Freegans part 54

Lucy
I felt a wave of relief when I saw that Ben was all right. He twisted out of the now inactive Drone's grip, and pulled off his helmet, wiping his sticky hair out of his face. Even out of breath and sweaty, he was still undoubtedly handsome. My oggling of him was ruined by Madiza. Her helmet was off too, and so I knew it was she who darted up to him, and caught him in a tight hug. After a moment of surprise, Ben hugged her back, leaning his head on hers. When she finally pulled away, Madiza scolded, "Don't EVER scare me like that again!" Ben bowed his head humbly, and signed something at her with one hand. She giggled.
"What did he say?" asked Cara.
"Yes, dear," she said, snickering again.

Now that that was settled, I wanted to take off my helmet; I hated feeling constricted inside, and I knew everyone else did too. But Kestrel said, "There are also human guards up here; we can't take any chances." So Ben and Madiza reluctantly replaced their helmets, and we walked off again, only at a less stealthy pace than before. Now we really had to hurry. Thankfully, Kestrel seemed to know where he was going. He led us left, right, forward, left, left, and so on, until I had lost all track of where we were. When we came to a door with a key pad, he quickly punched in a code, and it slid open. We went in, and there it was-a line of cages, with prisoners inside. In a flash of deja vu, I was reminded of our cell back in the basement in Washington D.C, except that instead of locks requiring keys, they had key pads. How long ago had that been, anyway? I didn't know.

My heart felt sick at the sight of those people. When they saw us, they cowered against the walls, looking like frightened animals. They were all drawn and pale, wearing ragged, gray-striped clothes like pajamas. Most of the ones I could see were men, but I caught a glimpse of at least one woman. Their hair was mostly long and stringy, and that added even more to their animal appearance. Unable to stand another moment of their horrified stares, I yanked off my helmet, letting them all see that I was just a young girl.
"We're your friends!" I proclaimed.
"Lucy!" Cara gasped.
Ignoring her, I said, "We're here to help you! Don't be afraid of us!" The prisoner's expressions changed from terrified to confused, and slightly suspicious. Kestrel, after a moment of hesitation, took his helmet off too.
"Where is Deep Thought?" he asked. Nobody answered. They all stared at us out of hooded, shadowed eyes. Suddenly, a voice called, "Present!"
It came from one of the cages in a far corner, separate from the others. It made sense, if this Deep Thought was as smart as I had heard. We walked over to it, and when I saw him, I was temporarily speechless, but for a different reason than when I had first seen Ben. This Deep Thought was just a boy!

Well, more like a teenager. But still, he looked at least 14! I was shocked. This was the great computer genius?! Besides being young, he was kind of small, maybe an inch shorter than me. His shaggy hair was light brown, and fell around his face like a pair of curtains. As for his face, it kind of reminded me of a goblin, but a cute goblin, if that makes sense. He had gray squinty eyes that turned up at the corners, a pointed nose, and a mouth that seemed permanently turned up in a sideways smile. Deep Thought shuffled towards the bars of his cage, and stared intently at us.
"Well, it's about time!" he said in a faux-annoyed tone. "I sent out that distress call two days ago! Where have you been?!"
"Sorry, we had to pick up something." Kestrel smiled. Then he warned, "You might want to step back. I don't know the code for this door." Then he pulled his plasma rifle off his shoulder, and took aim at the key pad.

"No! Don't do that!" He was stopped by Deep Thought's cry.
"Why not?"
"It's been programmed so that you can't tamper with it! If any harm comes to it, the cell will immediately self-destruct!"
Kestrel looked frustrated. "So how can we get you out?"
"Well, you could ask me what the code is, wise guy."
Our leader looked startled, then a combination of annoyed and amused. Finally, he asked, "What's the code?"
"24601." For some reason, Deep Thought snickered when he said it. Even stranger, Madiza did too.
"Jean Valjean!" she proclaimed. The computer genius looked over at her, startled.
"And who is this, then?" he asked.
"This, my friend, is Project 112. She's what we needed to pick up." Kestrel pushed in the number, and the cage door swung open. "How did you know the code, anyway?"
"Oh, I just watched whenever they opened or closed my door, and figured it out that way. It was easy. So, this is Project 112. Wow! Can I see your face? Please? I've been wanting to meet you for forever!"
Looking pleased, Madiza pulled off her helmet, letting her white hair fall down in a long wave. Deep Thought rubbed his hands together delightedly, reminding me even more of a goblin. It didn't help that they had extremely long, skinny fingers, like a pair of pale spiders.

"Wonderful! We have so much to talk about!" They launched into an intellectual discussion that it was impossible for me to follow, as we turned to go let the other prisoners out. Already, he and Madiza were getting along perfectly. It made me wonder if he hadn't had to experience a little of Project 112 himself; his eyes had a similar gleam to hers, and he had the same perpetual sense of humor. It seemed to me that insanity and genius had a lot of parallels.

Suddenly, a voice from one of the cells called out, "Ivy?"
Instantly, Madiza's smile left her face. Her eyes widened, and she turned in the direction of the speaker. It was a girl, about 17, standing by the bars of one cage. I immediately identified her as a consumerist, since she had their perfect looks: long blond hair, that was beautiful even when shaggy and matted, and doe brown eyes with long eyelashes. Her face was heart-shaped, and even through the grime you could see that she had a perfect complexion. She was staring earnestly at Madiza.
"Ivy? Is that you?"

Freegans part 39

Cara
"What's 42 mean? Does that have some significance?" asked Matt. All of us looked at him, wondering how it was that a guy who could act so smart could also ask such abominably stupid questions.
"No duh, Matt," I said, rolling my eyes. He looked down sheepishly.

The Ox said, "One of the most important prisoners being kept in the prison goes by the code name of Deep Thought."
"Like in the book by Douglas Adams?" I asked, remembering why the number 42 sounded so familiar. Dad had given me a copy of it a couple of years ago for Christmas. The Kestrel and Ox both nodded.
"He has an odd sense of humor like that. Anyway, he's one of our most important members, a great computer hacker. His time is running out before they execute him, so we need to get to that computer, and have Madiza type in the KillCode, within at least three days."

I looked at Madiza. She was sitting on the floor, still drawing, muttering to herself; I think her words at that moment were something like 'rabbits' and somebody named George. It was hard to believe that this scrawny, ragged little maniac was instrumental in basically saving our lives, as well as the lives of everyone else on the planet still free of the consumerists. Of course, at that moment Matt had to ruin my pondering by asking, "So what about us?"
The Ox and Kestrel gave us equally unnerving fixed stares.
"Yes, that is the question, isn't it?" asked the Ox.