The Remainders

Chapter 1

WORD EMOJI CHART
🐜= A 🐝=B 🐱=C 🐶=D 🦅=E 🦋=F 🦟=G
🦀=H 🌴=I 🥀=J🍃=K 🐞=L 🌾-M 🐉=N
🌑=O 🍑=P ✨=Q💐=R ❄️=S🌵=T🐽=U
🐬=V🐋=W 🦖=X 💦=Y🦎=Z
——————————————————————
"Liam! Liam!" Alura Jones' harsh and demanding, yet musical voice crackled to life through the call-line.
   While it was not abnormal for the young secretary to have to hitch a ride on the elevator, in order to get to her coworker's twelfth story office, It was abnormal for Liam to not be answering his office phone.
   However, if Alura were to enter Liam Westfield's office at that exact moment, she would have probably fainted on the spot— Haven's Oval Office's 'excused' bachelor, was currently in the middle of a... rather heated 'meeting' (which required almost no clothes) with the young brunette house keeper, on the love seat in his office.
   A small giggle escaped the young woman's lips, as she planted a passionate kiss on Liam's lips. "Shouldn't you be answering that?" She asked Liam, breathlessly.
  "Hmm... s'nothing important." Liam mumbled.
   The call-line crackled to life again— "Liam Westfield, do NOT make me have to come up there! This is seriously important!"
   Liam sighed heavily, clearly annoyed by Alura's nagging calls, but he decided to see what was up.
   Gently rolling the house keeper off of his waist, Liam reached over, and pressed the answer button— "Hey, Alura. What's going on? I was in an important meeting..." Liam paused, as the house keeper winked at him, "in fact I might have to go back in," he finished in a hurry, winking back to the girl.
  "Liam," Alura's voice now sounded worried, which found Liam's attention. "Liam," the secretary continued, "this is about Luka."
   At these words, Liam's body tensed for a moment, as if he was frozen.
Hearing no answer, Alura's voice continued— "Xander has requested an audience with you, me, and a couple other 'Usefulls.' You need to get up here."
Liam shook his head, as if to shake himself out of a trance. "Stall the meeting, Alura. I'll be there in a moment."
"I'll see what I can do," came Alura's answer, which was followed by the sound of her hanging up the phone.
Liam sighed, and looked over to his 'guest.' "I'm sorry we weren't able to get to the... good part of our meeting, Allison."
Allison rolled her eyes, as she began to collect the pieces of her clothes that she and Liam had managed to remove from her body, before Alura had called.
"Sorry..." Liam apologized again, as Allison stomped out of the office.
Liam had half the mind to run after Allison, and bring her back to their 'meeting.' However, there was someone that needed him right now, who was more important to him than the house keeper.
################
"What's the problem, Alura?" Liam half asked, half demanded, as he rounded the corner, and entered into Alura's all-glass Office.
"Finally!" Alura exclaimed, looking up from a stack of papers. "Where the 🦀🦅🐞🐞 were you!?"
Before Liam could say anything about his earlier meeting, Alura, who had the nose of a blood hound, picked up the last remnants of Allison's perfume, wafting off of Liam's suit jacket.
"Wait a minute!" Alura practically yelled, "Lavende-Citron... cheap perfume..." Alura's eyes widened at the sudden realization.
Liam felt his heart miss a beat. "ALLISON! You were sleeping with Allison Morgan, when I called! Oh Liam! You know that is against the law! How could you!?" Alura palmed her forehead.
"On the contrary, Alura, we weren't sleeping. And how could I? Well, it was quite simple, really— I just started with her top, 'went from there." Liam said, adding his signature wink.
"Oh! No! No! Ugh!! Eww!" Alura grimaced, as she tried, unsuccessfully, to erase the lewd images that had pushed their way into her mind.
   Liam gave Alura a smug smile, and walked past her, into the penthouse office of President Xander Helwind.
