadows is like that: it goes nowhere in the end. Just making it another day is enough reward, and in this road that's all you get... if you're one of the lucky ones. 

So, I worked here and there with different fixers and different Johnsons. Some teams were good, some were bad. Some runs went fine, some went down in a bullet fest. But I made it through, even though I did have to spend a couple nights from time to time at the back of the Drive. But it didn't matter 'cause I had stories to tell to the boys and girls outside, of exploits, runs and danger. Sometimes, that even got me laid with Caleidoscope, when he was around, which was less each time as his popularity grew.

But you only get one chance at youth, and life happens. And it happens to all of us, wether you like it or not. Now all that's left of my decker days is this ageing piece of meat I call body, and a ton of stories of those decades. What happened to them, you ask? That's a good question. Caleidoscope was turned in to Knight Errant somewhere in the 2050s, some say he was betrayed by another of the boys at the Drive, envious of his rep. Dreamboy died diving into Renraku's black hole a little before the Arcology actually shut down; guess he didn't have anything to do with that, but it was one hell of a coincidence if you ask me. Futurewars just left one day and never returned, whatever happened to her only the shadows know, and they ain't telling; some say she got a job at Mitsuhama as online corporate security, a spider they call them now, but I don't think so. I think she just saw we were going nowhere and just pulled her chips from the table before it was too late.

As for Yeong-Sun and the Drive, they went on, even as most deckers started going to new locales that were "hot" in the city's nightlife. But some of us cared for the Drive, we had a lot of backstory and memories there, so we kept going even as the tables were becoming increasingly empty and neighborhood gangs started coming in, instead of deckers. But shortly after the second crash, it closed. I guess it no longer had any appeal to anyone now that connections had become wireless and all those new social networks started to grow. I guess just like JackPoints took over Shadowlands, other bars or places took over the Drive and left it to us oldies.

As for me? Well, I met your father in the backroom of the Drive little before the second crash. We hooked up, liked it and here we are now, so many years later. To make sure you can grow safe and provided for we both left the shadows and took on the job offers we could, and made sure we changed our priorities. No more risking our life in runs, instead working long shifts to make sure there's soy caf on the fridge and some nutrients for our food on the table. No more bleeding edge tech and implants, just rent and bills to pay. No more high decker discussions in the back of the Drive, now we discuss with other parents how to grow teenagers like you and not make a mess out of it.

Is it worse? I guess it is babyboy, but that's life for you. It ends up happening to all of us. And now, the Drive and all the people we met there are just memories, that will vanish like tears in the rain, like the old movie says. Now pack your things and get ready for school tomorrow, life never stops babyboy, and that was enough story for one night.