Brush Up Mafia II

After passing the series of small tests, you heard the locks disengaging. The door slid open and you stepped into a small room with nothing other than a change of clothes and an exit. You put them on and left the room into a long passageway. As you walked down the passageway, you saw similar rooms with other cryo-preserved humans. You shuddered to think that you spent the last … How many years have it been?

The answer soon presented itself as you exit the long passageway. You entered a small chamber with a chair and a monitor screen. Printed on the screen are the words “Year 99PA.”

‘99PA?’

The fear of living in an uncertain future finally caught up, you started wondering what is in store for you. You sat down on the chair and the walls flickered.

“Welcome to the year 99PA. In your calendar, it would be year 3192AD.”

‘I have been sleeping for more than a thousand years?’ you wondered.

“It is now 99 years post-apocalypse.”

Over the next 30 minutes, you were given a brief history of what happened in the past thousand years. The Earth had been reduced to a toxic wasteland by wars and the only way humans could sustain themselves is by building domes that regulate their internal environment to mimic Earth before the apocalypse.

The chamber opened and you left the building. You walked into a metropolitan of high-tech buildings and thousands of people going about doing their own business. Looking up into the sky, you saw the glass dome, the dome which you are destined to live in for the remainder of this lifetime.

Welcome to the future.

The Bioengineer set his huge binder labeled “Gymnotidae” down. He opened it and flipped through the pages with utmost care, like a mother would do to her newborn. He stopped at the page “Electrophorus” and scanned the page with his eyes. The page holds twelve discs, each with a different label written on top of it. The Bioengineer gently removed the disc titled “Electrophorus electricus” and slid it into the computer.

Almost instantaneously, the screen flickered and the following entry appeared; “Electrophorus electricus; Common Name: Electric Eel.”

The Bioengineer sighed, turned around and walked to the glass window behind him. He looked down into a vast, deep chamber. That deep abyss is a cryo-freezing chamber, housing the reproductive cells of all organisms ever documented by humans. Millions of samples per species, this was the only way humans could preserve the diverse lifeforms that once cohabited Earth.

“One day…”

Club Katalyst, 2100 Hours

The College Graduate downed the drink as his friends cheered him on.

“Congratulations on graduating! What are your plans now?”

He leaned back and said casually, “Let a job find me.”

The Center of Information & Security, 2200 Hours

The Information Analyst scowled. How did it escape her?!

She looked back at the screen again and typed in a short command. The person’s history was blank. In fact, there were no records of him doing anything in the city until the last few weeks.

Touching the screen to the right, she pressed another button and called for the Sentry and the Enforcer. They need to see this. The city has been breached.

On the screen she just touched were the words, “Subject: Gray Adams. Born: Angeles Caídos”.

Unknown Location, 2230 Hours

“Hawk.”

The Hacker could not believe his eyes. Someone found him!

“Who is this?”

“Your new partner. And we are going to rule this city.”

Central Clinic, 2300 Hours

The Doctor grabbed her documents, turned off the lights to her office and left. She pulled out her keys, hopped onto her scooter and zoomed off to the corner of the dome.

She soon arrived at her favorite haunt, the Lookout. She parked and got off. The dome generates fake imagery on its many faceted surface; images of the sun, blue skies and a night of stars. In reality, the sky is ashen black or scorching red, as the atmosphere was literally burned off. Being a realist, she spends hours every night looking at the true sad state of the Earth from the Lookout.

She sat down and stared off into the distance. There were no stars, the sky blocked out by an ashen storm. There was no life. There was no hope.

Unknown Location, 2350 Hours

“Well done, Informant #227. Or should I call you Gray Adams?” the voice from the V-sat said.

“Expect the information you need soon. Just make sure you deposit the payment and ensure my safety.”

“Very well.”

The connection was cut and the Information Monger spat. The man was a disgusting leech. But the money was good. For someone who has no family, no past and no attachments, money was the only thing that would guarantee his present and his future. After all, life is selfish.

The man waited patiently in the corner café. He sipped his drink and picked up his magazine. Every so often, he would look at his watch and tilt his head up into the direction of the transit station. A normal scene. There was no sense of urgency, no presence. Nothing. It was as if he was part of the display in the coffee shop. A passerby would not take heed of this man sitting in the coffee shop.

