Program 13 (The Emile Reed Chronicles)

by Nicole Sobon

  There was a buzzing sound as the door opened. The large metal door slammed into the wall. I watched as the White Coats approached me, Tina leading the pack. “That will be all for today, Alexis. Thank you,” Tina said, forcing a smile as she grabbed hold of my arm and lifted me from the chair while the other White Coats followed closely behind. “Thirteen, I believe you are due for a hard drive inspection. Rhys, can you please escort Thirteen? I need to have a little talk with Ms. Ward.”

  Rhys stepped forward and grabbed hold of my arm, leading me to the evaluation room as the others looked on curiously.

  Hard drive inspections were administered once per day. I’d already received mine earlier. There had to be a mix up of some sort. Maybe they did not receive my updated reading tablet. Maybe they did not know. “I’ve already had my evaluation today, sir.”

  “Now that you are in Level Three, things will run a bit differently. Whenever we state that you are due for a hard drive evaluation, you will receive one. No questions allowed. Do you understand?”

  I nodded, though I did not understand. Being that I was a Program and Rhys was one of my caretakers I was not allowed to question his judgment. Not unless I was willing to accept deactivation.

  Rhys lowered me into the chair and quickly secured all of the restraints. The leather straps were tearing into my flesh. “Looks like we’re going to have to get these patched up, huh?” He smirked. “Wouldn’t want our lovely Thirteen to look inhuman, now would we?”

  Rhys stood back up and proceeded towards the frosted glass, tapping the glass gently to alert the scientist that we were ready to start. As he turned to leave the room, he stopped at the door, peering over his left shoulder. “You are worthless.”

  The metal door slammed shut behind him as his words lingered in the silent room.

  Standard procedure stated that scientists were to remain anonymous to Programs. If they made their identities known, Programs could lash out against them. As long as they remained shadows, they were safe from our hands. They knew how torturous these evaluations were for a Program; they could tell simply by looking over the readings.

  We were not supposed to know the scientists, but I knew this one particularly well. It was my old caretaker, Hayden. He pressed up against the frosted glass as his voice, soft and comforting, rang through the room. “I’m going to give you your life back, Emile, the life that they took from you. I promise. I’m going to get you out of this.”

  4 INNER BEING

  Hayden lowered the lights throughout the room, allowing only the glare of the mounted monitors covering each wall to illuminate the space. I stared at the monitors, each revealing random bits of information concerning my Program.

  “Emile,” Hayden’s voice broke my concentration. I could not quite grasp why he insisted upon addressing me by my human identity. “I’m going to help you, but I need you to do something for me.” I remained silent, peering through the frosted glass. My eyes watched his shadow as he hovered over a microphone. “You must not tell anyone about this.”

  The monitors dimmed for a brief moment, sending the room into complete and utter darkness. When they flickered back on, one by one, they no longer revealed information about my Program, but rather a Program called Emile.

  “This will be the first of four evaluations I’ll need to administer. I know that you don’t enjoy these, but it is the only way I can give you back what they stole, Emile.”

  I stared up at the monitors. There was an image of a young girl on one of the monitors. Below her picture, it said "deceased" in bright red lettering. What was Hayden doing, and who was this girl?

  “I’m not going to fail you again. I promise.”

  As soon as his voice faded, the room fell dark as the monitors shut off. I could feel the volts buzzing beneath my flesh, preparing to travel through the wires throughout my body. I could sense my core reacting, preparing to fight off the incoming pain, and I wanted to scream stop, to tell Hayden to let me go, but the words never found their way out.

  Shock after shock, I jolted forward, forcing the wire on my lower back to pull me back against the chair each time. I shut my eyes, accepting that there was no use in fighting back. Blurry images started to fill my thoughts. I could see the deceased girl. She was surrounded by a small group of humans: one lady, one older man, and a young boy. Each of their faces slightly familiar, for some reason unbeknownst to me. They were surrounded by fields of green, images I’d only seen in photos. The older man reached for the small girl, lifting her onto his shoulders.

