Chapter 7 // Forfeiture

Yuki Kamado was in her apartment that resembled a space capsule with a plastic door. She dressed her son and daughter in summer clothes. She filled their backpacks with only stuffed animals. Yuki looked across her pod at the physical items that showcased her life travels. She grabbed family photos of her dead husband and the pictures of her kids, documents and a few clothes.

She stuffed it all in her purse. She switched to a fresh surgical mask, ran her fingers through her blue hair a few times then said goodbye to her apartment. Kage, her black cat with yellow eyes would be coming along too; no way she was leaving him in this filthy city.

Yuki wanted to change out of her scrubs but needed an excuse for why she was outside during the lockdown. I’m heading to work, officer! Here’s my government badge! Oh, the children? I’m dropping them off to daycare, no big deal! Let’s hope it works. She had one quick stop to make first…

“Stay inside until mommy gets back, ok?”

Yuki ran to her neighbor’s pod. Above the plastic door was a neon strip that casted a purple glow across her masked face. She heard the sound of media from inside while she knocked. The noise stopped and a figure slid the door open to a crack.

A blonde woman peeked her eyes out. “Yuki? What are you doing out there?!”

“Li, we need to talk!”

“Come in, come in! Don’t you know about the lockdown?!”

Yuki entered the pod and saw Li’s husband, sons and daughters all grouped together looking at the smart-wall playing a mute transmission of the news. They all followed along the subtitles. They resembled test subjects undergoing their daily programming. Once the husband saw it was just Yuki, he turned the audio back on. It was loud and annoying.

“Li, you have to listen to me. I…” Yuki lowered her voice and leaned into her friend, “I’m leaving Omega.”

“Eh?? What are you talking about? Hey Jenichiro, get Yuki a drink will you? What do you want, wine, champagne, vodka? Let’s take some shots—”

“Li!” Yuki yelled, but nobody paid her any mind. Jenichiro made his way into the kitchen to pour Yuki a drink but kept his eyes fixated on the screen, reaching into the cabinets blind.

“Li, please. You can’t stay here in Omega, it’s not safe. I met someone. She told me they are going to help us, but we need to leave right now—”

“Yuki, you’re sounding like a dissenter… Why would I leave Omega? It’s perfect here. We’re safe!” Li said as if there were hidden cameras nearby.

“Li! How long have you known me? Please, listen—”

“No, Yuki! You listen to me! I knew it, I knew you lost your mind! Ever since your husband died! You crazy woman! Get out of my house! Now!”

“Li, please—”

“NOW!!! Don’t make me call the police!” Li tried to express anger, but her voice sounded more fearful than anything.

Yuki’s mouth under her mask was wide open. She wanted to cry. Li, how many nights have we spent laughing over drinks? All the secrets we shared? The plans we had for the future? Are we not friends, you and I? I watched your kids grow up and you watched mine. Why, Li?

Before Yuki could respond, Li’s husband pushed her out the door and slid it shut. The news continued from inside. Tears streamed down Yuki’s face as she jogged back to her apartment. She wiped her tears before the children would see. They made their way to the red light district while holding hands. Kage followed behind.

“Come on boss, let’s light em up!” Makira, the girl with blonde dreads said while chewing her bubble gum. She blew a pink bubble and it popped. The boss hit his cigar a few times, then stepped on it. He drew two automatic pistols with long magazines extending from the bottom.

“Let’s get our credits.”

A shirtless bald guy with tattoos and a beer belly took a hit of his crack pipe.

“WOO! WOO! WOO!”

He grabbed his baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire and rushed inside the main entrance. Arlo, a guy with green hair, toothpick in mouth and shotgun in hand followed the crackhead inside. Makira smashed a window and crawled through it. Some stayed outside with the boss. The rest tried to find a way through the back and the side.

The crackhead ran through the synthetic vegetable section and got a tomato thrown against his face.

“AHHH!!!” His vision blurred with red and he blindly swung his bat.

Toothpick guy aimed his shotgun in the direction the tomato came from. He shot the tomato stand just because. Red liquid dispersed in the air along with plastic bits. He pumped the shotgun and a red cartridge flew out onto the ground.

