Free Writing #36: The Collective (Part 2 of 4)
by Nojh on Aug.01, 2012, under Entertainment, Free Write, Writing
If you missed Part 1 you can read it here.
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The Collective (Part 2 of 4)
By Nojh Livic
The body known as Sarah registered that the lights had been darkened. It— she coalesced and merged with her body. The time had come. They all rose from their beds. There was no handing out orders. Each knew the entire plan and each knew their body’s part in it. She moved to door and placed her ear to it. Other bodies began to collect items that had been deemed useful. Still another set was uncovering their cache of hidden resources. Clothing, tools, and weaponry were dispensed.
She exited the dorm room into the hallway. The lights of the hallway were already dim to signal night-time operations. The handler population would be greatly reduced inside the facility. Two other bodies, their designation Juan and Lilly, followed her as she silently led them down the hallway.
The handlers subdivided time in order to approximate natural cycles. They used this to coordinate where their bodies should be during the solar cycle. The body designated Steven should be in the primary security office during this appointed time slot. When the trio reached an intersection, the other female body took a separate path, leaving her and the boy to handle their objective. They would not need the additional body.
“What are you kids doing up?” Steven face displayed anxiousness and surprise as her body and its partner entered the room. “Wait, how did you— “
A characteristic of the bodies the collective controlled which had been intentionally with held from their handlers was their overall physical superiority. She was only a few steps to the computer console and her partner had Steven pinned to the ground by the throat, stalling any chance he had at alerting other nearby handlers, before Steven had a chance to finish his sentence. Steven’s attempts to break the grip on his neck were futile. She ignored him and her partner to focus on her task.
The collective had access to the locally hosted mesh but no direct connections to the larger networks outside the facility or the facility’s security protocols. She began typing away at the console and quickly began to overcome this particular hurdle. Cameras were shut off or looped. The outgoing feed system was placed into emergency maintenance mode. She was unable to route network access to the mesh consoles in the daycare but she was able to create several accounts in the room designated coffee station three. She paused to inform the collective.
All designated handlers for this phase have been disabled, the collective confirmed. Outside information would be crucial for their escape. Proceed to the next phase.
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Were you expecting this? I imagine so. This is hardly an original story. I was going for a more interesting approach to the same old super children break free story. Am I succeeding?
In case you want to skip ahead:
