" The mind forgets what it cannot bear but the code? the code remembers everything."- Maya Chen, hacker , activist, caffeinated therapist with trust issues.
ABANDONED TECH SHOP
It's like the kind of place where computers go to die or be resurrected. Cracked screens, flickering monitors and broken drones stacked like skeletons.
Zeke sits in a chair with wires strapped to his temples. Maya, his new maybe-friend-maybe -genius hacker, paces like a caffeine-fueled panther.
MAYA:" you said your brain is glitching, right? flashbacks, code visions , digital déjà vu?"
ZEKE:" and spontaneous vending machine explosions. Don't forget those."
MAYA:" we're gonna dive into your neural archives and extract what NeoGeneX buried. But if you throw up on my keyboard, i will abandon you."
She slams a USB key shaped like a rubber duck into a hacked laptop. The screen flickers with a spiral of binary and neurons. Maya initiates the 'Lucid Loop Protocol' something like Inception meets The matrix, with a dash of high school memory lane.
Zeke's eyes roll back. He can hear himself talking.
ZEKE(inner voice):"welcome to your mind. Population :repressed trauma and sarcasm."
Then the memory sequence started.
From the lab a younger Zeke, 12 years old, sits in a white room. Electrodes on his arms. A cold voice speaks over a speaker
COLD VOICE(DR. WELLS):" Ezekiel, what do you see when you close your eyes?"
YOUNGZEKE:" colors. Like a TV static. I hear a song ,it hums."
COLDVOICE(DRWELLS):" Good , that means ZO-1 is learning you."
The memory distorts, the hum grows louder. The screen of the hacked laptop flickers and flashes to Maya. "this isn't a memory. it's a prison!" she says.
Another flash comes and memory sequence two starts.
(IN A PLAYGROUND) ,Zeke wasn't alone. A girl of the same age,looks similar to Zeke, laughs with him. Her name was Zara. She suddenly vanishes in a blink. Like a static,it was like she was deleted.
YOUNGZEKE:" where did she go?"
DRGREY(speaks into a voicerecorder):"two test subjects. One survived."
Zeke gasps and pulls out of the memory loop coming back into reality. His heart racing.
ZEKE:" I had a sister..."
MAYA:" or a clone? or a neural mirror. Either way, they erased her from your mind... from everything!"
Zeke rips the cords off, eyes glowing faint blue.
ZEKE: "they didn't just infect me....they built me!"
Maya steps back, shaken. She couldn't believe what she watched.
MAYA:" you're not just Patient zero. you're prototype one!"
The laptop sparks and a warning beeps.
INTRUSION DETECTED. TRACKING INCOMING:
MAYA:"they found us! they know we accessed the archive."
ZEKE(panicking):" how? we didn't even connect to the internet!"
MAYA:" YOU ARE THE INTERNET, Zeke! your brain just sent out a beacon!"
A loud BOOM caves in from the front of the tech shop. In walks Agent Sable, tall, slick , leather trench coat like a villain from a dystopian fashion show. He smiles like someone who's legally allowed to kill you.
AGENTSABLE:" Ezekiel Carter, you've got something that doesn't belong to you."
ZEKE(mutters):"my charming personality?."
Maya throws a smoke grenade. Zeke's hands spark uncontrollably as adrenaline surges. Zeke and Maya burst through an alley. Above them drones swarm like angry techno bees.
MAYA:" there is a safehouse two blocks south! just dodge the drones, vault the garbage, and pray they don't have facial recognition"
ZEKE(tripping):"you mean the drones i just exploded with my panic attack?!"
He raises his hand. Electricity arcs and one drone short-circuits and crashes into a taco truck. BOOM! it explodes right on impact. The tacos didn't survive. A single tortilla flies past them. Zeke and Maya duck into shadows. Breathing heavy. Sirens wail in a distance.
MAYA:" are you okay?"
ZEKE(shaking):"no ! i just killed a taco truck."
MAYA:" you're fine. We all have our traumas."
They crawl into a beat-up old van. Maya hotwires it.
ZEKE(still scared):" what are you doing?"
LEXI:" it appears she's trying to hotwire the truck."
ZEKE:" the fuck? LEXI i know what she's doing! shit!"
LEXI:" And you still asked?"
Maya grabs Zeke by the neck of his shirt.
MAYA:" get your shit together!"
ZEKE:" do you even know how to drive?"
MAYA:" i have three drivers licenses."
ZEKE:"WHAT?!"
Back at the NeoGeneX HQ , Agent Sable watches their escape via satellite.
SABLE( speaking into earpiece):"target had activated latent code. The nanovirus is evolving again.requesting full containment protocol"
VOICEFROMEARPIECE:" and the girl?"
SABLE:" she's interference. Erase her"
He smiles. Cold,mechanical. The hunt is just beginning.
Zeke stares out the window of the now moving truck. Lights blur and he's silent.
ZEKE:" they said i was infected. But now it's worse than that... i'm ..theirs."
MAYA:" then maybe it's time you stop being their assets...and start being their apocalypse."
Zeke's palm pulses. A map appears in a glowing hologram-leading somewhere. Maya leans in.
MAYA:" what's that?"
ZEKE:" I think ....i just remembered where they kept the other test subjects."