As she ascended the elevators Inspector Chen, the girl, went over the final numbers on the five generators and agricultural district. It looked like there was a good margin of safety. They would still have enough food if even 70% of the crop failed… though they would need to ration if that were truly the case. The five generators were running smoothly and maintenance was being done at proper intervals. The essentials could be run with just one generator, but it would be quite uncomfortable if it got to that.
The storerooms on floor 51 made for a quick inspection. The massive warehouses would last another year, with rationing near the end, a year and a half, more than enough time for the crops to mature. Assuming the recordkeepers were accurate. But they were, for the most part, trustworthy enough. Their reports to the public may be a bit sugarcoated, but to the Inspector, they sure as hell better be as precise as possible.
Technically she was merely a go-between for the current leader and the facilities; she was an information gatherer presenting data so that he could make the right decisions. But in reality she controlled almost everything, she could fudge data, if she wanted, so that Dear Leader made the decisions she wanted, and he knew that. She trusted his decision making ability though. Plus he kept the rest of the ruling class in line.
Politics.
The two of them made good partners, there was no good reason to do anything that might threaten that right now.
The final stop for her today was the most distasteful for her: 50F, Enforcement. Only a specific set of three elevators were able to access the 50th floor and one of them was down for maintenance. She had four Elite Guard, personal guards for the Great Leader, meet her at one of them on the 48th floor. It wasn’t that she was afraid of the prisoners there, quite the opposite, it was those in charge that she did not trust.
The previous Enforcement Chief Yu Huang did a well enough job. He was well liked by most of the citizenry, with a good natured personality if not a bit reckless. Unfortunately, he was a bit of a playboy and this did not sit very well with some people, especially one particular higher-up by the name of Qin Yang. He was quite enraged when he found out this “commoner” had found his way into his daughter’s bedroom. The official story was that he was killed by an enraged husband of one of the worker-class, which was true to some extent. But the man that killed him was given the means to do so by Lord Qin Yang along with a few ruling class members. The other two nobles had felt threatened by Chief Huang’s popularity and felt he was gaining too much power amongst the citizenry.
The vacant position was quickly filled by one of the other two nobles, a scheming woman by the name of Xue Liu. The man she chose to fill the spot was big, dumb, and easily controlled by her. She used the previous Chief’s downfall to convince this new one, Lee Chen, that the populace was violent and eager to rebel at any chance. Since then, the Enforcers had become oppressive and controlling. Eager to strike out and arrest “instigators” the Enforcers patrolled the streets of the floors above frequently, setting curfew times earlier and earlier.
Inspector Chen scowled as she thought of the mess things were now. It was clear Chief Chen had no idea what he was doing. She was no stranger to the various information extraction methods employed by the Enforcers on suspected revolutionists, in fact, she had used them herself a few times when she worked in the old government. The problem was, he was just pulling random people off the street. Just the other day she caught him torturing a child because he found him after hours near the food dispensary. It was obvious the child was simply hungry. There was a recent flu going around, and most likely his parents were sick and unable to work for food. But Chief Chen got the bright idea that the child was attempting to poison the food supply to get the Enforcers sick.
A seven year old child.
Now the kid was crippled for life. Can you imagine the amount of bad press that caused? No amount of PR was going to fix this god awful mess, and she couldn’t throw the Chief to the masses (as much as she wanted to) or most of the Enforcers would turn on them. She was going to need to “take care of” the new Chief soon, hopefully before he screwed things up further. But it needed to be in a way that wouldn’t arouse suspicion, if she messed up, the nobles and Enforcers would just get even more paranoid.
The elevator doors dinged and she stepped out into a heavily guarded waiting area. She could hear screams in the distance. She cast a sideways look at one of her Elite Guard who sighed in response. What were these maniacs up to now?
Perhaps she should arrange for the Chief to have a heart attack sooner than later. But she had already done that for a corrupt judge the other day, and it would look a bit too suspicious to have a sudden heart attack epidemic. Suicide? Perhaps the Chief was feeling weighed down by the guilt of his actions. It could work but he really didn’t seem the type. More than a few higher-ups would be suspicious there.
I’ll workshop it a bit, I guess.
She waved her ID at the guard behind the glass of the security checkpoint. Two heavy iron doors clanked and slid open with a thud. Inspector Chen was assaulted by the sounds of screaming, yelling, beating, and pleading. Her scowl deepened. She gestured for the Elite Guard to form up around her and stepped through the checkpoint.
Suddenly, she stopped. The security guard looked at her questioningly.
