Monday, November 30th—4:39 PM
The DAMCOM has been running for almost two weeks now. I have to say, it’s probably the best thing that’s happened to us since we started this show. If you don’t remember, the DAMCOM is the system that Gavin set up so that contacts can anonymously send in information that we broadcast. Users can register a “cell”, whose members work together to collect any information that they can find on the Novites. Gavin even updated the system so that we now have chat-rooms and forums. According to Gavin, the system is uber-secure, although I’m not really sure what kind of safeguards Gavin has to prevent Novites from signing up.
I was scrolling through the forums when I saw a post that caught my eye.
ROOMMATE HAS GONE MISSING?!
I sucked in a breath and opened up the topic. Details were posted below.
Okay so my roommate James has gone missing. I though he was sick and I assumed he was at the health center—he’s prone to bronchitis—but he hasn’t responded to any of my texts or calls. Maybe I’m just being paranoid? Idk, people are going missing and I’m afraid he was taken too. Please respond asap, I don’t know what to do.
--Sparkydog95
Responses were streaming in. Sparky said that the last time they had talked to James was on Friday, when James was on the way to a doctor’s appointment.
Coincidence?
I think not.
I opened up a private chat with Sparky.
Singularity: I saw your post. What’s the name of the doctor’s office James goes to?
Sparkydog95: No idea. It’s not the one on campus.
We chatted for a while and Sparky gave me that address of the nearest hospital to their campus. We lucked out; it’s only forty minutes away from where I live.
Singularity: Okay, we’ll check out the scene. Sit tight. I’ll message you if we find anything.:
Sparkydog95: Thx so much. Love the show.
I guess the Lone Voice crew has a mission. We need to do some detective work.
Tuesday, December 1st—9:42 AM
“It’s weird,” says Gavin during study hall the next day when I show him the conversation.
“What do you mean?” I have several tabs open on the computer, all research I’m doing pre-mission. I’m excited for this investigation. Which is strange, considering how our trip to Ms. Whitson’s house went.
“Well,” says Gavin thoughtfully, “If he lives almost an hour away, how can he listen to our show?”
“I’m still not getting it.”
Gavin slides his uncompleted math homework into his folder and slides his chair over. “Well, this radio show only runs on about ten watts. That should only give us a few miles range.”
I start drumming my pencil on my desk as I work through what Gavin is saying. “So does he not listen to the show? Is this a trap?”
Gavin scrunches up is face and shrugs. “I don’t think so. I’m almost certain Novites can’t get into the system and he seems pretty legit.”
“Gavin, we have no idea who this guy is. It’s the Internet, remember? The point of the DAMCOM is that it is anonymous.”
“Trust me, I have so much security and checks on that system that Novites will never get in. I set up algorithms that detect Novite users when they sign up. Everyone in this system has to write a two-hundred word biography for their profile. Users can input fake information, I don’t really care, but the DAMCOM can catch Novites based on how they write their user biography.”
I want to believe that the DAMCOM is secure, but I can’t think of any other reason why Sparky would have been able to access our radio show. Unless…
“Gavin, what if someone is retransmitting our broadcasts?”
“You mean someone is using a repeater, recording, and then transmitting out our broadcasts again in order to reach a different region?”
“Yeah. Someone could be doing that, right?”
“Wait a minute.”
Gavin grabs the keyboard and opens a new browser tab. He searches “lone voice radio”. and results fill the screen. Some are links to YouTube videos and when Gavin clicks on them, they’re full length recordings of Friday night’s broadcast. Below the videos are links to blogs, titled things like “These Guys are the TRUTH!” or “10 Things The Novites Don’t Want You to Know”, with our radio show being ranked on the list.
Well, here were all the resisters to the Novite regime. “Jeez,” I say, running my hand down the computer screen. Gavin swats it away.
“Don’t gunk up my screen.”
"Look at all these results, Gavin! I think we have more listeners than we thought.”
“You’re telling me. This YouTube video has more than a hundred-thousand views.”
There the seven of us were, locked in the RV last Friday night, blissfully unaware that our show was reaching hundreds of thousands of listeners. We celebrated when we crossed the one-hundred listener threshold. A thousand times more people had heard us.
