|YA featured story|
Welcome to 2325.
The natural world is no longer habitable, the government has been all but privatised and the 15-billion strong population has spent the last 170 years crammed into a single man-made continent.
When her father's...
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A hollow pit opened in my gut, my insides somersaulting into free-fall as my mind tried to comprehend what I had just heard. I gripped the counter for support, reeling as sick shock knotted in my throat. Had they just said Dad was dead?
Before I could make sense of the broadcast, the diner descended into chaos.
The doors slid open and two Forcers entered from the parking lot. They swept the room, their eyes landing on me. The second their bio-match software gave them an identification; they both drew laser guns.
But that was not what caught me most off-guard.
The unusual girl in the corner was up and across the room in one lithe movement. Before the Forcers had time to register her approach, she had kicked the gun from the larger Forcer's hand and shot his comrade with a pulsed energy projectile gun that sent him down with a stunned scream.
The remaining Forcer struck at her, missing narrowly as she ducked out of the way, dropping her gun in the process. He came at her again, missing over and over as she weaved and darted around every jab, landing a few ineffective blows of her own in his ribs. After several more futile punches, she grabbed a nearby chair and brought it down on his head. The bright red plastic seat shattered and the metal frame bent around the shape of his shoulders—but the attack seemed to do nothing more than piss him off.
He roared, catching hold of her leg and swinging her into a nearby set of tables. She fell into them hard and crashed onto the floor, sending chairs flying out and tipping over all around her.
She wheezed, rolling onto her back and planting her feet wide. With a grunt, she performed a perfect kick up and side stepped—just as the Forcer came charging at her. He ploughed into the remaining tables, almost losing his balance as he lumbered around to find she had run back to the bar for her duffel.
He barrelled toward her, his heavy footsteps sending vibrations through the floor. The girl shoved her duffel onto the bar, sliding it down the shiny plastic counter-top to me. "Open it," she said, turning in time to smash her beer bottle in the Forcer's face as he ambushed her.
I gaped at her. She couldn't possibly have been talking to me.
"What are you waiting for?" She shot a frantic look in my direction as she deflected a couple more blows. The back of her head was bleeding from where she'd hit the floor, bright red blood matted in the burnt orange of her hair.
I grabbed the duffel and backed away from the bar, sinking to the floor nearby and unzipping it. The brawl was edging down to my end of the bar as the girl tried to get away. She was picking up anything she could find on the counter-top and stabbing it at the Forcer. Once they got to my abandoned seat, she grabbed my scalding coffee and threw it in his face. He let out a howl, wiping his eyes and she used the distraction to crouch to the ground. She pushed off the front of the counter like it was the edge of a swimming pool, sliding between the Forcer's legs and gliding across the floor on her belly like a penguin. I fell on my ass as she bowled into me.
