We walk silently side by side for about an hour, completely uneventful. As we approach the center of the city, the skywalk branches into a “T” shape, which will connect to the other three main skywalks, forming a square around the Heavenly tower. The wall facing the tower is made out of glass, which I know can be broken from experience. I hear Julia’s voice to my left,

“Honestly, I expected a lot more action. Yet we haven’t seen anyone for practically the last hour. Guess it makes sense though, considering the fact that people spawned wherever they wanted, so everyone will be spread out. And with the ground floor and streets, the 25th floor main skywalks, the 75th floor main skywalks, and the 100th floor main skywalks, people did have a lot of options to choose from.”

“Agreed. I say we just camp out near here for a bit in a jacked station, and when the time gets closer, we can prowl the surrounding area and take out competitors.”

Julia takes a left into a door connected to the skywalk, walking into a jacked station, and I follow. She grabs the keys for a large, premium room, with two jacked stations in it, and tosses the keys at me.

“Catch.”

I smoothly catch the keys, unlock the room, and walk in. She comes in after me, and shuts the door to obscure visibility, but doesn’t lock it.

“Do you think we should lock the door?” I ask.

“Nah, if people find the door locked and the keys missing, they could set up outside, and catch us by surprise when we try to leave. Better they come in here, and we shred them.”

“Sounds good.” I spin my grav target wheel to the ceiling, and smoothly land on the ceiling of the relatively small room. I sit down, my back to the wall, and get out my repeater. Julia joins me. I look down at my arm, and check the time left.

Time remaining until the gate to heaven opens:

4:24:42

Still four and a half hours left. Hmm, what to do…

“Hey Julia, do you prefer the Crimson Hand or the Purists?”

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“Before I answer that, I think you should know something. My name is Julia Kaidan.”

Wait what! No fucking way. “As in you are related to Alexis “The White Death” Kaidan, the girl who founded and leads the Purists?”

“Yeah. Like six or seven years ago. She was different then. I took her last name, with witnesses and video and everything. You can still find those on the net today if you look. It worked out for a time. Then it fell apart. I left. And now, she leads a cult.”

“I… I don’t know what to say.”

“No worries. Honestly, I don’t know what to think. Jez seems horrible, and the purists fighting against it seems good. Like with the price of Jez, the rapid degradation of the satisfaction and pleasure it gives, and the high addictiveness, I can’t support it. Sure, it supposedly gives a taste of heaven, but at the price of the user's life quite often? It just seems stupid to let people starve themselves paying ridiculous prices to gorge themselves on it, then starve as they die broke on rez. Yet with the purists taking “Purity” much further than just Jez, and basically saying that being Jacked is wrong, and that you must have the Jacked port removed to become “Pure” seems ridiculous. Add to that the fact that they view killing those who are impure as wrong, it doesn’t sit with me. Sometimes I wonder if the people fighting within the cults really believe what they say, or if it is just an excuse to hate and kill each other.”

“Seems about right. I agree on most of that. But I would choose the Crimson Hand over the Purists every day. I would prefer to be free to be a Jacked without persecution, and let people die Jez addicts every day, then be persecuted for living my life as a Jacked.”

“Yeah, fair.”

We both silently ponder for a moment, still on the ceiling, when I hear footsteps outside our room. I grab my repeater from my back, and silently aim it at the door, my cybersuit covering my face. Julia does the same, and I notice her cybersuit turn a menacing black with red stripes as her cybersuit covers her face. The door opens, and another competitor walks in. We both unload rapid fire shots from our repeaters, and his shield is shredded among the storm of shots, and a shot of mine burns through his head before he can even fire a single shot in retribution. Two kills for Dhedjeshdi.

“Hell yeah!” Julia enthusiastically shouts, and she switches her gravity to fall back down towards the floor.

“Wait, there might be more!” I say, much too late for any effect. She lands, as another competitor flys feet first into the room, straight towards her. She tries to dodge, but is firmly hit in the shoulder, and loses her grip on the repeater. Probably took a decent hit too shields as well. As her assailant lands on the wall, he seems off balance, likely from only hitting her with one foot. I drop my repeater, and aim my grav target line straight at him. My feet fly out from under me, and I fall straight at him. Due to the small size of the room, he has almost no time to react, and I crash feet first into him, drawing my scattershot with my left hand, and unloading two shots into him. His shields crack with a satisfying blue flash, and he lies on the wall resigned to his fate. I aim the scattershot at his head, and fire the last shot. Three kills for Dhedjeshdi. I turn towards Julia.

“Anyone else outside? Or are we clear?”

She looks outside, and swiftly responds, in a stuttering, slightly out of breath voice.

“We are clear. And sorry about the blunder earlier.”

“No worries. Just think more next time. Also, on the bright side, it got me another kill. Gotta catch that kill leader, Void something or other. I wonder how many kills he has right now.”

Julia closes the door, and falls back up to the ceiling. I join her, and check the time left on my forearm.

Time remaining until the gate to heaven opens:

3:52:11

Now, to catch that kill leader...