Part 17 - May 21 - Breakfast at the University
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Sam woke up and wondered where she was—definitely not her cabin. She heard voices down the hallway, rolled out of the bed, pulled on her clothes, and headed down the corridor toward the conversation.
“If we don’t do something, they’ll all die,” a male voice stated.
“I still don’t think that just disconnecting the implanted modems will help. The embedded transmitters have to be ejected first, but with the system down, we don’t have access to the eject command. The brain damage could be permanent,” the female said. What was her name? Sam thought. Amy—and the young man was Geoff? Sam turned the corner and entered the small room where they had all ended yesterday’s nightmare.
“Hello,” Sam mumbled. “Do I smell coffee?”
The young woman, Amy, stood up, poured a cup of coffee, and handed it to Sam. “The rest of the group went up to the food court to feed those kids. Carl asked us to wait for you—something about wanting to go pick up some horses and get some supplies for that group. We were about to wake you up; we have to get moving.”
“Um,” Sam muttered, “thanks. So, everyone is at the food court? How long have they been gone?”
“About an hour,” Geoff grumbled. “They should be coming back pretty soon. Helen brought some milk and cereal over here for all of us. I’d eat while you have time. Those kids are going to keep all of you busy.”
“Did I hear you correctly—you want to unplug some of the jocks from the net?” Sam asked around a mouthful of her breakfast.
“Yes, well, it’s a little more complicated than just unplugging them,” Geoff smirked. “The brain is a very complicated organ, and the wiring is embedded within areas that control the basic operating life functions.” Geoff’s tone dripped with condescension.
“Um,” Sam nodded, “considering the implant links the occipital lobes, the dorsolateral prefrontal circuit with temporal lobe and parietal lobe functions—yeah, it’s not quite that simple. When you start to play around with untangling the circuitry from the highest-functioning neuron connections linking our major brain function control centers, you definitely risk permanent damage or death of the subject.” Sam finished flatly. She leveled a cool stare at the young man who had just spoken to her with such insulting disdain. “Oh, I’m sorry,” said Sam, dripping with false sweetness, “were my words too big for you this early in the morning?” Geoff looked away with a scowl.
“Oh, I don’t think we were properly introduced last night. I’m Sam—Dr. Samantha Jorgenson. Ph.D. in biology, specializing in animal behavior and cognitive development.” Sam grabbed her old beat-up hat, slapped it against her leg to knock off some dust, turned her back on the young man, and, without a backward glance, walked out the door.
With her coffee in one hand and a piece of toast in the other, she headed for the student union to find Carl and the rest of the group. She loathed the pretentious little twits that ran around campus treating everyone else like cockroaches because they were in a higher class, or were a year ahead of someone, or just because they thought they were smarter than someone else, or because they wore the latest expensive fashions. Sam had purposely dressed down as casual and comfortable as she liked just to separate herself from the little pea-brains. That kind always had some petty need to prove that they were better than someone—anyone—just to stroke their tiny little egos. That was one of the main reasons Sam stayed in her cabin as far up on the mountain, away from people, as she could get.
She frowned. I don’t need any of this ego shit. But what was really making her angry was that it didn’t look like she was going back to her cabin anytime soon. Carl and Nancy needed her here, and she was going to have to stay and deal with little Geoffrey. Amy didn’t seem too bad, but Geoff—she smirked—I’ll take him down a peg or two, and with pleasure.
Sam met up with the main group of survivors outside the union building. The four adults were discussing what to do with the children for the day. Helen and Nancy waved Sam over to them and asked how she felt, if she had gotten enough rest, and if she had eaten breakfast, when Carl piped in and asked if she was ready to go.
Sam blinked from the rapid-fire questions about her sleep, breakfast, and well-being, and then looked at Carl. “Go where?” she asked.
“To get our horses and go shopping.” Carl smiled and held up the shopping list Helen had written out.
“Oh, yeah, I guess I’m not completely awake yet. How are we going to do that?” she asked.
“Come on, you can wake up on the way.” Carl shook his head and motioned for Sam to follow. They said goodbye to the group as they headed for the barn. Carl had already planned the trip and had a livestock trailer hitched up to the bus in preparation.
