The next morning Rei awoke, realizing they were still in Shorewood in the same spot by the old withered tree stump. As the light of dawn hit him, Rei quickly squinted his eyes as they slowly grew accustomed to the light.

“Oh, good,” Rei thought to himself in relief. He was thankful nothing had happened to them in the night. He checked his wristwatch for the time. 7:32 AM.

It was risky to have accidentally dozed off right out in the open where anybody going by Shorewood could have seen them. Especially with Exterminators prowling the city barely half a mile away. The Exterminators had had a good three-and-a-half hours to look around, and Rei was genuinely surprised that they were safe.

“Marc,” he whispered, glancing down at his brother, who was hunched against the tree stump and fast asleep. “Marc, wake up. We’d need to get moving. Exterminators’ll be here sometime soon,” he sharply whispered as he vigorously tapped his brother’s arm.

“Hm? Did I fall asleep?” Marc mumbled sleepily as he moved his hands to his eyes, rubbing them.

“Obviously. We’re not too far from the city; we need to get further away from here.”

Marc nodded his silent agreement as he slowly pushed his body upwards with his arms, sitting himself up straight against the old tree stump. “Where to?”

“Uh…” Rei started as he zipped open the black bag next to him. He dug through it and pulled out the tablet, double-tapping the front screen to turn it on. He quickly opened up the NET-tracking software and saw that two Exterminators were heading southeast from the city towards Shorewood. The others were still in relatively the same positions as they had been earlier, near Greener Gardens northwest of Rei and Marc.

“We should probably go southwest,” Rei said. “To Selvin City. No Exterminators ‘round there,” he added as he gestured above the screen to disconnect the device, the screen going black at the motion. Rei shoved the tablet back into the bag, which he zipped up promptly.

“Sure.”

Marc stood up, and a thought suddenly entered his head.

“Have we got any food?” he asked.

“Uh… pretty sure we’ve got at least a couple full packs of nutrient cubes,” Rei answered, a bit unsure.

“No actual food?”

Rei rummaged through the bag, and a look of realization came upon his face.

“Shoot. We must’ve left the food in the cooling unit at the apartment,” he stated in annoyance. “It’s just the five months’ worth of gross nutrient cubes," he added with a sour expression on his face.

Marc sighed, sharing Rei’s irritation. “Well, that’s the money gained from a full two months of doing forced infrastructure work on those dumb magnet car rails down the drain.”

“At least they didn’t assign you to do street cleanup for fifteen hours a day,” Rei retorted crossly. Despite his skills in software, Rei’s assigned job had been street cleanup for the sole reason that he wasn’t part of the NET system. He and Marc had snuck away from their career assignments after a couple of years.

“I can’t believe that some people actually stick with their terrible career maps ‘til retirement. I only did the job for three years and it destroyed me.”

“I know, right?” Marc agreed. He waited for a moment before speaking again. “I’m pretty sure Dad kept working at his career in medics till he was forty or something. Ever since he was fifteen.”

“Oh,” Rei mumbled. “I never knew Dad used the cloud knowledge thing. He must’ve, to have started working as a doctor right when he was old enough to legally have a job, right?”

“Dad was one of the NET people. And anyone with a career like his has to use cloud knowledge,” Marc said flatly. “But he made the decision to keep us away from the NET system, and managed to succeed,” he added, a hint of admiration present in his voice. “They were never really able to control him.”

“Yeah,” Rei murmured.

Both brothers had always admired their father. They were both quite young when Flyn Dsou was taken away by law enforcement because of a malfunction in his Neural Enhancement system. Probably the reason he was so capable of making decisions for himself. Flyn had either been killed, or more likely just had his systems reset & been separated from his family. At the time Marc had been fifteen and Rei eleven; so law enforcement had deemed the brothers fit to live on their own.

Neither Rei nor Marc remembered much of their mother. The Western Alliance government had deemed one parent more than enough to raise a family; so after a couple was together for around five years, one was sent away from the family to focus entirely on their career assignment, while the other raised any children the pair may have had. This mostly impractical system was put in place to maximize the productivity of citizens, despite the deep hatred people harbored towards it. The thought-altering properties of Neural Enhancement Technology were the only reason people didn’t flat-out rebel.

The Family Act of 2055 was just another one of the things that never would’ve worked out without the NET system.

⬩ ⬩ ⬩

Rei and Marc both silently trudged towards Selvin City, Marc peering down at the cracked glass compass in his left hand. They had agreed to use the compass instead of the tablet so Exterminators couldn’t detect their signal.

Rei lagged behind because of the heavy bag he clutched to his chest. Marc paused for a bit every now and then so his brother could catch up. As there were currently no Exterminators heading in their direction, they weren’t in as much of a hurry as they had been the night before.

