The Chase in the District

“Hey Nicolo” A boy about the same age as me, having brownish hairs and wearing shades, was waving his hand.

Angelo Giuseppe, the youngest son of the Giuseppe family. They are the 2nd most influential nobles in the society after us, “The Leonardos”. I have known Angelo since the age of 6, he is basically a childhood friend of mine. We have our fair share of disagreements and fights which is not unheard of, but he is the one who had supported me the most throughout the years.

Right now, he is standing there, right in front of me, carrying the most annoying facial expression. I couldn’t hold back.

[bam]

“Ouch! That hurts” I slammed the wooden bat right into his stomach. Angelo was on his knees.

“That’s what you get for being late, I have been waiting for almost 5 hours.”

“I can’t help, it took me all night to complete my work.”

“It’s your fault for being lazy.”

“Arggg! You know how much I hate history; all they do is teach us the same crap every year.”

I feel you on that one.

“I am tired of hearing the same stuff but with a different style each time to make it feel fresh, do they really think they can brainwash us with that? Angelo process on with ranting “they say, the people of this country betrayed us during the Apocalypse 100 years ago. I mean who in their right mind would buy that? Citizens betraying their own country in such a crucial time…that’s a load of crap”.

“We can’t really say for sure, there are a lot of factors to be considered and we don’t know how much of that is fabricated.”

“Still, I refuse to believe everything they shove into our throats.”

“I do have my fair share of opinions on this, but even if those people were in wrong, their predecessors should not be labelled as sinners.”

The atmosphere was getting gloomy, I even forget to teach Angelo a lesson in midst of this conversation.

I checked my wrist watch…shit, It’s 2:00 PM.

“Angelo we are already late, let’s head to district X-99 Delta immediately.”

Without wasting anymore time, Angelo starts his ride, CT 202 Giov. That’s a sports bike with a texture of red and yellow which makes it look stunning. Everything about that bike just screams beauty. I sat behind Angelo and we basically flew because of how fast it was.

It was such a nice weather, despite being March, there was still some chills in the air and the clouds covering the sky made me appreciate my surroundings even more. “High End” is what they called this place, the biggest and most beautiful district out there, and why wouldn’t it be, after all the residence consists of Mafia, Nobles and anyone who could afford to live. Rest are treated as an outcast and lives across the remaining ten districts considering half of the country is already doomed and other half is being supervised by the families of High End. Such thoughts make me feel disgust about this place.

I was staring at the sky with a blank face while enjoying the chill air, that’s when Angelo’s word brings me back to reality.

“Hey.”

“What is it.”

“About your father…I heard he came back.”

“Yea last night.”

“Soo did you meet him…”

“The first thing he did after coming back was to make a call to me.”

“Then how did it go?”

“You can take a hint from this” I pointed to the burnt scar on my forehead.

Angelo turns back to take a look “Yikes! But I kind of figured this would be the case.”

“Well, it was still partially my fault for pissing him off.”

“You need to control your anger, what if you spill something that ruins our plan or make your father suspicious of you.”

“I think he is still suspicious of me to some degree but he probably has no idea about the extent of our plan.”

“Still try to calm yourself more often. Being this tense most of the time is not good for your health either,”

“Yea…you are right about that.”

With this I went into deep thoughts thinking all that stuff that happened last night

[knock knock]

“It’s me, Lucia. Master Leonardo called you in his office.”

“Already? He literally just arrived” I was clearly annoyed. And why wouldn’t I be, nothing good comes out of it whenever he calls me like that.

“Fine, I am coming” I said with the most bored expression.

I went out and took the elevator right below ground floor. Yes, my father’s office is underground. I stopped in front of a massive glass cube which was not see through and then knocked on it. After few seconds, the glass door opens and I entered a room.

There he is, a man in his mid-40s wearing a black suit and cigar in his mouth, sitting right in front of me and staring. That’s right, he is Andrea Leonardo, my father.

“You know, Nicolo, I am hearing some stuff regarding your recent activities.” He speaks after letting out the smoke.

“___”

“Aren’t you visiting the outside districts a bit too much? I heard from the security that it’s almost every once in a week.”

“That’s because__”

“Listen here” I got interrupted “Don’t even try to sympathize with the trash. They are not worth helping.”

“But why though?”

“You know well why.”

Yes, I do and that’s exactly the issue at hand.

“Their ancestors betrayed your great grandfather in the need of help because they got a better offer from somewhere else but they came back begging us when things go south. It was your great grandfather and the forefathers of this district that saved us otherwise we would have all been wiped out. They should be glad that they are allowed to live on this land.”

