Democracy vs Corporatocracy

Chapter Three: Boston

March 3rd 2041

Marcus was on a bicycle, racing across the road to Boston. He had arrived in Springfield a day earlier and slept in an alleyway that night. He had only a few sandwiches and apples in his bag to last him a few days more. Marcus was worried that the trip from Springfield to Boston would be a long and exhausting walk, he was wrong. He had found an old bicycle in the alleyway and was headed to Boston on it. He was peddling heavily, was rather tired, but determined to make it to Boston. As he peddled on the bike, as fast as a Cheetah, he saw a large green sign that said "Boston dead ahead". Marcus stopped peddling and took a look at the sign. He then saw that the sign, telling runaway kids to head to Boston, had been spray painted on the sign. Only this time, the writing was in Arabic. "Never really read Arabic before, must mean the same as the painting I saw back in New York". Marcus then took a moment to look around and saw a lot of trees around the area. Marcus's mouth opened with shock as he realised that since he hadn't seen trees for so long, he had almost forgotten what they even looked like. Marcus then looked at the racoons and squirrels rummaging through the trees and said "I guess some people focus so much on bank accounts and work, that they forget to take time and enjoy some outdoor wilderness". Marcus then started peddling again, continuing his way to Boston. Marcus then saw some buildings in the distance and realised that it was Boston!

But something was wrong. As Marcus pedalled past the fallen sign that said "Welcome to Boston Massachusetts",  he saw that there were no people in the streets, none at all. There were cars yes, but they were run down and abandoned. Plant life had covered the buildings with roots and leaves. The shops and houses were also abandoned. They had broken windows, damaged roofs and some even had massive holes in their walls. As Marcus looked into the windows, he saw couches and cabinets just left there along with huge seas of dust. Marcus then realised that the town had been abandoned long ago, he said to himself "This town is so huge, why would people abandon it and leave so much behind?" Marcus chose to continue peddling through the town and saw more evidence that the town had been abandoned. The stores had signs that said things like "Going out of business" and "Last day sales". Marcus came across a run down park, with dead grass and withered trees. There was a collapsed gazebo and a sign that said "Boston Common". Marcus couldn't help but wonder "What happened here?" Marcus looked all around him and felt an uncomfortable emptiness around him. The fact that the town had been abandoned and left to rot made it rather depressing. Years ago, this town must have been so full of life, but now it was just left to fall apart. Marcus then saw graffiti that said "MegaCorp, we blame you for this!" Marcus groaned and said "Of course MegaCorp had something to do with this". Marcus then saw a seal on the sidewalk, on it were the words "Freedom Trail, Boston". The seal was a candle, with a candle soot in the shape of an arrow that was pointing up and two spheres on both sides that had lines connecting them to the candle. Marcus saw a red line that went to another seal and another and another. Marcus decided to follow it and see where it ended. It went on for a while, but after an hour, Marcus arrived at its end: an old church in the north of Boston.

In front of the church was a green statue of a man on horseback, that was overgrown with roots. Marcus saw the door to the church was open and the words "Runaways, run away to Boston!" written on it. Marcus chose to head inside, he got of his bike and placed it next to the statue. He then walked through the church door and saw how surprisingly clean the church was. The dust had been cleared out, the windows were cleaned and candles were lit. That meant that somebody lived here. Marcus then heard footsteps behind him and looked around to see a boy about his age, wearing a white and dome like hat made of linen. "Who are you?" asked the boy. "I'm Marcus" Marcus said in response. Marcus saw that the boy had brown eyes like his and black hair. "What's that hat your wearing?" asked Marcus. The boy said "It's a Turban". Marcus then said "Oh, so your a Muslim?" The boy replied with "Yes, my names Samuel Religio". "Marcus Libertad" said Marcus. Marcus saw Samuel holding 2 water bottles in his hands and asked "What's with the water bottles?" Samuel answered with "We're going to boil them, so that we can drink it". "We?" asked Marcus, as his eyes widened. Samuel handed him a water bottle and said "Yes, We. Come on, I'll show you the others". Marcus followed Samuel to a door, Samuel opened it and they went down the stair case. Marcus was still in the clothes he ran away in, they were in pretty bad shape. Samuel's clothes was very rugged and Marcus could tell that Samuel had had them on for a while. The basement hallway was lit by some oil lamps and there was graffiti like "Leave us alone MegaCorp!" and "Human beings are not God damn robots that you can program!" Finally they came across a seal on the wall, that was identical to the ones on the Freedom Trail Marcus had followed.

Samuel then said "The circle spins, simply spin the correct letters so that the arrow on the seal's candle points at it and the door opens". Marcus asked in response "What's the code?" Samuel simply smiled and inputted the code. It was "Trail o Freedom". After he was done, Samuel said "There was no F, so we had to make do". The wall then went backwards and moved to the left, revealing a hidden room. Lights shone out and Marcus saw 2 girls and a boy with baseball bats. There were also two large headlamps. One girl with green hair and green eyes, looked at Marcus and said "You run away?" The girl was wearing a blue leather jacket over a red shirt and had dark blue trousers. She also had fingerless gloves and climbing boots. Marcus looked into her eyes and said "Yes". The girl smiled and said "I'm Eivor Conditor and this is the Freedom Nest". Marcus and Samuel then followed her through the brick walled corridor, that was lit by some working lights. They came to a wooden door, with the mark of the freedom trail painted onto it. Eivor pulled the handle and the door opened to reveal a staircase. The 3 walked down and at the bottom of the stair case was a large room, with around 20 other kids, between the ages of 12 and 16. Marcus saw mattresses and a table with a map of Boston on it. The room had some working lights, powered by a small generator and pillars keeping the wall up. There were some large beds next to some first aid gear, where 4 sick looking kids were being given bandages by a kid who was about 14 years old. Two of the kids had broken one limb and the other two seemed to have some nasty fevers. Eivor then asked "So why did you run away like all of us?" When Marcus heard her say that, he realised something: this was a refuge for run away kids.