‘Let’s see, my contact said that she will meet you near the Emergency wing entrance, that’s over here.’ said Christopher while pointing out a small corner near a building in a wide handmade print out of the Clinic area.

‘She’s willing to help us out, but we are going to need a courier, that’s where you’re in Erik. You and Helena need to stall the staff long enough for my contact to retrieve the blood sample, give it to you, and be sent back home.’ finished instructing Christopher, he looked completely excited and confidant.

‘Ok, yeah I can do that, but… was all this necessary?’ asked Erik while looking at the “map” Christopher made up, as well as the small clay balls that were supposed to represent them.

‘Not really, but I like doing this. Anyway, Helena, you’ll be the sick one. Fake a few symptoms of flu or something.’

‘Will do, I have my fake coughs in check’ said Helen while saluting Christopher in a military way.

‘Don’t you think this is, a little bit over planned?’ asked Erik to Caitlyn.

‘Yeah I do, but I like him when he does this, he once made an entire schedule for a 20 minutes date.’  explained Caitlyn with a soft smile, as if the memory of that brought joy to her.

Erik found that rather cute, but there were other matters at hand.

Christopher picked up his blueprints and stuff from the table and proceeded to talk with Helena, they had some things to discuss about the ways she could stall the Clinic staff.

He stood up and walked towards the big window of Helena’s room, he needed some fresh air to think things through. Erik looked at all the other students at the distance, they were minding their own business, maybe studying or just hanging out, but there were so unaware of the situation they were under. Erik couldn’t get his mind around the idea that everything was fine and that the Academy was the best option for everyone, there was something wrong, and he couldn't believe only them knew about all of this.

He stared outside for a couple of minutes, the wind blew and the coldness was clearly visible, he sighed and turned around towards his friends.

‘Guys… we are ready to do this… right?’ Erik asked with a somewhat insecure air.

The three friends look at each other, they smiled and looked back at Erik. Helena stood up and hugged him.

‘We will always be ready to help each other out.’ she said still hugging him.

Erik hugged her as well.

‘Thanks guys, we should get going.’

The four of them took their things and walked out of the main dormitories, they decided to go to one of the studying rooms near the Clinic, they were small rooms in which you could study, they had a few computers, a big screen and chairs.

‘Erik you’ll be needing this…’ said Christopher while handing Erik an earphone, it was small and almost transparent. ‘...this way we can communicate with you once your inside.’

‘Uhh, Christopher… this is not a spies movie’ said Erik while putting the earphone in its place.

‘C’mon dude, let me have some fun, besides, I made this myself and I’m going to use them.’ said Christopher quite enthusiastically. ‘You hear ok?’ he asked, but Erik felt the abrupt sound in his ear, almost as if someone had screamed inside of it.

‘I hear you… just… turn it down a little, ok?’ said Erik while trying to cope with the small pain in his ear.

The four friends gathered around the table and reviewed the steps for the plan, there were 10 steps, which Erik summarized to just three, get in, get blood, get out, as simple as that, but Christopher had sub-plans and alter-plans. Caitlyn was putting small patches of warm water on Helena’s forehead and cheeks, they were extremely thin and almost invisible on Helena’s skin. ‘This should be enough to make them think you have a small fever, although I don’t know what you can do if they measure her body temperature.’ she explained. Erik still thought all this was over elaborated, but it was going to get the job done.

‘Looks like our contact is in position, so let’s move out, and by that I mean you two’ said Christopher while pointing towards Erik and Helena.

‘Let’s get this over with, we need to know why that guy doesn’t remember anything.’

Erik and Helena walked out of the studying rooms and walked toward the Clinic, Erik had never been in there, of course when he was little he went to a Clinic, but they were small and made to take care of minor health problems. Erik and Helena walked straight towards the entrance, they looked rather stiff though.

‘Guys you look a little suspicious, try acting more naturally’ Christopher said by the earphone.

Erik got a little bit closer to Helena and relaxed, he was a bit nervous, he didn't want to get caught.

‘Cool, now, when you get to the door, there should be an ID reader near the lock, slide Helena’s ID, we can’t let the Principal know you are involved in all this Erik.’

Erik took Helena’s phone and got it near the door lock, a small beep sounded and the door unlocked.

‘Guys, from now on you are your own, I’ll try to get your position from the Student Class Platform, but I won’t have live feed, Helena, stall as much as you can and Erik, the name of our contact is Rosenflower, Dakota Rosenflower. Good luck, and see you soon.’ said Christopher before they entered the Clinic.

As soon as they walked past the entrance, Helena started coughing, and posed her head over Erik shoulder, holding him as if she couldn’t stay up by herself.

‘What are you doing Shine?’ asked Erik in an amused way, Helena was being melodramatic.

‘I’m supposed to have the flu, remember? Now hold me and get a nurse.’ answered Helena trying to hold back her laughter.

Erik hold Helena with his left arm, and walked past a bunch of patients towards the waiting room. The Clinic looked, immaculate, everything was white and completely cleaned. They arrived at a big room, that had a bunch of lines of chairs, a few plants and on every side a set of double doors. At the other end of the room there was a reception desk, so they headed there.

There was a lady taking the patients, she looked tired, like she would rather be somewhere else.

‘Hello, how can I help you?’ greeted the woman by the desk.

‘It’s her, I believe she catched the flu, she’s been like this since yesterday, but we thought it’ll go away today.’ said Erik, with a completely different tone he usually had, he sounded sad and worried.

Helena coughed a bit and shivered. Had she been practicing?

‘Can I have her ID please? I’ll send a nurse to check on you honey. You may take a seat.’ said the lady while Erik handed her Helena’s ID.

They waited for about a minute before a nurse approached them. Helena tried her best to look, well, ill, and Erik did his best being worried.

‘Silvershine, correct? Come with me, we’ll check your vitals.’ said the male nurse while walking towards a set of rooms near the Emergency wing. The nurse looked rather young, roughly a year or two older than Erik. They entered a small room that had a bunch of instruments and drawers. Helena sat down in one of the two chairs there were, she kept coughing.

‘Well, you do look sick, and…’ the guy posed his hand in Helena’s forehead. ‘you clearly have a small fever. Don’t worry, we’ll fix you right up.’ said the guy in a… well, flirtatious manner .

Erik felt like he had to say something, so he did, rather impulsive coming from him.

‘A few pills should do the trick, right?’ asked Erik, while putting his left hand on Helena’s shoulder, almost as if he wanted to protect her.

The guy quickly looked at him, he seemed surprised. ‘Sure, some pills to lower her fever would be enough… are you her… boyfriend?’ asked the guy in a very doubting way.

Erik was about to say something but Helena was way faster.

‘Yes, he is my boyfriend. *Cough, cough* it’s ok sweetie.’ said Helena with a soft smile, she looked extremely cute. Erik looked at the guy one last time before letting go of Helena’s shoulder. The guy took out some papers and a pen.

‘Ok, we have to fill some files so we can get you that medicine. In the meantime, please take this token to one of the doctors outside so they can get it out the depot.’ said the guy handing out Erik a small plastic rectangle with the name of a drug on it.

Erik looked at Helena one last time before leaving, ‘I’ll be fine sweetheart, you go now’ she said in a tender voice. Erik could notice the guy was clearly irritated, he enjoyed that.

He walked out the small room and went straight to the Emergency wing. He started looking for Dakota, Christopher’s contact, among the bunch of patients and doctors, he couldn’t see anything though. Erik took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and opened them again, now everything was different, he saw the people moving and talking and breathing, but it was as if everything was in black and white. First he had to find anomalies in the big system of the Clinic, something out of place, so he prioritized patterns, patients never moved without a doctor or nurse, so he eliminated the fact of Dakota being a patient, she had access to the blood sample, but since a nurse handed him a token to retrieve a medicine, that meant nurses couldn’t get full access to the Clinic so nurses were a no go. That left only the doctors, the ones with the white coat, now, the life of a doctor is not easy, always on the move, never stopping and sometimes not even sleeping, that means that if someone was waiting for him it had to be someone who’s not moving, and a woman, since Christopher mentioned “Her name is Rosenflower… Dakota Rosenflower…”. That left him with three possible options, there was a doctor near one of the pot plants closest to the elevator door, a second one talking with a receptionist and a third one having lunch on the back of the receptionist area. Dakota knew Christopher, and was willing to help them even if that meant risking her job so it had to be someone around their age, so that eliminated the one having lunch, she looked quite matured, around her 40’s maybe. Only two other options were left, a redhead one and a blonde one, now, Erik could know which on is Dakota by reading the name on her white coat, but they were too far, and it would look very suspicious if he managed to get the wrong one. Huh, the coats… that was a good starting point, most doctors white coats were worn almost for an entire day, so that meant that on the edges of the sleeves and the lowest part of the coat would be worn out in a certain degree. Both girls looked young, but one of them had a whiter coat than the other, Erik got closer to have a better look and effectively, her coat looked quite new, used a few times but not enough to be worn out of the sleeves and edges. It was the redheaded girl near the elevator door, she was the only one who looked like she was expecting someone, she ignored her phone a few times and it looked like she had a small tick in her left hand, she was tapping her fingers with her thumb rhythmically. Finally Erik was close enough to see her coat name, “D. Rosenflower” it said with dark brown letters…peculiar…she tastes like peaches…

‘Excuse me, hi…’ greeted Erik to get Dakota’s attention. ‘A nurse gave me this, and he said that a doctor could get it for me.’ he said while handing her the small token.

