1 Clock Tower

DING DONG!!!

DING DONG!!!

The entire area echoed with the constant dinging of the very delipidated clock tower in the middle of the sector whose busted gears kept it stuck at 12 noon therefore the constant dinging and no one cared or seemed bothered enough to get it fixed.

It currently is the year 2059 and contrary to movies predicting that around this time period the skies would be filled with special flying cars smarter than your average Joe capable of self operations, a world population of over 10 billion people living lives made autonomously easy with robot butlers, chefs, doctors and even dog walkers for that matter, resources so abundant that people would be able to eat four square meals a day with no worries and even have enough to spare.

Another addition to the list would be vast and sparse area of lands and clear skies throughout.

Well, sorry to disappoint but if you believe all that to be reality from watching movies about the future then it looks like you watched the wrong set of movies and are currently living in a fantasy world.

Yes there are more natural resources and lands that the people around know what to do with but this isn't because tiny robots or magic plant growth fertilizers made farming easier though i wish that was the case but sadly it isn't. The real reason is because for some unknown cause and I use the word unknown very loosely the world population took a major nose dive into the pavement and instead of a predicted 10 billion there are about 3 billion recorded living people.

As for the abundant lands many wards(states), sectors(cities) and districts have become inaccessible due to being under heavy quarantine and all the Global Health Agency(GHA) can provide as answers is that the areas have been infected by a deadly virus known as the Pyrex 9 virus which has been the most deadly virus in human existence since the Ebola, Corona and the black arc virus combined.

For several years now I have been doing some research about the issue and by research i mean hacking into the GHA mainframe and getting insight on the information those lying bastards are hiding from everyone which was quite easy if i must add because you see I am a program specialist and the keypad is just like an extension of my body

What i found out wasn't in correlation or even close to what they keep feeding us on the news portal like for example the Pyrex 9 being categorized under PROJECT instead of VIRUS.

This information got me thinking of how i could get more insight on this project and what makes it so special that they had to lie to us about it.

To get more answers I would frequently hack into the mainframe which gave me limited answers so on this very day i decided to go out and do the heavy work my self. I headed to my bunker located in one of the restricted sites. Restricted site are places which have been quarantined by The GHA for years so no one ever goes there because of fear

I stood up and pulled down my previously rolled up black long sleeved polo T shirt which was tucked in my blue denim pants with a crazy sticker that shouted Bigi3 by the right pocket.

"hmm!" I covered my mouth with my left hand and cleared my throat while I stuffed the other hand into my pocket trying to find change and after five seconds of moving around I managed to bring out 10 neuros.

Neuros was the accepted currency where I am from which was the United States. It was a union of all the recognized states with their respective cities and districts under a single Leadership of the President

I had this thing where I could tell what bill I was holding even without looking at it and during my highschool talent show I was able to present some magic tricks with that being my major trick and I have to say that the audience weren't the slightest impressed. I could have really wowed them with some inventions I made but who really cares about science in a talent show.

I walked over to the counter and placed the money on it

"Doris!" I called out and from the back Doris came out in her purple apron and sauce stains splattered around it and just a little smudge on her cheeks as well. Her messy blond hair tied into a ponytail screamed for attention as strands swung over her eyes.

"here's for the meal" I handed the money over to her and she stuffed it inside the apron pocket and gave me a corky smile

"Are you sure that you don't want anything else... I mean anything?" she insisted with a wink of her left eye

I lowered my head a bit with a smile on my face "don't worry about it, I have work to get to" I said then I turned around and headed for the door.

The bell above the door chimed as I opened it and walked outside almost hitting an incoming pedestrian but I managed to maneuver past the man who had his black umbrella covering his sight.

"umbrella?" I turned my head to the left looking at the back of the man as he walked down when a chilling breeze enveloped my body.

I had exited my favourite restaurant The Saint Patrice's in the middle of town after eating a nice home cooked omelette with the little green leaf garnish on top for design and the stuffing that just pours out with every fork cut made into it.

The Saint Patrice's was just across the street to the GHA broadcasting tower modelled after the busted clock tower and I stood on my tracks to listen to the broadcast being made.

