What was wrong with her?
What did she expect anyway?
A war?
None of us were warrior-material.
So even if something as unpleasant as a war took place, I don’t think we had any chance of coming through it.
But you know Zoey. She just as stubborn as a guanaco is. So she kept pestering us we had to learn how to fight.
What could we do at this point?
No one could bear with her!
So we decided we could let her teach us how to fight, just so we could pull a plug to the constant gibbering. In this case, let me just say, it all turned out so comically, since she had absolutely no eruditeness when it came to guns and how to use them.
Carter was the only one to keep snuggling on the couch, not getting involved. That is until he decided to barge in.
“Guys,” he called out, though we were making such a fuss over our little game, we were unable to hear. “Guys!” he howled at us.
I turned my head around to face him.
“What’s wrong?” I asked him.
“You’ll never believe this.” He told me with a thoughtful and concerned complexion on his face. That was enough to make me stressed out too. It was infectious.
I hurried my way to the couch and took a gander at the tablet which was the thing that had fueled all the gist.
The others seemed to have noticed our concern and had now ceased the game and eventually gathered all around.
Carter was so shocked to say a single word. Eventually, looking at the tablet and the data there, I started to become just as confused and horrified by the information we were faced to. I grabbed the tablet off his hands and started scrolling down the GIFs and muss of information alongside graphics that portrayed the project.
It read in back capital letters.
THE MINIATURE EARTH PROJECT: THE RESURRECTION EATONII
Underneath, there was an image of the earth as we know it and another sphere scrolled around it just like a satellite. Next to the image, another shocking one projected how similar this weird sphere thingy was to our planet.
From what I read for the next couple of minutes made me realize that what this weird thing that looked to me like a satellite was, was just a project to build a miniature earth that would swirl around the main planet just like a satellite and would consist of the same systems and materials that the real world was made of.
It explained that all this was for the purpose of a classified mission.
That’s all Carter could get through.
We couldn’t get past the mission and that was unfortunate.
“Why aren’t you working on it?” I managed to say. Clearly everybody else was left speechless at the weird of events. After all what were we supposed to do? We just found out that we were lodging in a made-up world so close to the real one, with no other people but just the nutty crew that clearly was trying to render into progressive scientific experiments and the worst part was that we were part of it. “Try to find out what they’re trying to do with us, Carter!” my voice was more than a scowl.
“That’s as far as I can get to the system. Everything else is encrypted.”
“Decode it then.” I proceed. “Find a way to get to their classified files. We’re lying in abeyancy. This is a nut job.” Obviously, I’m going crazy.
Poor Carter. All he’s done to this point is helping us and all I’m doing is going cuckoo over him as if it is his fault all this is happening to us.
“Guys, look. The pills!” Zoey howls now that she’s holding the tablet and scrolling through it. All eyes on her now.
“What about them?” I ask trying to make her spill out the words since she’s so shocked at what she’s encountered, she totally forgets we’re expectant on her.
“The purpose of them was to control us. It says here that they had us on the pills for when any of us would escape. They’re not medical pills as we thought they were. They’re chips digitally enhanced to manipulate our minds when the crew sees over.”
“That’s why I thought I was the only one to not go cuckoo when the rest lost it.” I say as though to myself.
“The quantity surveyor on the other hand was to interfere with our brains by means of psychedelic drugs and make us forget of our past or create virtual images of it that are not real.”
“That’s why I keep forgetting and your heads are still fuzzled.” I mumble. They all are speechless. For some reason this effect has not swept up on me just yet.
“And the lightning tree…” Zoey proceeds.
God! Where did she find all this information? I went through the data but didn’t spot it, while Zoey is coming up with all these terrible facts that has left us in horror and shock.
“All it says here is that it’s part of the experiment they’re after.”
That was not what I expected to hear. Of course, after everything that she told us, this was the least elaborated information to have gotten out of her mouth.
“We need to get back to earth.” Andrew chimes in, as if we don’t know.
“How do you think we can get back there?” my voice is more than a little faultfinding. I mean I didn’t intend for it to, but it’s just that I’m so stressed out and terrified I have at anyone who decides to spread a thought.
“Obviously, we can’t just jump out or use hot air balloons.” Zoey mocks.
Great timing to mocking Zoey! Great timing!
“I mean, we can use parachutes but only after hopping in one of the crew’s aircraft.”
“Aircraft?” I ask her, interested.
“Yeah, it’s this one.” She gives the tablet to me and now I’m looking at something that resembles quite a lot to a spaceship. “We can lend to the ground safely with it.”
“And where can we find one?” Brianne asks.
“On the lot on top of the tower.” I read through the data.
“What? Who builds a lot on top of a tower?” Colin asks and it looks to me like he’s poking fun at it.
“Obviously, the crew does.” I tell him.
“I’m scared.” Zoey of all the moments finds this segment to speak her mind and get emotional.
