Chapter 9:

No. 01663 – Part 2

Violet: No. 02189


*Wake up.

*Go to the bathroom, brush my teeth and take a bath.

*Give a good morning kiss to my wife and sit at the table to eat by her side the breakfast made by the autonomous chef.

*Take a look at the news on my smartphone.

*Enter the car while it traces the optimal route to the office and drives me there by itself.

*Watch a show on my car’s display, while on the way to my job.

*Arrive at the office and greet my coworkers and boss.

*Get to my work pod.

*Look at the numbers on my display and compare them.

*Today the work was not hard.

*Get back home, take a bath, and sleep.

***

*Wake up.

*Go to the bathroom, brush my teeth and take a bath.

*Give a good morning kiss to my wife and sit at the table to eat by her side the breakfast made by the autonomous chef.

*Take a look at the news on my smartphone.

*Enter the car while it traces the optimal route to the office and drives me there by itself.

*Watch a show on my car’s display, while on the way to my job.

*Arrive at the office and greet my coworkers and boss.

*Get to my work pod.

*Look at the numbers on my display and compare them.

*Today the work was not hard.

*Get back home, take a bath, and sleep.

***

*Wake up.

*Go to the bathroom, brush my teeth and take a bath.

*Give a good morning kiss to my wife and sit at the table to eat by her side the breakfast made by the autonomous chef.

*Take a look at the news on my smartphone.

*Enter the car while it traces the optimal route to the office and drives me there by itself.

*Watch a show on my car’s display, while on the way to my job.

*Arrive at the office and greet my coworkers and boss.

*Get to my work pod.

*Look at the numbers on my display and compare them.

*There’re some discrepancies…

*Manage the numbers to different places.

*Get back home, take a bath, and sleep.

***

*Wake up.

*Go to the bathroom, brush my teeth and take a bath.

*Give a good morning kiss to my wife and sit at the table to eat by her side the breakfast made by the autonomous chef.

*Take a look at the news on my smartphone.

*Enter the car while it traces the optimal route to the office and drives me there by itself.

*Watch a show on my car’s display, while on the way to my job.

*Arrive at the office and greet my coworkers and boss.

*Get to my work pod.

*Look at the numbers on my display and compare them.

*There’re some discrepancies, yet again…

*Manage more numbers to different places.

*Get back home, take a bath, and sleep.

***

*Wake up.

*Go to the bathroom, brush my teeth and take a bath.

*Give a good morning kiss to my wife and sit at the table to eat by her side the breakfast made by the autonomous chef.

*Take a look at the news on my smartphone.

*Enter the car while it traces the optimal route to the office and drives me there by itself.

*Watch a show on my car’s display, while on the way to my job.

*Arrive at the office and greet my coworkers and boss.

*Get to my work pod.

*Look at the numbers on my display and compare them.

*That’s strange, there’re more discrepancies than yesterday…

*Manage more numbers to different places.

*Get back home…

*I rest my head on the pillow and look at the ceiling.

*Why there are so many discrepancies? I was told my job was easy. It wouldn’t need much interference. Did something go wrong?

*Sleep.

***

*Wake up.

*Go to the bathroom, brush my teeth and take a bath.

*Give a good morning kiss to my wife and sit at the table to eat by her side the breakfast made by the autonomous chef.

*Take a look at the news on my smartphone.

*This is bad, Violet is attacking us… Things did go wrong after all.

*Enter the car while it traces the optimal route to the office and drives me there by itself.

*While on the way to my job, I look at the window, how many years have passed since I bothered to look at the city, at all?

*In the end, it doesn’t matter how much time passes, the city remains exactly the same.

*Arrive at the office and greet my coworkers and boss.

*Get to my work pod.

*Look at the numbers on my display and compare them.

*The discrepancies continue…

*Manage even more numbers than usual.

*Get back home…

*I rest my head on the pillow and look at the ceiling, once again.

*What’s gonna happen? Is this life coming to an end? Is Blue actually going to fall?

*I can’t sleep.

***

I go to the bathroom and splash some water on my face. After that, I take my phone and go to the garage. I put it on the car’s door to unlock it, as I always do.

[]

[Access Denied]

“Huh!?”

I change the configurations on my phone and request an emergency use of the car.

[Analyzing Request for Emergency use]

[…]

[Automatically Checking Vitals…]

[Please Wait…]

[…]

[Request Denied]

[Reason: Neither the requestor no. 01663 nor their partner no. 01534, need emergency medical attention]

[]

What the hell? I can’t use my own car!?

I try to open the garage door, but I’m once again denied.

I go for the front door and again…

[Access Denied]

I still can’t sleep. I went back to the garage. Since it came into this I’ll just wait ‘till it’s time to leave for my job.

I wonder if 01534 is concerned about me not giving her good morning and eating breakfast with her.

Time elapses…

It’s already time to go to the office. 01534 only sent a message. I didn’t answer back but she didn’t worry to look for me, this isn’t strange as she sent me a message. So why does this bother me?

01534 arrives at the garage, she greets me before entering the car and asks me if I’m all right. I say yes. And she answers with an ok. For some reason, this bothers me.

