A Child's View (part 5)

Chapter 3




Tum had two goals upon waking that morning. One was to disable his chip. The other was to find the girl he met in the natural place. He also wanted to meet her friends and find out what the small group was about. He knew he could no longer trust the public transport, and without the chip he could travel about more freely. But he also knew without the chip he would be without credits for food, and the strange security, one of almost captivity, that the chip provided. He would have to travel on foot, and he would have to be cautious not to give himself away.


        The first task, disabling the chip, would be difficult enough. Why didn’t the girl give more information? He knew it wasn’t impossible, as he had met the girl, and the small band existed without chips. Even without their chips, it was amazing the group was able to escape detection. The people were under surveillance in many different ways.


        There were the blimps as an English speaker might understand them, flying high above barely seen by the people.  There were the small automated craft that appeared and disappeared,  getting various sections of the planet. Some of them came equipped with weapons, just in case there are any dangerous rogues to be dealt with. Of course, there were also simple camera like devices, in various locations, keeping watch over the public. Tum often wondered why all this is necessary when the people are already under the induced haze of the "sousx."


         As he sat in his tree house, it started the dawn on him how to disable his chip, it must be done through mind processes. He couldn't quite pin down just how to begin. If only to girl had told him.


 For hours he would begin, come to a dead end, and start over again.  It had to have something to do with affecting the nerves where the chip was.  But how?  He experimented with different ideas, first making an attempt thinking of energy, or perhaps making the neurons overload right on the spot, on what an earthling might call his neck, which is where the chip is located.


He could feel the nerve start to tingle.  No matter what he did, the chip was still active. He couldn't quite understand how he knew that, he just did. It was part of the greater awareness he was developing.  He just couldn't get past a certain point in the procedure.


         He came at from different directions trying to affect different nerve groups or paths. Not being a neurosurgeon he understood what he was doing intuitively.


          It was starting to get very late but he kept at it.  He could feel a tingling sensation.  Then he felt something, but all at once the pain stopped.  He then knew the chip was deactivated.  He became very frightened by this.  There were many dangers involved. The danger of not being able to have food. The danger of putting his family in trouble. The state would surely know he wasn't using his credits. Even if he just left,  the security services might still visit his parents. It being very late Tum decide to go to sleep for the night.


         The next morning he considered this problem for a very long time.  There had to be a way to keep his family out of it.