‘Sure, right this way please’ she said walking and signaling Erik to follow her, so he did.

They got to the reception area and Dakota got behind the counter.

‘Hello Gladis, can I have the key for the depot? I have a fever medicine I need retrieved.’ said Dakota while grabbing a small key from the desk.

‘Sure, just remember that we changed the the lock, so it might be a little hard to turn.’ said Gladis, the receptionist, without looking at Dakota.

Erik followed her for a while, they took the elevator and went a floor down. Some doctors were along the way, discussing diagnosis and medicine stuff. Erik had no clue where he was going but took no care on it. They got to the depot but instead of opening the door, Dakota dragged him inside one of the vent maintenance rooms.

‘You are Christopher’s friend, right?’ she asked a bit anxious. She looked a bit accelerated.

‘Yes, I am Erik Redwood, you can get us the blood sample, right?’ asked Erik going straight to the subject.

After hearing those words Dakota sighed loudly, she felt a sudden relief.

‘Sorry, I thought I got the wrong guy. And there’s a small problem with that.’ said Dakota while verifying that the door was closed.

‘What do you mean?’ asked Erik, what did she mean with “a small problem”?

‘The blood sample, a group of S.E.A.L.P directives came earlier today and took it, all of them actually.’ answered Dakota, Erik was clearly confused.

‘They took all the blood samples? Why?’ it didn’t make sense to Erik, why all of them?

‘No, no, they took all the blood samples from that day. But before they did I took a look at it.’ claimed Dakota.

‘And what did you find?’ asked Erik to her, he didn’t want to seem desperate, but, well, he was.

‘I want in’ said Dakota.

‘What? In? In on what?’ Erik was really confused now.

‘All of this, I know that there is something wrong about this place, and I know you know it too. Don’t you feel out of place?’ she asked him, and well, he did, from the moment he entered the Academy he felt odd, out of place even when the Academy made everything to make him feel at home, he knew there was something wrong. But how could he do this? get her involved in all of this without knowing the consequences. Erik had to think this through.

‘Ok, we have to go, let’s get the medicine and get out of here, we need to discuss this elsewhere, we can’t afford being caught.’ said Erik, he had a plan.

They walked out of the room and opened the depot, it had a very organized medicine cabinet, Dakota placed the token on a small surface and the medicine she was looking for shined. They were ready to go but they needed to get Helena so they took the elevator and went to the rooms near the Emergency wing.

Erik looked for the nurse and Helena, he found them on the same room, but the guy was clearly hitting on her so Erik jumped in.

‘Here’s the medicine’ he said as soon as he entered the room.

The guy clearly got surprised and stood up immediately, Helena was still faking a few coughs and when she saw Erik she felt a great relief. The guy was very clingy.

‘We gotta go Shine’

‘Oh oh, sure, she’ll be ok, a pill every 24 hours  should be enough’ said the nurse.

Dakota entered the room with her coat off, she was wearing a purple blouse.

‘It’s ok Gavin, they are with me, tell Gladis I had to go, ok?’ she said while Erik and Helena walked out the room.

‘Wait, D, you leaving?’ asked Gavin rather surprised.

‘It’s my day off remember? And for the last time, don’t call me “D”.’

‘Oh ok, hey when my shift is over would you li…’

‘Gavin, seriously, I don’t date guys, goodbye.’ finally said Dakota and walked out the room with Erik and Helena.

The three got out of the Clinic and went straight to where Christopher and Caitlyn were waiting for them.

As soon as they got into the room Caitlyn and Christopher got surprised, they didn’t expected Dakota to be with them.

‘There’s been a slight change of plans, these rooms are soundproof, right Christopher?’ Asked Erik as soon as he came through the door.

‘Uh… yeah, yeah… both ways, outside and inside, why?’

‘I need you project something, anything.’ Erik was a bit accelerated.

‘What are we going to do again?’ asked Caitlyn, clueless of what was going on, like everyone else.

‘Take a seat, we need to emulate a study session so we can talk this without raising suspicion.

Everyone took a seat on the front row of the room, there was a video about cellular splicing in the background.

‘First of all, Dakota wants to join us, I honestly didn’t know what to tell her, so I think it’s best if we discuss this together.’ said Erik standing up in front of everyone else.

‘I know this is a little bit rushed, but hear me out, I know that there is something wrong with this place, everything is just… too perfect. Don’t you feel it?’ asked Dakota. There was a mixed amount of desperation and fear on her words.

‘Now that she mentions it, I do feel like something is wrong, sometimes I feel like I am being watched.’ confessed Caitlyn, the only thought of her being watched gave her shivers.

‘You know, sometimes I feel like I never want to leave this place, but the next day I feel out of place.’ Chrostophet was always a pretty down to earth guy, so him feeling out of place was indeed odd.

‘I think we all do, and it’s not only that, even the place feels uneasy, the food court serves almost perfect food, our rooms are a little bit too comfortable, I don’t know why, but it scares me.’ added Helena a bit scared.

‘Yeah, I’ve felt all that too.’ said Erik, and he did felt that too, the Academy got basically everything, dormitories, movie theaters, grocery stores, sport courtyards, and all that felt, a little bit too perfect, as if they wanted the Academy to be the perfect place for everyone.

‘I want to help you, please let me help you.’ Dakota was determined, she wasn’t going to stay quiet and do nothing, but she couldn’t do that alone.

‘Dakota, are you sure of this? We don’t know what we are up against, I can’t promise you you’ll be entirely safe.’ Erik said this a little bit hurt, he wanted to protect everyone, but he didn’t know what destiny had for them.

‘I want to do this, for me, and for my parents.’ she said completely sure of herself.

‘Ok, I guess we are together in this then. Can you tell everyone what you know about the blood sample?’ Erik sat down so Dakota could stand up and talk.

‘Sure. Ok, uh… right, this morning someone came with a fainted patient to the Emergency room. He was completely knocked out, they said he fell from the stairs, but he didn’t have any bruises so I knew something was wrong. When I took his blood sample I did a quick test on it to see what happened to him, and he was pretty normal, the thing is that it looked like he got a pretty large dosage of  propofol and other sedatives.’ explained Dakota.

‘Propofol? That’s found on Anesthetics.’ said Helena.

‘Exactly, and as far as I know only the ACC has authorization to use Anesthetics, the guy was pretty stoned.’

‘Hmm, that would explain the guy’s memory loss. Some kind of Anesthetics sedate the brain and flood the memory bank, so his memories must be blurry.’ explained Erik.

You talked with the guy?’ Dakota was a little confused.

‘We did, but he said that he fell from the stairs and a nurse took him to the Clinic.’ said Christopher.

‘Yes, everyone believe the same story, but we know another version of it.’ Said Caitlyn while standing up from her seat.

‘You know what happened to him?’ asked Dakota, she was surprised knowing there was another version.

‘Yesterday the guy and someone else were talking in the room next me, they woke me up. Then I heard him leaving, so I tailed him for a while, he walked to the far end of the green area and then a drone appeared. It started asking him questions, but when he failed to answer he got shot, and fell to the ground, after that the drone took him out of there.’ explained Caitlyn, she looked disturbed by all of it.

‘The drone ignored you?’ asked Dakota.

‘No, I fell trying to stop him from spotting me, maybe the drone couldn’t find me because of that.’

‘I thought they were made up…’ said Dakota under her breath.

‘Made up?’ Erik was confused.

