The Day Of Tomorrow

Chapter 1~Sophie

The day was dark and gloomy. Clouds rolled over the hills and seemed to engulf houses like fire burning through dead tree branches. Sophie looked up out of the dusty window of a coffee shop, her long brown hair covering her ear, in which lay a small earpiece that connected her to her friend James. who sat in a bar in the northern suburbs of France, the day was rather bright and sunny, birds tweeting and the wind played with tree branches like a small child played with their favourite toy. Sophie started up her laptop, a small whirring sound coming from its core. A waitress comes over, her blonde hair bobbing up and down as she walked.
"Hi, what can I get for you today?" Askes the waitress with a forced smile.
"I'll just have a small latte," Sophie informed as her laptop finally booted up. The waitress walks away, the sounds of her footsteps echoing through the near empty shop. Sophie's earpiece buzzed, the vibrations tingling her ear. She pressed the answer button on the side of it, a voice which she could mistake for no other was on the other end.
"Hey Soph," Muttered James as he takes a small sip from the ginger ale that was sitting besides him.
"Oh, hey James!" exclaimed Sophie, letting out a small shriek of excitement when she stopped talking.
"Listen, there's some strange stuff happening around here that I need to talk to you about. But not over the phone, I'm flying to Boston on Thursday, I should be arriving at around ten in the morning. Can you pick me up from the airport?" He asks with a serious soft, tone.
"Yeah, I don't think I have anything on, so I'll see you there." Squeals Sophie.
"Ok see you then." Murmurs James. He hangs up quickly like he had to get away from something. Sophie gets back to her work, her long elegant, fingers worked over the keyboard typing up her essay for uni. After a few minutes of waiting in the cold room comes a freshly made latte, carried by a young man who looked to be around the same age as Sophie. He placed the coffee down next to her, in the froth was a heart and on the napkin was a message, the handwriting was extremely neat and unlike anything she had seen before.
"Have a good day madam." He exclaims, his voice heavily laden with an Austrian accent. His blond hair fell in waves across his thin face, his skin was pale and his muscles where slightly toned. He walks away, Sophie watching him until he goes to the kitchen, he then turns and winks to her. Sophie looks down toward her cup of coffee and reads the note that was left for her. It read "I couldn't help but notice that you were sitting alone, I have something that I need to ask you at 12 pm. Meet me on the curb outside. PS this coffee has already been paid for."
Sophie got up, coffee in hand. She grabs her laptop and puts it in her bag, the greenish-black leather was still in good condition considering she got it when she was fourteen, and had been in constant use since. She pulls the strap up to her shoulder where it nestled against her neck, the golden buckle digging into her hip. She walks toward the door, her footsteps echoing through the almost empty shop. The copper handle on the door was cold and made her shiver as she pulled it towards her. The breeze was cold and it nipped at her skin like tiny insects. She pulls her jumper up over her head, the black fabric warding off the breeze. It made her feel cozy and warm. The street, also, was nearly empty, the buildings loomed overhead and the grey clouds threatened to pour down with rain. Remembering she has to finish a paper for UNI, Sophie hurries back to her apartment block. Rain started to pelt down as she got through the door. Sophie rushed around her room trying to get all her windows shut. Completely oblivious to how her apartment was completely ransacked, her bookshelf completely thrown across the room. Her Mattress turned over and cut into pieces. Her favourite armchair thrown into the kitchen. Blood covered parts of the wall. Finally turning around to notice all of the chaos around her room. Tears threatened to fall around her mystical blue eyes. She looked at how her precious books had been ripped into nothing at all. And how her clothes had been thrown over the floor, now caked with dirt. Sophie woes back to the window, her eyes now laden with tears. As she opened the window, she shields her face from the pouring rain. Looking out she sees a man running from the base of the apartment block, his black hair drenched from the rain. It looks as if he is holding something close to his chest. Sophie did a quick sweep of her apartment, looking to see if anything was missing. After about five minutes of looking through almost everything she notices one thing that is missing. One singular item that has no importance at all. Her favourite book of all time.
"The da Vinci code," Sophie whispers under her breath. her tone was sharp, as if by the man taking her book it had struck a nerve. Sophie struggled to realised why the man had taken the book, but then it dawned on her. She kept a spare SD card in the spine of the book. On which she kept her data files from university and programs which she uses to hack from her phone. Sophie turns her armchair back over and pushes it to its normal place, she then walks over to her bookshelf and lifts it up, some of the wood is now damaged and looks as if it can't be mended. Small letters are carved into it, they were hard to make out but after some squinting Sophie finally distinguished the letters; "TP13"
Sophie sits down in her armchair, it's brown leather now had scratches in it and the brass fasteners had been partially removed. Sophie picked up her bag, which she had tossed on the ground when she walked through the door. she gets her laptop back out and opens the lid, she types in her password, the laptop unlocks but then goes black again. A logo popped up in the middle of the screen, it looked like a Phoenix but the head was replaced with the skull of a snake. Sound emanated from the speakers that were hooked up to her desktop; a horrible screeching pierced the silence and then a voice, although it had been put through multiple distorting programs she could still make out what it hissed clearly.
"Do not be alarmed Sophie LeBlanc. You are one of few who have been chosen to complete a series of tasks. In which you will end up having the choice to join our great society. The choice is yours, simply type IN or OUT into your laptop in the next minute and await further instructions."
Sophie looked down at her laptop, she thinks for a few seconds about how the person knew her name. She brings her hands to the keys on the keyboard. She types in OUT in her laptop, then deletes it and types IN. She presses enter. The logo re-appears in the centre of the screen along with the words, "Good. Now get to New York as soon as possible and await instructions at the airport."
Sophie gets up and turns off her laptop, she goes to the pile of clothes that now inhabited the floor. She picked up two pairs of black jeans and a grey t-shirt. She picks her laptop off the armchair and goes to her room, she finds a backpack and puts the clothes and her laptop into it. She then goes to the kitchen and finds a few protein bars, her chargers and a portable hard drive. She finds her keys off the floor and walks out the door, making sure she locked it behind her. Sophie walks down the stairs that lead to the bottom of the building, making sure she grabs an umbrella from the 'brolly bin. Sophie shakes the umbrella as she opens the door to the outside world the wind still nipped but now it was more painful with the rain. Walking through the streets, Sophie began to stress about what all this was about. The pavement was soaked, which made it hard to walk on without slipping. Sophie opens the umbrella it's black material deflecting the rain that pelted straight toward her. She made her way down to the subway station where are found a train that gets to New York in about two hours. Sophie waits for about a minute before her train arrives, it's long silver carriages squeal through the tunnel. The doors open with a loud squeak and as Sophie steps inside her nostrils are haunted by the smell of alcohol and rot. She finds a seat that is relatively clean and settled in for the long journey ahead.

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