The Enthusiasts

23

Emerson knocked twice before opening the door. "Hi!" Gabby greeted him enthusiastically, as she tilted back in the community's broken swivel chair. Emerson did a once-over of the room for evidence of Teddy who was nowhere to be seen.

Gabby wore pajamas: pink cotton sweatpants with some swirling white designs printed on them, and a white, V-neck T-shirt that plunged down enough for Emerson to be drawn into her cleavage briefly as he tried to practice calling her "Chuck" in his head. For the sake of professionalism and perhaps a desire to remain in control of the unruliest person he knew — Himself — he attempted to set up a scene in his head in which he worked with some old guy named Chuck who hated his job as a programmer, and microwaved fish in the lunch room, and droned on about boring velp all day... But all the role-playing in the world couldn't hide the truth. Chuck was dead, gone, and forgotten about within a few seconds of Emerson's failed improvisational sketch, helped nonetheless by his oblivious partner. His helpless eyes examined the interesting braided neck piece that Gabby wore. He now knew it also held a secure drive that included an urgent message he'd sent which she claimed had changed her life and brought them together. He didn't know anything about fashion, but he liked whatever she was doing. He just couldn't believe someone would change clothes three times in a day for different activities. Does she not know we are living through an apocalypse? he wondered.

"Slumber party?" Emerson asked, pulling up a seat next to her. Gabby smiled and let out another mini-gasp of amusement as she returned to her work on screen. Her face probably had some makeup on, but it shone with bright, radiant brilliance. Her cheeks looked like they had been scrubbed with a holy brush of some kind. Her hair was up, split at the bangs into two separated braids that trailed behind her head. They seem to match the hemp necklace, he thought. It was all some kind of magic as far as he was concerned. Her greenish-blue eyes were dancing in the outgoing monitor light. Emerson was infatuated with watching them snap back at him from her seat. He unintentionally took it all in, and then pushed himself away, remembering that under no circumstance can a relationship outside of friendship exist between him and Gabby, or anyone else for that matter, in the camp. A sexual relationship would have to result in favoritism; and favoritism would have to result in division amongst the group. The group and the mission of this camp are more important than any short-lived happiness, Emerson reiterated in his mind for the umpteenth time while sitting next to his attractive lab partner.

"I'm already working on mapping the server mainframe for the switch. Right now, I'm having more trouble mocking the IDs to send back to ground control at headquarters. I really want all our bases to be covered so we don't get flagged right when we come in. All the evidence I see would indicate they are still monitoring air traffic even though there's next to no one coming in. They must still fear foreign threats," Gabby stated while tapping and waving her fingers over the glass-topped keyboard interface.

"You think?!" Emerson asked with an agreeable sarcasm. "It's all they think about or do. This Project Clean Sweep idea must come from them being more terrified than ever of being overrun by the 'Threat of Outsiders.' But I was thinking about the ID problem too, and I might have an idea." Emerson began with commands from The Tablet remotely. He was pleased with what he saw shortly after logging in. "I had a look at what you were doing in the system. That language you used... it looked so different to me. But I learned a bit while watching you, and the answer's right here."

In a short time, he showed her how to unscramble the signals in the radiation mods attached to the new ID cards. This would let them reprogram the cards and enter any Spectra site by land, sea, or air under false names and missions they pre-loaded into the Spectra server. "Oh, my God! I've been sitting here for over an hour, running around in circles, and you figured it out before you even sat down. You know what a blow that is to a girl's ego? I'm a really big deal, you know!"