CHAPTER 1

It was hot, sizzling hot, outside in the plaza. A UNION civil protection worker stood outside the ration distribution center, with the rest of the line, which went out onto the street due to its sheer length. She was only an 04, so she desperately wanted something better to do than make sure that the citizens kept in a line, still able to roughly be classified as a "citizen in a suit". She had a hobby that she'd often partake in, which was guess how many hits a citizen would be able to take from her stun baton before succumbing to the pain and drifting into unconsciousness. She always loved beating the men. It made her feel powerful. She loved feeling powerful, more than anything else in the world.

She spotted a man, towards the back of the line. He was well built, that was for sure. In hand to hand combat, he could probably take her with ease. She nervously rubbed her stun baton, ready to grip it at a moment's notice. Despite her nervousness, she thought Six… No, five… yeah five to the head… She smiled under her yellowish white gasmask. She was being stupid, this guy obviously had a brain in his head, no way he'd do something to piss her off. She kept looking around and then stopped abruptly, not having to look a couple degrees to her left to see something a bit off. There was a man standing near the rusted iron bars of the garden in the middle of the plaza, the garden that contained the huge pillar, on which the broadcast screens were securely attached to. She raised an eyebrow, again her facial expressions hidden under an obviously worn down gasmask. He wore the normal, blue jumpsuit, with the number 45 printed on the left sleeve in white letters, but he wore a surgical mask. Not the old ones from before the war either, the new, "high tech" metal ones, with the filters and everything. He also wore what appeared to be a burned hiking bag. "You, get in line." the 04 unit ordered. The man merely looked up at her, a cold expression in his eyes. She unclipped her stun baton, and flicked it on. It buzzed, and vibrated in her hand and the light flashed on with an electric crack. She angrily snapped "You got hearing problem? Get in line, unless you plan on somehow starving before I beat you to death." He merely began walking off. The 04 began to stride after him, raising her stun baton so that she could beat him, when he stopped. There was a scanner hovering in front of him. But instead of snapping a few pictures, then floating off, like was usual activity for scanners, it stayed there, staring intently at the man.

The 04's radio emitted a voice, causing the man to turn around and look at her. However, he did occasionally take a glance over his shoulder, at the scanner. The man, to the 04, looking concerned for the first time. She stared at the man, picking up the radio, and saying "Can you repeat that?" The voice came again, it was the female dispatch voice. " -04.89447 has been instructed by -DvL.74638 to pacify the individual in front of you." The 04 blinked, then looked up, raising her stun baton again. 4… she thought. Definitely 4… The scanner flew off as she took her first swing. The made contact with the man's shoulder, and he collapsed to the ground, in agony, letting out a quick scream. As she swung down again, the man scrambled out of the way, standing up again. She turned to face him, as his fist collided with her face. She stumbled back, letting out a grunt. "You… son of a BITCH!" She reached down, trying to take her pistol out of its holster. She looked down, as it got stuck, and felt a hand grip her shoulder. The man threw his fist into her gut three times. She wheezed, and gasped for air. She collapsed to her knees as she felt his elbow slam into the back of her neck, and her stun baton slip out of her hand. She caught a glance back at the line, at the citizens staring in horror as the man dragged her around the outside of a garden. Not all of them were shocked, a few, including the well-built man she'd spied earlier, were cheering her attacker on, as he dragged her over to one of the rusty green trashcans near the garden's entrance. The man clutched the CP's neck so hard that his knuckles turned white, forcing the woman up to her feet. He then careened the woman's head into the trashcan, once, then twice. The woman's vision was clouded with stars, and the sounds she heard were all muffled. He slammed her head into the metal garbage can a third time, and all the muffled sounds were drowned out by a large CRACK! The pain had stopped, and, out of the corner of her eye, she saw another CP, an 03 GRID step out of the metal sliding door to the inside of the ration distribution terminal, glaring at the citizens. "What the hell do you all think you're doing?" He saw that they were staring at something, and turned to watch what they were staring at. He managed to catch a good glimpse of the man bringing the UNION officers head down for the final time, her skull giving way, and the fabric of the hood that went up to cover the back of an officers head, the part that the mask did not cover, becoming bloody as it caved it, her head misshapen and bleeding profusely.

