2. Carter

Year - 2236

That morning that everything changed, my cell phone alarm didn't even ring, maybe nowhere did.

Maybe I woke up because the sun started to hit my window, maybe because someone started knocking on my bedroom door very insistently.

I got up and tried to check the time on my cell phone, but the cell phone didn't even answer, as if I hadn't charged it that night.

"Bill, tell me what time it is," I ordered the robot, but it didn't even answer.

I thought the power had just gone out, but my apartment had backup power. I shook my head in search of some possible explanation, but my front door continued to be banged insistently.

I got up half-heartedly. But I couldn't say anything, maybe it was time for work, maybe someone from work had come looking for me.

I stood up after a whisper cursing my bad luck and when I opened it I met the eyes of one of my teammates, Won Jun, a despicable being who made it a point to remind me of the rules and boasted every time he tortured any delinquent.

"I've been playing for a while now, you shouldn't have kept me waiting" Won said with a trace of superiority on his face.

"is it about the power failure" I asked "it must be important, since today is my day off".

"we've all been called in, the city has been attacked, a madman has unleashed a virus in the city core and knocked out the power. We are shut down Carter, even a moron like you would understand the gravity of the matter.

I bit my lips when he called me a moron, but I understood what was going on. If the city was without power, the whole city would fall into chaos in a matter of hours or maybe by that time it would already be doing so.

The Solar city survived on technology, from the trains that crisscrossed the skies, passing between the tall buildings to get people to work.

The machines that took care of the city's crops and cleanliness, the computers that took care of education, to the chips we had embedded to make our task easier.

The synonym for the city was technology and without power we were all doomed to death.

I should have noticed earlier and reported in, but I was so immersed in my day off, I didn't realize how attached I was to the technology.

I put on my suit immediately and walked with Won out of my apartment.

We walked the metal sidewalks of the city that were backed up to the buildings, we must have been about a hundred meters above the ground.

I observed the city as I had never seen it before. The lights and advertisements that loomed day and night were lifeless.

The trains that ran on ghost rails were at a standstill, each one settled at its metal stop. Several people were trying to get on them, waiting for the power to come back on, but the wait would be long. So were the badly parked cars that piled up like scrap metal in the parking lots.

The robots that were in charge of cleaning the city were turned off, leaving no movement for anything to happen.

Everything was lifeless and I felt a sense of despair.

Officer Won led me between the metal sidewalks of the city. Descending to the surface. How long had it been since I had been on the surface? More than a year ago. The surface was a strange place and only the risky dared to tread.

The surface mists began to obscure my view and I had to follow Officer Won's silhouette so as not to get lost.

We stopped until we reached what looked like a huge warehouse, I caught a glimpse of several silhouettes, beginning to gather on the site. Each one of them wearing my same uniform.

"this was the old operations headquarters" said Officer Won, with some annoyance" they have driven us to this, but at least this place has not been infected.

Entering the warehouse, the lights counterbalanced the darkness of the mists. Observing several officers moving me from one place to another with desperation. I noticed a clock that was attached to the wall, one of those clocks with hands that were told in history books, marked seven o'clock in the morning, somehow they had made it work.

There were also old computers, on several desks, which looked more like furniture that made the place look cool. I wondered if anyone was able to use them, since none of them were turned on. Most of the officers were concentrating on going in one direction, where Officer Won was leading me.

We arrived at a small room. We arrived with our commander, Mr. John, a gentleman in his fifties who was passionate about hunting and butchering his victims alive. I really hated that I had been assigned to the torture department, but it was not something I could have decided, no one could decide about their future.

There were twenty other officers, all my fellow officers, most of them addicted to seeing blood every time they used the knife.

"Carter" said General John as he saw me, " it's good to have you here.

"I'm here to serve the city, sir" I replied with discipline, trying to hide my hypocrisy.

"We all are" said General John, " this situation is difficult, but luckily this place is protected from any attack. We have weapons and tools to succeed in finding this fucker, so it will only be a matter of time before the power comes back on. I'm savoring what I'll do with that guy once we capture him."

I heard some laughter all around, maybe Commander John wanted to lighten the mood with one of his jokes, maybe I joined in the laughter because inside me I also wanted to make the guy who released the virus in the city suffer, maybe he was just as crazy as all the officers were torturing himself.

We were distributed several radios that used batteries, weapons that did not work with energy, but with gunpowder, plus several lamps to be able to move through the mists.

I met with five officers, including Officer Won, and we began to move to the area we were designated.

I wanted to ask if there was a possibility that the hacker had left the city, that he had just released the virus from a safe place and left the city in chaos, or maybe it was a terrorist group and not a single person, but I was not the one for those questions, the highest ranking officers were the ones who gave the orders without giving explanations.

We walked about five kilometers and arrived at a place where the buildings stopped leaning out to show huge ducts leading to the top of the city. Those same ducts that came from the power plant and pulled energy as well as gases so that the city had a pleasant climate for survival.

I turned off my lamp once the mist disappeared and followed the officers trying to find answers.

A shadow flew overhead, I looked up and noticed a figure dressed in black, covered as if he was some kind of ninja, with black goggles hiding half of his face.

I unhooked the chain from my hip and unconsciously threw it towards him, trying to wrap it around him to make him fall to the ground. So did my companions.

The ninja gave off a smile when he saw us and I felt like I was hunting, it was the same smile we made when we were about to stick the knife in someone's skin with the objective of making him suffer and not so much to get information out of him.

I shook my head, I would not be intimidated, I would keep my promise to protect the city.

The ninja avoided each of the chains, stopped a few meters up, holding onto a building and dropped forward. The chains tried to reach them again. He pulled several spheres from his hip, like blades that were thrown at my companions.

I watched as Officer Won fell, when a sphere hit his throat, piercing and bleeding him immediately.

I understood that the enemy was not someone we could capture alive, I tried to reach for my firearm, but if I killed him it meant that I would not be able to get information, that the city would remain in darkness. I would have to hit him in a non-vital spot.

A smoke bomb went off before I could pull the trigger. I heard heart-rending sounds of several officers falling to the ground. In agony and others pleading for their lives to be spared.

The smoke was dissipating and I observed the silhouette of the ninja walking towards me, I pointed towards his being, but when he spoke, it changed everything.

"The famous torture department, they like to hear screams of pain, but they faint when a knife squeezes their throat," said the voice as he approached.

I lowered my weapon as the ninja took off his glasses.

I watched Aaron's face. His eyes met mine and I felt just as vulnerable as I had a year ago when the two of us were together.

His black hair, offsetting his fair skin and brown eyes.

I was still in love with him, I would still do anything crazy to be by his side.

I had been told that he had died, that his body had been destroyed with the other corpses and I was only left to see ashes that I never had the right to own.

I dropped my gun, I wanted to get close, to caress and kiss him.

"Are you back?" I asked with a smile, as my tears escaped my eyes. The blood spilled by the officers made a perfect scene, making me excited just watching it .

"you must be confused" Aaron said as he approached, " if I don't kill you tonight it's not because I want something with you, you made me suffer, you abandoned me and I will do the same with you, this whole city will pay for their crimes and you will be left watching, your helplessness of not being able to save her will be my consolation for seeing you suffer".

I wanted to say something, but a smoke bomb went off making Aaron disappear from my sight.

Who cared about the city? Let it be damned and let them all die. Aaron was alive, I could be back with him again and I didn't care about antagonizing the city to find him again. My torture was not that the city was doomed, it was knowing that it hated me.