BOOK OF MIA: 2081

Chapter 52: Coordinate

I guess my face must have looked like I had seen a ghost, or worse, seen Mr Jacobs, our neighbour, two quarters over from our home, naked; pottering around as if he owned the whole damn lane. Mum often reminded him of propriety whenever he sunbathed thus on his 'lawn' — fake turf in front of his door under a UV lamp — with all his pruney bits on display. No one wanted to see that sad sack in the open. But no, I hadn't seen a ghost.

"What?" Nate glares at me with as much intensity as he can muster, shaking me about as if he is trying to wake me up or something. I am not immune to his renowned glares, though I try. "Mia. What? What did you see?" He shakes me again, and I feel as though my brain is rattling inside me, shrivelled up from dehydration.

I pull my arms away from him wryly and do my glare, though mine probably looks more like a pouty scowl. "Stop. That hurts."

Nate holds up his arms in apology. "What did you see?" he asks, lowering his voice.

"Nate." But I don't really know how to relay what I saw. There are no words. I have no words. I grab him, feeling my stomach turn sickly and I double over, dry retching into the brush that looks about as happy to be alive as a piece of turd left out under some UV light.

"Who are you?" I glare at Dev, the Soldier. "You said, 'I know your granddad' before you told me to stop, and somehow, even in that kill mode, I did. I stopped."

I step towards Dev and I must have looked like I'm about to clock him or something, for Nate holds me back by my arm.

"You flashed some code in front of my eyes." I glare at the guy. I don't like him. He's setting me off on edge; like I know the reason I stopped, but I can't place it.

Dev holds up his cuffed hands in surrender. "I don't know either, miss. One moment, I'm watching my entire unit get shredded by you, and the next — it's a blank — and I came to, for the first time in years."

"What do you mean?" I still feel heated, still nauseated at the carnage I re-witnessed. Again, my stomach lurches violently, but I have nothing to throw up.

"What do you mean you came to?" Nate asks, stepping closer to him for once. I see something switch in him, like an odd recognition of sorts.

"I don't know how to describe it." Dev shrugs. "One moment, I'm doing something I think is my choice and the next, I—"

"Snap out of it?" Nate finishes.

The guy nods and I can't help but feel confused. I'm so confused they may as well be speaking in a new language. What did they mean 'snap out of it'? Snap out of what?

I look from one guy to the other. "Anyone wants to fill me in, please, feel free!"

Nate shakes his head and bends down to take the cuffs off the guy.

"Wow. What are you doing?" I pull his hand back. He swats mine away like I'd reached for his slice of chocolate cake or something.

"What if he attacks us?" I mumble uselessly.

"He won't—"

"I won't—"

"You don't know that!" I snap at Nate. "And you—you, I don't trust." I turn to Dev. I don't... I really don't trust the guy.

"We are two and he is one," Nate offers. "Besides, you have your kill mode. The man's not about to try anything with that still on standby, is he?"

I squint my eyes at Nate. How dare he make sense? And how dare he bring up that stupid mode I hope to never need or use again? "Fine, free him."

Nate nods briskly and does exactly that. Dev, freed, rubs his wrists and rotates them. I watch him like Deputy Nguyen watches students in the halls at lunchtimes. One misstep and you're on sanitary duty for the city after school till 'you've learnt your lesson'. He calls it Detention; feels more like forced labour to me. I shiver at the thought. I've had far too many 'detentions' to last me a lifetime. Nate? Not even one.

One misstep for Dev, and I'll see red.

"What did it feel like?" Nate is asking Dev, and I try to focus. For the love of Codex, I have no idea what they're talking about.

"It felt like I was finally alive. Like this is me, the real me." Dev pushes himself to his feet and stretches. "I feel like the last thing I remember was the news; that my dad was killed yesterday."

"And yesterday was when?" I chime in, irritated by Nate. Irritated by Dev. I'm just irritated—I can't shake the gore from my mind.

"How old do I look?" Dev asks.

Odd question. I study him for the first time. Crow's feet frame his chocolate eyes. The lines around his mouth are deepening. His inky hair, though short, shimmers with flecks of grey.

"You look like you're forty-something, at least," Nate answers and looks to me for confirmation.

I shrug. Whatever. The guy could be fifty for all I care. "I'd say thereabouts."

Dev pulls in a sharp breath. "What year is it?"

I can't help it. I laugh. "Seriously, what year is it? Dude, I didn't even touch you last night and you suddenly have amnesia and can't remember who you are?"

Dev shakes his head, looking like I slapped him. "I know who I am. I am Devendra Quinton Shah. I was born in a private residence in 2032—"

"So?"

He's not done yet. "I have a younger sister, who is a freaky genius, and my mother is a renowned neurologist and geneticist, and my father—my father was caught up in something he shouldn't have been in. We had just received news he was killed yesterday."

Nate and I look at each other. Yesterday was not the day Dev got any news. Yesterday, Dev was chasing our asses across the woods under Hill's orders. Yesterday was the day I 'shredded' his unit in the name of survival. 'Yesterday' was not yesterday.

I see Nate swallow. His eyes glaze with a look I can't read. There is fear in it, though, a palpable fear that makes my heart skitter faster. I ball my fists at my side and watch him turn to Dev.

"What year was 'yesterday' Dev?" he asks.

"2048, Christmas Eve. It was just mum and me this year for the holidays, and we were about to call Quinn to wish her happy birthday when mum got the call."

"I was seventeen." Dev turns to Nate, a pleading look as he says, "You know what I'm talking about though, don't you? That's why you believe me, even if your girlfriend doesn't?"

Eww. No. I mean, a few weeks ago, I was definitely guilty of secretly wishing we'd fall in love at Camp Sweep...

