...making it unsure if she was laughing or crying.
Z left, on his way to the station. His heart heavy but his footsteps were light. Though he was prepared for what was to come, one couldn't discount the fact that unforeseen circumstances could occur at any time.
He opened his commswatch and activated the map function, he had to accomplish this mission first before anything else, following the map on his watch he walked through alley after alley before finally finding the street that the busker was on. He looked around confused, it was the peak hour and the busker would definitely have been here performing, the research he had done previously had told him that there was no way he would stop performing for a day, he had a family to feed and he had to send his son to school.
As Z progressed down the street looking for the Busker, he noticed a group of people surrounding someone, Z smiled he increased his speed as he walked quickly towards the group only to find a person lying on the ground, half-dead and beaten it was the busker, it was the one person he was looking for. The people surrounding him refused to call for the medic nor do anything, this was a poor industrial town, no one had enough money for themselves let alone paying money to help anyone else. So all they could do was stand by and watch.
"Tch," Z was aggravated, thinking back into the past timeline, it was because of these people and their attitudes that ultimately caused the death of his mother.
Z made his way through the crowd pushing everyone aside. He knelt down beside the busker
"Are you okay?"
"Yes, I'll be okay, just let me lie here for a bit" The busker replied slowly, evidently hurt from his wounds.
"I'll call for the medics." Z replied as he raised his commswatch.
"Sir, don't worry about me, I can't pay the medics anyway, please call the enforcers instead, please tell them that the scavengers have taken my son, I'm worried about him. Please just make sure he's safe." The busker started to tear up.
"I'll call for the medics first, but don't worry, I'll get the enforcers as well. As for payment don't worry about it, take it as me making it up to you" Z told him before making the call and walking away.
Z walked down an alley where the scavengers resided, his ears pricked up. There were sounds of footsteps behind him, 3, no 5 people were following him from the back. Scavengers, these were scum who evaded the military conscription or Awol-ed. They had come from different walks of life and different backgrounds, but they came together with a single purpose. To survive, whether its extortion, dealing with vices or harming people, they would do anything to survive.
The security where Z was at wasn't too strong, basically, it had become an area that's cast aside. The scavenger groups were the ones who were in charge of things, sure, the enforcers do take action once in a while but that was for bigger crimes like murder or rape. The smaller crimes were left unattended, it happened way too often anyway and it would be a waste of funds to allocate people there permanently.
The Scavengers picked up speed as they went ahead to put their arms around Z's shoulders.
"Hello there, we'd like some help, we dropped something in a drain cover by the corner and you should come to help us out."
A scavenger forcefully tugged onto his neck pulling him into the alley.
"It's this drain right here!"
The scavenger said, throwing Z against the wall with force causing him to bounce against the wall.
"Hey hey hey, easy there,"
A fat man walked out from behind the group.
"This boy is going to help us out, aren't you boy? From the looks of your uniform, you're going to a military academy, only people with credits get to go to those schools, we seemed to have lost our credits in the drain, why don't you help us by giving some of yours."
The fat scavenger smiled, his decomposing teeth filled the air with a fishy stench as the glint from his gold teeth shined on Z's eyes.
One must know that credits in this world were transacted digitally if one wanted to give credits, they needed their commswatch and they needed their DNA, which meant the watch had to be physically on the wearer and the wearer had to verify that he would be giving credits away.
"I don't have any credits, just let me go"
Z spoke with indifference in his voice, he was not looking for trouble, but somehow trouble came to find him.
'bam!'
With the two scavengers holding onto Z, the fat scavenger threw a punch directly on Z's stomach.
Z bent over slightly but slowly stood back up again. This much pain was normal to him, he had endured much worse during his time in the incubator.
'bam!'
Another punch went to the stomach of Z. The sound ringing out throughout.
"wow, so tough. Looks like you won't crumble to pain eh? Hugh come here"
A young man was pulled from the back as he stood in front of Z, he was scrawny and had a black eye, given to him by the scavengers as payment for not doing what he's told.
"Hugh, hack his watch find out about his family, we'll pay them a visit soon."
The fatso smiled looking down on the scrawny Hugh.
"No! I won't do it! You beat my father up and force me to do illegal things, I won't do it"
The scrawny Hugh stood his ground, he was coerced and forced into following them, he was taken away from his father, but he had his own morals about doing something like this. this crossed the line. He was a technopath and could connect and hack into all sorts of electronic artefacts, he was fine with hacking into places and getting fast money if he was coerced, but not when doing something directly harmed someone.
The fatso grabbed on the neck of Hugh and lifted him up straight.
"It seems like you can't forget what we did to your father, how about we head back there to teach him a harder lesson, let's see if you'll defy me again."
