((Laila's POV))

I stood there in the darkness, frozen.  I was having a difficult time fully processing his words as he kept walking.  

Yeah, I highly doubt that.  

What did he mean?  Did he think that the Viruses were always going to be Viruses forever?  That there was nothing that could fix them.  He stopped walking and spun around to face me.

"Hello?  Are you okay?  What, are we not walking together anymore?" He asked, waving at me.

How could he act like that, be completely Alright after what he just said?  How could he be Okay with what he thought?  I walked up to him, hoping I was keeping the right pace that I was supposed to.  When I caught up, he spun back around and we walked side by side once again.

"Took you long enough," he said in an almost whispering tone.

"What do you mean by: 'I highly doubt that'?" I asked him.

He bit his lip and shrugged.  He seemed to shrug a lot.

"I just...  I don't..." he took in a breath, stopping his sentence.

"You don't what?" I asked, Confused.  I didn't understand what he was trying to say.  Why did he stop speaking?  Why couldn't he have just finished his sentence?

"When we got here, Reggie basically told us Viruses that there's no curing us Viruses.  That we're chipless, that's the way it is and always will be." 

I gasped.  He told the Viruses that?  Why?  He didn't have proof of that, did he?  He couldn't be completely positive of that, could he?  And there was always a chance, if they kept up with the testing, that one day they'd fid a cure.  Right?

Maybe he told them that so they wouldn't go back to the Lab.  Maybe he told the Viruses that so they'd stay in the New World and not in some cold dark Lab.  Once again, I felt that same emotion of intense Annoyance and Frustration that I felt when I learned that the robot guard was disabled.  It made me stomp my foot down, hard, and clutch my hands.  It made me heat up.

"That's not entirely true!  He doesn't know that for sure!  He shouldn't have said that!  They're working on it, 381, and they will find a cure, they will!  Eventually!  Eventually!  Viruses are not going to be chipless forever!  Forever is forever, and forever never ends.  Sometime, maybe soon, maybe not for a long time, but they will find a cure!  It just takes time!  Everything takes time!  Nothing is impossible when it comes to forever!  Unless it's completely unthinkable, but finding a cure for the Viruses is not unthinkable!  It's thinkable!  It's thinkable!" I said, my voice getting louder and louder.  I realized I had even stopped walking.

381 laughed and put his hands up.  "Woah, easy there.  Calm down, I can practically see how red your face is.  Take deep breaths.  In, and out.  In, and out."

I inhaled and exhaled three times and then gently touched my face.  It was warm.  

"There you go.  Not so Angry anymore, huh?" he asked.

I tilted my head. Confused at this.  Angry...  what is Angry?  Is it an emotion?  

"What is Angry?" I asked him, my voice quiet.

381 scrunched up his eyebrows, and took a step forward.  He slightly mimicked my head tilt, and crossed his arms.

"Wait...  you don't know what anger is?  You've never been angry before?" he asked, speaking as if this was common knowledge that only I didn't know.

Which wasn't true.  I never learned that there was an Emotion called Anger, and I learned every emotion that there was.  None of the other Citizens ever felt Anger before.   I shook my head slightly.

"Well, I think I 'felt' it when Reggie and Timberland disabled the robot guard I came here with.  I 'felt' the same thing." I explained, recalling exactly how I 'felt' in that very moment, looking down.  I looked back up at 381.

"What is Anger exactly?" I asked him once more.

381 tapped his fingers against his arm, and looked at the wall.

"Well, it's, um...  it's...  It's when something doesn't go your way, or you don't like something so much that there's so much...  frustration and annoyance and discontent that's so... intense and extreme.  It makes you feel all tight, like when you balled up your fists." he pointed to my hands, "It makes you want to...  hit something.  Like when you stomped your foot on the ground, or when 256 slapped Timberland earlier today.  It's a very powerful emotion that can sometimes take over a person and make them do some pretty bad things without even thinking it if they get angry enough."

