NATE VIRAMONTES - RESET

Nate Viramontes has been writing for 3 years, with a bachelors in creative writing being received in may of this year. He has work for a year as a writer at mutilmediamouth.com as well as this being his second published worked. He hopes to land a job as a TV writer after he graduated having already written a few ready to be read full length sit com scripts as well.  

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​You ever wake up in the morning feeling like you had something important to remind yourself but for the life of you no matter how hard you try you can’t remember? What do you do, do you shrug off that feeling of forgetfulness? Do you try everything in your power to remember what it was?
            Because that is how I am feeling this morning I woke up from what felt like the worst nightmare of my life feeling like I had something so important to remember it’s just this weird feeling honestly in the back of mind. I decide to do what I always do when I am trying to shake off a bad nightmare and that’s to play a video game. It always helps me to get my head back on straight and feel all the more ready for the day. I can only play for so long before I have to get ready for work and when I finally do leave, I run into my friend Ryan.
            “Tony! Thank God you’re okay I thought something bad happened to you man.” Ryan said.
            “Hey, slow down Ryan what are you talking about? Look at me I’m totally fine, it’s a bright beautiful day in the good old year 2089” I said.
            “Tony listen to me man we need to talk about yesterday at some point please it’s important.” I can see that Ryan is seriously shaken up about something I am not really sure what but he looks like he hasn’t slept since 2078 or shower for that matter.
            “Ryan, bud Okay I’ll come by your house tonight sound good we can talk then.”
            “No! Not my house, Tony, meet me at this address and look for the blue storage container got me?”
            “Okay man okay I’ll come by tonight then just try to shower between then and now.” Well that was the weirdest thing I have ever seen Ryan do in my entire life, I try to shake it off and head to work. Good old New Detroit city, this place is quickly becoming the most high-tech town all around. People all over the place wearing next gen sunglasses and watches. These days everything has tech in it.
            I go through the motion of the rest of my day as a journalist for NDC dailies. I had been covering a story about the company that makes everything that runs our city. Just a little-known company called Livewire. Rumor has it they run test of people to try out their most dangerous of technology, I don’t know about you but that is pretty illegal and bodies keep popping up all around town with weird laser burns all over their bodies. I’ve been investigating it for about year now still no real good leads.
Once all is said and done at work, I head to Ryan to talk and see what was bothering him so much. I get down to the address he gave me and shocking it’s the docks, no one really goes here anymore it’s part of old Detroit. It’s usually abandoned minus the drug attics and in my case my insane friend Ryan. I find the blue container and knock hard and it swings open and I am quickly pulled in by Ryan,
“Jesus, Tony, why don’t you knock louder next time wake up all of New Detroit and let Livewire know were right here!”
“Calm down man, please tell me why you dragged me all the way over to Old Detroit?” Ryan looks surprised by my comment.
“You really don’t remember? Nothing at all from the last 48 hours. You don’t remember what happened last night?”
“What? Yes, I remember I went to work then my house played a video game and crashed it was a calm night.” Ryan looked into my eyes with disbelief like he just saw a ghost behind me.
“That’s not at all what happened man, Jesus they got to you it really happened!”
“Ryan slow down what are you talking about?” Before I could finish my sentence, Ryan pulls a cover off the wall showing a massive board with red thread connecting dots all over New Detroit with one name in the center of it all Livewire.
“You know how you been investigating them for a while now man you and I were getting close, I told you yesterday morning I had found something big that they were in fact testing their new age tech on people. Do you remember?” Ryan grabs my shoulders and looks more spaztic then I have ever seen him act.
“Isn’t all of this just rumor man? I’ve been investigating them for months and so far, they have been very clean. You telling me that all changed?”
“Yes! As of yesterday, I found out who they were kidnapping and what they were kidnapping them for but before I could get here and before I could show you all of this crap you disappeared. That’s why I was freaking out when I found you this morning, I thought you were dead. I thought they got to you.”
My heart starts bounding out of my chest I can’t remember what happened yesterday night all I can remember was playing a video game all night. Why? What happened to me?
“Ryan listen to me you have to tell me everything that you had, was I being followed?”
“I am not sure maybe… maybe the boogie man got you.”
“The boogie man? Are you joking?”
