Intriguing

/ˌinˈtrēɡiNG//

adjective

arousing one's curiosity or interest; fascinating

This was the third time I had walking down this hallway today. The grey walls felt like they would cave in and swallow me whole. And the ceiling felt like it was getting lower and lower, trapping me inside. I know it's just my imagination, but this place is making me go crazy. No one to talk to and walking down the same hall all day is taking a toll on me.

I hum a familiar tune as I walk down the path. No music groups existed now. It would be too hard for the twins to control one another if there was a music group. But the bands from before still had albums selling, and Bots still listened to music.

Right now I was listening to Below My Feet by Mumford and Sons while my lips stayed together, humming one of the few bands I liked.

And I was still

I was under your spell

When I was told by Jesus all was well

So all must be well

Just give me time

You know your desires and mine

So wrap my flesh in ivy and in twine

For I must be well

Keep the earth below my feet

For all my sweat, my blood runs weak

Let me learn from where I have been

Oh keep my eyes to serve, my hands to learn

Oh keep my eyes to serve, my hands to learn

Before I knew it, I had come across a room I had never seen. Despite only being here for one day, I had explored almost everywhere, and I would have remembered seeing this door.

I couldn't look away from it. Unlike the other doors, this one was black; not like some of the children's black chalk board doors. No, this one was just painted pitch black. And it intrigued me as to why it was painted the dissimilar color.

The keyboard to unlock the door almost blended into the door. If it wasn't for the white numbers and red light outlining it, the door would have made it unnoticeable. My mind soared with possibilities of what it might be.

A vault? A meeting room for people like Bob? Bob's quarters? The possibilities were endless.

I try to find something to give me a hint as to what the password might be, only to find nothing. The area around the door was empty, nothing hanging on it. The walls were grey, only making the eerie feeling of the door stand out more. My hands start to search around it, maybe theres a hidden clue or something. This place had to be important to be so hard to get into. They had to be hiding information in here. And me being the snoopy person I am, I have to find out what they are hiding.

My hand fell through some invisible barrier. It looked just as the nameless teen's arm did when he showed me the disoriented wall. It was an illusion.

I feel around for something. My senses are on edge until the palm of my hand touches a cold, metallic item. I jump momentarily, thinking it might have been something terrible, but I touch it again against my better judgement. The object is boxlike when I pull it out of the computer generated wall. The top looks like it will come off, so I slide the lid off of the container. Inside is a simple equation, but complicated enough that you would have to have an educated person to find the answer.

These people are smart. They know the all the systems weaknesses. White Coats would never send Bots into a hostile situation, for that they have robots. But they can't communicate to the robots, and to put it simply, those robots are stupid.

They are programmed to only do one thing, kill and destroy. So, if one miraculously did find the illusive wall, they wouldn't be able to find the code or crack it. It was one of the most genius ideas I had ever come across.

My eyes drift over the equation. Algebraic, I say to myself. It was simple algebra that every Brain knew, but was one thing never bothered to be programmed into the robots that may be sent to wipe out this colony. Two equations were set up one over the other. I roll my eyes at the easiness they put into the problem.

y-x=-34

5x+2y=-72

One of my hands reach for a pen in my back pocket and begin solving the problem. My eyebrows furrow, thinking and trying to work out the biggest part of the problem in my head since the paper was so tiny.

Okay, we can move x to the other side and get y=x-34 and then plug that into the other problem. That means that this plus this equals this, and-

Everything else was a blur until I came up with my answer for both x and y. So how do I enter this into the system? I touch one of the buttons on the keypad, bringing it to life.

Nothing popped to say x= or y=, so I put the answers in the other form: an ordered pair. When I pressed enter, I was incredibly shocked that it opened, but not as surprised as I was when I saw what was beyond the wall.

File cabinets. All stacked on top of each other, almost reaching the ceiling. They were all in different colored sections. To the far left were red one's, in the middle were green one's, and on the right were baby blue cabinets. My heart pounded in my chest wondering what was inside of the cabinets. Of course they were important, but how important?

I went to the red cabinets first, opening them up slowly, but they still emitted a squeak as I did so. My fingers skimmed the files quickly, finding all of them to be names.

What is this?

I picked a random file and pulled it out to look at the name on top of it. Michelle Jenner. I open it to the first page that was filled with informational questions, colons beside them to be filled in.

Date of Birth: April 23, 2118

Member of Colony?: Yes

Parents: John and Delilah Jenner

Siblings: Colline Jenner (Twin)

Status: Previous Bot

I almost drop the folder on the ground, realizing that these people had escaped. They had gotten out of the system without dying. But they had to live with the guilt that their twin was killed because their job was no longer needed. They got their twin retired, killed, because they didn't like the life they were living in this messed up world. I kept reading, anxious to find out more of this girl.

Spouse: None

Children: None

Occupation: Not Assigned

Date of Death: November 20, 2125

I closed the file quickly, too emotional to read any more of this young girl's life. She was only 7 when she died. She hadn't even begun to live when she had died.

My legs are shaky as I step away from the red file cabinets. I walk to the middle of the green files before searching through the names. My eyes fall one that I wouldn't expect to be in the mix of them.

If I thought my legs were weak before, that has nothing on how they feel now. They feel like molten lava below me, flimsy and ready to collapse under me. My eyes are as wide as saucers, but somehow I can still see clearly through them. Shaky hands take a hold of the manila folder holding the name I wouldn't expect to ever see in this colony. They never once seemed to be a raider but now it was an undeniable fact they were.

She was a spy, and I still couldn't grip that fact. My face and hands were losing color in shock as I read the name over and over again. I checked the spelling for the third time, just in case someone had almost the same name as her. But when I opened the file again there was no denying it was her with the black and white picture in the corner.

I stash the folder under my shirt to avoid being caught on my way to my room. If this was how I was going to get information, then so be it.

I walked out of the room and closed the door, hearing it click shut. The metal box was still on the ground, where I had previously placed it, with the equation still inside of it. I closed it and put it back in the illusion wall. Walking briskly back to my room, my mind was still struggling to process the information I now had in my mind. The name nicely written in cursive on the folder still stared back at me in my brain.

Janice Evergreen.

Occupation: Spy in the Brain lab.

**Didn't see that coming did you? Anyway! Thank you so much for reading!! I'm so exited that you are enjoying the book. Don't forget to comment and vote.

-Dani

Edited: 16 October 2016