The System Hangs

"Too many Romans at the northern gate. Need backup." came the message from Rob_Rot5. Abhi quickly made a grab at the mouse and sent a third of his standing troops to the gate. Then he watched with a sad face his fishing boats being set fire to by the Roman fleet's galleons.

"Some day," he fondly thought as the monitor showed him his last food resources disappear, "We'll have fast Internet."

And then came Rob_Rot5's demand.

"Where R Ur soldiers?"

"I sent them alright." Abhi typed, and scrolled the screen to see what had become of his troops. He found them stuck halfway. The whole game seemed to have slowed down a great deal.

"God damn the net!" he mumbled and then typed, "What's your status?"

Rob_Rot5 messaged back, "No town left. No fortress. Worst campaign ever. Signing out." And his name disappeared from the players' list on the left of the monitor.

Abhi fought the despair and decided to start things anew. This time, he thought, he would play alone. Maybe that would make the game faster.

He clicked the 'NEW GAME' button and waited. The screen went blank… and froze. Nothing happened. After a while Abhi started trying keyboard shortcuts. The keys were stuck too.

It wasn't a problem with the computer alone. The ceiling fans had stopped abruptly. The thought of its being a power failure crossed his mind but he rejected the idea quickly. Fans don't stop like that.

Looking for help his eyes travelled to the cyber-cafe owner's desk, where he found the man frozen in his place with his perpetual grin plastered to his face. At first nothing struck Abhi as being out of the ordinary. But then he saw the girl sitting next to him through a slit in the curtain. Her screen was frozen in the middle of a chat session, and the girl, frozen in place, showed no sign of concern. She was sitting tight, with one hand on the keyboard and the other in mid-air.

Abhi tried to part the curtains but they were hard as if moulded out of metal. When violated, the sense of touch complains in a louder strain to the brain. Abhi was filled with an unpleasant deathly feeling. The silence all around him came upon him and drowned him. But before giving in he wanted to be sure.

He rose from his place, placed a twenty rupee note on the counter without looking at the person seated behind it, and walked out of the door, which, thankfully was only half closed. Abhi tried to move the door, unsuccessfully.

Outside, he stood open mouthed for a while and watched the 'hung' world. Each flowing garment, each drifting bird, each hand in motion was stuck. Everything was anchored to its place in space. Abhi had trouble walking because of the dust particles stuck rock-hard in mid air. They stopped him as well as a wall might have. He kept to the less dusty parts, nearer to the footpaths to keep his going easy.

There were people in shops, with all sorts of expressions stuck on their faces. A couple of girls in a cosmetics' shop stood frozen in a rather theatrical pose. They might have been bargaining when the 'freeze' occurred. Abhi gingerly touched their skins. No sensation. He might as well have laid his fingers on the table in front of them.

He continued peeking into shops to catch people frozen in the oddest of postures, but soon grew weary of it. He looked across the road to see the glint of a drop of water caught in the act of dropping. A short distance away, the sight of a boy with cupped hands, looking up, waiting to catch his ball, caught his eye. Since he couldn't cross the road, he started looking for similar scenes on his side of the road.