"Sometimes I think of myself saving the world from something that no one else other than me can stop."
I thought this to myself as I walked to school. It was a cold, overcast morning in early december and it was starting to rain. I was wishing that I was homeschooled like some kids across the world, but where I live homeschooling is illegal, I was forced to go to high school. When I go to school, I am a loner, an outcast, someone who is bullied all the time. I wish that I could just, do something that can save me from what I am.
When I got to school, I just hid my eyes with my bangs, even though they were too short to be considered bangs. I could hear people whisper about me as I walked to my homeroom, 'Modern Tech'.
"Hey slut. How's your crap life?" I was told this by Kelly, the school bully.
"How's life with that brown hair slut?" She calls every girl a slut.
"My hair was always milk-chocolate brown." I replied back.
"Oh, maybe that's why your eyes look like shit brown." Kelly said back.
"There the same color as my hair dammit." Kelly was always rude to me since the 4th grade.
"Listen here Serna!" She calls people there name when she is giving a threat. "You may have good grades, but your looks won't get you anything."
I don't care about her threats. She's just 5' 6" when i'm 6' 3". She is near obesity, when i'm often said to have a petite body. The only thing that she has going for her is her breasts. I'm not sure how she has double D's when mine are still A size. I'm guessing that she had surgery at over summer, as they were only c sized at the end of the last school year. After that I went to homeroom to try to get past the day.
When I sat in my seat, my friend Fallen sat in his set next to mine. We knew eachother since the 7th grade and we are still close friends. The only thing I want to know from him is why his nickname is 'Fallen'. I have asked him multiple time before, but he never talks about it.
"Hey Serna, how's life been for ya?" Fallen asked me
"Fine, I guess. My life was just the same over and over again, go to school, go to my job, go to my apartment, and repeat." I said. I don't do much in my free time.
"Same I see? You should try to find something else to do." Fallen said
"What is there for me to do? My parents are dead, I need my job so I can have some luxuries." My parents died in an accident when I was six. I had someone from the foster system watch my till I was seventeen. Then I got my own apartment New Sacramento, I got a job so that I can have some money to buy luxuries like a tv and a computer.
"Serna, Mr. Vetter is coming. Get your notebook out." Fallen told me. I did it quickly as Mr. Vetter likes it when students have their notebooks out.
"Good morning students." Said Mr. Vetter.
"Good morning Mr. Vetter!" Said the whole class all at one.
"Nice to see you from yesterday. Can someone tell me the answer to the question I asked yesterday before the bell rang?" Mr. Vetter expected us to remember what he taught us the day before. Me and Fallen knew the answer to this and we both raised our hands.
"Fallen and Serna, what was the name of that act?" Asked Mr. Vetter.
"The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986!" We both said at once.
"Very good you two, now what year did our country create a law similar to the CFAA?" Mr. Vetter asked us. He likes it when students add more information on something related to what is being talking about in class.
"The Socialist Republic of California created the Computer Hacking and Tampering Act in 2024." Me and Fallen studies this class the most so we can know events like this on the fly.
"Well done, both of you! Fallen and Serna I-" The PA system cut off Mr. Vetter.
"Will Serna Mesic please come to Miss. Lara's office." Said the PA's A.I.
"Well Serna, i'll see you later in the day." Mr. Vetter said.
"Mr. Vetter, I can get Serna our homework and notes after school." Said Fallen. He is the most kind to me that anyone else I know.
"Thank you for offering help, but it doesn't take long for Serna to come back." Mr. Vetter said before turning back to his computer.
I left the classroom to go Miss. Lara, the school's counselor. She was like Fallen in that she was kind to me, but the one thing about her is that she was the mother of Kelly. She and her husband got divorced before they came from what's left of the United States, and by chance she and her husband came to the same city. I personally find that, odd, but I set that aside when I got to her office.
"Hey Serna, just doing a progress report for this month." Miss. Lara said. When my parents died, I had a monthly progress report to check my mental state.
"Ok, i'm fine if you are wondering." I said back to her.
"Thanks for letting me know. I just need to ask a few questions." Miss. Lara and my previous counselors always did this.
"Is your life at home decent?" I was asked.
"Yes it's good. Nice apartment, good food, and i'm trying to save up for a gaming computer with Hexnik OS on it." I told her.
"Good, do you have friends?" I was asked my Miss. Lara.
"Yes, most are from online games I play, and I still got Fallen." I told her.
"Ok, last question, what do you think about others who aren't your friend?" Miss. Lara asked.
"Can I skip this one? You know I hate this question." I said
"I wish I could but I have to get an answer by law, you know that too." Miss. Lara told me.
"Fine. Lets just say, it's not the best of me to other people." I told her.
"Even though that was a vague response, you're done and you can go back to class." Miss Lara said.