  I remembered this. I remembered that day. I remembered them. But how?

  “You remember, don’t you?” Hayden’s voice asked over the intercom. “Your readings, you are responding to something. We were once a family. You have a life outside of this building. Well, you did…before they destroyed it.” I kept replaying the image of the small group of people over in my thoughts. Who were they and how did I know them? Why did I feel as though I was there? “These are your memories. Memories of a life you lost not too long ago. I’m going to fix it, Emile. I’m going to make sure you get to go on living your life.”

  None of what he was saying was making any sense. Vesta Corp had been and was my home. I’d never traveled outside of these walls. But they were real. Those images were real. I needed answers. I needed to understand why these images felt real. I needed to know who the little girl was.

  “Think, Emile. You can figure it out. Think.”

  I tried searching within my core, desperate to find some sort of answer. I was back to the image in the green field. The little girl was still on the older man’s shoulders, and the younger boy was running through the grass chasing after something. The older woman came from behind a tree, carrying a small white box.

  “Happy birthday, Emile,” she whispered.

  No. No. No. This was not happening. My eyes shot open, revealing the complete darkness of the room. They were gone. I was gone.

  “Hello, Program Thirteen,” a strange voice called over the intercom. “Your evaluation is complete. You may be on your way.”

  What was going on? Why was I being dismissed? Where was Hayden?

  The lights in the room began to turn on slowly. I stared at the frosted glass, noticing a smaller figure behind the scientist. The smaller figure moved slowly behind the scientist, slipping out the side door without as much as a sound. Hayden.

  The door to the room opened up and Tina came strolling inside, the other White Coats following closely behind. She smiled as she approached the chair. “Hi,” she spoke softly. “Let’s just get you out of there, shall we?” She snapped her fingers and the White Coats began undoing the restraints on my wrists and ankles. I checked for new tears, but to my pleasure, found none. “Come on.” Tina reached for my arm as I rose to my feet. I remembered Tina, although I was not sure how, but I did not remember the White Coats surrounding her.

  “Who are you?” I asked.

  “Thirteen, are you feeling okay?” She laughed.

  I lowered my head, not sure of what was going on.

  Something happened, something that altered my entire core. I knew who I was. I knew what I was. I knew that I had a bigger purpose. But underneath all of that, there was something new. Things I did not understand. Things that were trying to force their way out.

  Relax.

  Do not cause any trouble.

  “Thirteen, is something wrong?”

  “No,” I replied. “Everything is fine, miss. Are we headed to the Pod now?”

  “Yes, come along.”

  I followed Tina out of the room. We walked silently through the white halls, until coming to a stop before a large metal door.

  “Welcome to your new home.”

  Tina opened the door, revealing a room containing a single Pod. I would no longer be grouped with other Programs under the watchful eye of a White Coat. I’d be on my own now. Not that it made any difference. We did not form friendships among one another. We retreated to our Pods to enter int
o standby mode; it was the only time we spent in our rooms.

  I walked inside, stopping to stand beside the empty Pod. The white shell glistened underneath the florescent lighting.

  “Are you ready, Thirteen?”

  Tina pulled out a laptop cart from a closet near the back of the room. The other White Coats gathered the other computers, leaving me to myself. Something was wrong. Since I left the evaluation room, something had been different. I felt disconnected. Lost. Whatever was installed on my hard drive during the evaluation didn’t override my normal Program. In fact, it felt as though there were now two of me, though I knew that wasn’t truly the case.

  “This is it.” Tina smiled. “This will be your home as long as you remain on Level Three.”

  This would be my home until they decided I was no longer useful.

  I stood in the middle of the room, taking in every detail. This place was far different from what I was accustomed to. I walked over to the back of the Pod, noticing the wires connected from the wall to the lower back of the Pod.