Little Dreamer, if you are in there I would advise that you wake up. This is not something a child should see. Inspector Chen’s voice resonated inside her head. This seemed very odd to the girl and she couldn’t figure out why she would think such a thing–
The girl opened her eyes.
It was bright. Also kind of warm. She blinked a few times. The sun beamed in through the windows. It was actually quite hot in fact. There was no power, so there was no air conditioning, it seems that these massive windows had a drawback after all. The fluffy blankets she had pulled over the night before were now in a heap on the ground. Her dream this time was frightening, in a different kind of way. The girl was thankful it was quickly fading from her memories.
She looked over at the living room table next to her. Gerald Junior seemed pretty chipper this morning, little verdant green tendrils poking out from his small clay pot. She got up and went to the bathroom sink and ran some cold water, splashing some on her face. She went back and sprinkled some water on Gerald with her fingers.
The girl looked at her phone: the time was 0957 already. Her phone was on only 33% charge because John had asked to borrow her charger for the night. She wondered how they were doing, it seemed like they should’ve come to wake her up by now. She got dressed and peeked out the front door through the peephole. It looked pretty clear, though rather dark.
No leg monster.
She opened the door wider and leaned out to listen.
Nothing.
She went to John and Emily’s room right next door and knocked.
There was no answer.
She knocked again, louder. Suddenly she heard a door open behind her and jumped.
“Who’s there?” came a reedy voice.
The girl turned and saw a rather fat pale middle aged man in a stained tank top standing a few meters away next to an open door leading to one of the rooms.
He was holding a katana for some reason.
“You’re not here to steal my food are you?” he demanded, pointing the blade at her.
“No thanks, I got plenty of food.” the girl replied, slowly backing away.
“Oh really?” the fat man replied with a snort. “Give me some then.” He started lumbering toward her.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Why?” The girl quickly moved back toward her room. The man stopped.
“Wait, hold on!” He lowered his katana. “H-How about let’s make a deal? I’ve got a sword, pretty cool right?”
“It’s alright I guess”, replied the girl.
“You’re pretty cute, how about you come stay with me and I can protect you? I’ve got a lot of food too.”
“Nah, I’m ok.”
“Come on, I’m a pretty nice guy.” the man started moving toward her again. “Without a guy like me to protect you, who knows what could happen to you?”
The door to John and Emily’s room suddenly opened.
“Hey man.” John stepped out of the room. He was not in his hazmat suit and was rather back to bandages and heavily layered clothing. “How’s it going?”
“Who the fuck are you?” the fat man said, suddenly angry.
John looked at the girl, “Don’t worry, I’ll handle this.” He jerked his head toward her room. “You should probably wait inside.”
She was glad to get away from the man. He was giving her a very uncomfortable feeling. The girl quickly went back to her room as the large katana wielding greasy man protested and shut the door behind her. She was still curious though so she peeked out the eyehole.
“What’s the deal man, you her dad or something?” the man glared at John with heavily furrowed beady eyes.
“Do I look that old? Jeez, that's harsh.” asked John with a laugh, but there was a sharp edge to his voice. “Nah I met her on the way, we’re friends.”
“Whatever, you’re probably abusing her or something.” the fat man retorted angrily. “What are you, like, forty or something? What are you doing with a girl that young if she isn’t your daughter?”
“Cut the crap.” John said suddenly, steel in his voice. “I think we both know what you’re trying to do. I think it would be in your best interest to leave.”
“H…Ha! You think you can scare me?” the man let out a nervous snort. “I’ve got a katana… Man! Think I’m scared of you?”
John took a step forward and the fat man raised his weapon up.
"You probably should be scared of me." John said, he raised his hands to his chest and... did something the girl couldn't see from her angle.
The fat man dropped his sword in horror, then scrambled to pick it up. "Y-you're...!"
"Yup. Careful with that sword, if you get too sloppy with it... you might get some on you."
The man fluctuated between anger and fear trying to regain his limited composure. He opened his mouth as if gasping for breath before stammering out, “Whatever. Y-you sicko.”
John straightened his shirt. “Oh yeah, me and my friend have been staying in that room over there…” He stuck his thumb out over his shoulder. “So you might wanna get out while you still can.”
The large man hesitated for a moment, eyes blinking furiously, before he lumbered back to his room and slammed the door shut.
The girl waited for a moment before coming out of her room, “Holy crap how’d you scare him away?”
John replied, “Hold on, wait a sec. I gotta get into my suit.”