After around fifteen minutes of silent travel, the brothers could make out the dark silhouette of the tall buildings of Selvin City. This was where Rei and Marc had grown up and worked until 2059.

As the brothers neared the city, bits of memory raced back to their minds as they took in the city they had spent a majority of their lives in. Soon they recognized their childhood home: a tall apartment complex.

“Maybe for a couple days or so. I’m not sure though, it really depends on what the Exterminators choose to do next,” Marc answered.

“Okay.”

As Rei and Marc made their way towards the apartment building, they suddenly froze.

There was another person in front of the building, seemingly inspecting it. The figure wore a thick hooded coat resembling the ones the brothers wore, so they couldn’t make out anything about the person’s appearance.

“Shoot. We should stay away from here for now,” Marc mumbled.

“Yeah. Do you think they’re an Exterminator?”

“Probably some sort of NET person,” Marc stated.

“Hmm… they don’t look like one,” Rei pointed out.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Marc snapped.

Marc immediately regretted speaking so loudly, as the figure’s head slowly turned towards them, a blank expression visible on their face. They stood up straight, turning towards the brothers and removing their hood, taking the brothers by surprise.

The person seemed to be aged around twenty. She was carrying a pack of supplies on her back. Her wispy jet black hair was cut short, and she held something in her hand which resembled the tablet Rei and Marc owned.

“Hello?” Rei asked loudly.

The stranger stood silently for a while, then reached backwards into her bag and pulled out what seemed to be a large firearm, which she pointed at them threateningly.

“Jeez,” Marc mumbled.

“What're you doing here?” she interjected, seeming somewhat panicked.

“We’re running from the Exterminators,” Rei answered promptly, to which Marc grabbed his arm angrily in response.

“Shut up, what if she’s one of them?” he sharply whispered in anger.

“Doubt she is,” Rei mumbled nonchalantly. He was proven correct when the woman stuffed her weapon back into her bag.

“Then I guess it’s safe to say that I’m running from them too,” she stated, deciding to trust them. It was a decision she hoped she wouldn’t regret.

Rei made the same decision, turning towards Marc.

“I think we can trust her. We could make a trade or something. We can see if she has food,” he suddenly realized.

“No chance. We don’t need food that bad; we can survive on the nutrient cubes,” Marc disagreed. “And she could’ve been lying when she said she’s running from the Exterminators too. We’ve gotta be careful, Rei. We could let our guard down, and she could attack.”

“I really doubt she’s lying, Marc. I really, really think we can trust her,” Rei pressed. “And no way am I living on nutrient cubes,” he added stubbornly as he walked towards the person by the apartment. “Those things are foul.”

“Rei, c’mon! And why do nutrient cubes matter now all of a sudden?” Marc asked in exasperation.

Rei ignored Marc and stood by the stranger. “Hi. I’m Rei Dsou. And that’s Marc,” he said, gesturing towards his brother, who was standing in the same spot as before with a sour expression plastered on his face. “Your name?”

“Afton Elreth.”

“Cool. You have food? We can make a trade.” Rei quickly got to the point.

“I think I have some frozen bread,” Afton shrugged. “What’ve you got?”

“Lemme see here,” Rei said, zipping open the bag he held and rummaging through its contents. “We can trade you as many nutrient cubes as you want… some water quality tests... we’ve got three flashlights with almost a full charge in ‘em; you could take one if you want… we have a spare compass, though it’s broken pretty badly… still works though…and some blankets and clothes… some water; wait, we need that… Yeah. I think that’s all we’re willing to trade,” he finished.

“Uh… I’ll give you a piece of bread for a flashlight and the compass,” Afton decided. They quickly swapped their items and Rei stumbled back to Marc, a huge grin spread on his face as he held the bag and loaf of bread.

“Look what I’ve got. Changed your mind, brother?” Rei jested as he proudly showed Marc the loaf. “Food! Fooood!!” he exclaimed triumphantly. Marc couldn’t help but crack up at Rei’s display.

“Okay, okay, fine,” he laughed. “I guess we could warm it up in an apartment, if they have functioning heat.”

“Yeah. Well, thanks for the trade!” Rei waved at Afton, who waved back.

“Yeah, thanks!” Afton replied. “I’d better be going now, I’m planning to find someplace to stay near Corwel,” she added.

“Okay, have a safe journey!” Rei farewelled as Marc nodded respectfully, his original inhibitions towards Afton having dissipated, but still a bit shaken by the encounter.

Afton nodded back as she pulled on her hood and slowly trudged away from the apartment building and Selvin City, her silhouette slowly fading into the distance.