"Holy shit!"
Blowing the air out, I tried to cool down the cheese pain that had already burned the roof of my mouth. It was stupid to eat it while still smoking hot but fuck me it tasted magnificent. Worth the second-degree burns, Silva was a genius.
On the ground floor, I was happily strolling to the station with my delicious breakfast in hand and a mug of coffee tucked under my arm. My screen marked a couple minutes past 6am but still the only light I saw was a sign of a 24h Trip house. A young woman, with glowing pink hair and synthetic matching cat ears, crossed the alley and entered the establishment.
I couldn't judge her. Living in a cyber reality was much better than living in this damn city.
Before biting the soft cheesy buns again, I learned from my mistakes so I tried cooling it down a little.
The slums were already crawling with workers on their way uptown. Hordes of people were coming out of the buildings, cramping the narrow alleys. Glowing eyes illuminated the path as there was very little light in between the tall apartment buildings. The homemade bridges, illegal attachments and other poorly done alterations to the structures helped block the sunlight almost entirely.
Fluorescent graffiti covered the walls—gang names, Trinity codes, and Mask sigils all glowing over the dirty concrete. Those gas masks were everywhere, even on the floor. It was irritating sometimes. I even spotted a few of mine, back from when I was more rebellious.
Walking along society at that hour was unusual for me, but one has to do whatever it takes to make some money in this world. Today I was out to record one of my trips in the countryside.
As I marched with the horde, the dirty air and the cigarette smoke made me remember to put on my mask. I hated that thing made of metal and brass but the air was unbreathable sometimes. I filled my mouth with the last cheese pain, gulped the coffee and plugged the metallic thing over my nose and mouth.
A few minutes later, the masked crowd slowed down. We had reached the outside alleys, near the slums exit. It wasn't unusual for the pace to drop since the passages were too small for the volume of people, but we had completely stopped.
"What the fuck is happening?" I said out loud, my voice coming out the mask speakers.
"The pigs are running a random search again!" one pissed person answered a few rows ahead.
Shit! Just what I needed.
Enhancing the zoom on my lenses, I could see a couple of Force agents at the alley exit scanning people with x-ray.
A woman coming from the opposite direction bumped into me hard. Scanning the crowd, a few others began to swim against the human current to avoid the search.
"Watch it, asshole!"
"Fuck off!"
Didn't take long for the chaos to spread. The workers drew attention towards the people trying to get away right when I was about to do the same.
Checking the crossing alleys, they were all packed with people. There was no easy way to go back. At the end of the passage the Force agents noticed the commotion.
"Stop right there!" they shouted at the people pushing against the crowd. "Make way!"
I glanced in their direction and the pigs had dived in, pursuing the runaways.
"Fuck me…" Talking to myself, I turned back and ran.
As I bumped and pushed through the crowd, I scanned the walls above. There were a few emergency stairs that consisted of the best escape route but I would become a very visible target. I needed a blind spot or a diversion to climb without being targeted.
Gazing back, the agents had caught up to the first runaway, a skinny girl. One of the cops stayed back to beat her up and two others continued.
Two other guys were running with me. Every turn I made they followed and the cops right on our tail. If it weren't for the people filling up the alleys, we would have been dead already.
"Stop in the name of the Eoncity Force, you miserable cyberpunks!"
I was in the lead, but those two other guys were turning me in. I had to take them off my ass if I wanted to escape.
We were running down a longer alley with no side exits. The number of workers was starting to get smaller. Soon the pigs would be able to shoot without the fear of many witnesses.
At the end of the alley, there was only a clear turn right. However, I knew there was a crack between the buildings on the left. Only one person could pass at a time so either my followers would have to turn right or get caught trying to follow me.
The sounds of boots bounced on the metal that roofed the alley and the walls. The darkness was also helpful. It was almost possible to forget it was morning.
I kept running straight, only hearing the steps behind me and the people shouting for being pushed and hit by us and the cops. We were a couple meters off the turn right, when I drifted to the left and shoved the people out of my way.
"Hey, stop!" one cop shouted.
I got to the hidden crack, passed my bag first and entered, but it was not an easy slide. When I said a crack, I really meant it. It was thin. Only a skinny person would pass by easily, so someone of my size would have to push through more aggressively and it would take a few seconds—precious ones.
"Come on!" the guy right behind me shouted while pushing me.
It was the longest three seconds. Then he gave up and ran in the opposite direction.
The second he did it, I passed, my jacket and pants getting ripped in the process and also my ears.
"Go after him!"
I grabbed my bag off the floor and glanced back. The third guy, a teenager, slid through the crack so easily it was like he was covered in grease.
"For fuck's sake." I cursed at him, who didn't mind.
As the boy stepped away from the crack I saw the cop on the other side. I wasted no time and turned my back at him, resuming my escape. The agent was using combat armour. It looked light but it was extremely resistant.
A few meters later a loud sound of metal being squeezed made me flinch with agony. Looking back, the pig was enlarging the crack with his bare hands. That damn armour was incredible. Made of tungsten, with robotic joints that increased strength, it allowed the agent to get superhuman status.
Quickly scanning the area, we were surrounded by buildings on all sides. The place was a gap used as a deposit by the establishments. A dead end, except for an old emergency staircase on the exterior of one of the buildings. It was short, only two flights of stairs, but in the end, it led inside the building, where bullets wouldn't hit me. I just had to get there.
"Come on man, what's the plan?"