Chapter 61: Gruntwork Investigations

“You are to go talk to the family members of those affected by the [Killer criminal]. Your task is to see if they know of any reason why those killed were targeted. They might have information on the [Killer Criminal] that can help us find or catch our target,” said Lexa, her holographic head hovering over the dashboard of the APC.

“Shouldn't that be something the [Office of Reason] takes care of?” asked Arron.

“They are busy tracking down the [Killer Criminal] using the Holo-stream data and the evidence gathered by the investigation drones. This is a direct order from the chief, until the Office of Reason finds the [Killer Criminal] you are to work on this task. I will update you if and when the situation changes.”

With that said, the call ended.

“Might as well start here,” said Kix.

Their chase to clean up after the [Killer Criminal] had led them to the industrial Sector 9 zone 3's civilian district.

There were far more killings here that KNN had decided not to report on due to the dangers of the area, especially now that the Rage week Festival would be ending soon.

Arron pulled up the map of the current zone on his wrist datapad and zoomed into the nearest home of someone that was related to one of the Killer Criminals' targets.

“The closest is only two blocks over. If we just go through this alleyway we can get there faster,” said Arron showing the path to Kix.

The two exited the APC and walked to the small alleyway, which was made even more cramped with the several layered rows of boxed plants attached to the sides of both walls.

Several purple lights hung over each of the boxes shining down on the plants as well as filling the entire alleyway with a purple glow.

Kix grabbed Arron's armored shoulder and stopped him from entering the alleyway.

“We should just take the long way around. If you stand in that light for long enough you will definitely start having medical problems,” said Kix, while he pulled Arron towards the broken down sidewalk next to the row of megapartments.

“It's just light, can't our helmets and armor protect us?”

“From most bullets, shrapnel, and fire, yes it can. It won't protect us from the massive radiation that is being put out by those cheap UV lights. I'll have to put in a report later asking for the research boi's to figure out a way to solve this problem for us,” said Kix.

The only reason they had to walk to their destination was that the 'Roads' in this area of the zone were so small that they could barely be distinguished between the alleyways.

With the road's compact size the mode of transportation was largely made up of hover-bikes. Hundreds of cheap hover-bikes that were almost as small and flimsy as Arron's portable hover-bike, beeped and honked at each other as they drove down the cramped road in between the broken down and crumbling sidewalks on either side which would normally be packed with hundreds of people but were empty due to the festival.

“Why do they even bother adding horns to those cheap things?” asked Arron as he watched the bizarre sight before him.

Several of the hover-bikes were carrying two or three suspicious-looking people, while others had large boxes stacked up on the rear of the bike in a diamond shape towering tens of feet above everyone. The only thing that held it all together was one metal chain that looked too rusty to be safe to use.

“With the auto-driving of those cheap variants doing everything for them, what else is there for them to do but honk at each other?” asked Kix.

“I'm surprised with all that is going on there are still people out and about.”

“Some people can't afford to take the time off, even with the festival going on.”

After a short walk, they were able to reach their destination and entered a rundown mega-apartment only seeing a few people in the hallways and the stairwell as they made their way up to the 32nd floor.

Kix pressed the faded buzzer button that was embedded in apartment #3232's dented and scraped metal door.

They waited for over a minute but received no answer.

Bam! Bam! Arron knocked on the door loudly with his gloved fists, while Kix pressed the buzzer again.

After another minute of constant knocking and buzzer pressing, a small holo-vid popped up above the buzzer. It was a disheveled teen with long curly brown hair.

“Huuuh? ..ho... iz it?” asked the teen in a slurred voice.

“M1, can you open the door so we can talk with you face to face?” asked Kix.

“...Am I... in trouble?” asked the teen with a puzzled look on his face as he tried to think of a reason for why the M1 would be here.

“No, we just want to ask you a few questions,” said Arron in a soft but firm voice trying to reassure the teen that they were not here to cause a ruckus.

