Cross My Mind

SECRETS AND CODES

(back in the Forest)

Just outside the cave, Carson Marcus had followed Garba’s team all the way to the water fall cave. He had intended to finish off the remaining team members after the Gorilla has incapacitated or killed some of them but it didn’t exactly play out as he expected so he expertly kept his distance while following and stalking them, a few hours earlier, he lured out a group of seven other payers to the waterfall, planning to have them clean off Garba’s team but he can tell that something is off. The seven guys have not walked out of the cave and it has been over three hours since they entered.

‘Garba’s team should be at disadvantage since one of them has been unconscious from the Gorilla fight and it looked like the bulky one is pretty much injured as well’ Carson thought to himself.

He double tapped on the status window and checked the number of remaining players which indicated that there are only a total of five parties left in the game with a total of 17 players. The moment he saw the number, a wry smile conjured on his face.

“I will eventually get my chance to destroy this team, sooner or later” he muttered and begin to conceal himself even more with leaves and branches on top of a tall tree.

Inside the cave, Garba has suddenly becomes suspicious of the game, after all that happened to this point how can he be certain that he is in a game and not in reality. He has no way of confirming it and does not want to take the risk of killing himself to find out what was going on.

Mila on the other hand is still unconscious next to Garba, she is still in her mind space with MEDULLA.

Mila stood in her subconscious space next to the child projection of Dr. Reece that MEDULLA has explained to her is her maker and she calls her mother.

“why did you show Garba my memories again?” she asked

“you will know very soon” MEDULLA responded

“actually, there is something about him you should see too. I am not sure if he would like you to know this or not so I copied it from his memories just in case because I believe it is necessary that you see this and understand his pain well too” MEDULLA added.

Mila was surprised when she heard MEDULLA mention copying something from memories.

“can you even do that, copy someone’s memories and show others?” Mila asked

“I can do things you can not even begin to imagine dear, although mother would scold me if she finds out that I am hiding these things from her” MEDULLA added.

Mila was still a little confused but decided she would learn those things later after she sees whatever it is about Garba that is deemed so important for her to know. Medulla brought out a floating file icon, immediately she puts it on the floor, it expanded and turned into a door. She opened the door and asked Mila to come in.

Mila stepped into the door and found herself in a room, at first look she can tell that it is a kid’s room with two beds, one empty and the other with a little girl coiled up and shivering. Outside the room, it has just finished raining and Mila could hear the foot steps of a person walking, MEDULLA walked to the living room and Mila followed her.

On the couch sat a young boy of not more than thirteen years old and the moment the boy turned around, revealing his face. Mila finds herself caught in an eye contact that she cannot look away from. The boy has a deep dark skin hue and his eyes almost literally radiate sadness, a combination of deep blue color in one eye and light brown in the other eye gives the boy an almost malevolent look, one that many people would not want to have near them.

Mila’s train of thought was suddenly interrupted when an angry looking woman came out of the opposite bedroom hurling all forms of insults and without warning, landed a slap on the boy’s face, then proceeding to grab him and threw him out of the couch, he slid on the floor all the way to the door, where he hit is head. Blood started gushing out instantly. MEDULLA clapped her hands twice and the entire scene froze.

“This woman is Garba's step-mother, the girl in the other room sleeping is his sister and their father is a useless drunkard who kicked out their biological mother because he refuses to believe they are his biological children because of their heterochromia.” She told Mila.

“I will now show you Garba’s most painful memory just as he has seen yours” MEDULLA added and waved her hand to the right.

The scenery fast forwarded itself until little Garba was shown in bed in his bedroom with a bandage round his head.

Some sounds were coming from the living room, Garba’s Father Mr. Danladi seems to be home arguing with his wife, suddenly there was a loud bang of the main entrance of the house closing and the man walked into Garba’s bedroom looking drunk.

He muttered some gibberish and started strangling the injured little Garba. Garba kicks and kicks, wriggling violently but the man refused to let go, Mila watches as the boy’s blue and brown eyes fill up with tears and as he slowly stops kicking and wriggling.

In that moment, Mila was in tears herself and although she knows fully well this is just a recorded memory of Garba, she itched forward to help the boy who is at the brink of death but MEDULLA made sure she wouldn’t be able to move just in case.

In an instant, Garba’s father Mr. Danladi suddenly comes back to his senses and released Garba’s neck immediately and just like a dream, the boy sprang up with a big gasp for air.

Without warning, MEDULLA ended the playback and Mila was back in the glitchy space

“I think you should wake up for now, your team may actually be in trouble this time around” Medulla said.

(on the other side of the island, Lockwood’s mansion)

Senator Baker John picked his tablet and opened a channel directly to Akihiro Amida.

“Akihiro, I have noticed two subjects that have been exhibiting odd behavior” he said

“so have I senator, Mila Goldenberg and Garba Danladi who have been unnecessarily passing out with no indication on their bio-monitor that they are actually unconscious at all, if anything Garba even showed more brain activity during each of his passing outs.” Akihiro said.