Frustration...  Annoyance...  intense...  hit something....  slapped...  powerful...  take over...  bad things...  My brain slowly processed this, and Worry was all that I could feel.  I gasped, and stumbled backwards.  No...  no no no.  How come 381 knew what this emotion was but none of the Citizens knew it?

Was this what happened when you were chipless?  Without the chip, did you become Angry and did you have the need to cause someone pain?  This 'feeling' was not good.  It was bad.  It was very very bad.  It made people do bad things without thinking.  It took over people and made them want to cause pain.  Was that what Anger did?  If it did, I suddenly knew why the Viruses needed to stay in the Lab until they were fixed.  Because they had this Anger that could control them and make them do bad things like hurt others.  And that wasn't a good thing that the New World needed.  Anger sounded like it could disable the New World, and that thought made me Worried.

And since there was no Wifi, no internet, my chip was not working.  I had constant head pain to remind me of that.  I was practically chipless.  Which meant...  Anger could take control of me at any moment.  I was capable of getting Angry and...  and....

I was capable of causing someone pain.  

I took a few more steps backwards, shaking my head and squeezing my eyes shut.

"Laila?" 381 asked quietly.

I opened my eyes and looked up at him.  I stopped backing up once there was space between us.  I held my arms and hugged myself tightly.

"How many times have you been Angry before?" I asked him.

381 was silent, and I counted the seconds that passed.  

One...  Two...  Three...  Four...  Five...

"I-I don't know...  I don't keep track of how many times I get Angry..."

I took a deep breath in.  In, and out.  In, and out.  In, and out.  In, and out.

In,

and out.

"Does it happen often?  Does it happen a lot?" I asked again, my hands shaking ever so slightly.

"It happens...  more than a couple times I guess.  It's just natural.  It happens when it happens.  When something I really don't like happens, well then yeah, I get angry.  Not as angry as 256 for sure, but...  it's just natural."

I backed up three more steps.  

"No, no it's not natural!  An emotion taking over someone and not letting them think is not natural!  An emotion that makes someone want to cause pain is not natural!" I said, my voice once again loud.

381's eyes went wide and he started walking towards me.  I started to walk back, slowly.  He walked closer at a faster speed.  I ran into the wall, still hugging myself, shaking so slightly.  381 walked over to me, stopping just two footsteps away from me.  I pushed myself further back into the wall, looking down at the floor.  I didn't want to look at him, because all I could think was:

Has he ever caused someone pain?  Has he ever gotten so Angry he did something ver very bad?  Would he ever get that Angry with me or anyone else here?  What if he caused someone else pain because he couldn't control his Anger?

"Laila, come on.  It's just Anger, it's nothing to be Worried about, okay?  Don't be so Worried.  It's no big deal.  Most people don't get too Angry.  It's only small little bursts of Anger that only last a few minutes.  It's never that bad.  It rarely ever gets so bad that it causes someone to hurt another person or do something really bad.  And I really don't think that it would ever make you do anything bad.  You would never hurt some one, you don't seem like that type of person.  You're a Citizen, Laila.  Citizens don't hurt people.  Citizens don't do bad things." he said, his voice ranging from soft to loud as he spoke.

I squeezed my eyes shut and blinked a few times.  I looked up at him, still shaking.

"Anything is possible with time," I said so quiet, I wondered if I even said it.  After I did, I took a step to the side and turned around.

"Goodbye, 381.  I'm going back to my room.  Goodnight." I said softly, and started walking away, a little faster than usual.

"Seriously Laila?  Wait, just-come on.  You're being ridiculous!" I heard 381 say from behind me.

I didn't know what ridiculous was, but I had had enough of new words for the day.

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((Well...

That just happened.

Annnnyyyyywwwwwaaaaayyyyyssss~

Question #22: What are your opinions on Anger?  Is it a good or bad thing?  What happens when you get Angry?  And is it as bad as Laila thinks it is?))