I jolted awake as a hand viciously beat against my skull. Pain erupted throughout my head.
‘Hey wake up,’ said a voice,’ I need to talk about something’. I sat up holding my head, greeted by the shadowy presence of Tyler.The pain slowly diminished into a familiar throbbing.
‘I only just got to sleep, what could possibly be so important?’ I grumbled.
‘Well, it’s more important then a midnight snack. Possibly having something to do with why on earth we are at this freaky camp,’ he replied. I got out of bed and began searching for my clothes, my head violently protesting with each movement.
‘Still you could have been gentler in waking me.’ The shadow laughed.
‘You sleep like a rock, your whole group does. I tried for a good minute to wake you, no wonder Jaclyn gets away with so much.’ I wonder whose side he was on.
Once I had successfully dressed myself, I grabbed by bag and follow him out the door. Tyler quickly walked away from the cabin, angling towards the cafeteria. He stopped when he was on the other side of it, looking away from the camp buildings over the grassy expanse where we had previously test flown our kites.
‘I trust you have a good reason why this meeting couldn’t occur in the day,’ I said.
‘I couldn’t sleep, I needed someone to talk to,’ he replied. ‘Besides, we can explore, research, anything that may be inhibited by people.’ All I could think of was Chloe, evidence that night was not safe.
‘I’m a little suspicious of some of the members of my group.’ Tyler stated calmly. It caught me off guard.
‘In what way?’ I asked.
‘Hidden agendas and what not, plans which I am not aware of. Frankly they act a little confident?’
‘So you think they should be bumbling around in confusion?’ I asked, unsure of exactly what he was suggesting.
‘Well, yes. We come here for who knows why, knowing that it has something to do with ten years ago, yet not sure what happened. Confusion would be the logical reaction.’
‘Still,’ I replied. ‘We can’t guarantee that everyone lost their memories of that day. It affected people differently. Forrest couldn’t even remember his group.’ Tyler leant against the wall, hands behind his head.
‘But, if people do remember, why would they not inform their team of this valuable information.’ My heart was starting to race, finally, progress. ‘Plus, some such as Kari appear to be acting just dangerously.’
‘Stress?’ I asked. He shook his head.
‘This afternoon she ran another bike off the road and I went down with it. Whilst I was trying to collect myself, she seemed to be having a conversation with the other team, as injured as they were. She stopped when she noticed me get up, but as I saw to their injuries they just kept glancing at her.’
‘Are you suggesting a conspiracy?’
‘That would be interesting. Some group with hidden intentions, infiltrating all the groups for their own twisted satisfaction.’ He laughed, ‘fits this situation quite nicely doesn’t it?’
‘Chloe and I were separated in the race too.’ I stated. ‘That means she’s suspicious as well.’
‘Yep, everyone is plotting against us it seems.’ His eyes flashed with excitement. ‘The question is what do we do?’
‘The smart thing would be to gather information, eavesdrop, try and see if they meet with anyone else.’ I said, his excitement was contagious. I felt like I was in the FBI.
‘I have bugged my dorm with an mp3 device. It can record up to one hundred hours of audio and is connected to the wall so battery life shouldn’t be a problem.’ Wow, he was quite serious, I was impressed.
‘What if they talk somewhere else?’
‘Then our plan shall unravel like a cheap cardigan.’ He replied, grinning. ‘Thus we must supplement this with some stealth ops?’ Alright, now I was feeling a little worried.....
‘What do you have in mind?’ I asked nervously.
‘How ‘bout we have a look-see into the admin building. There is bound to be something in there right.’
‘That’s breaking and entering. If we are caught we could be charged.’
‘Everyone’s asleep. The building is locked up; the admins live in a different building. Getting caught is only a small probability.’ The annoying fact was that there was quite likely something to find in there. The potential gain may even outweigh the risk. Thus there was conflict between my brain and the inner core of my very soul.
‘As you said, the building is probably locked.’ I pleaded.
‘Then you have nothing to worry about.’ I was trapped.
‘But my head hurts.’ I moaned.
‘Come on,’ he said. Without letting me protest any further, Tyler moved towards the admin building. I followed a step behind him, wondering why I was letting myself. This was trouble.
On reaching the building we routinely checked all the doors to see if they were locked. Thankfully, they were. Unfortunately, Tyler continued to test the windows. My heart gave way when the first one he tried slid open.
