Project Cellron

“Can I have another?” Quinton asks the bartender as he looks down at his watch still waiting for his best friends. A half hour passes before Jaiden and Miles finally walk in and make their way over to a slightly annoyed Quinton.

“Yo bro, sorry I’m late” says Jaiden resting his hand on Quinton’s back “BUT, I think we found you a new spot!”

Quinton’s eyes widen and he turns to Jaiden eagerly “How much?”

“700 a month” Jaiden replies, “but, full disclosure, the previous tenant died in the apartment.”

Seeing the concerned expression on his friends face, Jaiden continues “Story is that he was shot while trying to stop a robbery and ran home. I guess he bled out waiting for help.”

“Holy Fuck” Quinton looked down and stared at the bar top blankly.

“The guy even went to our school; I think his name was Nick Oslo. Landlord said he was a 4th year.” says Miles as he waves the bartender down.

“Who cares? The place is available and cheap” interrupts Jaiden.

Quinton picks up his drink and chugs. Head full of questions about everything, he settles on the fact that he needs a place to live fast and $700 was the best offer for a broke college student. He looks at the guys with defeat “I guess I’ll take it.”

Jaiden grins, “Excellent! Let’s fuckin’ drink.”

Finally settled in and feeling more than a little hungry, Quinton enters the kitchen and begins making something to eat. In a groove and moving too swiftly, Quinton is soon reminded that he is an engineering student and not a chef as the kitchen knife falls to the ground. He watches it bounce and hit a part of the wall near the kitchen counter, causing a loud hollow thud to echo from where the knife hit. Curious, Quinton goes down and knocks on the wall a couple more times to investigate, noticing there is definitely a space hidden behind the wall. Using the knife to pry open the little bit of wall he finds a small black notebook and picks it up to to examine it. The books cover seems to be made out of a flexible black metal with wires running just under the surface, which resembled veins. Inside the pages were laminated with code in silver lines and circles, absent of any words and unlike anything he’s ever seen before. Confused and interrupted by the sound of his growling stomach, he tosses it on the counter and continues to cook.

The following Monday, while meeting with Miles and Jaiden for pizza and beers in the residence common room, Quinton tells them about the book. Miles, clearly uninterested in the complexity of the description, suggests it be used merely for the storage of girls and their numbers. Quinton ignores this as he reaches for a slice of pizza. Another student in a very panicked state, messy hair and food on his shirt, was being harassed by some fraternity brothers, clearly a longtime victim of hazing. Quinton stands up in defense of the student but is quickly pulled down by Miles “No need to get your ass kicked, just leave it” Quinton sits down and just watches in anger and disgust. They were rich and untouchable and usually got away with everything. The student punches one of the brothers after they destroy his laptop, causing the others jump in beating him a little before the campus security comes and breaks it up.

“See, handled” says Miles to a seething Quinton.

That night after Quinton went home a little drunk but decided to pour himself a stiff drink anyway, clearly still upset about what he witnessed today and upset with himself for just sitting by. Upon returning to his room with his drink and some tools in hand he picks up the black book and inspects it. After finishing his drink Quinton was going to attempt taking the book apart, but after opening the book he sees something that shocks him. Yesterday the book was empty, but today it read:

“Hello mister Reese, welcome to Project Cellron. We, from the future need your help. Follow the instructions you receive from this book and your life will be spared upon completion of three simple tasks.”

“What the hell” Quinton whispered as he continued to read.

“As proof, which I’m sure you will require in order to fully comprehend how real this all is; turn on your T.V. exactly 24 hours from now, channel 5 news. There you will see rather mundane news of a puppy being rescued from a sewer drain 4 blocks from your home.”

Quinton snaps the book shut and puts it on the table, deciding the day has been too long and clearly needed to sober up.

The next day before heading to class, Quinton checked the book again and it’s empty. “It felt so real” he mutters and the event sticks on his mind all day. After classes he heads home, to check the news to settle his questioning mind. The news coverage is indeed about the puppy. Wide eyed and stunned, he rushes to the book and opens it back up. inside he finds his first orders:

“Mr. Reese, use your skills and training in engineering to make a taser strong enough to stop a human you have 48 hours”

Quinton was taken back by the order. What could this have to do with money? What do they want me to do? If they are from the future that means, to them, I must have already completed my tasks. So, it should be no big deal for me to do it… Mind still racing, he looks around his home for his tools and parts he would need and realizes that he would need to steal some parts from school in order to complete the taser, so he’ll have head to campus early in the morning to get it done.

