I AM BEYOND HUMAN

CLOCK TOWER

DING DONG!!

DING DONG!!

The entire area echoed with the constant ringing of the very dilapidated clock tower in the middle of the district whose busted gears kept it stuck at 12 noon, hence the constant ringing and no one cared or seemed bothered enough to get it fixed.

It currently is the year 2059 and contrary to movies predicting that around this time period the skies would be filled with special flying cars smarter than your average Joe and capable of self operations, a world population of over 10 billion people living lives made autonomously easy with robot butlers, chefs, doctors, even something as redundant as robot dog walkers for that matter, and finally, resources so abundant that people would be able to eat four square meals a day with no worries in mind and even have enough to spare. 

Another addition to the list would be vast and sparse area of lands and clear skies throughout. 

Well, sorry to disappoint but if you believe all that to be reality from watching movies about the future then it looks like you watched the wrong set of movies and are currently living in a fantasy world. The world took a drastic left turn from the supposed MEET THE ROBINSON reality it should have been to a less gritty version of BLADE RUNNER... I know, very tragic.

Yes, there are more natural resources and lands that the people around know what to do with but this isn't because tiny robots or magical plant growth fertilizers made farming easier, although i wish that was the case but sadly it isn't. The real reason is because for some unknown cause, and I use the word unknown very loosely, the world's population took a major nose dive into the pavement and instead of a predicted 10 billion there are about an estimated 3 billion recorded living people.

As for the abundant lands many wards(states), sectors(cities) and districts have become inaccessible due to being under heavy quarantine and all the Global Health Agency(GHA) can provide as answers for it is that the areas have been infected by a deadly virus known as the Pyrex 9 virus, which has been the most deadly virus documented in human existence since the Ebola, Corona and the White Arc virus combined.

For several years now I have been doing some research about the issue and by research i mean hacking into one of the GHA mainframe and getting insight on the information those lying bastards are hiding from everyone which was quite easy if i must add because you see, I am a technology specialist and the keypad is just like an extension of my body.

What I found out wasn't in correlation with or even close to what they keep feeding us on the news portals like for example the Pyrex 9 being categorized under PROJECT instead of VIRUS. This information got me thinking of how I could get more insight on this project and what makes it so special that they had to lie to us about it. 

To get more answers I would frequently hack into one of the multiple different mainframes which gave me limited answers as none I hacked into was the meant to have the real information because when it came to the items of substance for the GHA, they always decide to go analogue and hardcopy, so on this very day I decided to go out and do the heavy work myself.

I headed to my bunker located in one of the restricted zones. Restricted zones are places which have been quarantined by The GHA, even going for years so no one ever goes there because it's against the law and also for fear of possible infection especially if you aren't authorized.

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I stood up and pulled down my previously rolled up black long sleeved polo T-shirt which was tucked in my blue denim trouser with a crazy sticker that shouted [Bigi3] on the right pocket.

"Hmm" I covered my mouth with my left hand and cleared my throat while I stuffed the other hand into my pocket trying to find change and after five seconds of rummaging around I finally managed to fish out Ten neuros. 

Neuros was the accepted currency where I am from which was the United States. The United States was a union of all the recognized states with their respective cities and districts under a single Leadership of the President. In addition to that was the three kingdom states under the rulership by those of Royalty.

I had this thing where I could tell what bill I was holding even without looking at it but by how it felt against my femininely soft palm skin and during my highschool talent show I was able to present some magic tricks with that being my major trick, and I have to say that the audience weren't the slightest bit impressed. I could have really wowed them with some inventions I made but who really cares about science in a talent show?

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*STEP*

 I walked over to the counter and placed the ten Neuros on it.

"Doris!" I called out standing by the unattended counter and from the back Doris came out in her purple apron with sauce stains splattered sparcely around it and just a little smidge on her cheeks as well. Her messy blonde hair tied into a ponytail screamed for attention as strands swung over her eyes.

