March City: Rebellion of the Gifted [Book 2 | Complete | Fantasy/Sci-fi]

Chapter 21: Return

Several folders were under the tag of 'Project Lunation', but so far Rale had only managed to crack the January City and March City files. There had been thousands of students in the whole March City project, many of them never making it to graduation due to unsatisfactory results during their seven years — or less — in the simulated reality. Rale was uncomfortable seeing the word 'purged' and 'recycled' used for those who failed to impress. There was no information about Kena's experimentations or Rale's breakthrough leading to the breakdown of March City. All the information in this database was about its creation and cycling. January City was the first simulated reality of its kind and ran on a ten-year cycle, instead of March City's seven, with a focus on weaponry. Where March City students were classified into Generation, Modification, Metamorphosis, and Extrasensory, January City split into Offence, Defence, and Support. Where students of March City manifested abilities based on their classification, Offensive- and Defensive-type January City students were more like Metamorphs, changing their own bodies into weapons, and Supports more like Extrasensors, boosting the powers of comrades.

It made Rale wonder why January City students weren't used instead of March City, seeing as January City was actually specifically manufactured for warfare. People like Rale and Lira had nothing to offer in the face of bullets and lasers. It didn't make sense.

He skimmed the list of students. Each was assigned a specimen number, although a name was also given for social purposes. He was there, of course, as were Ari, Lira, Cryo, Shon, amongst others, along with a list of their abilities, progression in March City, 'family' — and where each sibling was inserted and purged. Rale had an older brother and sister, or, at least, when he was first inserted into March City, there was apparently a pair of students already living at his place who were assigned his siblings. Likely they, like the rest of the populous, came out of a cluster of cells in a laboratory somewhere and were as much related to each other as they were to the rest of the students. Siblings, indeed. Not that he could recall these siblings; he had no siblings as far as memory served, before maintenance day. They must have been gone for at least two years; that was when he started hiding memories in coding.

When Kar-Lai and Grayson, the two computer engineers, left for lunch, Rale dug out from his trouser pocket the chip he'd been focusing on. It was tough to work on it properly with prying eyes everywhere. Even here, he was sure there were hidden cameras surveying every move. Pretending to be engrossed in one of the files, he tweaked the minuscule wires with makeshift pliers and connected the tiny transmitter and micro-battery.

When they came back, Rale went for late lunch, locking his computer as always. He swung by Mina's like he'd promised and waited, studying his fingernails and then staring at the ceiling. There were cameras everywhere, although he wasn't convinced they were all functional. Candra was too small a place for someone to be assigned supervision at all hours, but he suspected everything was videotaped, including the teams outside. There were a mic and a transmitter hidden in the collars. He suspected they were for evidence or for screening at a later date; there was nothing like Central Administration he could find during his peruse of the programming here. He could probably hook up something similar if deigned.

The third floor was surprisingly busy for once. Normally, only the odd person assigned to work in the Infirmary would pass by, but today, several groups passed, whispering in hushed voices. Guards clutched weapons, appearing uneasy. A few freshly-injured soldiers were pushed on trolleys past Rale through the secured Infirmary doors. One of them had hair so orange, it made Fris's pale in comparison, and a huge gash across the middle of his chest with blood soaking through the wads of material stuffed in the wound. Poor sod; he wouldn't see tomorrow.

Judging from the secrecy and tense air, something had changed. Perhaps Ari's group was back? Rale snuck into the back where the kitchen deliveries were and placed his tiny package beneath the plate with Mina's name on the side, before returning to the darkened glass at the front.