Gene. Sys.

by Garcia, Aaron Denius

  “After our classes tomorrow,” I say.

  “Fine.” He walks towards the far end of the field and looks into a hole. I had previously thought that this hole was from the attacks, but now I realize that they are actually part of the playing field. He looks at me. “Anything else?”

  I look around to make sure no one is close by. “Actually, yes. I was hoping you could help me with something more important, but you have to promise to keep this to yourself.”

  He turns to face me and raises an eyebrow. “Yeah?”

  “So there is a group of scientists who are planning to sabotage Rene’s plans,” I begin.

  “Really?” 80 asks, surprised. He looks around to see if anyone is watching.

  I continue. “Last night I saw two of the scientists meeting outside, on the opposite end of the compound, by the library. I was hoping you could maybe have the drones—”

  “—Don’t call us that,” 80 cuts me off sharply.

  “What?” I’m caught off guard.

  “We are Integers. Drones makes us sound like we are incapable of our own thoughts,” 80 states definitively.

  “Ok, sorry.” I agree with him, but the education came out of nowhere and seemed aggressive. “Well, I was hoping the other Integers could let you know which scientists have been meeting and then you could tell me. Don’t tell them why they are gathering this information though.”

  80 looks into my eyes as he thinks. A slight hint of compassion graces his face, but it quickly disappears as he makes a decision in his head. “Yeah, that’s fine. I’m afraid many of us don’t know the scientists by name though.”

  “That’s okay. A description will be enough. We have a database of pictures that we can reference.” I’m excited to have 80 helping me out. I feel we have lost a connection since he’s been back and this will be a great way to get it back.

  80 puts his hand on my shoulder and smiles. “I’ll see you tomorrow, buddy.”

  “Yes you will.” I smile back. He runs off and I head back towards my part of the compound.

  As I walk back, I decide to cut through the hole in the wall of the medical ward. When I step through, I spot Dr. Peters working in one of the rooms. We wave at each other, but just before I get to the exit of the medical ward, I realize that it would probably be best to have a doctor at the Breekbal game. 80 mentioned before that the games could get extremely physical.

  I turn back towards the room with Dr. Peters. He spots me, turns off what he was working on and meets me outside of the room.

  “Can I help you, Atom?” he asks.

  “Actually, I was hoping that you could oversee a game of Breekbal that myself and the Genesys are having against the drones.” I instantly apologize to 80 in my head for using that term.

  “I would strongly advise against doing such a thing. Most of the games cause multiple injuries and some of them severe,” he warns me.

  “I understand that, but I need to do something to get all the Genesys working as a team. I feel this would be a great opportunity to do that,” I plead.

  “Did you ask Rene?” he presses.

  “I’m not going to,” I say defiantly. “He’s put me in charge of the others and this is my decision.”

  “Very well,” he says as he walks past me.

  “The game is after our classes,” I shout after him.

  He walks out of the medical ward and leaves me alone in the giant space. When I look around, I realize that the majority of the time I have spent here has been during utter mayhem. Chills creep over my body and I take that as my cue to leave. I jog out of the medical ward and through the hallways to Ev’s room.

  Just before I reach her door I see Dr. Kivuli turn the corner. Her hair is a little more unkempt than usual and she seems flustered.

  “Atom. What are you doing?” She adjusts herself. Her demeanor is certainly peculiar.

  “I was just taking a walk.” I’m lying, but she doesn’t need to know what I’m up to.

  She raises her eyebrow at me. “Of course. You haven’t stopped by to see me recently.”

  “Yeah, sorry about that.” I’m not really sorry, I don’t like being around her. Especially now that I know she’s planning against Rene. I do my best to hide my disdain from her.

  “Well, why don’t we have a session now?” she asks.

  “Really?” I’m caught off guard by the question.

  “Sure. I don’t have anything else going on, and you must certainly be under a lot of stress,” she insists.

