“Rydan! You’re going to be late for the bus! If you miss it, I’m not taking you to college! I have things to do today! Get down here now!”
Up in his bedroom, Rydan groaned. He wasn’t going to miss the college bus, he never did. He always managed to get on it in time, and had only ever missed it once, when it turned up early. Rydan sat up in his bed, and chanced a glance at the clock. 7:20 am. Why did the bus have to come at such an ungodly hour in the morning? Clambering out from the entangled mess that his bed had become overnight, Rydan threw the towel that he was entwined in at his door, where it landed with a satisfying thud. Most days, even an early morning shower couldn’t wake him up, and he usually clambered back into bed, still dripping, and doze off into a kind of half-sleep. Today was, unsurprisingly, no exception. A boring Tuesday morning in the middle of the English winter. All the more reason to stay in bed.
Grabbing some clothes from an old chair in the corner of his room, Rydan dressed, and scooped up his towel from the floor, where it had been making a rather large wet patch. He paused as he was about to leave his room, and turned around suddenly.
“Almost forgot my stuff… damit! I hate mornings” He muttered to himself, before striding across to his bed and scooping up his electric razor from the shelves next to the bed. Another step took him to his desk, where he scooped up a mobile phone and a wallet. Rydan Blinked, then stared at his desk for a moment, thinking.
“Where the hell did I leave my watch this time?” he grumbled. After a quick search of his desk, he found it under a misplaced pair of socks.
“I should clean that when I get back… Ah well, It’s fine for now.”
After a round trip to the bathroom and the kitchen, he grabbed his bag and left the house. A quick trudge to the bus stop, an agonisingly long wait, and a bus that took forever to get to college, as usual. And, as usual, the bus seemed to be colder than it was outside.
For once, the bus arrived at college early, so Rydan wandered around college. Just as he passed a radiator, he saw something move in the corner of his eye. A brief flicker of white, moving in the shadow next to the radiator. Almost before his brain recognised there was something there, a figure leapt out of the shade and lanched itself straight at him.
Pausing only to blink, Rydan lumped to his left, causing Ciara to miss him entirely and crash into the floor.
“Don’t you have anything better to do with your time than hide in the shadows waiting for me?” Remarked Rydan.
“Not really. Come on, it’s not like there’s anything to do in this place, especially in the mornings. What were you expecting me to be doing, studying? Hah!”
Shrugging, Rydan agreed with her; “True. So, where is everyone? Don’t tell me they’re all skiving again?”
“Seems like it. Bunch of abandoningfaces. I mean, they could have at least told me they were going to stay at home… Then I wouldn’t have had to come in either.”
“Ah well. Could be worse, I suppose, they could all be here demanding food from us, eh? Anyway, I’ve got to go, I need to get to my computing lesson. You wana come with?”
Ciara rummaged through her bag for a moment, then withdrew a tatty looking piece of paper and studied it for a long moment. “Yeah, why not, I’ve only got chemistry, and that’s no fun without Jules here.”
“Come on then, we might manage to get there early! Oh, joy of Joys!!!” Grumbled Rydan, adding “If we’re really lucky, we’ll get to wait outside the room for quarter of an hour.”
“Hey, at least there’s a radiator there! We can warm up a bit while we wait!”
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When the two of them reached the computer room, there was someone already there, sitting down next to the door, working furiously on a laptop. The clatter of keys echoed around the narrow corridor, making it sound like whoever was using the laptop was typing at an extraordinary speed.
When Rydan and Ciara approached the room, a spiky haired head appeared from behind the laptop. “Hey Rydan! What’s up? Never mind, I’ve got something really cool here! Come and take a look!” Chirped Cody, glancing down at his laptop between each sentence and barely pausing to breathe.
Rydan sat down next to Cody, and leant over to see what he was doing. “So, what’ve you got for us today, oh mighty computer genius?” Cody stopped his furious typing, and looked at Rydan. “Genius? Hah. You beat me on that last test by miles!” Retorted Cody.
