Glitch | #ONC2020 ✔

Chapter Sixteen

A chill runs down my spine as I see the middle aged, balding man in front of me.  His face is sharp with barely any fat in his cheeks. The same thing could be said about his body as well, as he seems severely underweight.

He wears a white lab coat, making me want to laugh at how he looks like that one scientist from Phineas and Ferb.

You know, if Doctor Doof was older and looked more sad.

I struggle against my restraints as I glare at the man in front of me.  "Why am I here?" He does not answer, for he is not even paying attention to me. "Answer me!"

He flinches at my tone and stares at me for a moment.  "Leverage." And with that, he goes back to tinkering with one of the machines.  In actuality, it looks similar to the one I fought earlier. "You sure did a number on Lu."

"Who cares about a stupid machine?  All I care about is figuring out why some idiotic scientist kidnapped me!"

He turns towards me, his gray eyes are dull and lifeless.  "You are not special, so do not flatter yourself."

I strain against the rope again, growling at the man.  If looks could kill, I am pretty sure he and I would both be dead.  "Do not give me a stupid answer! I want to know why I am tied up!"

Williams stands up and sighs, running that part between his eyes with his thumb and forefinger.  "This might be harder than I initially believed."

"I can hear you!"

He stares at me with confusion.  "I was talking to myself, it is quite rude for you to interrupt my findings like this."

"I am not some exhibit you can gawk at!  I am a human being! A human being that wants you to let me go before things get ugly!" I plead at the man, but my pleas go to deaf ears.

"Again with the interrupting! Did your parents not tell you to keep quiet when the adults are talking?" 

"I do not even care! Why did you kidnap me?"

The man pauses once more with his tinkering.  "Do not think of this as a kidnapping."

I tilt my head as my eyes squint.  What am I supposed to think of this? A vacation?  "What the hell am I supposed to think of this?"

He puts a hand to his chin and thinks.  "A persuasive capture so I can connect all of you little bugs back into the system."

"That is still the definition of kidnapping! You are holding me hostage without my consent.  I swear, if there were still police officers, my mother would have-"

"Your mother would have what Cyrus?  Called the police? Reported you missing? Face it kid, your mother did not care about you, nor did she ever."

"You are wrong!"  He glances at me as I still attempt to break out of my restraints.  "My mother loved me, she just had something wrong with her head."

"Whatever you say, but do try to keep your head out of the clouds, it is not very healthy."

"Why have you not disconnected everyone yet?" I decide to strike a nerve with the senile old man.  "Why is everyone still asleep? Were you unable to find a way to save the planet? Or did you want everyone to become an off brand version of Wall-E?"

His eye twitches as he stares at me.  Clearly, I struck a nerve with him. "The human race broke this world."

"And the human race should fix it, it is our fault." I say with a straight face. Am I going to get in a fight about the failing environment with a senile old man who is much smarter than me, not to mention the one who kidnapped me? 

Yes, yes I am.

"The planet is too far gone! We would not survive two more generations until we all died!"

"I think you underestimate our race."  I glare at him. "We evolved for millions of years, starting from this planet.  Granted, once we evolved, we have almost killed the planet. Even though that is a fact, another fact does remain."

"Oh, what is that?"

"The ability to learn.  Other creatures can do this, but our brain is hotwired to learn.  We can learn from our mistakes! We can save the world!"

"Sorry to burst your bubble kid, but that will not work."

"And why not?" I challenge the scientist. 

He runs husband through whatever hair he has left on his head.  "The human race should have never evolved. We as a race will always destroy things.  So no, we could not just figure out to fix the world. We are doomed for destruction."

"But what if we do not have to be?" I once again challenge him.  He opens his mouth to say something, but I glare at him, making him shut up.  "Why is it that we cannot fix our mistakes? We made plastic. We burned fossil fuels.   So why is it that you are telling me that we have no chance at fixing this hell hole?"

"Because we will only make it worse."

"No!" I yell out, mad at his beliefs.  "We can fix it. Just because you think we have no future does not mean that others think the same! There are children growing up right now in perfect lives, where there is almost zero sadness.  They do not remember going into the system, and they are not even interacting with their own parents! Do you truly think that is the best way to save the earth? Do you really think that this is what parents want for their children?"

He pauses for a moment, not knowing what to say to my monologue.  "It is for the best." He turns around and starts to work on his robot once more.

"But that is only your opinion! What if I hacked into the system right now, and alert everyone about what is going on? More glitches will appear, you cannot stop all of us you know!"

He stiffens at my comment.  "I only want what is right for humanity.  Do not paint me as the villain of the story,  because I am not evil."

"When were we integrated into the system?"

He once again stiffens, his hands no longer working on the broken robot at his feet.  "Six months, eighteen days, and twenty hours."

My breath catches in my throat. That long?  I was in the system for six months? I gulp, try to calm my heart that is now beating frantically.   "When did the glitches start?"

"Five months, twenty-three days, and five hours."

My breath is caught in my throat again.  The time skip is so much, it is almost crazy.  People have been asleep, connected to a computer, for almost seven months.  People have missed Halloween, and Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and Easter. People have wasted over six months of time because some crackpot old fool decided that we were too dangerous for the world.

"After all this time of humans not using the world's resources as much, has anything changed?" My head is down as hope that was previously there is beginning to get demolished as I realize I might die near this middle-aged man who is insane.

He looks at me, a grin evident on his face.  The robot is not standing, fully functional in all it's horror like glory.  He groans as he thinks about how to answer my question. "The world has yet to change significantly, but six months is too small of a sample size!"

"But…" I trail off as most of my energy was used as anger.  "What if nothing changes?"

He glares at me.  "Then the human race was more evil than I would have ever thought."

We are both interrupted as a long knock rings through the room.  The noise is coming from the metal door that Williams walked through an hour ago.

Allen Williams stands up and starts to inch towards the door.

"Room service!"

My eyes widen at the voice.   

Aira?

Chapter WC: 1360
Official Book WC: 17885