‘Yeah, made up, in the clinic  when I started my practical sessions, the old students told us a bunch of stories about the CED’s, Control Environment Drones. Nobody had seen one recently, but they said that if one appears at the clinic, big trouble and even a tragedy may occur.’ Dakota was really startled, she couldn’t believe they were real, they seemed so, impossible until a few moments ago.

‘They must be controlled by the S.E.A.L.P., that’s why they were able to sedate the guy.’ theorized Christopher.

‘That means that the S.E.A.L.P. has a very tight protocol, and for specific situations…’ Erik was thinking.

‘What do you mean?’ asked Helena.

‘The CED’s are like the Elite of the security system, they only operate when a certain situation pops up, something Clinic worthy, that’s why everyone at the Clinic relate them to tragedy or trouble.’ explained Erik, but there was something that wasn’t adding up.

‘Wait, if the guy situation was enough for a drone to pop up, why did someone brought the guy to the clinic and not the drone itself?’ asked Dakota, and she was right, if the guy triggered the Drone, and Caitlyn saw it happen, why did someone brought the guy to the clinic?

‘Maybe they did it that way in order to prevent suspicion?’ suggested Caitlyn.

‘Makes sense… but why? I don’t understand, this is all so confusing.’ said Erik before sitting down.

Erik was stressed, very stressed, every time he thought they had answers something popped up and everything just left more questions than answers. There was something wrong, and he felt it up to the bone, but why? What was it? Was it because of his brother? Because of the Principal? There was something or someone preventing them from knowing what they wanted to know?Whyrightnow?whywhywhywhy?

‘...Erik!’

Erik opened his eyes, Helena was beside him, did he just dissociated?

‘Hey are you ok? You stood there for like five minutes without saying anything.’ asked Helena a little bit worried.

‘Yeah, I am ok. I’m just… tired I guess.’ said Erik.

‘Well guys, I know we have a lot of information to process so, let’s finish for today.’ proposed Christopher, everyone looked really worn out.

‘I think it is for the best’ said Helena.

The group took their things and headed to their respective dormitories, Dakota was on the B wing of the female section so Caitlyn and her were close to each other. Helena and Erik had a small dinner together which Helena made to help Erik sleep better. And after the usual ‘Good night Shine’ and ‘Goodnight sweetie’ of always, Erik laid on his bed looking at the ceiling for quite a long time.

He still couldn’t understand everything that was going on, but someone had to. After a few minutes staring at the ceiling he decided to check up on his phone.

The screen showed no changes, but now there was a new symbol over the “Locator” widget, it looked like a small house.

Erik pushed the widget and proceeded to see the available options for it. On the “Settings” tab there was now an option that stated.

“Define Home Configuration” and a single location was registered.

Erik was curious, so, he clicked the option and expected to see the Main dormitories as his “Home” but it wasn’t… the app had a place deep within the woods as the defined Home.

Erik clicked the location and the phone immediately change to camera mode. Erik stood up and looked through the camera, there was a very thin blue line on the floor. Erik followed the line and it lead to the exit. This was too much to keep it silent, so he immediately went to Helena’s room.

She was asleep, deeply actually, she looked so peaceful, but it was something important.

‘Shine, Shine… Wake up, c’mon…’

‘What is it, are you ok?’ she said still very asleep.

‘Shine, you gotta see this’ said Erik while giving his phone to Helena.

‘A photo?’ asked her.

‘No no, look to the floor’

The shiny blue line was still there.

‘It’s a locator? This is not the Academy app, is it?’ asked Helena, she was now more awake.

‘No, I just noticed it now, it leads outside.’ Explained Erik, but Helena was already up and getting her blonde hair on a ponytail.

‘What are you doing?’ asked Erik.

‘We have to follow it, it has to lead somewhere right?’ She said before grabbing a hoodie and walking outside the room.

Erik went for his hoodie as well, he was about to follow something blindly, but he had nothing to lose, not anymore.

Caitlyn woke up with a slight headache and a minor cough. She had a class in a few minutes, but all she could think of was about what she saw earlier today. Had it been a dream? No, it wasn’t , she had a small bruise in her left ankle reminding her of how she fell to the woods floor, so yeah, it definitely happened. She got ready and walked out the Female wing to her classes, but when they were over, she was going to tell everyone about the guy in the woods.

Later that day…

‘So here’s where you fell?’ asked Christopher while inspecting the area.

‘Yes, I fell here and the guy was standing over there near the wall.’

Erik and Helena were standing near the wall looking at it, it looked like a normal wall, but there was something odd about it. Christopher walked alongside the wall for a while, but it looked like it continued all around the academy.

‘Hmm, something it’s not right…’ said Erik while staring at the wall.

‘What is it? You see something?’ asked Caitlyn, she was talking with Helena.

‘No, the wall looks like it’s made of metal but… it feels different.” And indeed it felt different, it was more like a very smooth and almost living texture, it felt odd.

‘You know, the guy mentioned something about a “reset”, “the system resets at 5” or something.’ said Caitlyn while getting near the wall. ‘Also, when the sun came out I saw as if the wall glowed.’

A wall that glowed? Rather specific.

‘Shine, do you still carry that mirror with you?’ asked Erik without taking his view off the wall.

‘I think so…’ she looked for a while in her pack ‘...here it is. What for?’ she asked while giving Erik the small hand mirror.

‘You are thinking the same as me?’ asked Christopher.

‘I think I am, yeah’ said Erik a little curious.

Christopher handed his bag to Caitlyn, ‘Hold it for me baby’ he said, and then  proceeded to climb a tree, not to high, but enough to move some branches to let the sun come out from between the dense foliage. Erik took the mirror and used it to reflect the sunray into the wall, he moved it around until a single spot glowed.

‘There it is! Don’t move.’ said Helena, and Caitlyn proceeded to get close.

‘Can you see anything honey?’ asked Christopher from the tree.

‘It looks like a screen.’ Caitlyn couldn’t see very well, it appeared as if the screen were behind a transparent and very dirty wall.

‘Does it say anything?’ asked Erik.

‘Module 150? It says “Lockdown”’ there was more things on the screen but they were unreadable, Caitlyn struggled enough to even make sense of the things on the screen.

‘Module 150… does that mean there are other screens like this one?’ asked Helena, she took out her notepad and write down something.

‘Maybe that was what the guy referred to when he said it was going to reset, but I am not sure.’ Erik put the mirror down and sat on a nearby log, he was thinking.

‘I think you can come down now honey. I don’t want you to hurt yourself.’ said Caitlyn to Christopher, who was still up on that tree.

‘Don’t worry babe, it’s like a walk through the park, I’ll be down in no time.’

Helena sat down alongside Erik, he looked troubled, very troubled.

‘Are you ok?’ asked Helena while she moved some of Erik’s long hair out of the way of his face.

‘Yes, is just that… everything feels so, out of place. Yesterday we learned that the S.E.A.L.P. hides information not only from students, but from its staff as well, and now Caitlyn sees someone trying to flee, terrified and stalked by a drone, it just doesn’t make sense.’ Why would the Academy itself hide information from previous students to professors and students alike? Why would that be important?

‘I am not sure, to be honest…’ said Helena a little bit down. ‘...This is getting pretty confusing.’

Erik saw how Christopher got down from the tree and Caitlyn walked towards him and Helena. Erik could notice that Caitlyn had a small bruise in her left ankle, probably from the fall she had, that it actually prevented her from being spotted by the drone… wait… the drone… that was it.

‘Caitlyn, did you knew the guy you followed?’ asked Erik standing up from the log.

‘No, I am afraid not.’ she said feeling a little bit useless.

‘Would you recognize him if you see him?’

‘Yes, I can do that, we just need to find him’ said Caitlyn, she felt capable of recognizing the guy.

The four friends went out of the woods and towards the food court, it was friday and it was very probable they would find the guy around there. After an hour or so, Caitlyn found the guy near one of the burger stands, he was chatting with some other people.

‘He looks oddly ok for a guy who was shot and dragged by a drone last night.’ Said Christopher while looking at the guy at a distance. ‘What do we do?’

‘I think is best if only one of us go talk to him, he might feel overwhelmed.’ suggested Erik.

‘Sounds good, you go bro.’ said Christopher while giving Erik a small pat on his left shoulder.

Erik was a little confused, why him? Anyway, he gave his bag to Helena and proceeded to walk towards the guy, he was chatting with a bunch of other people. Erik got close enough and analyzed the guy, he looked very normal, a little too much to be true. So, Erik stepped towards the guy and tapped his shoulder.