‘Who forgets to lock the windows,’ I moaned. Tyler let out a choked laugh as he made his way in.
The window opened into what appeared to be a small study. The edge of the room was filled with the dark shapes of filing cabinets and book shelves, forming a narrow walkway from the door to the window. Immediately next to the window was a desk which held a computer. Grabbing a flashlight from my bag I inspected the back of its tower. It was wired into a network making it a suitable candidate. I inserted my USB in the back where it would hopefully remain undiscovered.
‘Okay, when this computer is on, I should be able to access their network,’ I informed.
‘Great, now onward,’ said Tyler gesturing definitively at the door. I hesitated.
‘What, you thought we broke in here simply to insert a USB device,’ Tyler chided. ‘You have to think bigger than that.’ He once again took the lead.
.. ..
We walked down a passage, away from the end which opened into the foyer. I searched for anything out of the ordinary. As we rounded a corner, I found it. There was a door locked electronically. The buttons of a keypad glowing next to it stuck out vividly from the wood panelling of the walls.
‘I wonder why this is here?’ Tyler asked, tapping the small box.
‘I think it’s only for this one door. All the electronics appear to be localised, though it my link in with the alarm system,’ I stated. The size of the box seemed big enough to house all the hardware.
‘can you open it,’ Tyler said. I rummaged in my bag and pulled out a screwdriver. With the removal of four screws and a bit of leverage the casing came off. Tyler just stared on. ‘Wow, I didn’t think that you’d actually try,’ he remarked. I smiled at him before studying the circuitry.
‘I think the code just permits power to be supplied to the lock, if I hotwire it, I think I can get the lock to open, but it might set of an alarm.’ I pulled out some wire cutters from my bag. What the hell was I doing? Just because I could doesn’t mean I should. I was destroying property. What if we found nothing, what if we were caught? And something didn’t feel right. Why were the electronics on our side of the door?
‘Man you’re well equipped,’ said Tyler ‘We’re here now; if you have the means then why not go further’. I inhaled deeply before cutting two wires and making them one. There was a click. A push on the door showed it to be unlocked. There was no alarm. This shouldn’t be this easy, I wasn’t a security expert.
To our satisfaction, the suspicious door opened onto a suspicious stairway heading sub terrain. At least it justified the property damage. Tyler needed no more encouragement to head down it, almost running. I hoped that he wouldn’t do anything foolish. Such as breaking into a building or destroying a lock. Again I followed after him. As we neared the bottom, the air got noticeably colder and became flavoured with the hum of mass electronics. And that was what we were confronted by.
The room at the bottom of the stairs was large, the hum of the powerful air conditioner fighting for prominence over the various sounds made by large towers which were arranged in orderly blocks around the room. On closer inspection, it could be seen that they were probably some kind of super computer. The possessing potential of such a setup made my knees weak. I wonder how powerful it was.
‘Why would they need so much power?’ I asked, walking slowly around the room, absorbing the atmosphere. Tyler just shook his head.
‘I guess this means more to you then me,’ he remarked. He pulled out his phone and started taking pictures, the inbuilt flash illuminating the room; and burning my eyes.
‘If we could find what its use is...’ I trailed off. The fact that such a computer existed at a summer camp was too much for my brain to handle, causing it to intensify its throbs of protest.
‘Well can’t you hack it or something? You’ve done it before.’ I grunted my agreement, and began searching for a port I could plug into. After a few minutes of searching I found a tower which appeared to be the central node. It was the only one that had a means for an external computer to connect. Grabbing my laptop from the bag, I hastily plugged it in to an available port. Using software similar to what was on the USB, I easily gained access to the super computer which was not prepared for attack of this fashion. However, it didn’t take long to realise that this may have been a useless venture. I couldn’t find a file that my computer recognised. The computer system appeared to be solely designed to operate a program that was completely independent on all which had existed so far. Without any identifiable threads, the whole thing was just petabytes of unidentifiable programming.
‘Found anything?’ Tyler asked. I shook my head.
‘I’ve copied a few files but this all means nothing. All I know is that it is something big.’
‘Big?’ Tyler repeated.
‘Big enough to need a super computer. Your guess is as good as mine as to what its purpose is.’ I said.
‘Well, that’s encouraging. For all we know he could own the internet,’ he remarked.
‘If that was the case, I would have found porn.’ I said, beginning to pack up my computer.
‘Well there is that,’ he said. ‘I think I’ve seen enough for a night, let’s get out of here.’ He headed for the stairs, leaving me to pack up. He better not desert me.
