Nobody knew where the Lemon bikes came from. They were supposed to be an eco-friendly and convenient mode of transport. You’d pay money on an app to unlock a bike, and it was yours for the day. Then when you were done or your money ran out, you could dump the bike anywhere in the city, preferably in the middle of the pavement.
Some people were worried that the dumped bikes prevented wheelchair users and parents with buggies from accessing the pavement, but others said that it was innovative and dynamic. This second group of people spoke very clearly and had exclusive credit cards, so they were probably right.
At the end of the year, I’d noticed the bikes were increasing in number. Once I had to walk out into the road, and nearly got run over, because a parked bike had priority use of the pavement by virtue of getting there first. Also the bike was made of metal; I didn’t think I could take it in a fight.
By February, I was having to have to plan my whole commute around the bikes. The bus route changed too, because the bikes weren’t just on the pavement anymore; they were also in the middle of the road. One day I got on the bus and there were bikes on all the seats so everyone had to stand up. Having bikes right there on the bus was convenient if you wanted to hire one for the rest of your journey, though. Or at least it would have been, if the road wasn’t full of bikes.
By now, many of the Lemon bikes weren’t even usable because their microchip had got rusty or their wheels were bent from being run over by tanks, but there was no way to get rid of them because they didn’t connect with the app, so you couldn’t report them.
A lot of people said that even when you did manage to report a bike nothing happened, because nobody worked at the company. Apparently, Lemon was registered to a building in California and pictures had been posted online showing it was so full of bikes that the doors wouldn’t open. The families of the employees had started an appeal. I try not to get too worried about this stuff because there’s nothing I can do about it.
Overall, it was nice that there were fewer cars, but it was bad that there were no buses or trains and there were food shortages. Sometimes the government would send a snowplough down the motorway to try and clear the bikes, but inevitably it would get stuck, so all the main roads were clogged with snowploughs as well.
I knew it had gotten quite bad when I found a bike in my bed. They’d been accumulating in the foyer of my block because there was no more room out on the road. Everyone was doing their best to keep the bikes around waist height in the street because any higher and the loose spokes and gears started giving you cuts on your torso, near your organs, which was generally thought to be more dangerous than getting them on your shins. So we let them inside.
We’re doing okay though. Once a week, a charity drops food down to us from helicopters. People said it wasn’t worth trying to remove the bikes because they were here now so we just needed to get on with it. I agree, we have to be adaptable.
I work remotely on the roof with everyone else from my block. We take turns using the internet which we get for one hour per day. I want to find out more about the bikes, but I also have to send work emails and call my son to check he has eaten. We get 90 minutes online at Christmas. Maybe I’ll do some research at the end of the year.
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