Chapter 5 – Metropolis
Claude Speed
Suddenly Claude woke up; it felt like he had had a particularly long sleep. He woke up inside some sort of wooden warehouse. Loads of rubbish was lying about, how did he get here? He thought he would wake up inside the cryogenic plant. How long had he been lying here? Maybe it was the year 2119. It took him a minute to get his eyes focused when he realised there was a futuristic red car in front of him that was one he had never seen before. He stood up when he noticed he had been lying on an old brown table. Walking up to the car he noticed there was a note that said: "Hello Claude, from one of your friends, the year's 2030, enjoy yourself."
He knew who might have helped him out; it was either Lee or Sanchez. He wondered if Sanchez and Lee were still alive. He still had his cell phone in his jeans pockets. He was sure that his jeans were taken off him before he was put in the cryogenic chamber. He decided he would phone one of them. He still remembered Lee's phone number. He punched his numbers in and waited for an answer. It rung a few times and them someone answered.
"Hello" the person on the other end asked
"Hello, is that Lee?" Claude asked
"Yes, listen I'm in a spot of bother just now, could I phone you back later" Lee said
"Lee it's me Claude" Claude said
"Hi Claude, well since it's you, could you come and help me, I'm in Guntersville" Lee replied
"Where the heck is Guntersville?" Claude asked "I guess I'm in that new city created by Zaibatsu"
"Yeah" Lee chuckled "Do you have a car made in the last few years?"
"It certainly looks like it Lee" Claude said
"Well, it should have Global Positioning System" Lee said "just hurry up, I can't hide for too long"
Claude ended the call and ran to the door of the car; he tried to open the door, the door opened upwards, it must've been scissor doors. Claude got in and turned the key in the ignition and a screen lit up pointing out where Claude was, into the keyboard beside it he keyed in Guntersville and it immediately pointed out where it was, it then showed him the quickest way to get there. He got out of the car again and opened the door to the warehouse. Jumping into the car again he speeded off, the map said he was currently in a place called Morton in the Residential sector. The Residential Sector was a dump, it was one large Ghetto, the place was falling apart and the streets were dirty. He could see far in the distance tall skyscrapers feet high, they could all easily compete for the record of tallest building, in the world he lived in.
Suddenly he came to Guntersville; it looked like a small suburb. Claude came to a factory where there were two people with slightly weird teeth wearing Southern flags outside the gate. He pushed down on the accelerator and went through the gate. He could hear the guards shouting.
"Hey, you just went through our territory" one of them said in thick Southern accents
He could see Lee running out of the factory with a briefcase being chased by two other Southern looking guards with double-barrelled shotguns. Claude quickly pushed a button which opened the scissor doors. Lee jumped in while a double-barrelled shotgun bullet narrowly missed him by inches hitting the paintwork. He took a turn and headed for the gates where the other two guards were blasting shotguns towards us. He speeded towards them knocking them over and headed for the road quickly turning away.
"Thank-you Claude" Lee said now relaxing "I don't think any of them are following us, take me to Arbo on the GPS"
"Lee, you haven't even acknowledged that you haven't seen me for some time" Claude said
"Well I know I haven't seen you for some time, my Claude you look so young" Lee said
"I'm seventeen" Claude said
"I'm twenty-eight this year" Lee said
"What city am I in?" Claude asked
"You are in a city called Metropolis City, built in 2021 two years after the Zaibatsu party won the election, it was then made compulsory to move into this city or you wouldn't be classed as a citizen of America, whoever refuses to move from their home city is classed as illegal" Lee said
"Someone got me out of the cryogenic plant and gave me this car leaving me a note" Claude said
"It wasn't me anyway" Lee said "it might have been Sanchez or Bob; I haven't seen them since the robbery
Claude told Lee the news about Bob and Sanchez. Lee was quite in shock.
