Street Sweeper

A man slams his fist into his desk in frustration. Sighing deeply, his assistant informs him of what he already knows.

"Subject 214 has succumbed to experiment 16. Another-"

"Another failure." The man finishes her sentence. Walking to his desk and past the deceased, the professor sits at his desk and pours himself a drink.

Turning on the TV with only his eyes telling how angry he is, he sits there and watches the news to kill time.

As he listens to the lady talk about the rising crime rate due to a new and ruthless mob boss who has relocated to the area, the professor sits up quickly, spilling his drink.

Quickly finding the remote, the man rewinds the TV for a few seconds and pauses as he finds what he is looking for.

Anger is replaced with amazement, and the man unblinkingly stares at the screen. "I found you." He whispers to himself.

The scene starts with Cordayl finishing the dishes and drying his hands. As soon as they are dry, he gets a text from Yanna asking if he is still coming over. Cordayl replies yes and grabs his jacket off the back of his chair.

Rubbing two framed drawings of two different families, Cordayl leaves his home.

Jumping off his treehouse porch, Cordayl walks through the woods, which transitions to the city and then to him walking through a subway door.

Taking a seat, Cordayl looks through his phone and starts looking for a song to play. Looking to his left, Cordayl notices a little boy staring at him.

Cordayl holds the gaze until the little boy pulls his mother and points Cordayl out.

The boy's mother turns her attention to where her son points and perks up seeing Cordayl. "Ohh, that is the Melatonin warrior. He is the last survivor of a great battle that took place before you were born. All of their tribesmen had hair like that. Sorry, history major." The woman explains.

"Cool! Can I grow my hair like his?" the boy asks. His mother chuckles and says sure.

Cordayl smirks and throws on his headphones and hoodie as he waits for his stop to arrive.

Getting off at his stop, Cordayl travels through the tourist attractions and street hustlers, trying to get to Yanna's house.

Cordayl notices he is being followed and gets nervous. He tries to give them the slip, but when a wrong turn leads from two men to four men following him, Cordayl takes off running through the city.

Cordayl loses his trackers for a bit but then realizes he made a huge mistake and finds himself at a dead end.

"Nice going, dumbass," the voice inside Cordayl's head says.

"Shut up," Cordayl replies out loud. Turning around, Cordayl sees that he is now cornered, as all the goons chasing him have caught up to him.

"Take it easy, road runner. Our boss is looking for you, and if you play nice, we won't have to hurt you."

"Listen, I'm sure this is a big misunderstanding. Your boss must have the wrong guy," Cordayl says,

"Boss said wait for a black kid with twisted hair. You're the only guy in the city that fits the description, which means I have the right guy." The goon tells him.

"I'm telling you, I'm not who you're loo-" Cordayl gets cut off by a shove.

"Back up, kid, you're not going anywhere till-"

"Yeah, back up, small fry before you get hurt." The voice in his head laughs.

"Shut up. Cordayl replies to the voice in his head." Hearing this, the goon gets upset and punches Cordayl in the stomach. "I wasn't talking to you, Cordayl says, hunched over.

"Couid've fooled me. I was tryna be nice, but since you wanna get flip at the mouth, now Imma smack you."The goon says, cocking back to punch Cordayl in the face.

Cordayl catches the punch and glares at the goon. The goon nearly shits his pants seeing the way Cordayl looks at him, but then he is punched and sent slamming into a wall.

The other goons are startled at the sudden knockout of their associate but quickly shake out of it and attack Cordayl.

Cordayl casually fights the three goons, quickly getting the best of them until three vehicles pull up into the alley with more goons to assist in capturing Cordayl.

A man sits in the backseat watching the action. Cordayl stares at the man as the last thug falls, then instantly disappears from the alley.

Texting Yanna that he is about to pull up, Cordayl can hear a vehicle approaching and sighs deeply.

The SUV screeches to a halt, and the boss gets out with a big gun. Cooly walking up a little closer, the boss tells Cordayl, "You fight good kid, but a bullet of this caliber would put a hole in an elephant. Get in the car peacefully or in pieces."

