Chapter 20: No Time for My Diary

The room fell silent after Forrest left the room. That’s when I realised I still had the MP3 earpiece in. It was too quite to hear, but loud enough to realise it was on. So I turned the volume up...

...“Who cares about the rules? The head counsellor lets us do our own thing mostly anyway,” I recognised Felix’s voice speaking. “He would have approved of me toying with Chloe, I’m sure. Just continuing what he started.”
“So he told you what he did to Chloe? I haven’t heard a word from him about that.” Forrest’s voice responded.
“I’m not surprised,” Kari’s voice is there too. I wonder when this was recorded, they all sound quite relaxed with each other. “Well, you have to deal with her all the time. You could let slip that you knew. Despite your acting skills.”
“Well it wouldn’t matter because the head counsellor didn’t do anything. Just ‘got under her skin’ and scared her witless,” Felix’s voice again. I think that was about the first night here.
“That seems to be a common trend. Breaking down people’s defences. Making them vulnerable. I suppose that makes people more manipulable.” If Forrest knew all this why wasn’t he telling us?
“...It’s what he did to you, right?” Kari just seemed to answer my question... What has the head counsellor really been doing to people? How is he breaking down defences, manipulating people and making them vulnerable. I mean sure, he can read minds but to be cunning enough to use the information obtained to work against the person. I don’t think I could do that. And what is his ultimate goal anyway?

I pulled out the earpiece. I didn’t want to hear anymore. I know now that the head counsellor is more dangerous that I thought. I can’t take him lightly. I need to be prepared. I reached for Dylan’s laptop and opened it on my lap. Waiting for it to turn on after pressing the power button I found myself looking around to see if I could find where the room was being monitored from. Then the screen lit up a bright blue asking for a password. I deflated. How am I supposed to know Dylan’s password? I rested my fingers on the keyboard thinking aimlessly for a moment. There was no way I would actually guess it. Suddenly to my surprised small black dots appeared, one by one, in the password bar on the screen. I pulled my hands back and looked at the keyboard. It definitely wasn’t me doing that. The screen changed and said ‘Welcome. Starting up.’ I looked around again, slowly. Someone must have been hacking the computer wirelessly. How did they catch on so quickly? I’d only just turned the thing on.

The computer loaded and I watched as the mouse moved of its own accord. It went straight into a new Word document and stopped. I sat motionless, holding my breath as I watched the small vertical line blink at the top of the new page.

Hello Maria. Or would you prefer I call you Mary?

The line blinked a few times at the end of the sentence that had just appeared before going down a couple lines. I waited as I looked around the room once more. Was it waiting for me to respond?

??

The question marks appeared and the small vertical line moved down a couple lines again. I guess it was waiting for me. I returned my fingers anxiously to the key board and shakily typed.

I prefer Mary.

Waited a couple seconds and then pressed enter twice.

Very well, Mary. What are your views towards the head counsellor and the organisation?

This sentence appeared quite fast. Obviously whoever I was talking to was getting straight to the point. The blinking line moved down two lines. I just stared at the screen. ‘What do they mean by that? Who is this person? I can’t even try to respond how I think they’d like... Could this be the head counsellor? Testing me?’ I started to stress and noticed that I had started to shake all over. ‘But what if it’s someone who can help? I mean, there must be someone right? I really don’t think Dylan would have escaped by himself...’

Who are you?

I typed quickly. Hoping to get a clue of how I should respond to this person. I just as quickly pressed enter twice to provoke a response.

A friend.

Great! That wasn’t very helpful. Anyone could say that they’re a friend in order to obtain information. I hesitated still as I watched the small vertical line blink on a fresh line.

I may disagree with some of the head counsellor’s morals...

I typed slowly. It didn’t necessarily suggest that I was against him but it didn’t say that I was totally for him either. It was the safe answer for the moment. I pressed enter twice.

It’s okay Mary. You can say that he’s #@!$head.

I blushed and looked away. I automatically covered my mouth with my hand as I tried not to laugh at the response. It was an unexpectedly bold statement. I observed the screen again and noticed the blinking line had only gone down one line.

