The Higher Define (2018)

11

One of the member in my group sends out a private message to those who are in his group that we should split up. He gives us a time limit of fourty-five minutes before we should all meet up. He doesn't set the location where we should meet up later, though.

I think he knows that the senior Higher Defines might be watching, too. Anyway, it's a good idea and I instantly go off my own way, to explore the facilities that the Hub has to provide and to search for the list of items.

Some of the items on the list are completely ordinary- a green toothbrush and a pink hairband. Others, however, deviate from the normal household items. They range from specific items such as a bulb that is glowing and still warm by the time we complete the task to a piece of curtain that changes colour.

While I'm sure that many of us here would enjoy breaking off the bulb from the base of the doors, I'm just as confident that the warmth that is emitted by the light will quickly fade before we can submit it.

As soon as I'm out of Friday and Ariel's range of view, I snatch the patch from my skin and let it fall to the floor before crunching it with the sole of my shoe.

They can't track me now.

They can't possibly think that we'll follow their little rules. Tracking us allows them to catch us and no way am I going to get caught.

The light on the patch blinks out of life and it returns to being a dark piece of coal-looking item. The wires exposed from the heavy smash of my shoe looks to be spoiled beyond salvation.

I need to get rid of it.

I summon an empty file from one of my miscellaneous documents and choose to dispose the patch in the file. I initiate an event that will block all users trying to get into my database. Even if they are able to get into my code, they won't be able to see the contents here. No one is catching me today.

I turn sharply at a corner and hunch my shoulders, trying to go for a figure that doesn't stand out. On other days, I would be holding my head up high but I need to win this event desperately. Never have I wanted to prove someone wrong so badly.

With the patch now gone, I need to find the items on the list. I need to be the one who brings back most of the items. The boy who arrived second may not prioritise integrity but I'm more than certain that the others here will be more than happy to be eyewitnesses for who gathered the most things.

So where could they have put the things? They obviously won't hide it in areas that we have been to, before. My first thought is to search around the north of where we first arrived in the Hub, where the waterfall cascades down the storeys.

And I don't have any other ideas so I head in that direction, only pushing my back towards the glass cases that shield the trees when I see people that raise my suspicions walking by. I hide myself behind the rich, thick canopy of the leaves that slope down and turn me invisible for a few moments. When they are gone, I continue to hurriedly make my way to the waterfall.

Ariel and Friday had informed us that the senior Higher Defines taking part in this game will be labelled with a green patch but I can't take my chances. Not with Richard carefully undermining my cautious movements and planning to throw me off with every game.

I need to be what I truly am to stay in this game. I need to be the flawless code that everyone sees.

I reach the waterfall. Behind is a building, richly decorated with vegetation that wraps around the railings an glass passages that links the different segments of the buildings together. It feels like a tropical rainforest that teems with life- there are audio clips of animals calling out from well hidden speakers and there is a heavy smell that makes me think of tall trees and lush greenery.

There's no doubt that it is spectecular. The waterfall carries down in a path of a river, slowly sweeping around the area of the Hub and curving, like a snake, around the circular perimeter of it. I tilt my head up to examine the pool that is constructed just above it. Right now, the water gleams under the bright sunlight and it almost dances with the glow of the sun's intensity.

I wonder about how people access the pool before I shake that thought away. I need to focus. I'll take another look at the configurations of the Hub's map scheme later tonight.

The entry to the building is not behind the waterfall, like most movies show. When I squint through the waterfall and see that there is nothing, I have to track the route where the waterfall ends and the small course of the river starts to find out that the entry to the building is in the water itself.

I don't know how I'm going to get in without getting my chip electrocuted. Walking through the wrong door isn't the only way to get your chip destroyed. If you enter water, you can also risk damaging your chip due to the electricity that will course through the water and into your chip.

Of course, small amounts or volumes of water are fine and does no damage to your chips. After all, we ingest water everyday. The water that we shower in is programmed to have its effects on chips removed. I imagine that's what the water in the swimming pool above is like- coded so that it won't affect us.

What I am worried about is natural bodies of water like this- the waterfall that flows into a river. It has to be natural- no Higher Define would get caught dead using artificial tools in a place like this.

But how on earth do these people enter the building when the entry is only through immersion of a natural water body? There's no way for me to code the water and ensure that it's safe fast enough to not get caught.

My mouth feels dry at that thought and I can almost hear the second hand on the clock ticking away, warning me that I'm running out of time.

There has to be a way, right?

Just as I'm drawing a blank, my mind drifts towards the patch that's in my miscellaneous file. If I can use those wires to channel the electrical output elsewhere and direct the waterfall's energy into a circuit, the electricity can't fry my chip. Instead, it will go through the route that I have created.

It isn't the best idea but I don't see how else I can get through to the entry.

I summon the patch and as soon as it appears in my hands, I start twisting the wires and manipulating the device's mechanism. It takes some time but I'm finally done with the product. All I have to do now is to test it.

I gently place the plastic tube that ensures the wires aren't entirely exposed to the water along the river so that the water touches the plastic, careful to ensure that my hands stay along the materials that are insulators.

Then I move away in a fast, jerky twist, bracing myself for what is to come. There is a faint hiss which grows into a strong buzz, where the circuit is directing the electricity all around the product. It is safe for me to enter the river.

I dip my legs in it, my hands clammy and my body trembling with fear. Though I have deemed it safe, I can't be too certain that the electricity won't return just to kill me.

Nothing.

I heave a sigh of great relief and begin to waddle deeper into the water until my feet strikes the door that is carved into the bottom of the water.

Time to go underwater. I hold my breath and dip my entire body in, swimming towards the bottom of the river. Though it looks shallow from where I previously stand, the water is deep and the extent of it is wide and vast enough for me to swoop downwards through my laps and grasp at the opening.

Unlike the other doors, this one doesn't require a handprint or a scan of our contacts. It just needs to be pulled open. I would have laughed were it not for the knowledge that the water would pool into my mouth and render me breathless.

I jerk open the door, hand yanking hard at the doorknob and can only watch as the water propels me forward, towards the tunnel that the door opens up to.

All I can do is to hope that the strong sweep of the water doesn't kill me as my body is being hurled through a passage.