I stare out the window of our steam vehicle as we chug along.
Circe chatters with the driver up front, and Rush sits beside me in the back, still silent. In the Steam City, everything is large, boxy, and made with grinding gears. Factories and shops for racing transport line the streets, belching smoke as workers hurry about. Brown uniforms, grey jackets, ash-covered boots. The Platinum lady was right, this place doesn't look very zam.
And then there was the border wall. A hulking thing between sections I hadn't even known existed. Papers are handed over by Circe, and in return are scanned and passed back. Not by a human, but by something else.
"Have a great day," chirps an automated voice before waving us through. Something unsettling crawls over my skin and I shift in my seat.
"By my mama's sweet treads," I breathe as my eyes remain fixedly open. Everything is glowing. Shiny translucent screens floating through the air, towering buildings plastered with moving advertisements. Flashing neon lights, blaring sounds over the city.
"This is what I mean when I say zam," Circe giggles almost maniacally.
The Cyber Zone.
"What are those robot fellas?" I point, noting a few mechanical humanoid things trailing after their owners.
"Oh, honey," Circe clucks. "Those are Android models, 2nd edition. Made by iCore, breezily expensive. There are updated ones that look more like that." Her plump finger points to what I had pinpointed as another passerby.
With a sudden jolt, I note that it's...not.
"Intels, made by the Underground sector. Very jazzy, I wish I had one." Platinum lady sighs and turns back to chatting with the driver.
Jazzy indeed.
Now that I can identify the mechanical eye look and odder way of moving, there are ads for them everywhere. Including ones- I cast a look at Rush to see if he noticed the moaning naked girl in a glass box, a plug behind her head. Nothing.
"Out out, we're listed for here." The driver pops open my door, and I clamber outside, half expecting the smell of smoke to invade my nose like in Norsa. There's barely a hint of cigarette, and I glance up as a zooming monorail flashes by, sending vibrations through the ground. There are mere seconds that I have to glance at the colorful, noisy, passerby when I'm pushed through the front of what seems to be our hotel, automatic doors snapping shut behind me.
YOU ARE READING
Deathrun
حركة (أكشن)You get five years before they kick you out, five years before you're dead. You're dead either way, really. Assuming you make it out of those first 20 minutes of hell, the world of races awaits you. Races where everyone's betting on their favorite p...
