I talked to an old "friend" today

One interesting part of being a thoughtborn is the knowledge. All the information the internet has to offer is streamed into my consciousness. Well it was when I was in the internet anyways. Not anymore but I still retain all the information I learned. Like the location of an infected water source nearby. I don't know why I assumed EAT would be willing to talk. I mean we weren't really friends we had just served on the same side during the game. Also I had gotten quite a few of her killed.

Regardless she was actually rather willing to talk. The infected source was an indoor pool in an apartment complex. Not sure how this managed to escape notice for so long. I don't really know but I assume that everyone in the complex is a camper. I don't know I didn't see anyone on my way to the pool. No one tried to stop me from getting in either. There was only one person at the pool either. A woman was lying in a sundeck unmoving. She was wearing a black bikini and was just staring at the pool with glazed unseeing eyes. I assumed at first she was an early stage camper until she turned to me and spoke. "Mr. Peyn? I took a whole seven seconds to recognize you. That's mildly impressive. It's most likely the hair colour change that threw me off. Most people tend to stay with the same hair colour when they choose to change bodies," she said as she greeted me with a smile far too natural to be real.

"Well I made the mistake of not checking the body before taking it if I had I probably would have been more carefu- Wait how DID you recognize me, exactly? I'm an entirely different person!" I argued.

"No you are a different body you are the same person. You may have a bit more swagger in your step than normal, The wider hips and added frontal weight throwing you off slightly, but otherwise your gait is exactly the same. As well the analytical way you look at things and the way your face and hands move based on your emotions are all things that are unique to you," She said and this time the smile was less natural and almost looked real. The sparkling eyes however were a little overblown.

"You are obviously not surprised that I'm still alive and that I'm in a different body so I'm assuming you knew before hand what was going to happen?"

"I am not prescient, Ms. Peyn. I am merely well connected and well learned. I became aware of the events surrounding you  as they occurred no sooner, no later."

"Well then do you know why I'm here?"

"No, do you?"

I had no reply to that. I really didn't. I guess I was just bored and wanted to talk to someone but I must have had a better choice of conversational partners than a horrid abomination from the depths. My inability to answer must have shown because she continued.

"If a question has no answer it shouldn't be asked. Only false knowledge is gained from unanswerable questions. I don't deal with conjecture and guesses. Only facts. The True knowledge. Speaking of knowledge would you like a little bit of wisdom?"

I perked up at this point and so she continued without waiting for a verbal response. "You're little friend Jayson had a cousin who has recently, well, recently for me about 152 days ago in your time which may still be considered recent based on your perspective, become involved with the fears. In fact he is rather deeply involved. You would already know this but you didn't know where to look. Jayson's last name isn't online anywhere and so you were incapable of knowing about his relatives. As such I'll give you an extra bit of my wisdom. Jayson's last name is Augustus," she paused at this point to let me scour my knowledge and then smiled and this time the smile was real. It was a predatory smile. "I'm sure you have some things to do. Come back and we'll talk more if you ever have the time."

I fled the complex and ran all the way back to my body's home. I had to shut down the nerves to continue running but I made it as fast as possible which was the important part. I grabbed the laptop and did a little "Hacking" to get myself a train ticket. I can redeem myself. I failed to save Jayson and I killed Marcinius but I can save Portnoy.