CyberAttack 2

17. ᴀʟᴍᴏꜱᴛ ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ

(Third Person POV)
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Hotel, Room 407
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_nala threw another empty coffee cup into the bin. 6 cups already lay there within the span of an hour. Still drowsy, still tired, still sad. Mornings were the worst.

He was already hunched over his desk and typing, half asleep yet determined. He wanted this plan to work. He needed it to. Chosen would try to talk and help, but _nala just couldn't seem to cough out any words. The sound of his own voice made his head spin. Waking up to nightmares never helped either.

At times, he was encouraged to take breaks, but he didn't listen. Work was more important than almost anything. His head pounded, his stomach growled, and he could barely keep his eyes open. It seemed like everything but his head begged for a break. To just lay down. But he couldn't. The times that he would relax, or try to, he would just feel useless. Not working felt strange. Without his ability, his title, he felt worthless. Like he was just a feeble, weak man. He hated feeling like that. That power and authority was the only thing that made him feel like he was worth anything. Otherwise, who would he be? Nobody.

"Gosh, you're already up? Isn't it a bit early?" DJ sat up from his own bed and stretched, looking over.

"No.." _nala mumbled.

"Al, it's.. 7 in the morning. I think it's pretty early considering how late you passed out last night."

"Yeah.. and?"

DJ couldn't help but worry again. "Have you even eaten this morning?"

"Don't see the need to." He turned back to his laptop, giving him one last cold glance.

DJ didn't say anything and would only lazily slunk out of bed, going to the bathroom to change into his daily clothes. Once he did, he decided to head downstairs to the lobby for breakfast. Taking the elevator and walking to the dining area, the smell of fresh food hit him almost immediately. Breathing it in, he started to pick his share of food and put it onto a small foam plate.

He turned to walk away, but looked back as he thought to bring Alan something. Shrugging, he turned back and grabbed a second plate, putting something small and simple onto it. Two pancakes and a few pieces of bacon. If he didn't want it, he would just eat it himself.

Making his way back to the room, he opened the door and placed both plates onto a table, giving him room to close the door. _nala, of course, was still in the same place, except with a new, yet already half empty cup. Not wanting to disturb him, DJ would just take his own food to his bed, lay it on the side table, and eat it there. He hoped Alan would realize the extra was for him.

...

Hours passed, and _nala seemed to be going faster and becoming more focused. He talked to no one. No matter how many times Chosen or DJ had tried, nothing. Finding a way for this to work would seem to take forever, but around dusk, _nala stood up and stretched.

"Ah.. finally."

DJ looked up. "What?"

"It's done. All the programming I need for my plan is done. It'll be ready for tomorrow night."

"That's.. good and all, but what if it backfires?"

"Depends on what you mean by backfire."

"Well, a lot of things could happen, you know. You could get electrocuted, get an infection from directly inserting metal into your body. You know I just want to make sure it won't.."

He stopped right there. _nala turned to look at him and smiled.

"I'll be fine, DJ. You don't need to worry about me. If anything, we have quite a bright future ahead of us if this does work. You just have to trust me."

He walked over, seeming slightly more energetic and happy than he was this morning. Sitting down on a bed, he laid back.

"Just imagine, a world without injustice, a world where we're on top, where I can bring about peace. Even if I have to push hard to get it, in the end, I'll have a life that I can finally enjoy."

DJ would just nod.

"Right. Right. Hey, Alan, I'm gonna.. go out for a bit."

"Alright!"

Sort of hurrying out of the room, DJ quickly stood up, took his own laptop, and left. There was something that he was missing, the answer to that one question. Why?

...

Slipping into the backseat of his own car, DJ pulled out his computer and started searching for anything. The first place that he wanted to start was searching for his friend's name, and any incident related to it.

"Sup." Purple walked into view.

"Crashing here again?" DJ asked, still focused.

"Yeah, King fell asleep earlier." She looked up at what he was browsing. "Whatcha doing?"

"Researching."

"About.. your own friend?"

"Yeah. I feel like there is still a lot more to this situation under the surface."