   "Liam!" Xander's always welcoming voice rang out through the meeting room. "I thought you weren't going to be joining us, today! Here," Zander motioned to two empty chairs,  onE on each side of himself, "I saved you and Alura a seat."
   Liam nodded to Xander, in acknowledgement, and took the chair that had been placed on the left of Xander.
   "Alura..." Xander, and the rest of the attendees at the meeting stood up, as the beautiful blonde secretary entered the room.
   Alura bowed her head, politely acknowledging her fellow coworkers.
"Well, why don't start the meeting now?" Xander said, with a flourishing clap of his hands.
   All of the attendees voiced their approval, and once again, took their seats.
"Well," Xander began, "as all of us know, next month, we'll be releasing our latest vaccine..." Xander paused, as his audience politely applauded.
Liam felt his stomach twist, and one glance in Alura's direction, confirmed that she had the same feeling... both Alura and Liam, knew what the releasing of a new vaccine would mean...
"... And so," Xander began again, "we will be needing some new recruits, before we are able to distribute the vaccine..." There was another pause, as the audience murmured amongst themselves— "Oh, yes. We are going to have to find some new ones... any ideas on where to start?"
  "Which brings me to my second point, ladies and gentlemen,' Xander's voice infiltrated the murmurs, bringing the focus back to himself, "I am assigning my most trusted friend, Mr. Liam Westfield, to be our newest 'Useless' moderator! Liam will be overseeing this month's recruitments. We'll have your copy of the recruitment list, next week, Liam."
     Liam suddenly choked in horrified shock, as he received a standing ovation from the audience. A moderator!? No...
   "And that brings us to a conclusion of today's meeting," Xander said.
   As the attendees began to file out of the office, Xander placed a firm hand on Liam's shoulder, restricting him from standing. Liam sat.
   As soon as the last attendee, minus Alura, had exited the room, Xander nodded to the doorman, who bowed, exited, and closed the doors behind himself, leaving Xander, Alura, and Liam, alone in the room.
    Liam felt a little nervous, when Xander turned towards him, making eye contact.
   "I am afraid that Alura and I have some rather disconcerting news, Liam," Xander, sighed.
     Liam swallowed nervously, "W-what is it?" He asked, trying to make his voice sound calm. Inside, Liam already knew what the news was going to be about, but he hoped that it was going to be about something else. Not...
   "It's about Luka," Xander said, his voice laced with meaningless concern, "I'm afraid that he's been bordering 'useless' level for a while now..." Xander pauses, wanting the seriousness of the situation to sink in... deep.
Liam could only sigh, as Xander continued— "I know that the two of you have not had the best relationship, as of late, but perhaps you should try and place your differences to the side. After all, we all know what happens when someone becomes a 'Useless.'
At the word 'Useless,' Xander got the reaction that he had originally been hoping for, as he noticed Liam becoming slightly tense.
Alura had also noticed Liam's reaction, and decided to use her superpower— persuasion. "Xander, sweetheart," Alura finally spoke, her musical voice capturing the attention of both of the men, "perhaps Mr. Westfield could... try to sort Luka out?"
Alura's suggestion seemed to pique the interest of both Liam, and Xander.
"Well, what are you thinking, love?" Xander asked, nodding in encouragement.
Alura took a deep breath, then continued— "Perhaps, Liam could enroll Luka in a type of rehabilitation program..."
It was now Liam's turn, to offer a nod of encouragement.
"...We could give Liam the recruitment list right now, and he could split it with Luka. If Luka brings in all of the recruitments, we could bring Luka back to us." Alura had said all of this, in one breath, leaving no time for Xander or Liam to interject.
  "You know what?" Xander asked, "sometimes you are so smart!" He leaned over to Alura, and planted a kiss on her forehead, before turning to Liam, in order to deliver his offer.
   "Do you want to accept this offer?" Xander asked Liam.
   "Not really," Liam said to himself, but he stood up, shook Xander's hand, and told him, that he would take the deal, bringing their meeting to a close.