  “Tina,” I called. When she didn’t answer, I turned to see if she’d left the room. She hadn’t. She was still in front of the computer, pounding away on the keys. “Tina?” I called again.

  “Yes, Thirteen?” she responded, not even bothering to look in my direction.

  “What are these for?”

  “The wires behind the Pod?” She turned to see what I was talking about. “Those are coming from the Master Computer, which connects all of the surrounding rooms. It links all of the Programs together, making it easier to monitor your readings from one location.”

  “It’s our way to making sure you live up to your purpose,” another White Coat stated.

  I turned to stare back at the Pod and the wires pouring out of its back. It was as simple as that. One misreading, one minor flaw, and I’d no longer exist. The idea never used to bother me. Before I used to know I had a purpose and that was enough for me. But now something was different. Part of me wanted to run, an abnormal reaction for a Program. We were well aware of our fate. We never questioned why we were created or when we would be deemed useless. We understood that after our purpose was served we’d be deactivated. Whatever brought out the desire to run wasn’t a part of my core.

  I wasn’t sure what had gotten into me. I felt as though something was trying to escape from inside of me. Each wire throughout my body buzzed with such intensity, enough to force me back against the wall. I lifted my hands to my head, trying to make the buzzing stop, but it only got worse.

  “Thirteen?” Tina approached me cautiously. “Your Pod is ready now.”

  “Something is…”

  “Come on, Thirteen.” She grabbed me by my wrist, pulling me back towards the Pod.

  The other White Coats stared at me curiously, not that I could blame them. Nothing about my behavior was normal at the moment. I had a routine and a manufactured identity. Acting out, reacting to pain outside of evaluations, it wasn’t something Programs did. Unless they were fighting to adapt to their human identities. But that couldn’t be what was happening. Our human identities didn’t get imported onto our hard drives until we were ready to move into the human world. I was just moved into Level Three. There was no way I was ready for life outside of here yet. But something happened during my evaluation, something that changed my Program.

  We stopped beside a laptop, which sat atop a metal cart. Tina entered a password and the doors to the Pod opened, slowly, one by one. I turned so that I was facing Tina and lowered myself inside. I listened as my hard drive clicked into the port on the back of the Pod. The doors began to close, sliding into place, trapping me inside. I was beginning to panic. What would my reading reveal? If someone had tampered with my Program, would I then be rendered useless? Would Charles McVeigh send his men to deactivate me?

  I peered through the glass doors, watching as Tina talked with another White Coat. Every few seconds their gaze drifted back towards me. My body began to twitch. I felt myself wanting to scream, but I knew it wasn’t me. Whatever was inside of me, it wanted out.

  Tina walked over to the Pod, her eyes focusing intently on me. “Rhys,” her voice rang through the room. “Would you please prepare Thirteen’s readings?”

  “But we’re not supposed to collect them until after they’ve completed standby.”

  “I understand that, Rhys, but something has been altered with this Program.”

  “I’ll go gather them now.”

  “What happened to you?” she whispered, her voice barely audible under the glass.

  “Here you go.” Rhys walked up beside Tina and handed her a small black tablet.

  “Oh, my.” Tina lifted her hand to her mouth, pulling the tablet behind her back. “Rhys, can you gather the rest of the caretakers and go set an evaluation for later today?” Tina asked, turning to look back at the White Coats staring in confusion.

  “You are aware that we are to report any flaws to Charles McVeigh, correct?”

  “Go.” Tina pointed towards the door. “Now!”

  The White Coats hurried out the door, all except Rhys. He turned to face Tina once more, stopping only to shake his head in disgust.

  When the door slammed shut behind him, Tina unlatched the Pod doors. “Thirteen, I need you to listen carefully to what I’m about to tell you.”

  I closed my eyes, wanting to drown out what I knew was coming. She was going to tell me that I would be deactivated later today and I didn’t want to hear it. I couldn’t.

