Chapter 4 – I’m Not All Right
Art produced by JJasso
Rain had started to come down in the time since Alos left his house. The showers were unexpected as he had checked the weather report earlier that day which read “Partly cloudy, 0% Chance of Rain.” Nevertheless, drops of rain drenched his clothes, each one a pointed reminder of just how inaccurate weather forecasting was. As he went on, the rain seemed to steadily increase and the drops turned into spheres of unrelenting wetness. None of this deterred him though, after what he had seen, the rain was the least of his worries.
Alos had never personally taken the subway; his parents had always deemed it “lower class” and “unclean”. Unclean? He wondered how a mode of transportation could be unclean.
Large pools were forming in the gutters of the streets and as Alos walked down into the lower end of town, he was constantly splashed by uncaring drivers passing by. He never would have though he'd miss the private roads. Then, as if running headfirst into a wall, there was a sudden gridlock of traffic in the streets that appeared out of nowhere. The fabric of Alos’ sweatshirt wasn't receiving the rain well and was drenched through. The damp fabric was uncomfortable, especially with the straps of his backpack chafing his shoulders with every step. At the very least, his backpack was waterproof.
After several hours of walking though the rain, Alos arrived at the local subway station. He was soaking wet and the chafing of his backpack had caused a rash to form. The chafing wasn’t so bad at first, but by the time he arrived his back felt nearly raw. Alos made his way over to the restrooms, hoping he could dry his clothes a bit. Mounted on the far wall of the room, was a hot air hand dryer. Alos stripped off his sweatshirt, rung it out thoroughly and then flipped on the dryer, placing his drenched sweatshirt underneath.
Strange gurgling noises were coming out of one of the stalls in the back of the restroom. A wet plopping noise projected out from within the stall followed by a deep grunt of relief. Alos wasn’t sure whether to laugh or be frightened for his life.
After he was just about done drying out his sweatshirt, an old Simanian emerged from the stall. His face sagged with age, the hairs running from his head to his back were graying to white, and he supported himself using a huge carbon cane. Alos wondered why he didn’t simply get surgery to fix his reliance on the cane, especially in such a large creature. With a sudden realization, he noticed the similarities between the aging process of Simanians and Humans. Sure they were both primates and therefore related but still, Simanians were practically gorillas.
Shoving his now dry sweatshirt into his backpack he exited the restroom, entering the communal subway station. The station was packed with people, Alos felt he could almost taste the odor of the collective around him and it was unpleasant to say the least. The food plaza, with its tables and general designated eating areas, was a buzzing beehive of people. Lines stemmed from each food vendor for several hundred yards, some going all the way to the restroom he just came from. The area was sheer claustrophobia and Alos didn’t want to deal with it, so instead he headed straight for the ticket dispenser.
The ticket dispenser processed purchases, analyzed the person’s background data, and then judged whether or not the person would be allowed to board the train. Ten years prior, the idea of an automated ticket dispenser wouldn't have been considered but after a multi-train bombing, followed by an increase of non-states gang activity within the magtrain station, the UDA deemed it necessary for the safety of the citizens.
Alos approached the dispenser, removing the Orb from his pocket and placed it into the appropriate slot on the dispenser. As he inserted the Orb into the slot, paranoia sent a shiver up his arm and into his chest.
It felt like he was being watched.
Narrowing his eyes, Alos swiveled his head back and forth, checking the area around him. It was just mobs of people and there didn’t seem to be anything or anyone out of the ordinary, so he returned his attention to the dispenser. It had finished processing his purchase, and a small yellow stub was ejected from the machine. He reached out and took it and his Orb from the machine, pocketing both.
A silver, bullet shaped magtrain suddenly shot into the station, snapping to a halt just before Alos. Doors on the train slid up into it's body and a swarm of people poured out from within. A thick glass wall extended from the ground around the track, arching over the train and into the far wall, completely encasing the magtrain tracks and the people it had just released. Small sections of the glass wall slid upwards, similar to the doors on the train, and released the people into the station.
People flooded into the station pushing their way through the bystanders waiting to board the train. Up on the glass wall, there was a hologram being projected which stated, “Boarding Train 3 – Meemomi, Southdrem." Alos dug around in his pocket, until his fingers felt the paper of the ticket, and then pulled it out. The ticket read “Train 3 – Meemomi, Southdrem”, so he started pushing his way through the crowd over to the train. Trying to get to the train was one of the most difficult tasks Alos had ever attempted. The sheer density of the crowd that he was trying to make his way through was like an ant trying to push its way through a mountain of jello. When he managed to make it to the glass doorway, he was stopped by a group of people standing in the doorway completely oblivious to the fact they were blocking it off. With a shrug of his shoulders Alos took his backpack off, held it against his chest, and then crouching down, managed to slide past the blockade. He shook his head in disbelief of the people’s stupidity as he pulled his backpack back on, slid his ticket into the slot on the train, and then boarded.
