Purified Tomorrow: The Mad Awakening - Episode 11

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 The moment the alarm rang, Joyce, like everyone in that rickety house, jumped out of her bed. Normally such noise would have meant nothing to her, but having gone through yesterday's ordeal, she knew jumping out of the bed was the wisest thing to do. And true to her imagination, she saw a timer counting down and knew that without further ado that she had to race her way to the venue. Alongside the others, the smelly ones, the lanky ones, the grumpy ones, the fat ones, she ran towards the rendezvous point . Running, for her, wasn't always a problem, but she was too unfortunate the last time to be engrossed in trying to put the details of the place to mind that she didn't see the countdown until it was too late.
The instructions given to her by her handler, whose falling still hurt her, lingered in her mind. The craziest part of this place was her not telling anyone how she got out. She was supposed to have at least a soul she could share the effect the punishment room had on her, and she had to tell anyone who cared how to get away from the place. She didn't even see the other girl that jumped out of the place.
As she watched others slide into the punishment room, she wondered if it would be spacious enough to take everyone that must have fallen into it. The place was built in such a way that anyone who fell into it would surely survive

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. A lady with blond hair dished out instructions. From the mutterings of people around, she got that her name was Diana.
After Diana told others to meet their handlers, Joyce looked about because she was without a handler. The only place her eyes could rest on was Diana's robot-like face. They both quizzically stared at one another. She could bet all her properties that Diana was a heartless killer. She remained transfixed and was sure that any bad encounter with Diana would have her wetting her pants. Hurriedly, she pulled her eyes away from the Diana. 
Then, she caught sight of someone that looked like a lady in their school. The lady was a class above her and Carl. She was always fond of teasing Carl, which Joyce brushed aside as one of those things that were common around Carl. She never cared to note her name because Carl always had a way of making sure his emotions weren't betrayed. Well, except when she was teasing him, she was the only one that had learnt to really crack him up.
Although she didn't trust this lady, she knew the lady had a connection with her being at Etyes. And if the P.I was right, she should expect to see Carl there.
Just then, she saw Carl in front of her. She beamed delightedly and fondled the place the man had inserted the transmitter.
'Someone joined us yesterday, but lost her handler immediately she gained entry into Etyes. So, she needs a new handler', Diana said with a queer excitement that sent cold into Joyce's spine. 
The handlers looked up at her. Joyce could swear she saw excitement in their faces. 
A hand flung into the air, and Diana, with a straight face, stiffly turned to the owner of hand. 'Yes...?'
'I choose her', the lady from her school pointed at Joyce. 
'Erm...' Diana glanced at a notepad. 'Joyce, you have been chosen by the young Sonia'.
She walked towards Sonia and grinned. It doesn't matter what they were to do there, she could survive anything when she was beside Carl. He would do everything to make her stay in line with her. They were in love.
Sonia led them away towards a fenced building. The gate of the building was small, one had to crawl through it. Over this small gate was written 'Peacelearners' Training Ground'. Joyce squeezed Carl's hand as they walked off into whatever was waiting for them. He smiled and closed his eyes.
Everyone walked briskly towards their training ground. Many of the other handlers crawled through the gate, but with such skillfulness that intrigued others. However, Sonia, slid through in such a way that Joyce wondered if she had been training to use that door every day of her life.
When they entered the building, Joyce's mouth opened in such surprise that she had never seen before. Most fields she had seen were usually big, but not so big that one wouldn't see the end. This one was just like that. When they got to the field, they stopped at the edge of the lawn.  Lines ran from that edge to the middle of the field and disappeared. She looked up at Carls face, and saw a look of disgust in it. He was probably planning to escape from that place.
'Your task is simple', the lady from their school said, 'you will run to and fro twenty times'.
'Twenty?' She asked and glanced at Carl, who seemed angry for no reason.
