2. Colorful food

Hera.

The Gray was doing far better than it previously was two years ago. I will give credit to the Mr. Stone for keeping the city so tightly knit after the war and the Founder being murdered. But it had stagnated, there weren't people coming to live here, there weren't any new skyscrapers popping up, it was saddening. It was dying.

But now, I can feel the city pulsing. We tore down – scratch that – I tore down the old flats that were beginning to plague the outer edges of the city and replaced them with newer housing units. I tore down the sprawling village clinging onto the Gray in the desert and put all of their inhabitants in any extra housing spaces. I took control of every Gatekeeper business and…interviewed each of the building's owners to test their loyalty. The homeless had places to stay, the population was slowly rising with people camping out in the desert finding a refuge in my city.

It's only step one. Not even step one. More like the first half of step one. And then-

"Hera!" one of the board members barked.

-It'll be finding a way to create arable land in the desert and get rid of any gangs that would threaten my people. That in itself would easily take more than a decade, and then it would be on to the sprawling urban jungle that was Jamestown – chalk full of gangs and outsiders – that would be easy to take control of. Either follow or get massacred. We'd be going there for resources and the plush land it offers, not their people. Their people would be accessories-

"This is an important meeting," another member sneered.

-in what we'd be aiming to achieve. Oh, how I'm craving the feeling of conquering this entire country like the conquerors of old. From the little girl who watched her parents get taken to a skin farm and her house burnt down to being the name that hundreds of generations after us will mention in history classrooms. And after I'm done with the East Coast, I'll-

My least favorite of the chess pieces sitting along my board table slammed his hand on the table. Charles Kingston – rich before the war and even richer now. I hated him, he profited whilst the rest of us split food pills in half and crawled through blood, dirt and hail. I'd get rid of him, but it's fun to have chess pieces that don't like to move in the direction they're supposed to. It keeps the game interesting.

I looked up from the screen in front of me. "Yes?"

"You need to understand the position of power that you're in," a woman with curly black hair said.

"Or else we'll remove you." Kingston crossed his arms and glared, the mole near his lips twitching.

I stretched and stood up. The large windows behind me filtered the rainbow of light coming from the city and washed the room in white light. I drew my metal nails along the table, creating a small raving in the black screen. I paused when I reached him. I put an elbow on his bald head and leaned against him.

"You know, that's a pretty funny thing to say to me." I leaned on him further, he grunted. "Because this city is practically my birthright. Considering all the sacrifices my battalion made for us to have this city."

He swatted my arm away. "You and your group of thugs can go to hell if I care. If you don't start paying attention we'll appoint someone else as the head of the Gray. Someone who's capable."

I smirked and went back into my chair. I tapped a green button, a direct communication line to Gamma Squad. "Sergeant Ryan."

"Yes ma'am?"

"Piece 07-B. Start with his seven year old." I looked up at Kingston. "Care to take back your words about my men and women?"

"You're bluffing." He glared. The other board members sat stoically, the rest of them fell in line, but he didn't.

"Please put little Angela on the line."

A few seconds passed before a girl squeaked, "Daddy! There's scary people in the house. They hit mummy!"

"I suggest you take back what you said." I sipped the glass of liquor in front of me. In a way, I missed the old manor and leading the Rogues. I was still in charge of them, but I was always busy keeping people in check and cutting loose ends. That's how the old government folded – too many loose ends and false truths. I didn't lose everything to gain everything only to let one person let it crumble.

He snorted. "Angela doesn't sound like th-"

"Five."

The rest of the board tensed up. He continued glaring.

"Four"

Little Angela screamed. The cocking of a gun came from the speakers around the room.

"Three."

"Go ahead and kill them," he spat. "That bitch just sucks up my money. Angela probably isn't even mine."

Disgusting. "Angela, dear."

Sniffling and the short chokes of a bubbling wail came back to me.

"I apologize." Kingston smirked. "That you have such a worthless father. Would you like to come to the Gray for a holiday? You can see all the wonderful colors and all the ice cream shops. There's even a toy shop."

"But you made them hit my mummy," she choked.

"I'm sorry about that dear. I promise we'll make her better." I leaned towards Kinston and put my elbows on the desk. "And you'll live in a big house and you'll be really happy." She'd join my battalion and I'd send her after this waddling piece of lard one day.

