Silence

The light of the domed sky beamed down on me. Every so often it caught me blinking to avoid it. When I did it caught a little of my fatigue. My body, my eyes really wanted to sleep, but they were going to have to be disappointed.

After the few days since the attack, I thought the best place to start was at the park where it happened. The Basilica warning tape no longer cordoned off the entire area. Though there remained caution signs through where the grounds had to be cleaned up and repaired. It had a few machines working the site, nothing helpful. Two workers also did checks or specialized repairs, not sure which. Neither seemed to be park staff.

I walked on to a part that remained open. The park stretched on for a majority of the area nearby the Corpus. It filled in gaps between buildings, so a lot remained accessible. I just had to find someone. Even if I still didn’t have an approach figured out yet. I couldn’t just barrage them with questions, I was a stranger to them.

The trouble with not even having a name to the woman, meant that I needed to go about this the hard way. I didn’t like my chances at this. But if I could get at least one of them talking that’d be enough for me.

It took another ten minutes of wandering between open plaza to gardens before I found someone that wasn’t a machine. When I came upon them, they were kneeling down tending to a garden bed of flowers. It made me think that I didn’t actually know what the park staff did compared to the machines. I would have figured that they could handle that as well. Maybe there were specific methods that needed a human touch.

But seeing the older man hung over the flowers reminded me that I didn’t know what to say to them. I could feel my heart beating a little faster. This wasn’t my only chance, but it sort of felt like it. Because I didn’t know how long I could just be asking questions without it becoming suspicious.

I rubbed the back of my neck feeling a little itchy from the nerves. As my hand brushed over my still mending throat, I realized I had an in. It just had to be navigated carefully.

As I approached, the purple uniformed man turned slightly, picking up on my footsteps. It was an intentional effort to get him to look at me without trying to find some awkward opening. He gave me a questioning look, likely trying to figure out if I actually wanted him or just passing by. But when I stopped in front of him, I made it very obvious.

I gave him a friendly wave, which I only got a grumpy stare back. Fair enough, I was interrupting his work. I like getting my fingers in the dirt as much as the next, but I’d imagine he’d like talking to someone that wasn’t a flower sometime. He was working in a park, a very public one.

Silence wasn’t helping me. If I didn’t feel so strongly about helping Louise I think I would run away. So awkward. “Um…hello, sir! How are you?” I could feel B slapping me inside my jacket. Yes, I know screwed that up.

“Fine.”

Nothing more, really? Throw me anything to work with, old man, please! “That’s good!” I just got a slight grunt back. You’re really being a stereotypical old man right now! Stop. Another slap came from B.

I gritted my teeth and just shook my head pushing through it all. “I was here, the other day…when you know.” I rubbed my neck again, irritating the skin a little. “She was helping me when she…” Pausing again, I searched for the right words I wanted. I really hated this, why did I decide this was a good idea? “I wanted to know if she’s doing okay?”

He stared at me with a little more intensity, but remained silent still. There were so many lines and wrinkles on his face I could see every twitch he made, but it told me nothing more than he seemed angry. Did I have to find the grouchiest employee in the park?

“You were there when Therese lost it?” Once I heard him speak, there was a bit more softness in his tone than I expected. He might have actually had some concern.

I nodded to him. “I don’t remember much after I was knocked out, but people tell me someone came in to help everyone escape. And that’s how I made it out. Is she okay? She looked like she was in pain. No one would say anything to me.”

“I don’t know anything, Miss. She hasn’t been back to work since.”

“Oh, I do hope they’re able to help her. I hope to Sol she’s okay.”

“You and me both, I don’t need the extra work.” He gave a half chuckle to his joke before looking down at the flowers.

“Sorry for bothering you. Thank you for your time, sir!” They gave me a rough nod and turned back to their work.

I scanned the area for a network access point. Nothing was in the area, so I looked at the map on my sleeve. It was a slight walk, but near enough. Out of the park and close to an intersection, I leaned into the monitor that came up to my waist. “B see if you can get an address.”

He popped out of my jacket landing on the monitor. I pressed a hand to it slightly obscuring him while he worked. I really didn’t need too many questions. And thankfully with his speed and direct access to the network, it didn’t take long. B jumped back after hardly even a minute.

“There is a Therese Houplain at 7382 West Rue de l’Olivette.” He sent the location to my map. As we walked away, I took a look at the distance. It reminded me that I didn’t truly know how large this town was from a numbers standpoint. I did walk a fair distance to that bridge, but I wasn’t really keeping track at the time. So when I saw that it was more than five kilometers away I sighed.

I started fairly early in the morning on my investigation and now it was going on noon by the judge of the dome. But I made it into the neighborhood where Therese supposedly lived. It was an older part of the town, like what I witnessed when I arrived. Things bolted on to fix something broken or just not even bothering at all. A lot of rust and crumbling stone filled the view. It was a stark contrast as I was reminded.

And there were plenty of people around the area walking by or working. I could only guess as to who might be right to talk to, but I would have to brave a blind conversation, again. I already felt B slapping me. I think he’s enjoying himself.

I skipped anyone that just looked to be walking on the sidewalk. I couldn’t count on them actually being from the neighborhood. But there was a young woman coming out of a building. It wasn’t Therese’s building, but maybe. I hurried up before they made it too far from the door. “Excuse me, can you help me?”

“I don’t have time.” She then immediately walked off past me increasing in speed away.

That was more curt than I expected, but I guess she was just leaving. I moved on down the street to someone that looked to be moving some box. “Excuse me, did you have a minute?”

It was a middle aged man and he didn’t even look at me. “I’m busy.”

“Y-yes, sorry.”

A few more on the street yielded the same terse replies without even looking at me. I could only get a single sentence out for some. At that point, I just walked over to a small little restaurant on the first floor of a neighboring building. Being noon, it had a good bit of traffic.

I sat down at the counter waiting for someone to come by. A little dejected by my failures, I slumped on my hand. After a bit of time, a young-ish looking woman came back.

“Someone’s looking sour today!”

“Just bad luck.”

“Maybe I can turn that luck around?”

“Unless you can help me find someone, I doubt it.”

“Are you going to order?”

“Huh?” I blinked suddenly feeling a completely different tone and atmosphere from the woman. Her bright cheery voice fell out sharply. It was like I was getting the same short cut off conversations outside. I looked over actually meeting proper contact with her. She had an almost yelling stare in her eyes.

“If you aren’t ordering, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

“Right…” I backed up and stepped away. As I did, I caught a few stares from other people in the restaurant. Every single one of them said the same thing, ‘Leave’. What the hell?

I hurried outside looking around the neighborhood more. Before I didn’t really absorb it, but everyone had the same uninviting looks. This wasn’t unfriendliness like I thought. It was something completely different. They were scared.

What happened here?