Computer's Code (Part 2 of Unofficial Student)

~PART 2 OF UNOFFICIAL STUDENT~

It’s 1^st person. I’m tired of writing stories 3^rd POV.

This story includes another main character, Kaity.

Kaity

I stare at the brick wall, full of purple doodles and red tallies. Two more days until they will let me out.

London Fields has an underground prison where they keep students like me. People who mess with the algorithm, those sneaky kids who were trained privately by our trainer, Laure. She was beautiful and talented. Since she never registered in London Fields as a teacher, no one knew she even existed, and no officials knew about her. When they did, though, she was executed.

“Two days,” my cellmate Sia mutters, gazing at the wall. I nod.

“Did you hear?” One of my friends, Merry, says. “One student died here after pretending to take the shot. Fiona, I think. She was caught and was executed.”

I snort. “And she was registered? Obviously, they knew.”

“Pretty sad, though.”

“Disappointing.”

Sia doesn’t look away from the wall. “Two more days,” she repeats. “We’ve been here for three months. Two more days until freedom, can you believe it?”

I look at her, shrugging. “Those stupid officials are unpredictable. They will probably kill us when we take our first breath of real air.”

“Pessimist.”

I shrug again, this time, more annoyingly, and glance at the wall again.

It was clean.

~--~

Eliz

“Go to class, Eliz,” Official Cathie heads my way and points to the door.

“Okay.”

“You have your books with you?”

“Yes.”

“How are you?”

“Good.”

Official Cathie smiles to herself. “Just making sure the new update was working,” she says to me sweetly, tapping something on her phone. As soon as she presses a button, it makes a beeping sound. A message pops into my brain. Go to class!

I start walking.

“Don’t forget there’s an exam in your next class!”

“Okay.”

~--~

High Official Krestner

“The update lets us control the students with fewer limitations,” I explain to the officials. “Very cheap, many options. This update can let us control not just students, but adults too. The app can run country to country, and can track down students who are not in our control.” I smile. “Which is how we got to Fiona, of course.”

“Excellent,” Official Cathie agrees. “A few students have glitches, but that will be up and running after lunch.”

“I made sure the app can also erase a certain memory,” Official Mariah adds.

 “With this, we can control all of the kids in the entire world, from small countries like South Korea, to huge parts of Russia and China.”

~--~

Kaity

The wall was clean. That could only mean one thing.

“They updated their stupid app,” Merry says, disgusted. “Everything from the past erased.”

“Two more days,” Sia whispers.

“Forget about two days!” I yell. “We’re not going to wait two days to just die. We’re not ending up like Fiona. Alright? We’ll find a way out of here.” I look around the dark, brownish room.

“What are you looking for?” Sia asks.

“A vent. That’s how all protagonists get out of somewhere. Duh.”

“Oh. A vent? You mean this one, right?” She kneels on the floor and takes out a cover on the ground. A rectangular opening sits there, giving out shock to Merry and me.

“How long did you know it was there?” Merry asks, with a scrunched up expression on her face.

“Forever! You could fall down there, so I covered it with duct tape and cloth so we wouldn’t fall.”

I almost push her down the vent.

~--~

Riza

“Hello,” three girls walk up to me and stare into my eyes. “Who are you?”

I hold out my hand. “Riza. Proud student of London Fields.”

One of them starts to whisper. “Yep. She’s infected.”

“Excuse me?” I ask.

“Will you show us the way to High Official Krestner’s office, please?”

I am unconvinced. Right now, the teachers were on their lunch period and they would certainly be angry with me if they do something wrong.

“We are Official Cathie’s nieces!” one of them says quickly. “High Official Krestner told us to come to her office to meet her.”

“Ah! Of course. Come this way.” I lead them upstairs and point to one of the rooms. “302, marked Krestner. If the lights are off, leave them off, please. High Official Krestner doesn’t like anyone touching her property.”

~--~

Kaity

High Official Krestner had a minion that was also a student in her control. Riza.

We knew she would lead us straight to Krestner’s office because Merry, fortunately, heard her update had a glitch. All we had to do was go inside her office and turn off everything that brainwashed the school.

“Are there security cameras?” Sia asks.

Merry takes out her phone and points at it. “Not anymore.” She turned them off.

“Does Krestner know you’re the smart one?”

“Probably not.”

“Hey! We can pretend we have our own superpowers from what we’re good at! Merry the Magnificent, she can hack into any device! Kaity the Kitty! Sneaky, can jump and survive any height, and can be very vicious! Sia the Sidekick! The—”

“Shut up!” I hiss. “I’m not going down with you.” I open the door. “Sia, you need to stay here and not do anything. Alright? Merry will hack into the school’s system and I need to look out to see if anyone’s coming.”

“Did you bring the gun?” Merry asks me.

“Gun?!” Sia exclaims. Merry shushes her.

“Couldn’t find one here, but found a realistic one. And stole one of the shots that they used on that Fiona girl. We’re armed, don’t worry. Let’s get in there.”

Sia trembles, but stays.

~--~

Kaity

“Just do your thing,” I say. I hand a chip to her.

“I am! Don’t distract me.” I eat the chip. “Their security system is high, and I’m still figuring out a way in.” She glides her fingers to the keys until she finally presses enter.

“Got in!”

“Great. Now just do your thing.”

She rolls her eyes at me.

~--~

Sia

I know if I make one sudden wrong move, I’ll bring Kaity and Merry down with me. I can’t do that.

I take a deep breath. It’s time for one of Merry’s disguises.

Merry’s parents are scientists, and they gave her all different kinds of technology-mask disguises in case something goes wrong. You can only use one disguise once, or else it’ll glitch and might be disguised onto you forever.

Merry didn’t trust me when she handed me one. But she gave it to me anyway, because that’s what a good friend does.

I place the button on the left side of my neck. I press on it.

I’m going into the officials’ lounge.

Then I giggle. I’ve never been this serious my entire life.

~--~

Kaity

“Sia’s using her disguise!” Merry says, bewildered.

“How’d you know?”

“It notified me. She’s in the officials’ lounge.”

“Why the hell is she in there?” I panic.

The whole computer screen goes black. I almost stop breathing. Suddenly, I don’t even realize there’s an air conditioner right next to me.

“Wait. The computer’s normal,” she tells me after glancing at my face. “But I don’t know why Sia is trying to get herself in trouble.”

“But she’s in disguise…” I start. It hits me. “She’s distracting the officials with her disguise!”

“God. I never would have thought.”

“Hurry. Sia’s a horrible talker. We need to finish this fast.”

Colorful codes come up the screen. She starts typing. Then typing. Then clicking. I yawn.

Then, Merry clicks on a red button. It looks like the red in a street signal. I’m unconvinced when Merry nods abruptly.

She hisses, “I did it.”

“No more brainwashed students?”

I glance, horrified at the countdown timer. “You need to get out of here,” she whispers.

“What about Sia? What about you?”

“Just run! I’m not done yet, Kaity. There are brainwashed students out there, and I’m going to save them. But I won’t make it in time. Just run, save yourself!”