Two rows of seats lined each side of the train, between the two sides was a walkway which went all the way to the back of the train. Running along the ceiling of the walkway, hung a handrail people could hold onto while the train was moving. Alos was one of the first people on the train, giving him the luxury of choice as to where to sit. He made his way to the back row of the train, where he dropped his backpack down into the inside seat, sitting down in the aisle seat beside it. The fabric on a lot of the seats in the back section of the train was torn or stained, but it didn’t really bother Alos. The back section of the train, only had one other person in it, an old man who was sitting at the front row of seats. Alos pulled out his Orb and then reached into his backpack taking out his goggles. He pulled his goggles on and then booted up the Omninet.
Alos closed his eyes while the Omninet was booting up, trying to think. He knew where the train was going but in all honesty, he had no idea what he was going to do once he got there. He had no where or one to go to. At the moment, all he knew was he was trying to get away. A chill ran down Alos’ spine, anxiety tightening his chest. He was leaving his home, the only place he had ever known, and to go... where? Would he ever be able to go back? No, his parents would surely have connections that would be looking for him. Alos exhaled deeply, sliding his goggles up, glancing down at his hand realizing his fist was clenched to the point that his forearm was bulging with veins. The unclenching of his fist revealed indentations left by his finger nails.
The sound of the Omninet booting up retook his attention. He slid his goggles back down, now viewing the Omninet through 0rnj. There were no new messages, not even from Mari. Alos bit the inside of his lip. How was he going to tell Mari about what happened? A blank stare fell across his face. He decided he would wait until he was situated before he told her; it was for the best. Then, out of boredom, Alos decided to pull up his messenger. He scrolled through the list looking for someone to talk to for the train ride. Big Beastin' wasn’t onand neither was Mari, but that was probably for the best anyway. As he continued scrolling down, one of the names on the list grabbed his attention. Darkbum94.
Alos hadn’t talked to Darkbum in what seemed like ages. He was a friend Alos had met through the Omninet years prior and they became close, talking nearly everyday. In fact, Darkbum was the person who more or less mentored him on the inner workings of the Omninet and how to exploit them. He helped Alos design 0rnj, though not even Darkbum could have predicted how 0rnj would turn out. He even helped him purchase the initial memory he needed for 0rnj, but about a year ago, Darkbum moved to take a new job in Meemomi. Darkbum told Alos he was trying to get enough money to set up a shop or something, he wasn’t really sure. Before he moved he told Alos he was going to be working almost constantly and wouldn’t have much time to spend on the Omninet, he went on to say though, if Alos ever needed him he should send him a message.
Perhaps it was an unconscious decision that Alos made, but he suddenly realized he was taking a train to Meemomi, the area Darkbum said he would move to. Alos pulled up the messenger and sent Darkbum a message explaining his situation. There wasn’t much for Alos to do but wait for a response, so he slid his goggles up, leaving the Omninet running and his earpieces on.
Time crawled by on the train. A few more passengers came into the back section, sitting down near Alos. He noticed the old man in the front row seats kept glaring at him. Alos would stare at the back of the chair in front of him, trying to ignore the old man, only looking around every few minutes to see if the man was still staring. Every time he checked, the man’s eyes were glued to Alos; his face curled up as if he had just eaten something rotten. It was more than awkward, it was disturbing. In an attempt to remedy being stared at, he reached into his backpack, took out his newly warm and dry sweatshirt and pulled it on, being sure to draw his hood up and over his head.
Alos heard a notification beep from his earpieces and he immediately reached up into his hood and tugged his goggles down over his eyes. On the messenger icon was a little red notification with the number “1”. He selected the icon, which then displayed a message from Darkbum94. It read,
“It’s nice to hear from you again, it has been too long. In regards to your situation, I think I can help. When you get off the train in Meemomi, there should be another train that takes you just south to the border, that’s where I’m at. Just get some food at the stop and relax, you’ll be fine. When you get off at the border, there's a building nearby with a big sign that says “Elixer”. Meet me in there. Tell me what you're wearing so I can recognize you. Don’t worry about finding me once inside, I’ll approach you.”