Gunshot, pump, cartridge on the floor. Those three sound effects repeated on a loop, along with vegetables flying everywhere. So much for eating a balanced diet.

Crackhead guy could see now. He tasted the tomato on his lips. It had been years since he tasted anything other than crack smoke and beer.

“Did you get them?!” Makira yelled.

“Not yet!”

Makira pointed her uzi sideways down each aisle as she walked a path across the grocery store.

Mocha opened a glass fridge that she had been hiding in. Her feet slapped quietly against the floor as she stepped out; she could have landed completely silent, but it was intentional... Crackhead guy swung behind him. She ducked then stabbed him through the face.

“YO YO YOOO!!!” Toothpick guy yelled and shot toward Mocha. The shotgun emaciated the crackheads left shoulder and the fridge behind Mocha. Crackhead guy fell, katana still in his face. Toothpick guy pumped the shotgun again and aimed over the vegetable stand toward the floor. Mocha had grabbed the barbed wire bat and moved out of sight.

Boss man was waiting outside along with five dudes and one girl. A fireball soared in an arc from the roof. It landed in the rear and exploded, setting three people on fire. The woman screamed the loudest as they ran down the road burning to death. The unlit mercenaries tried to kick dirt onto their burning comrades to no avail. The smell of burning clothes and skin made their stomach twist.

Boss man was heated. He looked for a way to climb to the roof and found a ladder from the side. He climbed it. From the top step of the ladder he lifted his machine pistol and blindly sprayed bullets.

He peeked his head and saw nothing except bullet holes along the wall and air conditioning units. He climbed up and ran to a hatch and tried to open it. Locked. He fired at it, hoping the bullets would penetrate and kill whoever was inside. He tried the hatch again but it did not budge.

Boss was so mad he punched his minion in the face. He told the rest to get their asses inside. These terrorists are gonna pay! 50,000 credits exactly. We’ll spend those credits in honor of our dead friends. Most of it is going toward new cigars, naturally.

Moments before the fight, under Mocha’s directive, Tatsuki scavenged a bottle of whiskey, tape and tampons. He improvised a molotov and Mocha gave him a thumbs-up. She told him the strategy, left him in the maintenance room and he locked the door. He waited.

The recurring shotgun blasts from inside made him flinch. He heard Yoshi from outside hitting the hatch with its claws in a five tap rhythm, like an impatient lady tapping a desk with her fingernails.

Tatsuki opened the hatch and looked at Yoshi’s display, then peeked his head over the roof to visually match up the strength of his throw. He hoped to do this right. He lit the tampon. He had an image of it accidentally blowing up in his hand. Despite his fear, he tossed it perfectly (judging by the sounds of screaming; as soon as he threw the bottle he scurried back down through the hatch).

He had never killed someone before, but on this day he added four people to his kill count, the first being Gaykwan in the mall. He thought about staying on the roof and shooting the rest with his pulse rifle but obeyed Mocha: don’t do anything stupid, baka. He liked it when she said that, yet he would never say that to her face.

Mocha snuck behind toothpick guy. He aimed at another vegetable stand full of garlic cloves and pulled the trigger. Click! He bit down on his toothpick so hard it split in two. He reached into his jacket for more shells, and another toothpick.

“Arlo! Behind you!” Makira yelled. She pointed her uzi but didn’t want her comrade to get caught in the crossfire. Toothpick-less guy turned his head, his hand still scrambling for shotgun shells. Mocha swung the bat and scraped his face. Chunks of flesh hung from the barbed wire. Makira screamed in terror.

Mocha threw the bat toward the dreadlock girl; it spun horizontally like spin-the-bottle and smashed against the rack next to her. She flinched and reflexively squeezed her hands, releasing a burst of bullets in front of her. The bullets killed one of her comrades entering the store and shattered the glass windows at the front.

Makira released the trigger and looked for Mocha, but once again she was gone.

“Damn! Damn! AHH!!” Makira cried out. Fear gripped her. She lowered her uzi and ran for the front door. Mocha turned the corner from a rack and clotheslined Makira. Her yellow dreads flipped backward and she landed on her chin. Mocha kicked her head like a soccer ball and knocked her out cold.

