Chapter 17: Double Escape and Banana

Everyone who has ever experienced the grinding reality that is capitalism wishes to escape it. The bottom caste was exploited to further the profitability and revenue gains of the upper caste. The lower class wished to leave the system while the middle class wished to climb up in tiers.

Not many people wish to follow the mundane routines of everyday life. To go to school, to find a job, to work a 9-5 job, to retire at an old age with crippling physical and mental disabilities due to overworking, and lastly, die a pauper due to exorbitant medical costs. Nothing like the typical capitalist dream, of one day owning a vehicle, a house, a family, and even a pet dog.

Some people want none of that. Those people are free and reckless. They thirst for adventure, for change, and for the exhilaration of being truly free from responsibilities.

Gin wasn’t one of them. He knows within him that if given that much freedom, he would have no idea what to do with all his time. Even within the bunker, while Zin was working his digital ass off collecting and organizing all the data and making an escape plan, Gin was twiddling his thumbs while daydreaming. Perhaps it was the lack of oxygen to his brain. Perhaps the kid was just an idiot. Who knows?

The escape plan was pretty simple. Find drones. Collect parts. Make drill. Eventually dug their way to freedom. But to actually start on such a monumental task in such a short time frame, Gin needed the right mindset. Except his current mind is as blank as a rock on the asphalt on a hot summer day.

The boy had nothing, no motivation, no dreams, only the drive to do what he was told. The society that raised perfect employees will never be the society that survives. Zin knows this. He had to fix the kid, one way or another. If he could factory reset him, he would. But to avoid lasting brain damage, Zin really shouldn’t hit the kid in the head. Thankfully, with the recent events, Gin seemed to be growing away from his robotic thinking. Regardless of how depressing it may be, it was better than being a soulless corporate slave.

Finally, things were ready. Zin had digested all the information left in the bunker and Gin had a long enough rest for his body to recover.

The pneumatic pump took an extremely long time just to open the door. Gin was nervous initially but after watching the pump slowly open the door for the past half hour, he got bored.

Gin got out of the bunker, ran down the tunnel full of the ashes and burnt corpses of rats, and made his way towards where the drones were being repaired.

When he found them next to the hill leading upwards, what remained really looked like a pile of junk and debris. The rats ate everything they could get their hands on and were soft enough to chew. Only the reinforced metal shells and some toxic metallic pieces remained. Thankfully, there seemed to be enough loose pieces for Gin to piece something together.

A power supply was found, but some of the outer wires were nibbled away. Gin had to splice the wires with what he could find and repair the outer rubber insulation. His vision was impaired by the disgusting smog of poisonous gas. Thankfully, Zin was scanning everything and displaying a makeshift image for Gin to see. He borrowed the augmented reality capabilities of Capitalist Conquest and overlaid images on top of the pieces Gin needed.

The drill bits were thankfully too tough for the rats to chew, thus they remained intact. A few torque motors were also scavenged and repaired. *Brrrr, Snap, Crunch* Within thirty minutes, Gin had already created a Frankenstein’s monster of a drill. Tough, rustic, and ugly as hell, but at least it should work. The soldering gun in his hands broken down from extensive use. Thankfully, the poisonous gas wasn’t ignitable or Gin would have become nothing but an outline of ash on the wall.

“What an eyesore.”

Zin commented.

Gin agreed, but this was all they had for now.

He ran towards the deepest part of the tunnel. Zin pinpointed the closest location to an underground river.

“Start digging here.”

Gin slammed the big and heavy drill down. It created an indent in the tough rocky ground. With both hands gripped with all his strength, he held it tight. Sweat dripped from his brow from the workout and anxiety.

He pulled the string, once, twice, three times. *Drrrrrrrrrzzz* The engine roared to life as the drill bit started to rotate. It quickly ate away at the tough rocks as Gin sank into a small hole. Due to how heavy the drill was and the spiral pattern it created; the drill kept a straight path down.

“Hold on tight, it is working!”

Gin could barely hear Zin. The loud roar of the drill and the vibration was overwhelming all his senses. He could feel every bone in his body vibrating. He regretted not biting down on a stick or something because his teeth chattered horribly.

“GO, GO, GO!”

Gin and Zin escaped from the gas-filled mines with their giant makeshift drill.

Suddenly, Gin had a thought.

“Wouldn’t someone discover the hole we made and chase us?”

But it was too late to think of a backup plan now.

______

Rakia sighed as she looked down towards the high-tech facility below her. Originally, she wanted to buy the missing piece through a legit channel, but now with time being limited, she had to resort to theft.

Wearing a skin-tight black garb with a mask that covered her entire head, she leaped off the roof of the building with a rope attached to her waist. A high-tech goggle covered her eyes and relayed information from Mead. With agile reflexes, she landed on the side of the building and slowly walked towards a window. With a pair of glass cutters, she sliced open a circle and jumped in.

