A series of white lights whizzed past a muddled windo as I gripped the handle over my head with my right hand. Kaitie hugged my left arm like a life raft in the sea of people around us. Beyond them, I got a glimpse of the tunnel ahead. More handles hanging from the ceiling swung back and forth as the train took a slight turn to the right.
Under the wary stares of the passengers across from us, I was pressured to hide my face under my hood as I focused on Katie's pale face below me.
The train slowed compelling me to lean forward as it then came to a stop. Katie's grip loosened as I let go of the handle and walked through the sliding door at the front of the train car.
The station was hot and smelled of burning sulfur. To my left, a hard breeze blew from a wide staircase blowing pieces of trash around the station. I moved up the staircase that led to the surface, gripping Katie's hand as she trailed behind me. My head rose above the level surface and with every step, I became progressively overwhelmed with the noise of automotive traffic as the breeze turned into a wind. On the last step, I turned around to look at Katie.
She was wearing a light pink rain jacket and was a head lower than me as my younger sister . She looked up at me revealing a large cylindrical mask that rested just below her hazel eyes. It covered her nose and mouth and she looked rather irritated by it. Now that we were in an open space, it was best I put my mask on as well, and secured the mask that rested on my collarbone, over my mouth and nose.
I walked towards the nearest crosswalk, still huddling close to Katie. Standing at the edge of the crosswalk we waited for the holographic traffic light that loomed over the road to change, allowing us passage.
A tall man came and stood on my right side bring a pungent scent. Shy, I tucked my cold right hand further into the sleeve of my hoody refusing to look anywhere other than the cold damp ground. Everybody started to walk forward before I knew that the street Light turned red. My grip around Katie's wrist tightened as we were bumped and pushed around in the moving crowd.
The crowd parted ways as soon as we reached the other side. I slowed down to avoid the few people who were walking along the same path as us. It was better to keep distance from strangers in Crush.
We turned right from the crosswalk and left at the next corner. The road that followed the sidewalk widened to four lanes and opened the ground to a long strip of the night sky obove, illuminated by several advertisement banners projected onto the dark, ever-present clouds that loomed over the city. A white mist that brought the same stench of burning sulfur, blew across the road ahead of us. On most days the mist covered the floor of the entire city.
The corner of our apartment block peeked out from behind several larger buildings along the street. Multiple messes of scaffolding and sky bridges hung over the road ahead. Making the city seem messy and jungle-like where minimal sunlight reached the cold ground.
A drone flew from behind us and I lowered my gaze, still walking forward. The drone hovered over the busy street and spun around briefly before zooming toward a window on an overhead apartment. A cold robotic voice could be heard in the distance.
"Citizen 3, 3, 0, 0, 7, 2. You have been charged with first-degree absence violation, please do not resist redemption" the feminine voice sent a stroke of fear through my heart and I pulled Katie along to get out of the area as fast as I could. From the corner of my eye, I caught sight of the black coats with white masks as they entered the building. Screams quickened my steps and the gun shots sounded just as I made it across this street to my building entrance gate.
It was more of a steel cage than a gate, but I'd rather be caged than offered redemption. I pressed the silver button for entry, and a red eyball the size of a tennis ball atop a robotic arm snapped out from behind a pannel zooming twards my face a little too close for comfort. I leaned back slightly.
YOU ARE READING
Synthetic Intuition
Science Fiction"I wanted to cry but couldn't. Crying was natural, a trait I could no longer live under. Crying was no longer an option" The year is 2033 and the United States is torn apart by a devastating civil war, Lazlo, a brilliant IT and robotics engineer, be...