The route to my wife’s job is nearer than mine. She leaves the car as she always does. And this also bothers me.

***

I can feel my heart pumping really hard and my hands are sweaty. I’m very nervous about what I’m goin’ to do, but I know I need to do something.

It’s as I thought: Trying to manually change the route on the car’s panel doesn’t work. I’m going to have to do that… I wonder if it’ll work.

Arriving at work I go straight to my work pod.

I can sense the wary gazes of my coworkers and boss, but I don’t care.

Looking at numbers again, I type some codes…

There it is: no. 01663!

Now… I’ll transfer it to this designed area. And…

[]

[Processing Request…]

[… ]

[ … ]

[ …]

[Request Concluded]

[]

It’s done. Now there’s no going back.

I move back to my car and I immediately notice a new route available on the display. It shows a very isolated area on the outskirts of the city. It’s almost unbelievable, that a place outside Blue’s jurisdiction is so easily within my grasp.

“Hahahaha! This is so funny!”

I put both my hands on my face as I begin to overthink my next steps. In the end, I decide to let the car travel its pre-programmed route, while I rest a little to make up for the sleepless night. The ride was to the other side of the city, after all, so I at least had a little time to rest up.

***

I ended up awakening a few minutes before reaching the destination. I guess I’m just too anxious.

Looking through the window I see some cupule-shaped structures, all of them painted in blue color, but strangely, there seems to be no other person near this area. When the car stops, I don’t even think about checking the buildings. I just do the most unthinkable move a Blue could make.

I run.

Letting out a crazed laugh, I begin to run, without looking back, without thinking back. I just run, run towards an unknown future, leaving a steady present back.

I honestly just couldn’t care less if I’d die on my next step or if an enemy would pop up and gun me down. It was just too surreal that what I was looking for was so close. After all this time, after all those years, the answer couldn’t be more obvious, I just had to leave the city, and yet, I never once thought about doing that until now.

I keep running…

I begin to feel fatigued. The lack of sleep certainly impacted me more than I thought, but I still…

keep running…

I had no destination, no plan, I was for the first time in my life doing something because I wanted not because I was told to do it.

I kept running…

For the first time, I felt something burning inside me. Despite feeling more exhausted than on any other day I’ve lived until now; I was also somehow really… relieved!?

I don’t know how to explain this sentiment, is this true happiness? Not the emulated one, but true, genuine, happiness?

I stopped running.

Doing so, I finally took a look around me and saw nothing but some metal beams and pieces of glass sparingly pinned on the ashen, dusty ground. I gazed down, at my aching feet, and noticed they were pretty badly bruised and full of cuts. Somehow, I lost my shoes along the way.

“BLEEEEAGH!!”

I clean the stomachal fluids of my mouth with my sleeves.

“There goes my breakfast…”

For some reason, I just started to talk to myself. It’s really strange not hearing anyone else but yourself for so long, isn't it? Wait, so long? Has it been that long?

I unwillingly take a few more steps. I wanted to take a last look at the city I left behind, but I’m scared.

I keep walking a little more.

“The sun is already setting”

“I won’t have any other chance to have a last look at it if I don’t do it now”

I stop walking and took some peeks from the top of my shoulders before I finally gather up the courage to fully look back.

I can only see the silhouette of a city on the horizon, and once again I’m taken by a feeling that I cannot fully comprehend. Tears fall from my eyes as I drop to my knees while looking at all that I left behind.

“I’m a traitor…”

The realization only came to me when it was too late to go back.

“What I was thinking!? What have I done!?”

“No! It wasn’t me! Something else had taken control of my body!”

“Yeah, I’m sure if I go back and tell them that I was under influence of some new Violet’s weapon!”

I completely fell to the ground and squirmed. Then I began to roll over my body while muttering those absurd remarks that even I didn’t believe.

Then I stopped.

“…”

Silence… All I’m able to hear now is the sound of the wind whipping the dusty floor around me.

The sun is fully set, and the temperature is dropping.

“This was truly a foolish errand”

I look out for a place to shelter myself, but my feet are giving in. Guess I shouldn’t have stopped back there. My stomach is also rumbling.

***

Somehow, I found a spot to at least shield me from the cold. At first, it seemed like a shallow hole on the ground, half-covered by a fallen pillar, but as soon as I approached it, I realized, that was actually a tunnel.

As I slowly walked through the tunnel, it didn’t take long to have my last forces completely drained up.

*****

“When I woke up days later, I was in a strange place. A place seemly less developed than Blue, however…”

“It was a welcoming place. Apparently, the tunnel I had entered was the only connection between the surface and this place here, Neo-Tokyo”

Ren and Mayu continue intently paying close attention to the man’s words, and Ren, in particular, has an astonished look on his face while also strongly clutching the armchair and biting his lips.

“And what makes this story even more unbelievable, is that this passageway I went through functions as a labyrinth that not many people know about or use”

“I was told that if I had been found a few minutes later, I would certainly be dead.”

“So, the fact I was saved was nothing short of a…”

“Miracle”

Cora
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