Unraveling the Alt Code

Chapter Five: Run

Even though I'm laughing, as we approach the Lab, I'm actually full of disdain. I hate Isco. The room is drab, the grey carpet is scratchy, the lights flicker, the tests are pointless and there is a permanent smell of stale sweat. Yuck. But thankfully, we only need to come here are the start of every month- to make sure we are staying on target.

When you arrive, everyone gets assessed and given a target for your overall physical function based on things like your height, weight, muscle mass, age etc. Mine is 18.4. I train whenever I can because, although I've never known it to happen, there are all sorts of rumors about what happens if you fall behind. Now we find out if my hard work through August was worth it.

As we walk into the Isco-Lab, I see my empty station waiting for me. It's just like every other: black seat, metal floor, overhanging back. The literal only difference is the faint lettering etched onto the back of the computer terminal in silver script: KIT. My name. Ren straps in one row in front and Fin is just to my right. We don't speak; it's unusually silent. There are about 20 other Alts in here with us, all ready to start, but I notice one more deserted station, right at the back. Someone must be late. Whatever guardian we have today won't be pleased. I glance around to try and see who it is. That's when I see him. That man. Sliver beard, from Que's room. Instantly I'm hit by the acidic taste of bile rising in my throat. I can barely bring myself to look him in the eye, but somehow he catches my gaze anyway. His lips curl into an unsettling smile and I go stone cold as a shiver crawls up my back.

Suddenly the doors burst open. All eyes follow the source of the commotion to a slender red head girl who just crashed in. I recognize her immediately- and from the look on her face, I can tell Ren does too. Keeping her eyes down, the girl quickly takes her seat at the final station. As soon as she sits down, Silver Beard begins to speak in his blood-curdling voice.
"Please attach your wires. The test will begin in precisely one minute." He says this as if it were a whisper, and yet there is nothing quiet about the volume at which he talks.

Immediately, everyone starts scrambling to stick a dozen sensors to their chest, arms, legs and abdomen. But I take my time carefully placing each one to get precisely the most accurate reading. Next, firmly I pull down my helmet, securing the clasps to my head and making sure the cables definitely travel all the way to the computer terminal to my left. Finally, I fit the breathing mask around my nose and mouth and take a few short test breaths. I've finished way before anyone else, all the others are still fumbling about clumsily and getting tangled in circuits. I notice that the new girl from the showers seems confused and has her wires connected in all the wrong places.
Cool, calm and collected. As I always say, It gets the job done. When almost everyone else is finally ready, Grey Beard disappears behind a long black terminal and proceeds to press a series of colourfully lit buttons. Slowly, a thin horizontal bar lowers from above me. I grasp it tightly as two clear peddles rise from the floor. As soon as I press my feet carefully onto them, I can feel the electricity flowing through my body. It burns and crackles in my veins like fire, but it's a pain I'm am used to by now. It's rising through my feet and up towards my head, but before I have time to really focus on the sensation, an air horn sounds to signify the start of the test...
And I'm no longer sitting in my chair.

I'm standing in an vast and vacant
void. Nothing but smooth black floor for as far as the eye can see. The 'sky' above is empty, infinite, colourless, and yet, I can see as clearly as if it were a sunny day. Suddenly, the floor begins to move slowly from under me and I stumble a little, waving my arms to balance. I know what I have to do. I have to run.