Delusional Page 14

  “If they aren’t here to help us, and to help America, then who are they helping?” Ethan spoke up, I could tell his mind was thinking back to one of the briefings.

  “Themselves,” Colton said flatly, “People don’t just do things just because, they do it because they get something out of it.”

  “Then why are they doing it?” Dulce asked. She wanted to believe him, she wanted to accept the reality that he presented to us, but there was still a part of her that wanted to deny it.

  “There’s no way to tell.” Colton’s eyes narrowed, “But something tells me they are doing it all for their own benefit, not ours. If they can decentralize nanobots in every individual and sell software on it to cure addiction and create more intelligent people, along with selling our data then they would all be trillionaires.”

  “C’mon,” Dulce stared angrily at the table. She sighed, puffs of hot air expelling from her wide nostrils. “Can’t we just believe that at least one person is not out to kill or exploit us. We don’t have to go.”

  “You’re right we don’t have to go,” Colton countered.

  Her eyes widened, the gap between her thin eyebrows widening. “Well you’re sure making it sound like we don’t get a choice.”

  “In my mind there is no decision,” Colton said. There was a boldness behind his voice that led me to believe his every word. “In my mind, we have to leave. In fact, I am going no matter what, and whoever wants to, is welcome to come along.”

  “I’m in.” Antonio grinned at Colton as the rest of the table stared at him in shock.

  “That’s what I’m talking about dude,” Colton high-fived him. The veins in his forearms were bulging grotesquely.

  “What is wrong with you?” Spit exuded from Dulce’s mouth as she retorted. Her and Antonio had become rather close friends over the last couple weeks, and there was no doubt that she was taking his betrayal of the White Knights personally.

  “Dulce calm down.” I put my hand up to try and prevent her from lunging forward at Antonio.

  There was a silence as everyone looked around uneasily. The way Colton made it sound, we could just run off frolicking through the fields and live a happy life—as long as we left the White Knights—but that sounded just as awful and ludicrous a decision as staying. I didn’t even know if I wanted to be happy; I didn’t even know what being truly happy felt like, never mind if that feeling was even possible.

  “Colton,” I said looking him right in the eyes. He was so caught up in the moment, almost like a little kid, and I didn’t want to be the one to burst his bubble. “Look, I like the idea of leaving.” I paused. “But that’s the thing. It’s all it is, just an idea. I don’t see any real substance to your plan, it is just a wonderful, almost dream-like idea. And even though it sounds good, truthfully, I don’t see how it’s going to work.”

  “What do you mean, how could it not work?” Colton’s face was full of passion, but he still managed to keep a leveled tone. “I already have an escape plan, and once we leave we can do whatever we want. If we don’t want to take our chances with the Retributioners we don’t have to. We can join a local militia or survive on our own like the tens of millions of Americans who woke up just weeks ago without a job or home. We can even go completely off the grid!

  “Look,” He said staring at us desperately to come on board with him. There was a look in his eyes that pressed that he didn’t just want us to go with him; he needed us. “I understand the fear that you guys have, it’s totally valid. I understand that leaving is taking a big risk; we are making ourselves vulnerable to the looters, gangs, and the government. But at the same time, staying here we are risking so much more. If we stay here we won’t be happy. If we stay here we are putting the fate of our well-beings in others’ hands. But if we leave we get to take control of our own lives. If we leave we get to take control of our happiness.”

  The warmth of his voice reached out to me, pulling my body with him into whatever madness he wanted to embark on.

  I sighed, looking at my reflection in the transparent glass windows lining the exterior of the White Knight compound, and it was in that moment when through the glass, one of the White Knight senior advisers held up a gun to a girl’s head who kneeled crying on the ground. Her thick black hair gleamed in the sunlight beaming down through the windows, and the nose ring that pierced through the dark olive skin on her nose sparkled beautifully. I felt my eyes try to close, but all my muscles were frozen with shock as the deafening boom of the pistol shook my body to the core, and the poor girl’s head dripping with blood audibly clanked on the floor.

  Chapter 8

  Her eyes were wide open leaving her exposed. Even with the blood staining her short black hair and the bullet piercing through the crease of her forehead, she still looked beautiful. There was an enchanting calmness, that in a way, stood in defiance of her chaotic last moments.

  Someone had even turned off the electrodes inside of her clothes, leaving her body blanketed in a cold gray.

  “What?” I could hear someone shout from behind me, as nervous whispers filled the air.

  It had been five minutes and still no one had come to try and help the girl who laid helplessly across the cold granite floor. Within seconds the White Knight Adviser, who shot the girl, disappeared into one of the hallways, and no one had come out to explain what happened, despite the raucous screams from the crowd.

  The blood trickled in a steady stream from her head to the edge of the crowd circled around her body, and the yelling reached a new feverish pitch. Her arms looked almost translucent in the bright industrial lighting, and the skin on her face hung loose.

  “Listen up!” Jacob hollered as he appeared from the left wing and swiftly stood one of the tables. He was wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses like he almost always did, almost as if he was scared of being spotted even within the safe confines of his own compound.

  Everyone grew silent immediately, even from where I was standing I could see the boiled over look in his eyes. He was about to explode with anger.