Don’t worry about researching this messed up situation. I have everything we need... Except you. I believe you will be a key player tonight. In about a minute a man will come through your door. Go with him, he’s on our side. You will be reunited with your friends.

I read the text as it appeared. I felt like I was being fed visual hope. I stopped shaking from anxiety and started to grin with anticipation. The blinking line went down one line.

Do you have any questions?

Then it went down two. Blinking. Waiting for my response.

How are you doing all this?

After typing and pressing enter twice I realised it was quite a vague question. There’s probably too much going on to be explained in this expiring q&a time.

I have my ways. The man meeting you is called Sean. He was captured on purpose in order to be brought down here with you as well has having his brain fingerprint registered. Then it was easy enough for me to hack into the head counsellor’s system and give him special privileges.

‘Brain fingerprint? Forrest mentioned something to me earlier about the head counsellor using virtual reality and everyone’s mind being registered or something like that... I don’t think I really believed him though.’

It’s time to go, Mary. Thanks for your cooperation. Brian.

As soon as the sentence was finished the mouse moved down to the Start options and selected Shut Down. The computer immediately started turning off. I had no chance to respond to... Brian. I closed the laptop and put it aside. As I did the door opened.

“Mary?” A young man stood in the doorway with styled brown hair. He looked very serious. I stood up.

“Yes.” I stated and approached him. “Sean?” I asked and thought I saw the smallest grin appear on his face.

“Come with me.” He put a hand on my back and led me into the passage.

This determined young man led me through the corridors confidently. He didn’t even have any troubles with doors; they just all opened for him. Somehow we even managed to avoid coming across any other people. I looked up at his ever serious face and wondered who on earth was he? And Brian? How do they know about me? And what do they expect me to do? Suddenly after being led up some stairs we emerged somewhere behind the dorms. The sun had just set, I didn’t realise it was so late. Sean took me straight to a dorm which I’d never approached before and peeked in the back window. I thought I heard him give a small laugh and shook his head. I peeked in and my mouth opened with surprise. I didn’t think I’d see Chloe this soon... especially not all over a strange man!

“Come on.” Sean gently grabbed my arm and took me around to the front of the dorm. It was about then I realised I thought I saw Kari and Felix on the floor. I have no idea what’s been happening to my other team mates but I’m glad now that I’m with some of them again.

“Mary!” Chloe ran to me when she saw me come around the corner with Sean.

“Chloe!” I just threw my arms around her, then in a split second thought it might not have been the best idea. Though Chloe wasn’t trying to rip me off or punch my face so I took my time letting go. As I stepped back I noticed a small wince of pain on her face and realised her wrist was bandaged. I was about to offer my apology but Chloe spoke first.

“New clothes?” She noticed, and I noticed she was still in her layers of trashed clothes.

“Yeah, my dad sent them!” Then I also realised she might have been referring to the white lab coat I was still wearing.

“Hurry up girls. We don’t have all day.” I heard Dylan behind me. I was glad that he’d managed to escape from the labs earlier. I was worried for a moment that he’d been locked up again. There he was standing impatiently with another girl I hadn’t seen before.

“He’s right. Let’s go.” The strange blonde man that Chloe had been kissing came up from behind and prompted us to follow Dylan quickly. I figured they must have been in the middle of an escape when I appeared.

Our brisk walk turned into a run. I noticed Sean and the blonde guy exchange a glance or concern as we seemed to be approaching an area with a bonfire starting up, but then Dylan took us into the surrounding woods. Not far in he slowed down and started strain his eyes in the darkness looking at the surrounding trees.

“Where are we going?” The girl next to Dylan asked. It didn’t seem like we were going anywhere in particular to me.

“Here it is!” Dylan exclaimed. He ran to a tree that had a few low broken branches and he started to climb. Just above the branches a ladder had been attached to the tree.

