“Maybe I ride, maybe you walk
Maybe I drive to get off, baby”
The story emerged from a creative collaboration between Luis Cermeño and Francesco Vitola Rognini, who combined their visions of sci-fi and dystopian storytelling. Using ChatGPT’s writing assistant and translation tools, they refined their narrative, shaping a cyber-noir tale of redemption, AI, and time travel.
Chapter 1: Echoes of the Unknown
The first headline appeared on March 12, 2045. The journalist, a young woman with a sharp voice and a rehearsed smile, spoke with a mix of disbelief and sensationalism. It was the kind of story media editors love: absurd enough for clickbait, yet with just the right touch of mystery to avoid outright laughter.
—Strange sightings in San Francisco: a ghost car linked to an apparent blackout at the Apex laboratory…
Cyber-surveillance cameras showed the facility from above, the metallic glow of the ruined city reflecting off the lab’s shattered windows. The journalist continued:
—Reports indicate that the blackout prevented an experimental system of autonomous drones from going out of control. Employees describe it as a miraculous event. But the most unsettling part is this: the cameras captured a silver Nissan Sentra parked not far from the scene. Minutes later, when power was restored, the Sentra had vanished.
That night, social media exploded. Videos, theories, memes. Some took it as a joke—“The Ghostly Sentra,” read a tweet with hundreds of thousands of interactions. Others didn’t find it so funny. There was something about the cold, mechanical tone of the footage, the way the Nissan seemed to glide out of frame just before the lights returned, that chilled the blood, like a scalpel slicing through the video. It wasn’t the only incident.