  “Today we detected a humanoid in our compound,” His claim was followed by another wave of silence from the crowd. “This humanoid,” he said glancing with a heartless disgust at the girl sprawled out lifelessly on the floor, “Was formerly one of our most valuable assets on our intel team, who was manipulated by the government in order to retain valuable intel about our current operations.”

  An eruption of chatter ensued, as the air seemed to take on an eerie quality. I looked over at Colton, whose tan face had lost all its color.

  “Settle down!” Jacob yelled above the crowd, his eyes flaming. “I know, that this news comes as a shock to all of you. Just last night, we interpreted an electromagnetic signal coming from a government compound in Seattle, Washington, to our compound. We soon traced this signal directly back to her brain.” He glanced at the girl coldly, but there was a thin film of emotion beneath his eyes that I did not understand. Jacob looked strong and powerful standing up on one of the tables with the dozens of pairs of eyes fixated on him, and I could tell that he fed off the attention of the people.

  “We still don’t know exactly what intel she collected,” He paused taking a deep breath, “But regardless, we must suspend all current operations and act as if our systems have been compromised.”

  The gust of the dozens of people talking all at once howled in my ears. It all was a whirlwind. I remembered learning about humanoids at one point. Apparently, a humanoid was someone whose brain had been hijacked to perform a certain set of tasks. The government had been using them since the birth of Protocol 00, but they had only recently become widespread since the mind control program shut down. Jacob said that we wouldn’t have to worry about humanoids infiltrating the White Knights headquarters because he had a supposed way of keeping them out.

  But the conniving, manipulative ways of the government even eluded the compulsive, paranoid eyes of Jacob that could be found incessantly searching the crowd for a
ny signs of unconformity. If they got past him, then they can get past anyone.

  My body shivered at the thought, as two of the White Knight advisers ushered the crowd to be quiet. On the main screen and in the live news feed sent to our ICLs there were flashing-red warnings about humanoids that beeped in my ears. Reporters would appear with a distressed, almost crazed look in their eyes as they issued a stringent message to America, reminding us to always be on the lookout, and to always be prepared for your conscious mind to be stolen.

  As scary and hellish as it sounds, the government could hack into the brain of anyone, at any time, and tell them to do anything with the click of a button. Humans are their indispensable robots, that act as an undercover army for them to dispose at will. Even after the mind control program shut down, America has still been unable to escape their control. Even with the pinnacle of power and control in the government now subverted, their heinous ways have still persisted. Even with Protocol 00 destroyed, the technology to control one’s mind has prevailed, and as long as that power exists, humans will forever use it.

  “We will provide more information as soon as its available,” Jacob ran a hand through his scruffy, gray beard. The large, bulky man that I remember seeing for the first time a few weeks ago had evidently lost some weight. “For now, though, report to your advisers.” He sighed, “We need to make sure this never happens again.”

  “Holy shit,” I stared in a trance at the girl who still laid with her eyes open, neglected on the floor. They were keeping her there to send a message, except no one needed to receive a message so awful and hopeless. They wanted us to know that if the government mind controls us, we were inevitably dead. But it was pointless to live in perpetual terror over the things we couldn’t control.

  “This is insanity!” Ethan yelled in exasperation as he stormed off to the training room for our morning session.

  “Colton,” I said softly, not to scare him out of his daydream. His pupils looked dilated as he stared motionlessly at the girl.

  “Colton,” I repeated, finally waking him up out of his zombie-like state. “Colton, this is not good. What do we do?”

  I looked up at him, and into his eyes that could make all my worries melt away with one single swoop. He leaned in and swiftly moved his arms around my waist. Just his grip around me made me feel safe, just looking at him could almost make me believe that the world was okay.

  But one glance at the poor girl with blood slowly trickling between her closed lips, and the main screen displaying images of the government drone onslaught on Orlando, Florida and I instantly became reminded of how truly screwed the human species is.

  And it’s all our own faults.

  “I know it’s bad,” He pulled me even closer so that our bodies were touching, and all I could feel was his warmth. “Natalie,” he looked at me with a genuine look of concern, a look of fear. “We have to leave. We must leave. There is no other option.”

  I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and I could almost feel the words ‘yes’ escape from my tongue, and for the first time I could feel my heart gravitate towards leaving—towards him.

  His arms loosened their hold around my body and his hair fell in loose strands just below his ears. He did his signature half smirk, that would keep any girl guessing, and just before I walked off to my morning assignment he whispered in a red-hot tone three words ever so softly into my ear.

  “You’re truly beautiful.”

  Chapter 9

  There was a distinctive way that Jacob looked at me that sent a tingling feeling down my spine, and it caused the hairs on my arms to stand up with the jolts of electricity that raced between us.

  His cold eyes seemed to have a barricade protecting anyone from seeing inside to his true emotions. But when he talked to me, Jacob’s guard went down just a bit, opening a new door to the world behind his shades and very rarely his eyes. And in the world behind his confident, driven persona, I could see pain, fear, and most of all regret.

  The lights slowly dimmed in the room. Jacob spoke to me in a warm, almost fatherly-like tone as he glanced at me with a look of genuine care.

