Incredible Wooden Map

This is the second in the collection of short stories: The one constant in all these stories is the interest and wonder level. I will not write boring stuff. If I don't like it, you probably won't. If I like my story, you may not like it, but I still think you make walk away with a concept, idea or something you had never thought of before, not something that leaves you hanging, depressed or bland, but invigorating and intriguing. That's my story's line and I'm sticking to 'em!

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Excerpt:

Ackerson was trying out his new Home Suit gaming apparel. He was engaged in a fire fight with real friends against cybers on the galactic web fashioned by Sunareno from afar Yroria system. He may as well have been on the battlefield for real. Carelessly, he moved his bod away from an observed cyber--- right towards two others advancing. He got one, but the other got him and the Home Suit made very sure he knew he had been hit it the stomach once, and twice in his left leg. It felt awful to him. He wasn't sure he wanted to play again.

He lay dying on the battlefield and without pressing his MED button, he died. He had heavy issues. His life seemed useless due of the unbelievable events that had just taken place. Any single one he could handle OK, but all of them all at once, with the biggies coming out of the blue like that. When his Definition sound level slowly reduced because of lack of bod unit activity, he heard the distinctive faint ring over the very slight electronic hiss he heard in his head phones of Hartly, his inventor friend calling, about the trip.

He selected his line and listened while Hartly gasped out, "It rang 64 times! Aren't you interested at all? I've finally found the correct ratio! It'll be ready in ten hours so be here in nine. Don't be late. See you, right?"

The phone was dead in Ackerson's hand. He dropped it back into the ComPuck, having not spoken a word to his way-out friend. Apparently his lack of communication was an affirmation. The death match was just musical noise now, but he saved the battle anyway for some reason.

This was it. He was going to escape his troubles. He was really going away for good.

He mechanically gathered his stuff together. He had thought about a suit case to hold it all, but decided it was too corny. Where he planned to go, they would not care what his carrier was. And actually a suit case would look very odd there. He might stand out!

So he lay all of it in a pile on the oak coffee table. Their 'oak' coffee table, all she had left him besides the ache in his heart. There, he had started it again.

The Digimatic mini media system with the ENiG extended power pack, a MediCare, his Perucomp, and of course a Celoflash light, persowatch system. That's all he had. He no longer cared about all that he had lost, anyway. Even thought tears blurred his vision when he thought of loosing that AudioTruth detector. This was his way out. He examined all the equipment carefully for possible defects once again. Then he put extra chemical power packs and three solar cell charging arrays with spare parts in an old leather satchel he fancied. It had been his favorite in college. He wished he could sling more straps over his shoulders to carry more technology with him, if he had more to take. Instead he grabbed just the single handle on the old leather and headed for his mocar.

He had no time frame to worry about as he had lost his job, partly because he was mopping about the place because of--- well, her.