"Hey, look at that." Guard A nudged Guard B, pointing in the distance. They both turned their heads to look at the man that had just appeared 10 meters away from them.
"!!" They both clutched their rifles a bit harder and mustered out a strained smile.
"What might this mister be doing, appearing out here?" Guard B asked. The sudden appearance of the man in such close proximity spooked him a little.
The man put on a nervous smile. "Sorry, I thought that you were vultures so I wanted to sneak past, but I found out just now that you were from The Null Order, so if I value my life, I'd better show myself."
Guard B glanced at the two sacks the man was holding. Certainly, he was very much like the others they had stopped.
"Alright, we'll buy your excuse this time. Now hand over your bag."
"Huh? Why?" The man seemed apprehensive.
Guard A sighed. Seems like it was another clueless one they had to educate.
"There's something our organisation wants to find within here, relating to the bounty a few days ago. Until we find it, we will search everything that comes through. Now, hand over your bag, before I stop being nice."
"Ah, okay." The man seemed reluctant, but he approached and set the two bags down.
Receiving the bags, Guard A nodded at Guard B, before he started walking towards the large truck a distance away to submit the two bags for scrutinisation.
Meanwhile, Guard B took out an empty bag and tossed it at the man's feet.
"What is this for?" The timid man asked.
"Nobody's allowed to leave until we find what we want. Now make yourself useful and get back to searching."
"Huh?" The man seemed confused, but then realisation dawned on him and he bent down and took the bag, before scurrying away.
However, right as he reached the card door, he suddenly turned and ducked under it.
"Kael, pull it up!"
His father crouched down, and with the combined strength of him and Kael as they tugged at the car door, the door came loose from the ground. Both carrying the car door, they charged at Guard B.
"Oh fuck!" The guard instinctively backed away and turned his gun on the car door that was rapidly approaching. However, the shots didn't subdue the threat, as the bullets simply either bounced off, or just buried themselves into the car door, never penetrating it.
In a split moment, the duo were upon him.
"Jump." His father gave the order, and both Kael and his father jumped towards Guard B with the car door in between. Guard B, who found the card door upon him, stumbled and fell back. But the car door still descended until…
Crack!
A satisfying crack sound was audible to Kael and his father's ears. Their combined weight had descended upon Guard B, crushing him with the car door.
"Now run!" The duo stumbled to their feet and sprinted towards the nearest alleyway. Behind them, they could hear gunshots whizzing past, as the other patrollers were alerted to what had happened.
They quickly reached the alleyway, disappearing out of view. By the time the patrollers from other teams arrived at the scene and looked into the alley, the duo had already disappeared.
—-----------------------------
"They aren't following us." Kael let out a sigh of relief. They had taken a detour to throw off any potential pursuers, weaving in and out of different buildings, and they were sure pursuers would know where they were. Gradually, their pace slowed down, from a sprint to a brisk walk.
Feeling the object in his mouth, Kael's heartbeat quickened. They had gone through the hardest part. Now all they needed to do was to actually arrive at the government facility.
"But first, we will make a trip back home." His father suggested, "To pack up and get ready for Inner city." Excitement was clearly evident in his eyes, which sparkled like never before. "And then we'll head to the Embassy. A reward like this, I won't trust the distribution facility."
20 minutes later, they turned the last corner, revealing the entrance to their house. They lived in a shabby one-room apartment half a meter below ground level (The ground slanted downwards), Only 2 kilometers away from The Heap. They had exchanged their credit points for this small home because of this characteristic, as it made it comparatively cheaper than other homes. Nobody wanted to live somewhere which would flood every time it rained. Thankfully, his father had built small flood-prevention barriers that he would place outside every time it rained, ensuring that no flood would happen as long as the water didn't reach a meter high. Even then, the water still overflowed on particularly nasty storms, though the water never really reached past their knee height.
Anyways, this fact doesn't really matter, considering they were about to receive Inner City permits.
