A border patrol officer approached the car and inquired us with the usual questions. After an hour in the long lines to Mexico we finally crossed the border to head out into New Sonora. The Nuevo Orden headquarters were hidden somewhere near the metropolis of Sonora La Vieja. It had been a small town during the twentieth century, but as the United States began to crumble, people from Los Angeles and Las Vegas fled to the safety of Mexico.
Mexico had been invaded by hoardes of refugees from several countries of the world, mostly the Divided and Europe. Although it wasn't the most benefited from the Depression. Argentina and Brazil also had a population boost during the Great Depression years. And as people got used to the customs and the laws of their hosts, they decided to stay in a place they could really call home. Places that were already so dead that the Depression could not kill.
This was what many people called "Old World Paradise." These were places untouched by time, by the Council. Cattle roamed the roads, magnificent crops raised in the vast badlands of the desert, the stars were untouched by the blazes of smoke from the citadels. It was a place where you could relax and forget you lived in the changing world, in a world plagued by torture, corruption, misery, and, not to forget, the crave for power.
publicado a las 8:36 PM

Noom opened the back keypad and stroke something in a rapid succession of keystrokes that was undescribably fast. She'd done this before. In the overhead display we could see what looked like an old suveillance video of the underground laboratory. There was a man there, Matan's father, I supposed, he was looking at what looked like a test tube that glowed bright orange. A woman entered the room, right that instance I knew who she was... I hadn't seen her in what seemed centuries, but still, her image was recognizable, her white lab coat, her digital glasses... it was my mother. The moment I saw her a tear rolled down my cheek, I hadn't cried in a long time, not ever since they took her away. Matan and Noom were telling the truth. I looked outside the window, not wanting them to see my watery eyes.
Through the window, I saw the sign, IC 12 - Mexico, it wouldn't be long since we saw the high-fence that divided the Nevada from the mexican state of New Sonora. The desert was endless, but I could start seeing little pin-points of light in the ever-growing darkness that had surrounded us so soon. The hovercar came to a stop, there was an unending line to cross the border.
publicado a las 6:12 PM

A crash. The car blew off the ground, a gush of greenish fluid was bursting out of the ground. We were taken by surprise, the car was now somewhere in the middle of the desert, the road nearly covered with the everflowing liquid. Filling every gap, every crack on the road, with goo. Yukio immediately rolled up his window, so did Mantis.
Behind us, we could still see the 90-story tall building that had once belonged to some multinational company, part of Old Angeles, the ghost city. We were trapped among brick walls - that had probably held a monument up a long time ago - and gaps in the desert, the goo flowing out of the hole in the ground. Out of the Manta building behind us came a car, a nice-lookin' 90s car. Deep Blue, no wait, Passion Red, no wait, Royal Purple, and now back to Deep Blue. It was a Lowenthal, the company that monopolized the 'levitating' component. No wheels touching the ground, no cables, no lines, no nothing. It was definitely a FC-3K, the flying car.
It came rushing past toward the driver's side of our old Buick. The chromed window rolled down, inside was the most beautiful, gorgeous, human being I have ever seen. He took his shades off, and his penetrating red eyes stared into mine.
"Hop on," he said, his high-class boy accent was hard not to recognize, he opened the passenger door and he held his hand out for me. I climbed into the black leather interior.
I then noticed her, in the backseat, another high-society chick, her blonde hair with green streaks finally proved a thought I had going on. They might be high-class, but they're definitely our kind. And then Yukio and Mantis rolled themselves onto the backseat next to the girl.
"Hey there, thought you'd need some help," the boy said, "oh, by the way, my name is Matan. She's Noom."
"We are..." I started.
"We know who you are," Matan said, "we're to help."

I looked at the magnificent light design on the dashboard, lights with GPS systems, Hyperspeed modems, Intellijack CPU, Geo monitors all around, plus, the great digital windshield.
"What was that?" Yukio finally said. Getting past the shock of the hit, and of the sudden 'cash flow'.
"Oh, that's just a Plutonium Alloy pipe that burst, it's not dangerous... after the first 10 minutes. You're lucky we got to you before that. We've been following you since New Tokyo."
"You've been..."
"What do you know about the S.A.E. Robin?" Matan looked at me, "I know you know something. Remember Third Dheli? You thought you weren't being traced, but someone did. I did. Now, tell me everything you know, you need our help."
"And we need yours. My father's trapped somewhere within the Nuevo Orden headquarters down in Mexico. And we believe they have found the S.A.E. files... you see, dad was involved with all this thing and they took him away. And... my father, he... well... lord this is hard, he... well, he knew your mother..."
publicado a las 7:22 PM

