The Dreamer Trilogy: Book One

Chapter 23

I walk over to Chris3, who is baffled by my abrupt departure from Cornelius. “Really?” He says to me, turning to walk the same direction as me. “What?” I reply back. He just gestures to Cornelius, and I look back at him, just standing there watching us walk away. “He’ll be fine, it’s not like I hurt his feelings” I say. Chris3 shrugs and we continue walking toward our apartments. As we round the corner overlooking the Main Living Space, I see a lot more people than usual, all crowding around someone. I point down to them, and Chris3 looks as well. “Let’s go check that out.” I say, turning to jog to the elevator. “Yeah..” He agrees, following closely behind me. I punch the “Down” elevator button and we wait silently, still looking down at the swarm of students. “What do you think it’s about?” He asks, his gaze not wavering. “I have no idea” I respond as the elevator doors open behind us. We both turn and step inside the empty box and descend to The Bottom. The doors open again and we exit, making our way to the center of attention. We push past a few people in the center of the room and see what all the commotion is about. The person everyone was looking at was the guy I saw yesterday, the one that was staring at some spot on the wall. But this wasn’t the same guy, his neck was broken and his head dangled from a cord. There was blood at the base of his head, but there couldn’t be if he was a robot. I reach out to touch his face, to see if it was metallic or flesh, and that’s when we heard the Overseers. “Everyone step away from the body!” The voice echoed throughout the Main Living Space, and everyone stopped and turned to face him. I couldn’t see him because I was behind other students, but I could tell from his voice he had authority. “I said, step away from the body!” He yells again, this time everyone takes a few steps back. I step back and everyone makes a path for him, leading straight to the body. “Thank you” He says, strolling toward the corpse. I finally get a good look at him, and it stuns me. He’s wearing a red vest, along with regular white clothing. A red vest? I haven’t heard of anyone in this facility to wear anything but white, even The Guild. He had a nicely kept beard and his eyes were like needles. “Now, who cracked his neck?” He said again, louder and more intimidating. Silence. “Anyone care to fess up?” He asks again, a grin growing quickly on his face. Still silence. “Alrighty then” He says, taking out a pistol from his pocket and aiming at a student. The gunshot bounces of the walls of the Main Living Space, and I hear ringing in my ears as the student falls to the ground, and blood forming around his head. “Now, anyone want to fess up? Or so help me I will shoot every single one of you” He says, smiling cynically. He looks around the room and stops on someone in the back. Everyone turns to look at this mystery person and all I see is a hand raised. “Ah, much better. Please make way for our new friend” The guy in Red says, holding his arms out to the side as a false welcome. The students form a path and the person walks toward the man in red slowly. “Come on, don’t be shy” He says, grinning widely. The student walks up to him, looks him dead in the eyes and says “I live for Ret.” The man in red looks at him, and I can see the hatred burning in his eyes, and his smile fades. “Get him out of here” He says deeply. The Overseers behind him come up and grab the student by the arms and drag him to the elevator. He doesn’t resist their  grasp. The man in red looks at all of us again, more serious this time. “If any of you repeat that name, I will be sure to end you personally.” With that he turns on his heel and walks away, into the elevator with the Overseers. I scan the room for Chris3, and when our eyes connect, we know we need to get back to our rooms.