  He doesn’t do this with anyone else. I shifted my nervous glance away from him, feeling both confused and unsettled. Is he doing it to somehow to deceive me, or for some other reason?

  “C’mon Jacob,” I pressed, “Just tell us everything about what happened earlier. Tell us the truth.” I shuddered as I thought back to the images of the girl still fresh in my mind.

  “Fair enough,” He said glancing at Adrian, and then at Ethan and me. He took a short, hasty breath. “The humanoid was named Jenna Barry. She joined the White Knights three weeks ago from our camp in Bronx, New York. She had always been a smart, funny girl and she passed initiation with ease.

  “It wasn’t until last night when we noticed that our fire wall had been breached, and that someone had hacked into the brain of someone, or multiple people in the White Knights. It didn’t take long to trace it back to Jenna, who works high up in intel.”

  “But why did you have to shoot her like that in front of everyone?” I questioned, “Why didn’t you try to fix her?”

  “We had no other choice,” He said firmly, but then abruptly stopped to pause for a moment.

  “The government wasn’t mind controlling Jenna,” Jacob finally spoke up, breaking the silence. “They were exploiting her brain for information.” His hands formed fists in anger, but his tone stayed level. “And now they know all our mission plans, and they know all the intel we have gathered about them and other groups. They know everything.”

  “That still doesn’t explain why you decided to order a White Knight adviser to shoot her in front of everyone.” I glared coldly at him. Maybe Colton really was right about everything, maybe we should leave.

  “Like I said we had no other option. If we still allowed her brain to function the government would continue to gather more information about us, and further destroy our progress.”

  “What does that mean for us, though?” Ethan pressed, there was a distraught look strewn across his face. “Are the White Knights going to be okay?”

  Jacob paused glancing upward as his face went pale with terror. He opened his mouth to speak, and then suddenly stopped. I could see the words clawing at his throat, desperately trying to break free, but his lips contorted, trying to refrain the truth from spilling out of him. Then finally the words sputtered out of his mouth. “Natalie, Ethan…” he gulped a little bit, looking at me for a few seconds, almost as if a wave of nostalgia overcame him. “The firewall that we use to protect you, and the rest of the White Knights has failed.”

  “What does that mean?” Ethan fiddled his hands.

  Jacob looked at Adrian for some help, but by the deafening silence I could tell Adrian was just as interested in telling us as Jacob was. “Well… it means that the government, or anyone else for that matter, is able to take control of the nanobots in your brain. And…” He looked at me and I could almost feel his eyes reaching out to me across the table. “We have interpreted some of the communications between government officials in D.C. and Seattle, and it looks like you guys might both be their next targets.”

  I felt my heart sink from my chest all the way down to the bottom of my stomach and I glanced at Ethan, who brushed a hand over the gash on the side of his face almost as if he was trying to scrape it off.

  “Are we going to die?” I said shuddering after what felt like hours of silence.

  “No,” Jacob looked at me with confident, assuring eyes. “I would never let that happen. We would never let that happen. That’s why we want to try something.” He eyed me with an auspicious glare.

  “Could you please elaborate more on that?” Ethan placed his hands together out in front of him on the table. His right arm was almost completely healed, besides the few scars left over.

  Adrian put a hand on his formidable chest, and I could see his white teeth glow in stark contrast to the dark skin and black cl
othes that coated his body. “Well, remember how the blue pill protects your brain from the mind control program infecting your brain,” Adrian spoke giddily.

  “Yes,” we both responded.

  “Well that’s just about the only thing the blue pill does. The blue pill blocks the malware from the mind control program from entering your brain, but it is not programmed to detect other malware, or stop people from remotely hacking your brain.

  “The thing is,” Adrian smiled, “We think we have developed an almost full proof program, sort of like anti-virus software, that will protect your brain from all impending neuro-cyberattacks.”

  “Are you planning on putting that thing inside of our brains?” Ethan glanced at me wearily, and I could hear the fright in his shaking voice.

  “Yes, of course.” Adrian projected a holograph onto the wall in front of us. He acted like altering the composition of our brain structure forever was a blatantly obvious and causal thing to do. “And we want to install it in your brain right now.”

  Shit. I winced, just imagining the large needle or metal claw that would inevitably be piercing into our brains at any moment. Ironically, it was the warmth and irradiated gleam in his eyes that made me uncomfortable. It was the sincerity in his voice; the idea that this thing could actually be good, that made my mind befuddled.

  “Okay,” I said. My panicked heart had sped up to a feverish level, but I had learned to keep my composure calm.

  Projected on the holograph were two loading symbol’s side-by side, and within seconds the two headings, Natalie Parker’s Mind and Ethan Blaine’s Mind appeared side by side.

  “Just so you guys get an idea of how easy it is to connect to your brains.” He motioned with his hand and instantly we were zoomed in to a view inside the network of millions of neurons inside our brain. The endless web of connection after connection looked almost too impossible to be real. My eyes spiraled through the never-ending darkness, as I could feel my mind accepting the reality that we would always live in constant fear, and we would always live being controlled despite the ability to be wholly free.