* * *
The high-rise district. It was the nicest part of New Angeles. The eighty-story high buildings covered most of the sky. Robin was asleep in the backseat while Mantis and I discussed some of the things we would be doing. But we were just babies in a gown-up world. We didn't know what to do. At least not me, I had live in New Tokio all my life. Then I got the sensation of something wrong, the sky was suddenly lighting up. Sunrise, I thought, but it coudln't be. I turned to Robin, she was the one with the watch in here. I shook her awake, "What bloody time is it?" she ignored me and stared at the moonroof. And she screamed.
"The moon!" All three of us looked up, the moon was burning, burning in flames that could be seen hundreds of thousands of miles away. The moon was lighting up the sky. But it was impossible, there is no oxygen to burn in outer space.
Then I remembered some job I had done a couple of months ago, I had curiously wandered into the wrong computer and gotten a file that said something about Synthetic Atmospheric Elements, or something the like. It was wrong. It couldn't be. The moon had been shut down officially by the World Council two decades ago, during the Depression.
Then all of a sudden it stopped.
publicado a las 10:37 AM

During the tiresome trip from New Tokyo to wherever it was we were heading I started thinking. I started thinking on how it was that the world had all of a sudden turned like this in merely a century. This was supposed to be the century of dreams and of miracles and everything with brilliant pastel colors, but it the world I'm living in is far from that 21st century dream.
It all started wrong I must say. The world wasn't ready for changes, and that first impression of the new millennium was awful. First it all started with terrorist attacks on what was once the United States, but they held together. And as any historian would say, war was imminent. It all started, not your usual war being held in Europe. The Middle East was now the battlefield, millions of lives were lost, but once again, what would you expect from a war? Then after nearly three decades the countries were simply tired of fighting, people were being lost and life on Earth was simply to hard to endure that devastating experience. So the Peace Treaty was signed by all nations of the world, but that's when the Great Depression hit, the stock markets all plunged down in a matter of hours. This to the point of making a bottle of water cost nearly $40. If the war hadn't killed enough people, the Great Depression, sank the whole world even more by reducing its population leaving only sixty percent of the total population. That was the point where the United States started to divide, a Civil War was brought on, people fighting more people. The Peace Commitee couldn't do much for it was an internal war, not nation fighting nation. That's when the states simply went independent. Fifty new countries were born out of one.
By '47 the Depression was over, but the world hasn't recovered to this day. And that brings me to where I am. The 60s are here, and the world is so depressive.
Looking at that charred moon is the only thing that gives me hope. For I know that beyond that moon there is another planet, another place where everything may very well be perfect. Nearly an hour had gone by and Yukio had alredy driven over the Pacific. Him and Mantis were discussing something, nothing I'd care about. I didn't belong here, not with them.
Then I saw it, the skyline of New Angeles in the horizon. Los Angeles had once been a thriving city, that before the bomb hit it. Oh yes, but not only was Los Angeles the only one affected, Calcutta, New York, Tokyo, Sydney, Paris, London, Copenhagen, Belin, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Mexico City... all now a memory. Cities were built on their remnants to commemorate the thriving cities that once stood there, but most of them were Phantom Cities, just like New Tokyo, a city were the most wanted hide.
I hate this. I wish everything would be as the books tell on how this future would be. An utopia. But it isn't.
The floodlights started filling the car, border troopers stopped us, "Where you heading?" an asian-looking soldier asked.
"We're planning on visiting New Angeles for a while, then keep on moving."
Both of the troopers looked down on us, and checked every inch of the car with their flashlights, even though the floodlights pretty well lit the interior. The asian guy stared a long time at me, I just kept thinking on the world, and hiding myself in my dream world.
publicado a las 4:09 PM

* * * * * * * * *
The computer once again displayed the "Line Being Traced" box, this was serious. But the problem is, they had already traced us down. I took out a laptop I owned and plugged the Transfer Cable to my Big Box. And the transfer began, it seemed to take forever.
"Do you still have the disc I gave you?" I asked Yukio. He nodded, they were both staring at me now, probably waiting for an explanation to what I was doing.
"We've been traced. It will be a matter of seconds before they get to us." And the screeching tires on the other side of the building stopped my last few words.
I grabbed my lame excuse of computer, it was simple, the transfer was done. Now delete everything.
"Self-Destruct? (Y/N)" The screen read. The blinking cursor waiting for an answer, below us the steps of several men started to be heard. I clicked Y. The computer screen dissolved to black. A welcoming screen was on "Enter Command:_"

I looked at the building above us, Robin's car right in front of us. We were now on the run, being chased by someone we didn't even know. I got into the car and we headed off into the horizon.
publicado a las 5:58 PM

* * * * * * * * *
Robin was still sitting beside me, near one of the monitors, already out of the trance, but still in shock. It usually happens, you start remembering everything, and it all... no time for rambling my thoughts. Concentrate on getting whoever was tailgating me out of my back. I typed commands quickly, trying to get rid of them. Finally I lost them over a connection in New Paris.
"A virus." Robin spurted out.
"What?" I turned to her, Yukio froze in his place.
"A T dash four five x at t u k dash e l six two four dot n t exclamation mark. It is an equation, a command, a password, to get the information on the virus."
"Virus? You mean this is the Vox! Your mother was the creator of Vox?" Yukio certainly knew what he was talking about.
I was afraid to ask, but I felt I had to, but I wish I hadn't, "What is Vox?"
publicado a las 9:17 PM