But we were both still driving.

I pulled the backup from the cloud — an older version, from before the glitch. I lost my last twenty hours. Lost a perfect lap at the Goliath. Lost a custom livery I spent four nights designing.

Here’s a creative piece based on the concept of a Forza Horizon 5 save file — treating it almost like a digital artifact, a driver’s log, or a found document from within the game’s world. The Last Autosave Type: Short Fiction / In-Game Journal Entry File: FH5_SAVE_0401_DRIVER_ALIAS Location: Player Profile / Horizon Superstar Status: Active — Last Synced: [Unknown] I don’t remember when the music stopped.

The save file wasn’t the same. Neither was I.

My save file is 48.3 MB.

One moment, I was crossing the sand dunes east of the Baja Caldera, tires kicking up golden arcs, the radio blasting some upbeat electronic track. The next — silence. Just the engine. Just the wind through the cactus spines. Just the low hum of my console’s fan, spinning like it was trying to remember something.