‘Hey, hi, I am Erik, can I talk with you for a minute?’ asked Erik, when the guy turned around to face him.

‘Yeah, sure what’s up? Wait, are you the 21 guy?!’ the guy got really excited. ‘Oh my god, you are, a pleasure meeting you, I am John.’

Erik didn’t like that people made a big deal about him being the “21 guy”.

‘Hi John, hey, do you remember anything from yesterday?’ asked Erik hoping he would remember something.

‘Oh, you heard it too, huh?’ said John a little disappointed. ‘Don’t worry friend, I was fine, I just fell from the dorms stairs and lose consciousness, but I am fine now.’

Wait… what? He was clearly the guy Caitlyn saw get shot and dragged by a drone.

‘Are you sure?’ asked Erik, why was the guy lying?

‘Completely, the nice lady that got me to the Medic Room said so.’ answered the guy.

Erik said thanks and walked back to the others, they went all together to Helena’s room, which seems to be the reunion point.

‘He doesn’t remember anything?’ asked Caitlyn surprised.

‘Not at all, he told a completely different story.’ Erik was puzzled, he kept looking out the window. ‘Nothing of this adds up…’ he said under his breath.

‘Maybe he forgot?’ suggested Helena.

‘No, no, there’s something else in here’ said Christopher. ‘You can’t just change the story of something, and suddenly believe it or be convinced by it.’

‘So you are suggesting… that he was brainwashed?’ asked Caitlyn, rather confused.

‘Most probable, we know he was taken to the ACC, so maybe they did something there with his head, messed with his memories.’ explained Christopher.

What he explained made everyone intrigued, have the nurses at the ACC manipulated John’s memories in some way? They knew for a fact that he had been shot and dragged by a drone, so they had to find out what happened.

‘We need to go to the Clinic, they always take a small blood sample when you arrive there, regardless of why you got there, so, if we get to our hands in his blood sample, maybe we can see what the drone did to him.’ Caitlyn had been a few times at the Clinic, she didn’t have the best immune system after all.

‘Ok, let’s say we go to the Clinic. how are we going to know where his blood sample is?’ asked Helena, which was a really good question, they knew nothing about how the Clinic operated.

‘I might know someone who can help us’ said Christopher before taking his phone out and dialing a number.

Erik came back to his friends, things were getting pretty confusing, but there was something inside him telling him that it was the right way. He looked at Helena and Caitlyn, both of them were talking on how to get into the Clinic, Erik never thought he would end up doing something like this with people like them, but he was glad that those people were his best friends.

Erik walked out the Biology building looking at the small piece of paper. He knew where the fountain was but, why there?

The wind was blowing and the temperature was at about 5-7°Celcius, Erik kept walking until he could see the food court, he thought on calling Helena but he waited until reaching Professor Jeniffer. Some people were still shopping or hanging out, so the place was a little bit crowded, but Erik was able to spot Professor Jeniffer near the fountain.

‘Professor, you wanted to see me?’ asked Erik as soon as he was close enough.

‘Yes, wow, you are really good deciphering codes. Anyway, I got some information for you, shall we?’

Erik and the professor walked a little bit around the court, the students were enjoying their night, completely unaware of what was around them.

‘You know, I got interested in that Security Clearance you asked about a month ago’ said the professor in her always calm voice.

Erik felt a small knot in his stomach, he thought the professor was going to scold him again.

‘But I figured… why can’t we, the professors, have access to those works, so I went to the S.E.A.L.P. offices and I found something really interesting.’

The S.E.A.L.P. offices? Erik had heard about them, but he wasn’t sure about what they did over there. Was his brother working in there?

‘We can have access to those files by a written permit from the Principal or the Council, but since I was already there I did a quick research, I wasn’t sure about what you were looking for but from the way you asked me that day, it was something having to do with you. I searched for your name but nothing but a single file came out by the name of “Alexander Redwood”, I assume he was your brother since you are the only two Redwoods I know.’ said professor Jeniffer, she kept walking out the food court and since Erik was following her he tagged along.

‘Yes professor, he’s my brother, he was in the Academy three years ago… the thing is, he graduated, you knew him?’ asked Erik trying to not sound too desperate.

‘No, I was in the S.E.A.L.P.’s teaching program at the time, but I heard his name before, Dr. Martin mentioned him quite a lot.’ said professor Jeniffer while she sat down near the fountain in front of the Biology wing.

‘He knew my brother?’

‘Yes, I remember his name, Dr. Martin was a Neuroscientist, one of the best actually, and he always talked about Alexander, he thought of him as his own “legacy”.’

‘So he was my brother’s mentor?’ asked Erik troubled.

‘You could say he was, yeah. Although he was always in his research, something about rewriting DNA codes like if they were computer programs, but well, everyone believed such thing was impossible.’

‘Was? So you mean that now we can rewrite DNA strands?’ asked Erik, somehow troubled.

‘No, of course not, we can create our own DNA strands but all of those experiments and tests were banned by the S.E.A.L.P., Dr. Martin’s work was merely theoretical.’ said the professor while arranging her scarf.

‘But, if he was a neuroscientist, why would he work on DNA, I mean, that is a work for a Geneticist’

‘Yes, you are right, but he was looking at it from another angle. He believed that with the right cells, the brain with its own biological functions, could make the body slowly rearrange its cells with the rewritten DNA, since our cells constantly regenerate, eventually the body would be made entirely of those new DNA cells.’ explained the professor.

‘I had no idea you could do that, on a living thing. I read once that some scientist rearrange the DNA strands of a bird and made it grow teeth and a tail, but they were embryos, not actual living birds’ Erik was astonished, that kind of work would’ve been an amazing advance in both, the Genetics and the Neuroscience field.

‘Well, Erik, that’s everything I can tell you today.’ claimed the professor.

‘Thank you professor, that’s actually really helpful, I would like to know more about my brother.’ said Erik. The professor stood up and took out her cellphone.

‘I’ll let you know if something comes up, you should read some of Dr. Martin’s work, that may give you a better idea about what he was working with your brother.’ the professor sent Erik her profile information and walked past Erik.

‘Stay safe, and keep everyone you care close’ said the professor before walking back into the food court.

Erik walked back to Helena’s room, the temperature dropped drastically, it was around 1°C or 0°C. He entered the room and talked with Christopher, Helena and Caitlyn about everything the professor said to him. Everyone was thinking about where would Alexander be, as well as why the Academy itself hide his info.

‘Ok, so basically your brother worked with Dr. Martin while he was here, and Dr. Martin had this crazy idea of rebuilding a human’s cells like a computer program, right?’ asked Christopher while writing down some notes.

‘Yeah, he believed that if a mutated cell entered the body, the brain could duplicate it and eventually the entire body would have that mutated cell.’ Erik, was making his cellphone spin in the table. He was still arranging all the information he heard.

‘Well, we know that the S.E.A.L.P. might give us permission to research if we send a written request, but I am pretty sure they will say no.’  said Christopher.

‘Have you read anything from Dr. Martin’s book Erik?’ asked Caitlyn, she was at Christopher’s side.

‘I read it, there’s nothing mentioned about the cells, it talks about the different aspects and processes that the brain can use to repair itself if needed, but nothing beyond that.’ said Erik before standing up and walking towards the window.

‘Look guys, things are pretty confusing right now. Let’s not tire ourselves right now with this.’ suggested Helena, she knew that both Caitlyn and Erik weren’t going to let this go until they understand it, so the best option was to meditate about it, think it through, something Christopher was good at, he believed patience was key.

‘Maybe it’s for the best, we can’t make a wrong move and let the S.E.A.L.P. spot us doing something we shouldn’t.’ said Christopher while he put his things in his bag. ‘We need to think this through, carefully.’

Caitlyn stood up and walked towards Erik, he was still looking outside the window.

‘Erik… I know things are confusing right now, but I want you to know that… we are here for you, Christopher and I’ Caitlyn said that rather sad, almost as if she knew how it felt to lose someone. Christopher got near Caitlyn and took her hand. ‘That’s right bro, we’re here for whatever you need, just say the word.’

Erik turned around and heard both of his friends, huh… a funny word isn’t it? Friends, he had friends, he had Helena, who he loved as a sister, and he didn’t figured it out until that moment, but he had two other friends, a girl with the most shiny golden eyes, Caitlyn and a very reliable, resourceful and keen boy, Christopher. He cared about them… a lot.

