C0NV3RG3 (Sequel to M3RG3)

Chapter 17

Tuesday

"Are you sure that you're fine?" Warwick asked for the fifth time. My patience was trickling away, and I was close to snapping at him in a very disrespectful manner.

"Yes, I'm sure," I replied. "They won't bother me again."

"They were holding you at gunpoint! How is that fine?" He exclaimed, running his hands through his tousled blond hair. "Now that they're out in the city, it's going to be harder to track them down."

"Look," I sighed, tapping my fingers on the mouse. "There's a dozen Security chasing after them, and the footage has records of their identities. They'll eventually be turned in."

Warwick let out a sigh of relief, but his eyebrows then furrowed. "What I've taught you wouldn't have been enough to decode all the Republic's firewalls, much less shut the system down. How did you do it?"

"They..." I bit my lip. I couldn't tell him that I was the one who guessed the passcode. "One of the members was particularly talented at decoding."

"If she didn't work for the Revolution, I would've been impressed," He let out a sigh, attempting to flatten down his hair. "But using power to do such... horrid things is the definition of evil."

"Maybe they had a better reason to do this." I instantly chastised myself. Persuading Warwick now wouldn't help. He was already knee-deep in the Republic's facades and lies, believing what the Republic did was for everyone's good.

"If taking down the Republic counts as a good reason, they're obviously delusional," He shook his head. "Once you're in all their delusional plans, there's no getting out. I'm just hoping the Republic can eradicate them before they cause another uprising."

How ironic. I suppressed a smile. "We'll see."

"Anything to say, Arista?" Addison's tone was both patronizing and disdaining. Everyone was glaring at me, and they had good reason to. This was all my fault. I had been too reckless, too rash. And now, this was the price I had to pay.

"I'm sorry," I apologized. "This is all my fault, and I will pay for my mistakes."

Surprisingly, some people gave me sympathetic looks. Why, I didn't know.

"How do you think we should punish her?" Jordan questioned. Behind him, my mother stood, her posture still confident and prideful despite my shameful mistake.

"Allow me," My mother's voice was like bitingly cold frost. "Arista did make a plan that was approved by the Revolution, but it did not go as planned. I admit that there wasn't enough preparation and strategy placed into it, but she is only a teenager, and teenagers make mistakes."

"You don't have a right to argue!" One of the adults yelled furiously over the roar of the crowd. "Your stance is biased!"

"Unfortunately," Jordan sighed. "He is right. Caelan, if you may?"

A lanky adult awkwardly stood up, fixing his spectacles so they weren't crooked. He shoved his hands into his baggy pants, nervously shuffling back and forth on the pedestal. "After the incident, the Republic now has records of Oliver, Karen and Lydia's faces, not to mention they have dispatched a dozen of Security after them. Your plan has not only failed, but it has endangered three of our Revolutionary members."

This was the truth I needed to hear. I squeezed my eyes shut; If only I was at home, enjoying the bliss of a mother and father, sheltered from the Republic. Everything was so simple back then, before the Merging Process. When I opened my eyes again, faded walls and dozens of Revolutionaries stared back at me, unblinking. This was reality, and even though I had no idea what to do, I had to face it.

"I will take full responsibility for this incident. Whatever charges pressed upon me will be met." I raised my head levelly, meeting everyone else's gazes. They were still angry at me, but a hint of admiration flashed in their eyes. Some of their gazes even softened. "However, we all make mistakes, and I will do my very best to make up for this mistake."

"We will discuss this matter when Oliver, Karen and Lydia have returned from their... expedition," Jordan announced. "Meanwhile, Arista's trials will be put on hold. Any charges pressed against her before the next trial will instantly be disregarded."

I stepped off the pedestal, shuffling to the very corner of the room. Normally, I enjoyed some conversation, but after the trial, my energy was completely drained, and I just wanted some time alone.

"That was some cool stuff you did back there." It was the lanky adult, Caelan, who accused me of endangering Karen, Oliver and Lydia. "I thought that you would deny it, but at least you were honest."

"That was the least I could do," I shrugged. "Arista, pleased to be your acquaintance."

"Caelan," He smiled, his bony fingers freezing. When I flinched from his grasp, the tips of his ears instantly turned red. "Sorry, the computer rooms are always so cold."

His entire body wasn't just lanky, it was gaunt. Every bone jutted out from his skin like stretched latex on a wooden board, the colour of his skin was so translucent I could easily see the veins and arteries branching out beneath them. His frame had been cleverly masked by a thick jacket and baggy pants, but up close, his starving figure was impossible to hide.

"What did they do to you?" I whispered. The only liveliness that remained was his messy copper hair that gleamed under the artificial lights.

"They did something to my brain," He shrugged helplessly. "My mind repels a lot of food, so I have a limited assortment of food choices."

"As in they made you hate the food?" This was simply unheard of. I knew that the Republic's serums were powerful and manipulative, but this was too far, even for them.

"Not really, but stimulation of pain and unease is given every time I eat some sort of food. Sometimes, I vomit, but usually, it's just nausea." He spoke of it like he was talking about the weather instead of his severe condition.

"But why?" I pressed. "Did you have some sort of secret the Republic didn't want you to reveal? Or did they want to keep tabs on you so you wouldn't run away?"

"A few years prior to the Merging Process, the Republic developed a new set of serums, all designed to repel something. Their initial idea was to make people repel the idea of eating red meat so we could conserve more energy, but they needed 'lab rats' to see whether their idea worked." He smiled, and even though he was approximately a decade older than me, the weariness in his eyes was as heavy as an omniscient storm.

"The Republic set up a huge sum of money for whoever volunteered. Obviously, being naïve, I agreed. I was a lowly technician back then, the pay I received wasn't enough to cover my family's expenses. What I didn't realize back then was the larger sum of money, the riskier the tests were. And it went wrong." He held his breath, studying his sickening blue-green veins.

"When I first tried to eat beef, it tasted delicious. What I didn't expect was to be vomiting in the toilet ten minutes later. But it wasn't just that, the serum repelled anything that resembled meat. They made me go vegan. Without my consent," he sighed. "But that wasn't the only problem. My stomach could only take in so much at a time, so I was forced to eat 5-6 small meals a day."

"There were some 'malfunctions' in the Merging Process, you know? Anthony was initially considered as one of them, but he managed to keep his record clean and act normal." Caelan clumsily fumbled with the hems of his jacket. "We were friends back then."

"He was that popular?" I asked. Almost every person who worked in the Republic knew him. It was like he was some sort of hero and celebrity.

"Maybe he never told you, but everything he did, nobody did before. The Republic celebrates his loyalty and his willingness to commit and perform extreme experiments, but we celebrate his bravery, as the first infiltrate for the Revolution." Caelan managed a smile. "And I can promise you that he was the first to sacrifice himself for a Revolutionary."

Next update: 3rd May