   After Xander handed some paperwork and folders to Liam, Liam felt that it was time for him to go and prepare for recruiting... and hopefully, for Luka's rehabilitation.
As Liam walked out of the room, he passed right by Alura. He nodded, and whispered a quiet "Thank you."
    But instead of Alura returning the expected "you're welcome," or small nod, Alura had an ominous five word message for Liam— "do not mess this up."
                  #################
   "❄️🦀🌴🌵!!" Liam Westfield exclaimed, as he threw the stack of recruitment papers onto his office desk. "What have you done this time, Luka?" Liam wondered out loud.
   Liam was not a man of this sort of outburst, but today's news had hit him hard.
   First and foremost, the 'Useless' moderator position, was never a position that he had wanted.
  'Useless' moderators we're tasked with delivering the harrowing news of 'Usefulness Levels, as well as the increasing or deduction of levels, to all of the citizens.
Liam's father had been a moderator, before his death. He had always come home, his face drawn, and the remnants of tears, almost always stained his cheeks.
Whenever Liam and his brother asked why, their father would just tell them, that he felt worse than he ever had, while working with the I.R.S. back in the day. While Liam was never sure why his normally stoic father would have tears, after a day of 'Useless' moderating, he knew that he would never want to find out. Well, as of today, that hope was long-gone.
   And then, there was the shocking, if not terrifying news of Luka. What could he have been doing, that earned him a borderline deduction of his 'Usefulness' Level points? Better yet, just how would he be able to earn them back? Wait... would Luka even want to hear from him? Well, there was only one way to find out...
Liam fingered around his neck, searching for the two tags that he wore on a chain. One was his, the other was his father's. For some reason, he had a habit of holding tightly onto both of them, whenever he got nervous.
When he found them, he looked at the raised inscriptions. His father's tag, had his name— David Westfield, and his usefulness level, which read, 100+.
As Liam looked at his own tag, which read 100, he wondered what Luka's usefulness level was, at the moment. It couldn't be anything good, that was for sure.
Liam sighed, as he picked up the phone that sat on his desk. He was definitely beginning to have second thoughts. Maybe there was a better, and easier way, to contact Luka, without having to talk to him?
As if his fingers were betraying him, Liam's fingers started tapping in the numbers that would lead to hearing Luka's voice... after all these years. "Well," he said to himself, as he pressed the call button, "there's no turning back."
The line rang twice, before Liam heard the phone being answered. He held his breath, waiting to hear Luka's voice. He thought about how much it might have changed...
"Hello?" Liam's eyes widened, as he heard a woman's voice answer his call. But this wasn't just any woman's voice!
"Nikala!?" He half shouted into the phone.
There was a brief silence, before— "OH MY GOSH! LIAM!! IS THAT YOU!?" The woman screamed into the phone.
Liam chuckled, as he held the phone at a safe distance from his ear, as Nikala screamed in excitement. "Hey, Nick-knack," Liam smiled to himself, as he remembered the nickname that he had given Luka's assigned partner."
"Oh my goodness! It is so good to hear from you! I've missed talking with you, you jerk," Nikala laughed, "so, how have you been?"
"Um," Liam was not sure about how exactly he wanted to discuss that point, hesitated. How had he been? "Good," Liam settled on saying, "I've been good."
"Mmhm," Nikala mumbled, clearly not believing Liam.
Liam needed to get off of that subject. "Anyway," he started, "is Luka around? I need to go over some important things with him."
"Sure, I'll get him," came Nikala's cheerful answer, "Luka! Luka, someone is on the phone for you!"
"Thanks Nikala, for not telling him who," Liam said.
"Hang in there, Lee," Nikala said, as she set down the phone.
There was another pause, and then— "Hello, Westfield residence, Luka speaking."
Liam swallowed. This was it. What would Luka say? What would he do?
"Look," Luka's frustrated voice snapped Liam back into reality, "I don't have time for prank calls, so who is this!?"
"Here goes nothing," Liam encouraged himself, "Hey there, little brother."
"......" *CLICK*!!