The Misfits

Elias

Elias sat at the table playing a video game. He had the day off so he was distracting himself until he could check the results of the port sniffer later that night.

“Hey,” he heard from behind him. He guessed that he had lost track of time and Peg was bringing him his dinner.

Elias glanced over his shoulder, then did a double take. It wasn’t Peg.

Enya stood just inside the door and Peg just outside.

“Can I come in?” Enya asked.

“Oh. Yeah, come in,” he said.

Enya walked in further and instead of following her, Peg closed the door and walked off.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“I was told I could visit you.”

“You asked to visit me?”

She looked down, which gave him a chance to look at her. It was the first time he saw her in the same scrubs everyone else wore. Her long black hair was loose and hung around her shoulders.

“I won’t lie. No. But not because I didn’t want to. I didn’t think there was any point, so I didn’t. But Peg told me I could visit if I wanted to. So here I am.”

“Oh. That’s okay. I think I managed to talk them into letting us act more like kids and less like prisoners. This is a start. Peg said that they are making a room for us to use so we can do things together.

“We need friends. Others our own ages, not the guards, to talk to, to play games with, and so on. She said there will be limits and restrictions, so we’ll see.”

“Planning on getting us together to stage a revolt? Gonna break us out?”

Elias rolled his eyes. “No. I’m not sure if we could. And all I’d do is stop people, so I’m not the one to lead anything. You’re a better candidate for that than I am.”

Enya ignored that and walked over to him, looking at the screen he had been using. “Watcha doing?”

“Playing games. It’s what I did before to waste away time,” Elias told her.

“So what else do you do around here?”

“Read some, watch watched a few movies, and mostly stopped other kids from using their powers. That’s about it.”

“What movies?” she asked, curious.

He told her, and she laughed. “Really? I didn’t peg you for the type. I mean, the last is kind of a girl’s movie.”

He then explained about Hailey and that she had picked them.

“I think I know her. Cute little girl who can heal people?”

“Yeah, that’s her.”

“She’s healed me several times, including our little experiment, see?” she said, raising her top some, showing him her smooth, unblemished stomach. “I would show you my thighs, but that would be a little too personal for our first play date. I don’t play doctor on the first date,” she said, kidding.

Elias was conflicted. He was glad she was okay, but at the expense of Hailey. Plus, the view of her abs, smooth skin and cute belly button wasn’t helping matters any.

“I don’t want you hurt, but just so you know, when Hailey helps people, she gets hurt in exchange.

“What?” she asked, aghast.

He nodded. “In fact, her bruises looked like yours. And now that I think about it, they were on her torso and legs, just like yours, but not in the exact same places. Did she heal you after our session?”

Enya nodded, a look of horror on her face. “That poor girl. It didn’t seem like they forced her. I certainly didn’t.”

“No. She hadn’t told anyone that her healing did that to her.”

“Hey, wait,” she said, eyeing him. “How did you see all those bruises on her torso and legs? What were you two doing?”

“Whoa. Nothing remotely like what you’re thinking, I’m sure.” He explained how it all happened.

“So, she conveniently forgot her underwear? She might be smarter than I gave her credit for,” Enya said.

“Huh?”

“Oh, nothing. I guess I was thinking out loud. That was good thinking on your part. Her going commando could have been awkward for everyone.”

Elias looked at her like you was crazy.

“What? It’s obvious that she has a crush on you,” Enya told him.

“What? No way. She’s just scared and lonely. We all are.”

“Okay,” she said with a shrug.

Elias didn’t know what they could do together for whatever time they had, so he suggested a movie.

“Only if I can pick,” she said.

“Sure.” Elias wasn’t sure that the couch-bed would really be appropriate for the two of them, so they sat on stools for the table.

Enya picked a romantic movie and Elias wasn’t sure if she was just teasing him about Hailey or what. She joked about a date, but they were basically prisoners, so dating wasn’t really in the cards at this particular point in time.

He decided he was reading too much into it, so he just watched the movie, stealing glances at Enya to see if she was having a good time.

She seemed to be, so he relaxed.

When the movie ended, Enya turned to face him and said, “Pick a game and teach me to play it.”

“Well, what games to you know how to play?”

“None, I don’t play games,” she said seriously.

“Okay, well, what type of game do you think you would like?”

“What kind are there?” she asked.

He was surprised that she was serious about not playing any games, so he described several types to her.

“What, none with killing in them?” she asked.

This surprised him. Peg had gotten him a few first-person shooters, so he described some of them to him.

She picked one and he started it up.

He explained the controller and which buttons did what and let her have at it.

She died a lot at first, but he stood over her shoulder, giving her pointers and she quickly caught on.

At one point, he leaned over to point out a hidden power up and he caught a floral scent. Perfume or her shampoo?

His shampoo didn’t smell like flowers, it smelled more like medicine.

The next time he leaned in, he stayed there and inhaled.

Enya turned her head slightly and looked at him sideways, smiling. “What?” she asked.

He jerked up, turning red from being caught. “Um, you died,” he mumbled.

She turned around towards him and said, “Why Elias, where you… smelling me?”

“What? No. Of course not,” he said, turning even more red.

“Then what were you doing?” she asked with a grin.

He was saved from having to answer back because Peg walked in at that moment.

“And how was your time together?” she asked with a smile.

Before Elias could answer, Enya said, “We had fun! Next time I want a movie night with snacks. If there is a next time that is.”

Peg looked between them, then said, “I’ll see what can be done. Maybe we can do group movies as well when the new room is done. It should only be a few days.”

“That’s cool. Elias told me what you are doing for us. I think it will be a good thing.”

“We shall see,” Peg said. “Now it’s time to go. Dinner will be ready shortly.”

Enya turned and gave Elias a hug, whispering, “Thanks for everything. I needed all of it.”

She let go and walked out, followed by Peg, leaving Elias wondering what she meant.

After dinner, he read for a while, then dimmed the lights and went to the computer. He gained supervisor access, then checked the output file of the port sniffer.

There was a firewall that limited outside access, but there were a few ports he could possibly use to relay email or maybe access a website.

Using the address of an open email server he knew, he sent out an email using a Linux mail command line.

For this, he would keep it short and cryptic. No one would be able to reply, and if it was seen, he didn’t want anyone to realize the system had been hacked, and if so, by whom.

Elias sent it to a gaming friend who would recognize it was from him, and maybe something might come out of it.

The program acknowledged it was sent, but he knew that didn’t mean anything. Something could have stopped it and the simple program wouldn’t know the difference.

He continued to browse around and found an unshadowed copy of usernames and passwords. An unshadowed meant that they weren’t encrypted by the system and could be hacked to obtain the actual logins.

He had hit the jackpot if any of them were still valid.

He created a new directory deeply buried in a random location and copied the file over to experiment with at a later point.

Not wanting to stay logged in for too long so he didn’t get flagged, he logged out and went to bed.