A normal scene.

Not to Framm18. As he exited the transit, the man stood up and walked towards him. Before Framm18 could raise an eyebrow, the man gave him a bear hug and patted him in the back.

Two friends meeting in the transit. A normal scene.

“It’s great seeing you again! My transit’s here, have a good night!” the man chirped and boarded the transit.

Two friends saying goodbye. A normal scene.

The only thing that did not fit the picture was the puzzled look of Framm18 as he saw the man walk away. Before his brain could process the information and say “What?”, he grasped his chest and fell limp onto the floor.

A normal scene? Not anymore.

Streets: 2115 Hours

“Show me your ID.”

Akaslickster shrugged, pulled out a card and handed it to the Enforcer.

“You’re coming with me tonight.”

Hospital: 2130 Hours

Framm18 regained consciousness for a split second and said only one word, “sayalzah”. The cardiograph flat-lined.

"What should we do with him?"

"Exile him!"

The crowd roared. Actions against the society is condemned, for fear of another catastrophe. A big burly man dragged him to the gates and opened the airtight door. He effortlessly flung sayalzah into the chamber and closed the door. On the other side of the chamber, the door opened to the ash-laden toxic world that was Earth. The air stung his eyes, burned his skin. Sayalzah held his breath as long as possible. When he gave in, he gasped in air that burned his lungs. He slowly walked out of the chamber. The thin, burnt atmosphere did little to prevent the sun's radiation from bombarding sayalzah's skin. His skin charred and he soon withered. His body was reduced to ash.

Cold sweat ran down the Hacker’s forehead as he considered his options. The Mastermind, the one who can go under the covers and convince the people that they should rule the city is gone. The plan has gone awry and he has two choices: finish it or give up.

The treasure at the end of the tunnel proved too much a temptation to resist.

“Let’s finish this,” he said with determination. He sat down by his terminal, where three computers were hooked to and started typing away.

Road to the Reservoir: 2000 Hours.

The computer mainframe generated a pleasant night with cooling winds blowing, and stars shining brightly in a cloudless sky. CP put on her windbreaker and walked towards the reservoir. As she turned the street that went up the mountain, she gasped. The Enforcer was waiting for her.

“We need to talk.”

The Streets: 2015 Hours.

Derrai crossed the street to the transit station. No one noticed him disappear into a gutter that suddenly slid open. No one heard Derrai’s scream as he shot down the garbage chute into the Underground Sewage. Derrai was shot into putrid water. He held his breath and swam up to the surface. Looking around, he noticed the dim lights that lit the maintenance platforms. He swam towards them and climbed up.

“What in the name of the Mainframe?”

Road to the Reservoir: 2030 Hours

“Please go home,” said the Enforcer. CP sighed. A waste of a good night. She smiled. She would sneak out later in the night. She turned around and headed home.

Underground Sewage: 2100 Hours

The monitor read Exit. Derrai sighed. The signs have been making him walk for at least half an hour and he seemed to have gone deeper underground. Maybe the darkness and enclosure was messing with his sense of direction. He opened the door and walked into a … room?

The doors shut behind him and he heard the locks engaging. Lights turned on and he found himself trapped in a room with churning gear mechanisms on both ends with metal teeth that would hack and grind anything in that room into mush. And that anything is Derrai. The gears started turning and the sides closed into Derrai.

CP’s House: 2105 Hours.

CP went home and slid her card to open the door, sending a signal to the Enforcer that she is home. She waited for 15 minutes and tried to leave the house again. Except that the locks will not disengage.

“What?”

Unknown Location: 2110 Hours

The Hacker smiled as he looked on the middle screen. On one side, was CP stuck in her house. The other, was Derrai being hacked into pieces and ground into juice.

One step closer to the goal.

Convention Center: 1200Hours

"Slick is the Hacker!" yelled tpaxatb.

"No, tpax is!" slick countered.

The deadlock went on till the day went by and the citizens still could not decide who was lying, if either are. They decided to take their chances and let both men go, at least for one more night.