Glitched

Chapter 20

((As you can probably all see, by now I have given up on photos that make any sense...))

((Laila's POV))

After the tour, the Viruses and I were rounded up by someone named Julia in some large room with smaller rooms built into the walls. Julia suggested that after such a long day, we should get some sleep. And so then we were herded off to bed to go to sleep. I got my own room, other Viruses had to share rooms with two or three others.

I laid awake on the broken down bed, unable to fall asleep, in fact, I wasn't even Tired at all.  In the New World, everyone went to bed at 8:45 PM, because that was when we got Tired.  But out in the Old World, I couldn't tell what time it was, it was dark, signaling that it was night, but what time in the night?  How long had it been night for?  How long will it take until the sun came back up and it was morning?

The lack of sense of time was not Enjoyable.  It was anything but.  It was Frustrating and Annoying and made me 'feel' so Confused.  How did these people live without knowing what time it was?  Didn't they have schedules and certain activities and jobs that they needed to do and work on at certain times?  Without schedules, or timing, there was no system.  How can anyone live like that?

I groaned and sat up on the mattress.  I had a...  thought, 'feeling' or whatever it was, that I wasn't going to be able to fall asleep at the moment.  I turned and placed my feet on the ground.  With slight force, I stood up.  Slowly and quietly, I walked out of my room.  Where am I going?  I asked myself.  I didn't answer my question, instead I continued walking on down the dark hallway.  No one was in sight, it was almost silent.  Step after step, I continued walking until I heard slight footsteps.  I stopped in place, and spun around.  I would've called out, but I didn't want to wake anyone.  I walked down the hallway and when I reached the corner,   I cautiously turned the corner and ran into someone.  I yelped, and stumbled back, and they did the same.

"Why don't you watch where you're going, jeez?" the person said, in a deep voice.

I 'felt' a slight emotion, much like Sadness for a moment but it quickly dissapeared when I recognized who's voice that was.

"381?" I asked, regaining my balance.

I heard him sigh and laugh softly.  "Yeah.  And you're...  Laila right?" he said, stepping from around the corner.

"Yes, yes it is me." I smiled while nodding.  He took a step forward.

"What are you doing up?  Weren't we ordered to go to bed?  Aren't you Citizens obsessed with following orders?" 381 asked me.

I thought about it for a bit.  "I wasn't sleeping.  I didn't want to stay in bed so I decided to explore the Old World more.  And it wasn't an order, it was a suggestion.  An order is something we have to follow, a suggestion is, well," I thought about my words carefully.  Without the chip, it was hard to give the exact definition of words, and I liked getting all my facts right.  "a suggestion is something that is optional." 

381 made a cough like noise that came from his throat.  "Yeah, I know the difference between an order and a suggestion, but thank you, though, for the reminder." he said, shaking his head.

"You're welcome," 

381 laughed once, a short single laugh that echoed through the empty dark halls.

"What about you?  Why are you not sleeping?" I asked him.

He shrugged slightly.  "Same as you.  Couldn't fall asleep." 

I nodded, though, would he able to see the nod in the dark?  "Oh," was all I said because I couldn't think of anything else to respond with.  My mind couldn't create any sentences to respond to that.  Thankfully, I didn't have to.  He took a few steps and stopped next to me.

"You want to explore together then?" he asked me.

"Yes, I would like that, it's better than walking alone." I responded and started walking.  

As we walked, I realized I had some questions of my own about the Viruses.   I thought over my questions in silence, 381 and I spoke nothing until I started asking questions.

"So what was it like in...  what do you call the place you live?" I asked him, turning to him.

"We call it the Lab.  Because, well, that's what those Physicians call it.  And it wasn't fun.  Mostly dark, and cold.  We didn't do much, there really was nothing to do.  All the Viruses know each other because besides the Physicians, we didn't know anyone else.  We could never leave the Lab, not until we're 'fixed'," he said using a strange two finger gesture, "so we couldn't go anywhere either.  We were tested daily, there were a million different tests preformed on us.  So overall, it wasn't very...  exciting." he described.

I took in this information, trying to understand what it was like in the Lab.  But I had never been there, it was hard to understand the living conditions.  Cold, dark, closed off building, too hard to process fully.  Why were the Viruses in such unpleasant living conditions?  

"What kind of tests did they do on you?" 

He was silent for a moment.  "Blood tests, heart rate tests, DNA tests, things like that.  Lots of brain tests for sure.  None of them were painful, though.  They were all pretty harmless."

"Have they ever found anything that could lead to a cure for Viruses?" I asked, Hopeful.  

If they had found just one small piece of evidence that could possibly lead to a cure, then 381, 256, and all the other Viruses could finally become Citizens and join me and everyone else in the New World.  Maybe.  Possibly.  Hopefully.

They would get names, jobs, personalities, all the other wonderful things that came with the New World.  I found myself trying to come up with a name for 381, but it was hard.  I knew him as 381, and to think of him with any other name seemed off.  Even if his name wasn't a name and it was just numbers.  Maybe all the Viruses would just stick with their numbers instead.  What would the other Citizens think of the Viruses anyways?  Certainly nothing bad...  in the short amount of time I had been in the Old World, I had met only two Viruses, and they weren't anything unusual.  

Sure, one of them caused intentional Pain on someone, but...  she wouldn't do it again...  right?

She was just...  what was she?  Overly Frustrated?  Overly Annoyed?  Surly with the chip, the over emotions could be controlled.  But my silent thoughts were interrupted by 381.

"No, nothing.  Not that they shared with us anyways.  And you said so yourself: not even you know how close they were." he said, shrugging once more.

I frowned.  Disappointment.  Sadness.  Worry.  Those were the Emotions that I could tell that I was feeling.

"Oh..." I said softly, frowning and stopping in place. But then smiled once more, replacing the frown.  "One day though, one day there'll be a cure, and then you and 265 and all the other Viruses will become Citizens, like me, and you'll be able to contribute your part of the New World."

381 stopped beside me and laughed while shaking his head slightly.  

"Yeah," he said with a sigh, "I highly doubt that." he finished off softly, and then started walking forward again.

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((Sorry for the long wait, writers block is just a common recurring thing for me.  XP

But WOW I'm on Chapter 20!  This story's getting pretty long...  Wow!

Question #21: Lets say that these Viruses did become Citizens, what do you think 381 and 256's names, jobs, and personalities would be?))