Unsupported File Format

I like reading unpublished works by unknown authors. So, when a deceased author’s estate went up for auction, I could not help buying all of his works.

Author Rick Willcroft died a few months ago, and left quite a few pieces of unpublished novels, short stories, and a journal.

Most of the works I read, were, well, I’ll just say that I understand why they were not published.

However, one piece in particular intrigued me. The journal.

It was about an incident that happened in a small town the author once lived, apparently in 2011. However, there are no records anywhere that suggest any of these events ever happened, so I am not sure of the integrity of this journal. It is, however, very interesting and entertaining, so I would now like to share it with you.

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THE INCIDENT, 2011    ..BY RICK WILLCROFT

The Beginning,

I am adding this to the front of the journal, since this is how it all started, and happened before I started the journal entries.

Being an author myself, I like to look at the things other people write. I spend a bit of time on the internet looking at creative writing web sites.

One of my favorites was "abctales.com". 

One day, as I was just finishing reading a very good story on the site, I saw an advertisement at the end of the story. Although, it was not you regular advertisement. It was very “tacky”, “cheesy”, one might say. It was at the end of the story, and looked like it was part of it. However, it had absolutely nothing to do with the story. It was just odd, out of place.

I don’t really remember the details of it, but it was something like: Go to your favorite music download site, and get free songs. Then something about, do it now because it is only for a limited time, or something like that.

Well, me being the tightwad I was, I did it.

I sorted by least expensive to most, and found the free music right away.

There was one song. Under “title”, was the letter “Q”. Under “artist”, was listed just the letter “X”.

This must have been some new band offering a sampling of their new, unreleased music, but they were using code, as is often done with pre-released music.

I downloaded the free song. 

When I tried to play it, the media player gave an error: “Unsupported File Format”.

I then copied the song to my portable, and the same thing happened.

I soft-reset the player, and upon restarting, all of the songs had been renamed “QX”, followed by a sequential number. Then, none of the songs would play. All giving the “Unsupported File Format” error.

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Day 1,

The day after I downloaded that song to my computer, I began to notice that what had happened to my player, began to happen to my computer. Files being renamed “QX”, whatever.

It got to the point that it had affected the operating system, so now the computer would no longer start.

Repairing or re-installing the operating system worked for a short time, but it would fail again.

I finally resorted to formatting the hard drive, but that too, only lasted a brief period before once again failing.

At that point, I walked over to the computer store, and decided to just buy a new computer. After all, I needed to complete my journal

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Day 2,

Giving up on my player and computer, I turned to my smartphone and tablet, which appeared to function as normal.

Later, I decided to watch some TV, but couldn’t. There was just a blank screen, with a little white text on the top-left, “Firmware Error”.

I took my cable box back to the cable company, and discovered a huge line-up of people apparently returning their boxes.

Once it was my turn at the counter, I asked what was happening.

The person at the counter said, “We seem to have a bad batch of set-top receivers. Practically every one in town has a problem with the firmware.”

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Day 3,

My smartphone would not start up, and to my dismay, neither would my tablet.

I decided to watch TV, since there was nothing else to do.

After watching for about two hours, the cable box crashed with the familiar, “Firmware Error”.

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Day 4,

Reports started coming in from around town, of computers just shutting down for no reason.

Not just desktops, but any device that uses, or is run by a computer.

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Day 5, 

Whatever this thing is, this virus, I guess, has now spread to the traffic control system. Every traffic light in town is flashing, all three colors, all the time. This is insane. Usually when there is a traffic light fault, it flashes red, not all three.

I also noticed newer vehicles, ones with computers, were stalling in the middle of the streets.

It was no longer safe to use the roads.

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Day 6,        QQXQXXQ

With my XXQ computer still “acting up” Q a bit, I was X still able to use XQ it, but QXX something odd XX was happening. QQXXQ  Random “Q’s” and “X’s” XXQX started to appear out of X nowhere, and I could QQ not delete them. They XXXQQ kept coming QXQQQ back. Even if I Q saved the document XQQ, they were still there. XQ QQX

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Day 7,

I tried to correct and re-save yesterday’s entry, but I couldn’t. For some reason, the “Save” option was not there, but only for that one document. The only way to fix it, would be to re-type it.

I didn't bother.

Today the phone system went down.

When calling a local number from any phone, you heard, “Bee Boop Bee...The number you have dialed is not in service.” If you tried calling long-distance, it was “Bee Boop Bee...Your call can not be completed as dialed.

This happened for every call, even 9-1-1.

Also today, our two radio station went off air.

Now we have no TV, no radio, no internet, no phones. Basically, no means of communication at all.

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Day 8,

This virus was now affecting the electrical system. Whatever computer was controlling our grids, was in its control.

Random, recurring blackouts across town. Each lasting only about five minutes, but occurring about every two or three hours.

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Day 9,

The lack of communications and the ability to travel, combined with the blackouts, was beginning to drive people over the edge.

I walked by the laundry, and saw three women fighting over the last available washer. They were yelling obscenities at each other, and throwing dirty clothes at each other, all over a washer!

Then, walking by the bank, I saw two men fist-fighting over who would be the next one to use the ATM. However, after breaking each-other’s faces pretty bad, they both realized that the ATM is a computer, and so, it was not working.

Needless to say, using the teller was useless as well, because they also use computers. Nobody uses deposit and withdraw slips any more.

Now, in addition to no transportation and communication, we also now have no access to money. 

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Day 10,

It was now getting serious. I could no longer get into my apartment, as the lock is electronic. Well, occasionally it worked, but access was very limited.

In addition, while I was out, violence was on the uprise. Our once peaceful town had turned to hell.

Fearing the worst, people were fighting, and even threatening to kill one another, over food and drink. 

I had decided that it would be better to stay in the apartment.

For the rest of the day, I pondered what was causing it.

Was it some computer super-virus, a conspiracy, an experiment by the government or someone else, or was it aliens? 

Was it just our town, or world-wide?

At that point nothing would have surprised me.

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Day 11,

I’m getting out of this town. I will try to get to the nearest major city, about three and a half hours away.

I packed up only essentials, and started walking. The whole time, trying not to notice the town falling apart around me.

I came across an abandoned car.

It was an older model, so I was hoping it would work.

The key was still in, so I tried.

It started!

I began to drive away from the town as best I could.

It took a while to get out of the place, with all the chaos, but after about 45 minutes, I made it to the highway to the city.

Upon arriving, I immediately checked into a motel.

They had computers in the common area, so I want online to see if I could get any news.

There was none.

Nobody seemed to know what was happening in my home town.

Was it a cover-up? Who, or what, was responsible?

Then, another thought occurred to me. More frightening than the last.

Maybe the reason nobody knew what was happening back there, was that the “problem” had isolated the town so much. There was no news coming from the town, so all the outsiders figured everything was okay. As they say, no news is good news.

I didn’t feel comfortable sharing my experience with anyone. After all, I was new there, and I didn’t want to come across as being a nut-case.
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Later,

I ended up renting an a apartment in the city, and eventually getting a new computer.

After a few months, the thoughts of what happened in that town began to fade, and I have not experienced any more computer problems.

For the sake of curiosity, I went back to look up that story on "abctales.com". The one that had the ad. The ad was gone.

What a relief.

I guess everything is back to normal.

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