I point to the user who had uploaded our last broadcast. “Aren’t they risking a lot? Can’t the Novites just track them?”
The bell rings, signaling the end of the period. I pack up my books as Gavin answers my question. “Eh, the Internet is so expansive that it would take ages for them to crack down on the uploaders. It’s easier to just cut it off at the source.”
“And we’re the source?”
“Yep. We’re going viral. Sucks, doesn’t it?”
2:07 PM
After our discovery earlier today, I nearly forgot about Sparky’s missing roommate. Alicia drove me home from school today. I explained to her what the mission may entail. After I finished, Alicia simply shook her head and said “That has to be the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard. We’re not sneaking into a hospital to look for clues. That’s just asking for trouble.”
“It’s not as bad as it sounds!” Arguing with Alicia was like arguing with my mom. “Seriously. We just go in and see if there’s any sign of Sparky’s friend. In and out. Ten minutes tops.”
“Just lie. Tell Sparky that you went and didn’t find anything.”
“Don’t you want to know what’s happening to these people?”
Alicia sighed and finally gave in. “Okay. So what’s the plan?”
Wednesday, December 2nd—2:26 PM
Matt, Alicia, and I are on our way to the hospital. It’s about thirty degrees outside but Matt has his window down. “LONE VOICE ROAD TRIP!” he yells into the cold air.
Alicia rolls up the window but she laughs. “Thank God this is only a forty minute drive. I don’t think I’d survive a full-length road trip with you guys.”
Matt plugs his phone into the car radio and I hear rock’n’roll begin pumping through the stereo. “The Who,” Matt says, reclining his chair as far back as it’ll go. “One of the greatest bands to ever walk this earth.”
With music blasting and the frigid wind sweeping through the car, we continue towards the hospital. None of us really know what we expect to find. At this point, even the smallest clue would be helpful.
Twenty minutes later, we drive into the hospital parking garage and Alicia carefully pulls her car into a tight parking space on one of the lower levels. “Olivia, got a plan?” Alicia asks as we head for the stairwell. “This trip was your idea.”
“Erm… yeah, I have some ideas.”
I have no plan at all. I’ll have to improvise one. How hard can it be?
“Okay… so I’m thinking we go upstairs and find maybe a patient directory or something and then—”
“Olivia?” Matt points to a sign on the landing. It has the Novite seal on it, followed by an arrow pointing downwards.
I turn back around and start descending the stairs. “See? This is easier than we thought!” My voice floats up the stairwell, echoing off the concrete steps.
Alicia nudges my arm and shushes me. “Jeez, Olivia. You’ll get us caught before we even get down there.”
At the bottom of the stairs we are greeted by a waiting room. It looks like a standard hospital waiting room, with faded blue carpets and off-white walls. There are a couple of patients sitting in the armchairs, reading magazines and newspapers.
The receptionist looks up from her computer and sees us standing in the doorway. “Hi, does one of you have an appointment?” I notice the pin on her lapel and lean over to whisper in Matt’s ear. “Novite official”. Matt looks confused, until his eyes fall on the red, blue, and black symbol boldly proclaiming the receptionist’s allegiance. Alicia timidly raises her hand. “Yeah, I have an appointment.”
The receptionist places her fingers over the keyboard. “Name?”
“Grim Seeker.”
The receptionist pauses. “What?”
“Grim Seeker. G, R, I, M, space, S, E, E—”
Matt and I snicker as the receptionist leaves the room to go look up Alicia’s file. Alicia turns around and smirks. “I probably shouldn’t have used my radio name as my undercover name.”
With the receptionist gone, I pull Matt and Alicia down into the hallway that leads off of the waiting room. “Exploration time.” I say in a stage-whisper. We peek around a few corners and into a few rooms.
All of the sudden, an earsplitting scream rips through the hallway! I jump back, nearly tripping on Alicia as the screaming continues and more voices join the cacophony.
“YOU SIGNED THE FORMS!”
“I DIDN’T KNOW! YOU SAID IT WAS A FREE CHECKUP!”
“GET HER OUT OF HERE!”
We all are frozen in place, terrified. “Someone needs to help her!” I cry. “Watch! I bet she’s going to go ‘missing’!”
