Chapter 5: Much to be done...
Erik walked down the stairs with his phone in his hand, it glowed of a slight shade of blue; it had new functionalities, a decoder, what looked as a print scanner and now it had access to Alexander’s documents, or so he believed so. As soon as Helena saw him walk down the stairs she ran towards him.
‘You cracked it? What does it say? Is it a document? Can I see it?’ she said as fast as she could.
Erik smiled at her and put the phone in his pocket.
‘It’s not a document, it’s something bigger than we expected.’ explained Erik while he walked beside Helena.
‘That’s it? We’ve been trying to open up that plaque since the moment we found it, and you just say “it’s something bigger than we expected”?’ Helena was a little bit anxious.
‘Shine, this has given us a lot of trouble for the past few days, but now that we made a small advancement, we need more than ever to stop thinking about it.’ said Erik.
He was right, they dedicated basically every hour of the day they had to that plaque, to finding out what was it and why it behaved the way it did.
‘I guess you're right, I’m sorry, I think this has drained both of us.’
‘That’s true, weren’t you talking to a nice girl?’
Helena got a little disappointed.
‘I was, yeah, but, she was just bored because she was waiting for her boyfriend, so, I guess it was a solid failure.’ said Helena a little bit sad but trying to keep up.
‘Sorry to hear that Shine, but anyway, she’s the one who is losing’ said Erik, and Helena smiled a bit. Erik looked at the dancing floor and despite being a little past midnight most of the couples were still dancing, it looked that they weren’t planning on going soon.
‘Shine, I know I am practically your brother, and I am definitely not a girl, but, would you like to dance?’ asked Erik offering Helena a his hand. She grabbed his face with both her hands and squashed him a bit.
‘You are so cute when you blush, I would love to dance with you’ said Helena and they both walked towards the dancing floor.
It was a new experience, somewhat new, fresh, invigorating even, they made a great progress, and a very significant one, so that small relax time, was well earned.
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‘Marlene, you got anything?’ asked Scarlette while she looked at a bunch of screens in front of her.
‘Not for now Ms. Scarlette, no trace of the objective have been found nearby the facility.’ answered the human like female voice.
Scarlette was almost inhumanly organized, she was looking at the screens systematically, looking for any kind of difference, but everything remained the same.
‘Ms. Scarlette, your diagnosis has finished, would you like me to put it on the screen?’
Scarlette closed her eyes, they were burning a bit, probably because of all the time she stared at the screens. ‘Yeah, patch them through. They can’t be that bad.’
‘As you wish Ms. Scarlette.’
The bunch of screens swiped off to the left and a big screen appeared with some results from Scarlette’s diagnosis.
‘I would like to congratulate you Ms. Scarlette, you’ve successfully Resynchronized up to a third of the complete process, continued dosage might keep the process going. Although, I suggest you run some tests just to clear any risks.’
Scarlette didn’t say anything, she took a deep breath and turned around towards the exit.
‘I’ll be fine Marlene, shut down the Security Footage Override and initiate the Routine Protocol’ ordered Scarlette while walking out the S.G.S. room.
Scarlette walked through the white halls at an accelerated pace. It was certainly late and probably most of the students were already at bed. She took out her phone and made a diagonal line motion with it in front of her, a slight red line was drawn in the air and after that, a door opened.
She walked through and immediately the environment changed, as if she had entered a set of offices. The sound of people talking, computers and printing filled the air, it looked like everyone was doing a lot of work, a very busy day.
Scarlette finally walked out the offices and took the elevator two floors up, to the Principal office.
‘Principal, madame.’ said Scarlette as soon as she opened the door.
‘Yes, Scarlette, you may come in.’
Scarlette walked into the room and immediately the room turned slightly red, and Scarlette’s vitals could be seen behind the Principal’s desk.
‘I am impressed Scarlette, your resync seems to be improving.’
‘I know, no one has gone beyond the first trial effect’ said Scarlette a little annoyed.