"Shh, shhhh... We..shh..." Radio static build up in the speakers which was getting in the way of what was to be said, not that it mattered anyway because i as well as everybody standing outside which summed up to about twelve people on the street and three in Saint Patrice's including Doris already knew what it was about to say.

The tower which has been one of the GHA's major means of information dissemination had not been maintained in months and the same message had been on repeat daily for the last couple weeks and i for one had gotten tired of hearing it always giving me that feeling you get when your least favorite song comes on on the radio.

"Vintgate, Richmond city and all its districts have been quarantined. In hopes of...combating...GHA...regular checkups of individual Dot chips to....help... That is all for today"

"Ahh!" i sighed sharply

Dot log chips, just another measure implemented by GHA to monitor our every move. I still wondered how and why people bought the idea of allowing someone to implant a chip behind their ears. A chip that records every single activity that they carry out and sent it directly to the GHA Dot log mainframe for "security" reasons.

Sounds laughable if you think about it, the whole Pyrex 9 virus outbreak must have been a good mind changer i guess.

I looked up sticking my nose to the sky to the sight of dark clouds and the sun hiding behind them and only a crack of sunlight could pass through which in all honesty looked beautiful and sad at the same time.

"Rain?" The first drop landed on my nose and with quick realisation i rushed off for my destination before getting cut off by the becoming rain with my hands stuffed inside my pocket because of the cold, I wasn't good with the cold.

I hopped into a taxi and exchanged greeting with the driver Arald and asked him to reduce the AC a bit.

"take me to the Military district at the edge of Haven" I told him as I rubbed my hands together to warm them up

"the military district? you mean the military district under quarantine?" he asked looking at me through the mirror.

"yes! is there a problem?"

"I'm afraid that the military district is off limits so I can't take you there sir" his eyes fidget between the mirror and the cars in front

"the last time I checked where isn't accessible is the other side beyond the yellow tape right?" I asked

"yes?" he replied

"then we are on the same page then. take me there"

"alright sir" he said after a sharp sniff.

Arald took me almost the whole journey but stopped because of the yellow restriction tapes reading THIS PLACE IS UNDER QUARANTINE SO NO TRESPASSING

Arald couldn't look more nervous to get out of there for fear of the Pyrex 9 contamination. The sight to me was quite amusing as I got out of the taxi and paid him his money with cash instead of the usual payment cards as I tried as much as possible to avoid being noticed by the system.

I crossed the yellow tape and behind me Arald did a fast and furious turn and drove off.

There was a barred fence beyond the tapes and I had already snipped an entrance big enough for myself which was hidden except you were snooping around but nobody ever did so I just walked to the right and made contact with my self made door.

Just a slight tug and it opened and I passed through closing it back behind me. My shirt got stuck on one of the loosened bars which pulled me back as I went in further but after noticing it I freed my shirt and proceeded.

Like usual the entire area was empty so i strolled right into the bunker where i had everything set up already.

This bunker had been like my second lab for the past few months and the other being my house.

My name is Akin Samuels, 5 feet 10 inches, messy blonde hair with light brown eyes, a short goaty and slightly grown mustache and apart from being a program specialist i am also a time traveller, well not time travel in the traditional sense as i have only been able to send my consciousness back successfully using a time matrix i developed myself which Incorporated the GHA Dot logs mainframe i hacked into and my own Log chip.

Up to this point i have only made a few test jumps back but I'm pretty sure that i have gotten the hang of it.

There it was in the middle of the bunker with image fluctuating on sight because of the flickering lightbulbs, my time matrix which is set to mimic the form of a gaming chair and throne mixture.

I walked over to my system set up connected wirelessly to the matrix, slotted in the port the flashdrive i downloaded the information i hacked from the GHA mainframe and imputed the destination of the jump along with the person i was going to jump back into, Mr Brian A. Nevel, a worker and board member at GHA headquarters during the time it was initiated making him the perfect host which would make my GHA infiltration easy.

I was jumping back for a reason of course which was to get the Dot Log black box program which contained the GHA workers Dot log codes and with that i will be in possession of all GHA information and know exactly what this Pyrex 9 virus/project truly was.

