[Please provide your identity]
The sonorous and beautiful voice of the speaker sounded haggard and broken through the outdated security model.
They were currently standing outside one of the houses at the edges of camp N-229.
It was about two floors tall, but it had many underground levels which were out of view. The building itself looked just like any other. It was plain grey, with rectangular windows.
Zoey and Peter were currently standing in front of two huge metal doors. Each probably weighed about a ton.
"User C15-7-11-2505-N-229. Permission to enter."
[Processing...]
[Please provide biometrics.]
Zoey placed his hand on a green glass plane below the old speaker.
[Permission granted. Please step aside for the doors to open.]
(Pshhhhhh)
[Welcome, to facility B-3-N-229 of The Circle]
The two doors slid open with bright lights flooding Peter and Zoey. They entered inside with a mix of fear, rush and anticipation.
As they entered, two things came into view. The whole place seemed to be empty, with the sole exception of a gaunt boy about the same age as the both of them, and a glass elevator all the way at the back.
The boy seemed to be wearing a black and white striped collared shirt, with the same design on his slack pants. No shoes though.
The only prominent features were the bright red armband strapped around his left arm and the square glasses on his face.
He stretched both arms and smiled lightly.
"Zoey! It's good to s-"
"Yeah, yeah. Fuck you too Li. Take us to Coin already, will you? We're leaving this fatty here, so tell one of Coin's lackeys to take care of the rest."
The austere boy's smile froze. He pushed his glasses back, gathered himself and responded.
"Again with that profane mouth of yours, Zoey"
Li sighed and continued.
"Im afraid you will need to be sanitized first, and then we can move to visit boss."
"Well hurry up then. We don't have all day."
They walked into the elevator as Li stood behind it's control panel on the front left.
He eyed Zoey down, showing a hint of disgust and repulsiveness.
"You really cannot ever return with a decently clean pair of clothes from the outside, can you?"
Peter rolled his eyes but didn't say anything. Zoey snarled at him. "Shut up, Li."
Li promptly did so. It seemed Li was really good at doing what he was told. Maybe that's why he basically became Coin's lapdog.
Peter felt bad for Li, thinking about what he had to go through to get to that position. Zoey on the other hand, just felt plain hatred towards the young man.
For Zoey, it didn't really matter what Li had to go through. All Zoey needed to know was that he had a choice. And Li made the wrong choice, so he ended up with them. They went upstairs in the glass elevator. There, Zoey and Peter were led into another white room.
Inside the room, two neatly folded sets of black and white striped clothes were spread across a plastic table. The clothes seemed to have patches of cloth stitched onto them. Clearly done by a kid, with uneven stitches across most of the patches. The clothes weren't exactly clean as to say, but they were in a much better condition than what the two were currently wearing.
Zoey and Peter first went into the sanitation room.
[Initiating sanitation.]
They were sprayed with what seemed to be like water. The liquid substance stuck to most of the dirt and grime on their body and seeped into the drain below their feet.
"Where do they even get all this high tech stuff? There's clearly something fishy going on."
"Do you even know what a fish is?"
Zoey laughed as he heard Peter.
"Of course I do. You might be surprised, Pete, but fishes are things that live in the water."
"Huh, what a luxury. No wonder we don't hear about them anymore."
"Well, they didn't have much of a choice, since they could only get oxygen from the water."
Peter was taken aback. He suspiciously asked Zoey. "Theres's oxygen in water?"
But Zoey responded calmly, acting as if it was a well-known fact, and he didn't just hear it from some older workers in the mines.
"Mostly, yes. The oxygen is dissolved in it, so that's why we can't breathe underwater if you're wondering."
[Sanitation complete]
Zoey picked up a fresh pair of folded clothes and got changed.
He then left the white room only to see that Li was waiting right in front of the elevator, tapping his foot impatiently. "Took you long enough."
They got on the elevator again, and this time, Li commanded the control panel to the lowest floor.
The lift went straight down, until it came to a smooth stop at the bottom floor. Hard rock surface could be seen below the see-through floor of the glass elevator.
The whole bottom floor was... cave-like. With the only thing looking out of place was a set of giant steel doors... And maybe the menacing automized security camera turret.
[Identification required.]
"User B12-9-7-2503-N-229. Permission to enter."
[Processing...]
[Please provide biometrics.]
Li looked straight into the camera, while a laser pointed on one of his eyes. The laser quickly scanned through his whole eye back and forth, twice.
[Identity Confirmed. Welcome, Li]
Li curtly nodded and started walking forward. The doors slid open in front of him. There was a luscious red carpet that flowed forward like a river of blood, as if inviting guests to a slaughterhouse.
The three of them walked forward at a steady pace. Lots of art and decorations adorned the walls. Surely, they were worth way more than they could imagine.
They walked a bit more through the grand hallway, till they found what could only be described as the most extravagant and ultimate flaunt of wealth ever.
Two big wooden doors were standing in front of them. They had a yellowish shiny metal adorned throughout like veins. Two circular knobs of the same metal were waiting to be turned. Li walked forward towards the doors but was quickly cut off by Zoey. With a big grin on his face, Zoey threw the doors open.
Li gritted his teeth and shouted.
"Zoey, what the hell are you doing?!"
Peter couldn't help but smile at Zoey. Zoey then stepped through and spread his hands open.
"Coin! We finished your job. The man that you told us to bring has been brought."
The dark room was lit by blue lights from multiple screens. A broad shouldered man was standing in front of the screens, with his back to them. He was fully bald, with scars all across his head. His eyes had an intense gaze.
The man slowly turned around and smiled lightly.
"Ah... I've been expecting you, Zoey."