Here's Chapter 2

Ryan looked at Jay as he got himself up off the couch, "What's wrong with you?"

"I just had the weirdest dream," Jay said as he moved to a sitting position on the couch. He looked at Ryan and continued, "CPs were coming to our apartment to kill me for throwing a T.V at one of their patrols." Jay raised his voice to be heard above Ryan's laughter, "I ended up arm wrestling one of them before I took one of their pistols."

Ryan looked thoughtful for a moment, "Wow. That might be…..the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

Jay narrowed his eyes at Ryan while he ran a hand through his black hair, "Whatever. Was there a reason to you waking me up?"

"Well I don't know about you but I like to eat in the morning. We've got to get our ration meals."

"Yeah, but I think I'd be better off eating…..well, anything really."

"Yeah I know, but we still have to go."

"Alright." Jay grudgingly admitted that he was hungry; hunger was a requirement in order to eat what the Combine provide.

The two made their way down the staircase. Jay couldn't help but shake his head when he and Ryan passed through the rooms on the first floor. Amidst the usual sound of Breen broadcasts and idle conversation, there was the unmistakable sound of crying coming from the first door to the left of the staircase. Jay looked at Ryan, who shook his head too. The woman who lived inside was always crying, only to be comforted by her significant other. That woman must have a lot of problems, Jay thought to himself as he and Ryan reached the front door

Everytime the two passed through the area, they could always hear her sobbing. Jay had dubbed the two "the sad couple." He was just glad he didn't live on the first floor with them.

Stepping out from their apartment, Ryan immediately noted an increase in the presence of CPs. Normally the street was only patrolled by one or two of the treacherous scumbags. But now there were five or six metro-cops, two of whom were standing right outside the entrance to their apartment.

The lenses of the CPs white coloured helmets tracked Ryan and Jay as they made their way down an alleyway toward the food dispensing site, their hands rested on their stun-sticks though they never drew the dreaded weapons. As soon as Ryan was sure that he and Jay weren't being watched, Ryan grabbed Jay's arm and stopped him short. "What?" Jay asked.

"We've got to find a new apartment, you saw the CPs. They're going to be starting raids soon."

"I don't think that's what they were doing."

"There was a whole squad of metro-cops moving toward one of the apartments," Ryan stated matter-of-factly, "What else would they be doing?"

"Is that a trick question?"

"What? No."

"Ah, so it is a trick." Jay stated, with a proud look on his face. He held the look for a couple of seconds longer before he let out a laugh.

Ryan couldn't help but laugh along. In a Combine-controlled world, such a sound was a foreign one. But for the two friends, it was an all too familiar occurrence.

"As for the apartment, it's your turn to find a new one. That last search took forever to find a vacant spot." Jay said with a frown at the memory.

"Yeah well you wouldn't have had to search for a new apartment if you didn't start that fire." Ryan replied with a grin.

"You had to bring that up, I mean it's not like it was my fault anyway!"

"You fired three flares!"

"Listen Ryan, the first flare was an accident. And when I fired the second… well that was to extinguish the first, because you know the saying: 'fight fire with fire'. Then of course I had to shoot a third flare to warn the others about the fire; but after that I realized that the fire was already big enough."

"I'm making a note never to give you explosives."

"We'd have to find some first."

"Point," Ryan conceded. The two had arrived at the food dispensing site.

The site had been set-up inside an old building, though nobody could remember what the building used to be for. A few gates had been set-up to form a line; the destination was a machine that dispensed a "food" package every ten minutes. Metro-cops stood on silent guard nearby, their hands resting on their stun-sticks as they watched citizens moving back and forth.

Walking with their eyes down, Ryan and Jay made their way to the dispenser. Jay inserted his meal card into the machine's input slot, a few minutes later a food package came out. Jay took the package and slowly made his way out. The Combine didn't exactly encourage socialization on their watch, so Jay pretended to leave.

Just when he had reached the door, Ryan caught up with him, a food package cradled in his hands. "Jay, hold up!" he shouted when Jay moved towards the door.

"What?"

"Didn't you see the group of CPs back there?"

Jay thought for a moment, "OH….yeah. I definitely saw them."

"Really?"

"No!" Jay said, looking at Ryan like he was crazy, "What's the big deal, anyway?"

"Metro-cops talking in a group generally means that bad things are about to happen."

Comprehension drew on Jay as he said, "Oh, I can spy on them! I just wish I had a ninja costume!"

"I don't think a black outfit is very stealthy," Ryan said with a frown.

"Well that doesn't mean it's not fun to wear Ryan!"

"So you'll do it?"

"Sure."

"Alright, just don't look like your spying."

"No problem," Jay said as he handed Ryan his food package and made his way over to the small cluster of CPs.

Four of them were grouped into a circle, their modulated voices echoing off the walls. Seeing that they were standing by a vending machine, Jay decided to use that to his advantage. As he passed between the CPs he said, "Excuse me officer, I'm just getting a can of Doctor Breen's Private Reserve. I am not spying!"

Ryan hit his head against the wall at his friend's stupidity. He waited a few minutes before Jay came back over to where he was standing by the font door. As soon as Jay was close enough Ryan asked, "Well, what were they saying?"

"I don't know."

Ryan raised his eyebrow as he looked at Jay, "What do you mean 'I don't know?'"

"Well I was too busying pretending not to listen that I forgot to listen!"

"Forget it; let's just go find another apartment." Ryan said after hitting his head against the wall in frustration.

The two clutched their food packages and headed back to the residential district of City 17.

How was it?