Cordayl's eyes narrow, and the boss shrugs, letting the heavy artillery gun rip through the street. Cordayl dodges the gunfire as he sprints at the boss, who sweeps the weapon back and forth, trying to hit Cordayl.

Cordayl speeds by the guy and stands behind him as the boss runs out of bullets, the multiple barrels spinning to a stop at the lack of ammunition. The gun shatters into pieces, and the boss collapses due to a fist-sized dent in his sternum.

Cordayl shakes his head and pulls his phone out to answer Yanna's call.

"Cordayl! Are you alright? There was so much gunfire outside just now. I just want to know if you are fine, " Yanna asked, worried.

Cordayl turns around and looks at the chaos caused by the boss's recent mania. People and homes have been shot up because he was targeted for some odd reason.

"Cordayl!" Yanna screams, pulling Cordayl's attention back to the phone conversation.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm right up the street. I'll be there soon," Cordayl says, hanging up the phone. Cordayl quickly jumps a fence as sirens can be heard approaching the scene of the gunfire.

Cordayl arrives at Yanna's house, where she waits for him on the porch. Seeing him, she quickly runs up to him and gives him a tight hug. "It's alright. I told you I was good."

"I know, but you didn't answer the phone the first couple of times, and my imagination got the best of me. Are you sure you're alright?" she asked.

"Yes, Yanna. Look, no blood on me," Cordayl opens his arm to show his shirt.

"Cordayl," Yanna whispers, "I count three bullet holes."

Shocked, Cordayl looks down at his shirt and confirms that he was hit 3 times. Sheepishly smiling, he shrugs his shoulders.

"Cordayl, what is going on?" Yanna ask.

"Honestly, I don't know. Someone tried to kidnap me and-"

"Kidnap you!?"

"Kidnap is a strong word. They were nice at first. But then-". Cordayl stops when Yanna leaves to sit on the bench on the porch.

"Look, I'm just as confused as you are. I don't know what's going on, but I'll figure it out. Don't worry, aight."

"Don't tell a woman not to worry about a man she loves. I'm just trying to wrap my head around all of this. Yesterday we were watching movies. And now you have bullet holes in you. And you're not even bleeding. Who are you?"

"Research the Melatonin tribe if you want that answer. You won't find much, but you'll find your answer," Cordayl says quietly. After sitting there in silence for another minute, Cordayl stands up.

"Look, Yanna. I have to go. You won't hear from me for a while, and if anyone asks, you don't know me, alright?"

"Cordayl, be serious. Go where?" Yanna ask.

"I don't know yet," Cordayl admits, hearing the medics finally arriving. "But it's not safe for anyone if I'm here. I have to go," Cordayl tells her.

"Why?" Yanna asks, puppy eyes staring straight at him.

"Because you heard the gunshots, but you didn't see the results," Cordayl tells her, getting flashbacks to the chaos earlier.

Cordayl hugs Yanna and kisses her one last time before jumping off the porch. "See you later, Yanna," He half smiles as he disappears before her eyes, like vapor blown into a fan.

"First time he's ever lied to me," Yanna says, sitting back on the bench.

Night falls, and Yanna gets out of the shower. Grabbing her phone, she lies down and sees that Cordayl has yet to respond to any of her messages.

Sighing deeply, she lies in bed sad but hops up and logs onto her laptop.

Looking up the Melatonin tribe, she clicks on a link that reads, "Tribal war leads to catastrophic losses for both sides."

Yanna covers her mouth, seeing the images attached to the article

The professor is watching the news again with the same reporter from earlier reporting that the new kingpin has been arrested and charged with illegal possession of a firearm and deadly assault.

Smirking and picking up his phone, he makes a call.

"No worries. The failure was expected. But this specimen is promising. Can you call in someone more reliable to deliver him? The dragons!? I didn't know our organization came to good terms with them. They are perfect, and delivery is guaranteed. Thank you." The professor hangs up.

Looking at a wall with all his information on Cordayl, he smiles as he patiently waits for his package to arrive.