“We all are Zoey.” I tell her, angrily. “But you don’t see any of us complaining about it. We don’t have to luxury to complain at this point. All we have to think about is how to get past the crew and ransack a spaceship and get back home.”
“We don’t even know what their plan is.” Brianne says.
“Yeah, but I’m pretty sure whatever it is it’s up to no good. We’ve seen horrible things happening. And if they were after a noble plan, then why build such a complicated system of pills and detectors to keep everyone under control?”
My resolution seems to shut her up.
Great!
‘Cause I’m sure I wasn’t in the mood to hear any other silly thing they had to say.
20
Three months ago
Cody and I have decided to spend some quality time together. You might find yourself wondering. Greyson, why do you need to spend some quality time with your best pal? Well, thing is, Cody is celebrating. He’s having great news to share with us and we’re getting kinda emotional over it.
He got admitted to one of the most prestigious colleges in the state. Brown.
Which means that we won’t get to meet him for the next four year, which is gonna be hard since he’s been my best pal since forever and we’ve shared almost everything together. He’s been there in the greatest and lowest of moments of mine. So it’s only natural I’m feeling kinda weird about this news.
“We’ll have spring break and Christmas.” He tried to cool me down.
“And Thanksgiving.” I tell him. “Don’t forget Thanksgiving.” I mean, how dare he?! Thanksgiving is hands down my favorite holidays of all.
“Why it kinda feels like you’re breaking up?” Zoey mocks us.
“Well, in a metaphorical way, we are.” I try to play along. Even though it’s kinda true. It�
��s totally metaphorical.
“Yeah, right.” She smiles. “Anyway,” and changes the subject. “What are your plans for todays?”
“I don’t know. It was all so unexpected, it got me unprepared.” Cody frowns while speaking.
“Well, I think this kinda news is worthy of the greatest party the block has ever seen.” There’s a devious smile on her face. Boy, where is she getting at? I know what this smile means.
“But my parents aren’t going anywhere.” He shrugs at the thought. “No fancy holidays, no business encounters.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that. We can force them out of the house.”
“Hey,” Cody tells her. “Don’t talk like this about my parents.” I know that somehow he’s poking fun at it. His parents are really prestigious lawyers in the state. But actually, they’re not your typical type of ‘fancy-pants”. They’re pretty cool actually. I mean, as long as they have no clue what is going on with their son. Once, Cody threw the biggest party ever, we snuck out booze and all, and we were only freshmen. Now that this whole journey was about to end, I mean, the expectations were really high.
“I mean, we have to come up with the neatest plan to beat that freshman party you threw at the beginning of high school.” I tell him.
They both seem to drench into memories.
As much indulging as this thought seems to be, he still endeavors to shake it off and ditch it.
“But nah!” he waves his hand in the air. “I don’t think we can do it this time.”
“Why not?” Zoey barges in. God! She’s so pestering, until she has her way.
“Because I don’t think we can get my parents out of the house all night long.”
“But it’s a Friday night. They’ll get out somehow.” She proceeds.
“And then come back and find out that their precious son, who just got admitted to Brown, is holding a wriggle of fistfight and booze. Nah, I don’t think so.” He waves his head but there’s a smirk on his face suggesting he’s still taking delight in the idea. “Besides, my parents we’ll go over the edge about it.”
“Come on, man.” I say. “That was only one time. And by the way, how many senior parties are you going to have when this all ends?”
“Hmm. Plenty!”
“Yeah, but none of them would be as cool as this one.”
“I can guarantee they’ll be really cool.” He persists. “You know how wild fraternity parties can get.”
He’s making a point there, but I hate it to give it up to him like that.
“Still, everything is different when you’re in high school.”
We keep arguing over this issue for another four minutes as we enter the school foyer. Something strange seems to be occurring here.
Everyone is gathered around and they’re paying attention to something I still cannot detect.
“What is going on here?” Zoey frowns.
“I think it might be about those tests we have to take before fetching up.” I guess.
“This seems weird man.” Cody tells me.
Yeah right! We all can see that Cody!
I ask Colin who is standing next to me and seems to have been following the convention all along.
“What’s up Colin?”
“It’s about the quantitative test of intelligence. They’re giving instructions how we’re gonna process, the dates and everything relevant.”
“But why now?”
“It seems to be a pretty big deal to the government this year. But only our school and a couple of others are submitting the tests.”
“That’s weird.”
“I know.”
“How come we’re obligated to take the test?” Zoey barges in after having heard the conversation quietly.
“Well, they’re after elite, progressive high schools, which can provide peculiar intelligence.”
“Peculiar you say?” she frowns. “Why is all that necessary?”
“I don’t know but it all seems suspicious to me.” Colin tells us.
“Is there any way we can skip the test?” I ask him.
“It seems like we’re all obligated to submit it. Otherwise there will be no diplomas for any of us.”