“The lookout! I forgot about this place.” The blonde man added and ran over to follow Dylan up. Chloe followed the blonde guy, then the other girl, and Sean prompted me to follow before him. I thought it looked a little awkward for the blonde guy to climb this old wooden ladder with that duffle bag slung over his shoulder, but he seemed to manage fine. Just after the tree became quite thick with leaves the ladder came up through a trap door to a large boarded platform which looked fairly well made and sturdy, but also quite old. The floor was littered with fallen branches and old leaves, a few spider webs here and there and an abandoned bird’s nest. When everyone was up the trapdoor was closed.

“I knew this place would be abandoned.” Dylan grinned. I walked over to the edge of the platform where there was a safety rail and looked out at the magnificent view. Though it was night I could see the silhouettes of the trees out into the distance. The shimmer of the starlight reflecting of the lake and the camp grounds dimly lit by a bonfire surrounded by all the campers. I’d never been up here before, but I vaguely remember it being mentioned at camp ten years ago. I think it was out of bounds because it was too dangerous for ten year olds to be climbing.

“Mary, will you join us?” I turned around. The blonde guy had called me and I noticed the others had gathered around to discuss what to do next. I joined them quickly. “Firstly, it’s good to meet you. My name is Luck.” He introduced himself.

“Well that’s just his nickname.” Chloe cut in with a smile.

“Hi, Mary. I’m Alice.” The girl introduced and pushed back some of her red hair behind her ear with a grin.

“And you have already met Sean, I’m sure.” Luck spoke again. Sean just gave me a nod. I just gave a smile, unsure of what to say because I really didn’t know how they knew me. “Now, Mary. I don’t know how much of this you already know but I’ll go through it for everyone’s sake.” Luck began seriously. “When the head counsellor developed the wireless virtual reality we suspect he intended to create it in a way that he could be the master controller as well as not being able to be affect by it. Which means the virtual reality cannot be used against him. From what we have uncovered in our research over the past ten years, and especially during the last three days we found something he most probably didn’t intend to create... Those of us who were trying to stop the head counsellor ten years ago and acquired these unusual attributes was what went wrong. I believe the worst case for him was Mary, who somehow acquired the same ability as the head counsellor, the same programming. This means in theory that the virtual reality won’t affect Mary and it would be interesting to see if she could control aspects of the virtual reality.” Luck looked at me and saw the fear in my eyes. “You did know this didn’t you?” He asked with concern.

“I- umm.. Not this much detail. I thought...” I looked away trying to grasp what had just been explained to me. “When I was down in the lab the head counsellor was nice to me, he befriended me. Then he taught me about this strange ability that I have to read minds and talk into their minds. He claimed to have the same ability but when I tried to test him on it he never did seem to know what was on my mind... I also noticed that when he was in contact with someone that I could not enter their mind. I still don’t understand it. How is it possible?” I looked back up. I felt quite nervous with everyone looking at me.

“It seems he knows all about you, Mary. He’s trying to keep you out of the action. The ability to read into other people’s minds is through the virtual reality system. It would only work on those who have their brain fingerprint registered. Alice is the only one here that hasn’t been registered yet.” Luck paused for moment. “As for the contact stopping outside interference, that’s new to me. It could work in our favour; however it is possible the head counsellor already knows about this.”

Suddenly we were all startled by a firework exploding in the sky. All our faces were lit with a bright orange light before it faded. Then came more. Fireworks of all different colours and styles. Everyone except for me seemed to jump up and rush to the edge of the platform to look over the camp. I felt like there was more information I was missing. I followed and saw the campers scattering around the camp. It seemed strange. Why weren’t they just enjoying the fireworks?

Chapter 19: Simultaneously

As Dylan finished recounting to us his adventures underground, I sat back and exhaled loudly. “So he managed to get Maria. Hopefully, if she is gonna be our girl on the inside, she’ll stay safe. And Forrest…” I sighed. “This is getting more and more complicated.”

“Yeah, well, it’s about to get worse” Alice interjected, closing her mobile phone with a snap. “Brian just informed me that both Sean and Jessie have been captured by the head counsellor’s lapdogs.”

