iVortex - Chapter 2

Chapter 2 - 0%

Cameron blinked. He was not, in fact, blind.

The ceiling of his dorm blurred into focus and groggily he struggled to sit up. The machine was gone, in its place was a cube that seemed to be made entirely of squiggly metal lines that writhed in a way the was nauseating to look at for more than couple seconds at a time. Cameron stood up, bumping a game controller in the process. It skidded across the floor and rested against the squiggly cube. Immediately the cube responded, unfolding across the controller like a mini robot from one of Transformer movies. In moments the entire controller was encased.

Amazed, Cameron tentatively stuck out his leg and tapped the controller. Nothing happened. He cautiously reached down and touched it. Eventually he picked it up, flipping the controller to find some way of removing the alien metal, but there was no seam. The cube had perfectly assumed the shape of the device as though the controller had originally been built from the strange metal. He tried to rip it off but it wouldn’t budge. “Come off, stupid thing,” he grunted with effort. The metal began to unfold and Cameron dropped the controller in shock. The metal finished separating from the controller and returned to its cube shape.

“Whoa,” Cameron said. He picked up the cube and stared at it in wonder. The lines didn’t seem quite as nauseating as before. “Shit,” Cameron groaned, noticing the time. “I’m gonna be late for work.” He stuffed the cube into his pocket and immediately realized his mistake. He pulled it back out but it was too late; the cube had already swallowed half his phone and as Cameron watched it finished sealing his device in a squiggly metal tomb. “Damnit!”

“Are you kidding me!? I can’t even see the screen,” Cameron exclaimed. The cube responded, a series of tiny metal squares flipping over that slowly revealed the screen. He had two missed calls, both from work. “I am so fucked,” he said, panicking. The display flickered and some strange alien language replaced his background. Growling in frustration Cameron shoved the phone back into his pocket. He was going to lose his job if he didn’t get to work quickly, the alien cube would have to wait.

***

On the way to work he quickly discovered that reality had not changed. Aside from leaving him with a strange mystery cube the device didn’t seem to have done anything. Struggling to contain his disappointment he trudged into the staff-only area of campus. 

“I’m here,” he shouted. “Hello? I’m here! Sorry!”    

The PC-tech room was quiet. Half-assembled computers littered the tables and floors along with dozens of peripherals from all over campus. Cameron was part time tech-support slash pc-repairman, it wasn’t a very exciting job or very well paying but he badly needed whatever money he could get. “Hello?” Cameron called again.

Yumeko’s head appeared from below one of the table’s at the back of the room, “Cody is out two weeks for vacation,” she said by way of greeting. “He left me in charge.” Cameron shuddered at the thought of having to work for Yumeko. Or worse, working alone with Yumeko. He couldn’t quite place what was off about her but she always gave off a creepy vibe. A year or two his senior the petite asian girl was in Erina’s clique and had rarely spoken to him. “You’re late,” she said, ducking back beneath the table to continue whatever she had been doing before. 

“I know, I’m really sorry. I had an accident... I think I may have a concussion,” Cameron said, not quite sure if it was the truth. His head certainly hurt and he had been knocked unconscious by an explosion of unknown origin. Claiming a concussion was, at worst, a little white lie. 

“I see,” Yumeko said without a trace of concern. There was no ‘Maybe you should see a doctor’ or ‘Oh, you poor thing’ just an inflectionless ‘I see’ as though he had claimed it was cold outside. “I’ll note that you were late in my report. Now, get me a screwdriver,” she added, waving her hand expectantly. 

With a sigh Cameron went in search of screwdriver, rifling through components until he found what he was looking for. He started to pick it up when Yumeko said, “You need to come in early tomorrow.” Startled Cameron dropped the screwdriver and it went rolling across the floor.

“Uh, okay.” He said, distractedly. Chasing after the screwdriver as it rolled under one of the tables. As he reached for it a cockroach scurried and he yelped in surprise. 

Why am I so jumpy?

The cockroach scurried towards where Yumeko was working. Suddenly her black booted foot slammed down. Her heel twisted slowly on top of the roach, grinding it into paste. Cameron glanced up and saw Yumeko’s almond shaped eyes burning with intent as she snuffed out the bug’s life. Her head turned and she returned Cameron’s gaze, a slight smile slowly creased her lips. A shiver ran up Cameron’s spine and he looked away, snatching up the screwdriver. He handed it to Yumeko and said, “Here. Anything else?”

She studied him in silence for a long moment before replying, “Erina is throwing a party.”

“Oh yeah?” Cameron said, trying to sound casual. Why was she telling him this, Yumeko normally didn’t give him the time of day let alone discuss Erina’s social calendar.

“I could get you an invite,” Yumeko continued and Cameron sensed a ‘but’ was coming. “If you are willing to do a little extra around here,” Yumeko finished. So a simple bribe then? Doing some of Yumeko’s work in exchange for a little bonus time with Erina did not sound so bad. Especially if he was getting paid for it. He stared hard at Yumeko, wary of some sort of trap. 

The lithe asian girl was a classic far eastern beauty; Small breasted and fine boned she had a certain doll-like quality that was at once arresting and creepy. Her perfect black hair never seemed to separate, as though it were affixed to her head with glue; dainty lips seemed perpetually pursed beneath her pert little nose. Were it not for the creepy aura that wrapped her like a second skin Cameron might have found her attractive. Her tongue darted out for the briefest moment, wetting the corner of her lips. 

