A Hole in Time

The Hole - Chapter 12 - A Message from the Future

I turn the book over in my hands, unsure whether I should open it or not. Liam watches me, and nudges me when he thinks I have taken too long. "Come on Gracie, we need to look at this book. The hole is only going to get bigger." That is the motivation I need. I feel the cold chill run up my spine and I open the book to the first page. It is rather scary to find the page filled with information that you only just put there, but with more notes than I can read. Page after page of notes, camera and microphone locations, microchip specifications, and anything else that they, I mean we, thought might be needed. 

"Lee, is it confusing you?" Liam nods and chuckles. "Yeah, Gracie, it is very confusing. But if we sent these books back to ourselves, then they must be helpful." Now It is my turn to nod. I force myself to focus on the pages of microchip specifications. I cannot figure out how we found out so much, but then it hits me. We are Healers children. Liam and I will start working at the centre after we have finished school. Liam will work at the centre every day for the rest of his life. I will have a maximum of 6 years off, having our children. But, like I suspected, the Healers are the ones that implant the microchips. So, if we work in the Healers centre, we will have or did have access to the microchip information. 

"Okay, Lee, we now have this information. How do we use it? We are now, like we said to ourselves, in possession of all the information that we need to heal the holes." Liam agrees and we look back at the book, trying to figure out how to use this to our benefit. "Well, Gracie, we now know how the microchips work. This book says that they silence all individual thoughts and, in essence, turn everyone into robots. They receive instructions from the microchip and they do it without delay. You were right, Gracie. The mechanical attachment on our beds is to charge the microchip. The signal is relayed back to a computer that monitors location." 

I turn over a page, then stop. "Lee, it monitors location. We are the only two without microchips. We cannot be tracked." Liam can understand my excitement. "So, that is another reason we are only ones able to stop this. The computer cannot find us and cannot control us." I smile and fall onto the grass. I am thankful the warmth of the sun is drying my clothes. My parents will wonder where I have been if I come home wet. That thought is strange. "Lee, do our parents think? Or does the microchip control everything about them?" 

Liam lies on his stomach next to me, propped up on his elbows. "I would like to think that our parents can think. The book says the microchip silences thoughts, but it does not prevent them. So, maybe the microchip connects to the mechanical arm and does download all that person's thoughts. Oh, that is a scary thought. If the microchip, through the mechanical arm, downloads all thoughts, then everyone around us forms another camera and another microphone." I shudder at the thought. My own family, recording everything I do and sending that information to the Hierarchy.

"Another thought, Lee. Do the Hierarchy have microchips? It is possible that they are all exempt." Liam shakes his head. "I doubt it, Gracie. There are too many black-clad robots at school. And this book says that the microchips cannot be removed." The thought worries me, so I stand a start to pace. "The Hierarchy are the ones in charge. So, unless there is one child of every generation of Hierarchy that is not implanted, the entire Dome is being run by a computer."

Liam stands up and pulls me into his arms. "Gracie, it evidently took us years to do this the first time. We cannot solve everything today." I nod, my face still in his shirt, and try to relax my mind. Liam is right, we cannot solve everything today. We stay in our field for a while longer as my clothes are not quite dry yet, and try to figure out more from the book. 

"Lee, look at this. It says the microchips will completely control each person, making them utterly at the will of the computer. So, how does that explain our twins? John and Scarlett have microchips, but they are not completely mindless robots like the others." Liam follows my finger along the line in the book, then shakes his head. "I do not know, Gracie. Maybe, because they are twins, there is something different about them? I found one of my grandmothers history books. Did you know that they have changed the school books lately? There was a part about twins. It said that twins often used to share a genetic bond. If we have a genetic bond with our twins, that might be enough to give them a fighting edge against the microchip. They would still receive the instructions, but they would have the ability to decide whether to follow them or not." 

John and Scarlett might be microchipped, which means that they are tracked, but they may also have a free will. They are still connected to the computer, but they may have a fighting chance. But for all the others that have no chance whatsoever to be free from the computer, I know that Liam and I have to destroy that computer and heal all the holes in time.