‘Thanks guys… really…’ said Erik, but before he could finish Caitlyn pounced to give him a tight hug. She was warm and soft, Erik hugged her back. ‘...I am here for you guys too.’ he said.

Christopher and Caitlyn left Helena’s room, It was running late and the next day was a school day, Friday, but a school day. Helena closed the door and stretched, she was tired.

‘I am exhausted, I am going to sleep now.’ said Helena before yawning a bit.

‘Yeah, me too. I’ll see you tomorrow Shine, good night’ said Erik while getting his things.

Helena gave him a tender kiss in the cheek before saying ‘Goodnight to you too’ and walking to her bedroom. Erik closed Helena’s door and looked at the hallway… clean and silent as always.

=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=°=

4am Friday

Dormitory section C, Female Wing

Caitlyn was in a deep sleep in her bed, even though her room was smaller than Erik and Helena’s, she enjoyed it, it was like a small flat. Most things were organized, and it had a comfortable bed, but what she loved about her room was that she had a window, not all the girls had one. It was near her bed, she like hearing the outside numbly before sleeping and how the sun would shine through in the mornings.

The thing was that this morning, was going to be different.

‘...look it’s the fastest way…’

‘Shh, they’ll hear you…’

Caitlyn woke up due to the voices, they were coming from the other room.

‘...we just need to be fast, the system resets at 5am…’

‘It’s too risky…’

It sounded like a girl and boy were having a conversation. Caitlyn got curious, so she carefully got out of bed and sticked her ear close to the wall to be able to hear better.

‘Ok, if you won’t go with me, I’ll do it by myself.’ the boy said.

‘No, please, don’t do this, it’s impossible, no one has gone over 21.’ the girl replied, she sounded scared.

‘If I don’t do this, I’ll never get out, I am sorry’ said the boy before the sound of a door closing startled Caitlyn.

«He’ll never get out? What does he mean?» thought to herself Caitlyn, she was going to call Christopher, but it was way too early, so she decided to do this on her own.

It was quite chilly, so she grabbed a sweater and put on small boots. She opened her room door and saw how a guy was walking down the stairs, rather suspiciously. If there was something Erik taught her, besides extremely long chemical compounds names, was that if someone looked suspicious or out of place, it looked that way because it was. She closed her door and followed the guy out the building. It was still dark, only the environmental light from the building and pathways allowed vision, she stayed behind the guy, keeping her distance and very aware of her surroundings. The guy walked all the way to the food court, past the Clinic and the Presentation Halls. Caitlyn was wondering where he was going, or most importantly what was going to reset at 5? The guy took a turn towards the forest part of the academy before entering the Food Court amd walked straight ahead. Caitlyn tailed him, using the woods to her advantage, evading being spotted. They walked for a long time, the foliage started to get denser and the sky was starting to get slightly blue. The guy stopped when he reached a wall, he started to frantically look for something on its surface, almost desperately. But he couldn’t find anything, Caitlyn stayed behind a bunch of bushes trying to identify what the guys was looking for but something distracted her, it was the guys watch, it had an alarm. The sound alerted Caitlyn and made her fall off to the ground, trying to not be spotted Caitlyn remained in the floor, she was behind a large log, it was hollow and cracked, she had a clear view of the guy.

‘No, no, no. It has reseted, why it did not open?!’ the guy shouted. He kneeled before the wall for a few seconds and then a sound took his attention.

Caitlyn heard how something hovered at her left side towards the guy, it was some kind of drone, it’s metal was black and it had a very bright light in the center with four other smaller drones around it, hovering along with it.

The guy looked terrified, he froze entirely. The drone with the light stayed in place facing the guy, while the smaller drones scanned the guy with a very thin and shiny blue wave. When the scan was finished, the smaller drones created a rectangle which they filled in with the same blue wave.

//S.G.S 3

Student #676

1/100.- Which element in the periodic table has the atomic number 53?

-Speak answer-//

The drone was displaying one of the impossible tests to the guy. Atomic number 53? Caitlyn couldn’t remember which one was that, probably Erik would know, even Helena.

‘I-I-Iodine?’ said the guy still terrified, he was sweating.

//S.G.S 3

Student #676

1/100 - Correct

2/100.- The increase in the rate of a chemical reaction by the active site of a protein is called?

-Speak answer-//

Apparently the guy was correct, the drone displayed another question, but he clearly had no clue. After a minute or so of the guy stuttering and thinking, a small countdown appeared, from 10. The guy got paranoid and before the countdown reached zero he tried to make a run from it. The drone shot him something and the guy fell to the ground, then the drone proceeded to pick the guys body and left towards the deeper woods, back to the Academy. Caitlyn was in a bit of a shock, she stayed in the floor for another while, the sun began to rise and she could notice how in the wall a straight horizontal line glowed and then stopped. She had to tell everyone what happened, tell them about the mysterious disappearance.

Peach, cherry blossom and white jazmin, somehow, every time Erik got into a very deep sleep, he smelled this fragrance. Like if something in his brain activated and made him able to smell it, and everytime he did he felt protected, he felt alright, he felt... Fine. Sometimes Erik wasn't completely asleep, but instead, he was in kind of a "level zero" zone, there was only him, in an empty dark room, walking, talking and thinking, but the thing that actually remained no matter what, was that fragrance, it even appeared when he meditated, when he relaxed, and sometimes when he was completely calmed or focused, the fragrance appeared floating in the air, he was used to it, and with time, it became his favourite smell in the world. The weekend was here and the question still remained, what was inside the silver plaque. Erik thought about it over and over again, until he couldn't think straight. Probably wanting to know what Alexander was doing was a waste of time, maybe he was working and that's why he couldn't come by his house, or maybe he left never to be seen again, there were endless possibilities to what he was doing and yet, Erik wanted to know. He wanted to know why, he didn't care about the how or the what or even the when, but the why, why was there an Academy? Why no one knew anything about his brother? Why no one was against the Academy? Why things were like they were? Why working for the S.E.A.L.P or the Academy was what everyone desired to do with their lives? All of this questions were constantly in his mind, craving to be answered, and he wasn't going to give up, he was determined to find out what was there.

Erik was sitting on the small stairs that led to the library, just in front of the small park where most students enjoyed group activities together or just hanging out. He couldn’t stop thinking about the plaque, it didn’t matter what he was doing there was constantly a vague thought of it. Erik stood up and he took a deep breath.

«I don’t know what I am doing really» he thought and proceeded to walk to his room. Most of the students were on a relax state, there were no books around or laptops, just people hanging out, the Academy had a great impact in the student's life, but it wasn’t overwhelming enough to frustrate them.

Helena was getting some stuff from the library but Erik was too distracted to help so he decided to go out to try clearing his mind. He walked down the gardens and started looking at everything, the Academy buildings were not exactly old, rather well taken care of. There was no paint missing, or cracks or anything like that. Erik found a lone chair near one of the small ponds, and took a seat. Everything was so peaceful, so soothing, it felt almost unreal.

Durum, Durum

It was Erik’s phone, he took it out of his hoodie and had a look. It was a text from Helena.

                                  //Hey genius, I am done with

                            my homework. Wanna grab a bite?

Erik smiled a little bit, the thought of eating something made him hungry so he answered Helena and walked back to the library.

Both of them walked back to their rooms and prepared to have lunch at Helena’s. She had prepared some fish n chips, they both liked fried potatoes.

Erik tried with all his strength to stop thinking about the plaque and Alexander, but even though he tried, he seemed distant. Helena was talking about what she read about the connection matrix and how it could be used to create an electronic “brain”.

‘Erik, are you ok? You haven’t said anything all day’ asked Helena, quite concerned.

‘Yeah, I know, I am sorry, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it you know? It’s like if it was the last thing I got to my brother, and I am sorry if I dragged you into this, because if you want out, I totally understand…’

‘No!’ said Helena loudly.

‘I don’t want out, I want to help you, we are in this together right? Besides, I’ve also been thinking about it too. Actually I searched for more information in the library.’

‘Really? What did you found out’ Erik got very interested.

‘I didn’t find anything about your name nor your brother’s, but I found out what the A.I. Development team was up to when your brother was here three years ago. Apparently they were developing some kind of adaptable A.I., it was going to be a special software capable of running an entire diagnosis of whatever you need, it could work on any kind of technology, from laptops to even complete computer use houses.’ explained Helena almost whispering.