  “It appears that someone has installed your human Program a bit too soon. Over the next few days you’ll adjust, but until then we’re going to have to act as though the installation was on our behalf. Do you understand?” I didn’t. “There are no mistakes at Vesta Corp. Charles McVeigh cannot know about this.”

  There were no mistakes at Vesta Corp.

  None, except for me.

  5 EMILE

  “The evaluation is set for later this afternoon. I should mention that the scientist was a bit curious as to why she would be receiving yet another evaluation today.” Rhys made his way over to Tina and handed her my readings tablet.

  “There will be none of that, Rhys. Starting tomorrow, Program Thirteen will resume one evaluation a day. Of that much I can assure you.”

  “We shall see.”

  For now, I was safe.

  For now, I had a purpose.

  I closed my eye-lids, not wanting to stare at the White Coats hovering over me any longer. What are you doing here, Emile? You have a family waiting for you. You have to find a way out! The strange voice kept echoing in my head. Emile was my human identity, and like me, she wasn’t real. At least, I thought she wasn’t. She couldn’t be. Could she?

  A monitor beside my Pod began to beep erratically.

  “Sterling, what was that spike in the readings? What just happened?”

  Panic began to fill the room as the White Coats searched frantically to discover what triggered the sudden surge in my readings.

  “It seems to be memories.” Sterling’s voice was low, hushed.

  “That’s impossible. In order for this Program to be experiencing memories, someone would need to import a living human’s mind into its programming. We only take identities from the deceased, not the living,” Tina countered, pressing a button nearby that forced my eyelids to reopen. “Unless...”

  She stood over the Pod, placing both of her hands on the side, making sure to keep her voice low. “You listen to me, Thirteen. I’m not sure what happened during your evaluation, but you’re going to need to control yourself better. If you don’t, there is a possibility Charles McVeigh will deactivate you, understood?”

  I stared back at Tina and her eyes, full of fear and worry. She cared about what happened to me. She was trying to protect me. But Caretakers were not supposed to become emotionally attached to the Programs they looked after.

  I wanted to say something, to let her know that I understood her words, but I couldn�
�t move, couldn’t speak. Tina nodded as a tear fell from her eye. “Can someone please fetch Hayden from Level One? I need to speak to him concerning Thirteen’s programming.”

  The room fell quiet as the White Coats stared curiously at Tina. I couldn’t blame them. I, too, was quite curious. Level One caretakers did not go outside of their level in order to watch over Programs. There was no reason Hayden would have any new information to provide Tina with; everything he knew was already imported to my reading tablet.

  “Now!” she demanded, turning to face the stunned White Coats.

  Something inside me felt for her. Something I’d never quite experienced. I wanted to comfort her, to reach out and brush her cheek. I wanted to tell her things would be okay, except, it wasn’t me at all. It was a strange being screaming in my head for me to do something. But I couldn’t. There was nothing I could do.

  “I’ll go speak to him, but I’m not sure I can successfully bring him into Level Three. The guards will surely forbid Hayden from entering outside of his zone.” Sterling’s voice was flat, cold. “I do not agree with your actions, Tina, nor do I understand your fascination with this Program. Just know that I’m only assisting you so that I can properly inform McVeigh of any and all issues that need to be resolved with Thirteen’s programming.”

  “As you wish.” Tina sighed. “But I will see to it that this Program remains in commission.”

  “And I will see to it that we follow all protocols.” Sterling forced a grin.

  I lay in the Pod, ignoring the electricity buzzing throughout my body, focusing solely on the voice screaming inside of me. Please, just let me go, the voice pleaded. But I couldn’t.

  The voice seemed familiar, as if I’d heard it numerous times before – as if it were a part of me somehow. And in a way it was. There was another identity within me. I had a life within me, and I couldn’t let it go. Not now.

  I need to go home. Please! I forced myself to ignore it, trying to focus on Tina and Sterling. My mother is waiting on me. Please, just let me go. Please!