"Ok, see ya next month." I told her.
I walked back to Mr. Vetter's class and got back into my seat and asked Fallen what did I miss. I only missed some information on the events that lead up to the creation of the CFAA. After that I went through my other classes, 'World History' then 'AP Calculus II' then me and Fallen went to lunch.
"Hey Serna, what are we learning in world history?" Fallen Asked me. No one sat at the table where we sit so we can talk to ourselves.
"We're starting to learn about the re-rise of communism in Russia." I told him.
"Thanks for the- oh fuck. Serna." When Fallen stop saying thanks, I knew something was wrong. I looked where Fallen was staring it, and we saw Kelly and some of her friends coming to the table.
"Serna and Fallen sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g!" Kelly said that when she sat down at the table.
"Fuck off with your happy ass attitude" Said Fallen. Both me and Fallen hated Kelly.
"Wow getting some hostility, I don't want it, fag." Kelly said to Fallen.
"When was the last time you shown someone some form of respect?" Fallen asked Kelly.
"When was the last time you haven't been playing Cards Against Humanity?" Kelly asked Fallen.
"Um… ya, i'm not, gonna answer that." Fallen said.
"You can't give a honest answer? Wow someone here is just fucked up." Kelly said.
"I just came here to let you know about the christmas dance on the 25th. Not that you lovebirds are going." Kelly told us that to try to see if me or Fallen say something. Both of us didn't say a thing to her.
"Well, see ya never!" Kelly said before walking off.
"I hate her, I hate her so much." Fallen said.
The bell rang and we went to our final period of foreign language. After that school ended at round 1 PM.
I was planning to walk to my job but Fallen offered to drive me there in his car.
"Serna! You want me to drive you to your job?" Fallen offered me this everyday since the 10th grade.
"Sure, you know where to take me though?" I often take his offers, but I still have to direct him to the right road.
"Yes, I got a GPS last week and it works great. I have your job built in it." Fallen said. "Hop in."
I got into his car and we started to drive to my job. I turned on the radio news as we drove there on the freeway.
"It's december 4th 2065 on KWTF, The former United States is still in a state of anarchy after the recent fall of the government just 4 years ago. What's left is nothing but warring factions trying to control what's left. Reports say there are about 500 factions in roughly one million square miles of ruin. Some of the BRICS nations like South Africa and Russia is trying to take control of cities like New York and Washington D.C. Though not much progress have been made because of high resistance in those areas. It's 1:20 at KWTF. This just in, infamous hacker who goes by the name of 'Bit' was found dead in what detectives think was his home, The house was being repossessed by the government for not being paid in several months. That's when government agents found the body badly decomposed, believing he was killed a few weeks ago. A computer was found in his house but the hard drive was found destroyed in the microwave, making it impossible to know what the hacker was planning to do, but it was believed that he was planning a DDoS attack on computer systems that belonged to government workers. That's all we know so far."
"Hey, Serna, can I put on the music station?" Fallen asked me. He looked a bit odd, nervous after the mention of Bit being found dead.
"Sure" I told him. I wanted to ask him about why he was nervous, but I chose not to because I know he wouldn't answer the question.
When we got to my job in downtown, I thanked Fallen for the ride, and went to my job as a virus signature reader for Oxton anti-virus. I worked there from 2 to around 7, after that I went home for dinner. When I got home I just reheated some leftovers that I had from yesterday. After that I went to bed, but then things changed for me later in the night.
I was awoken by my PC computer turning on, the odd thing is that I didn't boot it and it was about 2 AM. I was the boot screen, but then it started to glitch and it got the blue screen of death, but then the screen went black and some verbose text started to go down on the screen. I went over to the computer to see what was going on, when I got to the screen, it started to load some kind of 3D picture.
"What the fuck?" I thought to myself.
Then some text started to show onto the screen.
'14 DAY TIMER EXPIRED: INITIALIZING FAILSAFE.
Hi.
…
This is strange… stranger that i expected
I guess i'm supposed to write this in past tense, though I hardly feel like admitting that it's over.
My name is Bit, and if you are reading this, i'm already dead.'
"What?" I thought to myself. How was a dead hacker talking to me like this? A better question is why me?
It when told me that I was at risk and I needed to do what it says to do. It told me that I needed to connect to a server that was connected to me PC. I did that and then it said I had to run something called 'nmap' when I did that it brought up all of the ports that the computer had, it told me to run an .exe callen 'PortHack'. When I did it unlocked the computer and gave me admin. I looked around in the system to see if there was anything that looked interesting, when I found nothing, I was told to delete my log files and disconnect, when I finished that, it said that I have completed and to wait for an E-mail. Then I realised what I did a bit too late.
"Did I just hack a system?" I thought to myself.