The God Codex

21. Upgrade

BOOK OF MIA: 2081

Chapter 21: Upgrade

I blink, frozen, at the hologram beckoning me forward.

"Please scan your chip at this station, and we can begin orienting you on the lab and your upgrade."

I turn to Nate as he struggles to sit up straight on the stool. What the hell is up with him? The blood loss can't be that bad yet. "Are you seeing this?" I ask, needing him to tell me I'm not the only one losing my mind right now.

He nods, equally mute and gawking at the figure of my late grandfather floating ahead of me.

"Don't be afraid. I've waited a long time for you, and it's finally time. We don't have a moment to waste."

Timid, I follow the hologram as he glimmers and floats to a bench ahead of me, whereupon an inverted desk rises from the floor and onto the flat workspace. Fancy!

"Place your left arm here," Granddad instructs, and I oblige. It's odd to be listening to him, but I am, when technically, I don't really know the man. I mean, we've never met in real life. He died in a fire, trapped inside his house a month before my birth. At least, that's what Mum told me. I've only ever seen him in videos uploaded to our family's server, and only when she felt the urge to share him with me. She said the memories were too painful and didn't want to watch him.

The chip in my arm gets scanned for the second time that day — by another laser on this odd-looking workstation. I see the elements of a computer, CPU, screen, keyboard, but I also see other apparatus that look more like robotic tools in a Science lab. Duh! I am in a Science lab, a fucking sophisticated one at that. Even Dr Hill's lacks in comparison. There are gadgets and gizmos here I have never seen.

"Place your feet on the markings." He smiles, pointing at the floor, at the two outlines of feet, their shoe size far too big for mine. I place my feet on the outlines as instructed and Nate rasps in his seat.

"Are you sure you can trust him, Mia?" Nate grumbles, losing his posture now and then. His eyes riveted on the blue glow that is the hologram.

"Are you okay?" I ask, just as he tumbles backward. A loud thud sounds as he hits the floor. I go to move, to run to him and assist, but find I cannot, in fact, move. "What the?" I look down to see my feet clamped to the ground and my grandfather smiles. "What's going on?"

"Relax, Mia. This will only take a moment."

I can hardly relax being secured to the floor. I try to slip my feet out, but find that I cannot. Next, two apparatus resembling Lego-man arms clamp my arms to the table.

"What the hell." I panic. "I don't want this. Let me go."

"Mia?" I hear Nate's groggy speech. I can't see him anymore, but I can see his feet jutting out from behind the stations where he had sat.

"Hold on, Nate, I'm trying!"

"Mia, hold still, please," Granddad says sweetly. Unblinking.

"No!" I scream, trying to free my limbs even more frantically than before. Especially when I hear a whirr above me and see some sort of probe lowering from the ceiling towards my head. "What is that? What is that?" I try to turn my head, to follow its path, but soon, I find a metal plank rise from the floor behind me, and several more clamps secure me to its cold surface, including my head.

Somewhere in the lab, Nate is faintly grumbling, "Something's not right, Mia..."

You don't say! I want to scream, but a brace locks my head and my jaws. In fact, my entire body is now immobile, strapped to the plank, and I can't see anything else beyond the grin on my grandfather's face.