Luck frowned. It was the first time I had seen him look worried. “Jessie? That wasn’t part of the plan.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “That better have been an accident, because if he did that on purpose…” Trailing off, Luck laced his fingers together and cupped the back of his neck. “Well, Sean’s in. That’s the most important thing. If Jessie fails us, Sean will come through. He always does.”

“You really trust him that much?” Dylan asked, looking  a little skeptical. Luck nodded. “I do. He and I have been friends for years, and he’s one of the best people we’ve got.”

“Okay…” Dylan still sounded a little unsure, not that I could really blame him. I mean, there’s not exactly a brilliant track record of trust within our team. Why should theirs be any different? But still…

“Don’t worry, we trust you” I said, hoping to reassure Luck and his team. Luck smiled at me. “Thanks, Chloe. That means a lot.” He turned to Dylan and said, “Look, I know you don’t know me from a bar of soap, but I am here to help you.”

“We all are” Alice said, smiling at Dylan.

“But you don’t even live in Labresci! How can you be a part of this?” Dylan folded his arms and stared at Luck. I had the feeling that he thought he’d just pulled out his trump card.

Luck met Dylan’s stare. “Do you want me to tell you? It could cost valuable time-”

“Don’t care. Tell me. I need to know for sure that I can trust you. Just because you know Brian doesn’t mean you’re automatically on our side, you know.”

Luck shrugged. “Okay, fair enough.” He put his hands in his pockets and leaned back against the wall. “As you may or may not know, no one in this group was actually at Camp Woodlands ten years ago. We only began investigating after receiving reports of some strange activity in this area.” He paused for a moment, then said “That is, no one except me was at this camp ten years ago. I was the only one who saw firsthand what happened, and as such, am one of the only ones who truly knows what the head counselor is really capable of.” He glanced at Dylan and I. “Aside from you two and the rest of your group, of course.

“As  to the reason I’m a part of this operation, I’ve explained part of it, but that’s obviously not the whole story. After the camp, I knew what I’d seen couldn’t physically be real, despite the fact that I was so young, so I started looking into technology to see if there was anything capable of altering reality.” He looked back at us again. “That’s how I got into virtual reality.”

Alice interjected here. “Luck sought out our organization at Labresci to find some answers. As you would clearly know, Dylan, our city’s primary focus is research and development in the scientific field.” Dylan nodded, I did too, just to look like I even knew what Alice was talking about, and she continued. “His reports matched the strange data we had recorded, so the powers that be decided we needed to look into this further. If the head counselor could use virtual reality on this scale, it was clear that it wasn’t for the general good of the people, if you know what I mean.”

Luck took up the narrative again. “Their news made me feel like I wasn’t going crazy, though it did raise just as many questions as answers, with the biggest being: why? What was the point of what happened?”

“From examining our data and questioning Luck extensively about what happened ten years ago, we determined that it was nothing more than a failed experiment. Whatever happened ten years ago was clearly not supposed to happen, and left some people with…” Alice hesitated and glanced at Luck. “…unexpected side effects.”

I raised my eyebrow. “What, you mean like, super powers? I totally missed out!” Luck snorted, and covered his mouth to try and hide it.

She waved her hands and shook her head. “Not like super powers, more like…attributes. Abilities that became enhanced due to their exposure to the head counsellor’s program.” Alice gestured at Dylan. “Like you. I heard from Brian that you were much better with technology after you returned from the camp.” Dylan opened his mouth to interject, but Alice got in first. “Not that you weren’t good with it in the first place. You know what I’m trying to say here.” She nodded in Luck’s direction. “And Luck over there got his ridiculous nickname.”

He laughed. “Yeah, that’s it. Dylan gets super technical and I receive the world’s most obvious nickname.”

After a moment’s hesitation, I asked “So, you told me you were, like, super lucky and everything… but what exactly does that mean? Do you just go out on weekends and spend your time winning bar bets?”