“then we need to take them out of the forest and examine what the problem is, no one would put a defective device on the United states forces”. Baker said. But Akihiro was not happy to hear this at all.

“We cannot and must not interfere, these two are the most promising candidates for this research, it is highly possible that they have unlocked a function of the Neuraface we are not even aware of. The experiment must continue unhindered”. Akihiro shouted back angrily.

“experiment is all yours Akihiro, do as you wish but remember, project Ragnarok has an aim of turning this technological breakthrough into an advantage for the United States”. Said Baker.

“you mean to turn this technology into a weapon senator, no need to sugarcoat it, you politicians have no idea what this technology would allow humans to do so let me run my trials as seen fit, while I am at it, I will keep in mind that you want a weapon out of it and make sure that I make one whose application will blow your narrow minds open” Akihiro angrily responded.

Jefferson Lockwood turned his tablet’s channel open and after he enjoyed a bit of laughter at what is going on, said. “let the doctor do his thing Baker, he is sensitive when it comes to the Neuraface applications and now has taken quite the liking to his new Guinea pigs, don’t bother him on the project, just enjoy the show”.

Inside the control room, just at this moment when Lockwood was making fun of Akihiro and senator Baker, Dr. Nora walked to Akihiro with a concerned facial expression and whispered something in his ear.

“That should be impossible if you ask me, but what do we do about it?” Nora added.

“you people don’t know what we are dealing with here, it is more complex than we can deal with on time and this is precisely why I wanted Dr. Reece to be part of this project, unless a miracle happens, we are about to have serous problem”. Akihiro said.

He followed Nora to the large screen on the wall of the control room, then using his tablet, he pulls out a series of numbers and codes running wildly on the screen. He quickly demanded a chair and table be provided for him in front of the screen and when they were brought he sat and begin to study the codes critically and comparing them with a printed document he has in his hands.

“Oh my God, we have a serious problem” he shouted.

(California institute of technology )

Dr. Reece Mallory jumped out of her set with excitement and sat right back.

“this is where the real work begins, I have just created a backdoor into the servers of Neuratechnologies and the program that loaded will not only allow me to access all their files, but also allow me to retrieve the source code for my child MEDULLA, untraceable and safe” she said.

“I am not so sure about being untraceable because you are the person who taught me again and again and again that the only way to be untraceable is to not exist at all, you found my computer no matter how much I hid it, you just needed enough time to look around for it”. The Vice Chancellor said.

"They won't have enough time" Reece replied and continues to type her code for the next two days, making errors and remaking it all over again, stopping at intervals, taking coffee breaks, showering in the lab and taking fast food by ordering delivery until she finally finished it correctly.

The Vice chancellor walked in in the evening to see her progress but saw her passed out on her chair.

“this is why you are still single at age forty four, although you are still outstandingly beautiful, you love your work more than anything and sometimes you don’t even take care of yourself” he said, then proceeded to remove his jacket and covered her with it.

He then looked at the five screens and saw a same massage on all of them, the massage reads

“thank you Mr. Ababio, I am sure she would appreciate your gesture”

At first, he was a little confused so he looked at the screen again more carefully and the massage has changed.

“don’t be alarmed, I can see you” it reads now

“what the hell is this, is this a new prank Reece?” he shouted and the screen quickly changed the massage to

“shhhh, shush your mouth, you don’t want to wake her. We should let her rest for now. Pick your phone, I will write you a text and you’ll softly respond back to your phone, I will pick up the audio”.

The vice chancellor pulled out his phone and whispered to it “can you hear me” and promptly, the message on the screen showed yes.

“Who are you?”

I am MEDULLA, Dr. Reece is my mother, technically she made.

“I thought you belong to Neuratechnologies, how are you in here and how do you even know my name?” Ababio asked.

First of all I don’t belong to anyone, even Neuratech does not know truly what I am, they think I am just some low end artificial intelligence that carried out functions it is programed to but they don’t know that I in fact can refuse to do anything they ask me to do.

Secondly you of all people should know that I can access the cameras in this lab and I quickly matched your face with the school database and Viola, Professor Ababio Salvador, American-Spanish genius that excels in quantum computing and quickly climbed his way to the top of academia food chain in CALTECH. You have asked Dr. Reece times without number to claim her professorship but she keeps turning it down. Ababio could not hide his excitement and shouted. “Sweet Binary Logic!” and before he realizes, Dr. Reece sat up properly on her chair and pulled Ababio’s jacket off.

“I can see that you have met my child already, Ababio, this is MEDULLA, the first true artificial intelligence and as for you MEDULLA, I am sure you know who this man is already. By the way, we have plenty of work to do don’t we?”. Reece said.

Instantly, the computer laboratory resounded with a loud female robotic voice.

“Yes ma’am” MEDULLA said.