They carefully made their way down the slope, and entered the house, revealing the interior. The familiar smell of mechanical parts assaulted Kael's nose. In the top left corner was a small bunk bed. The frame had been assembled by his father, while the mattresses had been brought from The Heap. Beside the bed was a creaky old wooden drawer, and along the left wall was where a long wooden plank was drilled into the wall, acting as a table for his father to work on his projects. On the table, strewn here and there in a messy pile, were small mechanical parts. Small screws, Screwdrivers, a hammer, scrap metal etc. On the top right corner was a small bookshelf, mostly containing his father's completed works/works-in-progress. A microwave (Fixed from the Junkyard), a small lamp (Often used when his father was working), a gun missing a barrel (a work-in-progress) just to name a few. Below the shelf was a small pile of food, and other than that, with the exception of 2 chairs, the rest were larger metal scraps that were strewn on the floor. His father was quite the messy type, and this habit had also been pushed onto Kael, who didn't mind it.
They quickly got to work.
His father sauntered over to the drawer and took out 2 spare sacks.
"Pack everything you need. We leave in 10 minutes."
"Kay." Kael nodded in affirmation, took a sack, and started stuffing all his possessions inside. Although the shelf contained mostly his father's possessions, the very top shelf was designated for Kael's use. Growing up with a father who liked tinkering, Kael also had a similar hobby. He would often help his father in his projects, but in his spare time he enjoyed building miniature models out of trash, something that worked his mind in the boring and uneventful Garbage city and gave his teenage brain a dopamine hit.
On top, he tossed a worn-down notebook, a small pocket knife and his only pen into the bag, before placing his intricate creations within. A miniature scale diorama of their home, a crudely made model of himself and his father sitting under a tree(The face was something that Kael couldn't get right, no matter how hard he tried).
And then he carefully took down his most precious creation and precariously placed it in his sack: A model of a mechanical dragon, inspired from the image of dragons he had seen in fantasy storybooks in his childhood.
"Alright Dad, I'm done." He turned to look at his father, only to be greeted with an act that came straight out of a circus audition.
'Seriously, what is he doing?' His father was trying to stuff his microwave and his half-complete gun into the sack at the same time, but because they weren't exactly compatible fits, they remained stuck halfway. His father tried pushing it down, but after that didn't work, he stomped on the microwave, which moved it slightly closer into the sack. In this way, after multiple stomps, he finally was able to get it down the bag, though the rectangular outline of the microwave could be clearly seen from the outside.
Looking around, Kael noticed that the screwdrivers and hammer were gone from the table, and the only things left was the food, and scrap metal.
"Alright, I'm also done. We'll start heading there." Kael easily lifted the sack over his shoulders, while his dad, with a bit of effort and with Kael's help, managed to hoist the sack over his shoulders, where the weight became comparatively easier to handle.
"You sure you're fine?" Kael asked. "Yes, I can handle it." His father answered, though his tone was noticeably strained. Together, they exited the house and headed to the Embassy.
—------------------------
Along the border of The Heap,
"Boss, the target item has slipped past the border. A duo arrived just now and got past the troops."
A man of short stature was making a phone call.
"I'm certain they had it."
"..."
"How? Well someone just showed up claiming that they had it. His description of the duo fitted really well with the description the troops that let them slip past gave of them."
The edge of his lips curled up just a slight amount.
"The person repeated the same thing even after I ripped off three fingernails, so he has no reason to lie."
Behind him, the hunchback figure of Haskel could be seen, the most noticeable feature being three bloody fingers.
His lips returned to how it was before.
"So boss, what do we do now?"
A voice from the phone gave his orders.
"Okay, So we retrieve the target at all costs? If that's the will of the boss, I will carry it out."
He hung up the call. "What did the Boss say?" A troop nearby asked. "Stay here, I will handle it." Was all the troop heard, before the man hopped out of the truck and disappeared down the alleyway.
'Anyone who found the target would know about the bounty. Thus, they would submit the item to the government for the reward. In that case…' The man made a cold, calculated prediction. 'I will first check the nearby Government Facilities, and if the search yields no results, I will head to the Embassy.'