Chapter Five
All was still. The lights were switched off. The entire house had been signed into Sleep.
One light, however, shone a dull green. It sat upon the desk of Alexander’s One Room, next to his Sleeping Teacher. It was small, a rectangle laying on its side and measuring about five-by-one inches with a glossy surface and four numbers lighting up across the face, which read “0”, “1”, “3”, “0”. While alexander had been quite skeptical of the strange device, Christopher had programed it to make some sort of noise at his appointed time, and assured Alexander it would be loud enough to shock him out of Sleep.
The numbers changed periodically, in a pattern that Alexander had not quite understood and Christopher had grown tired of explaining. They ticked closer and closer to their target, and a shuffle came from the bed, as if Alexander anticipated the impending noise and was trying to prepare for it.
For the next twenty-nine changes of the numbers, the night continued on as it always did. The room remained as quiet as the house, and just as dark. On the thirtieth switch, Alexander was shaken from Sleep. The noise, unlike anything he had ever heard, ground at his ears and sent his senses into disarray. He tore himself from Sleep and scrambled over to the device. He fiddled around with the buttons, but his hands were too shaky and his thoughts too rattled to think clearly. Finally, in a last, desperate attempt to rid himself of the stupid sound, he threw the device at the ground and stomped a rather passionate foot atop it.
The alarm cut off. Alexander trudged over to his bed and plopped down onto it, hand rubbing at his tired eyes. His hands still shook as his heart thudded against the inside of his chest. He wanted nothing more than to crawl back under the covers and sign back in. Alexander glanced over at the small bag on the floor of his One Room and pushed himself off his bed to go and retrieve it. He brought it back to his bed and ran a quick check, the fourth since he had first packed it. Alexander flipped through the bag’s contents before tossing it aside and going over to his desk. He reached down to turn on his Teacher. Christopher and Jonathan were going to be here soon, and he needed to make sure all the proper precautions were taken care of.
Alexander glanced over at the checklist Christopher had given him—everything he needed to do in order to get off of Utopia without any questions. First, Alexander checked the list of names on the Teacher, found Christopher’s, and took note of the red dot. He then set to work.
The list was rather long, with ten direct tasks and detailed explanations of how to do each one. He began with the first, and went over to his bed and signed himself into Sleep. He then went to program the Teacher to sign in after school and sign back off at curfew. While Alexander had no idea what anything he was doing meant, he made sure he followed the directions precisely. The next hour was spent sequencing certain things, so that they would all sign on and off at specified times. Alexander wondered how many times Christopher had gone through this checklist, and how many times he had been caught, but quickly rid himself of the thought. It made him nervous. Once all was finally taken care of, he went back over to his Teacher, and checked the names once more, this time to find Chelsea’s name. A red dot.
Alexander sighed, slumping into his chair. He knew she was signed into Sleep, but had falsely hoped otherwise. The last-minute change in departure date and time had disturbed his original plans, and he was reluctant to leave without first speaking to Chelsea. She had been his deciding factor, and he had been robbed of that opportunity. Alexander went to shut his Teacher when the red dot besides Christopher’s name blinked green. He quickly clicked on the boy’s name and the pop-up revealed his rather anxious face. Alexander frowned at Christopher’s excitement, not knowing how anyone could be so happy at such an early hour. Alexander wanted nothing more than to knock that sheepish grin from Christopher’s face.
