School. It prepares us for adulthood. It prepares us for the day we'll leave these halls and work to make a better life for society. For most people, this is the goal. But for me, I just want to get the heck out of here. I hate everything about this place as well as what the future holds. The hard part though is that there is nothing I can do about it. Not one way out of this awful place. The only option other than life is death, an option of which I was not willing to choose.
I sighed out loud as I walked through the white hallways. Nobody bothered to acknowledge me or my obvious lack of focus but why would they? We weren't raised to be affectionate towards others or become friends. Just to become machines... slaves to a society we created. Of course, these thoughts were my own fault. If I had followed suit as a child and had my chip implanted along with everyone else than my curiosity and wonder would be lacking as well.
Sometimes I wondered if there were others like me who just don't know how to get outside of the metal doors. The ones that will only open at graduation. I wondered if somebody else walked these halls trying to blend in as much as possible because of the consequences that occur otherwise. Anger, also known as the only emotion that a highly advanced chip can't get rid of. It's an emotion that the robots I call my peers to let out when something is wrong. When they notice that something isn't right they get angry.
That's what happened with David Miller, the only guy other than me that I knew to be without his chip. Just a little over a year ago he killed himself. Left his body on his bed so that it would just seem that he was sleeping. Somebody tried to wake him up but David wouldn't budge. I was absolutely horrified of what I had seen next. The person who tried to wake him up was chipped. The person couldn't process that David was no longer alive and started to beat on his dead body in a fit of anger. I'm not quite sure about what happened after that. I ran to the bathroom and vomited my guts out from the site. I guess you could say I have a soft stomach but who wouldn't after seeing that. Part of me blamed myself for not realizing that David was without a chip too. But part of me thinks he was just a way better actor than I am.
That's one reason that I've never tried to find out if anybody else was chipped or not. I was sure that if anyone else was without a chip they would have noticed me by now. I would always stutter or blush when I did something out of suit especially since being out of suit never happened. But something about that day felt different. I felt like something might actually happen for real this time.
I was caught out of my daze by hearing my locker smash in the distance. I'm confused for a moment since I had never heard such a noise before. I decided to ignore it until I heard the noise a second time. One weird noise a day- coincidence. Two weird noises- something big is happening.
I ran down the hallway quickly to find Jacob on the floor with blood coming from his head. I noticed it was one of the mindless zombies who had pushed him there. I was confused at first but quickly put two and two together. I was left in awe. I wanted to help him but I didn't know how. The only thing was that I couldn't bring myself to run away like last time. I was stuck in a daze until Blake Central came and punched one of our peers directly in the face before grabbing Jacob's hand and running down the hall towards me.
"Come on man, I know you're not like them." He said as they ran past. I was still in shock. Blake and Jacob were two of the only students here that I bothered to learn the names of. Apparently, it was for good reason too. After a few more moments of gawking, I finally became aware of my surroundings and ran to catch up to Blake and Jacob. Jacob was running out of fear, Blake was running with determination, but I was running out of confusion and situation. Eventually, Blake stopped in front of one of the key padded doors and started to type quickly before it opened and all three of us piled into a room full of what looked like books of some sort.
"What happened," I breathed out.
"The students are becoming more sensitive," Jacob replied laughing. Blake just sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
"It's not funny, Jacob. If the students are becoming more aggressive we could end up like David." He said seriously. The stupid grin that Jacob held immediately dropped and my stomach began to turn.
"How did you guys even know I wasn't like the rest of them?" I questioned.
"Your desire of knowledge," Blake replied.
"You're way too clumsy," Jacob added and I nodded having already noticed those earlier flaws.
"Well Jaxon, have you ever read an outside book?" David smirked. Jacob smiled and pat my back really hard with a grin.
"Oh trust me, dude, you're in for a treat," he smiled
"He's not reading those books!" Blake yelled smacking Jacob in the back of the head.
"Those books?" I question.
"They're called maga-" Blake smacked Jacob again and he just pouted before quickly returning his grin and shoving Blake.
"Blake's a shy boy," Jacob commented right after he left down one of the shelves. He came back a moment later with a ton of different books that seemed to be totally different but they all had one word in common, history. I scrunched up my eyebrows at the word.
"What's history?" I questioned aloud and Jacob just shrugged.
"It's the past. Read those and you'll understand what you're missing out on like Jacob and I do. Those books start from the 1700's all the way to to the 3000's when the schools started being built." He replied and I nodded opening up the first book.
We repeated this process for a few days. We'd meet up in the strange library talk for a little bit and read. The more I read about what the world used to be like the more I couldn't stand being trapped inside those walls.
Eventually, I couldn't take it anymore and closed one of the books Blake had given to me before throwing it across the room.
"Mood, exactly how I feel about school work." Jaxon laughed. Blake just looked at me for a moment before motioning me to speak.
"Why show me any of this if it doesn't matter? Why show me a world where kids had families and lives if that isn't an option? Why show me a world where I could fall in love if I'll never get to feel it. I don't understand why after all of this time leaving me alone you'd finally decide to take me to your secret library." I said my voice slightly raised. Blake smiled lightly and put his hand on my shoulder.
"Listen Jaxon, Jacob and I have been coming here for a few years now. For the first year and a half, we didn't even know you weren't just another student. But for the past six months, we've been watching you. We've been trying to find out if you'd be capable of handling the truth. We weren't supposed to know of this place's existence or have any memory of the chip implantation but we do. These schools were formed to control a society that had initially rebelled. I believe that maybe we can rebel once again." Blake said nodding to Jacob who immediately got up and grabbed a notebook from the other side of the room. He opened it up and I saw what looked like a sheet of blueprints or something.
"We're busting out of here," Blake declared.
Although not very detailed, the plan seemed pretty full-proof. After hours the three of us would find a way outside of the school with Blake's hacking skills. Once outside we'd break into more libraries in order to come up with a plan to get the chips out of our fellow student's head. Our only issue was we had no idea what life outside of the school would be like in the modern day. We could very well die. But either way, we knew what we had to do and nothing was going to stop us.
I remember the moment so clearly. I remember crawling out of bed at three in the morning fully clothed. I remember Jacob being giddy as ever and cracking jokes despite the time of day. I even remember the exact look of seriousness on Blake's face as he hacked the big metal doors that would lead to a whole other life. I definitely remember the growing pit of anxiety that rose up within me as I snuck out with two other guys that I had barely known a week. But I think the one thing I will never forget is that the moment the doors opened to the outside world I smelled the fragrant of pine as my first introduction to another life.
3/16/20