“No listen I’ve heard rumors that there is some sort of thing that comes and get you when you asked to many questions about our dear tech company, everyone on the web calls him the boogie man.”
“Ryan, listen to me as great as all that sounds tell me what did we find out that was going to blow this story up and finally nab these guys?” Ryan takes a deep breath trying to center himself to start and tell me what happened.
“We discover that all this shit all this crazy tech we all use on a regular basis was not only tested on by humans first but they are kidnapping homeless people and making them test out the tech. Livewire is trying to develop some new tech that is going to keep us plugged in at all times.”
But before Ryan could finish that thought that one precious sentence that would of finally help us topple Livewire, we heard it. The loudest thud you ever hear on top of the storage crate. Something was here and it didn’t sound normal.
“Ryan, what was that?”
“Oh no Tony we have to go now man we have to get out of here, he’s here.”
“Whose here what is that!”
“The boogie man, take this we have to run.” Ryan hands me a gun and looks like he’s about to explode from shaking so much.
“Tony when I open the door run and don’t look back take this drive, I have one too he can’t get both of us, this has all the information we’d need to take down Livewire.”
 Ryan opens the door all I can do is nod in agreement we start to run outside and that’s when I start to hear something that isn’t human make noise from on top of the storage crate. It so dark all I can see its red neon eyes look at both of us and Ryan starts to fire.
“Over here asshole come on!” Ryan keeps firing and then this shadowy figure stands tall and pounces on top of him, all I can hear after is Ryan’s screams. I don’t look back I keep running but not to my house but to my newspaper office maybe they won’t think to look there first.
I open the drive on my computer once I get to my office, I can’t believe what I saw. It was a video of me time stamped yesterday an hour prior to this. I looked pretty beat up and scared, I’m terrified to even look at this video but I have to know what Livewire is doing and why I can’t remember this video at all.
“Uh, hello everyone, you know me my name is Tony Ramos, I’m a reporter at NDC dailies and well I messed up big time. I’ve been investigating Livewire for about a year now and for a while found nothing. Then my friend Ryan he uh comes to me and showed me everything all the evidence I’d need to take down Livewire,” Old Me said.
            I had the pause the video for a second why would Ryan have a recording of me from yesterday? How’d he even get it?
            “Livewire has been kidnapping homeless people and doing all sorts of test on them but what Ryan didn’t know what I found out was that they’ve also been wiping people’s minds on a daily basis. They have some device that can help anyone forget about something they might of saw. If your watching this I might be dead or worst I don’t know this drive has all of the data you’d need to take down Livewire,” Old me said.
            Before I could open the drive, I heard a slam outside my office someone was in here and they weren’t supposed to be.  The boogie Man I think he found me, or knows I am close by at least. My heart pounds in my ears and my hands shake more then a guy in need of a fix. I steady my hand and grab the drive out of my computer and look for anywhere to hide.
            I look out my office window I know how to get out of here I just have to be quiet about it. I take a deep breath and try to stay calm. I slowly open my door praying it does make a sound, it’s then I hear it the mechanical footsteps of some sort of machine getting closer and closer to me. I start to crawl behind every desk I can, I don’t even want to look at it. It’s then I hit a desk to hard and some pens fall on the floor and almost in an instant this thing is on that desk.
            I quickly slide over behind a different desk so I don’t get caught, I can hear it almost breathing it sounds like with every movement it monstrous body creeks closer to me almost finding me. I put my hand to my mouth to try stop myself from screaming as it gets closer to me. With every thud of this things feet I think this is it. It’s then I had the dumbest idea I ever had I grab a pen and chuck to the other side of the room.
            The monster hears the noise and runs over there as fast as it can it’s then while he’s moving and focused, I make a run for it down the stairs to the ground and floor. I was too busy looking back I never looked forward to what was in front of me. I open the door and there he was standing over me he looked like some kind of mix of robot and man. As if there might have been a human inside that thing at some point. It growls at me and I try to run but it’s to late it already got me.
            I woke back up for just a moment to see we were headed back to the Livewire building and I knew whatever was going to happen next was not going to end well for me. I pass out again and wake up to a voice that I’d never heard before it almost didn’t even sound human.