-Darkbum94
Alos sent back a message describing what he was wearing: a dark red and gray hooded sweatshirt, black pants, and his goggles under his hood. A minute later, Alos got a reply, the message read:
“Alright, I’ll see you when you get here.”
-Darkbum94
Soon after, the magtrain came to stop. Through the speakers at the back section of the train, it was announced that the train had arrived at Meemomi. The other passengers in the back section of the train, all stood up and began to exit the train. Alos got up and grabbed his backpack, taking off his goggles and placing them inside. He then followed the rest of the passengers out of the train and into the station.
Similar to the previous station, the Meemomi station was packed with people. Alos elbowed his way through the crowd, making his way over to a dispenser he had seen from the train. At the dispenser he again placed his Orb into the machine and selected the border city to the non-states, Bridid. The machine processed his purchase then ejected a small yellow stub, which had the name of the destination along with the train number and the time of departure. Surprisingly, the same train Alos had gotten off of, train 3, was the train he was to once again board. The time of departure on the ticket stub read, “6:30 PM”. Alos looked up at the goliath digital clock displayed on the glass wall around the train which read, “5:55 PM”. He had no idea it was already so late in the day.
Since he had time to kill, Alos figured he would take Darkbum’s advice and get something to eat. As he started to think about food, his stomach growled at him as it filled with the protestation of hunger. He hadn’t realized just how hungry he was but it made sense since all he had eaten that day were the lemon bars Mari had sent him. With these new found hunger pangs, Alos walked over to the food bazaar.
Aromas filled the air, becoming more and more powerful as he drew nearer. Unfortunately, the rancid smell of the people occupying the area around and within the bazaar clashed with the delicious smell of the food, mixing the aroma into some twisted and vile combination of the two. It was an awful cocktail of serenity and hate and in this case, the hate was emerging the victor.
One of the food stands was grilling cerenem, a long grain similar in flavor and consistency to rice but with a length of several inches. The cook took the grilled cerenem and cut it up to about the length of rice, before tossing it into a pan with a sauce and some vegetables he had already cut. After frying the ingredients for a couple minutes, he plated the food with strips of chicken.
Alos approached the food stand, which had an Orb slot on the counter of the stand. He inserted his Orb into the slot, selected the dish the cook had just prepared, and purchased it. After the order was processed, a display appeared up on a screen hanging from a wall on the stand, showing Alos’ face and the food he ordered. The cook glanced up at the image then grabbed the freshly prepared plate and handed it to Alos. He thanked the man and then walked over to a table inside the bazaar, sat down, and dove into his plate.
Up on a few walls of the bazaar were screens, all tuned to the same channel, showing the same imagery. Alos wasn’t sure what was going on as he had just started watching, but it looked like a show about a gladiatorial arena. Half of the characters in the arena were wearing red armor while the other half were wearing green armor, each colored team fighting the other. The dome arena they were fighting in was riddled with walls and barricades, creating obstacles and cover for each team. The view would switch between a camera on the ceiling giving a bird’s eye view of the entire arena and the individual characters themselves giving first person perspective shots. The degree to which the show looked realistic was actually pretty exciting and thoroughly impressive to say the least. After several minutes of high intensity fighting, all of the characters on the green team had been slain, with only half of the red team left standing. The victorious red team exited the arena, and the screen faded to black before cutting to a breaking news report.
The report being shown was about some sort of tragic accident. The report detailed that two people had been killed in a freak vehicle accident, where the driver suddenly lost control of the car and drove off a bridge. The driver, Larry Dimze, and passenger, Mari Gean, were killed in the accident. The news report showed a picture of each person, and then a few images of the bridge before the reporters gave their insincere condolences.
Alos sat, staring at the screen, his eyes completely glazed over. The blood rushed into his head, and he could hear the throbbing of his heart in his now engorged ears. Was she the girl that message was talking about? It couldn’t have been, it had to be a mistake. This couldn’t have been the Mari HE knew, but he needed to be sure; he needed to try to message her, so he reached into his pocket to grab his Orb.
Just as Alos’ hand clasped onto the Orb in his pocket, he felt a hand clench his shoulder. With sudden awareness, he snapped his body around, only to find a uniformed man in a black suit with leather gloves and eye cups with black lenses sucked over his eye sockets, grabbing his shoulder. The man was one of his parent’s secret defense service men.
“You’re coming with me.” The man growled.
In the corner of his vision, Alos could see a group of men in the same uniform running towards him. They were coming in from every direction, and he was clearly surrounded. The sensation of opening pores all over his body prickled over his skin as the waves of adrenaline suddenly exploded through his body.
