|YA featured story|
Welcome to 2325.
The natural world is no longer habitable, the government has been all but privatised and the 15-billion strong population has spent the last 170 years crammed into a single man-made continent.
When her father's...
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I stared at the door, my jaw working as I stewed on Zaphron's departure. How could he just leave like that?
"What are you waiting for?" Delta's voice cut through the silent room like a laser pulse. My gaze jerked down to her with a start, my hand flying automatically to my chest.
"How long have you been awake?"
She squinted one eye open at me in a semi-permanent wink, her mouth drawing up at the corners. She seemed far more lucid than she had before. "Long enough"— her voice switched to an exaggerated version of Zaphron's husky tone— "You look so hot in my clothes babe."
"He didn't say that," I muttered, my face growing hot. I was seriously temped to punch her—laser-wound and all.
She rolled her eyes and gave me a knowing smile. "Go down there and see what info you can get from them."
"But what about you?"
"Like Zaphron said, I'm not going anywhere." She opened her eyes wide to compensate for the lack of movement in her arms. "Just put my laser pistol in my good hand before you go."
"You sure you'll be okay?" I asked, finding our duffel and retrieving her gun.
"Does your Lens still have plenty of charge?" she asked in return, blinking to check her own.
"Yes." I didn't need to check the battery level to find out. I'd barely used the gold Lens since she'd given it to me. With no contacts and no personal info entered, the settings were all still generic—making for pretty boring social feeds.
"I'll message you if I need you," she said simply. "Now shoo, get down there. See what you can get out of them—just be careful what you say in return."
I bit my lip and nodded. She didn't have to worry about me giving anything away, it's not like I knew anything that could be considered helpful—and even if I did, Zaphron wasn't exactly in my good books.
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Music rattled through me as I elbowed my way through the dance floor, my eyes darting all over the place in search of the guys. People twisted and grinded against me as I fought my way to a less-occupied corner in the hope of being able to see over the crowd.
