I dashed through the door, making a hard left and sprinting down the hallway. I had no choice in the matter. I was on a clock to save my wife and daughter.

Instead of wallowing in misery and trepidation. I should’ve pulled up the data chip, to see what it was. In truth, I believed it was just Akatani baiting me. It was, but I never expected an offer or a chance to save my wife.

To be fair, this could all be a trap, but what I could do? I was already in a vice-grip and Akatani had the lever, turning it around my neck, ensuring that I had no escape. Damn it.

The elevator door slashed open with a ding and five people were in it. Two men, wearing textile-designed tuxedos with three women, slopped across on their shoulders, barely able to move.

The woman in the middle wore a white dress with a ribbon at the bottom with a black LED-light blinking in the middle of the dress. The woman to the right wore a red ruffled mini dress with ruffles around her neck, she looked more like a line-backer than anything. The woman to the left had a translucent dress, showing, everything. The edges of her dress were moving clockwise with a rainbow effect that would make anyone dizzy.

“Are you heading up?” I asked softly, holding my hand against the door. “What’s that to you?” The man on the right asked. “Get out,” I said, nothing having the time for this shit.

“Listen…we PAY.”

I slammed my cybernetic arm into the ground in front of the elevator, leaving a cracked tile. The man on the left dashed towards me, only for me to flip him on his ass. As expected, the second man followed suit, only to be slammed to the ground right next to the tuxedo one. “The elevator takes thirty seconds to traverse the entire building, you could’ve just gotten out” I growled, stepping inside.

The three women scuttled out with horrified faces. The woman in white was scared, whilst the woman in red turned up her nose as she passed me. The woman in the translucent winked at me as if I didn’t have my problems.

The elevator brought me down to the underground parking lot in thirty seconds. As the door slashed open, five people were waiting to get in. I dashed past them, hitting two women in the shoulders, and heard the tussle as they fell to the ground.

I didn’t look back, nor did I care to see if they were fine. One of them was a prude who tried to get my attention three months ago, whilst the other closed the elevator door on me whilst I carried ten plastic bags full of groceries. Bitch.

“ASSHOLE!” One of the men shouted as I made right, heading towards my Xenotis-X. I caught sight of it, a few yards from me and lessened the gap in a few quick steps.

The door opened automatically, and the car came alive. At a time like this, I missed Nova, she would’ve initialised her before I reached it, making this easier for me.

I checked the oil pressure gauge, radiator fluid and tire pressure. All Good I noted, and before I could slam the accelerator a jeep drove by me. A second later and the driver would’ve been dead.

Once the jeep passed, I slowly pressed on the accelerator and felt the smooth tarmac beneath me tense into the steering wheel. The light beamed through the windshield as I went up the hump, and made a hard left.

Not having time to waste, I manually input the coordinates:

Latitude: 56.3371

Longitude: -2.7901

A brown GPS line pulsed into existence in the centre of my dashboard, showing the distance between us 40 Miles. Shit…! I sank my foot into the accelerator, bopping and weaving through traffic, barely missing trucks, cars, jeeps and most importantly people.

The speed limit was 100 MPH and I devoured it, trying to get where I needed to be. I checked the time that I had left to reach wherever Akatani sent me, noting I only had 25 minutes left.

I thought this is futile, realising that I’d only shaved off three miles thus far. so when I took a hard left, feeling as if the tarmac resist me. I was at least happy because I was two miles off from the closest Skylane.

Once I reached the Skylane, the wheels of my Xenotis-X receded as we flew off the ramp. The afterburners kicked in below the car and slowly surged through the air. I made a gentle turn in the air, directing the car south and stomped the accelerator, ignoring whatever car was in front of me.

That was the beauty of the Skylanes. You had space to do, what needed to be done, and in a case like mine.

Every. Second. Mattered.

The Skylanes were bustling with traffic, signifying that Bridge City was alive in the nigh hours once again. I swerved left, trying to avoid a trailer truck with six extensions, barely missing it.

The swerve had sent me onto oncoming traffic, and my heart jumped to the bottom of my throat. I swerved left, avoiding an oncoming car with beaming headlights then sunk my foot into the accelerator, pushing down on the yoke, avoiding a soaring jeep that appeared from nowhere.

My stomach rose into my chest as I swerved left then right, ascending, descending, barely escaping another vehicle that almost clipped me.

If there were ever a time for my reaction speed to fail, this would be a poor time for it to happen and despite how my heart thumped in my chest. I could feel my muscles begin to tire from the excess I took them through.

20 Miles Until Destination the dashboard read. Soon there cypher…soon there. I pulled up the time again, noting I had around 18 minutes to get to my destination. Shit!

After a three-minute tussle, I finally made it back into the correct lane and curved the Xenotis around a two-hundred-story skyscraper with a needle for a tip.

The traffic that beamed from the corner of my eye, looked like bees travelling through a network tunnel, going back and forth as they worked for the colony. The only difference was, that most people didn’t work for the colony, but for their survival…pieces of shit like Akatani.

I wasn’t one to talk though. I did what needed to be done to survive, but what that bastard just pulled on me? I was gonna make him pay.

The spinning lights of justice appeared to my left as I continued my journey through the Skylanes. Took you long enough I thought. The two cruisers lined up beside me, signalling me to pull over.

Not. For. Shit.

I swerved left, trying to startle them but only succeeded in pissing them off. So I released my foot from the afterburner and felt my car glide across the air, before descending back to earth.