The office inside was dark in the corners, but the lights outside from the neon signs illuminated the areas beside the window. Rakia quickly dashed into the shadows as she threw several darts at the glowing red lights where the security cameras were. She avoided the mess of cubicles and chairs and ran towards the hallway.

“Motion sensors are down for the next thirty minutes before they reboot.”

Mead whispered to Rakia.

Rakia nodded as she silently dashed into the hallway. Memorizing the floor plan of the building was quite easy as most of the office buildings in this Area had the exact same layout. Cookie-cutter buildings to avoid paying for more designs. All they had to do was program the drones to build the exact same layout over and over again.

Mead took over when Rakia reached the elevator door. She shoved a tool in the crack. It pried the two metal doors open, revealing the metal rope and pulley system of the elevator. She clamped the rope on her waist to the pulley and shimmied into the elevator shaft.

“Go down to the basement floor.”

Mead nodded. She jumped and grabbed the rope. Slowly, she climbed down. The clamp retracted as she left, and the elevator door closed again. Darkness washed over the shaft. Nightvision was turned on as her vision became an ocean of green.

The chilly air in the shaft didn’t bother Mead as she climbed down at a steady pace. Finally, she reached the basement floor. Once again, she shoved the tool in the crack and opened the door. She leaped into the room and did a quick scan of her surroundings. No security guards were around. The cameras were almost rebooted. With quiet footsteps, she dashed to the lab where the piece she needed was stored.

Mead threw several more darts to reset the lockdown on the cameras as she reached the locked door. A biometric scanner was the only thing blocking her path now.

Mead took out the thumb drive she got from the man in the coat and jammed it into the scanner. It over-ridded the security protocol and temporarily allowed access. The bolts behind the door slowly opened up.

Mead pushed the door opened and entered the lab.

Behind a glass container, was a brilliantly large ruby crystal. Its surface was polished to perfection and one could almost see their reflection. The lattice structure inside was perfectly visible and it gave the crystal a wondrous feeling.

“There it is.”

The item Rakia had been seeking was right in front of her now. It was the motherlode as well, not just a small piece of it.

This crystal had just the perfect lattice structure that redirected light in such a way that creates a powerful heating laser.

Rakia’s eyes were shining with greed.

“Mead, you need to disable the security around the container.”

“I know, I know. Don’t be so rushed, we have another thirty minutes now.”

Infrared motion sensors, heat detection, shatter detection, and many more. All of them were instantly disabled with a click of a button.

“The R&D department really need to pay their security branch more.”

Mead sighed. The black-market hackers cracked nearly all their current security protocols.

Without touching the ruby crystal, Mead took a mechanical arm to slowly lift the jewel up and into a sturdy containment box.

She took a convincing fake and placed it back in the glass container.

“All set, let’s skedaddle.”

But before Mead could exit the room, the alarm went off. Suddenly, a brilliant flash of light nearly blinded her as a buzzing sound echoed through the room.

“Oh crap,” Mead frowned.

“What happened?”

Rakia panicked.

“I don’t know, but we must get out of here fast. We might have gotten a picture taken of us.”

“We covered most of our face and body.”

“Yea, but they can still get a general body structure analysis. We must leave quickly before they pinpoint the culprit. I don’t want those drones to come after us.”

The most frightening thing within the Company were the R&D department’s security drones. They were like flying torture machines, made to inflict as much pain as humanly possible without killing their prey. Such a monstrosity of a machine acts as a deterrent against anyone who wishes to cross the department. Was it against company policy to torture the employees? Not if they are no longer employees! Criminals that have been identified will be stripped of the status. They would no longer have any rights, not they had many in the first place.

Mead quickly made a dash for the ventilation systems. She knew that as soon as the alarm sounded, the drones must have already blocked the regular exits. The main hallways must be full of them already.

She opened the grate and crawled in on all four. Thanks to her small stature, she managed to just barely squeeze into the small vent. The musty air and the smell were vomit-inducing, but Mead put up with it and began to crawl. Soon, she found herself in a tall vertical shaft.

“This one leads straight up to the roof. Quickly, the drones finished the preliminary scan of the area and are now scanning the smaller zones.”

Rakia panicked as she read the updates that flashed across her goggles.

“Mead, let me take over, I need you to keep track of the information.”

“Got it.”

Mead tied herself tight to the rope before swapping with Rakia. Rakia snapped back into consciousness and began to climb as fast as she could.

After processing all the data, Mead sighed with relief.

“We are going to make it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Math never lies.”

Rakia smiled. She got what she wanted and was almost home free.

“Mead, get ready to delete the Capitalist Conquest app. We are going home.”

Thus, while Gin was digging downwards to freedom, Rakia was climbing upwards towards home.

