The Drop Out Part IV

"Stop...can't br.." The words choked out almost in a whisper. We both knew I was dying. He relaxed his grip enough for me to speak.

"I'm not what you think. I'm not a spy but I'm not a college professor either." I proceeded to tell him about my plan to escape the watchful eye of the government but that I had done nothing wrong except for value my anonymity and write an article that opposed a government position. "Please don't kill me. I just wanted to get away from it. I don't want to harm you or the government. I just wanted to get away." My pleading relaxed his grip even further and I could tell he believed me.

He turned me around and spoke. "Who are you and what do you do if you're not a professor?"

I'm just a person, nothing more than that. I write, do odd jobs and grow my own food. I wasn't always a writer. At one time, I had a very high paying job. Little by little, I saw the changes. The more I watched the more disenchanted I became and I quit. Not just the job, but society as a whole. I locked myself in my house and only came out when it was necessary or I if had to tend to the garden. I tried to live under the radar but spent a week in hell for something I wrote. That was enough. I knew at that moment I had to get away."

He looked directly into my eyes as I spoke. "You are telling the truth. I can see it. You have to leave here. You're putting me and everyone else in danger."

"Why? How?" I waited for the answer.

"Your chip. You still have it. No one else in this town does except the owner of the general store, Ralph. His is removable and he stores in a ghost town miles from here so no one knows our location. The people of this town are harmless but either grew up without ever getting a chip, took theirs out and destroyed it or like Ralph, found a way to keep it separate from their body. They'll track you with the chip. I suspect that your run in with the World Committee had more to do with your shopping habits than anything you wrote. If you didn't buy anything for a while, the computer transfers your file to a higher level of inspection. They trace your computer and that's probably what alerted them to your article."

He was right. I was extremely active right before I dropped out of society. Afterward, I didn't leave the house for almost a month and that trip was for interrogation. "You've got to help me. How do I remove the chip? I can't go back, now that I know my suspicions were right."

He thought for a minute and then answered. "You can't take it out here because it sets off an alarm. The desert air will dry it in seconds. These are aqua chips. They react with the water and salts in your body. If the chip dries out, it sets off an alarm and within minutes, you'll be arrested. You have to go to the ocean. That's far enough away and yet close enough you can get there in a day."

"How do I remove it? It's deep and I'm no surgeon."

"I'll help you. There is a special tool. I have one and how I got it is none of your business now. Later, I may explain. Even though everything in me says I can trust you, I still don't. How long has it been since you scanned your chip?"

"Almost two weeks."

He grabbed my arm and headed toward the again closed opening in the rock. He pressed his free hand against the wall and the rock moved away to allow us freedom. "We don't have time. We'll go back to town separately. You get your car and meet me back here. I'll have what we need. I don't want the people in town to see me talking to you. You're the only one that has seen the real me. Hurry." I left rapidly feeling the urgency in his voice.

Continued in Part V