Genetic Anomaly

Chaper 5

Another day at school

As the Port slowed and I slowly came to my senses, I exited the Port. I was at the stop that was a 5 minute walk from the gates of the School. Still plugged into my music, I walked absent mindedly in the direction that my feet knew very well after 5 years of doing it on repeat. Arriving at the gates and passing the security guard; it was Martin in the booth today, I waved my sarcastic cheeriness at him and he just grimly grinned back at me.

Looking at my Core designated watch on my wrist, I saw that I had more than half an hour before my form was supposed to gather. My simple, silver faced, black strapped watch reflected my tired eyes at me. Another daymare, one of my predictions haunted me. Seeing I had some time to kill, I made my way to the technology and advanced department where I knew my hermit, hacker friend was.

The tech department was a boast of the modern technology that was housed inside. More of a monstrosity of glass and metal than a building, it was fuelled to the rafters with computers, machinery for engineering and a million other crafty, technology advancing equipment. Entering through the rotating doors similarly seen in the olden day malls, I walked down brightly, naturally lit halls that were warmed by the sun that magnified heat onto my skin through the glass panels. I found room TR134 and entered to a multitude of computers and the sound of a million keys being tapped in rapid succession. In his usual corner, William was in his Gothic black hoodie, baggy black jeans and his skull back pack hanging precariously on the back of his seat.

Completely immersed in his digital mode, coding and hacking and researching, he didn't notice me sneaking up behind his seat and positioning my foot on the mechanism at the base of the seat. Snickering evilly, I stamped down hard and ducked as the back of the seat was thrown backwards. William shrieked and threw his hands in the air in an instinctive bid to stop his descent. However, I didn't see how throwing his hands to grab at air particles was going to help him. Nearly crying with laughter, William ripped off his headphones and scowled darkly at me. Putting my hands up in surrender, I backed away like one would when confronted with a mountain lion. Before I could sprint like a rabbit in the opposite direction, William caught me around the waist and proceeded to dump me on the floor with himself.

"You're in for it now! I can't believe you did that, you bitch." William playfully growled at me. I just pulled a contrite expression of innocence and then unable to keep the facade, I burst out laughing.

Heaving in air between laughs, I spoke brokenly. "You.... should really pay.... more attention." And I spluttered into laughter again. I held my stomach as the laughter actually became painful. "You're.... so easy.... to sneak up.... on." My words were exhaled in breathy puffs of air as I fought to speak through my laugh attack.

William rolled his eyes at my hysterical amount of laughter and when I finally calmed down, he asked me why I was here. I shifted nervously for a minute and William instantly got the message. He quickly logged out of the computer, grabbed his bag and was high tailing it out of the room before anyone noticed his off behaviour. We walked at a quick but inconspicuous pace. We walked down familiar hallways through the glass and metal monstrosity that was the tech department.

Walking confidently, we were practically unnoticed as we made our way to the usual corner in a part of the building few people knew about. Once at the room we had dubbed the Confession Room, apparently it had been one of the main rooms in the previous psychology departments building, we proceeded to sit on a couple of cushions we had snuck in there. William brought out his most valuable possession he always carried on him. The laptop was an older model than the Core designated appropriate model and it was battered and beaten from all it's man handling, but the older design made it easier for William to do a lot of his work. Because of the older system, the Core rarely took notice of it, as in, the Core didn't bother reviewing the old models activities since there were so few left.

"So, what's the problem today?" William said in his serious and concentrated tone that signalled the start of this confession session. It wasn't so much a confession, more of an admission and William was actually here to help me. For many years before William made my acquaintance, I had struggled what to do with myself. For a few years I was worryingly distant, so much so it drew the attention of the Core Workers, especially since my father had worked for them and was worried for me. I had panicked at this news and had to make sure not to draw the attention of the Core. I knew the results, so I immediately changed my attitude. At that time I had just started my transfer to the second schooling stage, which is what I had used as my excuse for my odd behaviour. Luckily, my parents believed and let it go.

After meeting William, though, my moods truly did improve and I didn't have to hide my feelings or always be on edge. We often did these Admission sessions just to get the stress of the daymares out of my system so that I could think rationally for a little while. These sessions prepared me for what I was going to say during my almost daily call ins to Officer Holsberry. William also calmed me down by talking to me rationally during my sessions. He cross checked all my locations and people to make sure that we were calling in the right place and people. He was always calm and collected during these troubling and stressful sessions. sometimes I didn't know how he managed it, hearing all these horrors one after another and not bat an eye. Truthfully though, I watch each horror play out in vivid detail as if I lived it so it was probably different for William, but still.

I got as comfortable as I could on a tattered old cushion on a tiled hard floor, while William stopped fiddling with is laptop and gave me his full attention. Waiting expectantly, I sighed dejectedly and gave in. I took a long breath to calm the rising panic. Even for me this one was bad. I gave up fighting the panic and started telling William as he typed furiously to cross check every detail.