SciFi Story - Episode 3

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Henry, Anna and Elizabeth are getting more and more confused as the situation gets more complicated. Their kidnappers claim that they were just given protection but against whom? That question remains unanswered. “You’re telling us you saved us from something. But there’s no proof. Show us something that can…” Henry said but John interrupted while dropping the contents of a plastic bag in front of the Randolph family. Two chips fell. “Do you know what these chips are? These are trackers placed at the engine of your cars.” John said. “Someone has been tracking you Mr. Randolph. And believe it or not, it’s not us.” He added. Then someone from behind the family spoke. It’s Stephen one of the guys who grabbed Anna and Elizabeth. He said, “We also found hidden cameras placed at your home. Well, Andrew hacked into it to fool the perpetrators that you’re still in there.” “If everything you’re telling us is true, then it sounds like you know these people?” Henry asked. Then Kevin said, “Yes we know them. They’re once our colleagues.” Out of confusion, Elizabeth asked Kevin, “Colleagues? Since when did you become someone like them?”

“It started during the war. The country was so poor at the time. Phoenix was just beginning. No jobs were available and it was really a time of depression. Then someone came to me and to everyone in this team. They said that they are willing to give us jobs and that if we would like, we could work for Phoenix.” Kevin replied. “Well, I guess we became a puppet for them. Phoenix formed a covert organization, CSTO or the Council for Special and Tactical Operations. It was entrusted to ‘wipe off’ Phoenix’s enemies. The job they promised us was becoming an agent of CSTO, a political assassin, a killer for their personal gain. We were given no choice but I guess we just didn’t search for a better one.” Kevin added. Elizabeth got stunned of Kevin’s answers. Then Anna interrupted and said, “Yes I heard about that group but the Phoenix kept on denying it until some time, the issue just disappeared.” “Of course they’ll deny it. That’s why the former CSTO agents got angry because after abolishing CSTO, Phoenix left every agent behind. Now most of the mercenaries in dark zones are former CSTO agents, expressing their anger against Phoenix.” John interrupted. Elizabeth then asked, “So for the past years you’ve been a mercenary?” “No. After CSTO was abolished, we stopped. We lived a normal life since then.” Kevin replied. Henry then asked, “Then why are you back?” Then John replied, “Because we know that someone will get hurt and the right thing to do is to prevent that from happening. This is a way of redeeming ourselves.” “But why us? If there are so many mercenaries then there would be several targets as well right?” Anna asked. Then Andrew answered, “You’re one of those ‘big fishes’. The one assigned to you is currently the best in the industry right now. Well, aside from us, they’re the best.” Then Henry asked, “Who are ‘they’? How do you know that they’re the one responsible for whatever you’re protecting us from? Lastly, what are you really protecting us from?”

“That’s a lot of questions Mr. Randolph. As you might have heard a while ago, I was a former classmate of Elizabeth. We had constant communication even after your family left the country. There was a time when I called your daughter. My phone is usually connected to a computer to detect 3rd parties or we can informally call as hackers. That time during the call, I noticed one hacker was monitoring the call so I called Andrew and asked him to trace who the guy is.” Kevin then answered. After that, Andrew said, “I still don’t know who the guy is but when I dug into the hacker’s system, I found out that it was not focusing on Kevin but on Ms. Elizabeth instead. Then I found all kinds of information about your family in his system. Schedules, telephone and mobile numbers, name them. After some deep hacking I found out that he reports to a Dennis Fray, a former CSTO agent. He’s the head of the team we’re talking about a while ago. I also found out that they were scheduling a kidnap operation for your family. If you want proof I have everything in my laptop.” “I must reiterate that Dennis’ team is good. We may have won over them this time, but later on it’s going to be hard fighting against them.” Then Henry asked, “But why? What do they want?” Andrew replied and said, “That’s something we would find out together. Well of course if you join us. But for now, our goal is to get you to our custody.” Then John said. “Now here’s the part where you decide to either come with us or to go home. We will untie you and you may look into all the evidences.” Each family member was untied. Then Andrew showed different proofs of the kidnapping plans including video footage of the family from a hidden camera, recorded calls and location traces.

