by Kurt Petrey
“We still haven’t figured out how to turn the alarms off,” he bellowed.
She held her tongue and nodded. Her head was already hurting.
Ian tilted his head towards the other side of the room. “One of the guys found something that he thought you should take a look at.”
He led her towards another display … and another error message. She glared at him, nonplussed, her head pounding from the noise. “That's it? What exactly do you expect me to do here? It’s an error code. I don’t know what it means, and there aren’t any options on the display.”
All she wanted to do was run outside and go to her room. It would be quiet there. She could work at her desk and make progress from there.
“No, that’s not what I'm talking about,” Ian said, moving the display to the side.
A small device sat behind it, all powered up, a few lights blinking on and off. Other than the blinking, it didn’t seem to be doing anything at all, and it wasn't connected to anything. Chloe reached behind the display and put her hands around the device, then she slowly pulled it out and carried it to the table at the center of the room.
Trying to ignore the noise, Chloe leaned in and peered closely at the device. It was oval in shape, and strangely, it wasn’t made of the same material as everything else she'd encountered. Instead, it was covered with a hard, organic surface. A smaller device was attached on top, and it was lit and blinking. While she was intrigued, something about the thing made her uncomfortable.
She tried to talk louder than the blaring alarms when she looked back at Ian. “I don’t know what this is, but I don’t have a good feeling about it.”
A man she didn't recognize came up from behind and tapped Ian on the shoulder. “The people are getting aggressive,” he said quietly. “We need to tell them something, or they'll start getting physical again.”
Two days earlier, a small fight had broken out after Ian and Michael disagreed on priorities. That’s when Michael lost his access to the hallways. He has to stay in the main area with everyone else now. It’s better that way. Michael scared her more than Ian did. She still wasn’t sure who pulled that off. Ian clearly had little understanding of the software side of the system so it couldn’t have been him. Cade maybe?
Ian sighed, resigned. “Okay. I’ll head out there in a moment. I don’t know what I’m going to tell them, though. Can't Richard keep them settled?” The man shook his head, and Ian leaned back towards Chloe. “Can you please keep working on this? We need to figure out what it is and why it was here.”
She rubbed her head and nodded. “Okay. I’ll do my best.”
Chapter 4
Joshua
Joshua’s legs throbbed after the short, hundred foot walk from his room towards the meeting place. He hoped they wouldn't have to go much farther. Ashley was helping a little, but she had a small frame and seemed a little fragile herself.
“So,” he said, looking around, “everyone here woke up just like I did?”
Ashley nodded, and he grimaced, remembering the awful awakening. He took another couple steps then stopped to rest, his legs burning. He leaned against the curved wall, and Ashley stopped beside him.
“I'm having trouble with this, Ashley,” he said. “You're telling me that everyone I’m about to meet was asleep nine days ago?”
It felt more like a statement than a question, but Ashley answered with a nod. “Chances are you're not going to get much information here, either. Just a lot of arguing.”
After a moment, they started walking again, and the noise from the meeting area grew louder. Joshua’s legs started to give out, and he stumbled towards the ground, but Ashley caught him.
“A little slower, Josh. Remember, you just woke up, and you are still really weak. I know what that's like. I was there, too. You can’t push it, so let’s slow down, okay?” She sighed. “Actually, it might be better if we went back to your room. I can tell you later how the meeting goes.”
“No!” he cried, then immediately regretted his sharp tone. She didn't deserve that. “No,” he tried again. “I really feel that it's important to see this for myself. I have a lot of questions, and I need to talk to someone who can give me answers.”
He saw a flash of pity in her eyes, but it was kindly meant. “Okay. When you’re ready, we'll continue.”
Joshua nodded then stood straight. “I’m ready.”
It seemed like it took them another hour to get to the meeting, then they smelled it before they saw it. The salty stink of sweat and eight days of filth and fear bellowed into the hallway. When they stepped into the space, Joshua finally realized what Ashley was saying. At first he'd thought it was a small area, but once he reached the entrance it opened up to a much, much larger room. It was wide at the base and curved up to a smooth, flat top, and it reminded Joshua of the top of a sphere. It must have been fifty feet tall at the center and twice that in diameter, but it felt smaller due to the crowd of shouting, angry people.
“Give us something!” one man yelled over the noise. “We can all hear the alarm still going off!”
Someone else shouted, “What is the problem? Hasn't anyone made any progress?”
“Why aren’t you telling us anything?” another woman cried.
Joshua leaned against a wall for support and listened. Ashley pointed at a man waving his hands in the center of the crowd. He appeared to be the target of all the yelling.
“That's Richard,” she informed him. “He's in charge.”
He didn’t look like he was in charge of anything, from what Joshua saw.
Richard raised his hands and motioned for everyone to be quiet, but it took the crowd a while to settle. Even then, they were still so loud it was hard to hear his response. Needing to hear, Joshua started walking farther into the crowd. Ashley tugged on him, trying to keep him on the outskirts, but he pulled away.
“I can’t hear what he's saying.”
It felt like more than fifty people in the room, and he had to push through a few tight spaces, but Joshua was finally able to break through. His legs were killing him, but he was determined to find out what was going on. When he glanced back, he saw Ashley still stuck on the other side of a tightly packed group of people, and she was looking his way. It didn't matter. He could do this without her. He pushed in, making his way along the wall, getting closer to an open area where he would be able to lean against the wall and give his body a much-needed rest.
Something slammed into Joshua from behind, shoving him forward. When he recovered his balance, he turned to see what had hit him. A small, skinny guy lay on the ground, obviously too small to have pushed him that hard. Trying to ignore the pain in his own body, Joshua bent down and extended his hand.
“Don’t help him up!” a deep voice commanded, stopping Joshua mid movement. “He doesn’t deserve it.”
A very large man glared down at Joshua and the fallen man. The speaker must have been at least six inches taller than Joshua and a good foot wider at the shoulders. Ignoring the order, Joshua grabbed the skinny guy’s hand and pulled him up to his feet.
“I said don’t help him,” growled the big man.
If it came to a fight, Joshua wouldn't have a chance. “What did he do to you?”
The man puffed up a little.
With a monumental effort, Joshua stood strong—even though his legs were certainly going to collapse at any second. He didn’t move from the man, nor did he give any indication that he was going to back down. The smaller man accepted his help and struggled upright.
“Listen, I don't know much, but I can see you're angry. A lot of people are angry. I know there are a lot of questions, and no one seems to know what is really going on, but that doesn’t give you the right to be pushing people around.”
The big man's nostrils flared, cheeks flushed, fists clenched at his sides. He was obviously looking for a fight, some way to release his anger. Joshua would have to neutralize this situation quickly.
The crowd surged fo
rward when a door opened, putting three or four people between them.
“Let’s go now,” he said, motioning towards the skinny guy. “We need to put more space between him and us.”
The smaller man said nothing, but he followed Joshua across the crowd to the wall where he was finally able to sit on a crate against the wall.
“Thanks,” the small man said. “I’m Ethan.” He jerked his chin towards the big, angry man still shouting at Richard. “That’s Michael. You should stay away from him—especially now that you stood up to him. He’s going to want to make an example of you.”
Clearly, this guy was going to have to be dealt with. That attitude didn’t belong anywhere, much less in a confined space. “Hasn’t anyone stood up to him before?”
Ethan shrugged.
The door opened again, and a man strode through the crowd, accompanied by two Michael-sized men. The way this new man carried himself, he seemed to know what he was doing. He definitely seemed to be more in charge than Richard.
“That's Ian,” Ethan said.
The people around Ian gave way, allowing him to walk straight to the center of the room. He passed Richard, hardly acknowledging the man's presence, then he climbed onto a table. He raised his hands and motioned for everyone to listen. The crowd hushed.
“We have been working nonstop, trying to figure out what's going on. The truth is that we have information, but as of yet we still have no real answers.” He glanced down at a small display and tapped on it, then continued. “On the bright side, we’ve established a work-flow to better deliver the food, so meals should be prepared more regularly.”
“Why don’t you tell us the truth?” Michael roared. “Tell us you’ve wasted yet more time with nothing to show for it?”
A few people around Michael nodded, but their eyes were on Ian.
Ian raised his hands again. “I know we haven’t made much progress, and that isn't what you want to hear. I cannot change the fact that we have some challenges, but we're going to need to work together to solve this problem. If anyone here knows anything, or if you think you can help, please talk to Richard. Yes, this is going to take some time, and I'm asking for more patience. We will figure this out, but right now we just don’t have much new information to share. I will update everyone as soon as I know more.”
With that, he stepped down and started making his way back to the door. The crowd erupted in more angry cries and questions, but Ian didn't stop. For a few more harried moments, Richard tried to settle them down, but he was failing miserably. He eventually gave up and walked away.
Ethan's quiet voice softly chanted, “We're all going to die! We're all going to die!”
Disturbed by his words, Joshua's gaze went to the retreating Ian. So he was the one with the brains. As Ian pushed closer to the door near Joshua, he passed a short man tapping away at a small screen. The man looked up and stared at Ian for a moment, and Joshua got a glimpse of blue eyes so light they almost looked white.
A man from the crowd tapped the sphere next to the door, but the light turned red, meaning the door was locked. Joshua watched as Ian placed his own hand on the sphere, turning the light green. The door slid open, and the denied man tried to follow them through, but he was immediately identified by an announcement that rang through the surrounding area.
“Unauthorized personnel! Unauthorized personnel!” it blared, repeating itself until someone grabbed the man and threw him back into the crowd.
Not everyone has access, Joshua noted as he edged forward. That made sense. Ashley wasn’t able to come into his room. He had to allow her in. What made Ian different from everyone else? Joshua had the sudden urge to try for himself, to rush through and see what was happening behind the door. The door started to close, and Joshua braced himself then leaped through the opening. He hadn't planned for it to slide so quickly, and the door seemed about to close on him. To his utter surprise, it paused in the next moment then let him step through. The alarm didn’t go off. According to the system, Joshua was not an unauthorized person.