Luck threw his head back and laughed. “Something like that.” He looked at me and said “Specifically? I guess you could say my…” He rolled his hand in a circle, searching for the right word. “…My tactical abilities were enhanced. I can find the solution to any problem, the winning move in a fight, the quickest way to checkmate, whatever. Any situation I’m in, I can see the way out and I know exactly what I have to do to get there.” He cocked his head. “Does that answer your question?”

I smiled. “Yeah, and thank you for putting it into words I understand.” Luck laughed again and Dylan shot me a look that could only say ‘what the hell is wrong with you?’ I rolled my eyes at him and returned my attention to Luck…and Alice.

“Naturally,” Alice said, picking up the explanation again, “we couldn’t ignore information like this. So when we heard about the camp’s ten year reunion, we decided that we needed to plant agents inside secretly, in order to glean what we could about the head counsellor’s plan.”

“Wait” Dylan interrupted. “The secretary took our pictures when we got here to confirm our identities, how did you get around that?”

“Brian” Luck and Alice stated in unison.

Dylan buried his head in his hands. “I should have guessed.” He sighed. “This goes deeper than I thought.”

I snorted. “You got that right.” I tilted my head back as I thought. “I still don’t get this virtual reality stuff though. I mean, what’s all that about? Why would the head counselor need it? What’s the point? The only decent thing you can do in a virtual reality is slay a dragon and earn experience points.”

Alice laughed. “I like your analogy, but no.” She held up her index finger. “The main point of virtual reality is that it alters, for lack of a better phrase, ‘real’ reality. If you think what you see is real, you will react in a way that is real, even if what you see isn’t real.”

I’m pretty sure I had an expression on my face at this point that singled me out as the dumbest person in the room.

“What you see affects how you act” Luck translated.

“Oooooh.” I heard Dylan suppress a snicker beside me. I punched him in the arm. “Just so I’ve got this straight, the head counselor is using virtual reality to alter our surroundings for reasons that are currently unknown?”

Luck nodded. “That’s right.” He winked. “Gold star for you, Chloe.”

I giggled a little, and was surprised to hear the sound come out of me. I was also embarrassed at how stupid I was sounding. Dylan gave me another look, one that I’m pretty sure read ‘that guy? Really?’ I stuck my tongue out at him. Immature, maybe, but I’d already punched him once and punching a guy twice when he’s just escaped captivity seemed a little low to me. Dylan rolled his eyes at me, then looked back at Alice. “So, do you have any idea yet as to how and when the head counselor will begin using virtual reality?”

Alice smiled and flicked her red hair off her face. “Actually we do. There’s a fireworks festival tonight to”, she quoted with her fingers sarcastically, “celebrate the completion of the camp. That’s when he’ll make his move.”

“We’ve managed to ascertain that he has everyone’s, um, brain fingerprint on file, so he can access their minds directly if he so chooses. This way he can control individuals”, Luck spread his hands out, “like us, who know what he’s up to and who could try to stop this.”

I appreciated his attempts to dumb the conversation down for me.

“Fortunately, he doesn’t have my information, so as long as I can stay underground long enough, I can figure out a way to stop this.” As she finished speaking, Alice’s mobile chirped and she held up a finger, pausing to answer it. I assumed that it was the ever elusive Brian. Who was this guy, frigging Superman? Was he just gonna fly in wearing his red cape and undies and fix everything? Somehow, I doubted it.

Luck pushed off from the wall and began rummaging through his bag. “Fortunately, again, the agency at Labresci has come up with a way to help us discern the real reality from the virtual one.” He made a noise of satisfaction, then pulled his hand out of his bag. In his hand was a pair of black framed glasses, like the ones used to watch 3D movies, but with darker lenses.

I felt my eyebrow rising again. “Glasses? Really? How in any way shape or form is that going to help us?”

“Well, these glasses are special. They can separate the real images from the fake ones.” Luck tapped the side of the glasses. “There’s software built into these things that can identify the virtual images and identify them to the wearer. It does this by having the virtual images appear in old-school black and white.” He tossed the pair in his hand to Dylan before bending back down to his bag. “It’s a fairly simple solution, but a handy one.” He reemerged with several more pairs, and handed one to me so I didn’t have to try and catch them with my injured arm. I turned them over in my hands and held them up to my eyes.

