The Alternate State

chapter 2

I'm almost falling asleep when I hear the bell ring. Thank god for that. English is my worst subject, although in my family, "worst" is a relative term. I have a 92% but that's too close to a B for my family's liking ,and mrs. cowall doesn't make it any easier. I wonder if she's like this all the time, or just when i'm in her class. Either way I despise her and I'm under the impression she feels the same. I make my way out of the classroom and into the crowded halls. I get lots of stares, but I'm used to it. I've been stared at since the day i first went to school. I see Link up ahead at his locker, and try to make my way up to him. I finally get past all the girls fawning over him, and he looks up as a lone straggler passes him her number.
"Hey." I say walking up beside him.
"Hey princess." i roll my eyes in reply,
"Shut up and lets go your highness" i say with a smirk and lead the way
"As you wish," he says, doing a fake bow as we make our way out of school and start making our way to the arcade. As we get to the front of the school I see a brudice inc. truck and I duck my head instinctively. Like I need anymore attention today. Brudice inc. runs the alternate state. The Alternate State is the enrichment program my parents developed to help ensure the success of our country, not everyone is a fan, but it's for our survival, and everyone has to make sacrifices. I get distracted from my thoughts when I see people glare at me as I walk past. It's not my fault my parents run the most influential company in the country. I look over as I see a kid not much younger than me being dragged out of the school, doing the walk of shame into the Brutice truck, guess he wasn't making the grade. I force myself to look away before I think too much about the freedoms his time in "development" will cost him, but to keep the society from spiralling back into the darkness we so recently crawled out of, we all must keep ourselves at the top of our genetic game.
" You ok?" Link asks me as he puts a playful arm around my shoulders, having to crouch down just a bit to let it rest comfortably. I nod and walk a bit faster forcing him to keep up and shaking his arm loose.
"Hey its not your fault, and i'll never judge you."
"Thanks Link."
I smile at him and put my arm on his back, not being able to reach his shoulders. He smiles down on me. He is significantly taller than me. I'm only 5'5 and he is5'11". We stay like this the whole way walking and making small talk on the way to the arcade, as we talk about all the games we're going to play, the boy quickly fades from memory. Once I see the arcade come into view I see only a few people are crowding in front of the doors. The arcade is always packed on Fridays but this crowd looks off. I start to run up to it to see what the deal is, I wonder if the quarter machine is down again. There is a sign on the door that says closed permanently. I stare at the sign and don't even notice Link running up behind me. This is where we hung out most everyday, but more importantly this is where Gabe and I met so many years ago. This was our spot. This and the jacket are the only thing i have left of him, This can't shut down. I feel myself starting to spiral and don't even try to fight it this time. This was all I had left. I can't lose this too. Gabe. I feel tears of anger or maybe sadness begin to well up in my eyes.
"Hey cress." I snapped out of it, at the sound of his voice. I focus my eyes and see everyone has left. I look inside the arcade and see it's a complete mess, it's been absolutely trashed. I immediately stand up and wipe away the tears that never fell.
"What happened here?" I ask in shock.
"I don't know, but more and more people have been taken to the Alternate State lately."
"Wll if it's that, I'll have no way of knowing, you know my parents are so closed lip about the development program. But I have to know what happened here, this is our place, I try the door, locked. I've never found a line I didn't want to cross or a boundary I didn't want to break so I look around on the ground for the perfect one, ah yes I see it, a big fat rock in the bushes just under the window and pick it up.
"This should do the trick" I say mostly to myself, tossing it in my hands a few times to get a feel for the weight.
"Cress... what are you doing" link asks with a worried tone, his eyes searching mine for answers unspoken.
"Finding answers." I say, and hurl the rock. It crashes hard into the glass door, and it bounces off, rolling awkwardly across the ground. I stare in shock, as I hear Link explode in laughter. He practically falls to the ground from laughing so hard.
"Here let me do that for you princess.''He says with a look that would make a normal girl melt, instead I could just die from embarrassment right now. He picks up the rock and with hardly any effort it goes barreling into the door, shattering it to bits first try
"I hate you" I say, pushing past him, ignoring the look of pure amusement on his face, and breaking some of the glas that still remained out of my way.with the toe of my shoe. He just laughs and shakes his head at my remark, obviously proud of his manly display.
"Jealous?" he asks following behind me and giving me a playful wink. I just roll my eyes and look for a light. I look around the destroyed arcade taking in the damage. Searching front to back, I make my way behind the counter. There is glass and trash everywhere and a machine now lies flashing ominously on it's side. I see a hat on the ground with the brudice Inc symbol on it, a roman B with three little stars around it. One for each or my parents and I.
"This was definitely the work of my parents company." i call out to link who is still at the front looking at all the games,
"look, someone's been sloppy." I say lifting up the hat for him to see. " They must have put up a fight." he says before acknowledging what I said. He pauses at the sight of the hat. " oh. I'm so sorry cress." he says sympathetically as he slowly walks towards me.
"It's fine, it's not like it's your fault." I say darkly, looking up at all the remaining unclaimed prizes that managed to stay on the wall, and notice a small camera in the corner, please tell me that's not just for show.
I see a door that says "employees only", and test the handle. It's unlocked, and sitting loosely in it's joint.
I open the door a crack, surveying what lies beyond, and find a grey hallway with outdated flickering lights. I begin to creep down the hall past the grungy employee bathroom until I find what appears to be the supply/ security room. Once inside I find a bunch of tvs, all back and white, with grainy soundless screens. Perfect.
"Link!" i call
"Coming!" he yells back whistling a sound of surprise as he enters"How long has this been here? Looks like something our great great grandparents would have had"
"I need you to hack into this security system so we can see what happened here."I say looking up at him. He's looking around the room. It's a pretty small room. Just barely enough room for both of us because of all the extra wires, bolts, tools and cleaning supplies.
"No sweat. A system this old, set your watch. I'll need less than sixty seconds, or your money back" i glare at him knowing that he's probably not exaggerating. After no more than thirty seconds of running his cord into the machine from his portable computer, we're in.