Chapter 5
Cade
Cade leaned against the wall and closed his eyes, thinking how foolish all these people were, arguing and fighting for no logical reason. And what was with Ian? The man was acting like he was in charge, like he knew what was going on. If only he knew how disastrous this situation was! If he did, Ian would be balled up in a corner somewhere, crying like it was the last day of his life. Then again, depending on how the next eight hours went, that very well might be true anyway.
He looked up when someone yelled, then he watched Richard wave his hands, trying to get anyone to listen to him. Richard thought he was the man in charge. Why? Well, that had been Ian's doing, and Cade had to give him credit for that. Ian hadn't wanted everyone to go to him with their questions or complaints, so he'd put Richard in charge.
The bigger question was why Ian would have been the man to go to in the first place. Was it because he'd woken up first?
Ryan was walking through the crowd towards him, grinning. He held up his display unit, showing Cade a picture. “The system found someone!”
The noisy crowd made it difficult to hear.
Cade glanced at his own display and viewed the picture up close. He did a search for security access level and saw the name, Joshua-147, with Access Level 1.
147, Cade thought. Another one. Now there are three of us. “That will have to do.”
“I also learned something else about the system,” Ryan said leaning in closer. “When it decides to assign someone an access level, it documents the reason why.” He tapped on Joshua's name then on an event’s link, which showed Joshua being hit by a guy from behind. They both watched as he stood up to Michael and protected Ethan.
“Fascinating,” Cade said. “It's like it can interpret our actions then use them to decide who is the best fit for specific purposes.”
This news was disturbing. It meant the system was far more intelligent than Cade had previously estimated. He was going to have to rethink his plans.
“We need Joshua.”
Chapter 6
Joshua
The door slid shut behind him, leaving Joshua in a long hallway, its curved walls and ceiling forming a sort of tunnel which led to the right. Everything here seemed to follow the theme of slopes and curves, he'd noticed.
Ian and his guards hadn't spotted him yet, so he followed them as silently as he could, though his labored footsteps echoed against the walls. Eventually his legs threatened to give out entirely, and he was relieved when the men finally entered a room. He paused outside the room to catch his breath then almost choked on a strange, chemically induced stench. Something about the room felt dirty, though he could see no reason why it would be that way.
He looked up and saw a label above the door, but he couldn’t make out any meaning to the letter structure. It was more like symbols than letters: four symbols with a series of dots. Curious, he stepped in front of the door, which opened and released a cacophony of noise. Ignoring the alarms, he walked into the room and stared in awe at the dozens of screens. A display on the far side of the room was blinking red, in sync with the loud, buzzing sound. A group of people were gathered around a screen with a flashing red light over it. His wandering gaze stopped on a monitor near the entrance. A half sphere was beside the door, and Joshua placed his hand on it.
The screen typed out, “Welcome Joshua. How many I assist you today?”
A button hovered beneath the question on the screen, so Joshua touched the button. Information appeared instantly before him, and he leaned in to read it. At the top right of the screen it stated his name, followed by the number 147 and his “permission class” which read, Class Level 1. Beneath that it gave his age. I’m twenty-five years old? he thought. Interesting. The center of the screen was occupied by a series of buttons, one of which read Alarms. After clicking on it, he was presented with two more buttons: Off and Lights Only. The On button was grayed out, so he cho
se Lights Only.
The sudden silence of the room was a physical relief. Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and looked at each other, then their eyes went to Joshua.
“What did you just do?” Ian demanded, walking towards him. “How did you get in here? And how did you turn the alarm off?”
Joshua frowned slightly, unsure if he'd just done something wrong. He pointed at the screen. “I logged into the system, chose Alarms here, then Lights Only. It looks like I can turn the alarm lights off too, if you want.”
“No,” Ian said, grinning now. “Let's leave them on. They're useful. The noise, though, well, that's been driving us crazy. Thank you!” He held out a hand. “I’m Ian.”
“I’m Joshua.”
“Joshua, can I ask you to please come here and sit with Chloe?”
A woman popped her head out from a nearby desk. “What?”
“Like you,” Ian said, “she has the ability to change some settings. Can you two work together and see what you can come up with?”
As he spoke, Chloe bounced toward them, her smile huge.
“Thank you so much,” Chloe said, “for turning that excruciatingly painful and obnoxious alarm off.” She offered her hand. “I’m Chloe.”
Somewhere in Joshua's mind, he saw a flash of memory, an image of the woman standing before him, though she looked somewhat different—older, maybe. And certainly dressed differently. The moment was over as quickly as it had come, and he blinked a few times, trying to hold onto the vision. Maybe this was part of the recovery process. Or maybe his mind was just playing tricks on him.
“And you are?” Chloe asked.
“Oh, sorry. I’m Joshua.”
At least he seemed to be in the right place for answers now. And suddenly people were looking at him differently, as if he'd done something important. Would he work with her?
Ian chuckled. “I'm with Chloe. Thanks for shutting that thing off. It'll be a lot easier to think now that it's quiet in here.” He glanced again at Joshua's name and numbers on the display. “Since you clearly have the right access level, I might as well give you the rundown. Maybe something you see or do will show us a little more about what’s going on around here. Let’s start with you telling me what you know, then we’ll go from there.”