*SLID*

"Here's for the meal" I pushed the money forward on the counter in a diagonal path with her position at the other side the target and then after it came close enough and I could no longer push it any further she took it, stuffed it inside the apron pocket and gave me a corky smile.

"Are you sure you don't want anything else... I mean anything?" she insisted with a wink of her left eye.

I lowered my head a bit with a smile pasted on my face, remembering all the times she had done something like this to mess with me "Don't worry about it, I have work to get to" I said then turned around and headed for the door.

Meanwhile she stood there looking bewildered "Work? But it's the weekend" she said before scoffing, taking what I said as a joke and then attempting to another customer who walked up to the counter as well.

*DING*

The bell above the door chimed as I pulled it open and stepped outside, almost hitting an incoming pedestrian who appeared out of nowhere but I managed to maneuver pass the man who had his black umbrella covering his sight.

"Umbrella?" I turned my head to the left looking at the back of the man as he walked down the street when a chilling breeze enveloped my body.

I had exited my favourite restaurant; The Saint Patrice, in the middle of town after eating a nice home cooked omelette with the little green leaf garnish on top and the stuffing that just pours out with every fork cut made into it. Serving dishes which tastes and feels like home to the customers was one of the Saint Patrice's selling point. Another was where it was located.

The Saint Patrice was just across the street to the GHA broadcasting tower modelled after the busted clock tower and I stood on my tracks to listen to the broadcast being made.

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"Shh, shhhh... We..shh..." Radio static build up in the speakers which was getting in the way of what was to be said and the fact is that it didn't even matter anyway because I as well as everybody standing outside which summed up to about twelve people on the street and three currently in Saint Patrice's including Doris, a very weak number for how busy this street used to be, already knew what it was about to say.

The tower which had been one of the GHA's major means of information dissemination apart from smartphone and Media news had not been maintained in months and the same message had been on repeat daily for the last couple of weeks and I for one had gotten tired of hearing it always giving me that feeling you get when your least favorite song comes up on the radio.

".... joining Vintgate, Richmond city and all its districts have also been quarantined. In hopes of...combating...GHA...regular checkups of individual Dot Log chips to....help... That is all for today."

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"Ahh!" i sighed sharply.

Dot log chips, just another measure implemented both figuratively and literally by GHA to monitor our every move. I still wondered how and why people bought into the idea of allowing someone to implant a chip behind their ears. A chip that records every single activity they carry out and sends it directly to the GHA Dot log Records mainframe for "security" reasons.

Sounds laughable if you think about it but the whole Pyrex 9 virus outbreak must have been a good mind changer I guess.

I looked up sticking my nose to the sky, to the sight of dark clouds and the sun hiding behind them and only a crack of sunlight could pass through which in all honesty looked beautiful and sad at the same time. Was this what a bird in a cage feels when taken next to an open window, I wondered.

"Rain?" The first drop landed on my nose, scattering into smaller parts with some falling on my cheeks and others into my eyes, making me to blink rapidly, lowering my head back and snap out of it and with quick realisation i rushed off for my destination before getting cut off by the becoming rain.

During my mad dash I had stuffed my hands inside my pocket because of the cold, I wasn't good with the cold.

*WAVE*

I stopped an approaching taxi and got into it when moments later I exchanged greeting with the driver named Arald and asked him to reduce the AC a bit with a hand gesture of me holding a knob and twisting it in the anticlockwise direction.

"Take me to the Military district at the edge of Haven" I told him as I rubbed my hands together to warm them up.

"The military district? You mean the military district that's under quarantine?" he asked looking at me through the rearview mirror with concerned eyebrows.

"Yes?! Is there a problem?"

"I'm afraid that the military district is off limits so I can't take you there Sir" his eyes fidget between the mirror and the cars passing in front.

"The last time I checked, where ISN'T accessible is the other side, beyond the yellow tape, right?" I asked.