______

June was sweating bullets as he led the pale-skinned teen to his department. As personnel of the administrative section, he was only in charge of managing the reapers and barely saw any action himself.

*Flip, flip, flip* Vodka was fiddling with the knife in his hands as he juggled them. The talon shaped knife flashed brilliantly as it reflected the streetlights. His hand-eye coordination was impeccable.

The conveyor belt slowly moved them along the tunnel towards a large building in the center of the area.

Finally, they arrived at the office. Area 7, counter human resource department. Although they technically are the antithesis of the HR department, they are actually the opposite side of the same coin. Especially when there are so many ‘unruly’ employees to deal with.

June scanned his card, then his retina, then his fingerprints, and finally a voice recognition. The biometrics all passed, and he brought Vodka in.

The lobby of the office was made out of dark onyx stone. It absorbed light extremely well. People who enter the lobby felt as if they had just talked into the singularity of a black hole.

A single white receptionist table sat at the end of the hallway. Due to the nature of the lobby, it looked as if it was floating in the void. A lone guide in the cosmic darkness of the endless abyss.

“Welcome Manager June.”

A robotic voice announced as June walked forward.

“E42, arrange a boarding room for my guest. Register under the name Vodka.”

“Understood, Manager June.”

June remained silent as a drone rolled out from the back room.

“Follow me, Mr. Vodka.”

Vodka suddenly vanished. June froze as he realized he lost track of the boy. Suddenly, from behind the drone, Vodka appeared with his legs extended about to kick it. A sharp blade ejected out of the tip of his shoes, but just as the tip was about to penetrate into the metal coating of the drone, he stopped at the last second.

“Please, Vodka, behave or I will complain to the director.”

June quickly said out of panic.

Vodka nodded slowly and retracted his leg and the blade. He obediently followed the drone to his room.

June sighed with relief. He was finally rid of that menacing child.

“Now, E42, what do I have to do today?”

“You are scheduled for three meetings today. An investigation on the death and failure of Reaper Gordon is currently being conducted and will require your input. A security alert was triggered in one of the R&D department’s research labs as well. They are requesting a reaper for detective work.”

June sighed. His head hurt already when he recalled the incident with Gordon. Now R&D is on his ass as well, the migraines would soon follow.

“Get me my medication,” June said as he rubbed his temples, “and send me those reports.”

“Right away, Manager June.”

While June was dealing with administrative paperwork, Vodka was observing everything as strictly as possible. Nothing escaped his sight.

“You room, Sir.”

The drone unlocked a door on the 5th floor of the office. Vodka looked inside and saw a very well-furnished studio apartment. There was a kitchen with black marble countertops, a living room with velvet carpets with the walls painted maroon, a single bedroom with a king-sized bed and a large bathroom with a tub. It was the sort of luxury only the rich can enjoy.

Vodka frowned at the sight. He put his stuff down and sat next to the window and stared outside.

The city of Area 7 was revealed in all its glory in front of him. One of the richest areas in all the lands. The neon signs and the use of silver and gold were very liberal. Everything just screamed wealth and luxury. The streets were elevated above the ground and were lined with conveyor belts. People didn’t even have to walk from location to location. Countless drones flew in formation as they patrol the city.

Employees wearing high-tech gear wandered the streets without a goal. The look of defeat and obedience etched across their face as they try to please their capitalistic overlords. Money ruled their life, and there was nothing they could do about it. Some employees had heavy cybernetic implants and limb replacements. They often perform such invasive surgeries because it would improve their work performance. Who needs a real eyeball when you can get a cybernetic eye that can perform all kinds of functions?

There was a distinct lack of vegetation this high up in the atmosphere. The lack of green wasn’t obvious at first, but when all the colorful neon signs lit up in the darkness, it became jarringly obvious. It would hurt the eyes to stare for too long.

All in all, it was a sight to behold. But Vodka didn’t stir a tiny bit. His eyes remained focused and clear, his mind a fortress against external stimulants. He wasn’t even bothered by the gaudy colors of the neon signs.

*Grrrrl*

Vodka held his stomach. It was time to eat. He opened his suitcase to reveal what he had been carrying this entire time.

It was full of bananas. Curvy yellow delicious fruits. They weren’t fakes made out of paste, but real actual bananas that are not mutated at all. To find such fruits must have taken a lot of effort.

Vodka peeled one carefully and began to munch on it. The sweet and soft banana flesh was filling. He tossed the peel onto the ground. A tiny drone popped out of the wall and picked it up. It also wiped the floor and vacuumed the remains. Vodka was startled by the small thing.

The drone ran back into the hole in the wall. Vodka lost focus and went back to watching the organized chaos outside.

Thus, the boy sat in his new apartment, watching the scenery outside, and eating bananas.