‘But, we don’t have any of that, all the electronic houses have very simple software, a task and process system. What they were doing, it could’ve changed a lot of things.’ processed Erik, his looked was puzzling and pensive.

‘They managed to create a small prototype, but it never got out of the Alpha release, it was ultimately scrapped. After that, the team disbanded and there was something about neuroscience, but I don’t recall.’ finished Helena.

‘You think the plaque has something to do with any of that, adaptable A.I.? It mimics the surface it touches after all.’ said Erik while he looked at the back of his phone where the plaque was.

‘I am not really sure, it behaves like a hardware rather than a software.’

Helena got up, walked towards Erik and hugged him.

‘I know all of this is frustrating, but we are going to make it through.’

‘Thanks Shine, really’

Both friends finished their meal, and now that they both got some tension out of their bodies, they decided to continue their daily studying routine.

Bureep, Bureep

It was Helena’s phone, she got a text, but it was weird, the only texts she ever got was Erik’s, Erik’s mom and her parents, but this was another number.

                             //Hi, Caitlyn here, I just wanted to

                                  let you know that Chris and

                                   I will go to the Mid-term

                           Relaxation, and we thought it would

                               be great if the four us attended.

                             We hope you can make it, bye!

Helena made a expression of weirdness, she never thought that Caitlyn would message her.

‘It’s Caitlyn, she is inviting us to the Mid-term Relaxation, she’s going with Christopher.’ explained Helena.

‘Oh that event, you want to go?’ asked Erik, if Helena wanted to go he would be ok with it, but he didn’t really liked those type of events.

‘Well, we should try to distract ourselves from all of this, I think this is a good opportunity’ said Helena, fearing Erik would say no.

Erik stayed quiet for a few seconds and then took both of Helena’s hands.

‘I guess if we are going to do this, we should do it the right way,I’ll come pick you up at 6, just be there and be you, pretty.’

Helena blushed a bit, it was the first time Erik said something like that. Erik smiled and he walked out of Helena’s room.

Erik got to his room and after a big sigh, he laid in his bed, he stayed there for a bit, everything seemed to stop and move extremely slow, and somehow  the smell came back.

Peach, cherry blossom and white jasmine.

‘Are you sure of this?’

‘I know what I want’

‘Even if that meant to know something you won’t like.’

‘I am not alone in this… I won’t drag anyone else.’

‘You’ve already done that’

‘Even if I did, I’ll keep everyone else out and safe before any of this ends’

‘You are striving for too much’

‘He would’ve done the same…’

Erik opened his eyes and stood up, he took a glance at his phone, it was 5:26pm. The new symbol was still there, Erik clicked it and a big “Installing” warning popped up. He got ready to go to that, Mid-term relaxation thing, he didn’t want to go too formal, but not entirely casual. He decided to use the Academy cardigan with a nice white shirt underneath. He decided to use a tie, it has been a while since he got to use a tie, he remembered that only once his father teached him how to tie it, it was blue with red stripes. He liked how he dressed up, which was weird since he never actually liked what he weared, it was more a matter of comfort rather than looks.

He was ready and walked out of his room, took a deep breath, tried to clear his mind and knocked on Helena’s door. He stood for about a minute and then, the door opened a little bit.

‘Erik?’ Helena asked nervously.

‘Yeah, it’s me, are you alright?’

‘Yes, is just that, I’ve never done this before’ Helena confessed trying to laugh a bit.

‘If you don’t want to go, it’s fine really.’ tried to explained Erik.

‘No, no, I want to go, is just that… just close your eyes, ok?’ said Helena almost begging for it.

Erik closed his eyes and took a step backwards. Helena opened the door slowly and looked at Erik, she was genuinely surprised, Erik looked quite good and he looked handsome.

‘I guess you can open them now’ said Helena nervously.

Erik opened his eyes, Helena was standing in front of him but she got makeup on, her eyes looked a little bit wider, her slight pink lips were of a darker pink, her hair was on a ponytail but she left some spare hair that hang up on the side of her head.

‘You look, great Shine’ said Erik smiling he turned a little bit to the side and offered her his hand. ‘Shall we?’

Helena took his hand and they both walked out the dormitories building.

The Mid-term relaxation was going to be in one of the event buildings, near the food court, it was a two floor building that had a great view of the Academy grounds.

When they arrived the place had very dim lights and there were a bunch of students outside talking and having a good time. Erik and Helena entered and what they saw surprised them. The place was full of different kind of tables and chairs, and a big table full of different kinds of food. There even was a dancing floor and the music wasn’t very loud, but you could hear it from anywhere.

‘We are here, now what?’ asked Erik.

‘I don’t… know to be honest, maybe we should try finding Caitlyn and Christopher’ proposed Helena walking and looking around.

Erik walked alongside Helena and they found Christopher and Caitlyn near the balcony on the second floor.

‘Hey, so glad you could make it guys’ said Caitlyn happily before hugging both of them.

‘Yeah, good to see you too’ said Erik.

The four of them talked for a while, they had fun and laughs, and for a few moments, Erik forgot completely about the plaque and his brother, specially with the food  it was delicious and somehow you always wanted to eat a little bit more.

Caitlyn and Christopher eventually went dancing, Helena was a little bit tired so she didn’t want to dance at the moment  but she got something else on her mind.

Helena was sat down looking at one of the tables near the dancing floor, she looked, troubled.

Erik took some drinks, apple juice for him and ice tea for Helena, and when he arrived at the table he noticed Helena was looking at something or well, someone. Across the dancing floor, at a round table,  there was black haired girl having a drink, she looked bored though.

‘You should go talk to her’ said Erik before sitting down. This made Helena jump of surprise and then she realized it was Erik, nevertheless, she blushed, a lot, even so that it was noticeable even in the dim lights of the place.

‘Am I too obvious?’ asked Helena while she took her ice tea.

‘Well, besides staring at her, you haven’t stopped playing with you hair, you do that when you are insecure about something, which you shouldn’t, you look amazing, and you are amazing, besides, she looks like she would like a good talk.’ said Erik before taking a sip of his juice.

‘I’ll do it’ said Helena, she stood up and walked towards the lonely girl.

‘Go get’em girl’ said Erik from behind her.

He looked how other people were dancing and talking, but somehow, he felt out of place. Erik stood up and walked up to the second floor, maybe some fresh air would help.

It was relatively lonely, just some people talking and enjoying the view.

Erik looked at the horizon, the air was blowing slightly and it was fresh due to the night. In the distance he was able to see some lights, probably the city, he remembered his parents, his mom was probably finishing a new chapter of her nightly reading and his dad was finishing some work before bed.

‘A great view isn’t it?’ said  womanly voice Erik didn’t recognize.

‘Yeah, I guess it is’ he answered before turning around.

‘Sorry, where are my manners, I am Scarlette’ said the brown haired girl introducing herself.

‘I am Erik’

‘Redwood? So you are the new Academy star huh? The Principals talks a lot about you and you friend.’ said Scarlette while she walked towards the edge of the balcony.

‘You are close with the Principal?’ asked Erik somehow angry, he found the Principal irritating.

‘Not exactly, I am just a S.E.A.L.P. assistant, but she always mentions you at the meetings. She always says that you are a great addition to the Academy, and that your potential shouldn’t go to waste.’

‘Let me guess, she says I should stay so the Academy can have more students like me.’ said Erik with disdain.

‘I don’t really know that, but what I know is that if the S.E.A.L.P. had someone like you  everything would be so much easier. After all, working for them was one of the best decisions of my life.’ Scarlette turned around and looked at Erik.

Erik could notice that her eyes were, somehow red, quite unusual, maybe was the lightning.

‘I don’t want to work for the Academy, nor the S.E.A.L.P., I have other plans for the future.’ Erik remembered the plaque and his brother.

‘It’s ok, I am no one to tell you what to do. Sometimes we just need the right conditions at the right moment to take a decision. It was a pleasure Erik, I hope we can talk soon’ said Scarlette before leaving the balcony.

Those words stayed in Erik’s head a while longer.

“We just need the right conditions at the right moment…”

Suddenly he felt like a bucket of cold water hit him, a realization, the plaque needed the right conditions, to be able to be used, the right angle, lightning and environment, he took his phone out and detached the plaque. When the moonlight touched it, it shined brightly, he moved it slowly until he achieved a 45° angle and the circuits started to move by themselves, it rearranged for a couple of seconds until finally it stopped, all the circuits were connected and made a complete path. On the lowest part of the plaque a small circuit was incomplete, it was just two nodes, slightly separated, Erik got his thumb closer and a small red spark shined making the circuits glow dimly.