“Makira!” the boss cried out from the front entrance. He raised both his automatic pistols and fired at Mocha, aiming for a headshot so that his bullets didn’t graze the girl on the floor. Mocha ran down the aisle and the boss chased her, unloading both his magazines. Mocha was gone. He ran around to find her but no luck. He holstered one gun, keeping the other raised (forgetting to reload) as he checked Makira’s pulse and felt relief.

Mocha made her way to the maintenance room. There was only one path through a narrow hallway. One guy was trying to break in, but it was an electronic lock and would need to be hacked. He tried to brute force it. Two other guys were with him and saw Mocha.

The first merc ran toward Mocha with a switchblade in front. He stopped 3 meters from her. She almost pulled her tanto, but… she wanted to play. He tried to stab her but didn’t get close. Mocha waited for him to strike again and countered with a spinning heel kick. The impact threw his face into the wall and he was done. She took his blade and tossed it down the hall. It stuck into the other guy's glute and he screamed with his head to the sky.

Mocha sprinted to him. He pulled out another switchblade, leaving the one in his butt. He pathetically tried to swipe at Mocha with zero power behind his swings, desperation across his face. She grappled his hand and shuffled behind him. She was going to make him stab himself in the throat. A sadistic smile spread across her face as the man begged for her to stop… Please! Please!!!

“STOP!” the boss yelled down the hall. Mocha halted and raised her eyebrow.

“Boss?” the man whimpered in Mocha’s hold.

The boss had his pistols aimed toward the ceiling.

“I get it now. I shoulda seen it sooner. You’re with Genesis, the terrorist organization, right? It doesn’t matter. I don’t care. You’re too strong. Please, just let us go,” the boss turned around slowly and set his weapons on the ground. He turned back to Mocha with hands raised. “My people—they’re all I got left in this dump. We’re sorry for attacking you. Truly.”

Mocha didn’t trust him one bit, but was willing to play along. Or I can just thrust it inside… Let it go… Her bloodlust calmed. She stepped forward down the hall, keeping the man held with the knife to his neck.

“Give me my sword,” Mocha said. The boss nodded to one of his goons. The rest were terrified of the blood-soaked woman. Mocha’s eyes were ice cold and nobody kept her gaze.

The katana was still lodged in the crackhead’s face. The merc was surprised by how easy it slid out. He returned to the hallway and passed the sword to the boss with his head down. The boss passed it to Mocha, hilt first.

As soon as she felt its grip, she yanked it back and released her captive. Two men grabbed him and kept him standing. The boss ripped out the switchblade from his glute as he screamed.

“Alright everyone, let’s go! Grab Makira! Man, I need a drink…”

They all left out the front entrance with their shoulders hunched. The guy with the hole in his butt was crying and thanking the boss. Boss man turned around and gave a nod to Mocha then disappeared. Mocha made her way to where Tatsuki was hiding. She gestured him to follow. Yoshi resumed its floating position beside her shoulder.

Tatsuki found a canvas bag on a shelf. He filled it to the brim with things he thought were of importance. Mocha stood outside, waiting patiently for him to finish up while staring toward their destination.

Tatsuki inhaled sharply through his teeth at the sight of Mocha’s wounds. He didn’t see any fresh marks from this battle, but how long could she keep going like this? She glanced at him and he looked away, hoping she didn’t also have secret mind reading powers or something like that.

Think happy thoughts…

The red light district was within their grasp. Tatsuki’s house was a minute jog down the path. Yoshi flew into the sky to perform reconnaissance. Tatsuki ran the fastest he had all day. When he entered his pod he nearly shrieked seeing that his setup had been destroyed. He cursed as he held his hair with both hands. You would think he just came across the dead body of one of his relatives.

He calmed down and lifted up his floor mattress, revealing a secret compartment, a hole covered by a sheet of dirty plastic. He pulled out a brown backpack.

“This right here has my backups, laptop, tablet and some other goodies. I always kept a bug out bag handy. Never thought I needed it, but proper preparation prevents poor performance, right?”

Mocha looked like she wasn’t listening. He took this as a sign to hurry up. He emptied the contents of what he grabbed from the grocery store into the bag except for the alcohol and liquids. Can’t risk getting water all over his entire life, meaning, his electronics. He knotted the grocery bag then tied that to the bag, swung it over his shoulder and they continued their journey through the empty streets.