She sniffled. "Promise?"

I took a sip of liquor and smirked at Kingston. "Promise. Sergeant, please disengage and bring them to the Gray. I know it's an inconvenient to your current assignment, please forgive me."

He came back on the line and said, "No problem. The boys are pretty worn out anyways, so we can catch a break in Jamestown."

"Copy that."

The line cut with a short click and I leaned back in my chair and looked over the board. "I understand your concerns, but please understand this as well, you're all simply here as an act. To appease the masses. I didn't suffer for years to be replaced by people who've never struggled in their lives."

They were all silent. My little display with Kingston's family wasn't just to threaten him, but to show the rest of them what would happen if they stepped out of line. I believe in freedom, hell, that's why the city is prospering – I let those with grand ideas peruse them if it doesn't harm the Gray. But those who crave law and order shall know law and order. My brand of law and order.

"So continue doing your jobs. I appreciate it greatly, but remember your position when you want to speak to me like a child." I leaned over my screen again. "Now, please leave, I have a lot of planning to do that you shall be informed of at a later stage. You first, Kingston."

They all began disappearing in brilliant blue bursts of pixels.

Kingston was the last to leave.

"If you want me to exempt some grievance your companies have done again, forget about it," I said.

"One day you're going to realize that you're not going to heaven."

I paused and he chuckled. He left in a bloom of hexagonal pixels.

Who the hell did he think he was talking to? To tell the person that prays, to tell the person that's kept the Church running despite my being the only person that goes to it, to tell the person that has killed sinners and non-believers that I won't get into heaven?

I was going to skin him.

The door to my office opened and Mei's long hair appeared at the door. She'd been letting her short purple hair grow out of its dye, her original brown colored the top of her head.

I cleared my throat and unclenched my hand. My nails had dug into my palm and drawn blood. "Anything I can help you with?"

She came in and handed me her pad. "Ceejay and I came up with some upgrades for the Walls of Jericho."

I scrolled through the blueprints. The day I had come across Mei she had been digging through piles of trash for spare computer parts and food. She'd ran away from my care more times than I could count, but I never punished it, I always made sure she had parts and food and a warm bed to come back to. I can see when someone is going to be an asset in the future, and she certainly proved herself.

I gave the pad back to her. "How long would that-"

Screams tore the air outside of my office. Screams I'd only heard once in my life – screams that matched the massacre. I flew to the window, I scanned the buildings and the streets. I'd have had an alert if the Gatekeepers had attacked. But I didn't see their white suits or any Skins. Only puffs of smoke coming from the north of the city, they bloomed like flowers into the air and colored the night.

"That's where the food markets are," Mei said. She vigorously tapped through her pad and swore.

"What is it? Is it those Berserkers again?" I snapped.

A ringing broke through my office. I tapped the desk and Saia's voice burst through the speakers, "Holy shit! Are you guys seeing this? The food markets are blowing up."

Mei showed me her pad. Footage from a camera just above a food stall. The time stamp was from a few minutes ago. A man and his wife were eating whatever meat they served down there until the woman suddenly popped. A brilliant purple mixed with the deep crimson of blood. The man soon after that, blue this time, he painted the vendor purple.

"Saia. Get down there and-"

"I'm on it."

I turned towards Mei. "Get the information on each vendor and detain them and screen them."

"On it." Out of the room before I could turn back to the window.

"Saia. Is there some sort of explosive that does that?"

A pause, and then," Nothing that I know. Jesus…people are going off like fucking firecrackers." Another pause. "Doesn't smell like gunpowder."

"So it's some sort of chemical." Couldn't be an explosive. For one: getting a timer that activated when they bit down on food could easily be mistaken when you drop the food or press it on the grill. So it being a chemical would be the only alternative.

"I'll take samples."

"You and Draco should make sure people stop eating."

"For how long?"

I put my golden gun in its holster and left the office. I put in my ear piece and switched it on as I entered the elevator. "Could be a long time. We need to find out where that food came from. Put people on food pills."

"Copy that." The line clicked off.

It had been a quiet two years, but God's work wasn't finished just yet.