The blue light of the CRT monitor flickered against the peeling wallpaper of Elias’s basement. On the screen, a progress bar crawled with agonizing slowness.

Elias frowned. He moved his mouse, but the cursor moved on its own, clicking a hidden "Version 29" at the bottom of the list.

The hard drive clicked—a rhythmic, mechanical heartbeat. Outside, a storm rattled the basement windows. Elias took a sip of lukewarm coffee. He needed this to work. Old Mrs. Gable’s laptop sat on the bench next to him; it held her late husband’s memoirs, and the file system was so corrupted it wouldn't even boot into Safe Mode.

Write a where the OS spreads to his other devices.