  She is right about being under a lot of stress, but the last thing I want to do right now is talk to her. I realize, however, that by talking to her I might be able to figure out more of her motive. I clench my teeth at what I’m about to say. “Okay.”

  Dr. Kivuli turns and we walk silently to her office. She closes the door behind me after we enter. I take a seat and she sits directly across from me.

  “What’s on your mind, Atom?” she pries.

  I shift in my seat, not wanting to answer, but I know I have to play the game. I exhale and decide to actually tell her what’s on my mind. “I’m having trouble getting the Genesys to work together. So many of them tend to act on their own when we should be working as a team and there is always some pushback when I tell them what to do.”

  “Do you ever listen to what they have to say or do you just tell them what to do?” She leans in.

  “I guess I just tell them.” I hadn’t really thought of that before.

  “Great leaders listen to those they lead. Everyone must know that their opinions and ideas are valid,” she says, leaning back in her chair. I recall Ev saying something similar to me not too long ago.

  I process what she’s said. I really haven’t given anyone else a chance to speak their thoughts. Maybe one of them could have had a better idea that would have helped us succeed in the Hologram Battle.

  “How are you feeling about the Ragnarok coming soon?” she presses.

  “I’m scared.” I stop myself before I say anything else. She caught me off guard. I furrow my brow in disappointment with myself.

  “It’s okay to be scared, Atom. I am too. We really don’t know what is going to happen,” she tries to comfort me.

  Something she said peaks my interest. “What do you mean we don’t know what’s going to happen? Nuclear weapons will be detonated all over the world, killing pretty much everyone but us twelve Genesys and then we have to start it all over.”

  “Right.” She thinks about how to proceed. “I mean we don’t know what is going to happen with you after it’s all done. We will be gone and will have no idea as to whether you were successful or not.”

  I stare at her for a few moments, trying to read her. “Why are you scared?”

  Dr. Kivuli looks down at her hands. “I don’t want to die, Atom. I never was given a choice in the matter, but I guess we all have to die sometime.”

  “Do you wish Rene wasn’t going to set off the Ragnarok?” I push. I feel that I’ve hit a chord.

  She looks hard at me; her expression turns sour. “It doesn’t really matter, does it?”

  I don’t answer. Instead I keep my eyes glued to hers. She seems to be reading me as much as I am reading her. Eventually she looks away and stands.

  “I think that’s enough for today.” She walks towards the door.

  I stand, a small smile on my face. I walk past her and through the door. “Have a good night.”

  “You as well.” She closes the door behind me.

  Adrenaline shoots through my body because I can’t wait to tell Ev what just happened. I sprint back through the hallways to her room. She opens her door a few seconds after I knock and I barge in, taking a seat on her bed.

  “What’s going on?” she asks as she closes her door.

  “So last night I was walking around the compound and I overheard Dr. Kivuli and a scientist named Joey talking about the attacks and maybe organizing more. They are definitely both part of the Mutineers,” I say in one b
reath.

  “Dr. Kivuli? Really?” She takes a seat next to me on the bed.

  “Yes!” I nearly shout. “Plus, I just had a session with her and she admitted that she wasn’t a fan of Rene’s plan and didn’t want to die.”

  “No one wants to die, Atom,” she responds condescendingly.

  I look at her, not appreciating her tone. “I know that, but this is different.”

  “I suppose. I’m just surprised, that’s all.” She stands and pulls up the personnel database on the wall. “We should probably go through all the scientists and see who we think might be involved.”

  “Yeah. Plus Rene said that there is more than one Joey, so we need to see which one it was,” I add.

  “So I have already looked through the database once. There are nearly one hundred scientists here.” Ev calls up the file to every scientist on the wall.

  “Is there really?” I’m surprised. “I thought that maybe there were only about thirty or so.”

  “I did too. I guess most of them work in different parts of the compound. Remember, we didn’t even know that the Center for G.O.D. existed until Rene took us down there,” she says.

