The Meeting 2

In a location unknown at the same time that our group was struggling in the forest, in a bunker underground that no one knows where it is, six people were in a kind of meeting, but definitely no one was talking to anyone. In front of every one of them was a large screen, and although there was a large round table between them, and they were facing each other, the only thing separating them was the screen; otherwise, the distance between them from shoulder to shoulder was less than one foot, regardless that no one was able to see the face of the other because of a big hood covering their entire heads and shoulders.

That strange scene was occurring every day. Those six people were meeting in that room, and stayed there for more than ten hours a day for ten days, and during those ten days, there was not a single word exchanged between them. Each one of them was busy watching and typing on their screens, and at the end of each day, each one of them submitted his or her report and left the room the way he or she came in. The only exception happened today, after being in the room for eight hours. Someone new came into the room while standing in the same place he had appeared, and without addressing certain individuals, he spoke and said: " Six days are remaining from the time the invasion starts." And he left the room the way he came in, without waiting for any response from anyone.

For less than a few seconds, which is how long it took the man to enter, say what he wanted, and leave, everyone was looking at him, and maybe a second later, after he left, everyone resumed whatever he or she was doing as if nothing had happened or whatever it was didn't concern them.

..................................

Meanwhile, in the back room, Adline was doing the same thing she has been doing for the last ten days, continuously, without understanding what she was doing, though it didn't matter to her that much now since she had become accustomed to it, and she stopped wondering. One of the rules of her employment was that she was not allowed to ask any questions, so she didn't. Because of her diligence, she even got a raise in her salary, and a good word from her superior, which made her happy, but the best reward she got was seeing her younger sister happy and smiling, playing like kids her age, wearing new clothes, eating good food, and most importantly, having two big meals a day and even getting some snack in between.

Nothing more she could ask for, the most satisfaction she could dream of was a fact in front of her, what else she could want more? When she asked herself that question, the answer was nothing. With a smile, she started her day today as usual. She sat on her seat and started monitoring her screen, waiting for her daily instructions, which usually come every hour in the form of a message on her screen. Sometimes her supervisor brings her a small tablet like device loaded with her full day's instructions. Some days there is nothing much to do, and some days there is a lot of things to monitor and information to pass on to the individual that she is monitoring. She used to wonder who this young boy was and what was going on, why she had to monitor him at the beginning, but now that she's gotten used to it, all she can see is just work, whether the beasts that are chasing him are real or if it's some kind of entertainment It didn't matter.

The system she was working on was very complicated, yet she got used to it very quickly and was able to execute any command necessary within seconds. In fact, that was the easy part of the job, the long hours when nothing was happening, like when the young boy she was monitoring was walking or sleeping, meant that she couldn’t predict what was going to happen if she was needed to intervene with a command, which was the only thing that she could do. She couldn’t do anything else, no other ways to communicate with him were available to her. After studying the system she was working on, she figured out that it could do more than just send commands, but that was the only function available to her. Not knowing who he was, or what he was doing, or even why she was doing what she was doing, bothered her at the beginning, but now that she is only doing a job, and getting paid, that is the only thing that matters to her now.

While she was immersed in her thoughts, the superior approached her. When she noticed, she immediately stood up, expecting to receive some new instructions as usual, but for the first time she saw her supervisor smiling on her face. He pointed at the seat she stood from, indicating for her to sit, and said, "Congratulations, Adlian, you have been promoted to a monitor, and you are the youngest member of our organization, who has been promoted this fast, and that is because of your hard work and your dedication." He paused for a second, checking her reaction.

Apparently he liked what he saw on her face, which was happiness and surprise mixed together, then he continued saying, "You will hand over your terminal now, then come to my office, and I will brief you about your assignment." When he finished what he was saying, he turned around and left, Adlian was still standing, and from the surprise and happiness, she forgot about anything else. She only realized she was still standing when another young girl said, " Excuse me, I'm supposed to take over this terminal." Absentmindedly, she nodded to the girl and said, " Yes, sorry." "Do I need to brief you or?" The young girl herself was obviously confused and just nodded without saying anything. "The job is very simple, so you don't need to worry," she said, trying to ease the fear of the young girl's and to calm her down.

After she gave all the information required to do the job, Adlian went to the supervisor's office, anxious and excited at the same time. She didn't even ask herself, for once, how come she was promoted so quickly; she hadn't even worked a month in this place, what is the exceptional work that she did was or what is the new assignment was. She didn't think of any of that, so when she entered the meeting with her supervisor and he gave her the assignment details, she was in for the surprise of her life. She noticed that she has been thrown into a whirlpool that will change her life upside down, and the worst thing is that she has no control over it; she was simply in a swim or sink situation, literally and not figuratively.