Chapter 1: The Unexpected GIFTS: Part 2
03.24.24| 👀 📝 👀|Humanity Law: A Serialized Novel
Previously:
During Amiyah St. John's GIFTS evaluation, her Sense VT harness syncs to the virtual feed of the witnessing environment. When an active shooter scene triggers the tactile immersion feature, her harness unexpectedly erupts with synthetic blood, creating a messy and unsettling scene on the simulation stage. Embarrassed and disoriented, Amiyah flees to the girls' locker room. With two safety protocols in place to prevent it, she questions how the virtual feed could still sync to her harness, sparking suspicions of a more sinister explanation behind the incident than a simple tech malfunction.
Chapter One: The Unexpected GIFTS (Part Two)
By Neshamah CrosbyJones
My mind races as I stumble through the halls, but the more I think about it, the less any of it makes sense. When she issued our harnesses, Dr. Willard made sure to lock the immersion feature on every Sense-VT unit manually. Plus, the academy also has the feature deactivated in the administrative control settings. Either way, the simulation's virtual feed shouldn't have synced with my harness in the first place. I don’t get it. It’s one thing if a safety precaution fails, but for two separate safety precautions to fail at the same exact time? Something or someone must have activated the feature, but how?
Weary, I slosh through the corridor leading to the girls' locker room, the squelch of my sodden boots echoing through the empty space. “Thank goodness the essential labor students are still in their sessions,” I murmur, struggling to push open the locker room door.
Each step feels like a struggle, my breath coming in ragged gasps, my heart pounding against my ribs like a relentless intruder. Synthetic blood clings to me, saturating my clothes and hands. Its sickly hue contrasts sharply against the tranquil, zen-inspired locker room. All the while, my defective harness, the glorified camera rig that it is, continues to ooze, an obnoxious reminder of the fiasco that just unfolded.
When I reach my locker, I brace myself against it for support, slumping over to let my head rest against the tempered glass door. My entire body pulses with tension as I try to steady my breathing. Every inhale ambushes me, leaving me gasping for air before I've had time to finish with the last. I raise my arm, reaching under with my trembling hand, trying to release the harness, but the slick surface makes it nearly impossible. My frustration grows as my fingers fumble over the latch, unable to find a good grip for all the sticky mess.
"Amiyah, are you okay?" Ziyah's booming voice fills the locker room before she does, crashing through the heavy air like a lifeline. Her tone is urgent, cutting through my panic and bringing me back to reality. "On the record, I don’t know what that was back there, but it was EPIC!" Her eyes widen as she takes in the gruesome scene leading to my locker. With agile movements, she leapfrogs a path that navigates the slick floor until she is standing at my side.
I can't help but flinch at her words, the weight of my failed GIFTS pressing down on me like a lead blanket. "Epic, Ziyah?" I snap, my voice filled with frustration. "The only thing 'epic' here is the epic fail I’m going to have to explain to my mother," Ugh, I can already see how that conversation will go. "'Did I let you and your friend run mock sims in my private Holo-studio for months just so you could embarrass yourself in front of everyone?'" I mimic my mom's stern tone, the words echoing in my mind with a sting of disappointment.
Ziyah's expression softens as she tugs at her sleeve. "You seriously sound just like her," she says with a chuckle. "Amiyah, I'm really sorry. Please don't hate me right now. I'm just freaked out, that’s all. I can't even process everything."
I give Ziyah a look, rolling my eyes as she grabs a towel from her locker and starts wiping down my harness.
"I mean, one moment, you were assimilating into the sim, capturing an account," Ziyah says, her voice filled with disbelief, “and the next, boom! You burst into a massive spray of synthetic blood."
I pause, taking in her words, my mind replaying the chaotic scene. "Seriously, the sim stage looked like an old historic slaughterhouse," she continues, her expression grim. "There’s synthetic blood everywhere, even on the projectors in the rafters."
As she speaks, I can almost smell the metallic tang of the synthetic blood, and feel the slickness of it coating my skin. My stomach churns at the thought of the mess I left behind.