  “There were at least a dozen scientists down there,” I think out loud.

  “Exactly! So there very easily could be other parts of the compound that we don’t know about,” she adds.

  “Like the monitor room that I saw Grant go into,” I say.

  She stares at me with accusing eyes. I guess I forgot to mention that to her. She opens her mouth to say something, but then thinks twice about it and turns her attention to the wall.

  “So what should we do?” I ask, realizing after the fact that it’s what Dr. Kivuli suggested I start doing.

  “We make piles of the scientists. One pile for the people we know or suspect of being a part of the Mutineers and another pile for those we don’t,” she says to the wall.

  “What about the people neither of us know? It doesn’t seem fair to make an assessment based on just a picture.” I shift my body on her bed so that I am on my stomach, facing the wall.

  “Right. We make a third pile then.” She taps the wall and the first picture comes up. It’s Rene.

  “Mutineer!” I blurt out with a big smile. Ev looks at me and a small smile graces her face.

  “Very funny.” She turns back to the wall and, after moving about a dozen scientists to the ‘don’t know’ pile, another familiar face pops up. It’s Grant.

  “No,” I say.

  “Agreed.” She continues flipping through the scientists. More and more scientists get moved to the ‘don’t know’ pile and we move a couple other scientists to the ‘no’ pile; Grant’s husband and Dr. Cicca. Finally we come across our first Mutineer, Dr. Kivuli.

  “I still can’t believe she’s one of them,” Ev states.

  “I’ve never really trusted her, but I know what I saw.” A part of me is happy for being suspicious about her from the beginning. “Just be careful what you tell her when you meet again.”

  “Right.” Ev goes back to the wall. She continues to move scientists into the ‘don’t know’ pile.

  “Stop!” I nearly stand on her bed. “That’s him!”

  Ev brings up the file she just had and we both stare at a picture of ‘Joseph Relli’, one of the scientists in charge of surveillance and security.

  “Are you sure?” Ev asks.

  “Yes. He has the same build. He must work in the surveillance room.” I lay back down on the bed.

  Ev moves his picture to the Mutineer’s pile and the next picture that pops up is Hawk’s. We both stare quietly at his picture. I wait for Ev to say what she thinks.

  “I don’t know, Atom. There is something about him that just seems off.” She treads carefully.

  “Yeah,” I agree. “I think we move him to the Mutineer pile.”

  “Okay.” Ev exhales and moves him to the pile of Mutineers. There are only four people in that pile. We add Dr. Dennis O’Neal along the way, but since he’s dead, he doesn’t really garner much thought.

  In the last few files we come across both Dr. Peters and Dr. Metzger. Ev and I both decide that we don’t know enough about either to pass fair judgment so we put them in the ‘no’ pile but decide to keep an eye on them. After a few more files, we come to the end.

  “Did you see Brianna’s file?” Ev looks at me.

  “I don’t remember seeing it,” I say. I thought we were being attentive, but with the number of files we just went through, we could have just missed it. “We must have accidentally moved her to the ‘don’t know’ pile.”

  “I guess.” Ev scowls. She steps back and takes a seat next to me on her bed.

  “How do you like her in your Language class?” I’ve been wondering if Ev likes the choice I made for her.

  “The class is great! She’s really funny too. I’m actually looking forward to the next class. We start learning eastern languages like Japanese and Chinese.” She smiles at me and leans back in her bed.

  “What languages did you already learn?” I ask.

  “Aprendi Espanol, et Francois, und Deutch, e Italiano.” She giggles.

  I laugh as well. “Show off.”

  “What did you learn?” She looks across her bed at me.

  “I can build shelter anywhere and out of anything.” I smile back at her.

  “That’s so cool.” She lights up. “So what is it we are doing tomorrow instead of the simulation?”

  I turn over to face her. I’m excited to share. “We are playing a game of Breekbal against the drones.”

  “Really? What if someone gets hurt?” She sits up, concerned.

