??/??/??
The cell-woman was late. But of course, she was always late.
Moonlight streamed through seams in the door, the only sign that the man was still on the planet Earth. Or was it Arth? Aerth? He had been here too long; he could feel his memory deteriorating.
The door creaked open. He barely registered it
The woman spoke. He barely registered that either.
"Fred."
Was that his name?
"I know you can hear me."
"Do you?" He was shocked at how his voice sounded - like a stream after a drought. Dry and empty, only an echo of what it once was. "What do you want?"
"It depends," she responded. "It depends on what you have."
He laughed, thin and hoarse. Broken. "I have nothing."
She smiled. In the dim light, her mouth looked like a dark tunnel lined with spikes. "You have somebody. Somebody I dearly want."
Tremors went through the young man's body as he stared at the woman, dread pooling up in his body. "W-what do you mean?"
The woman looked like a cat with a cornered, doomed mouse. "I know about your mother."
His mother. "So what? I hate her anyway." She had never agreed with him about the Utopias. So much so that it was dangerous. She had even... Even... What had she done? His memory was deteriorating more than he had thought. At this rate, he would be brain-dead in months. Weeks, even.
"Yes, that is our plan," the woman murmured, as if she had read his mind.
"You're not wrong." She grinned again.
The young man growled. "I hate Teles." So that was why his mind was deteriorating. "How did you even manage to turn yourself into one? The Oligarchy isn't supposed to have that technology."
"How do you know I'm part of the Oligarchy?"
"Well, where else would you be from? I'm not an idiot," the man snarled.
"None of this matters," the woman said briskly. "You're going to forget it all anyway. But, just in case you want to give us something-"
"Never."
She shrugged. "Your sister. Would threatening her be some motivation? Or have you forgotten her by now?"
He would never forget his sister. Melissa. He would gladly forget his mother, but not his sister. "If you DARE-"
"Just a suggestion."
He stayed silent.
She sighed. "Whatever. You'll see reason in a few hours." She left, slamming the door behind her, leaving him to wonder about what would be more valuable: The fate of the former America, or keeping his sister alive.
YOU ARE READING
City Hunter
Science FictionIt was inevitable, they say, the U.S.A falling. A dictator rising from the ashes of war. But nobody knew what would happen afterward. Melissa Skylar and Violet Johnson are two kids who live in the Oligarchy, a gender-based society under Karen Johnso...
