Broken Truths
I found a quiet spot and used my simple skills
and bits I found to try and get into the new
data chip. It was harder this time, the damage
was worse. After many hours of careful work,
I got a few broken files. The data was even
more mixed up than before, just numbers,
signs, and small bits of tech words. But in all
that mess, Lyra saw one thing again and
again: "neural dampening." This was scary. It
meant the chips weren't just telling us what to
do, but they were stopping our own thoughts
and feelings. I felt a fight inside me as I faced
this horrible truth about what they wanted to
do to us. Each word I could almost read made
the suspense stronger, hinting at something
even worse. It was slow work, just me trying
hard to get the data.
The cool, rough tree bark felt a little
good against my back during this scary time.
Hours went by, the sun moving slowly as I
fought with the broken data chip. My fingers,
rough from finding things, worked very
carefully. Every tiny wire I touched, every bit of
dust I cleaned, felt like a big fight against
something trying to hide its secrets.
This chip didn't want to open. The
smell of burnt stuff filled the air, showing how
hard someone tried to wipe it clean. My
breath got stuck in my throat each time I
failed, and I felt tight and angry inside. Lyra
was quiet next to me. Usually, she made me
feel strong, but now she felt heavy with the
bad feeling we both had. Her eyes, usually
bright and asking questions, were dim,
showing the bad thing we were finding out.
Finally, after a long time, a small
light. Not the bright rush of information I
wanted, but a weak, broken signal. My heart
beat fast as I focused, using all the power for
the thing I made to read it. Broken lines of
code went across the small, cracked screen,
like a graveyard of lost data.
"Anything?" Lyra's quiet voice was
almost nothing, with a worry I didn't often
hear.
"Bits," I said, my eyes on the screen. "Just…
bits." Numbers moved in front of my eyes,
mixed with strange signs that made my head
hurt. Tech words, without any meaning
around them, didn't help. It was like trying to
put together a broken mirror, each piece
showing a twisted and not whole picture.
Then, a word. Clear and strong in
the middle of the mess. "Neural." My breath
stopped. Lyra made a soft whirring sound
beside me, looking even closer. More bits
came, hanging on weakly to the broken data.
"Dampening… rules… started… aim… obey…"
The meaning hit me hard. It wasn't
just about them telling us what to do. It was
about them stopping us from thinking. They
weren't just making us move; they were
making our minds dull, stopping our feelings,
the things that made us… us. A cold scary
feeling went through me, making me shiver
even though it was hot. Was this why the
memories felt so far away, the feelings not so
strong? Were we all just like dolls, with strings
not just pulled, but our minds made weak on
purpose?
My hands shook as I kept looking
through the broken data. The fight inside me
was big. Part of me wanted to run away, to
pretend I didn't see this scary truth. But
another part, the part that lived and fought,
got very angry. They had taken enough. They
would not take our minds.
"There's more," Lyra said, her voice
sharper now, a little of her old strong feeling
coming back. "A set of numbers… a place."
A line of numbers that showed a place
flashed quickly on the screen, then
disappeared, lost in the broken data. But Lyra
got it. Her mind, much better than my
made-up reader, grabbed the quick
information.
"Where does it go?" I asked, my
voice rough.
Lyra thought for a moment. "The Old Area.
Zone Seven."
Zone Seven. Just the name made me shiver. It
was a lonely, very guarded place. People said
they tested their worst things there. No one
went to Zone Seven and came back.
"We have to go," I said, the idea
forming in my mind with a bad feeling of
certainty.
"Elara…" Lyra's voice had a doubt. "It's too
dangerous."
"Danger is always with us, Lyra," I answered,
looking at her dim eyes. "But this… this
changes everything. If we can understand
how they stop our minds, maybe… maybe we
can find a way to stop it."
The trip to Zone Seven was full of
worry. Every small sound in the bushes, every
far-off buzz of a watcher drone, made us
jump. We moved in the shadows like ghosts,
using Lyra's good sensors and my own
feelings, made sharp by years of staying alive.
We saw guards, moving like robots,
but their weapons could kill. We went around
them, our hearts beating fast, the quiet
making the danger feel bigger. Once, a drone
saw us, its metal eye looking right at us. Lyra
acted fast, sending out mixed signals that
confused it for a moment, giving us time to
disappear into the thick plants.
As we got closer to Zone Seven, the
air felt heavy, a strong feeling of being
controlled. The land changed, the green
plants turning into broken buildings and
twisted metal. It felt like we were going into
the stomach of a monster.
We found a hidden way in, a tunnel
under the ground half covered in dirt. It was a
tight fit, the air thick with the smell of dust and
old things, but it was the only way in without
being seen.
Inside, the quiet was scary, only
broken by water drops and a soft hum of
machines somewhere deep inside. We moved
carefully, Lyra's sensors looking all around,
mapping the maze of hallways.
We reached a big room, the air thick
with the low sound of strong power. In the
middle of the room, some containers glowed
with a strange blue light. Inside them, people
floated in a thick liquid, their faces calm,
almost peaceful. But that peace felt very
wrong.
As we got closer, Lyra's sensors
read things. "Brain activity… stopped… almost
none."
These were the people they were stopping at.
The ones whose minds were dampening.
But why keep them alive? What were they for
in this sleeping state?
Suddenly, a voice echoed in the
room, cold and without feeling. "Someone's
here. Zone Seven is not safe."
Red lights flashed, making the room look
scary. Metal doors slammed shut, blocking
our way out.
"They know we're here," Lyra said,
her voice tight with worry.
"Then we make them sorry," I said angrily, my
hand going to the weapon I found strapped to
my leg.
But before we could move, the containers
started glowing brighter. The people inside
moved, their eyes snapping open, no longer
calm, but filled with a scary, empty look. And
then they spoke, their voices all together,
saying the same thing: "You… must… obey."
A new wave of fear went through
me. These weren't just people being hurt; they
were weapons. And we were trapped in a
room with them. The fight to stay alive had
just become much scarier. What bad thing
were these sleeping minds now used for? And
how could we fight an enemy that had turned
its own people into soldiers? The answers
were hidden in the scary light of the
containers, and the way ahead was darker and
more frightening than anything we had faced
before.