            “Wake up Mr. Ramos, wake up,” The voice says.  I looked up to see a man well what looks to be a man with a cybernetic mouthpiece on he was dressed in surgeon scrubs and looked to be even more terrifying then the boogie man himself.
            “Where the hell am I?” I said.
            “Well clearly you’re not where you want to be right now, I mean how many times are we going to have do this dance your starting to really get on my nerves Ramos,” the voice said.
            “Who are you? What dance what are you even talking about?” I feel groggier than ever even trying to get those words out of my mouth felt like I was trying to lift a ten-ton weight with my tongue. 
            “Ah that’s right you don’t remember me, silly me I am so forgetful sometimes. Allow me to reintroduce myself. Dr. Schultz at your service my dear friend. Did you enjoy running away from what do you call him, ah yes “The Boogie man” really such a great name for my little creation,” Dr. Schultz said.
            “Schultz why do I know your name? Who are you what have you done to me!”
            “Oh no need to shout dear Tony, you see you were trying to blow the whistle on me again. This isn’t the first time you have tried either.”
            “Yeah, it’s not going to be the last either buddy let me tell you.” He slaps me to get me to realize I am not in control here he is.
            “Silence boy, you’ve meddled in my affairs to long as it is, as you can clearly tell I know who you are but you have no idea who I am at all. You have been trying to ruin my life work for almost a year now getting closer and closer until last night you finally your little friend saw something he wasn’t suppose.”
            “So why not just kill me then, send your little pet to end your little annoying problem?”
            “Trust me I want to so very badly; do you truly know how easy it would be to make you be completely forgotten by anyone you’ve ever come into contact with? Truth is you been most helpful in helping me find out who is leaking company secrets to the press. With poor Mr. Ryan out of the way now, I don’t really have a need for you anymore.”
            My heart sinks I really don’t know what to say next is this the end after all of this is this truly how it all ends for me? I look around as this Doctor keeps talking, I see next to me a few tanks of O2, maybe when he turns his back, I can get it and distract him?
            “But to be completely honest with you boy I rather like your spunk; I see you looking around the room for a way out. I see your eyes looking for hope where there is none at all. Like I said we’ve done this dance before.”
            “What did you do to me! Come on tell me.”
            “I wiped your mind dear boy; you finally knew to much and it was time to get rid of you but unfortunately you just still manage to come back over and over no matter how many times I try to make you forget or even kill you. Not anymore though now it’s time for this dance to end.”     
He stands up and heads to a button on the wall I am not sure what it does exactly but I think I am out of time. I can’t feel anything not even my heart beat I just feel numb as the Doctor takes steps ever so closer to my end.
            “Goodbye Mr. Ramos” Schultz said.
            As I prepared for my end the shackles came undone, I looked over to the doctor smiling. I couldn’t even begin to understand what he was doing or what his plan was.
            “What is this?” I said.
“Tony, I rather find this little game fun so one last little chase for old time sakes, please Tony go ahead and run.”
            I look at him with a door wide open I know this my only shot I run for the door but before I do I knock over the O2 canister in the room and one rams itself toward the doctor not sure if he’s dead or not all I heard was the crunch not even a scream from him.
            “See’ya,” I said.
 I run faster than I’ve ever run in my whole life. I feel like all I see is an endless hallway as try and make it to the closest door out. I finally reach the exits and I feel the cool night breeze on my face I feel like I can breathe again. All I can think about right now is running home getting what I need and running away at least for a little while.
            I finally make it home and it looks safe, I think it’s all over. I head to my apartment I take a deep breath before I open the door. I go into my house and close the door and lock it and it’s then I hear the deep breathing on my neck and see the red glowing eyes on the door. 
“Game over.”  I said.
            You ever wake up in the morning feeling like you had something important to remind yourself but for the life of you no matter how hard you try you can’t remember? What do you do, do you shrug off that feeling of forgetfulness? Do you try everything in your power to remember what it was?
            Because that is how I am feeling this morning I woke up from what felt like the worst nightmare of my life feeling like I had something so important to remember it just this weird feeling honestly in the back of mind. I decide to do what I always do when I am trying to shake off a bad nightmare and that’s play a video game. It always helps me to get my head back on straight and feel all the more ready for the day. I feel like today is going to be a great day.