Chapter III Part I

Chapter III – Outbreak

Anjali picked up the news on her vault-pad, it was everywhere, there was an outbreak!

The vidi-verts that used to tell you how good it was to go off to fight in The War were replaced with public notices about it, a new strain of influenza that caused people to loose their mind, it attacked the very cells of the brain. The Makarium were trying to procure money for the genetic research needed to beat this virus. It was airborne, so make sure you had your mask with you. If you saw anyone “lose their mind” you were to report it immediately, they would become hosts to the virus, and it could mutate again into something new and even more terrifying.

Outbreaks like this seems to happen every few years. As well as The War, there seemed to be a second war, a war with influenza. Every time the geneticists would gain the upper hand, and everything would go back to normal for a time, then there would be another outbreak.

Anjali hadn't seen anyone loose their mind, or anything else for that matter, in all of the outbreaks she had seen, though the news would be full of reports, it always was.

Besides, right now she had more pressing matters on her mind. The vault-pad of Brahta Vedas. What was it, really? Could it actually be the original document written by Victori herself? She didn't know where to start about finding out, but she knew someone who did.

Khandah was one of Anjali's best friends at school. She was, by her own admission, a geek and a nerd. To call her bookish was a bit like saying the Makarium was just a couple of Laywers. Unlike Anjali, Khandah wanted to go to The War, but she wasn't allowed. She had a problem with one of her glands that made it hard for her to (do something). She'd had it since an early age, so it wasn't any great shock to her, instead she put all her energies into books. Any book. It didn't matter what it was about, if it had facts in it, Khandah wanted to read it. As such she was almost a font of all knowledge. Most of the time that could be seriously anoying, Anjali would make some small quip about something, and Khandah would have to correct her with the actual proper facts, usually totally missing the point of what Anjali was trying to convey. But there were times when it was more than useful, especially when it came to some obscure piece of knowledge.

Anjali took out her trusty vault-pad, she'd just send Khandah a quick message, nothing too serious just yet;

“Hey Khandah! What do you know about Victori and her original document?”

That should do it. That would be more than enough to set her off on a search.

Within moments Khandah had replied, that was quick, even for her!

“I can't believe that you don't know about the original document, didn't you listen to anything at school? You want to come here, or shall I come to you?”

“I'll come to you, mother's in one of her moods!”

An hour later, and Anjali was sat on Khandahs bed, looking about her room, at all the old books, every single one of them would fit onto a single vault-pad. Anjali never understood the attraction of the old, there seemed to be more and more people trying to grasp hold of something of the past, instead of looking forward to the future.

“Why have you got all these old relics Khandah? I mean, what's wrong with a vault-pad?”

“Nothing. A vault-pad is good if you want to look up something quick, but if you want to kinda explore a subject a book is so much better, one thing leads onto another thing, and you can find out much more than you wanted to start off with. Besides, they look nice.”

“Well, I guess so, but give me my vault-pad any day, it's just easier!”

“Yeah, but easier isn't always better though is it?”

“Yeah, anyway. What about Victori and her document then?”

“Right, ok, so what do we know already, or at least those of us that were in class!”

“Umm”

“It was a rhetorical question, you're not supposed to answer it, if fact, I'm going to answer it.”

“Oh, ok, go ahead”

Janali was quite glad of that, it meant she didn't have to admit that in fact she knew next to nothing, she really didn't pay attention at school.