The muscles in his hand twitched, mustering up all his might, and in one swift motion, he swung up his backpack into the man’s face, while simultaneously kicking him square in the crotch. The uniformed man toppled over to the ground, writhing in pain; apparently he wasn’t wearing the recommended cup the service provided. Alos immediately bolted toward the crowd around the train station, pushing and shoving people out of the way when necessary and cutting through a hole in the positioning of the surrounding secret service members. As he made his way into the crowd, Alos slowed down in an attempt to blend in, quickly pulling on his hood and walking in sync with the people around him. He glanced back over his shoulder and saw two of the uniformed men trying to spot him, and out of panic he snapped his head back away and stared at the ground.
The clock display on the glass wall read “6:29 PM”, and then when it suddenly changed to “6:30 PM”, Alos dashed over to the train, shoving several people out of the way, knocking most of them over in the process. He passed through the glass wall and then sprinted onto the train. Just as he set foot aboard the train, the doors slid down behind him, closing him off from his pursuers. Smiling, Alos bent over holding his knees as he tried to catch his breath.
He made his way to the back section of the train and returned to his previous seat. This section of the train was much more full than previously, with about half of the seats being filled. Most of the people were humans, but there were two Lycanians sitting beside each other and judging by the way they were sitting, Alos guessed they were a couple.
At a second glance, Alos noticed that the clothes of most of the passengers in the back section of the train were torn and tattered and all together raggedy. One middle aged man was wearing a zippered, hooded jacket, the hood being blotched with multicolored stains. While another fellow was wearing a pull on sweatshirt, which was at least three sizes too large and had several sewn on patches over where Alos guessed were holes in the fabric. While it was typical for Lycanians to not wear shoes, as they had massive thick skinned feet, even some humans in the back section were without footwear. On top of all this, Alos started to catch a whiff of a musty, stale body odor, drifting to the back of the train section. Did everyone who rode these trains not bathe? Is this what his parents meant by unclean?
Alos pulled his Orb out of his pocket, and slid his goggles down around his eyes. After that little run in with the uniformed men, Alos figured he should probably tell Darkbum what happened. He booted up the Omninet, and accessed his messenger. He started to scroll down to Darkbum94’s name, when he passed over Mari’s. The selection cursor paused over her name, and he stared at it, dread filling his heart. Alos clenched his eyes shut and aggressively shook his head as if to snap out of a trance. With difficulty he continued on to Darkbum94’s name and starting creating a message to send.
“When I got off at the train station in Meemomi, several men were trying to abduct me. I’m pretty sure they were government secret defense. I managed to slip away and lose them in the crowd, but I think I'm being pursued. I thought you should know befo-"
-0rnj
Alos heard the doorway to the back section of the train slam shut. He lifted up the right eye piece to his goggles to see what all the commotion was about. Running straight for Alos down the back section of the train, was one of the secret service men holding what looked to be a vibrating taser baton. In a brief panic, Alos sent the incomplete message and pocketed his Orb. He nudged his goggles up onto his forehead out of his eyes and snatched up his backpack.
The uniformed man took his baton and swung it at Alos’ face. Reflexively, Alos ducked down between the seats and leapt up, using his free hand to vault over the row of seats in front of him. The man took another swing at Alos, missed and struck a seat, embedding itself into the weak plastic frame and shocking him. Standing on a row of seats, Alos dove over the people sitting in front of him, rolled to his feet in the aisle and sprinted for the door, stopping to look back. The man struggled to free his baton, then whipped back around toward Alos. Backpack flailing off his right shoulder, Alos grabbed the hand rail hanging down from the ceiling and swung his weight into the man, kicking him to the back of the train car.
The people in the back section of the train had become riled up from all the excitement. Several people were cheering for Alos as he knocked the uniformed man into the back wall of the train. The man with the stained hood had gotten up to run at the uniformed man, attempting to steal his clothes while he lay on the ground, the two struggling. This bought Alos enough time to dash onto the next section of the train.
This section was completely filled. Every seat was occupied, with a few people standing in the aisle holding the hand rail. Most of the people were staring at Alos as he came bolting in, trying to figure what was going on. He ignored them and pushed his way to the front of the train car. At the front, an automated door opened, and there was a small intermediate room between the current car and the next. The room had two restrooms side by side on the left wall, and cupboards on the right. Alos started to open the restroom, but stopped when he figured the man would check in there. Out of desperation, Alos flipped open the large bottom cupboard. It was completely empty. Quickly, he tucked his backpack up against his chest, and wedged himself into the cabinet, quietly closing it behind him.