As usual, it was getting on my nerves.

“I don’t understand, why the child of a criminal need to suffer as well.”

“Then who do you think will pay the price for their sins?”

“Maybe just punished the ones who committed the sins and not force it upon their children. It’s not that really hard to comprehend” I said in a way as I am mocking him, that was a big mistake since that really boils him, like father like son…

He grabs the cup of coffee, which was still hot, and throw it on my face result in burning my forehead. I let out a huge scream because it was really painful, I was at least glad that it didn’t hurt my eyes otherwise it would be terrible.

“NICOLO! Don’t you dare play any of your stupid games at the ceremony. Ruin it and you will pay the consequences. Mr. Giovanni don’t want any disturbance in the district, keep that in mind before you pull something ridiculous otherwise your body will be lying with the trash and it will put my position in danger as well.”

[huff huff] My father was out of breath and I was still holding my forehead, tears pouring down my eyes because of the share pain but that don’t concern my father at the moment. I am sure the reason he warns me about Giovanni is not because he cares about my well-being but about his reputation. If the eldest son turns into a rebel, that could put my father into a terrible situation and give others a chance to rise.

“Why things have to be like this” My father was covering his face with one of his hands “All you need to do is obey me and I will handle everything, there is no need for you to concern yourself for them, why you have to be like this…why the oldest one of all things.”

That just confirms what I said but I remained silent.

“Just leave.”

I went out and go straight to inhouse infirmary to treat this wound. Getting back from there, I encountered the person that I shouldn’t have with this foul mood.

“Oh my! You look terrible? Did you get in a fight with father again?”

“What you want Sophia?” I glared at her.

“You really are a stupid one. You are the eldest son of Leonardos, all you all have to do is follow father and you will have wealth, fame and power but no you have to go out of your way to be a rebel and make yourself looks like a clown, I am even embarrassed to call myself your little sister. People like you are so ungrateful; you have everything yet you still refuse to take it. It’s hard to fathom that thinking of yours. There is still time, stop with this useless….”

[slap!!!]

“Maybe you should learn how to control your mouth first” That slap shaken her from head to toe. Without looking at face, I went out from there and move straight to my room.

Wait! I did exactly the same as what my father did just a moment ago…God, I hate myself for a being a jerk all the time. Can’t believe I slapped my younger sister in the heat of moment and didn’t even bother to look back. Why am I like this, why can’t I hold back myself?

I had no answer for that.

I had always always been like that, hot headed, annoyed and displease. Always on the edge and burst on my siblings even on trivial matters, maybe that’s one of the reasons why our relationship has been such a mess, I couldn’t do a thing to prosper it in all these years despite being the eldest. Fina was the one to calm me a bit but that is not enough…I wonder if I will be able to change myself.

“Hey! Do you know the exact location of the meeting? I don’t want to run around like an idiot asking others like last time, that was really tiring”

“Kind of, it won’t be that difficult to find it this time, I suppose” Angelo’s words woke me up.

“Hey don’t give me that. You will be the one to run all errands if we get lost”

“Fine”

By this time, we were already out. The entire district is being surrounded by massive walls and there are only 3 ways to enter, the main gate, the secondary gate and the port. All three are always heavily guarded and it’s pretty much impossible to enter if you are not the part of the society. Of course, they stopped us on the main gate to confirm our identities before letting us out. They need to keep track of those who went outside since everything you need is available in the district and there is no reason for one to go outside, into the lawless world.

Angelo picked up the speed and we were flying through the wasteland. Our surroundings were filled with nothing but scrap and junk, a lot of broken machines. These were the remnants of the weapons used in the battle 100 years ago. 100 years…they sure looked rather fresh for something that had been there for a century.

After going through the junk for 20mins, we finally arrived.

“Take it to the parking lot, they don’t allow outside vehicles in their area.”

“But this district seems to be big, will we travel on foot? Spare me with that”

“Nah! They have different mean means of transportation”

Then we use used fake identities to enter the city, then pay to get a ride in electronic mini train, they are all over the place and outsiders generally use them to travel but you can still occasionally see other vehicles in the district.

We stopped by a beautiful fountain.

“Now what” Angelo asked.

I was trying to figure out the street just when a car stops beside us.

“Get in, hurry” A man with peach black long hairs wearing a hat, was on the driving seat and sitting across him was the man with golden hair wearing semi-rimless round frames.

“CODA” Angelo speaks in a rather high voice as we both took the back seats “It’s been a while since we last met”

“Yea! It’s quite unusual for both you and Jacob to be out here” I said.