I had to input everything myself as I was still updating my self conscious AI Sylvia with a special program I wrote and she needed time to assimilate it.

Done with the programing i strapped myself into my Time matrix and engaged the travel sequence. I could feel my mind slipping away from my body as my eyes closed slowly. Even with this not being my first jump the literal out of body experience could never be something that i would ever get used to.

My eyes closed fully and the next time they opened again i was somewhere else and in someone else's body.

"Ahh!" In pain i gritted my teeth together, hunched over and squinting while pressing my left index and middle fingers to the side of my head. The split second migraine you get from entering someone else's mind shutting down their brainwaves and over riding it with yours was quite unbearable.

"Forget the out of body experience this fucking migraine is something i can never get used to" I exhaled and got back to form.

"where am i anyway?" i knew the exact time I was jumping to but not where the host would be at the time. I looked around my current vicinity from left to right, up and down assessing everything and i first came to notice that i was at the top of a staircase.

I also saw a chair and books on a small circular wooden table with a child's school bag resting on one of the legs and then directly above the table was a picture frame on the wall with Brian and what appeared to be his wife and daughter on it as well.

"I guess this must be Brian's home which must mean that the jump was a success" i pasted a grin on my face which didn't last long as i took another look at the room with everything in it which looked bigger in comparison to my new body size and thinking logically made no sense since Brian was a full grown man of 6 feet but it felt like i was under 5 feet tall at the moment.

"Wait, what the fuck is going on here, why am i so sma—" my rant was cut short as i got a glimpse of my hands, my tiny child-like looking hands.

I was left without words but i had to know what i looked like so i ran to the table and shoved the books on it to the floor then I hurriedly climbed on in hopes of seeing my reflection on the picture frame glass but i still wasn't able to see anything as i was too short.

I went back down, packed the books and arranged them in layers on the table and climed on them. Now being able to see my reflection i was left utterly speechless.

I was a kid and not just any kid, Brian's daughter. I had long brown hair packed into a ponytail with a purple ribbon. I looked down and I was roughly 4 feet 3 inches in a blue dress and black shoes, a school uniform?

"No no no, what's going on here? God why me? how did this fucking happen? I'm pretty sure i wrote Brian's Dot log code into the program before making the jump then how in God's name did—"

"Amanda, are you alright up there? I heard something crash" i was cut off by Brian who was standing in the living room in a blue pants suit, red coller shirt with gold corflins and knotting a blue tie to match with a black briefcase placed by his left leg.

'Amanda? Who the fuck is Amand—wait, am i Amanda? Please don't tell me i'm Amanda' i thought to myself looking at Brian from on top the table

"Dad?"

"Yes honey? come down you are going to he late for school and me for work" He finished knotting his tie, picked up his briefcase and continued as he used his right hand to adjust the knot properly "Don't forget that today is our first ever Father and daughter day at my workplace so i have to hurry to the office and get everything in order before i come to pick you up later from school"

'Damn, this just made things more difficult. How am i suppose to infiltrate somewhere with high security levels as a child. Did i just get transported into Mission impossible 9? Even Tom Cruise couldn't pull this off' i thought to myself as i got down from the table and went downstairs

"aren't you forgetting something?" Brian asked me as I was halfway down the stairs

"huh? forget something? like what?' I asked back

Using his hand Brian gestured pointing at his back but I didn't understand before I looked down at Amanda's uniform and remembered the school bag "oh the backpack!"

I ran back up and grabbed it then thought to myself 'I can't believe I'm about to say this'

I took in a deep breath then exhaled "OK dad I'm done, lets get going" I said then I ran down and we went out of the house.

We walked over to his car which was red in colour and forgetting my age I walked over to the passengers seat where I looked at Brian who was staring at me confused then I remembered "Oh, I'm ten years old now"

I just fluidly turned around and opened the back seat door and entered inside then Brain drove to me Amanda's grade school all the while i kept thinking about the difficulty i was about to face then finally we came to a smooth stop.

Brian unlocked the doors from his driver's seat door control. I came out and walked to the front of the school entrance not knowing what to expect from a 10 year old's grade school since it's been years since i left my own but my current self in this timeline would have been there now