“Juz a sec...” The small holovid ended and only a few seconds later the parasteel metal door opened up.

The disheveled young teen stood in the doorway swaying slightly as he tried to stand up straight. His face was pale and had a blank expression as he stared forward not really seeing Arron or Kix, his eyes were already dilated and hazy like a dead fish.

The inside of the apartment was completely dark with only the dim light of the hallway lighting it up.

Arron quickly glanced at the data sent to him by Lexa before talking to the teen.

“We are sorry to inform you that your father was one of the people killed by the [Killer Criminal]. We want to ask you a few questions about him,” said Arron. He used his helmet's visor to inspect the teen more thoroughly but found nothing illegal on his body.

Upon hearing about his father's death a single teardrop formed and fell to the dirty parseteel floor with a soft splat.

“Is your mother here? We can talk to her if this is too much for you,” said Kix.

The teen slowly shook his head but stopped when he almost fell over.

“My mother was... taken away... when I was young. I'm the only one left,” said the teen. His face was gaining color again as he started to regain his senses and his mind began to clear up.

“My father... was not a separatist even though KNN said he was. He worked hard to try and get out of this zone. But now...,” he did not finish his sentence and just turned around and walked to a small table where an assortment of blue candy-like pills were scattered all over.

Grabbing a handful the teen shoved them into his mouth and sunk to his knees as they took effect almost immediately.

“Do you really have to do that right now?” asked Arron, upon seeing the teen eating the stims right in front of them.

“Dude, you're being recorded. You better hope those are legal and don't break any of mother and father's regulations,” said Kix, walking over to check the blue stim candy pills.

“So what... Nothin matterz anymore...” was all the teen said before slumping onto the table as the stims took full effect.

“We're just going to leave him like that?” asked Arron as they made their way back to the APC.

“What are we supposed to do? The stims were legal.”

The next several stops they made to gather information were met with similar situations. That is if they even agreed to speak with them.

Most of the people they tried to talk to outright refused to talk to them stating they wanted nothing to do with them.

“Leave me alone! I don't want to talk to you otherwise people will start thinking I'm a separatist being interviewed by M1. Why can't you and the media just leave people alone!”

Similar outbursts happened at many of the apartments.

“This is the last one in the area,” said Kix with a grunt as they pressed the apartment's sticky buzzer.

“I told you guys to stop bothering me!” shouted a female as soon as the holo-vid appeared over the Buzzer.

“Uh... sorry to bother you ma'am,” said Arron.

“Huh? Who are you?” asked the woman.

“M1. We're here to talk about the death of your husband,” said Kix.

“Please wait a moment,” said the woman ending the holo-vid.

When the door opened the middle-aged woman stood there. She pushed her long red hair out of her face and behind her ear before quickly wiping her face on her sleeve.

“I'm sorry for yelling at you. It's just... all day today my neighbors have been coming to gloat about my husband's death,” said the woman.

Arron was relieved to finally find someone that seemed to be sane after the many crazy fiascoes they had to endure all day.

“Can you tell us any information on why the [Killer criminal] would target your husband or any of the others that have died?” asked Arron.

“I blame it all on KNN, they accused him of being a separatist for not following one of the new regulations implemented by the Party of Mother and Father. So he was normalized and lost his position as a party member under Father. Ever since he finished his reLearning, we have been getting daily death threats. I suspect something similar happened to the others.”

Ping! A holo-call from M1 HQ popped up in the right corner of both of Arron and Kix's visors.

“Kix, Arron, the Office of Reason has located the [Killer criminal] he is located inside Sectors 9's zone 1. He is hiding inside one of the research factories. You are to head over to the zone checkpoint and meet up with the rest of ERF UNIT 3 to normalize him,” said Lexa ending the call immediately after saying that.

“Sorry ma'am we have to leave,” said Arron.

“You found him right?” asked the woman.

“We'll be sure to add your statements to the report,” said Kix, ignoring her question.

“I hope you kill him, along with those KNN reporters.”