System Failure

Encryption (Part 2)

Media Tower, University Commons, Cafeteria, C-side hallway... I listened with intrigue as Katrina's voice chattered away about different key locations of the school. The rest of the group added input when needed but mostly held small conversations amongst themselves. I checked my phone every so often, perpetually awaiting that illusive text; but to no avail. 'Seriously though where is she? The last time I talked to her was three weeks ago...' 

As I became even more immersed within my thoughts, we turned a corner and a strange room caught my attention. Time seemed to slow down and it felt as though the voices of my peers became more and more muffled. 'There's something wrong with that room.' Once we neared the door, I froze and outstretched my arms abruptly. "Wait!!" The group came to a halt looking at me with utter confusion. Christian tilted his head. "Whoa dude are you ok?" I looked at him with a panicked expression and opened my mouth to respond before a hand was placed on my shoulder. "Stephanie, what's wrong?" Katrina looked deep into my eyes, her brow furrowed with concern. 

I glanced past her, making eye contact with each person staring back at me with baffled looks. My face heated up with embarrassment and I noticeably shrunk back. "I-I'm so sorry, I'm fine. I just... completely spaced out, that's all," No one looked convinced and I cleared my throat and pushed my hair back to ease the awkwardness. "But hey, what's that?" I asked suddenly, pointing to the room. Taylor looked over her shoulder. "That? Oh that's just the STEM Center where the nerds go to build their robots and rockets." She answered, waving her hand dismissively. I tilted my head. "Robots and rockets?" I muttered. Christian nodded. "Yeah. The school has a Robotics club and a Rocketry class." 

My eyes widened. "Wow...That's cool..." I breathed in awe, Sarah and Michael nodded while Taylor shrugged. "Can we go in?" I looked around at each person excitedly. There was a collective gasp as each person looked at me with surprise. Michael raised an eyebrow. "Why on earth would you want to go in there?" Katrina nodded in agreement. "Yeah. It's just a bunch of tools and old projects." There was complete silence for a moment before a quiet voice spoke up. "I mean we promised to be thorough so... I don't see why we can't stop by and look around." Sarah said shyly, drawing the attention of everyone. I smiled at her before looking at the rest of the group for their response. They were exchanging glances and shrugging with indifference. "Alright then." Taylor finally spoke up bluntly. "I guess we don't have much of a choice." Michael grumbled as well, making his way over to the door and turning the handle. 

There was a short hallway that led to a series of other doors on the other side and it only made sense for the first door on the left to be the correct one. Michael opened it and flicked on the lights. I followed him eagerly as the rest of the group trailed in dejectedly. It was then that I realized that the lights were industrial looking, explaining why they were taking such a long time to brighten up and thus making it hard to see. 

Christian made a noise akin to a shiver and I glanced behind me to see him looking around cautiously. "Wow, it actually feels hella weird in here..." Sarah nodded in agreement and hugged herself tightly. "Yeah, something about this room feels off." Michael stopped and turned all the way around, frowning. "Well you're the one that said we should come in here. What happened to 'being thorough'?" He asked, his voice laced with sarcasm and throwing air quotes. Sarah glared at him and shot back. "What happened to letting me have an opinion? I didn't twist anyone's arm into coming in here all I said was-" "I know what you said I'm just saying if you were gonna act this way you shouldn't have sai-" "Excuse the hell out of me, why don't you just-" I looked back and forth between the two as the argument escalated. "Oh great. You guys!" Katrina whined, rolling her eyes as she left my side to dissolve the conflict. Worried I might get roped into their squabble, I gently crept away as subtly as I could and started to do some exploring of my own.