The 50: Post AI Apocalypse

Going Back to The Past

The group of youths moved towards their capsules as the scene that happened just now was still lurking in their minds. Love affairs were something not common here, so the first thing they thought of was what punishment John and Laiyla would face when they return?

“Thanks buddy, you did it great,” John leaned to the side as he whispered to Dan.

“You helped me too,” Dan replied.

“Have you changed the date as we agreed?” Laiyla asked with overwhelming excitation.

“Yes,” Dan simply replied as he was looking around to make sure no one had noticed what he did or edit anything in the main CPU.

It wasn’t common for a last second check, but it happened a couple of times before. If anyone dared to check the screen, they would find the new date there and that would be disastrous.

“Have you changed the location too?” Laiyla suddenly asked.

“What?! You didn’t tell me to do that!” Dan gritted his teeth as he tried to control himself. He totally forgot about this issue, and his two friends here thought he would remember to do this.

“Why the hell didn’t you tell me about this?!” Dan asked with some nervousness. John looked at him as he held his hand and pressed on his arm while whispering:

“It’s ok, calm down and tell me are we going to the previous place determined by the system before you changed the date?”

“No, we aren’t. if the location isn’t entered, the Drill will move us to the same place where we are standing right now,” Dan replied while looking deeply into John’s eyes which got widened when he heard his reply.

“T-This is bad, we will be sent in the middle of nowhere,” John muttered.

“What are you talking about?” Laiyla asked as she didn’t understand what the two were talking about just now.

“Listen, this place is a newly established city. That means there was no city here at all, so when we travel in time we will appear right here, before building this city, in the middle of nothing,” Dan replied with his nervous attitude.

“Calm down you two, let’s just face it. we will move there and then we will figure something, alright?” John said to his two friends as their current debate began to attract some attention.

John then held Laiyla’s hand as he moved a couple of steps away from Dan, who was apparently looking worried. For their luck, the worry conditions were common symptoms for students using the Drill.

That made Dan’s attitude not to raise any disturbances or cause them any trouble at all.

“Order, enter capsules. Order, all chipped out, end.”

The superior scientist issued this order which was followed by the exit of all non-student personnel from the room. As for students, they headed towards their capsules.

The three little gang’s capsules were next to each other, so they stood together for a few seconds as there was another debate going on, a debate raised by Dan.

“They have the right to know,” Dan said as he looked towards everyone around them.

“What do you want us to tell them? hello there, we decided to mess with the Drill and we changed the date and forgot to change the location, so sorry we will land in the middle of nowhere? Do you believe they will let us go and not go and tell the scientists?” John said with a decisive tone as he refused what Dan wanted to do.

“Listen carefully and think rationally, you know what John said is true. When things go south, who do you think will be punished and be blamed? It’s the three of us, coupled with our parents who will be punished badly for that. Do you want that to happen to everyone?” Laiyla said as she expressed her position clearly, she also opposed what Dan wanted to do.

“It’s just not right to let them go there without knowing anything beforehand,” Dan muttered as his eyes were fixed upon the love of his life, Gina, who was about to open her capsule and enter it. her capsule was two rows next to his capsule, so he intended to go there and warn her.

However he decided not to tell any of his friends about this, as he was sure they wouldn’t agree to do so.

“I know it’s not right, but let the system here take all the blame. It’s better to be the excuse of a recently established facility rather than a bunch of kids who trespassed their authority and manipulated something that threatened the lives of others,” John said as he warningly gestured to his friend.

He was in love too, so he realized what Dan was about to do. His lifetime friend was like an open book to him, so he knew his friend who was cowardly away from his love would go right now and tell her about this change.

Dan looked towards John’s eyes firmly, as he was ready to cross the bridge of his fears to protect the one he loved most. Laiyla didn’t get what was going on, so she urgently said:

“Let’s go inside the capsules now, enough with the scene.”

John just turned to say something to her when Dan slipped rapidly as he went straight towards Gina. John looked with disbelief towards his friend as he couldn’t do anything to stop him now.

“What’s wrong?” Laiyla sensed she missed something here, so she asked as she pointed towards Dan’s back who was now standing right in front of Gina.

“Stop, No talk, Return, end.” Gina coldly said. She was famous for her cold treatment of boys who tried to get close to her, and also fairly the same cold towards girls as well.

She was a solitary person who didn’t like to meddle with others as she hated others to meddle in her way.

She wasn’t stupid, she realized the sneaky glances Dan used to steal every now and then. She knew he was a cute kid, however she didn’t want to get attached to cute kids. She had something different in her mind, a life goal that she wasn’t ready to abandon for anything, love included.

Dan, on the other hand was controlled by one idea only, so he didn’t care about the cold shoulder he received from her as much as he didn’t notice he was using the low class English language when he warned her by saying in soft, hardly audible voice:

“I have changed the date to be one day before the apocalypse. I forgot to change the location, so we will be transferred to the same place here in the past. Take care.”

He then turned around as he returned to his capsule. John had just told Laiyla about what his insane friend was doing, and both stood there watching the face of Gina and her reaction with extreme nervousness.

Gina’s face showed how shocked she was, and without intention she turned to look at the couple to understand everything. The scene they just did before was just a cover.

Time seemed to stop and freeze at this moment, however the next moment everything happened like no one expected. Gina’s shocked face changed to show s calm smile, a smile that was followed by a wink towards the back of Dan.

She then headed towards her capsule, opened it and then sat inside before closing the cover. John and Laiyla exchanged silent glances with loss, what the hell just happened out there? That was what they were thinking about.

“Sorry my friends, I had to warn her,” Dan noticed the strange shocking look over his two friends’ faces so he mistakenly thought this was a reaction to what he just did.

“D-Don’t worry, let’s go inside and talk when we get there,” John stuttered for a moment hesitating about what to say to his friend and how to explain what happened before he decided to explain everything later.

Or perhaps Gina herself would explain her unexpected reaction herself to Dan.

As for Dan, he thought his friend was crazily mad at him to the degree he didn’t want to speak to him right now. He knew his friend’s reaction was justified and reasonable, however he wasn’t regretful at all.

“Ok, see you there buddy.”

Dan then moved first before the couple looked to each other again before smiling and entering each one’s capsule. It seemed this girl, Gina, had something hidden behind her, or she might be as crazy as them however she didn’t show anything of this yet.

Whatever the reason was, their plan had crossed the most difficult part of the road, and now all they had to do was wait until the countdown of five seconds started.

In a minute after every student entered his own capsule, the countdown started as usual with the main phrase:

“Start, time Drill sequence, Time October fifteen, two thousand two hundred and twelve, Countdown, end.”

“Five.”

“Four.”

“Three.”

“Two.”

“One.”

“Execute.”