Durum

Erik’s phone sounded, he looked at the screen, it had a message.

                           //System Synchronization complete

                                Please insert Security Module//

Erik felt as if the plaque got magnetized toward his phone, so he inserted it into the small opening where his ID was.

               //Security Module installed, running Initiative Protocol

                                      Decoder lenz...installed

                                      S.G.S. Clearance...Echo

                                     Documents integrity...27%//

Erik couldn’t believe it, he cracked open Alexander’s plaque, he immediately called Helena.

‘Shine, we did it, the plaque works’

‘You got the document?!’

‘Yes I got it, it can’t be only one, there has to be more!’

Charismatic, reliable and somehow shy. Christopher is Helena’s mechatronics partner, always keeping an innovative point of view, Christopher aims to become a more productive rather than famous programmer in the applications environment. He believes the best way to change the world is to stop planning and doing it. Christopher has enough knowledge about computers to be able to hack systems in a matter of minutes, even seconds if he had already done it before. He is Caitlyn’s boyfriend, he is always trying to keep her happy and safe.

***This Chapter is dedicated to one of my best friends who helped me to get out of a very big writing block, thank you.***

It was approximately 4 am on a Friday, fresh and cold due to November being on its way and it had been a long night. Erik was sitting in Helena’s dining table with the small silver-ish plaque he had extracted from a book in front of him. Static, motionless and pensive, Erik stared at it.

“Evolutionary counciossness — Splicing and re-synchronizing the mind by Alexander Redwood” he was sure it must be some kind of memory or information disk, but he couldn’t use it on his laptop, nor his phone. It was the same size as his ID, but inserting it into the phone did nothing. Erik was desperate and frustrated, it was so close to something of his brother and now something was blocking his way. He decided to go sleep, maybe some rest would help him get things clearly. With the strength he had left, he picked up Helena from the couch and got her to her bed, she was a little bit smaller than him, she was heavy, but he wasn’t going to leave her there.

Erik got a small plastic box and stored the plaque in it. He left to his room and got ready to sleep. The image of the plaque still drilled his mind, he wanted to know what was it, was it one of Alexander’s works? a project? Theory? He wasn’t sure, but he knew it was important, if it wasn’t it wouldn’t have been so well hidden.

Friday

October

12am

Erik woke up at about 11 am, he had a small breakfast and got ready for his Micro-biology class, he always liked that class, it was pretty interesting. He got out of his room and thought on visiting Helena before leaving, she usually overslept on Fridays.

Erik opened the door and as soon as he looked up, a very excited happy and remarkably fresh Helena jumped in front of him.

‘Good morning!’ she almost screamed.

‘Hi, why the happy attitude?’ asked Erik, Helena usually was very sleepy in the mornings.

‘I got a very nice rest, also, why didn’t you told me what you found out? I’ve been working on it nonstop for about three hours!’ Helena was super excited.

‘Wait, you know how it works?’ asked Erik a little bit impressed.

‘Not yet, but I’ve found some really interesting things. For starters, it looks like it was made from a very adaptable material, it has photoreceptors that mimic the surface of wherever it’s standing on, look.’ Helena put the silver plaque over one of her notebooks, a blue one, and after a few seconds the plaque became the same shade of blue, almost as if it had disappeared.

‘Apparently it can mimic the shape and colour, but it can’t mimic the surface. It looks like it reacts to electronic devices though, every time I get it near my phone or my laptop, it reacts, as if it responded to it.’

Helena picked up the plaque and got it near her phone, it started moving, the small circuits started to change positions, as if it rearranged itself in some way.

‘Remarkable, have you found anything else? Is it light reactive? Maybe it rearranges itself to match some kind of wave or a specific frequency.’ Erik left his things besides the door and sat down where Helena was working and got the magnifying glass closer to him. He observed the circuits rearranging, it looked as it was completely different every time he got his phone close none of the patterns looked the same.

Helena got her laptop and started looking for anything related to what they encountered. Erik took out his lab kit and started testing the plaque, most of it seemed to be mechanical and electronic, but it behaved like a living organism, it reacted to light, heat, cold and movement.

‘Anything new?’ Helena asked from the kitchen, she got a glass of juice.

‘Not really, it seems as this thing is alive, it contracts to cold, opens up to heat, the circuits are even susceptible to gravity they glow stronger if it’s at a certain angle, this thing is fascinating.’ Erik was still impressed by that little device.

‘I haven’t found any kind of information related to it. It’s like if it was a one-of-a-kind object. Not in the Academy archives, nor the S.E.A.L.P. records, nothing.’ Helena kept writing down what she found out in her notebooks.

‘There has to be someone who knows about this, I mean, this kind of material, it’s impossible that someone made one and miraculously worked, it can’t be a prototype either, it looks really well manufactured.’ Erik stood up and got a glass of apple juice, his favourite.

Helena walked towards Erik and took the silver plaque from under his magnifying glass.

‘Hey, would you be angry if I told you I maybe told someone about this?’ asked Helena, a little bit nervous. She thought maybe Erik would like to keep this a secret, since it was something regarding his brother.

‘Well, I would not be mad, I would just ask him or her and you, to keep this in the lowest level possible, it’s the only thing we have and I wouldn’t like losing it.’ said Erik. He knew what they found was important, and of course it was something new for them, they couldn’t understand it on their own, so naturally, they would need help.

Helena took her notebooks and Erik the silver plaque, he hid it in the back side of his phone, since it could mimic its colour, it had no problem in disappearing. They made their way towards the Mechanical engineering wing, Helena knew someone who asked to see the device, they took the chance, maybe there was something for them to discover.

Erik took a small time to look for his brother’s name, just to be sure it was still there, and indeed it was, just below “Amanda Bluefare” and over “Aeborn Allen”.

‘Are you sure he will help us?’ asked Erik while they rode the elevator up to floor 3.

‘I trust him, he’s been my mechatronics partner for a while, he’s an expert in coding and loves to hack any kind of systems.’ the elevator door opened and a black-haired girl entered, she just showed Erik her hand making a number two with her fingers, Erik understood that she wanted to go to the second floor, so he pushed the button and both Erik and Helena walked out.

‘Well, where are we going to find him?’ asked Erik. The third floor was a very big space with a lot of tables and students and some places were small transparent rooms, they had a large desk and some chairs, maybe for a private class or lecture.

‘He’s always in the east wing, that’s where he likes to make homework and sometimes hack small locking mechanisms.’

Erik looked for something related to that, but he found nothing like it, he couldn’t recognize anything.

«This would be easier if it was at the labs» Erik thought, he liked the labs, he knew pretty much everyone, not personally or by name, but he knew their faces.

At that moment Erik felt how Helena walked faster toward someone, it was a skinny and tall guy, kind of slight brown and short hair, he looked like those kind of guys who like to spend time on the computer. Erik followed Helena and got closer.

‘Christopher, this is Erik, the guy I told you about.’ said Helena introducing his friend.

‘Hi, Christopher Greensprout, a pleasure, Helena has told me a lot about you, amazing what you did at the first exam, 21, wow.’

‘Erik Redwood, it was just, very serious studying really, I haven’t been able to do it again.’ said Erik while he stretched Christopher’s hand.

‘So, Helena said you got something for me? She mentioned something about a silver plaque.’

‘Yes, here it is.’ Erik took out his phone and detached the plaque. ‘We have found it can mimic the colour of whatever it’s standing on via photoreceptors, however it still keeps its shape and surface, it reacts to temperature and apparently it can’t produce textures.’ Erik gave Christopher the plaque, he took it and analyse it closely.

‘Hmm, it appears it has adaptable circuits, it changes when near heat sources right?’

‘Yes, it contracts to cold too, also at a certain angle it shines brighter, depending on the angle.’ Erik took it and moved it slightly near 45° degrees. The circuits in the plaque shine of the same shade of blue, but brighter.

‘Have you tried touching it?’ asked Christopher while he examined it in his desk.

‘You can’t, it discharges you with a very low electric charge, but it’s enough to make your finger numb.’ said Helena, she started to take out her notebooks.

Erik sat down and looked how Helena and Christopher were working together. They looked in synch, Erik hadn’t heard about Christopher before, and apparently Christopher had heard about Erik. Erik didn’t know that Helena talked about him with other people, he started to wonder about what had she talked about him, somehow it intrigued him, was it positive? Was it hate-speech? He didn’t know for certain, but he wanted to know.

