“Tomorrow, gold is beautiful,” the media bar chimed. “Gold is in. You will wear gold like beautiful jewelry. This message has been brought to you by the Media Foundation for the New World.” “Here you go.” Richie set the blue cup on the counter in front of Lyn. “I tossed in a few E’s for you take to work.”
“Put it on my credits,” she said and grabbed the cup. She smiled and tossed the extra fluids in her pouch.
“You got it.” He looked around the crowded shop to check the area before moving in close to her. “Listen,” he began. “Why don’t you put in a recommendation for us to be paired up a little sooner and we can work off some of those coffee calories all night long.”
“Can’t, Richie,” Lyn said. She pointed at the blue police emblem on the right side of her chest. “I got work to do. Besides, I’ll be working all of this off in no time.” She turned and headed for the front door.
“Hey...”
She looked over her shoulder at Richie and tried to ignore the raised eyebrow and suspicious gaze that appeared on his face. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”
“What do you mean?”
“Do you know someone with that problem?”
She quickly shook her head. “No. If I did, we wouldn’t be talking about it.”
Lyn turned on her heels and weaved her way through the crowd of blue toward the front door. Out of the corner of her eye, and through the crowd of smiles and shoulder length to short-cropped hairstyles, one face wasn’t smiling. Prominent blue eyes on a ruggedly handsome face peered back into her eyes, causing her heart to freeze.
“Excuse me.”
Lyn looked up at a dark man towering inches above her. He nodded respectively toward her and continued into the café. She turned back to the blue eyes that still haunted her mind but he disappeared. Something about him felt familiar even though her mind couldn’t place him right away. Did I meet him before?
“And now it’s time to welcome another citizen into the world,” the media bar boomed across the bright city. Lyn, unarmed, glanced up at the screen, then climbed into her vehicle.
A tiny red baby squirmed in the gloved hands of a doctor. “Citizen number 42597-6B. Remember, life is a gift given to each of you and every baby made in the media’s eye. Support us—”
“Officer 52701,” Lyn’s radio interrupted. She set her coffee cup in the groove under the controls.
“I read you,” she answered, starting along the streets.
“Suspect approximately five blocks from the coffee shop on the west end. Smells like a runaway.”
Lyn pressed a button on the side of her steering device calling up a holographic grid layout of the surrounding area. Small blue human figures raced across the sidewalks, spreading out among the buildings. She zoomed in to one figure aligning himself with the walls of the building.
“I read him. I’m on my way.”
She turned the corner and parked near the small alley. Slamming her fist against the right side of the vehicle, she waited until the small door to her right opened, offering her a handheld rectangular blaster. The dome door lifted, and she hopped out, feeling the cool air against her hot face. Already she felt her skin heating up along with her adrenaline awaiting the signal to charge up.
The alley ahead appeared like a pitch black abyss. She turned her right wrist up to face the sky.
“Come out, come out wherever you are…” she cooed softly.
Lyn stretched her sleeve back to reveal a small rectangular device strapped on her wrist. She gently tapped on the buttons bringing up a green hologram of the area surrounding her. One of the holograms hid between a pair of clean blue dumpsters backed up against the wall not too far ahead.
“I see you,” Lyn whispered. She raised her blaster to fire. An eye-shaped machine flew behind her and hovered right over her head. Lyn heard the man curse a few yards down followed by the loud thumping of his footsteps descending.
She turned down the blaster and sprinted after him. “Stupid media,” she mumbled under her breath. She didn’t have to look up at the screens overhead to know that her movements were being broadcast and soon his eventual termination would as well. She respected the media for showing what could happen if citizens turned against the system, but she refused to let it interfere with her bust.
Lyn turned the corner and rushed down the alley. A thin pellet of energy exited her blaster and then another. Through the darkness, his body fell with a thud against the cool concrete. Slowly she walked with one foot in front of the other, holding the blaster steady in her hands. With a kick, she turned him over and took note of the large hole that burned through his chest cavity. The spherical eye hovered above the dead body.
Lyn pushed a few more buttons on her wrist. “Citizen number 46597-9B has been dispatched.”
She watched one of the dumpsters bolt to life and sprout a small hand to scoop the man up into its mouth. As she turned and headed back to the vehicle, another sharp pain jabbed in her stomach. Thoughts flashed in her mind like negatives on a camera slide. She held a baby in her arms, smiling, laughing. A man leaned over to kiss her and look upon the baby she held. The same man from the coffee shop. A rough groan escaped her and her knees gave out. She fell to the ground, breathing rapidly. A moment passed, then her mind was clear once again.
“I’ve got to slow down, I know,” she whispered. “I don’t want to lose you.” Lyn peered down at her stomach. Did I just say what I thought I said? Why do I care about keeping this unlawful thing growing inside of me?
“And now we’d like to welcome another citizen into the new world.”
Lyn forced herself to stand and head back to the vehicle. She climbed into the car and continued driving down the slick streets. The thing growing in her needed to be on the screens like a normal kid brought into the world. Not growing in her, overtaking her insides and damaging her body. This was unnatural. Her mind fell upon the man from the coffee shop.
“Officer 52701,” her radio blasted, bringing her out of her trance.
“I read you,” she said.
“There’s a renegade approximately two blocks north.”
“Copy that.”
She hopped out of the vehicle and opened her diagram. The hologram shivered with movement as a blue flash appeared ahead and behind her. Before she could turn around, a hand grabbed her arm and a sharp object pierced her side. She screamed, feeling intense pain shoot throughout her body, causing her to fall to the ground.
“Oh, no,” the man’s voice said behind her.
“I can’t...move.” She remained frozen on the ground.
She looked up at her attacker to find him draped in a dark silhouette against the moonlit sky; she couldn’t make out his face. He held a small rectangular handheld device that appeared like a 20th century calculator from the old world. She wished she could make out what he was doing.
“I finally found you,” he said.
“I...” She tried her hardest to move, but she couldn’t resist the electronic impulses spreading throughout her body.
Before he could answer, her eyes closed and she fell into unconsciousness.
Weirdly is available now from Wild Child Publishing.
2007 by Rae Lori
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