The corridors were empty and away from the main activity. Maria shivered a little as she got out of the elevator at the fourth floor. There were no signs of activity; everyone else was sitting around in comfortable places. She let out a little sigh of annoyance; she wanted to go home, and she knew that she'd have to wait at least eight hours before she could go home. There was a lot of work to do, and after all this, the best place to sit still and do it was the cafeteria. When she entered the cafeteria, the head chef Alex was there, cutting the food as usual.
"Good evening, Maria," he said with a smile, while handing her a plate of sandwiches.
"Hi there, Alex," she said back to him, before taking a sandwich in her hands and walking to a long table in the back of the cafeteria.
She looked back at Alex with a slight smile on her face. It was nice to have people who were willing to take care of work for her whenever she needed it. It was nice to be able to use the services of the Academy and not have to go through the whole thing of finding a job. Now that she was eighteen, it was her duty to find a job in her field. But she wasn't going to let that job put her in anybody's debt.
She sat down at the table with the men in suits, who didn't seem to mind that she worked for the Academy.
"Are you sure you don't need my help, Miss Lang?" one of the men asked.
"Positive, thanks."
The man smiled, "I think those are sandwiches for the people in suits. They kept explaining the importance of food."
"They're not in suits," the woman in the suit said to the man. "How are we getting down there in the first place?"
"They have to go in the suits to get the food down," the man in the suit said.
"Maria doesn't think so," the woman said, a little sternly.
"We'll find a way to get them down. I don't want these sandwiches to get old," the man said.
Maria shrugged. She didn't really care, and she was at a loss for options until her ride came to take her back to her work. She was still the head of three teams of workers, and they had bigger loads than anyone else. She might as well bore herself with them.
Night had fallen, and her three teams of workers were in their rooms after cleaning their work areas. The clean up had been a requirement for each of them before they went home. Maria was ready to go home to her own room, but she first had to go to the personnel offices and get her badge scanned. She had taken the stairs again to get to her room on the fifth floor.
No one was at the offices, and she had to sit down on a table and wait for somebody to notice her. She flipped open her phone to scan some of her messages, hoping that she hadn't missed anything important. It was always hard to find the time to do anything with her schedule.
Suddenly, the room was flooded with a blue light, and everybody that she had met so far was in the room, standing at attention. She found the young man who had been her boss.
"We knew you'd be coming, and we had to make sure that you received the right attention. Welcome to the fifth floor. There are less than ten people in this organization who are qualified to receive special attention."
She felt a little embarrassed, and she had to hold down a little laughter.
"Thanks, I'm here to get my badge scanned," she said to him, trying to hold back a chuckle.
"The scanners stopped working. They conked out about thirty minutes ago. We've been working on it, but we might need to send someone up there to get it to working again." He seemed angry, like it was her fault.
"I'm too tired to go up there. Is there a place here where I can crash for the night?" she said.
"Of course," the young man said. He led her to a little room down the hall, and he left. It felt strange to be left alone in a locked door room; she didn't think it was a prison cell, but she wondered if it was something else that would spring out at her the moment she fell asleep.
"You're coming with us, Maria," said a deep voice from outside the window. She looked more closely and saw that it was the young man from the elevator. His face was pressed against the glass, and he was waving at her eagerly.
"Is it safe?" she said nervously.
"It's fine," he said. "I'll wait right here until you're ready. Hurry up."
She decided that the only thing to do was to humor him. She opened the door to the room and entered.
"They took my badge," she said to the man as she entered the room. The room was larger than it looked. The ventilation system wasn't on, but she didn't have to worry about the atmosphere.
"Go out and close the door," he said to her.
She did as instructed. "Are you going to turn on the ventilation system?"
"Not yet."
He shut the door and left for a moment. When he returned, she was sitting on the bed, waiting for his instruction. He didn't seem to be impatient, but she figured that he already had a plan in place. She took a breath and climbed up on the bed.
"Lay down," he said. "We have to get in your shoes. Are you ready?"
"I'm ready." She was starting to be nervous now.
She laid down on the bed, and she could feel something press against her feet. Something was wrapping the legs of her pants.
"These will protect you with a special insulation, but you'll still be able to feel your movements," he said. "Are you ready?"
"Yes, I'm ready," she said. She was starting to panic slightly.
"Don't worry. This shouldn't hurt, but it's our only way in," he said. "I'll be by your side."
She felt something soft cover her feet and legs, and she heard a sound that was like a little snap. She was starting to feel a little uncomfortable, and she wished she had thought to bring her toothbrush with her, but her mind wasn't focused on the logistics of her plan at all. She was watching him.
"Are the hands still there?" she said timidly.
"Yes, they're there."
"Good. I'm sorry if this hurts, but we are going to remove everything but your feet, and then we're going to move you away from there," he said.
She could see that the hands were still there, but now they appeared to be wrapped around her calves. He was moving the hands up and down, and she could feel the cold air hit her legs.
"They are preparing to duplicate your footprint," he said. "Can you hear it in your head? You're moving your feet, and the sensors are tracking the movement. Stand on your toes, and wiggle your toes."
She started to wiggle her toes, and she could feel them rubbing against something. She felt the hands on her calves rubbing up and down with them. The light blue light started to dim a little, and she could see little flashes of light.
"Here we go. This is the final moment."
A little flash shot out, and it burnt into her legs, just below the knees. She yelped and gave out a short yell, but she quickly remembered not to scream. The burning was intense. It stung so badly, and she wanted to yell and scream.
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