The Principal made a disgusted expression, as if what she said irritated her.
‘Is that, an attitude I am getting from you Scarlette?’ said the Principal before concentrating really hard on Scarlette.
Scarlette started to feel inside the back of her head as if very thin strings started to pull her insides, the pain was sharp and stingy, but she resisted it.
‘I am sorry… madame…’ she said trying to hold back a pain screech.
‘You are a fine addition to the Academy Scarlette, and you know I only want what’s best for you’ said the Principal getting closer to her. The Principal examined her thoroughly, trying to find anything out of place, but everything was alright. The Principal turned around and faced the big monitor, Scarlette’s pain faded like it had never happened.
‘How are the night terrors? Any news?’
‘Yes madam, they’ve got a little bit worse…’
‘How come?’ asked intrigued the Principal.
‘They are not voices anymore, nor sounds, recently I’ve been seeing images, of places I know but I don’t remember going…’
‘Hmm, seems like you need to… rest. I’ll scheduled one of your weekly dosage in here, so I can keep an eye on you. You may go, Scarlette’ said the Principal before walking away. Scarlette walked out the room, the pain was still in the back of her head, not inside but in the surface, as if her skin had been peeled off before. she walked out into the hallway and stared at the window who faced the food court area, there were a few lights still on because of the party.
<<...You should’ve try the program first…
Those words she remembered were from someone else, it wasn’t her voice nor someone she could identify, and they could be heard as if they were from far far away, almost like if she was underwater. She tried to distract herself from those memories, so she ran one last diagnostic, just to be certain, even though she felt like she shouldn’t. Scarlette pulled her phone out and looked at it for a few seconds, it glimmered rapidly three times and two other times slowly, a number popped off on the screen “Dosage level: 12% Refill needed”.
Scarlette sighed heavily, she knew she had to take her dosage, but something felt off and odd about it, like if it was wrong to do so, but she did anyway.
From one of her pockets she pulled out a line of small blue-ish capsules, a line of four but three of them were already used, with one of her fingers, she pushed slightly the last one and then she rolled it underneath her left earlobe, like a cream.
It felt extremely cold, she could feel how it moved entirely all the way to the back of her head, as if a very crystallize cold liquid where in her veins. She got a small shiver down her spine and then she felt the coldness in her eyes. Scarlette got her mind together and then took a deep breath, the re synch wasn’t an easy task. She looked out the window of the building wondering if those voices meant something, why she remembered them.
Scarlette went to her room in the upper floor of the main building, that was where all of the professors and staff had a room for themselves if needed, but only the Principal and Scarlette had a room at the moment. It had the same arrangement as all the other rooms but this one had its own regulated temperature, to have a stable 25-27°C. She left her things at the side of the door and went straight to the bathroom, she looked at herself in the mirror, a brown haired girl looked back at her. She had very slight freckles in her nose and slim lips, they looked very well taken care of. The dosage was making an effect so she decided to sleep, it usually made things better. She got ready to sleep, laid down on her bed and stared at the ceiling for a couple of minutes, everything was silent, completely silent. Eventually her vision started to get blurry, but instead of not being able to focus, she started to see everything in a shade of red, a very dim and dark red, her eyes got cold and then, she fell asleep.
Her body felt numb and almost like if it floated, she wanted to open her eyes but it was impossible. She decided to calmed down, her body was completely immobilized but her mind was wide awake, she concentrated a lot on opening her eyes, but they stayed closed. Scarlette stopped thinking for a bit, she let go of her body and let it stay like that, floating in the abyss of her sleep. The floating was gone short after, and the numbness was away too, so she tried opening her eyes again, and she did…
In front of her there was the main building path that lead to the food court, there were other students around her, minding their own business, but she could notice that their faces were, blurry, she couldn’t recognize any of them. Scarlette took a look at herself, she was wearing a black hoodie that was clearly not hers since it was quite big, she got a small handbag and some wristbands she didn’t remember having. Everything was confusing, but she stayed calm, she knew she had to go somewhere, so she started walking. Scarlette could recognize all the buildings but none of the people around her, she got passed the fountain near the first row of stores and walked down the path that led to the back of the Engineering wing, but things started to get… odd.
