Charlie sought out someone who could tell him what was happening, when suddenly an orange beam of light cut through the sky, hitting something on the horizon. A few people stopped to look, but most didn't seem to care, almost like it was business as usual.
"And there goes another one," a guy said nearby.
Charlie turned towards him. "What do you mean?"
The guy looked oddly at him. "Where have you been? Everyone knows about The Streamliner."
"What's a Streamliner?" Charlie asked. When the guy gave him another really odd look, he told him "Just humor me."
"It's the object that entered orbit from space about a month ago. It's been systematically simplifying everything on the planet."
"Why?"
"Who knows? No one can communicate with it. It seems to be automated."
This was almost too bizarre for Charlie to believe. Some sort of alien probe turned Los Angeles, a city of millions, into this small town? And what was the point?
"How many cities have been hit so far?" Charlie asked.
"A lot. Just here in the US, it's been New York, Chicago, Houston, San Francisco and Denver. They haven't hit Washington yet, but by now the place is a ghost town. The people obviously don't want to be around when it hits."
"Why is that?" Charlie asked.
"Look around," he said. And Charlie did. "Do you see millions of people walking around?"
"No. What happened to them?"
"The Streamliner doesn't just simplify cities. It also simplifies people."
"What does that mean?" Charlie asked.
"It means that I used to be four separate people. After that thing hit the city, those four people merged and became me."
Charlie stared at him. He just couldn't believe it.
"Everyone here is like that," the guy said.
