How Long 'Til Black Future Month?

Meroe and his pack move and fight like wolves in the Amorph. Existence in the Amorph is always dangerous as it is “transforming constantly as information pour[s] into it” and is full of predators of every shape and size (128). Meroe and his pack have learned to survive by keeping “lookouts” and fleeing whenever they sense “controversies, scandals” or “crises” on “the wind” (128). The Amorph is a creation of another world called “The Static,” a world full of humans who Meroe both “fear[s]” and respects (128).

Meroe enters the warehouse where his pack is waiting. He feels an “odd tension” among them and asks them to identify what is causing it (127). They reveal that their veteran member, Faster, discovered an inexplicably “perfect” little Latina girl avatar roaming their territory (129). Meroe is somewhat skeptical of the avatar as he knows the Amorph was designed full of “limits” (131). There are only so many ways they can amend the codes of which they are made. If they amend the codes too much, they “simply vanish” (132).

Meroe has spent a lifetime trying to “understand” the humans who created him (132). So far, he has made no headway, but is confident that humans are flawed and he will eventually find a way to break “free” from their control (132).

Meroe and his pack arrive in Fizville—Meroe’s childhood home and the location of the perfect girl avatar—to find there is already a group searching for her, led by someone named Lens. Lens explains that the perfect girl has “downloaded,” meaning it may be impossible for Lens and his group to catch her (134). He points out this likely means she is “capable” of uploading as well, which would make her impossible for Meroe and his pack to catch. He suggests they create an “alliance,” and after some hesitation, Meroe and his group agree (134).

Meroe and his pack must morph into humans, which is a painful process that often involves having to find an unsuspecting receiver over whose form they can take. Meroe arrives in human form in a coffeeshop bathroom to find that the perfect girl avatar has been there and has been wreaking havoc on the humans. He has one of his pack members, Never, signal the other members to meet at the coffee shop where they decide to try to “play it easy” so as “not to scare her” (138). Meroe thinks he sees the girl in the form of an old man. They approach the old man and it’s clearly the girl. She looks up at Meroe, frightened, and asks if they are going to murder her. He says no, they are going to “help” (139). Pedestrians start to notice the coffeeshop where she caused all the humans inside to go brain dead, so she quickly apologizes to Meroe, explaining she did not intentionally hurt them. He says they will teach her how to function without causing damage to others. More of Meroe’s pack starts to show up, but he shoos them away, afraid they will “spook” the girl (140).

The perfect avatar girl thinks Meroe and his pack want to eat her, so she asks them to eat every bite so nothing is left of her to contaminate the earth. One member of Meroe’s pack gets annoyed with this line of thought and starts shouting that they need to be escaping the Static, not debating portion control. She starts to upload to escape but Meroe leaps towards her and creates a “direct link” (140). This causes them both to get swept towards a giant lethal “maw” of information created by the avatar killing the brains of all the coffeeshop patrons (142). They take turns fighting the power of the maw and eventually escape, meeting up with Meroe’s pack and Lens’s group.

Waking up with his head in his partner, Zo’s, lap, Meroe immediately realizes he has lost the confidence of his group and they will now question his ability to lead them. Before he can further ponder, Lens and his group appear with the avatar girl who Lens just analyzed. He explains the girl was created by a hacker who took some government code and changed it, allowing her to have dreams. Meroe and his pack are disappointed at this revelation since they view dreams as “useless” (146). Lens announces he believes she belongs with them, not with Meroe. Meroe concedes if Lens installs her dreams into Meroe, which Lens happily does.

That night Meroe tries to overlap his information with some of his other pack members as he has done in the past, but it brings him no satisfaction. He decides to sleep alone. Waking up, he feels guilty for the first time for having killed so many beings in his past. He realizes he is no longer like the other members of his pack, so he tries to share the love he now feels with them. He realizes that dreaming is the missing element he had been searching for all his life and that as long as he can now spread to others the ability to dream, they will finally be able to “face the humans as equals” and achieve the freedom they have so long desired (149).