"Technically yes, but—" he replied.

"We're on the same page then, so I say again take me to the military district at the edge of Haven."

*SNIFF*

"Alright sir" he said after a sharp nasally inhale.

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Arald took me almost the whole journey but stopped about a hundred meters before the yellow restriction tapes which reads THIS PLACE IS UNDER QUARANTINE SO NO TRESPASSING. Arald couldn't look more nervous about wanting to get out of there for fear of the Pyrex 9 contamination and the sight to me was quite amusing as I got out of the taxi.

I paid him his money with cash instead of the usual payment cards as I tried as much as possible to avoid being noticed by the system during these extracurricular activities of mine.

I walked the entire hundred meters to the yellow restriction tapes and raised them high, then crossed under it and behind me Arald did a fast and furious turn then drove off after waiting and watching to see if I actually was going to go through it . *VROOM*

There was a cage fence beyond the tapes and I had already snipped an entrance big enough for myself which was hidden except you were snooping around and knew what you were looking for but nobody ever did so I just walked to the right after crossing the tape and made contact with my self made door.

Just a slight tug and it opened and I passed through closing it back behind me but inconveniently for me on my way through my shirt got stuck on one of the loosened bars which pulled me back as I went in further but after noticing it I freed myself and proceeded.

Like usual the entire area was empty so I strolled right into the bunker where I had everything set up already. The bunker had been like my second lab for the past few months and the other being my house.

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My name is Akin Samuels, 5 feet 11 inches, slightly messy blonde hair with light brown eyes, a short goaty and slightly grown mustache and apart from being a technology specialist i am also a time traveller. Well, not time travel in the traditional sense as I have only been able to send my consciousness back successfully using a time matrix I developed myself which incorporates the GHA Dot Logs mainframe I hacked into and my own Dot Log Chip.

Up to this point I have only made a few test jumps back but I'm pretty sure that I have gotten the hang of it.

 

*STEP*

I walked into the bunker and there it was, in the middle of the bunker, with image fluctuating on sight because of the flickering lightbulbs, my time matrix which was set to mimic the form of a gaming chair and throne fusion.

I walked over to my system set up connected wirelessly to the matrix, slotted in the port the flashdrive I downloaded the information I hacked from the GHA mainframe the day before and inputed the destination of the jump along with the person I was going to jump back into.

Mr Brian Nevel, a former worker and board member at GHA headquarters during the time it was initiated into its current position, making him the perfect host which would make my GHA infiltration easy. I was jumping back for a reason of course and it was to get the Dot Log black box program which contained all the GHA workers Dot log codes and with that I will be in possession of all GHA information and know exactly what this Pyrex 9 virus/project truly was.

*TAP* *TAP*

I had to input everything myself as I was still updating my self conscious AI Sylvia with a special program I wrote and she needed time to assimilate it.

Done with the programing I strapped myself into my time matrix and engaged the travel sequence. I could feel my mind slipping away from my body as my eyes closed slowly. Even with this not being my first jump the literal out of body experience could never be something that I would ever get used to. 

My eyes closed fully and the next time they opened again I was somewhere else and in someone else's body.

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*BLINK*

"Ahh!" In pain I gritted my teeth, hunched over and squinting intensely while pressing my left index and middle fingers to the side of my head. The split second migraine I get from entering someone else's mind, shutting down their brainwaves and overriding it with mine was quite unbearable.

"Forget the out of body experience this fucking migraine is something I can never get used to" I exhaled and got back to form.

"Where am I anyway?" I knew the exact time I was jumping to but not where the host would be at the time. That's something I'll have to fix for the next jump.

 

*TURN*

I looked around my current vicinity from left to right, up and down, assessing everything around me and first thing I came to notice that I was at the top of a staircase.

I also saw a chair and some books on top a small circular wooden table with a child's school bag resting on one of the legs and then directly above the table was a picture frame on the wall with Brian and what appeared to be his wife and daughter on it as well.

