New Order: Book One

The Code

A pounding knock rings through Otk's apartment, causing her to shoot awake from a near dead slumber. Her eyes flicked over to the clock sitting on her nightstand and a drawled groan left her as she saw the time.

Hauling herself out of bed, she pulls on a pair of jeans and makes her way to the front door with quite the lethargic manner. Stumbling a bit, she managed to open the door, groggily rubbing at her eyes to clear her vision.

In front of the door stood a tall figure, and an all too terrifyingly familiar one.

she stood up straight, her eyes unwavering at the thing standing before her; its face obstructed by bandages wrapped securely around its head. This would most likely be unnerving for some but it was all too familiar to her; an Enforcer. It stood towering over her in its dark buttoned up uniform.

"You are Otk, correct?" it asks passively, not moving an inch.

Her heart suddenly sped up as she nodded. "Y-yes. What can I do for you today, sir?"

"Your store received its supplies today. We searched it and found this-" the Enforcer moves its hand from behind its back to show Otk a small package. "Explanation?"

"Sir, I can assure you that I do not know," she responded, keeping her tone and posture as formal as she could manage for having just been rudely awakened.

The Enforcer hands her the package. "We'll be docking your monthly pay by a third for the find." As soon as Otk had the package in her hand, the Enforcer turned and walked away down the hall of the apartment complex.

Otk couldn't help but let out a sigh as she looked down at the package in her hand before stepping back into her apartment and closing the door. She examined the package before opening it and revealing a CD. Instantly, she moved over to her computer and inserted the disk. She had never been particularly skilled in the ways of the computer, so figuring out how to get the thing to play took her a moment.

The CD begins to load, and she takes a moment to lean back in the chair. "That was a close call..." she muttered to herself, running a hand over her face. As the file downloaded it played an old classical song, yet all Otk could find herself thinking of was the amount docked off her monthly pay. As she began to get a bit lost in her thoughts the file downloaded, causing the music to stop and the apartment to fall into momentary silence as a code popped up onto the screen.

Frowning at it for a moment, she pulls a scrap piece of paper out to decode it. Thankfully codes happened to lay in her strengths, so it didn't take too terribly long to decode the message.

"Meeting in base tonight after curfew. Use the shop's tunnel for max effectiveness. We'll pay back the reduction you got."

After reading this she couldn't help but chuckle as she leaned back in the chair once more. "Of course."

And the shop... her shop. She had opened it after moving to Iprans because it was a way to get money, and she knew she'd make good money with a fish shop; there were plenty of fish to catch. The shop was also the entrance to one of the Resistance bases, making it easy to access by a tunnel located in the back room. Many Resistance members held the key to her shop, and she couldn't help but feel just a tad paranoid about that, but... it was all for a good cause.

A sudden, more delicate knock sounded at the door, earning her attention. "Eh? Who now?" she asked as she got to her feet. She moved back over to the door and slowly opened it.

A young man, wearing a black turtleneck shirt and black round sunglasses stood before her. "Mornin', Otk. I was going to ask if you wanted to get some coffee before we open the shop?"