Dawn of hero's
By Liam Black
"It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it."
General Douglas MacArthur
James laid his head on his dishevelled bed, eyes drifting into space. Fiddling with his identity bracelet, it was required by law for safety reasons but that didn't make it comfortable. The revolutionary device was a credit card, an insurance document, and a drivers licence all in one, and yet even with all those things, it still seemed to stick out, everyone had one. If you couldn't get your girlfriend the right gift, you could buy a scanner online and scan hers to see what she liked. It was just something more to go wrong in James's mind a small smooth ring latched tightly to his arm, it didn't hurt, but after ten years of wearing it, it was like a part of him, funny he thought, my entire digital life was stored on this, every transaction, every entry fee, was stored on this. It was late; the sound of crickets was muffled only by his parents arguing. Shouts, yells, screams, and the occasional slap, the hitting was new, it seemed that the past ten years had done their worst on his parents. And they couldn't divorce because it was illegal. His brother was no better, couldn't hold a job, but he found himself at home with the gangs. Called themselves gun runners, Tommy almost had his tattoo, almost a full member. James tried his best to ignore it all, stayed in his own world, but when he got expelled for threatening with a knife and ended up in juvenile prison, no school would accept him, then one night, after a few drinks, enter Tommy, with a vial of orange neon liquid in a needle, says James needs a high, James takes it in the arm, and now he's Tommy's pawn, always needing a fix.
This night was ok; he'd just helped Tommy out with moving some guns for the gun runners. And now he was just waiting for the fix. Just thinking about the high made him drool. One time he's taken it and ended up fighting five guys after punching one in the head, had a concussion but just kept on fighting, whatever it was, it made him feel like a god, immune to puny mortal rivals. "I need that stuff right now" he said to himself, feeling all the more hungry for the drug.
Tommy: Downtown Riddlefield earlier that day
The crowds of people leaving their offices engulfed him, to them he was just a stubborn bastard who stood still on the side walk, and Tommy always felt at home in a crowd. Today was simple, five hundred bucks in an evening and the world was on a silver platter. He'd been doing muggings for a few months now and the money he was bringing in would get him his place in the higher ups, grunt work was fun but leading a group was going to be way better. All he needed was five hundred bucks to meet his weeks due and he was golden.
It took only a few minutes to find someone; Tommy had been hanging out at a cafe with Wi-Fi, that meant laptops and AI phones, the new 10G cells fetched a hefty price online. And laptops were hard to track once you wiped the hard drive. The nerd he'd been watching packed up his gear, a gaming laptop and some wireless equipment, into a bag. He got up quickly, and walked quickly to the door. Tommy patted his pockets to make sure his knife was on him, and trailed the nerd until he was alone. Tommy walked ahead of the nerd, stopped and hit the nerd in the face dropping him to the ground. He pulled out his knife, an eight inch smooth edge hunting knife, and put up to the now weeping nerd.
"You know what that is, don't you?" he said, in a cool yet terrifying voice. There was a faint whimper and a nod. Tears streaming down his face, Tommy moved his knife and grabbed the nerd by the head and smashed his face into the pavement. The nerd screamed and cried, tears and blood mixed on the tip of his nose, falling to the ground soundlessly.
"Answer me god dammit! Do you know what that is? Or do I have to kill you for being a fucking retard?" Tommy yelled, grinning afterwards.
"it-it-it's a knife" said the nerd, it was only now that Tommy realised that he was mugging a kid, maybe fourteen. Perfect he thought, won't tell the cops.
"How much is that pretty laptop cost?" asked Tommy.
"What laptop?" the kid replied. Tommy knew he was lying; he needed to make an example. He jabbed the knife into the kid's hand. He screamed.
"Ok ok, please, I have money, take it instead." Sobbed the nerd
Tommy thought about this, moving laptop costs money, moving a phone is easy, but cash is quick. Just take the cash.
"Fine, how much, if it's not five hundred, your fucking dead, got it?" he said.
The nerd got up, wincing and sniffling a bit when he put pressure on his hand, he looked at Tommy.
"I think so, my mom keeps an emergency family account for all of us. I can give it to you. Just don't hurt me please" He said, looking at the ground in shame
"Fine, come with me" said Tommy, dragging the boy to an ATM.
"Do it"
The nerd swiped his identity bracelet on the machine, pushed a few buttons and took the money from the machine.
"Take it." Said the nerd, looking in disgust at Tommy, and shoved the money into his chest, running away crying as he did so. But before he could go a single step, Tommy hit the kid on the head with the butt of his knife, knocking the kid out; Tommy took off the back pack the kid was wearing, checked to see if the laptop was inside, making sure it wasn't damaged in the mugging, satisfied he walked away.
Tommy flipped through the bills, the nerd had been a good choice, and the luck of that account just made things easy, today a grunt, tomorrow, a member of the gun runners. All he had to do was get back home, find the keys to his car and find a driver and he was set. Five hundred dollars in untraceable cash, a good laptop and he got to stab someone; the night was just getting better.