OGENUS EARTH 🌎 🌊 {Dystopian Sci-Fi Adventure}

Weight Of The World

The minutes couldn't tick by fast enough for Meg as she busied herself with anything to forget about the earlier exchange in the control room. Heat tingled at the back of her neck, threatening to overtake her thoughts completely.

She powered the bots on manually for something to do, then, took a shammy to their exterior to give them an extra gleam. She made three more cups of tea and played every note she knew on her banjo.

Olivia's angry words still plagued her. It wasn't just the ferocity of her attack, it was the disgust in the Architect's eyes that truly stung.

What Tinker was stupid enough to play a prank? She thought irritably to herself, especially, on the self-reverential upper-echelon of the Arc City Spheres. They were untouchable. Arturo's Architects were the cleverest citizens and the chosen few trusted with the controls to the cities.

There had only been one Tinker dumb enough to defy the authorities. She also happened to be Meg's biological mother, and that hadn't turned out well for anyone. 

The last thing Meg wanted was to call attention to herself for pointing out something that Coeuss should have flagged immediately.

She mulled this over while Murphy, Meg's shift replacement, took up residence at the console.

Meg zipped her banjo into its case and fitted it inside her locker. Without so much as a wave to Murphy, she fled.

After another brief elevator ride, she rounded a bend towards the Tinker door at the back of the lobby and froze. 

Meg recognized the outline of Marcus' goofy skull and the bully muscle of his build at the end of the corridor. If she hurried, she might be able to sneak past him before he realized what was going on. 

She raced for the door, her feet whispering against the tiles and her head turned away to bury her face behind her ebony hair.

"Hey!" A confident voice bounced off the pristine wood-paneled walls. 

A few people turned to see if the ambiguous salutation was for them. Meg, of course, neither turned nor slowed her speed. 

One benefit to nonfunctional ears was that she couldn't hear the ludicrously nasal quality of Marcus' voice.

Completely unaware that someone was trying to get her attention, Meg pushed her weight against the revolving plate-glass door to freedom. If she'd tilted her head up just a smidge, she would have seen Marcus' stalky figure in the reflection of the silver lining of the vestibule as he barreled in her direction. 

Instead, she thrilled at the promise of a clean escape the moment her feet touched the blacktopped walkway outside.

"Hey!" Marcus yelled out again, forcing more people to turn around in confusion at the shrill inflection coming from such a beefy individual. 

None of them wanted a confrontation with a Legionnaire, and they savored the sigh of relief that escaped their lips when he passed them by.

Meg pressed on, losing herself in the crowd of people on the street. 

She coasted behind an older couple strolling hand in hand. Then, switched to trail a small group of Hydro workers who were animatedly chatting amongst each other. Laura worked in the Hydro department. She had many opinions about her coworkers, and Meg recognized a few.

As soon as she could, she broke off from the pack and dodged into an alleyway.

The austere walls towering over the narrow street cast everything ghoulish in shadows. As a 'living' structure (or 'smart buildings' as the old-timers referred to them) the windows facing the alley were completely closed to conserve heat. That didn't bode well for Meg. For once, she would have preferred onlookers, just to be safe.