“Hold on.” Dylan stood up, glasses in hand. “These things might be able to separate the virtual images, but if the head counselor has the ability to track us with our”, he looked at me and said sarcastically, “brain fingerprints, then these”, he shook the glasses, “are rendered useless!”

I was taken aback; I’d never heard Dylan this agitated. Luck, on the other hand, was unfazed. “Naturally. I was getting to the other part. Unfortunately for you, only we Labresci agents are fully protected. Well, as well as we can be.” He turned around and knelt in front of the bed between Dylan and me and pushed up the hair on his neck. A small white scar sat at the base of his skull in the hollow of his neck.

I ran one of my fingers over it and let out a breath. “What is this? The only way you could get a scar here is-”

“Surgery. Yeah, Alice, Sean, Jessie and I all have one.” He took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “A computer chip with information similar to that in the glasses was imbedded into our occipital lobe.”

Dylan tapped the back of his head. “That’s this area back here, Chloe.”

“Thank you, Dylan” I replied tightly, not taking my fingers off the scar. “They put a piece of junk in your brain? Why?”

“Well, that piece of junk is all that’s gonna protect me and Alice from the head counselor.” He took my fingers and ran them up through his hair a few centimeters. “The occipital lobe is where the majority of visual processing takes place in the brain. It’s also the place where dreams come from, ironically enough.” He took my fingers down back to his scar. “By placing the information chip here, directly into the occipital lobe, it effectively helps the brain sort the virtual images from the real ones, leaving us virtually unaffected.”

“Wow” I breathed. “Dylan, I had no idea you guys at Labresci were so smart.” Dylan laughed. “Yeah, Labresci is nothing if not ahead of the times. I wouldn’t be surprised if the head honchos were investigating the virtual reality for more…monetary reasons than moral ones.”

Luck turned around and looked at Dylan. “As long as you know that’s not why we’re here.”

Alice approached us, phone in hand. She looked quizzically at us for a moment, as I realized Luck was still holding my hand and my fingers were still in his hair. I slipped my fingers from his and focused intently on the wooden post of the bunk bed. It was very well built. The carpenters should be recommended.

“We have to get out of here.” I heard the worry in her voice. “Brian said that the head counsellor’s puppets are looking for us and are heading in this direction.” She looked around desperately. “If Luck and I get captured, this is over.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll get you out of here” Dylan promised. I smirked. We? Just because you punched a guy once, Dylan, it doesn’t mean you’re suddenly a bad-arse.

At that moment, the door burst open and Kari flew in, followed closely by my arch-rival, Felix.

“Well, well, well.” Kari drew herself upright and sneered. “Looks like we finally found the lab rats from Labresci.” Felix looked at her incredulously. “Really? That’s what you went with? Kari, that is the lamest villain entrance line I have ever heard.”

Miffed, Kari flicked her hair back over her shoulders. “Well, it doesn’t matter, because we’ve found them and the head counselor is going to be-”

Kari never got to finish her sentence. That was because I sent her unconscious by slamming my forehead into the bridge of her nose.

As Kari slumped to the floor, I got low and drove my shoulder into Felix’s stomach. As he dropped, breathless, I brought my knee up into his face. Hard.

I turned around, finding all three of my companions doing their best stunned mullet impressions. “Come on, we have to go!”

Dylan gathered his wits first, probably because this wasn’t my first outburst of violence in his presence. He grabbed Alice by the elbow and pulled her out the door. “I know a place where we can hide” he said, stepping over Felix and Kari’s unconscious bodies.

Luck grabbed his duffle bag and stood up, shaking his head. “Man, Chloe, you are the craziest girl I’ve ever met!”

“I am?” Crap! There’s no way a guy like this would date crazies!

He stepped over Kari, and stopped in front of me. Leaning down, he whispered, “I kind of like that.”

“Kind of?”

Next thing I knew, he was kissing me, and I was kissing him back.

Maybe this saving the world stuff could wait… at least for a minute.