‘Excuse me but shouldn’t you be in your dorm?’ My heart lurched violently as a foreign voice broke into the dark. I dived behind a computer block. What a useless thing to do. I had obviously been seen.
‘Well, according to you maybe, but others may have different opinions as to what one should or should not be doing,’ Tyler replied.
‘Yes but I believe it to be a common custom that locks indicate that a door is to remain shut, not providing someone with the chance to showcase their electronic skills,’ said the voice. It sounded like the head councillor.
‘Though I imagine you could justify it by arguing that your motivations held some form of logic,’ the head councillor continued.
‘Well you have to admit, coming to a whacked out camp to find many others and being forced into activities does add some incentive to sneak around.’ Tyler said.
‘Too true,’ the counsellor replied. ‘And I would imagine that finding a super computer at a summer camp makes the course of action worthwhile. Did you manage to get into it?’ the counsellor asked, intrigued.
‘What?’ Tyler was caught off guard. ‘No I’m not very good with computers. Couldn’t even find the on button.’
‘Then I guess this expedition may have left you with more questions than answers. Pity, was it worth it? Then again, you haven’t received any news on punishment. Without knowing the price it’s a little hard to work out how good the deal is. Shall we head to my office and discuss the deal further.’ The head councillor departed up the stairs. Tyler did a quick sweep of the room looking for me before following. I don’t know if he could see me in the shadows.
I was alone, engulfed in the sounds of the computer room. Surprisingly, it appeared that my presence had not been discovered. Therefore I was faced with one fairly logical course of actions. It involved getting the hell out of there and pretending that I had never even left my dorm. Unfortunately, my partner had just been dragged of to a location where he is to learn his fate for single headedly sneaking around on private property as well as destroying a small part of it. It felt like desertion just to leave him now. I at least had to know what is to become of him. I desperately hoped that the disciplinary protocol would be akin to that of a normal summer camp. And thus, logic was ignored and I followed after them.
Finding his office was not a challenge. It was in the typical office place, at the back of the admin building. Plus it was the one room that had a light on. Getting seen now would completely negate the luck which had only just saved me. I would just check that he wasn’t in too much trouble and then leave. They would be none the wiser. If I was lucky. That made me feel uneasy. Luck is a limited resource. I gave myself three minutes.
‘You understand that I am at an impasse as to how to discipline you. Technically I could make you do dishes, clean stuff, but ultimately, it probably won’t eliminate your curiosity. And unless that is done, you may be interrogating my staff as soon as I turn my back.’ The head councillor explained.
‘You could wipe my memory again. If you remove my memories enough, you will remove my curiosity.’ Tyler said. He sounded pretty confident.
‘Yes but, I want you all here with curiosity. Memories of last camp, questions for this one. Erasing memories would be counter productive,’ replied the councillor.
‘But if you want me to be curious, then why are we even wasting our time here?’ Tyler asked.
‘Because I want to know what is going on in your head. Plus I would appreciate it if you didn’t damage my property,’ he said calmly.
‘Well as far as I am concerned, you are an enemy. Discussing my thoughts with you is not appropriate,’ said Tyler.
‘Well I understand you’re hostile towards me. Do you fear me?’ asked the Councillor.
‘Not really. I’m just curious as to why you are running this camp,’ Tyler said. ‘Its clearly not normal.’ The head councillor laughed.
‘No its not. Hence discipline is such an interesting topic. So let’s make it more interesting.’ There was a pause. ‘I will give you a choice. You have an option of either going through with this either solo or accompanied by this person. All you have to do is request that they either enter the office, or run away. If you choose to be alone, I will make no mention of the other person to anyone. Any questions?’ Tyler didn’t answer.
Accompanied? That would have to be me. Did he know I was here all along? I held my breath waiting for Tyler’s response. I was not sure what I wanted to do.
The time stretched on painfully, it didn’t seem like Tyler was going to respond. But then I heard movement on the other side of the door. It opened and the head councillor leant out.
‘Your friend has indicated that he wishes for you to leave. Good night.’ With that he closed the door. What the Hell? What was he thinking? Why should I be able to just walk away?
I didn’t walk, I ran; not stopping until I reached my car. I climbed in, locked the doors and just sat in the driver’s seat; my heart pounding, my head spinning. I knew I couldn’t run away. But the thought of going back was unthinkable.
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