I'm worried about, Anthony, I really am. He looks like he rolled in a stack of needles to find a single strand of hay. But right now, there's actually more pressing matters. Seamus just left, but not before telling us that a dozen androids are currently on their way to our location, right now, to come and arrest us.
"So, what do we do?" Anthony asked looking towards me, he slowly placed his hands in his pockets as if moving any part of his body hurt. "And please think fast."
"Uhm...Well..." Hayden scrunched up his nose and eyebrows, in the distance I could already hear the fast-paced approaching sound of thundering, in sync, footsteps. "Just...run, I guess?"
Anthony groaned and I looked at him apologetically, "We've got no other choice huh, Hayden?" I looked at my brother who was trying to hype himself up but every move of his joint seemed to hurt him even further. He kept rubbing at his wounds and I realized that he must've hit something as he rolled out of the car. Sorry bro, but that'll have to wait for later.
"Let's get back to the final checkpoint and I can figure something out then," Hayden said and we all booked it, making ourselves farther and farther from the thundering sound of the android army approaching. We ran as fast as our legs could take us, past the same old white buildings, past the walking zombies that litter the second district. None of us dared to look back, just focused on what's ahead of us. Nobody cared if we hurried past them, brushing against them or pushing against them, they also just walked continuously to their destination.
The last checkpoint was fast approaching, I can see the multiple androids keeping watch, their red glowing eyes standing out like a sore thumb. Hayden pulled me and Anthony to the side, hidden behind a wall a few meters away from the gate, the alarm continues to blare in the distance.
"What now?" Anthony looked antsy where he stood, looking back and forth and rubbing his arms. I can't blame him, I'm worried too. We basically escaped to avoid our trial, and the most forgiving punishment for that is death by wolves, so our lives are literally on the line for this. I looked back towards the androids, they were an unwavering line of defense and every car that tried to pass the border was held back till the alarm was over, which is not the case still.
Hayden was pacing now, chewing on the nail of his thumb. The sound of the marching androids came from the distance, which signaled to me that we really don't have any more time. "Don't they have like head operators in checkpoints?" I scanned the crowd of androids and sure enough, on the far right by a station, there was a man in front of a computer system.
"You think that could be him?" I asked and the two looked in the direction where I was pointing.
"Yeah, That's the operator, how'd you know something like that?" Hayden looked towards Anthony who was looking anywhere but the two of us.
"Ugh, you sleep around enough and you get to hear all sorts of things." He was still looking away from us, almost like he was ashamed of what he was saying.
"Figures, anyways let's get a move on," Someone like Hayden was the last person I would expect to lead a death parade like this, oh god. We're going to kill someone, well that is if we're really just left with no choice at all then I think we're going to have to kill him or am I the only one thinking like this? I might be the only one.
We sneaked past to the other side of the road and hid behind another wall. "Alright, I'll go in, you guys stay here and don't cause any trouble." Hayden left and I'm not lying when I say that I genuinely felt terrified when he showed himself to the androids, but when none of them made a move for him, I breathed a sigh of relief. I watched from afar how he knocked on the guy's door and acted like he's still the heir of the Eye and all that. All the while, my brother next to me can't stop fidgeting and it's annoying me because I can see him in my peripheral vision.
"Can you stop that, you're driving me nuts!" He stopped immediately and stared down at me.
"I can't help it, I feel uncomfortable saying out loud that I sleep around." He said and he stared at the floor, I almost felt sad for him. Almost.
"You always tell me that, but you never stop." I turned back to Hayden and tried my best to ignore him. He's always like this when I bring up the subject of his continuous promiscuity. He always says that whenever he talks about his one-night stands, he feels guilty for doing them but at the same time, he never stopped. Hayden had the man by the throat as they exited the small office. The androids that were guarding the gate were all shut down, slumped against each other as if they were simply sleeping.
I made my way to Hayden as Anthony followed behind me. I cautiously looked back at the androids, wondering if they were simply pretending to be asleep and once we get close enough they're all going to wake up and murder us, maybe I'm just being a bit too paranoid.
"Now, let's go," Hayden pushed the man forwards and when they both turned to the side to leave, I got a clear glance at what Hayden was threatening the man with, It was a 360FMP-Connector. It's basically a picture frame that's connected to your Match, both parties are given this the moment they're matched. Whatever you do to the picture, happens in real-time to your match, there are of course additional plugins to the device but that's a whole other conversation. Right now though, Hayden's got a gun pointed directly at the woman's head. "Quickly."
Anthony and I quickened our pace as we passed by the checkpoint without any trouble. Hayden said that there are a few kilometers of green wilderness before we get to the dreadlands, which means that there's even more walking ahead of us, the joy. "Here, now scram," Hayden gave the 360FMP to the guy, who went away screaming as the checkpoint barrier closed back up and the red alarm died down, signaling that the civilization sensed that we were no longer in its territory.
I got a good look at our surroundings, there's a clear dirt path from where we were standing farther outwards. There are a few trees around us and not much wildlife. The air was dead, no, that's not the correct word. Stagnant, more like. There were no wisp nor whisper of wind just stale air. There were no birds chirping nor crickets...cricketing. The sky was a dim shade, a weird contrast to how it looked when we're inside a civilization.
A bush rustled from beside us as a girl, just around our age, stepped out. She was wearing mostly black clothes, specks of dirt and leaves clung to his clothes like glue.
"What took you so long?" She had short auburn hair that framed her face in a shaggy portrait, kind of way. I don't think any of us knew her because none of the other two were giving signs of answering her in the slightest.
"Who are you?" I asked as I stepped around from Hayden and went upfront. Here, I can get a clearer view of her. Which didn't do much but just tell me that she had green eyes and an ear-piercing, which does not tell much about her except for maybe that she may have come from a third district somewhere but again that's hardly anything.
"I was sent to fetch you, now come on, we got way too much walking ahead of us.." Without even making sure that we were following her, she walked ahead and left us to ourselves. I followed soon after her because honestly, there was nothing to go by, except to look for someone who was named Ken Corleone.
"Were you sent by Ken, perhaps?" I asked when I was finally able to catch up with her. The more we walked and the farther we get to the civilization, the colder it seemed to get, which is a bit weird cause it's shouldn't be that way till a couple of months.
"Yeah, pretty much," She didn't say anything else after that, just walked on ahead of us three.
"Ken? Who? No, what?" Anthony staggered up to me and I made him put one of his arms around my neck so that I can help him walk, somewhat.
"When I went to town there's this weird person that gave me a note and it said to look for him. SO I just guess-" My eyes widened at the scene before me, at first I thought it was all fake, like a simulation of some sort but as the girl in front of us walked further, the more I realized all of it was real.
The earth before me was decimated.
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