Equilibrium

Chapter One

To my friends who always told me to stop being a bitch and write.

"There's nothing quite like an adrenaline rush. The heart beats faster. The body feels lighter, yet stronger. The vision becomes clear and you see thing you'd never imagine. You can't seem to ever stop, because you don't want to stop, because you fear you'll never feel like this again. Everything is intense and for one moment, you actually feel alive. It can be this exhilarating... depends on what set it off."

I was born in the city, a city of dead workers and high kings. I raised in it with a gun in my head, lived in it eighteen years of my life out of stale foods and flavorless drinks. I knew I was heading nowhere in this state, not just me but my family. My mom died two years ago from hunger, my dad was emotionally dying and so was I, physically, but it took a larger toll on my little sister, Ema. My dad knew that if it happened to her it could happen to us, so he took jobs as a humans experiments subject for those big time corporations who received one too many complaints about animal testing. He's come home everyday, but everyday worse than the last, until now that he is bedridden, a "antidepressant" that numbed his legs and causes constant vomiting. The money left from his testings would last for a few days of food and medicine but I couldn't stand idly by as my dad poisons himself and my sister dies of hunger. I took measures I thought I wouldn't, from selling my belongings to other measures I don't want to remember. I was doing all I could to save my family, I stole and I killed, I did everything in my grasp and still reached beyond just to keep my family alive. Then one day I was caught.

It was a morning, like every other. I woke up with hunger, it's been a new tradition for me. I think of it as a way to meditate and focus. I woke early everyday and started my crime spree at seven, the time most people go to work. The distraction of being late amd the fact they can't be late makes people forgetful, absentminded, distracted. I started off low profile, simple and stealthy pickpocket. Then I sped up things.

The next thing I knew I was running up and down streets, a womans purse in my hand and a knife in the other. I hear a cop yelling from behing and I see another straight ahead. I throw my knife at him. A hit to the groin makes him bend down. I jump over him and get inside a building on the left side. I went to the stairs as fast as I could. I could hear the cop calling for help. Almost six minutes in the stairs and I haven't reached the top, but the cops have reached the stairs and started shooting upward. I decided to stop in the twelfth floor. I saw and it seemed to be a hotel. I saw the rooms had locks, so I couldn't get in if I wanted to, unless I had one myself. I quickly ran down the hall looking for someone who might have one, then I saw a janitor. The old man had the keys in a magnetic clip, so it would be easy and it was. I took a key quickly, acting as if I bumped into him and taking them. I saw the number. Twelve thirty. The rooms number were in the door and I was passing by the first ten. I kept walking down the hall, then a right, almost at the end, was the room. I got in and I saw luxury at it's finest. I could live here but I was being pursued. I went to the closet and looked for clothes, the room was vacant but I figured they'd have something. A gray suit and tie was hanging there and black formal shoes, next to a formal dress and heels. I took off my my face mask and grey contact lenses and the only thing left was the purse. All inside it was now on the floor, make up, receipts, spare change. I dug out some gold earrings, two hundred forty five dollars and a ring and placed everything else around the room as if it were part of it. After a few minutes, I left the room and went on my way.

I got down the elevator to the first floor and was out. I walked quickly to a pawn shop out a block away and pawned up the suit, ring and earrings. I had to buy clothes from the pawn shop, but I still made a solid four hundred dollars today. I had escaped yet again, or so I thought. As I went to the store to buy food, I saw two men following me. They wore black suit and sunglasses. We all know that when they wear black suits and sunglasses, it's beyond regular city police. I continued to walk through the food aisle, I saw the men followed and went in my direction. I tried to keep cool, attentively staring at an apple, until I felt one of the mens hand on my shoulder. I quickly sprung into reality and elbowed the man by the side of his head and kicked him into a shopping cart next to me. I saw the other man running in my direction and I went the other way, it's better than facing danger head on. I didn't make it past fifteen feet when I felt a sharp pain in my lower back. My vision blurred and the world was spinning faster than a sped up record played on a turntable. My limbs, as heavy as stone, heavier even, pulled me down to the floor. The sharp pain dissipated and was swapped with a cold numbness that slowly reached up my spine. I thought I was dying. I thought those bastards killed me. But they didn't.