“No! Are you crazy?!” counters Alicia. “Who knows what’s going on down there!?”
The yelling and screaming continues, masking my footsteps as I tread down the hall. If I could just see. When I turn the corner, I am hit with a blast of cold air. A door at the end of the hall is open and I see people crowded around a black van, with the Novite symbol emblazoned on the side of it. I stumble backwards and one of the people turns around and sees me. “Hey!”
I turn and sprint back towards Matt and Alicia, my shoes struggling to get a grip on the slick linoleum tiles. I heard footsteps gaining behind me, and I feel their pounding through the floor. “Matt, Alicia, run!” I yell down the hall. I turn the final corner into the waiting room. Matt pushes the door open and we cross into the stairwell. Two by two, I leap up the stairs. The waiting room door opens and I hear someone yelling “STOP!”
The three of us finally reach the floor we parked on and I slam the doors open. Alicia is already pulling out her keys as we race across the parking garage. Her car chirps and we pile in. Alicia swoops out of the parking spot and tears down the ramp, tires squeaking. I see our pursuers opening the stairwell door. “Alicia, slow down!” Matt yells.
“No, no, no,” I respond. “Speed up!”
We fly onto the main road, swerving into traffic. Alicia grips the wheel so tightly that I can see her knuckles turning white. A car horn blares as we cut off a line of traffic. "Alicia, are you trying to get us killed?!" I yell over the pandemonium. Alicia doesn't answer, but she finally slows down and we fall into sync with the rest of the cars. The three of us heave a sigh of relief.
“That was... wild.” I stutter, still dizzy with adrenaline.
Alicia nods in agreement. “If the pirate radio station wasn’t enough…”
“We could have died,” contributes Matt.
“Don’t be so morbid. I don’t even think they had weapons with them.”
“It seems like the Novites are sending letters out and luring people in with a free checkup,” I say. “But we still don’t know how they are deciding who does and doesn’t get the letter.”
Matt shrugs. “Maybe it’s random.”
“Nah,” I argue. “The Novites don’t seem like the random type.”
When I get home, I log into the DAMCOM and send a report to Sparky.
Singularity: We went to the hospital. We didn’t find James, but it seems like they are luring people into these appointments with the promise of a free checkup and then they kidnap them from there.
Sparkydog95: Damn. Ok thx anyways.
The conversation dwindles out and I spend the night surfing the Internet. Our radio show is basically viral and blogs everywhere are reporting in on us. You have an audience, Singularity. What are you going to do with it?
Friday, December 4th—9:50 PM
Another Friday has rolled around and we’re prepping for our sixth broadcast. We're talking about our recently inflated audience. “I wonder how long until a big news station picks up our story,” says Raymond excitedly. “We could be famous!”
“Yeah, famous and under arrest,” snorts Alicia.
“Infamous,” adds Lauren.
Raymond pulls his snap-back hat down low and settles dejectedly into the RV booth seat. "I was just kidding."
I pull Raymond's cap back up and say "This fame is a curse, not a blessing. You know that, right? I wish I could be news-story famous, too, dude, but this radio show is something we need to be anonymous with."
At ten ’o’clock, Kaylah starts the intro music and we get comfortable, preparing for a long broadcast. Our show has been getting longer each week as our topic list grows. I mention the letters, although I don’t mention our escapade at the hospital. If they managed to I.D. us at the hospital, and then connect us to the Lone Voice radio show, we’d be dead in a matter of hours.
Near the end of the show, I offer a few words of support, now knowing that I have a larger audience. “I know these are trying times. Many of us have more questions than we have answers. I don’t know why the Novites are here or what their purpose is. Hopefully the chipping is as far as they’re planning to go.”
“We need to be a support system for each other. The government won’t be helping us. The police probably won’t, either. Be investigators. Seek the answers; I know they're out there. I’m Singularity, signing off. Be smart, have faith, keep each other safe. Good luck.”
I lean back and start the music, letting the soft chords of “Stand by Me” drift into the ever-darkening night.
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A/N
Woohoo! Another chapter!
As always, if you enjoyed this chapter, leave a like, comment, or recommend this story to a friend! If you didn’t enjoy it, drop a comment and let me know what I should work on!
The story will really pick up next week. I'm so excited :-P
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