“True, but you were up all night knocking together yet another website, so you were in no condition to take any kind of test. So come on, what have you got for us today?”
“Okay, fine. You know how the doors in this block are electronically sealed, right? Well, what this little program does is interface with a mobile phone and unlock whatever doors you’re near!” At this point, Ciara decided to interject. “So, you’ve made a program that can defeat professional security systems? Prove it then!” Cody looked at Ciara, a defiant look on his face. “All right then, I will. Rydan, give me your phone. Oh, and you too... what’s your name?” asked Cody, staring intently at Ciara.
“It’s Ciara. Here, do your thing, Mr. technology!” Ciara rummaged in her bag for a moment, and withdrew and old mobile phone, and handed it to Cody, whist Rydan dug around in the pocket of his jeans and pulled out his phone – a considerably newer model than Ciara’s.
As he handed his phone to Cody, he noticed that the battery cover had fallen off, and both the battery and the compact memory card behind it had fallen out. Cursing fluently under his breath, he dug around in his pocket, and pulled out the missing items. Only glancing down briefly, he slotted them both back into the phone. “Damn thing’s always falling apart… I need a new phone. But, this one does the job. Superglue will fix it, no doubt.” Handing it over to Cody, he received a puzzled look. “When did you get a new memory card for this thing?” asked Cody. “Ehm… I haven’t. That was the one that came with the phone. Why?”
“Because“ said Cody, “ If my memory is working right, then your memory card is black. This one is blue.” It was Rydan’s turn to look confused; “Nope, that’s definitely the one that came with the phone. Anyway, let’s get this thing done! I want to see your new program put through its paces!”
Muttering to himself, Cody placed the two phones on top of his laptop, and started typing.
Suddenly, there was a distant thud, and the lights turned off. The whole corridor turned quiet, and seemed to magnify the sound of everything the three teenagers did.
“Cody” started Ciara “Was this meant to happen? Or have you done something stupid with this little program of yours?” Cody ignored her – he was busy poking his laptop. “Hey Cody, what’s up with your laptop?” Rydan enquired.
“It just died, same as the lights… here, you’d better check your phones, they might have gone too.” Ciara and Rydan both reached for their phones, still perched on top of Cody’s laptop. Just before he grabbed his phone, Rydan felt something… something he had never felt before. A cold, shivering sensation just at the edge of his senses, and a slight tingle, as if he was conducting a tiny flow of electricity. Before he could react to this strange new sensation, his had had reached his phone. At exactly the same moment, Ciara’s hand reached her phone.
And suddenly, the bottom fell out of the universe. The whole corridor shifted and wobbled, and the walls themselves seemed to close in around the three of them, locked around the small cluster of electronic gadgets. Rydan turned his head to look at Ciara. He moved as if in slow motion – his head took what felt like an age to turn, eventually allowing him to see Ciara. Her eyes were wide with surprise, and seemed to move in the same slow motion that Rydan felt himself moving in. Turning his head towards Cody, Rydan caught a glimpse of the laptop’s screen – it had turned itself back on, and was glowing a murky dark blue. In the centre of the screen, three words blazed in a bright white light, in stark contrast to the murky background. Rydan’s brain slowly realised what the words were; then, he didn’t even have to know. A calm, cool voice came from the laptop, and spoke the words that were blazing so brightly on the screen; “Digital Gate Opening.”
The words had barley to started sound from the small computer’s speakers when the three of them were sucked from the corridor. Ciara’s brain registered the words for the briefest amount of time, before she felt a pull from the small of her back, dragging her in a direction she did not even know existed. She seemed to twist inside herself, and suddenly realised she felt as if she wasn’t quite there… as if she was slowly vanishing, never to be seen again…. And then she felt the laptop. Her brain reeled in shock – she could see and feel the data flowing through the compact computer her hand was still so firmly attached to…. And then… she was falling.