Ground Zero

Chapter 2. Fate's Beckoning

      I woke up outside with a headache and a sore arm, the people who were at the bar were trying to help me with my injuries. I sat up and looked around to see other people wounded or talking to the authorities trying to figure out what happened here. What did happen here anyway? "Hey! What's going on here? Why did this happen?" I said a little shaky. A younger woman replied, "They determined it to be two terrorist factions trying to work together." After all that, I decided to walk back home to make sure my mother was alright.

      I turned the corner racing past all the shops and dodging people in the streets until something caught my attention, it was the man from the attack, the one wearing the trench coat. I stood there a good minute trying to think what I should do until he turned to leave the shop he was in and spotted me. He smiled and slowly walked up to me, "Well, it's nice to see you back on your feet, sorry about what I did back there, but it had to be done. And how you had the guts to try to stop me, well, we could use someone like you."

  "What are you implying?" I asked him steadily. Is he asking me to become a terrorist?

  "What i'm saying is that people down here want change, they're living in the filth that the rich throw down into us and then punish us for trying to clean up the mess. Look around at all these people." he said waving his arms around gesturing to all the passersby. "They're all trying to remain oblivious to the world they live in, they have their virtual reality and their holophones, but you, you are trying to make something of yourself, so yes, I would like to ask you to join us to try to make a difference." he hands me a card with a chip and some writing on it. "Contact us if you're interested. I do hope we meet again Roman." And like that, he walked off, swinging a bag of goods at his side so nonchalant like. "Maybe I could make a difference, but I can't just put my life in the line like that." I said while shoving the card into my pocket making my way home.

   As I entered the building I headed up towards our apartment reaching into my pocket pulling out a handful of items such as the man's card and a handful of credits until I finally found my door-card and entered the room. There still wasn't any sign of my mother anywhere and I became worried. I frantically searched the apartment for her, but the only thing I had found was an official warrant of security stating that: 

In the matter of public security miss Kat Reinhart has been seized due to the aid of a suspected criminal. If found innocent she will be sent back and receive 500 credits due to the inconvenience. If found guilty for any treasonous acts the assailant will be either fined a required sum of credits or will be imprisoned for a set amount of time that will be decided in court. If the assailant can not procure the amount of credits they will then be jailed for a set amount of time that will be decided in court. If any further questions arise please contact our nearest station in your district. Thank you for your cooperation, sincerely the department of public security.

     "And now, she's been taken too." I thought to myself. "Nothing can go right can it?" I sat down in my room and I wanted to cry, I wondered why things had to be the way they were. And then I remembered. There still might be a sliver of hope, I dug into my pocket and found the card that the man had given to me. It read the name Hondo Winter but nothing else, there was a chip in the left side of the card but we had no chip reader here. I grabbed my jacket and keys and left the now empty apartment.

      For fifteen minutes I searched the streets looking for a machine that could read the chip on this card but had no luck in doing so. Though I was disappointed I was also hungry, so I decided to head to a restaurant to grab a bite to eat. I had finally found a place to eat but by now it was dark in the sub-city. I stepped inside the little noodle shop and sat down at a table near the wall. Two other people which I could only assume were a couple sat down at the table opposite of me. The waitress walked over and asked if I was ready to order anything. I replied with a quick yes and told what I would like to have and she rushed back into the kitchen to tell the chef. Meanwhile,  the man from the table opposite me came over to my table and started talking to me.

   "Hey there, did ya hear about that man who took down four gang members a couple hours ago?" the man said messing with his necklace

   "Yeah, it was really something. I was actually there when it happened." I said solemnly 

   "Wow, you really were huh? Was that guy cool or what!" he replied

   "Shaun! Knock it off, and stop being so pushy. If he just dealt with something like that then you might not want to be bothering him so much" the girl at the other table said while pushing in her chair and walking over towards us. "I'm sorry about my friend here. He can be pretty annoying at times." she said pulling his ear.

   "It's fine, i'm not really bothered by it. Right now i'm actually looking for something, do you think you could help me?"

   "I guess we could, what do you need?" she replied a little puzzled

   "I'm actually looking for a chip reading machine." when they heard that they raised their eyebrows and instantly seemed more interested. "Yeah, I've been looking for quite a while now and couldn't find one."

   "I do actually know where one is." said the woman

   "Heh, like you know anything Mel." replied the man

   She smacked him in the back of the head with a menu "I swear. Now, like I was saying. I do know where the machine you are looking for is. But, it's a little far from here so I hope you don't mind hoofing it."

   "I don't mind, as long as I can get to it, I'm fine."

   "Alright, that's great." As soon as she had gotten done saying that the waitress came back and gave us our meals. "But we might as well eat first. I'm starving." She said picking up her chopsticks stuffing her mouth with noodles.