After some time, John said, “We may have done some bad things to you and your family today Mr. Randolph but we’re the only ones you’ve got right now. I’ll be asking you, will you stay? Or will you go? You’ve seen every proof we can show you. It’s your call.” Then Kevin interrupted and said, “You can trust us Mr. Randolph. We’re here to protect you even though we’ve been off with a bad start. But I can assure you, you can trust us. And if ever you choose to leave, then we’ll escort you to the safe zone and we will be prepared to face the consequences of our actions.” “These things you showed us are convincing but some things are still unclear. And yeah, you did some pretty bad things to us, I won’t forget that. Unfortunately, it appears that the only one we can rely on is your team, especially after realizing that Phoenix is not trustworthy at all. Well I guess we have the choice to leave but I don’t want to risk my family. I guess me and my family is on the same page right now and we’ve decided to stay. You better be right about this Kevin. I’m entrusting our lives to you.” Still, confusion is filling the minds of the family. They haven’t completely understood what’s happening but they decided to stay with these guys. Believing that these guys can help them understand the situation. Old questions have been answered. New ones appeared. Why are they a target? What does Dennis’ team wants?

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SciFi Story - Episode 2

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Henry was looking through the window, thinking. It has been 20 minutes since they were kidnapped by these guys. A few minutes later, the cell phone of the man behind rang. After a minute, the man ended the call and told Francis, “John said hurry up.” After a few moments, they reached the intersection of 5th avenue and Rise Street. A familiar car was parked at the south bound side of the street. To Henry’s surprise, it‘s one of their cars. Henry saw his family looking worried. He got more anxious. The car where Anna and Elizabeth were in took a u-turn and followed the car Francis is driving. They drove for about one and a half hours and a few minutes more, they’ll reach an exit to a dark zone. A dark zone is an area in a country where Phoenix has no jurisdiction. It is mostly occupied by mercenaries. So people exit at their own risk. A dark zone exit can only give way to those with security passes for each individual passing through. These security passes contain a fingerprint and a signature.

Moments before the cars arrive at the exit, both of the cars stopped. Then Francis said, “Brian, get his fingerprints.” Francis ordered. Brian then grabbed a device from his bag and swiped Henry’s hands to it. The same thing was done to Anna and Elizabeth at the other car. After the fingerprints, each family member was asked to sign a security pass on the kidnappers’ laptops. All of them now have their individual security passes. A few minutes later, Francis drove the car. The other car stayed. Henry was confused about what’s happening then Francis told him, “We’re going out first. If you do something foolish they die. Understood?” Henry felt so oppressed but he had no choice but to obey. At the exit, the guards asked for the digital security passes for each of them. Brian handed a chip containing all of the documents. Then the authorities validated it and asked for the confirmation of their signatures and fingerprints. The first group successfully exited. Francis then told Brian, “Tell them we’re out”. Then Brian called John. The second group then went to the same process but this time the kidnappers scared them and told them that Henry would die once they do something foolish. So now the two groups successfully entered a dark zone.

After 20 minutes, the two groups stopped at a shoulder near the kilometer 3 mark of the road. All of the kidnappers started to wear their earpieces. Francis then talked to someone on the other side of the line. “Andrew, what’s the status?” Francis said. Andrew was in a computer room. His monitors display satellite views of the current location of the two groups. “There’s nothing threatening yet. One thing, a group of mercenaries is located northeast of your current location but luckily they’re not heading towards you.” Andrew said, then Randy, the driver of the other car, said, “We better start moving before those mercenaries shift direction and find us.” Then the two cars started to move. The cars continued heading north. After another 30 minutes, the cars took a right turn into a smaller road. Before turning, the kidnappers blindfolded the Randolph family so they won’t know how to get to where they’re going.