Two days later, with the taser finally complete. He takes a breath and opens the book and reads:

“Mr. Reese in exactly 3 hours from now we want you to take the taser to this address: 3678 Tiller Ave. You are to locate a man named Keith; he is planning a robbery later on that will result in the accidental death of someone. In order to prevent this, you must use the taser on him to knock him out.”

Quinton broke into a cold sweat as he kept reading

“Mr. Reese use the taser on Keith, and Keith alone. Do not lose the taser, and leave the book at home. Finally, involve no one else. More instructions will follow at 7:00 am sharp.”

The address was a bar in the clubbing district across town so Quinton heads out shortly after reading the instructions, as it will take him some time to get there and figure out who the hell Keith was. On the bus he can feel the anxiety build.

If I don’t do this, someone will die.

The pressure was getting to him, but he quickly slaps himself on the cheek.

Get it together, you already completed the task or else, why send you?

When he finally arrives at the bar, he decides to look around outside before entering. As he turns the corner, he sees four guys sitting beside a fence at the back of a bar. The men are all smoking. Not knowing what to do, but thinking quick, he walks over to the men, and asks “Uh, which one of you is Keith?”

“Who wants to know” one of the men asks as the rest look at him with confusion on their faces.

“Uh, it’s just that there are some guys in the bar talking shit about a Keith and his boys, I figured it might be one of you and came to warn you, they sound kind of wild.” Quinton replies.

The three men look to the left, and the fourth man speaks, “Fucking Zeke, his drunk ass is gonna get beat tonight, then it’s on to business”

The three men started walking to the bar. Keith takes a couple extra seconds to focus himself, he then takes one last pull of his smoke, and turns to starts walking away. Quinton panics, as he watched Keith walk away, he then said, “Keith, right?”

The man turns “Ye, why?”

“Can I get a light?” Quinton replies

Pretending to pull out cigarettes, he reaches for the pocket with the taser in it. As soon as Keith got close enough, Quinton pulls out the taser and shocks him in the neck, causing Keith to yell out briefly and fall to the ground. Quinton quickly puts the taser back in his pocket. Keith’s three friends, not yet in the bar, quickly turn around to see him on the floor, and rush towards Quinton who makes a run for it. Two of the men chase him, catching him a few blocks later and begin to beat him down before people in the street notice and step in to help, causing the men to retreat. Helping him to his feet and checking to make sure he is okay; Quinton reassures them that he is fine before limping to the nearest bus stop to head home and leave the events of this night behind.

Quinton jumps from his sleep to the sound of his alarm. It was 7:00 am. He rolls over picking up the black book and it simply reads:

“Keep the taser on your person all day, avoid the fraternity, and put the book back where you found it.”

Quinton reluctantly followed orders; he spent all day in a daze, with fresh cuts and bruises on his face. Finally reaching a break between classes, he heads to the common area for lunch, but was forced to duck into an empty classroom when he spots the fraternity brothers walking in his direction. He waits for a few minutes, before leaving he hears a commotion followed by screaming and a couple loud pops, right away he knew what they were. Quinton flings the door open to witness the nightmare unfolding before him. The student that has been hazed repeatedly was holding a gun and was firing into the common area. When he stops to reload, Quinton uses the chance to run up and tase him, knocking him out cold.

The horrific event led to several casualties, many other injured students, the shooter was arrested and Quinton was taken in for questioning. After leaving the station the only question he remembered being asked is “Why did you have a taser on school grounds”, recalling the events of the previous night he expertly replied “I got jumped last night and I wanted to feel safe” Quinton could tell that the officer didn’t believe him, but couldn’t prove Quinton had any involvement in what happened on campus.

After getting home later that evening, there was an envelope on the floor, just inside his apartment door. He picked it up and walked to the kitchen, he went straight for the black book. His hands trembled as he held the book and breathed heavily, these events would forever haunt him. Finally, he opened the book:

“Congratulations Mr. Reese you have succeeded, where Nick Oslo failed. We assure you that everything we ask of you is for the betterment of the future. An envelope should have arrived in the mail, it contains your payment in the sum of twenty thousand dollars. Project Cellron still needs you, so unfortunately, we aren’t finished yet. Check this book in exactly 12 days and 3 hours form now. There you will find further instructions for your next task.”

TO BE CONTINUED…