"She's not my girlfriend!" Nate beats me to it.

Dev looks from Nate to me, then to Nate. "But you know what I'm saying. You've been through it too, haven't you? The coming to?"

Well, what now? I turn to see Nate nod. "What's he talking about, Nate?"

"At Camp Sweep," Nate barely whispers, staring at his feet. "I—" He looks me in the eye and I do not know what he is about to say, but my stomach tightens.

"I nearly killed you, Mia." He swallows, and all I can see is his Adam's apple bobbing.

"Killed me?" What is he talking about?

His eyes narrow. "We were — I don't know how to say this — they brainwashed us, M, to kill for survival. That was the trial — to get into the Hive. Kill at least one recruit and you're in. Get killed, you failed. Barely survive and the service took you. I nearly went to kill you, and something happened. Like I woke up, and I had to protect you instead, so I knocked you out."

He stares at me a long while before asking, "You don't remember this?"

I shake my head. No, I don't remember it because it never happened. "Nate. What are you talking about?"

"The Governor Assistant? The ceremony?"

I shake my head. "Yeah, she said something about 'you have your instructions'. God knows whatever that meant, and then people started going crazy—"

"They were programmed." Granddad's voice startles me.

"What?"

"It's the vetting program. Originally used for soldiers when CodeTech was military."

Glimpses of images fleet across my eyes: men and women, soldiers, injected with some emulsion. Next, they are using nightshade in training, their accuracy in target practice near-lethal every time; a plume of smoke from a bomb; chaotic scenes of people fleeing, dying. I realise its glimpses of the Dark Day as I watch it. No longer trying to stop it. The images get faster and faster. Now, civilians are injected with nanites; society, reduced to rubble and living in bunkers. The chaos of infighting, for power, for dominance — till one day, they stop. A glimpse of a screen and the words upon it 'Civil Codex Program Initiated - Phase ONE'; images of people, emotionless, robotic, going about their lives; no more fighting.

I feel more ill than before. I bend over my knees, reeling. "We programmed them?"

"Everyone is nowadays. It wasn't always," Granddad says.

"Who is programmed?" I hear Nate above me. I bet he is staring at me with his frown.

I can't breathe. I need air.

I turn to the ocean, to the blue waters and I don't even care if it's still daylight, or I'm hungry and angry. I don't care about the high dose of radiation. I need some space. I run as fast as I can towards the sea. Away from Nate. Away from Dev. I love Nate, but I need to think without all the hovering.

Did Nate always hover?

My legs pound on the blistering sand. Then I fall and pick myself up again, hands searing from the heat. I hear Nate scream my name, but I don't care. I need to think. God. I need to think.

As my feet touch the dense, wet sand, I no longer struggle with the run, and I jog the rest of the way into the water. The cool water laps around my feet and legs, swirling between my toes and I realise I don't have shoes. In fact, I have nothing on except a patient's gown from Hill's hospital.

I drop to my knees, sinking into the sand with relief, not caring that the ocean is slowly lashing at me. I close my eyes and try to calm my mind.

"Mia? You okay?"

Nate, my sweet, sweet Nate. His shadow falls on me and the light dims a little behind my lids. I can also feel his eyes on me. Possibly concerned.

"What's going on?"

I wish I knew what was going on. I take a shaky breath and glance back at Dev standing under the shade, eyeing us. I'm surprised he hasn't taken the chance to run off. Why isn't he running away?

"I don't know what's going on, Nate." I feel the tingling of my nerves as if I'm on the verge of a panic attack. I haven't had one in years. "Nothing makes sense right now. Nothing."

I eye the ocean, the trees behind us. "What are we doing here? Why are we here?"

I feel my breathing get out of control. I close my eyes and try to think of something calming. Something before the nightmares started.

"What did you mean, programmed?" Nate asks calmly.

I look up at his tortured face. I've never seen him like this.

I glance at Dev again. He's still there. "Granddad says they programmed you. Both of you."

"Not just them, Mia. Everybody. Everybody with CodeTech in them." Grandad informs me then.

My body shivers.

I look up at Nate again and add, "Everybody with CodeTech is programmed."

Except me? Why wasn't I then?

Instead of freaking out, Nate says, "That explains some things."

"It does?"

He nods, giving me a hand up.

As I rise, we hear a faint hum of something mechanical and look at each other in wonder. "What is that?"

I look around us. Not sure where the sound is coming from, but it is getting louder.

A minute later, Dev joins us by the water, baffled by the noise.

"What do you think that could be?" Nate asks the man.

Are they getting along? WTF!

Dev nudges his head towards the water and we turn in time to see a boat flying towards us.

I grapple Nate's arm. "You think it's her?"

Nate puts his hand over mine and gives it a squeeze. "I don't know."

"We could really use my gun right now!" Dev throws me a look, and I can see, for the moment, the three of us are on the same side.

"What now?" I lock my eyes on the jet speeding our way, rumbling louder.

"We could go Nightshade and hide in the trees till we know who and what they are?" Nate suggests.

"Could be Hills' men?" I can't help asking.

"No. Hill has never left her base, and rarely do her men, except hunting season," Dev chimes.

Hunting season? But I have no time to ask. It does not sound good.

"So, who the hell is that?" It's not me, but Nate, who asks.

"You got your kill mode on standby, little girl?" Dev asks me.

I'm surprised he wishes to converse with me. I nod. Yes. Yes, I still have the damn thing on standby.

"Good. We may need it."

It's too late for us to head to the trees and hide. I gape across the water as the roar of the engine fills our ears. "Why are you helping us?" I steal a glance at the soldier.

"Because there's no way I'm going back to that now. That wasn't life."

And he means it. I can see that. He does not wish to go back to Hill. I don't blame the guy.