Young Writers Society

Cameron and Gideon walked out into the long hallway. "Each of these rooms are home to at least one person in the rebellion. We empty their houses and place them in here. No matter the size, we make sure they feel at home." She said winking at Gideon.

After walking past many closed doors, Gideon found himself back in the quick bay. "I've already explained this room so let's go check in on Carlos." She said taking a right and opening another door. "Carlos!" She yelled out loud. "Come meet Gideon!" Give him a tour of your 'lair'." She said, obviously mocking him.

The room was painted pure white, technology scattered across the room. On every table was some sort of new invention, or some sort of machine being repaired. A small fat little man popped his head up from behind a desk covered with at lest thirteen or fourteen computers.

"Ay ya Ay!" The stout Hispanic exclaimed "You scared me Cameron!" He hopped out of his seat and waddled over to Gideon. Gideon was surprised at his height; if the man was any shorter he would probably be considered a 'midget'.

"My name is Carlos Cristobal." The little man said, extending a pudgy hand to him. "I'm this team’s brain. Everything here, I've built." He said, pulling his hand back before Gideon could shake it to motion towards the piles of junk in the room. "Did you see Cameron's bow last night?" He said running, which was more like scurrying, towards a container full of arrows. "These little babies are the first ever long ranged electronic weapons. Aren't they purdy?" He said, admiring his own handy work. Anything you ever need let me know I'll make it. Oh I have to show you-" He said, rudely interrupted by Cameron.

"Thanks Carlos, but we've gotta go." She said, leading Gideon out of the room.

"It was nice meeting you Carlos." Gideon said as he watched the little man, hop back into his chair in front of the computer screens.

"He doesn't act much older than he looks, but that immature little guy, is one of the smartest people alive. He used to work for the government, designed the reality machines himself, but ran off when he found out what they were going to be used for. Right now he's number one on the government's most wanted lists. That's why he hasn't left this building in five years, and most likely never will."

She lead him across the quickbay to another door. "This is Vinny. He's our mechanic around here. He's also one of the few people awake who know how to drive a beetle."

"A beetle?" Gideon asked Cameron as the door slid open. "What's a Beetle?"

"This my friend," boomed a loud voice, with a heavy Italian accent, "Is a beetle. Named after its design, its a mix of a motorcycle, car, and jet all in one." Gideon inspected the machine. It stood like a motorcycle on two large balls for wheels, but had a full body like a car. "It can comfortably fit 5." He said, patting it, rubbing the mechanical beast. It was a thing of beauty, Gideon had to admit. He could see himself in its midnight blue paint job, and couldn’t see anything through its tinted windows. He circled the vehicle, examining its windshield, and underbelly. It was a machine made for speed, and Gideon couldn’t wait to ride in it.

"How does it fly?" Gideon asked, not seeing any wings anywhere. The Italian laughed. He pulled on the door handle, and the door flipped open upwards. Vinny climbed inside, pressed a button on his control panel, and the back half of the roof opened up. Two clear plastic like wings unfolded, the same way a beetle's would, and flapped themselves experimentally. They looked almost as if they had been taken straight off an insect and super-sized. They had steel cables and wires running through them like veins, holding the wings structure. He pressed the button again and they folded back up and tucked back to its original form.

"It can't be too quiet can it? How come I've never seen it out on the streets?" Gideon asked.

"Oh," the Italian said, sounding a little embarrassed. "She's still missing a few important parts." Vinny said. "But don't you worry. I'll have her running by the end of the year, yes I will." He said, talking more to the machine then to Gideon.

“Shall we continue on?” Cameron asked. She had already noticed Gideon didn’t like being rushed.

He nodded and they left the garage through another door. He noticed everything here seemed to be top of the line. Each door was automatic and slid open silently.

"This is the lounge." Cameron said opening another door, exposing a room full of couches and tables.

"This is Jack, O'Connell, and Terrence. Three of the best fighters on this side of the Atlantic. Each of them used to individually hunt down people like you and me, but were, fortunately, replaced by Nova units, that scorpion thing that tried to kill you. Once they lost their jobs, we drafted them and they switched sides, just like that. Never seen anyone as strongly devoted to the cause besides these three." This comment sent a chuckle through the men who were playing some sort of poker at a table. "The one over there reading the book, is Doctor Harrison Foard. As you can guess he's our medical specialist." The man waved at Gideon, keeping his eyes tightly glued to the pages.

They left the lounge and grabbed some food out of the kitchen. Gideon was amazed at the kitchen. It was pure white, like most of the other rooms, but one wall was covered in different cooking equipment. There were bread bakers, meat roasters, old electric stove tops, ovens, microwaves, gammawaves, you name it they had it. There were four refrigerators lining another wall, making it look more like a giant mirror with a series of handles. A robot was mounted to the center of the room, its multiple arms working each of the machines preparing food. It moved so quickly, grabbing vegetables with one hand out of a fridge, choosing its cutting knife with the other, flipping pancakes in a pan, rotating the breads with another, stirring a soup with another hand, taking an assortment of meats off of the barbeque with a few hands, and cut them up into small piece with its final hand. It made Gideon and Cameron’s lunch all at once, never mixing up their orders. Within a minute their food was ready and they sat down in the quickbay.

"So," Gideon asked. "How do you guys, fight back against them?" Gideon said, referring to the government.

Cameron sat quietly, munching on her salad. "Well, that's the hard part. So far we haven't found a way to take someone out of the alternate reality, they can only do that by there own free will, and they certainly would not want to. And the only person who's ever unplugged themselves is probably dead now so-"

"Why would they want to stay plugged in?" Gideon asked toying with his food, completely focused on Cameron.

"Well, besides the fact the government has made the alternate realities perfect, they've convinced everyone who's plugged in that there is a war going on in the real world, and disease is killing everyone who's not plugged in. Don't see how they got that one to slide, but I guess if you stupid enough to rot away in lala land you'll believe anything."

"Who was this person who unplugged themselves?" Gideon asked.

"She's not important. Her dad was part of the rebellion, and told her he was escaping sector 33, and somehow she heard him and got out of the program. We found him dead though on Westminster bridge, with her nowhere to be found.

Gideon's heart pounded. He had found the same man dead, the same night, and he had found Ada as well. Was Ada who Cameron was talking about?

"What was her name?" He asked, as nonchalantly as he could manage.

“It doesn’t matter she’s dead now.”

“Was her name Ada?”

"Yes! Yes it was! Why did you find her?" Cameron said jumping out of her seat in hope.

"She's in Room 3200 floor 15 evelator B in St. Thomas' Hospital I found her the other day and brought her in." Gideon said.

The hope drained out of Cameron's face. "The Government runs the hospital! She's not safe there, and if they get her to talk neither are we!" She sounded and alarm. "Boys were going on a rescue mission!" She announced as the men poured out of the lounge along with Vinny. "Time to talk strategy." she said, bringing a 3-d map of the hospital up on the conference table. The men each pulling up a seat, next to Gideon.