“What why? But you just went up to that guy like nothing.”
“That was different”, he gave her a sharp look. Then his expression softened. “Just hang on a moment ok? And pack up, we’re going to get ready to move.”
The girl changed into her trusty hoodie again, sticking Gerald Jr into his spot in her hood. She felt into the pockets to make sure her swiss army knife was still there. She stuffed her clothes into her suitcase, then went to the bathroom and collected the hotel shampoo and soap samples. She stuffed those into her suitcase too, along with all the canned and bottled drinks from the fridge pausing only to crack one of them open and take a quick sip of the sugary beverage. She filled a few empty bottles with water and put those into her backpack. Suddenly, there was a bang from the hallway.
She crept to the door to take a peek out the peephole. She was met by a wide flabby behind as the greasy man down the hall waddled away nervously with his katana and two large suitcases in tow. He disappeared into the stairwell.
A moment later, John and Emily emerged from their room wearing hazmat suits again.
“Good morning Emily!” the girl said.
“Oh hey kid”, Emily responded, though her voice seemed very hoarse this morning. She looked even more tired than before. “Sorry I was pretty tired last night, I ended up oversleeping. I heard John saved you from some creep?”
“Yeah… that guy was reeeally weird…” the girl responded with a grimace.
“What would we do without you, John.” Emily said, patting him on the shoulder. Suddenly she hunched over and began coughing uncontrollably.
“Emily! Are you alright?” John swiftly went over to pat her on the back. “You sure you don’t want to stay here and rest? We can come back down for you once we get everything to the top.”
“Hah! What would that do?” Emily responded, standing back up. “I’m not getting any better, John.” She gave him a steely look. He responded with a look that… was rather indescribable, though the girl thought it sort of reminded her of that of a lost puppy.
Then she noticed Emily’s face window.
“I-is that blood?” she asked.
“Oh shoot! My bad.” Emily said. She withdrew her arms from the suit’s and wiped the inside of the transparent facepiece with a cloth. “All better!”
“b-But…” the girl began.
“We should get going.” said John, “We’ve got a lot of stairs to climb.”
They pulled their makeshift sleds across the hallway. As they made their way to the stairwell they noticed the fat man had left his room's door open. A putrid smell assaulted the girl causing her to cover her nose instantly.
“You think we should check some of his stuff out?” asked the girl with a muffled voice.
John took a quick peek inside then said to the girl, “I think you should wait outside, it looks… pretty grimy in there.”
Emily went over and pulled the door open some more and exclaimed, “Oh god.”
The girl could only catch a glimpse but she saw large amounts of containers filled with yellow liquid.
“Well thank god for these hazmat suits.” remarked Emily.
“Yeah, I think I’ll be fine out here. You guys can go on ahead.” said the girl, gesturing to the room. “I’ll stay out here with the rest of the supplies.”
The two of them carefully picked their way into the room and closed the door behind them, leaving only a crack. The girl could hear cursing and exclamations of disgust coming from behind the door. Then there was some clanking and rustling of plastic bags.
The girl kept an eye on the stairwell door just in case someone or something came up. But so far it looked pretty abandoned. She wondered how many other people were in this building.
Suddenly, the door to the fat man’s putrid den opened and John and Emily filed out.
“Well that wasn’t the most pleasant.” said John. “I swear I could smell it even through the hazmat filters. Least it was worth the effort.” He dumped a trashbag full of chips and instant noodles on the ground.
“Not really.” Emily said, dumping out a bag full of various sodas and canned goods. “I could’ve lived the rest of my life quite fine without having to go through that.”
“Hmm.” said John as he picked through the canned goods. “Do we even have a can opener? Whoa this looks pretty good, hey there are pineapples!”
“Maybe we’ll find something on the way”, replied Emily sighing.
“WAIT!” the girl pulled out her swiss army knife. “What about this?”
“Wow!” John said, excitement in his eyes. “Where did you get that?”
“I’ve got my secrets.” replied the girl mischievously.
“Wait but this changes everything!” said John, speaking rapidly. “What settings are on that?”
“Uhm? I’m not sure what you’re looking for?” The girl handed the swiss army knife over to John.
“You think you could repair it with this?” John asked Emily who cocked an eyebrow.
“Well, I’ll give it a shot.” she replied, “We have to get going though, we need to be somewhere high to see if it works.”
“What are you guys talking about?” asked the girl.
Emily gave her a smile, a genuine smile that lit up her face and made her one green eye sparkle. “We’ve got a radio.”