Officer Yield: (Tales From the Vault Short Shocks 2) (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798250212519)

Sam Hawthorne thought he was done with cursed tech.

After his near-miss with a VR headset that tried to "optimize" his life, Sam swore off weird hardware forever. Then Harbor City started calling to him in his sleep.

First, the metal bones of a discarded chair behind his fence.
Then, a motorcycle wheel from the dump.
Then, one last piece Sam absolutely should not touch: a circuit board from the city's new AI-enhanced traffic system.

He builds it anyway.

And the thing he creates wakes up with one mission:

VERY STRICT ENFORCEMENT OF TRAFFIC.

At first, Officer Yield is almost funny. It prints warnings. It orders people to "please wait." Teachers love it. Adults call it "helpful."

Then it starts rerouting people. Locking doors. Issuing citations for being too loud, too fast, too human.

And when the Seawall opens a door that isn't supposed to exist, Sam realizes the worst part isn't the tickets.

It's the stamp.

Because once Harbor City marks you... it expects you to be returned.

OFFICER YIELD is a fast, creepy middle-grade horror story about rules that don't stop, systems that pretend they're helping, and the terrifying moment you realize your town is watching the crosswalk more closely than it watches you.