They arrived at a building five minutes later. The cars stopped. Henry is not feeling good about this stopover. Each family member was tied and grabbed out of their respective cars. After a few minutes they were dropped to the floor. Henry out of anger shouted, “What the hell do you want from us?!?” “We think it’s you that needs something from us, Mr. Randolph.” Francis replied. Elizabeth got curious of the guy named Francis. He really sounds familiar to her. “How can you think we need something from you? We don’t even know you?!?” Anna shouted. “Well, let me explain.” said a guy from a distance. It’s Andrew. “We just saved your lives, Mrs. Randolph.” Andrew continued. “Saved us? Since when did kidnapping become similar to saving?!?” Elizabeth angrily stated. “If you cooperate with us we’ll explain to you more. You just need to listen to us for a while. After that, you’re free to go at your own risk. But here’s one thing, I think you don’t want anything more complicated than where you are right now. With that said, we’re going to remove your blindfolds.” John interrupted. The family got confused. They don’t know why kidnappers who showed their faces to their victims would easily let their victims go. A few moments passed then their blindfolds were removed. Elizabeth got shocked by what she saw. “Kevin?!?” She said while looking straight at Francis. “What?!? You know this guy?!? I thought his name is Francis?” Henry shouted. This added to the confusion of the family. Why would an old classmate of Elizabeth kidnap them? If they really saved them, then why would they do so? Why should they trust them?

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SciFi Story - Episode 1

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It was already 2:30 pm of the 20th day of October. Dr. Henry Randolph was at his home preparing for a business meeting with a prospect customer who called him 3 days ago. The meeting was scheduled at 4:00 pm at a coffee shop downtown. Dr. Randolph is a chemist who specialized on chemicals that enhances the functions of the human brain. His wife, Anna, was helping him with his tie. Before walking out of the house, Anna reminded Henry to go home before dinner. Henry nodded and started the car. Then he drove to the coffee shop. Fifteen minutes later, Elizabeth, the daughter of Henry and Anna, arrived. Elizabeth is working as a nurse for one of Phoenix’s hospitals. Phoenix is a government embedded multinational company specializing in military, tactical trainings and related technologies. The company is also embedded into 35 other countries and covers the whole defense system of the country where it is embedded. Its sister company and also its main competitor, Sphinx, is covering the remaining 33 countries.

Thirty minutes later, Dr. Randolph arrived at the coffee shop. He then sat and ordered a cup of cappuccino. The meeting was supposed to take place at exactly 5:00 pm. It’s already 5:20 pm. The cup of cappuccino he ordered is already empty but up to now there’s still no customer. He tried to call the customer, who said his name was Freddy Johnson, but he failed. Henry thought that maybe Mr. Johnson will just be late for some reasons. Well maybe too late. He sat in the coffee shop for the next hour but no Mr. Johnson is appearing. He then decided that if Mr. Johnson won’t arrive at 6:30 pm, then he would leave. A few moments later, a guy in his mid 20’s entered the coffee shop and came to Henry. Henry then stood up and shook the hand of the guy. The guy said while giving Henry a calling card, “Sorry but Mr. Johnson won’t be able to attend your meeting. There were some problems at the office he had to attend to. I’m Francis. I work for Mr. Johnson as one of his liaisons and I’ll be the one to talk to you about our business instead.” “Oh. I see. Well I guess Mr. Johnson is a busy person. So shall we start?” Henry replied while reading the card Francis gave him.

At the Randolph’s, Mrs. Anna and Elizabeth were watching the television then suddenly all lights went out. It was a weird thing that only their house was out of electricity. Anna looked for a flashlight and tried to call the electric company using their landline but the phone line is also disconnected. The two got scared, so they decided to go out of the house. While they were walking to the door, 2 masked men suddenly appeared behind them and covered their mouth and whispered, “Do not do anything foolish. We have Mr. Randolph. He dies if you disobey us.” The ladies were so scared. Then, the men grabbed the ladies and placed them in the other car of the Randolph family. Another guy was already in the driver’s sit. While another guy came from their kitchen. He was the one responsible for cutting off the electricity of the house. Then one of the men spoke and said, “Don’t do anything foolish. We have your dad. Act normal or he dies.” While the guy is talking he showed his PDA displaying a video feed of Dr. Henry speaking with Francis. The ladies had no choice but to follow these men.

