Free Minds

Chapter 59.

   My gaze never left the screen as Rav, from time to time, called out the directions Dave provided him to Talise.

   Tali, on her end, didn't relent once, slinking to the left, right and corner areas Rav asked her to take. Her paces remained quick, yet calculated.

   Soon enough, the second camera was in the second classroom on the ground floor, hidden behind one of the desks' legs.

   As she moved up the stairs leading to the first floor with brisk legs, the hope within me at this point was an inferno.

   A level of optimism tended to be cemented in your thinking when you realised that you not only believed that someone could do something, but they did as well.

   Fortunately, she only had to drop the cameras in the hallway and the Physics lab nearby on the first floor.

   And then, just like that, there were two cameras left.

   One of the cameras, like Camila and Rav had mentioned days ago, was to be placed in the teachers' lounge found on the second floor, while the final camera was to be placed on the compounds of Zavlon.

   Right now, the teachers' lounge camera was Talise's focus.

   I would be lying if I said the idea of her going in there didn't make me feel uneasy. We'd been focused on the students for so long that the possibility of mind controlled teachers wasn't spared a single thought. Since the Virtual Dance had no chaperones, the teachers didn't have the Virtuo glasses like the students for the placement to occur so how did theirs happen?

   My mind instantly took me back to the girl and the two Yunies I saw in the classroom in the midst of my confusion on Liberation Day. The thought of the guns being used on the teachers like the screaming girl then filled every part of my bones with an unpleasant chill in no time.

   Even with regard to my Electronics teacher Mr Walsh... Sort of, anyway.

   Well, wherever they were, it's not like the teachers were going to be in the lounge ready to ambush Talise or something.

"Okay, Tali," Rav said. "Less than three minutes left. If you keep going straight and take a left five doors down, you'll find the teachers' lounge. Go!"

   This time, she took to her heels in the directions Rav provided, not slowing down as she bypassed door after door. Eventually, Talise took a left, halting her little sprint when she faced the medium-sized, brown-colored door situated between walls with large sized windows fixed in them. A peek through one of the windows gave her a full view of the teachers' lounge.

"Damn," she whistled. "This is Zavlon Academia's teachers' lounge?"

"I know," I mumbled.

   The astonishment in her statement was a reflection of my reaction when I caught a glimpse of this facility for the first time.

   A lush red velvet carpet filled up the floor of the large squared-sized room. At the center of the room stood several cream colored couches whose softness could be felt just by looking at them. The right corner of the room had a number of chairs and tables where the teachers had their meals. The tables contained the same serving system that students had in our cafeteria.

  With the exception of the 'fit test' system students like me will most likely never pass.

   Basically, the teachers had the choice to stuff their faces with everything I couldn't.

   And as if all that wasn't enough, they had a little enclosed space within the main room that was termed, "Virtual Space". No student knew what exactly happened there but did that stop the crazy theories of secret drinking games, strip poker and 'crush the students' souls cult' meetings?