Crowd: A Dystopian Social Network Thriller (Final Draft)

Something has changed

The alarm buzzed. The door opened and dozens of students walked out in line, flooding into the corridor. Inside the auditorium, only professor Ashley Piper and student Taylor Gonzales remained.

"Hello there."

Rain almost didn't recognize him. Shortened hair, a coal-black suit and the straight posture of a yuppie. As if someone misplaced the old Taylor with a well-adjusted clone.

"Look at you," Rain said.

"Hello, Special Advisor Cruzada. It's good to see you back."

The professor spoke. "Taylor's has success has been astounding. As you can see, his ranking has risen. He's connected with his fellow students and his dressing style is more in line with our guidelines. Even better, he's become an assistant of mine. I'm sure that also played a big role."

Rain focused solely on Taylor who pushed his lips upward. "I can see you have changed a lot. How do you feel now?"

"Just look at him," the professor said. "He's a new human being."

Sasha pressed his lips to suppress his giggle. Yet, he let Rain handle the situation.

"Professor, could you wait outside?" Rain asked.

The man's eyes furrowed. "Excuse me?"

"I believe Taylor's more open to sharing his mind when authority isn't around."

"I'm his professor and am deeply invested in his future. This issue is his as well as mine."

Rain locked eye contact, made sure the eye beam burned. "You do understand the words coming out of my mouth?"

The professor licked his lips. His body posture stiffened as his arms crossed in front of his chest. "I'm going to grab some lunch," the professor said in a dry voice.

He winked at Taylor and left through the door.

Finally.

That guy was drunk on his importance. How could someone with his lack of empathy even become a civil educator?

"You can speak your mind now," Sasha said to Taylor.

"My scores are getting better, and the students feel safer around me."

A textbook answer, minus the passion. Rain decided to steer the conversation in a new direction. "Can you show me your new work?"

He shared his digital VR drawings. Beautiful motion illustrations showing the people of Santa Kahlo during lunch or community work. Daily life snippets. A bit stiff and overly colorful for her taste, but this wasn't about her.

"Nice work."

Taylor regarded her with blank eyes.

Rain focused on open questions to break his shell. "How are your fellow students treating you?"

"They're not mocking me, at least not when I'm around."

"Do you have friends now? A girlfriend?"

He mustered a nervous smile. "I'm working on it."

An odd question buzzed around Rain's mind. "Are you happy?"

Taylor looked at her with blank eyes. He formed his lips but failed to produce a sound.

"I'm glad my ranking is up."

Taylor's voice and word choice contradicted his micro-gestures. He seemed to pull up a straight face with force. Tension hid behind those brown eyes.

Rain wanted to dig deeper, but Sasha intervened. "Great. If you face any more problems, ping us."

He shot him two thumbs up.

Argh.

Rain needed more time. This session was way too short to make a real impact, but Sasha called the shots.

Before they left through the door, she flicked a last glance at Taylor. He smiled back in his stiff posture, but his eyes failed to join.

Back in the corridor, the thoughts fired through Rain's mind.

"Do you think he was happy?"

It took Sasha three seconds to reply. "Our job is not to make people happy, Rain. We help them readjust to society. That's enough."

Maybe, Rain thought.

"Why did you break up our session so early?"

"Graham." Sasha's voice grew stern.

"Something has changed."

***Author's Note***

Thanks for your continuous interest in the story. I'd love your feedback, so feel free to comment. If you like the chapter, you can vote for it by clicking the star below. You can also add "Crowd" to your library if you like to continue the journey which will be updated 5 times a week.