Raina and the Forgotten (Updated Version)

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Numbers. A lot of numbers. It was overwhelming-open the doors-I couldn't see anything-update firewalls-but my mind was racing in every direction. I couldn't collect my- he's legal, let him through-Switch screens-Turn on PowerPoint in room 26-What had just happened?- 1001-try to focus-overheating in the conductors-turn on cooling system.

Tanner.

Everything snapped into focus. That's right. I was just with Tanner. We were being tortured. What had happened? I could feel the electrical currents under me. Rushing from one activity to another. I was... I was in a computer system. No, I was a computer system. I had complete access to all the programs. I was the ultimate program. I could see everything. The doctors walking down the halls, the guards training in the gym, a conference in room 26, and I saw Tanner.

He was unconscious on the floor. Electricity rose in me. How dare they torture him and leave him on the floor. I had to decode and recode myself just to calm down. I tried to read his vitals, but couldn't. Stupid computer, it was so rudimentary that a couldn't get a read. How could I help him?

Wait, I had full control of the system. An idea came into mind. I felt the electric conductors under the floor in his cell. I put the tape recorder on a loop so the security guard wouldn't see anything. I found the speaker in the room. By overcharging the conductors, I sent a mild shock through his room. It wouldn't hurt him, but it would wake him up.
He jerked slightly. Come on! Wake up! He groaned a little and rolled onto his back. I connected to the speakers, "Tanner! Wake up!"

He sat up and looked around, slightly mystified. I sighed, "Tanner up here."
He titled his head back and looked straight up at the ceiling.
"No, over here in the corner." I said. My voice came out very digital-like. It was weird. He scanned the whole room. Getting up, he walked over to the opposite corner. Great. I sighed again, "The camera."

"Pssshh, I knew that," He said. He flicked his hand at the corner and turned around to look at me.

"Are you ok?"

He looked down and gave himself a pat down while saying, "Ears, eyes, mouth, arms, ten fingers, legs, feet. Yup I'm ok."

I looked outside his room and felt for the lock on his cell door. "Listen, I can unlock your door. There are two guards outside the door. Can you knock them out?"

He nodded, "Yeah," and rubbed his hands on his jeans.

I tried to nod, but then realized that I had just moved all the camera's up and down. Stupid. I almost shook my head, but realized the same thing would probably happen. I finally just continued, "Ok. I will lead you through the halls and out of the building. But first you need to pick something up. Ready?"

He started jumping up and down like a professional athlete loosening up, "Whew, bring it on."

I unlocked the door.

He bust out and threw his hands up at them, expecting electricity to come out. Nothing happened. The guard spun towards him. He pointed at them, "Did you know your dog's don't know that whales exists?"

They looked confused. I couldn't even imagine him as chief at this point. I clicked on the sprinklers for fire prevention. The guards looked up. Tanner's arms spasmed like a web walking ninja master and a blast of electricity burst from him, knocking out the guards and anyone in a fifty feet radius.

I said, "Nice spasm oh ninja master. Now go down the hall to your left and turn to the right at the T."

He buffed his nails on his shirt, "That was not a spasm, that was my impression of a noodle scarcrow in a hurricane."

I snorted, "Yeah, Ok buff guy. Let's get going."

He brought up his sleeve and his muscles tried to ripple. They actually were more impressive then I thought. "That right," he said.

That ruined the effect. I tried to roll my eyes, then realized that I was digitized. Crap. I searched the corridors for the exit. One room caught my eye. I scrolled back to it. I felt frozen to my pixel core. My body was lying on a hospital bed. Frozen. It looked like all life was gone, but then I saw a small breath. Whew. It was working. I think my body armor had kicked in and was breathing for me.

Well, no time to think about it. I returned to Tanner. He was running down the hallway. So far they were empty. I guided him through. Right, left, skip the hallway, go through that door. I tried to avoid everyone working. The halls seemed a lot less occupied, it must be late. Then I saw a worker coming down the hall.
Oh no. I spoke through the speaker phones, "Tanner, someone's coming. Go into any spare room you can find."

He dashed into the room, knocking a broom over while he was at it. An alarm went off. I looked about seeing what triggered it. Was it Tanner? I couldn't find it. What was happening?

There was a firewall. I couldn't get through. I looked through the camera's. Someone had found me. They were trying to lock me out. I dimly heard a warning through the speakers say, "Chemical spill on floor A. Please exit quickly and orderly."

Great. Another thing to deal with. I put up a firewall quickly, then turned back to Tanner. I quickly said, "They're locking me out. Go to the next hallway to pick me up, then go through the double doors to your right. Then you will see an exit. I'll probably be pass out by the time you get there. Hurry!"

I could feel the hacker locking me out of the systems. I could see Tanner running out the door. Then everything went black. I felt myself squeezing into a smaller area. I tried to fight it, but with all of this retro tech, I couldn't seem to combat that. I felt weaker and weaker until I found a way out. Electricity crackled. Then nothing. Again.