‘OH MY GOD! Are you Erik Redwood?’ Erik heard from behind him, it surprised him a lot. It was a female voice, but not one he could recognize. Erik turned his head curiously and noticed a girl behind him, a pretty excited girl, she had her brown hair tied on a bun on the back of her head, she wasn’t exactly tall, maybe a little bit shorter that Helena, her facial features were sharp and very symmetrical, but what stand out the most was her eyes, they were of a very light honey, almost as drops of gold.

‘You ARE Erik Redwood, oh my god, it’s a pleasure to meet you, I can’t believe I am talking with you, sorry, how rude of me. I am Caitlyn Bluefield.’  she said while trying to keep her excitement.

‘Yeah, sorry about that, Caitlyn is my girlfriend. She’s a very active one.’ said Christopher, he smiled a lot while seeing his girlfriend.

‘It’s not my fault, you are the one who likes doing things calmly’ said Caitlyn while she took a seat at a side from Erik.

‘Yeah, anyway, you already know Erik, this is Helena Silvershine, she’s the other genius’ Helena heard that and she blushed a bit, she didn’t consider herself a genius, neither do Erik, they felt like they do a very hard studying.

‘I believe we haven’t met; Christopher mentions you quite often.’

‘Yeah, we’ve been partners for a while.’

‘What are you guys working on?’ asked Caitlyn while looking at the small silver plaque.

‘We found this, well thing, and we believe it’s alive, in some way. It reacts in the same way as a living organism would to certain stimulus.’ said Erik, immediately Caitlyn turned to look at him, her golden eyes almost shined, as the ones of a little kid getting a present for Christmas.

‘Cool. Do you know where it goes then?’ asked Caitlyn.

‘Goes? Well that would make sense, if it has a circuit line, it must connect to another device, maybe so it can be read or comprehended.’ Erik speculated, it looked pretty thin to be a just a memory drive, maybe it was some sort of key.

‘Erik, do you remember how much voltage does the body have?’ asked Helena, she was writing down in her notebook.

‘At around ten to one hundred millivolts, why?’

‘Well, to power up a single cathode on a TV you need around twelve thousand volts, and this doesn’t have any kind of resistance, if we get it inside something like that it may overcharged.’ explained Helena, she was visibly frustrated.

‘Not necessarily, our body is constantly discharging that amount of energy, it only activates whenever we touch it so, it must charge and work with that, also that would explain why it discharges you when you try touching it, it needs a way of getting rid of that extra energy, and we are natural conductors.’ said Christopher, all of it made a lot of sense. The plaque was powered by the human body itself.

‘We that would mean that only one person could activate it, right?’ asked Caitlyn. Helena nodded.

‘It also reacts to the environment; it doesn’t make sense’

‘No, it does. We know someone needs to hold it, a human, if not it would not have the necessary current or it would overcharge. It has to be used by the right person at the right time, right location and right conditions.’ said Erik. He sat down at a side from Caitlyn and took out his computer.

‘Ok, so we know it shines brighter at a 45° angle. That would mean that it needs to be at that angle, now we only need to find the right location, temperature and that should be enough for this to be activated.’

‘And what would that do?’ asked Helena, quite intrigued.

‘Well, I am not actually sure. Probably we might be able to insert it somewhere.’ Erik took the plaque again and looked at it closely. He didn’t know what was in there, he didn’t even know if he wants to know.

Erik and Helena stayed for a while with Christopher and Caitlyn, they talked for a bit and Erik got into a quite interesting conversation with Caitlyn about how some cells adapt to help other cells in their tasks.

It was getting late, and the sun was almost gone. Erik was standing near the stairs that led to the second floor with his phone in his hand. He was making it do circles using his fingers as anchor points, he was waiting for Helena, which was taking some last books to study on Monday.

Erik was still thinking on how to crack open Alexander’s document, he wasn’t certain that it was a document, but he found it at the library so he assumed it has to be something like that. It was already dark outside and the moon was high on the sky. Full moon, one of Erik’s favourite. He looked down and stared for a bit towards the plaque resting in his hand, for a while it looked exactly the same as before, but gradually it started to shine softly, the silver of the plaque was brighter.

‘Erik?’ Helena said behind him.

Erik looked at Helena and he snapped out of it, he took a small glanced of the plaque, but it remained unchanged.

‘I am fine, just a little bit tired.’ he answered trying to clear out his mind.

‘Yeah, these two days have been a lot to take in. The good thing is that the weekend is here, so, we can rest a bit.’ said Helena and she invited Erik to take her hand. He did and they started walking.

They walked out the building and made their way to the food court, they were going to have dinner but both of them decided that it was better to cook something rather than buying it. Still holding hands, Helena and Erik walked throughout the market and bought some food, cheese, ham, a few crackers and of course a small chocolate for both of them. They liked sharing that kind of stuff, they never finished one by themselves. They finally made their way to the dormitories and upon arriving Erik noticed that the usual poster of the redhead man had been replaced. There was a new announcement.

                  //Mid-term Relaxation!

        The Academy Magazine and Staff

      Invite you to our Mid-term Relaxation

    Event, with food, music and knowledge

        Everyone is invited, students and

    Professors alike, be there or be square!

It was a quite cheesy poster, but inviting regardless.

‘Huh, who would’ve thought that the Academy itself would approve of parties?’ asked Helena, she knew that the Academy had certain rules about parties.

‘They approve because it’s something they made, Shine. Also, they probably want us to have a tighter relationship with our professors.’ said Erik, he sounded, irritated.

*Bureep*

Helena’s phone received a message. She let go Erik’s hand and took her phone out. It was a message from Erik’s mom.

                  //Hi honey, hope I didn’t

          Wake you up, just checkin’ in to

          See if you guys are ok. Lots of

        Success on your exams! Good night

                           Love, Mom.

Helena smiled while reading it, it felt good to have a family, to have a mom, to know that there was someone out there that cared for you.

‘It’s your mom, she just wanted to know if we are ok… You turned off your phone Erik?’

‘Oh right, I turned it off this morning to check if inserting the plaque did something, and since we were all day together I totally forgot.’

Erik turned his phone on, a lot of notifications pop on the screen, but nothing too important. Although, Erik noticed there was a new symbol on the upper right corner, maybe an update.

They both had dinner and went to sleep. Erik stayed awake thinking about Alexander, but eventually fell asleep.

÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷~÷ ÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷~÷ ÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷~÷

‘We have to keep each student on their respective place Principal, if we don’t, god only knows what will happen.’ said a little bit angrily a suited bald man from one side of the Principal’s desk.

‘My dear Mr. Daniels, the Council has already approved my Transaction Project, this will be done with or without your cooperation.’ said the Principal without even looking Professor Daniels.

‘The S.E.A.L.P. is aware of my intentions, and I can assure you only those who are promising enough will be selected.’

‘Even with their… Flaws?’ asked Mr. Daniels now a little bit scared, something like that frighten him.

‘They are not “flaws” Mr. Daniels, they are gifts. Now if you would excuse us, my assistant and I have some issues to discuss.’

Mr. Daniels had no other option but to leave, the Principal was too stubborn to be dealt with.

‘I thought he wouldn’t leave until you gave up, Principal’ said Scarlette, she was standing next to the desk looking towards the door.

‘He can’t understand progress, Scarlette. How is the S.G.S?’

‘Fully functional and without any abnormalities to report, Principal.’ answered Scarlette, her voice and tone were oddly stiff, almost as if all sounded the same.

‘And the students?’

‘All students are under the Additive Deployment Initiative, as requested.’ answered Scarlette, yet she blinked rapidly and had to scratch her left eye a bit. The Principal noticed it and got close to Scarlette.

‘What is your dosage level Scarlette?’ asked the Principal suspiciously.

‘Current blood dosage is at 12%, Principal, I ran out this mourning’

‘Don’t make up excuses Scarlette, you know you need your dosage, without it I don’t what would be of you.’

‘Yes, Principal, it won’t happen again.’

‘I hope so, Scarlette. I really do’ said the Principal as she looked “out” the window, it was actually a big projection of the surveillance cameras of the outside view of the main dormitories. There was something going on that she felt like she had to stop, but she didn’t know what it was. She felt threatened, powerless, unprotected, it was a very particular feeling, one that she thought was gone three years ago…