Disaster Strikes

Don sighed and glanced at Tom standing in the doorway, thinking of the day with him. Honestly he was nervous, guy was apparently a dick and thought with one. And even though he didn't look it, Don was one of the nerdier guys in this college. He turned back and smiled faintly, it was kind of nice that they were getting along as well as they had been. Possibly could even make friends.

His Mother had always tried to encourage him to get out there. She was a social butterfly, constantly turning down men to keep her focus on her son and daughter. Don appreciated her and her strength. When his Dad passed five years ago he shut down. Lost in his computer to escape. Finding a world of programming and engineering that he could get lost in. It hurt hearing his sister tease him, telling him he had no friends. Bragging about how popular she was. But Mom was a soft hand squeeze of encouragement, waiting until he was comfortable.

The school might be slowly devolving into perverted chaos but maybe this group was his chance? Maybe this adventure would bring some other part of him out. The same part the rest of the family seemed to have an abundance of. Don focused on the facial recognition he had running and watched as the screen found any of their suspects that evening and download the recordings.

It was taking longer than expected. I guess searching for one target over an entire evening wouldn't take too long on these computers. But their suspect list was a little long. And there was a lot of cameras with a lot of footage.

Don signed and leaned back, closing his eyes and rubbing them. He wished there were one of those bars that told him how far he was into the process or how much longer it might take. But it wasn't that advanced. He was getting anxious. It had been several minutes and although he hid his sabotage well it was all up to chance if the guard would find it and how long the guard would bother inspecting the problem. They were on a time limit that wasn't known versus a process that had no way of knowing how long it would take.

A figure approached him from behind, he could see the movement in his peripheral as he opened his eyes, his vision still blurry. He groaned, "I have no idea how long this will take, Tom we might have to bail or find a new distr-mmmfffggghhh!" A hand went over his mouth and a soft cloth with an overpowering chemical scent blocked his mouth and nose.

Oh shit was he getting chloroformed? He tried to struggle but he was trapped sitting in the desk. Don tried to grab the wrists and pull but he was already feeling weak and the man had the advantage of his stance letting his body help overpower Don.

Don tried to glance at the door for Tom but it was empty. Tom was gone! Was he okay? Thoughts were beginning to fade. He thought of his Mother and his sister and hoped whatever happened to him wouldn't be too hard on them. Mom was too sweet and good for that.

Darkness. Time passed without the confines of measurement. Eternities came and went. Until light silenced the dark, blurry vision assaulted the senses.

"Hey, there we go. Easy. Just watch your head." A distorted voice slowly became more clear. Looking up weakly he saw Tom's terrified expression. "What happened to you?"

Don shook his head and groaned. Checking the computer the folders were all open. Everything was deleted. Fuck. That was the guy! He was here to stop exactly what they had come to do at the same time! Nervous he turned to his external drive and saw it still there sitting next to his wallet.

Wallet? But he never took out his wallet. Oh shit. Don dove and grasped the walled tearing it open and frantically scanning through it. "No. Nononono. No!"

Tom's anxious voice sounded small, much less confident than usual. Don realized there was guilt. "What's up? Someone steal some money? I can spot you."

Don turned, "Where the fuck were you? Huh? You only have one job! Stand around and make sure people don't hurt us!"

Tom looked hurt, "I saw something weird I went to check it out."

Don felt tears in his eyes. This was a weird feeling. The sense of dread knowing your existence was limited. That at any moment he could become anything but himself. Would he become like Megan? A curvy horny girl? It was more dangerous than that. "My student ID was stolen."

Tom sighed in relief, "Those are like twenty bucks to replace buddy. It could have been way worse."

Don clenched his fists. How could someone be so dense? The earlier potential friendship was tarnished, replaced with disgust and intense irritation, "If that was our guy not only did we miss just catching him then and there and everything being fine, we also let him take hair or whatever they said he needs to change me. Scary thing is why would he need my identity then? All my information is on file, how old I am, what program I take, where i- oh fuck!"

"What?"

"He can find out where I live. My Mom and sister! The guy cuts all loose ends he might think they could know about him too! Fuck why did I agree to this! We need to get this back to the group then we need to get to my house as fast as we can!"

Tom looked destroyed from the inside and nodded with sad eyes. "Let's go."

The one upside was this guy didn't notice and extra external plugged in. Or notice the process had completed. Even if Don was done for, he knew in his hands was the footage that could take that asshole down!

The only question he had was where was Tom for so long? That was a lot of footage to delete.