The System

Chapter 9

Recap: Soon, we're done. Jesse now has a beard, a mustache, glasses, a tattoo of a monkey on his forehead and many other things. We stifle our giggles, so as to not wake him up. By the time I'm back in my apartment, I'm in stitches. I only hope Sophia remembers to record his reaction.

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I wake up late as usual the next day. I'm about to go out to see M when suddenly the ring of a siren cuts through the air. Uh oh.

This siren is hardly ever sounded. It only does when something bad happens. And by 'something bad' I mean when something happens that the System does not approve of. The last time it sounded was maybe 2 months ago, and.... terrible things happened.

The doors auto lock and I rush to the windows. I see bulletproof glass sliding down on top of the normal glass. I've never seen a gun, but for some reason I know how it looks like.

Must be something I learnt in History class.

An opaque screen is also supposed to descend, so none of the normal or passive (citizens who are not officials) citizens can see what is going on outside. But I had fiddled with the mechanism earlier, so it usually takes another minute till I can't see anything.

My window faces the street, so I can clearly see what's happening. I hear it very faintly, though.

"She should be stopped! Let the unknown lands STAY unknown!" I hear a man scream. He seems to be pointing a gun at a girl's head, and the sight of it makes my blood run cold.

"Stay back! And don't shoot!" Calls out a security official. He, along with another security official, point electric wands, which are basically sticks that send out bolts of electricity like lightning and can kill or stun a person, depending on the intensity.

The man, who is dressed in a suit, faces away from me. I can't see who he is holding hostage, but I get a sick feeling in my stomach. There is a reason I shouldn't be seeing this.

And everything happens at once.

The man shoots one of the security officials, knocking him unconscious.
The second security official shoots out a bolt of electricity at the man. His body is throw back and I get a clear look at his face. He has blond hair, and charcoal black eyes.

By now the screen starts to come down and I bend down to see what happens. The man shoots the girl and she falls. That bullet wound is fatal, it went straight through her chest.

But as she falls back, I see her face and freeze.

Because as the shutter finally closes, I realize I had looked into the dying eyes of Bobby Ellis.
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"Today, we mourn the death of our friend," I look up. "Sister," Bobby's brother looks up. "Daughter," her parents look up. "And niece," Bobby's aunt looks up. "Bobby Ellis."

I struggle to hold back tears.

That day, when the screen lowered, I was just numb. I didn't feel anything apart from shock. Shock that something like this had happened, shocked that it happened to Bobby, and shocked that I saw it.

Everyone had been told she was shot. While she was in the wilderness, researching for her job, a man appeared out of nowhere and shot her. Since security officials were nearby, they managed to kill him.

But I knew better.

Now, a week after she had passed away, we were gathered in the Memorial building, where funerals were held. Usually, it was the senior citizens who had lived life till their optimal age who were mourned for. Not today.

The ceremony was simple. An official, usually a volunteer, would conduct it. We were to sit in rows around the main altar, and on the main altar, lay Bobby. When the official called out the deceased's friends and family members, you were supposed to look up. To see that your loved one was truly gone.