  “Dr. Peters will be there and we need this. I think this will help bring us all together as a team. We need to learn to rely on each other,” I state, not giving her a chance to change my mind.

  “You’re right. I hope it works,” she says absentmindedly. Her eyes look into mine and her face gets serious. “Can I ask you a question?”

  “Sure.” I’m a little wary of what she might ask.

  “Do you like me?” she asks, her eyes getting watery.

  I don’t know what she means by that question. Why wouldn’t I like her? “Of course.”

  She forces a smile but the movement of her muscles breaks the dams holding her tears back. She wipes her cheeks and looks away. “I’m sorry.”

  “Why? Don’t be sorry.” I really don’t know what to do or why she’s crying. “Is everything okay?”

  “Yeah,” she says through her tears while shaking her head to the contrary. “I just don’t know if I can handle all of this.”

  “That’s why we are doing it together.” I put my hand on her back. My heart breaks for her and I don’t want her to be sad.

  She turns to me and looks through her puffy eyes. “Can you just hold me for a little bit? I don’t want to be scared.”

  I smile at her and pull her in to me. She rests her head on my shoulder and then we fall onto our backs. We fall back a little too quickly because when our heads hit the mattress our foreheads collide.

  “Ow.” I put my open hand on my forehead.

  “Oh no. I’m so sorry.” She kisses her hand and places on my forehead. We look at each other and smile.

  “It’s okay. It’s all going to be okay,” I reassure both of us.

  I caress her head as we both lay quietly. My mind races with thoughts of the Mutineers, Breekbal, and the outsiders. For a brief moment I think to myself how comfortable this feels, but then my mind returns to the other thoughts, specifically the game of Breekbal tomorrow and what the best strategy will be.

  I shiver awake and unaware of my surroundings. It isn’t until I roll my head over and see Ev that I realize I fell asleep in her bed. I have both arms wrapped around her. My movements must have woken her up because she rolls over to look at me.

  Her smile quickly shifts to anger and she stands next to her bed. “What are you doing?”

  “What?” I sit up.

&n
bsp; “Why are you in my bed?” she yells at me.

  I stand up, confused. “You asked me to hold…”

  “I didn’t ask you to sleep in here!” She scowls at me.

  Why is she acting like this? “I’m sorry. I must have just…”

  “What about Fe?” she demands.

  “What about her?” I feel my voice rising.

  “You kissed her, Atom!” Tears streak down her cheeks. “You can’t do that and then do this!”

  “It was an accident!” I’m yelling now. “And you asked me to hold you. I did that because I’m your friend.”

  “Is that what I am? A friend?” She stops yelling and speaks through her tears.

  I feel tears breaking free from my eyes as well. “Yes. I don’t know. What do you want me to say, Ev?” I plead with her.

  She just stares at me. She walks to her door and opens it. “Please leave.”

  “Ev? Talk to me,” I beg. She doesn’t answer, so I have no other option but to leave. The second I step through the threshold the door slams behind me.

  16

  There are still a couple of hours before my class, so I head back to my room and lay in my bed. I can’t wrap my head around Ev’s reaction, but it certainly explains why she had been acting weird before. Fe must have told her about the kiss. Why would she do that?

  With my head a complete jumble I know that I’m not going to be able to get back to sleep before class, so I decide to look at all the monitors in my room. Everything seems pretty normal. Drones are patrolling the compound; scientists are going about their business.

  I’m about to roll back over when I spot 80 on one of the monitors. He’s standing just to the bottom right edge of the frame. A couple of seconds later Brianna walks into the frame and exchanges a few words with him. Just as I adjust myself to get a closer look, 80 looks directly in the direction of the camera. He says something to Brianna and they both walk off in a hurry.

  The meeting is certainly peculiar and I am unsure what it was for. Suddenly it hits me. Brianna is extremely attractive. Why wouldn’t 80 be interested in her? I find myself getting very excited for him. I’ll have to make sure to tease him about it later.