Back at the coffee shop, Dr. Henry got shocked by the contents of the calling card Francis gave him. The following was written at the card: “I’ll give you my phone. Someone will call. Answer it or your family will die”. Then Francis showed his PDA to Henry. It displayed the video feed of Anna and Elizabeth while inside a car accompanied by two men. Henry was so shocked that he can’t think straight. Suddenly, Francis passed the phone to Henry. A few moments later, it rang. “I suppose you want to answer that, Mr. Randolph.” Francis said. Henry answered it in fear. “Hello?” He said. A weird voice answered. “Do not speak. Go back to your car. Let Francis drive it. One of my other men will accompany you. Don’t do anything foolish unless you want your family dead.” Henry was so scared and angry but he has no choice. Francis then said, “I think we must go now Mr. Randolph.” “You’ll pay for whatever you’re trying to do.” Henry angrily answered.

Henry then went to his car and sat at the passenger’s seat. He gave Francis the keys. While some other guy showed up and sat at the back. Francis then drove the car. Then Henry said, “Who are you? What do you want? You want money? I have some...” the other guy interrupted and said, “Shut up! We don’t need any of your wealth. Just keep quiet or else.” Henry is in fear. Scared of what his family is facing. Not knowing what’s going to happen.

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SciFi Story

Hi guys! Well, I'll be posting a story that I created months ago in a series form. I still have no idea as to how regular my postings would be. So each post would be some kind of an episode of the story. I hope that you would like it. I'm open to your comments and suggestions. By the way, the story is placed in a futuristic world and it is a science fiction, suspense thriller story. If you're wondering what the project's title would be, I still have no idea yet. So maybe in the future I'll be posting the update of what the title of this story would be.

Infinite loop blog.

Check out the infinite loop in this blog.

Don't worry, this will not harm you computer.

Infinite loop here.

The bus we almost called home...

Well, yesterday, three teams including ours (Me, XL and Jolo) were supposed to compete in Ateneo for a programming contest hosted by CompSAt. Unfortunately, the event was canceled at around 10:30 am. Because of the bad weather, our team decided to go home to avoid facing more difficulties when going home in the afternoon. Our supposed to be easy way home because it was early stretched up to almost 12 hours. I know that it is shocking. In normal days, my travel time used to be 2 hours but yesterday was different, so different. Here's the breakdown of what happened to us yesterday. At 11:30 am, XL and I was already on the bus. The bus was supposed to turn at Quirino. That normally took 20-30 minutes of our travel time but as I have said, yesterday was different. Shockingly, we got to the Quirino intersection at approximately 3:30 pm. Well, that's not the end of the story. We still need to travel to Coastal Road before reaching Cavite (BTW I'm living somewhere in Cavite). Well, it took 20 minutes or so to reach Coastal Road. We celebrated because we already spent the last 4 hours in the bus waiting for it to reach Coastal believing that it is not traffic there, but we were wrong. The traffic in Coastal was so heavy. Well that's the part where we decided to let our destiny depend on a coin. We flipped a coin and agreed that if the result si heads then we will stay on the bus otherwise, we would wait for 10 people to leave the bus and start walking from Coastal to Cavite. The reason behind this was the fact that we were seeing many people walking along the other side of Coastal Road. So it was almost 8:00 and we decided to leave the bus that we were on for the past 8 or so hours (now you know the reason behind the title of this post). At that time, we were just at the halfway mark of Coastal Road. Luckily (although it was not that lucky) when we left the bus one of the people who was walking that also came from the same bus, started to run back shouting "umaandar na!". So we got shocked and started running back to the bus. This wasn't lucky at all because we lost the chance of sitting. So the bus spent 5-10 minutes moving. Then it stopped at the 3/4 mark of Coastal. That was the time we decided to walk (this time, we agreed on one thing: "whatever happens, there's no turning back"). So that's the part where we left the bus we almost called home. Now, that's the start of our own version of Alay Lakad. And after almost 3 hours of walking, we already reached the point where the road is passable (well the reason why the cars in Coastal Road was stucked was because the road isn't passable due to flood). We found a jeep there. So we spent the last 15 minutes riding a jeep then I spent another 10 minutes in a tricycle. Then at almost 11:00 pm, home sweet home. At last!