'Start already', the lady said as she pressed a green button that bulged from a silver stand. There were several of these silver stands at every place a handler could be seen. A chair emerged from the ground. The lady sat in it and pressed another button on the arm of the chair. 
A board shot out of the arm of the chair. The lady rapidly tapped some things on the board. A sort of line mapped out racing lines for them and they stepped into it.
'Shoo. Run already'.
With a chiming tone following their race, they continued running.
'What's that girl name?' Joyce asked amidst her pant as they went down the road.
'Sonia'.
'Her demise is so near', she said.
'Like Matthias'.
'Like Matthias. I was never arrested'.
They kept running. Funnily, the road kept going and made her wonder if she would ever get to the end. When they looked back and saw that she wasn't in view, Carl dragged her to himself and kissed her in such a way that showed his relief at seeing her. She smiled.
'Why are you not running?' Sonia's voice boomed so near.
They turned to see a screen near them, Sonias face in the screen, and a scowl on her ravishing face. If Joyce wasnt also beautiful, she would have felt inferior to her.
'Run off, Lover birds'.
                            ***
Diana sent Joyce the ping after confirming that her own room was secured. It wasn't her shift, so she returned to her quarters. Like she always did, as soon as she entered her room, she ensured she did a clean sweep of the room. She switched off the light, closed all the window, plunging the room into darkness. Then, she brought out her pinhole camera, switched it on, and used it to scan her room until it caught a red light.
 That was it. She smirked and went to the spot, switching on a small torchlight. She was delighted as she wondered why the authorities of Etyes would never learn their lessons. Her superior had always wanted to pry into her private life to no avail. She withdrew her pocket knife and removed the camera.
Then, she brought out her own RF signal detector, which she had rigged with a spectrum analyzer. She made sure it had the same size as that of a phone. She switched it on, and swept the room until a siren type of noise made her stop. She removed the bug they must have placed in the room to listen to her and crushed it. She continued sweeping for bugs and cameras until she was sure that everything was okay. The time she had wasted was enough to have a lot of rest. Her father was right: she shouldn't be rash. 
At the thought of her father, she drooled off as she wondered where he was. Etyes' authority didn't give her the chance to communicate with the outside world. Even when she was still the best among her peers, and was surely better than any of the superiors, they still restricted her movement to Etyes, making it her twelfth year there. If she got to the top of the chain, she would be able to transport more of her people into this world. But for now, only those at the top of the chain could go through that door without being given a dose of the sleeping insulators. She pinged her father again but he didn't reply.
Her latest invention had given her the access to put herself within the message board of anybody she wanted. She entered her code, and hacked into Sonia's board.
'Sonia, plug in your earpiece'.
Sonia smirked as she plugged her earpiece. She pressed a button and a cone covered the chair.
'What are you doing here?' Sonia asked
'I need to know the progress of my three...'
Sonia glanced at the screen. 
'She just got to her 9th lap and he is about to start his 9th', Sonia said.
'That's good! She would be done with her first half for today'.
Sonia gave her a curt look. 'And you seriously believe she would do just 10 laps? Was that how I became your baby...?'
Diana rolled her head. 'I've spoilt you. My dad said he would send something through her to me'.
 'And how are you sure she's with it?'
'That's what I need to know'.
Sonia stared at her.
'Could she have misplaced it?'
Sonia still stared at her, and Diana laughed as she realized why Sonia was staring at her. 
'Of course, I know they would be stripped off every possession. I need you to make her do something. This information is crucial to my group'.
 Sonia stared at the time. 'How about if I send her to you?'
'No. They are monitoring her progress...'
'Okay... Parades are coming', Sonia said and smirked and shook her head. 'You see what you've done'.
'Be careful'.
Diana's image popped off. Sonia can take care of herself. If Sonia agreed to join the rebel, things will make sense and go smoothly, if not exceedingly fast. That was why her aim was to make Carl and Joyce her new recruit. They were worthy of being given that role and she would train them until the only thing they know how to do was being excellent in fulfilling her wish and that of the Grousters. 
Slowly, she crawled into bed. She needed sleep, lot of it, but her latest passion had consumed her that she could go without sleep for three days.