“This is bias business.” I seem so frustrated at it. “Why don’t they tell us their true purpose behind this and just get it over with.”
“Come on man. It’s just a stupid test.” Cody tries to calm me.
“Easy for you to say. You already got your early admittance letter.”
We listen for the next few minutes to the man on the podium who giving instructions how we all are to proceed on the test days.
But I am just too frustrated to pay attention.
Through all this, I scramble for Zoey’s hand through the muss of people and clutch it. I can tell just by that grab she’s just as miffed as I am about this.
All I want right now is to be cognizant of this quant turn of events.
21
A scream woke me up this morning, after having soothed my mind that nobody was to bother us while in the cave. But much to my surprise, even this resolution turned out false.
I hurried my way to where the scream came from and found Zoey looking at something.
First thing I note is her beautiful hair that’s rendering into her natural color now, and then her silhouette which—ugghhh—can drive you over the edge. And after these pleasant details that my eyes are spotting, I take a look of the not so pleasant details that has caused all this stir.
The others are gathering up any moment.
“What’s going on?” Brianne asks but as soon as she looks at Andrew and the knife stabbed on his neck she covers her mouth with both hands.
“Who did this?” Colin asks.
“Look at him. He’s holding the knife. It much looks like he did this to himself.” Zoey reasons.
As crazy as this thing should sound, facts point out that Zoey might be right.
His eyes are still open, looking nowhere but in a dimension intangible from this one we’re currently lodging in.
“But why?” Colin asks.
“The crew.” I mumble.
“What?”
“They could initialize the effect of the pill and manipulate his brain.”
“But why only him? That’s never happened before.” Brianne frowns and looks at the ground, not at the part where Andrew lies quietly.
“They must know we’re past the firewall. They seemingly don’t like us being on the other part of the system and having as much information as we gathered.” Carter explains.
“But why kill him? What did he ever do to them?” Zoey is miffed to the point of eruption.
“I don’t think it’s about him rather than about all of us.” I explain.
“Hmm?” Brianne seems lost.
“They’re trying to give us a message.”
“And what message is that?” Colin shrugs.
“That they can control any of us whenever they want. They have influence upon us and we can’t take that away.”
“But what if we could?” Zoey is trying to come up with some conclusion.
“The fact that the pills are still on our bodies means that there’s something strange about it to install itself within us and not get out. I mean, there’s no way we can get them out. We don’t have the means and the eruditeness. And as long as we have to live with that, we’re under they’re control.”
“Yes,” Carter tells me. “We all are, but you. You are intangible from their control. And that might be why they wanted to send us this message. They’re frustrated about it.”
“We need to get out of this place as soon as possible.” Zoey seems more than irritated.
“If only we know how!” I mumble.
“We have to get past the tower. One way or another.” She proceeds.
“What? Are you crazy?” Colin shouts. “There’s no way we’ll make it alive if we just step a foot to the lawn.”
“Guys,” Avery is howling crazily. “I ca
nnot believe our friend just got it over with his own life and all you keep doing is mumbling stupidly over things you can’t control.”
I can see that she’s really hurt. At this point, we all are. But we can’t just stand here and wait for the same thing to happen to all of us. We have to fight and not let them destroy us one by one.
“Staying here and whining is not gonna be any better than trying to puzzle out.” Zoey tells her.
Avery is being quiet for a while.
I lay eyes again on the horrible view in front of me. He’s lying underneath the rock, legs spread on the ground, head moved asquint.
It’s horrible.
I feel terrible inside of me. One of these moments where you feel you want to shout at the world and yet you’re unable to do even that. It’s hurting me inside. But on the other hand, we gotta think for the rest of us. If we don’t come up with a solution really soon, they might get it over with all of us.
“So I say we take a vote.” Zoey as a stubborn guanaco that she is, keeps up with her plan. “All in favor of going to the tower just raise your hand.”
I pore over to realize if anyone of them is that unhinged so as to go back to the place where we desperately tried to escape from.
“Really?” she howls. “No one?”
“Well, I don’t think you’re giving it much of a thought.” I tell her, but she looks so miffed, she might wanna strangle me if I keep saying as much as another word. But that doesn’t seem to stop me. I seem to enjoy her getting crazy about little things. I mean, don’t get me wrong. This is not a trivia we’re talking about. Though there something about this feeling I share for Zoey that is kinda inexplicable. “How do you think we’ll get past the possemen?”
“We have the guns now.” She points. “Lots of them.”
“And how do you think a bunch of vigorous young-adults might have a chance with an army of well-experienced guards?”
“Then what do you say, Greyson?” she yells so loudly I think someone over the planet underneath us didn’t hear. “Waddle across this made-up planet for the rest of our lives? Cause I don’t know what your concept of life is, but mine definitely does not involve wild forests and insufficient food supplies.”
Faking Apocalypse (The Apocalyptic Games Book 1) Page 14