“Well, both Marsia and Valentino are busy with their families and rest are preparing for the night of the ceremony so I had to grab the wheel since you asked Jacob to show you how things are progressing.”

“Sorry for the trouble.”

“Not at all” Jacob replied with a smile.

“You see, for the past month, all we are doing is just attending a meeting with Valentino to get a grasp of the situation and that’s all. We haven’t got a chance to meet with others in a while.”

“Why on such high alert?”

“Giovanni.”

“OH! the chief of armed forces?”

“He was already suspicious of me and Angelo and have been on our tail so I have been extra cautious, my father just warned me as well.”

“Then why now.”

“Because I was just tired of this restriction, don’t care about what that man does.”

I should have kept my mouth shut because the next moment I saw another car chasing us.

“What’s that” Angelo asked.

“Nothing really to worry about” Coda replied.

“Giovanni’s men?”

“Probably. They have been on us for a while now, all they is follow us, it’s no big deal ditching them.”

Just then, the roof of the car slides and a man in white dress appears with a weird weapon in his hand, he shoots what it seems to be a missile. It barely misses and hit the building right in front of us.

“Crap…” Coda said while sweating since this is not just a chase this time.

“Fast Coda, take the car in that alley over there.” Jacob basically shouts.

“Isn’t it too short for a car like this?”

“Just do as I say”

Coda takes the car into the alley. It was indeed short since it damaged the side mirrors and the car’s overall body but we somehow managed to leave them behind, as their car was too big for the alley. Coda accelerate the car but problems like that just won’t go away that easily.

Three more cars and 2 bikes were now chasing us. It seems like they spread their forces across the district to not give us a chance of getting away. They really were fixated on killing us.

“It looks like they are ready to open fire on us” Angelo speaks.

“Don’t worry, this car maybe damaged but it can still handle the bullets for a while.”

Coda was taking turns after turns to avoid the bullets as much as possible but it was getting pretty much impossible to ditch them.

“We will be the first one to bite the dust if it goes on like that” I spoke.

“I know. There is a roundabout up ahead, that’s the best place to corner us from every direction. Just abandon the car on my signal and grab Jacob because there will be smoke everywhere”

I got the gist of what he was trying to do. I thought that was the best possible option at the moment, we can’t let them have a slightest hint of our base.

“Get ready! It seems like I was right” Coda speaks.

The roundabout was right in front of us and we were approached by cars and bikes from different directions making it pretty much impossible to escape. Just then Jacob threw two smoke grenades, one at front and other at rear, the entire area was filled with smoke and the opposing forces started firing randomly in hope to get a shot.

“NOW” Coda shouts while hitting the sudden brakes. I instantly jumped out of the car, got grabbed by Jacob and we ran at the full speed, I could hear cars crashing one after another. Smoke screen did its work but that was not all. As we took shelter, in what it seemed like an abandoned building, I heard an explosion followed by more explosions one after the other…what the hell was that? Coda and Angelo were nowhere to be seen.

“Was that smoke inflammable?” I asked out of curiosity.

“Kind of. The explosives that coda left in the car caused the chain reaction of explosions instead of firearms.”

“Speaking of Coda, where is he?”

“He must have taken another route with Angelo. We should pick our speed as well.”

After going through bunch of alleys and building to lower our profile since there was already a lot of commotion in the district. We entered an underground tunnel which seemed like a manhole at first glance. That tunnel led us to the wasteland outside of the district. The exit is pretty much impossible to find since it’s been surrounded by nothing but massive junk. I took a look around; this place was different than the wasteland around High End.

Jacob took me to a small cabin in the middle of all this junk. Coda and Angelo were already there wearing completely different set of clothes.

“Hurry and get changed, we are moving out, and don’t forget to wear a mask. We don’t want another chase.”

I nodded. I was getting a bit irritated by all the ruckus and bit tired as well to be honest. I just hope I don’t snap midway through because Angelo is basically eating me right now with his talking, oh shut up for God’s sake.

I was pretty much ready at this point. I was wearing a brown leather jacket and jeans along with hat. I picked the mask big enough to cover my entire face and went out. Wearing masks in various districts is not uncommon, people prefer to hide their identities. Waiting outside for me were the two sports bikes, ready to roll.

“Sigh” with that I sat with Jacob while Angelo was sitting with Coda.

“How long will it take to reach” I asked.

“About 20 minutes or so”

“Arggg! My back hurts” Angelo cries

Can’t disagree with you man, please scream on my behalf as well, that might give me some relief. With that we flew to our destination, hoping to avoid such troubles on the way.