Diana traced the edge of the bed until she found a cracked wood. She pressed it and a button popped out. Firmly holding the bed, she pressed the button, and the bed began to disintegrate. Hurriedly, she slipped a pair of goggles from under her bed and clamped it on her face as the bed gently slid downwards. The spring holding the bed dragged it from under her, and left her lying on an iron plain-board. She cringed and gritted as the bed gradually returned to its original position, above her, leaving to lay on the iron board.
Suddenly, the ventilator began to hurry in its duty, silently providing air for her. As soon as the bed closed up over her, the wall in front of her opened and the board she laid on sprang through the hole. She would have yelled, but knew how stupid it would be. The road was sloppy. It took her a lot of time to carve it out. She held on to as it kept moving as if it would do so forever. The air changed from being fresh to being choky, then to being foul.
After what seemed like forever, the plain dropped her into the Punishment room, and disintegrated into a rail. She pressed the side of the goggles and changed its view to night vision to have it reveal a lot of weak, dirty, hungry people. She had so much learnt how to do this thing without fear and that made her smile. 
Suddenly, someone dropped to the floor, convulsing. The most unfortunate part of being in the punishment room was that there wasn't always enough food. They got their ration once a day. She still always tried to know the rationale behind the leaders keeping them in such place instead of killing them off. The person shook for some seconds and became still.
Since others around him couldn't see him, they could only muddle into themselves and whimper. She still wondered why the creator of Etyes made such an abysmal place. The stench down there was enough to kill them. How they even survived such horrible stench still baffled her.
She knew the protocol. They were always aware of such death as this, and it would be very good to watch them now. She had always wanted to be on the team involved in the pickup of dead bodies, but her boss wouldn't hear a word of it, always denying her of the chance to be a part of the team, when, according to him, she had a bigger role to play at the top. 
She removed her goggles and removed the rubber that held her blond hair. They would recognize her anywhere. She scattered her blond hair over her face and waited to be sure they weren't seeing her. She had moved away from them as far as she could, but there was no way she could help what happened next.
Someone screamed. 'What's that?'
'What's that?' Another person shouted.
She put on the goggles and saw one of the men struggling with the foot of a soldier. He tried hard to make his struggle look as if he wasn't there. But he failed at it, raising the curiosity of the others. The struggle went on for a while. As much as she would have loved to be at the top of the game, to help them, but she maintained her position.
Not long after, the soldier smacked the man's head with something, making him crumple to the ground, wailing as he held his head. She wondered what would happen now that people knew something was up there.
When she was sure they were gone, she tied her hair into a knot and hoped to never have a reason to untie it again.

Read " Grabbing The Hot Gate " by the same author ( Akíntayo Akinjide )

.  She muttered, 'those mediocre'. 
She would have to start oiling the hair to make it shine the best way only she could. After what seemed like forever, she got to the edge of the mountain-like place, and saw the one she came to look for. 'Okay, I'm here again'.
He jumped a bit and looked about as if he was a blind man. 
'What do you want?' The man said after a bit of silence.
'You know what I want. Our men are having an operation and it's to kill your harlot cum girlfriend'.
'Don't call her that'.
'So, tell me what I need to know'.
'You've not said anything reasonable'.
 She gritted. If she got the chance, she would have slapped him repeatedly. 'Tell me, what do we not know?'
'I can't tell you anything than for you to look for my mistress. Tell her to take you to my bar'.
'Okay, but is there any other way out of this place?, she asked.
He shook his head dejectedly. 'The only way is through the train and nobody have learnt to cross over my game'.
 She sighed and rose. He held her with a shaky hand. 'Please, how's she?'
'She's fine'.
'Progress...'
'She's really good, and she is being trained by one of the best, if not the overall best'.
Diana rose and carefully moved to her departure ground. The big question on her mind was how she would get information to the outside world, wherever that was.

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