Things started to change places or disappear completely, everything got engorged in some kind of white fog, very dim and cold to the touch. Scarlette noticed a human figure in front of her, it was just, staring at her, she tried to touch it but it moved away quickly so she started chasing it through the fog. The figure kept getting away until Scarlette started to feel the numbness again, her body got dizzy and after a small turn around, everything got black again.
There it was again, the same voice that she had been listening, so dim and distant. She didn’t recognize it, but it was in her head. Scarlette opened her eyes, it was around 8am, the sun was already up on the Academy grounds, she got up and got ready, there was still much to be done…
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‘Erik, if you don’t stop moving this ain’t going to fit’ said Caitlyn a little bit irritated. Erik got a new jacket from his parents but it was slightly bigger, so Caitlyn offered to fix it. She was going around Erik like a little bug, going to every inch to fix whatever was wrong, Christopher was in the kitchen’s bar, he was finishing a programming work so he had his laptop out and some other notes around.
‘Sorry Cait, is just that, some of the needles are really close to my skin, it’s a basic reflex to stay away from sharp objects you know.’ said Erik trying his best to stand still.
‘Yeah, I know… ok I think I finished, you can take it off.’
Erik took off the jacket and handed it to Caitlyn, he had been standing up for about an hour, so he went to the kitchen to walk a little bit. Suddenly the door of the room opened, it was Helena, she had some grocery bags and a couple of books, she was wearing rather formal clothing, which was basically the Academy clothing but with only gold accents instead of the usual red and white.
‘Hi everyone, sorry I’m late, my presentation got delayed due to some technical issues but everything went fine.’ said Helena while taking of her shoes, she looked quite relieved when she did.
‘So, they liked your presentation? Maybe it will be in the next edition of the Academy Beginner Course’ said Caitlyn excited since having a presentation in the Academy Beginner Course was a very big deal, you practically became a professor or at least someone able to be a professor.
‘I don’t really know, it was a very simple reprogramming and arranging system, I think they liked it though. By the way, Erik, I bumped into Professor Jennifer at the grocery market, she asked me to tell you if you could go see her at her office this afternoon, she said it was important.’
Quite unusual, Erik was taking Micro-biology with Professor Jennifer but she never asked him to go meet her at her office.
‘Huh… I wonder why she would like to speak with me, thank you Shine’
The four friends got ready for a quick study session, presentation time was here and since they were newbies they were required to do it, so they wanted to be ready.
Erik was the first one, as usual, to finish Helena’s little recap quiz, he got his things and walked to the Biology wing near the pond to go see Professor Jenniffer, he was still curious to why she asked to see him, he didn’t recall doing anything wrong in her class nor his presentation.
He entered the last hallway at the end of the Biology building and went straight to the offices, most of them had someone in there working on something. Erik walked to office number 11 and knocked the door, but no one answered.
‘Professor Jenniffer, are you in there? It’s me, Erik.’ he said a little bit loudly so his voice could be heard at the other side of the door, but no one answered.
Odd, quite odd, Erik moved the door knob and it was unlocked so he opened the door. Her office was exactly like he remembered, desk facing the door, bunch of books on one side and a computer monitor on the other, bookcase behind the desk with papers and some instruments, but there was something… out of place.
The lamp was on, very near to the desk, below it, only a small piece of paper, Erik grabbed it, but it had a bunch of numbers, it looked like gibberish, on the lowest part of the paper, there was a word.
«Dcd.exe? Why a program?» asked to himself Erik, but he remembered something, he took out his phone and pressed the settings option and under the mode option there was an additional one.
The decoder option was lighten up, so he clicked it and the screen got completely transparent. Erik looked at the paper through the screen, the numbers started to make sense, they were letters.
“Meet me at the fountain near the food court. I got information about your brother.”