When Liam stepped out of the car in front of the rater small station, people turned to look at him. He was, of course, accustomed to People watching him, a 16-year old boy with his brown neatly trimmed short brown hair and his shining brown eyes.
And he knows that they would always look at him with envy and awe, his family were the richest family in this zone. And there were often girls who got close to him only to sigh deeply when they saw that their bracelets were still white. But they were all rather silly in their wishes for a match made in heaven. Liam knew he would not meet his soulmate in this zone, he had been paraded around to all the prominent families already and there was no match on the British island.
This to his father's anguish because that meant that Liam's soulmate was not someone from the higher social ladder. But Liam felt rather free now when he finally was done with all the small exclusive parties with the rich children and their families. And now Liam would travel the world on an epic journey to find his fated wife and then bring her home and present her in all her glory. He was only 16 years old but this was the ordinary age to make the journey, but he hoped he would find her fast.
Not because he was worried about not finding her in the 2 years he had, but 2 years of travel sounded very gruesome and extremely tiresome. Even though the system had its bug it was very rare that anybody died from it. Well, maybe them lazy people in the slums. He turned around and waved to his mother and father and gave them a last smile before stepping toward the speed rail that would take him from there small town to the CC London, the rebuild version of the prewar London that was destroyed during the great war.
He only knew about pre-war London because of the school that insisted that they should learn about the pre-war cultures, customs, and geography. Something about tomorrow's leaders should learn from past leaders mistakes.
His mother and father waved and Liam thought he saw tears in his mother's eyes. With a sigh, he turned around and walked along the side of the platform. There were a lot of people that just made a path for him to walk and then just squeaked when he went by them. Some even stared at him with dreamy hungry eyes, what would they do to have a chance with him?
He could never grasp how soft and desperate people where. While taking out his discom to check which platform the rail departed from he noticed a cute girl with big blue eyes just staring at her bracelet and whispering a prayer to it.
He just shook his head at her and felt the small vibration from his discom and he saw that he got a text. People were truly awful creatures, they knew he got a lot of text and then persisted to send those things to him. He put the new text in the trash can directly and didn't even care to check what it was.
Suddenly he felt how he was pushed back and when he looked up from the screen he realized that he had not been pushed, the man in front of him had not moved out of his way.
“Excuse me! Excuse me, good sir!” explained the man and with a glare from Liam, he shrank back a bit.
The man had worn clothes and looked rather stressed so Liam smiled at him and said “It’s okay, but you shouldn't stress so much. The world doesn't end when you are a little late, and if you slow down a bit this sort of thing will not happen again.”
The stressed man hurried away from the platform and Liam got a bit irritated that the man didn't offer to help him to the rail or something for making trouble for him. But the rudeness of the people from the slums was no news for Liam, but he often wondered about why they always choose to be lazy until they had to do something and then stressed about it and causing mayhem for others.
No, people in the slums had to blame themselves if they couldn't handle their district. If you procrastinate and choose to live poorly and do nothing about it, they could, by all means, be hungry and freezing.
The doors to the rail he was taking opened and he stepped on and felt a pleasant freshness from the rail’s AC. Even though they lived on the British island the weather was hot and clammy, but before the great wars, it was said to rain a lot. Sure it was not only the fault of the great war that the weather was rather uncomfortable but the pollution from the slums was to blame too. Typical slum rat’s to affect the rest of the world with their problems.
He quickly found a place and settled down in a comfortable leather armchair, a privilege for only the first class citizens of the systems. Liam shuddered when he thought about how the dirty slum children would destroy these chairs if they were allowed into first class on any speed rail.
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When he felt that the speed rail started to move he brought out his discom and started the tedious task of deleting all the text messages that people persistently sent him
After a little while of frustration over the stupid people that kept pestering him he looked up and saw that there was a girl with blond hair and blue eyes sitting opposite him in the cart.
And when their gazes met Liam could not to his horror stop himself from blushing and he glanced at her bracelet and it was still white as snow.
She was the kind of girl Liam could see himself with and proudly show off to his friends at parties. But he did not want to turn home now when his adventure just begun.
He just got away from the supervision of his parents and the stupid rules his social status put on him. So it would not be a good thing to find his soulmate now but some company would be rather fun to have. But a girl with some manners and some social status would not be bad at all to find. There are some horror stories about higher classes having slum soulmates, but for Liam that sounded like a really bad match for him.
What would he do with a lazy, god for nothing slum girl that has sold her body for change just because she and her stupid parents didn't want to work like normal people?
There are even stories about couples that get disowned by their families just because the soulmate is from the lower classes and Liam could understand that.
He shyly looked at the girl again and managed a little smile but the girl was not watching so he fixed his collar of his shirt and sat up more straight. Even though Liam knew that the girl would be interested in him even if they were not soulmates, a short flirt was not unheard of when you were out looking for your fated one. But the girl just meets his gaze with a flat uninterested stare and Liam felt his cheeks getting red, not by blushing but out of frustration. Here he actually tried to make contact and showed interested in a girl and she only stares at him.
To calm himself down he looked at the discom to go over his travel plans. First, he was going to the CC Paris in the French district for two days, and he could not for his life figure out what he was to do for two days in a central city.
He had of course been to France before and stayed in the CC Paris but that was years ago and he could not remember that much about it.
After that, he would go to the district of Denmark where he would stay for a night and then move on to some speck on the map place and go to a festival that would last for two days. If he could fire whoever made his travel plan he would do it right away, but it was the system that made it from some algorithm to maximize the exposure to different people and soul mate candidates.
Many people complained about the system and how it runs things especially those people in the slums who just complained about everything. They say that the system only favors those who are already rich and that the bug is killing too many people.
But of course, those people from the slum did not understand the system and why it was a marvelous system that helped the world. It gave them work if they wanted to and it gave them soulmates on a silver platter. That the bug killed off too many is just humbug, Liam had never meet anyone that lost anyone to the bug so it's clearly not that big of a deal.
When the rail slowed down Liam looked up at the girl that was still just gazing out in the empty air he got angry again. Why was she even in the first class when she lacked the manners of someone in the higher classes.
Liam stood up and started to make his way over to her. She can't believe she could get away with treating him like this could she?
The girl just annoyed when he got close and Liam felt his cheeks turning red again. Who was she to look annoyed when Liam came over. But Liam put on a smile and meet her annoyed gaze.
“No, I do not need any help.” She said after a while of staring into Liam's eyes and he counted to ten before responding.
“Girl, just because your pretty does not mean that you're worth anything. Remember that and just shut up when you're in the presence of your betters.” He said with pressed lips and trying his best not to blow up.
Something hit him on the leg and the girl seemed to be really angry about something. As Liam looked down on the object that hit him he saw that the girl was using a white thin cane to hit him over and over again.
“Crazy slum rat!” He said as he went over to the speed rails emergency intercom and pushed the button to call the guards over.
She was clearly not from the higher classes, no one of the higher classes would be able to recognize him and hit him with a cane.
As the rail pulled in to the platform the doors opened and two guards rushed into first class ready for anything. Heavily armored brutes that sole purpose was to protect the higher classes from the lower people. After Liam explained to the guards what happened they look confused but then proceeded to remove the girl that still didn't understand what she had done wrong.
As he left the speed rail he could not believe the lengths those slum rats went to feel a bit better about them self, think what they could accomplish if they choose not to be so lazy and poor.