The man was already taking off, gliding up the stairs to the train station as the GRID unit pulled out his pistol with one hand, and his radio with the other. He frantically yelled into the radio, fire a few shots off "OFFICER DOWN, I NEED BACK UP DAMMIT!" He was grabbed by the neck. The well-built man pinned him against the wall, turned and yelling to the man who'd killed the female officer. "RUN YOU IDIOT!" The man did so, running inside, and hurtling the benches in the center of the main room, as he heard a few shots fired outside. He rounded the corner, ran through the gate, and rounded the corner after that, only to run into a CP. He scrambled back, the CP, simply staring down at him. As another CP rounded the corner at the opposite end of the hallway, and raised his SMG, the CP on the man's end raised a revolver and fired a few rounds into the other. He then looked down at the man, and simply said "Get moving." The man nodded, and got up, running down into the dark subway tunnels. He sprinted for about 1 minute, before tripping, coming dangerously close to the electrified rails as he fell. He glanced down at what he tripped over, and in the darkness, could make out the shape of a body. It had something in its hand, and he reached down to grab it. It was within a few inches of his fingertips when a shot was fired in the tunnel, the sound becoming nearly deafening as it bounced off every wall. He scrambled to his feet, seeing a group of four silhouettes in the darkness, all wielding some sort of firearm. He ran down the tunnel, which was illuminated as the CPs trained their flashlights on him. There was another shot that rang out in the tunnel, and he felt an indescribable pain in his right calf. He collapsed, trying desperately to stand, but failing. He was on his hands and knees, moving at a snail's pace when he felt a boot stomp onto his back, pressing him onto the ground. The CP above him, an 02, pressed his shotgun barrel against the back of the man's neck. He pulled up his radio, and spoke into it. "Requesting orders on what to do with the runner." A voice replied, this time one of a legitimate CP. "Amputate."

The man squirmed under the CP's boot, which he responded to by pressing harder down. He heard the pumping of a shotgun, and felt its barrel against the back of his head. He closed his eyes, waiting for death.

Rika rika rika…

The man's eyes opened wide, as did the CP's. They both looked back, and observed the distant lights of a train approaching. The other three CPs, all lower in rank, were standing in the holes that were hollowed out farther back in the walls of the tunnel, the ones designed for subway workers to stand in so that they wouldn't get run over by the subways. One spoke up. "Sir, I'd suggest you'd come back here. The train will take care of him." The 01 nodded "Agreed." He took his boot off the man's back, as well as removed the barrel of the gun. As he began walking back, the man scrambled up to his knees, and lunged at the CP, who was now facing the opposite direction. Supporting himself on him, the man pulled the officer's pistol out of its holster, and fired a round, point-blank, into the officer's back. The CP cried out, and collapsed to his hands and knees, while the man frantically searched for an escape route. The other three officers were about to open fire, but their commanding officer was still in the way, letting out strings of profanities as he fought with pain. The man found a grate and quickly fired the pistol at each of the rusty screws that fixed it to the ground. He pulled the grate up, and, as the officer he'd shot was getting onto his knees, and taking aim, he dropped down into the darkness below the grate.

The man fell for about 3 seconds, and landed flat on his chest. He gasped for air, but he felt like his lungs had simply disappeared. He pushed himself onto his back, just in time to see the 01 kneeling over the hole he'd tossed himself into, and trying to take aim, before the train careened into his already broken body. He wheezed again, his vision going blurry. He clutched up at the gasmasked face hovering about his, before his lungs, constricted by his own, broken ribs, succumbed, and the man went into respiratory arrest.