At that moment, Sarah drove through downtown Pittsburgh. They could see the McMillan Tech Industries building, standing tall - 20 floors high. A few minutes later, Sarah couldn't drive any further. There were too many cars sitting in the middle of the street, some were crashed, others were just abandoned.
"We'll have to walk the rest of the way," Sarah said. "It's okay, I've been here a few times. It's not too far from here."
Jay, Sarah, and her three friends got out of the car and walked the rest of the way.
The streets weren't deserted. They occasionally saw a geeky man or woman briskly walking around, on their way to somewhere important. What was odd was that there weren't any normal people around. And after another minute they saw why.
A normal guy was pulled out of his truck by two ugly geek women. One of the women held headphones in one hand and a radio in the other and immediately placed the headphones on the man's head. Suddenly, the man turned into a geek. They took off the headphones and walked away, presumably looking for others who weren't geeks yet. The man was left by himself, trying to fight the new geek personality that slowly took him over. But in the end he accepted it, just like everyone else.
Sarah and Jay looked at each other. "They're changing anyone that didn't hear the signal," Jay said. "It's like they've been conditioned to do it."
"How could that be? I don't feel like that," Sarah said. "I mean, I'd like everyone else be geeks, but I'm not forcing them to be."
"Come on, we have to stop that signal," Jay said.
When they got to the MTI building, they stopped in front and looked up. Sarah pointed at the top floor. "That's where my father would be."
"Okay, but first I think we should visit my mom."
"Okay, but not too long. We've got to shut that signal down."
"Right," Jay agreed.
Jay and the four girls entered the building.