From the corner of my eye, I saw the bastards curled around the traffic, speeding onto oncoming traffic and following me between two skyscrapers.

The anxiety I felt, was frustrating, as I began to swallow my saliva hoping to relieve myself of the aggravating tightness within my chest.

I flipped my car sideways, flying beneath a water pole, then cut the gas once more. The two cruises shot right past me, as they didn’t see me. I couldn’t afford for them to see me, so I let my car float in the air for a few seconds, gauging the cruiser's trajectory.

The bastards turned around. Damn it. I eyed the timer within my cybernetic eye.

Minutes Left

15

I was RIGHT there! Just one mile to go too. So, I did what I thought was best. I sunk my feet into my accelerator and charged towards my destination, not caring if the police were gonna follow me.

The angle the cruisers took, was long and wide, due to the congestion of the traffic. They may have had sirens, but not everyone cared for the law in the way they hoped. Which I used to my advantage.

The white and blue sign, marking Nickalus Abbey Station below me burned like the sun, despite the sun rising in the opposing direction. I took my car down to the roof, which had no Landing Pad. I unclipped my seat belt and dropped to the ground with a large thud that left the roof cracked.

A sharp pain ran up my back from my knees, but with the adrenaline pumping within me. I ignored it and darted towards the stairs, with lights from the city beaming all around me like a Christmas tree.

“STOP!” One of the officers screamed from above. I sprinted to the staircase, reached the bottom floor within two minutes and spilt onto the train station. Hundreds of Holograms beaming across the ceiling at varying angles pulsed into existence like a bulb.

The brown GPS pulsed and shimmered within my eyes, showing the distance I had left. 800 Meters to my Left. I turned around and was caught off by the sea of people I saw, coming and going. It was mayhem in the station, but I should know better, everyone was on their way to work.

Despite them going to work, I could feel the animosity of the crowd as I traversed the station. Bridge City had been on edge for months, ever since the riots. The melancholy in their eyes spoke to me and asked one thing. ‘Is my life always gonna be this shit?’

Probably.

I forced my way through the crowd with grunts and screams. Hell, I even had to slam three people on the ground, that wasn’t willing to move. Once I got within two hundred meters of wherever I needed to be.

It lightened up, right before a staircase where I leapt down five flights of stairs, then made a hard right, hitting my shoulder in the process.

I jumped over a janitor’s cart, then skid across the tiles before making a hard left, then darted up two flights of stairs.

20 Meters

My eye caught the rows of lockers, with graffiti splashed across them. I darted towards them and began hunting for which one, was assumable mine.

The GPS Line kept changing each time I approached a row, as if it were some fish, trying to fight me on its locale. I didn’t have the time for this bullshit, but I was getting pissed with each passing second.

After the timer hit one minute left, I slammed my hand into one of the lockers, leaving a giant fist engraved into it. The surrounding people began muttering words of encouragement. ‘Crazy bastard…maniac…fool’ their right, I thought bitterly. I should’ve stayed! I shouldn’t have taken that fucking job!

My knees grew weak and I sagged to the ground, feeling like a bigger failure than I ever thought. 45 Seconds. I wanted a better life for Shin-Lee, she grew up in a shitty place…with a shitty king. I promised her I’d do right by her, despite her reservation. She never complained, but I knew she wasn’t happy at times, and despite that…she stuck with me.

Hannah…my baby…my sweetheart. Thoughts of her, came pouring in. The moment Shin-Lee told me she was pregnant, and after I assassinated the Hortort Calisum, we had to trek the Waste on our way to Antillean Federation with refugees.

Tears began to flow from my eyes, as I felt everyone staring at me as if I were mad. I was…at Akatani…but mostly myself.

20 Seconds

“You Cypher?” Someone asked. I looked up, water pouring from my eyes and barely saw them. I wiped the tears from my eyes and noted the box package that had cuddled under their armpit. “Whaddaya say?” I asked, confused.

“Are. You. Cypher?” The courier asked.

“Yes.”

The bastard tossed the box into my lap, pissed. “Took you long enough? Do you know how I was waiting for you? Shit, if I didn’t get specific instructions I would’ve left this shit in the gutter.”

“Fuck you,” I growled.

10 Seconds.

I ripped the package open, only to find an old-school cellular phone, with a crystalline design. It was glass in appearance and texture. Upon touch, it booted up, dialling an ‘unknown’ number.

“…with 5 Seconds to spare, dramatic, aren’t you?” Akatani said over the line.

“My wife and daughter!” I growled.

“Fine…” He said, “for now…”

“I swear…”

“…yes yes, if I lay a hand on them you’re gonna kill me blah blah blah… let’s get this on with. I have a job for you…Cypher.”

I didn’t answer, I was busy withholding my hand from squeezing the phone from within my hand, and after two seconds of silence. I finally answered.

“What’s the job?” I whispered.

A large pain shot my side, as I slammed into the lockers, head first. I tried to get up but felt a boot hit the bottom of my chin, shaking my brain within my head.

Around me got blurry, so blurry that despite me having a cybernetic eye, my SMB matched the chemical reaction to my brain shift, making that blurry as well, unable to see.

I tried pushing myself up from the ground, but the person swept my hands free, leaving me to fall on my face. Then, I felt as if something struck the back of my head as were a pipe of some kind and felt my consciousness slowly fading away. “…and that’s for making me chase you all the down here, you bastard!”