“Uhh, sure,” Cameron agreed. “What do you need done?”

“A few small things,” Yumeko replied. “Finish your assigned work, I’ll explain when you’re done.”

Cleaning dust out of old PCs and methodically checking memory for bad sticks was mind numbing work.      

Cameron tried to check the time and found his phone interface replaced by alien language. “What the…” he muttered, swiping repeatedly in an attempt to wrest back control of his phone.  After swiping half a dozen times the screen displayed a zero in a strange font. What the hell did this thing do to my phone?

“Are you done?” Yumeko said and Cameron nearly jumped out of his skin. “You scare easily,” she added thoughtfully.

“You snuck up on me,” Cameron said defensively.

“If you’re done, I need help moving some of the heavy boxes out of storage. Campus admin wants to wholesale anything we can’t use.”

“Sure, alright.” Cameron said, waiting for further instruction.

“Well?” Yumeko said with a bitchy expectancy only teenage and early twenty-something girls could manage. “Get moving. That storage unit needs to be cleaned out by the end of the week.”

“Jeez, alright.” Cameron grumbled, she didn’t have to be so mean about it. The next couple weeks under Yumeko’s thumb were probably going to be a royal pain.

***

The storage building  was tucked behind a tall administrative structure at the bottom of a hill and the walk back to the IT department was long and steep. By the second return trip Cameron was dripping with sweat. Two heavy boxes were stacked up past his chin, making it nearly impossible to see the path ahead. He shifted his grip, angling the boxes back towards his chest to take some of the strain off his arms. Suddenly, the boxes jostled painfully into his chest and someone cried out. “Shit, I’m sorry,” Cameron apologized to whomever he had run into.

“Idiot, watch where you’re going,” a familiar voice exclaimed. Shit, Cameron thought, it’s Erina! 

Cameron set down the boxes and began to help Erina pick up the items she had dropped. “I’m really sorry,” he said.

“Cameron? God, I should have known it was you, you fucking klutz.” An electronic clicking sound came from Cameron’s pocket.

“Jeez, Erina. I said I was sorry.”

“I can’t believe I gave up part of my weekend for you. What a waste.” The electronic clicking happened again. Cameron glanced curiously down at his pocket where his alien-metal-encased phone was.

“Don’t touch that,” Erina snapped, and Cameron looked back up at her in surprise. She snatched a plastic applicator from his hand. “Don’t touch any of my stuff.”

“I was only trying to help,” Cameron replied, hurt. He stood up and watched Erina gather the rest of her things. She was wearing a sheer yellow blouse that displayed the dark outlines of her heavy-duty bra. The bra seemed designed to emphasize her large breasts rather than hide them and her cleavage jiggled and bounced provocatively. 

Erina looked up sharply and Cameron looked away, certain he had been caught scoping out her tits. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Erina’s scowl, her mouth opened to let him have it and then… She hesitated. Her expression became thoughtful for a moment and she said. “You know, you’re right. I over-reacted,” Erina said. Cameron stared at her in shock and Erina went on, “I’m under a lot of pressure to get perfect grades and sociology just assigned this huge midterm project and I have no idea how I’m going to get it done, so I’m stressing. I’m sorry I snapped at you.”

“You’re sorry?” Cameron asked, struggling to process the idea that Erina was capable of apology.

“Yeah.” 

“What about last night?” Cameron blurted out, emboldened.

“Last night?”

“You said I was a loser.” 

“Oh that,” Erina laughed. “I get a bit catty when I’ve been drinking, just ignore it.” Had she been drinking? Cameron struggled to remember if Erina had drank any champagne but the night’s details were lost in a fog.

“Okay, well, umm. Apology accepted,” Cameron said at last.

“I knew you’d understand!” Erina said clapping her hand together so that her breasts bulged against her sheer top. She held the pose, hands pressed together as though praying while sharing the warmest but-still-not-quite-sincere smile Cameron had ever seen on her.

“And uhm, maybe I can help you with that sociology project?” he offered.

“Omigod,” Erina gushed, “You would do that for me?”

“I said help though, I’m not go-”

“That is such a relief!” Erina interrupted. “If you did that project for me I’d really owe you big,” Erina gave a pointed look down at her tits and forced them together even more tightly with her arms. The line of cleavage was a canyon Cameron longed desperately to dive into. Erina brushed a strand of blond hair out of her face and cocked her head expectantly.

Shaking off tit-nosis Cameron said as firmly as he could manage, “I can’t do the whole thing myself.” A mid term project would require dozens of hours, and he had his own homework and a job to consider.

“Of course I’ll help,” Erina said. “I’ve even got a subject figured out. I love fashion so let’s make it about clothes.” 

“Umm, what about clothes?”

“I dunno, like how they make people think of you?”

“Oh,” Cameron said. “Something like uhm, The Effect of Attire in Relationships.”

“Perfect!” Erina praised. “I’m so glad we bumped into each other, that’s such a weight off my back. And you know,” she said with a wink, “My back has plenty to carry as it is.” Erina’s tits did a little bounce and shimmy as she turned and sauntered away leaving Cameron staring dumbfounded at her swaying hips.

Cameron’s phone buzzed to signal the hour. He pulled it out and saw the alien zero had become a seven.