"I guess this must be Brian's home which must mean that the jump was a success... So I guess that I can call this my home, for now at least" i pasted a grin on my face and chuckled.

However, my excitement didn't last long as I took another look at the area with everything in it which looked bigger in comparison to my new body size and thinking logically made no sense since Brian was a full grown man standing at 6 feet but it felt like I was way under 5 feet tall at the moment.

"Wait, what the fuck is going on here? Why is the room so big? This makes no sense for someone Brian's height, no, the right question should be why am I so sma—" My rant was cut short as I extended my arm and got a glimpse of my hand, my tiny child-like looking hand.

"!!" I was left without words but I had to know what I looked like so I ran to the table and shoved the books on it to the floor then hurriedly I climbed on then stretched my body in hopes of seeing my reflection on the framed picture glass but sadly I still wasn't able to see anything as I was too short.

"No good, I need a boost." Thinking very quickly, I went back down, packed the books and arranged them in layers on the table and then I climed on them and the extra inches the books provided me was helpful as now being able to see my reflection off the picture frame glass I was left utterly speechless.

I was a kid and not just any kid, Brian's daughter. I had long brown hair packed into a ponytail with a red ribbon. I Iooked down to evaluate my figure and I was roughly 4 feet 3 inches in a blue dress and black shoes, a school uniform?

"No no no, what's going on here? What the hell? How did this fucking happen? I'm pretty sure I wrote Brian's Dot log code into the program before making the jump then how in the Good one's name did—"

"Amanda, are you alright up there? I heard something crash" I was cut off by Brian who was standing in the living room in a blue pants suit, red collar shirt with gold corflins and knotting a black tie to match with a black briefcase placed by his left leg.

'Amanda? Who the fuck is Amand—Wait, am I Amanda? Please don't tell me i'm Amanda' I thought to myself looking at Brian from on top the table.

"D-Dad?"

"Yes honey? Why are you on the table? Come down, you are going to be late for school and me for work" He finished knotting his tie, picked up his briefcase and continued as he used his right hand to adjust the knot properly.

"Don't forget that today is our first ever Bring you daughter to work day at my workplace so I have to hurry to the office and get everything in order before I come to pick you up later from school."

I chose today to make the jump back because, due to the fact that it was a surprising and one of it's kind, a Bring your daughter to work day the security in the GHA would be even less serious and I could do what I wanted without much issue as long as I threaded with caution.

'Damn! This just made things more difficult. How am I suppose to infiltrate somewhere with high security levels as a child. Did I just get transported into Mission impossible 9? Even Tom Cruise couldn't pull this off' I thought to myself as I got down from the table and went downstairs.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Brian asked me as I was halfway down the stairs prompting me to pause my descent.

"Huh? What are you talking about? Forget something? Like what?" I asked back.

Using his hand Brian gestured pointing at his back but I didn't understand before I looked down at Amanda's uniform and remembered the school bag "Oh the backpack!"

I ran back up and grabbed it then thought to myself 'I can't believe I'm about to say this'

I took in a deep breath then exhaled "OK dad I'm done, lets get going" I said then ran down and we went out of the house. 

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We walked over to his car which was red in colour and forgetting my age I walked over to the passengers seat where I looked at Brian who was staring at me confused then I remembered "Oh, I'm ten years old now" I mumbled to myself.

I just fluidly turned around and opened the back seat door and entered inside then Brain drove me to Amanda's school all the while I kept thinking how this incendent haplened and also about the difficulty I was about to face with my mission then finally we came to a smooth stop.

*CLICK*

Brian unlocked the doors from his driver's seat door control.

I came out and I didn't have to cross any streets because my door was pointing at the entrance of the school and then I walked to the front of the school door entrance not knowing what to expect from a 10 year old's grade school since it's been years since I left my own and I wasn't in the same class as the others in my class but my current self in this timeline would have been there now.