"Sanchez joined the ZPF" Lee said
"The last I heard" Claude said "I've been frozen for eleven years"
"Don't you think it's kind of weird that they would rather freeze criminals than just kill them?" Lee asked
"Yeah, it is actually, freezing them just puts them out of society, doesn't mean they're not going to be criminal when they wake up" Claude said
"You wanna know why?" Lee asked
"Yes" Claude said
"They don't freeze them for one hundred years, they've invented a way to erase there mind to use them in the ZPF so as soon as they run out of ZPF, say in a riot or a gang war, they unfreeze them and use them, so they're using the gangs of Metropolis City's own ammunition against them" Lee said
"Who were that gang you were running from?" Claude asked as they were nearing Arbo
"I'll tell you as we get in the house, just to your right" Lee said
Claude parked the car on the sidewalk and couldn't believe his eyes at the house, it looked exactly the same as when they lived in. As they walked in the door Claude asked him how he managed to get the same house.
"Well one of the options Zaibatsu gave me was to ship the house to Metropolis City brick by brick; well I like this house, so chose a Neutral area in Metropolis and moved here" Lee said
As Claude got in the house he noticed Lee was wearing a Zaibatsu badge with the star he had seen the second last day in prison.
"Why are you wearing a Zaibatsu badge?" Claude asked
"It's compulsory, if you're caught by the ZPF in public not wearing there badge, you get taken to the ZPF headquarters and shot, here's a few good fake badges I keep for any people who live outside Metropolis City and want to come in undetected" Lee said leading him to a computer.
He typed Claude's name and details into a nearby computer and the badge printed out, he laminated it and handed it to him. He signalled him to take a seat on the couch.
"Don't take this off while out in public" Lee said "Now to tell you what I was doing before, I was given a tip about a case of diamonds that Billy Bob Bean, the leader of a gang called the Rednecks had in his possession, they are fully untraceable by the ZPF, I think they may come from San Fierro in the early 21st Century" Lee said
"Tell me more about Metropolis City" Claude asked
"Apart from the Zaibatsu party and gang, ran by the leader Trey Welsh…" Lee said
"I thought the president was Red Valdez?" Claude interrupted
"He was assassinated five years ago from one of Metropolis's gangs; he was on the steps outside of the Zaibatsu building when he was shot by an Uzi, the current vice-president Uno Carboni succeeded him, but he was assassinated last year, and there was an election to vote for the next leader"
"So I guess Red Valdez turned America into a dictatorship" Lee said
"Anyway, as I was telling you, apart from the Zaibatsu, there are six other gangs in Metropolis, most mixtures of gangs all around America, the Rednecks, who we met briefly, rednecks who weren't happy that they were told to leave their precious homes in the south so came to Metropolis just to rebel, ran by Billy Bob Bean. The Yakuza, made up of the old Liberty City Yakuza, ran by Johnny Zoo, a member of the old Yakuza. The Loonies, they are what they're name is, absolute lunatics, will deal in any chemicals even if there is a chance they might die from it, operate at the Fruitbat Club in the Downtown Sector, ran by a gang leader named Elmo. The Triads, originally from the San Fierro Triads, ran by a white haired Triad leader named Wu Zi Mu. The Krishna's, religious fanatics from India, ran by a leader named Sunbeam. Lastly the Scientists, originally worked with Red Valdez and Zaibatsu, but had a fall out over money, ran by Dr. LaBrat who has hated Zaibatsu since that day." Lee said
"I think we should try and get America back on its toes" Claude said
"How are we going to do that, look at this Claude" Lee said
He showed him an obvious American flag but something was very different, instead of stars in the corner, there was the Zaibatsu star.
"How can you do anything when Zaibatsu own everything, they even own street signs!" Lee said "Would you like a glass of water out of the tap?"
"Yeah" Claude replied
"Let me tell you what would happen if I gave you a glass of water from the tap, Zaibatsu recently put a toxic deadly chemical in the reservoir, it can't even be rid by boiling, it's so you will buy Zaibatsu bottled water, you can only use this water for washing dishes, and you have to dry it completely" Lee said
"What's your point Lee?" Claude asked
"I'm trying to point out that you can't do anything that doesn't remind you what society is like today, Liberty City had nothing criminal compared to this place, how can there be a law when the government is more corrupt than the criminals?" Lee said
"I say we call a state of emergency!" Claude said
"Yeah, one problem, I have no weapons or money to buy the weapons" Lee replied
"How about, I work for the gangs of Metropolis, then I will get money and information, killing two birds with one stone" Claude said
Lee nodded in approval.