Alos’ heart felt like it would jump out of his chest, and having his backpack pressed up against his thumping ribs only seemed to amplify the effect. There wasn’t a lot of room in the cabinet, but there was just enough for him to move and slide his arms around some. He managed to open his backpack and remove his goggles from his head, placing them inside. Sweaty indentations were pressed into his forehead from where the goggles were.
There was no perception of time in the cupboard, a second felt like hours and every minute felt like a lifetime. The cupboard was near pitch black, with only miniscule lines of light passing through the cracks in the door. Alos was trying to stay as silent as possible, but the thumping of his heart against his chest felt impossibly loud.
Alos heard someone quckly approaching, stopping inside the room and turning. One of the restroom doors was thrown open, and there was a pause. Alos took a deep breath. With a loud bang, the second restroom door was flung open. The man growled in frustration before scurrying into the next section of the train, the heavy footsteps faded away. Alos clasped his chest, breathing a sigh of relief. Never in his life had he been more scared than in that moment.
The train had started to slow down and after a few minutes, could be heard braking. People stood up to laeve. A parade of feet stampeded past the cracks of light in the cupboard. Alos knew he had to get off the train, and knew if he went out, the man would be waiting for him. He couldn’t sit in this cabinet though or he would eventually be found. He had to make a break for the door.
Alos flung open the cupboard and pushed against the wall with his feet, sliding himself out onto the floor. He stood up, being sure to grab his backpack and without a second thought, Alos took off for the exit of the train. It was empty of people and he had a clear path to the exit on the right. He sprinted for the exit and threw himself out of the train.
Just as Alos set foot off the magtrain, the man again appeared behind him, his hand shooting out like a viper and crushing Alos’ wrist with his mercilessly strong grip. Alos’ arm felt as though it was pulled out of its socket and he could feel long cords of fibers in his shoulder tearing as the man tried to yank him back inside the train. The doors on the train beeped indicating they would be closing momentarily and with a weak tug, Alos tried to break his hand away. The man did not budge, his grip like a steel clad cuff around Alos' hand. A second beep sounded, and the door to the train rapidly whooshed closed over Alos’ wrist just behind where the man was holding, crushing the bones in his wrist into a meat wrapped sack of dust.
The flood of pain froze time around him and two immediate choices lay before Alos. Either he waited, struggling against the man inside and the crushing force of the hydraulic door, only to be pulled back in as soon as they opened again, or he could sever his wrist with the plasma knife, removing the hydraulic shackles from him and allowing the door to fully close and the train to leave. As the choice was between freedom and imprisonment, Alos took the former.
In a blur of speed, Alos reached behind him into his backpack, pulling out the plasma blade and flicking it on. Three jets of heat came out, creating an intersection of purple hot ionized flames. Alos steeled himself, clenched every muscle in his arm, then sliced the molten blade through his wrist, cleanly severing his own hand and freeing himself from the clutches of the man and the magtrain. The wound on his newly severed arm was instantly cauterized from the intense heat of the plasma, disallowing the new wound to bleed.
The waves of pain cascaded in, nothing could have come close to preparing Alos for that moment of unprecedented, unrelenting, unending pain. Every other discomfort he had ever felt or experienced was cast into the towering shadow of this new found agony. He clenched his eyes shut in absolute anguish and fell to his knees, panting moans escaping his lips. It felt as though his hand was still attached but was being dipped in a vat of lava. The terrible sensation shot up his arm, where it continued to throb with growing inflammation.
Inside the door to the train, Alos’ severed hand was still wedged into the door, tempting the beeping door to reopen. There was no way he would allow something so stupid to have him be taken at this point, he could not allow it. Alos swung his leg up, kicking his butchered hand into the train, bouncing off the man’s face and finally allowing the door to close completely. He probably would have laughed had he not been missing an extremity.
The uniformed man pounded on the window of the magtrain’s door, a furious snarl spelled across his face as the train pulled away. The train continued to slowly accelerate out of sight and Alos could see the man pressing his face against the window, trying to hold his line of sight, eyes locked through those dark-lensed eye cups, leaving Alos to his paranoia. When the train was finally out of sight, he let his plasma blade cool before placing it back into his backpack and then, ever so gently, placed the stub of his arm into the pocket of his sweatshirt, turning to face the crowded train station. Even in all the commotion the endlessly dense crowds had not even raised an eyebrow to what had just taken place.
It was collective obliviousness.