"When Dr. Willard was testing the controls to see what went wrong," Ziyah adds, her voice trailing off, "the sims kept flickering on with red blotchy splatters layered on top of the holograms."
I shudder at the image, my mind racing with questions and uncertainties. How could everything have gone so wrong? Today was the day I was going to prove my skills as a witness.
"They rescheduled the remaining GIFTS evaluations for tomorrow," Ziyah concludes, her tone heavy with resignation, "so they can get everything cleaned up."
My vision gets blurry as tears start rolling down. They hit the floor with tiny splashes. "Ziyah, I just bombed my GIFTS evaluation. Not one of our mock sims, but the real deal. What now?" I say, feeling like a total failure.
Ziyah's face softens as she sees how upset I am. "If it were only Dr. Willard, we’d have to convince, then I’d say you had nothing to worry about. Dr. Willard would definitely let you retake…”
"Hold on, Ziyah, what do you mean if it was only Dr. Willard?" I interrupt. My heart skips a beat, anxiety clawing at my chest. "Who else would we have to convince?" I say, with desperation heavy in my voice.
She looks unsure, hesitating before she speaks. "Amiyah, there's something you need to know. Krista Quinn was auditing the evaluations today. She saw everything." she says, her expression grim.
Dread washes over me like a tidal wave, my thoughts spinning with what this means. "Oh no, this is so bad." Krista Quinn, Matriarch Of Humanities and Citizen Development, witnessed me bomb my GIFTS evaluation. If my mother hasn’t already, she’ll hear all about it before I even get home. “This is the worst. I was laughing up there on the stage. Krista Quinn’s gonna think I had something to do with this.”
Ziyah squints, shaking her head. "Huh? No, how could you have anything to do with your harness malfunctioning?"
I sigh sharply. "I don't know how she pulled it off," I reply, my voice barely a whisper. "But my harness didn’t just malfunction. I think Abigale sabotaged my evaluation." My words hang heavy in the air as Ziyah finally unhinges the latch of my harness and helps me lift it off.
"Okay, Amiyah, I hear you, but come on, sabotage? That's a stretch, don't you think? Abigale can be a pain, especially to you, but this is way out of her league. I mean, distracting you during a training sim or convincing a few girls not to be your friend is one thing, but messing with your GIFTS evaluation? That's a whole other level." Ziyah bites her lip and tilts her head to one side, trying to make sense of it all. "I mean, seriously, how could she even pull that off?"
“Think about it, Ziyah. My harness didn’t just erupt for no reason. The synthetic blood triggered right when the gunfire started in the sim, which means my harness had to have synced to the virtual feed.”
Ziyah's eyes dart to the messy harness, understanding dawning in her eyes. She grabs the harness and starts wiping at a spot with the towel, her movements purposeful and determined.
"The only way that could've happened is if someone messed with both the manual safety on my harness and the feature control in the admin settings during my evaluation," I explain.
Ziyah's eyes grow wide. "This was sabotage," she gasps, her voice full of certainty. She points to the spot on the harness where she'd cleared away the synthetic blood. "Look." Ziyah motions to a broken clip jammed into the manual lock to keep it disengaged.
"That sneaky Frack-Turd!" I grumble, clenching my teeth as I pound my fist against my locker. "I can't believe Abigale would pull something like this during the GIFTS evaluations."
“But we still can’t accuse Abigale without proof,” Ziyah jumps in, her expression full of worry. “This only proves that your GIFTS were sabotaged, but it doesn’t explain how Abigale could have activated the immersion feature in the Administrative settings. If we accuse her without solid proof, it could turn into a bigger mess than the one you made with that messed-up harness."
I nod, feeling a rush of determination. My hands ball into fists, and my nails bite into my palms. "Then we'll find the evidence," I say firmly, trying to sound strong despite the chaos in my head. "And when we do, Abigale will pay for what she's done."
An alert buzzes, breaking the silence of the locker room. My smart band. “She wants to see me in her office,” I mutter, feeling a knot form in my stomach as I glance at the urgent message flashing on my wristband.
"Dr. Willard?" Ziyah's voice wavers with uncertainty.
“No, Krista Quinn.”
Thank you for reading!
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