Chapter 14: To the Border!
The day’s heat was incredibly furious. And the furiousness was an oddity in and of itself. After all, the sun never fully shone with all its aggressiveness in zerozones. The morning star was always hidden by those gloomy clouds, only shining just enough to light the world below.
So, as Lucien judged, the fact that — even while currently hidden by the thick clouds — the sun’s heat was harsh in this zerozone meant that people somewhere out there in the big cities, where clouds never hid the sun, must’ve had it worse. That was a relief.
Suddenly, Lucien blinked, letting out a soft, exhausted sigh.
’Is the heat getting to my head?’
The whole heat monologue was quite stupid, he admitted, but it was also strangely relieving to know that someone out there had it worse than him at this moment. Although it did alarm him to an extent that he was beginning to think like an actual zero, hating on people who lived their lives without any suffering in the big cities.
Shaking his head, he threw away that dirty thought. The thought seemed to have arisen from the remnant of the former Lucien.
Anyway, Lucien was currently sitting alone under the roof of a makeshift tent which he’d crafted from a couple of clothes in his backpack and some random wooden sticks he found lying on the road. The tent did little to block the furious morning heat, though.
And, well, Lucien wasn’t actually alone. There was a cute, black-haired kid curled up on the floor next to him, lying on clothes spread out on the ground for comfort. Mikky’s eyes were currently closed, chest rising and falling slowly in a gentle rhythm.
Glancing at the sleeping child, Lucien smiled. The sight of the comfortable, sleeping boy warmed his heart.
Honestly, the kid deserved some rest. After all, they’d both been walking for six hours straight with little to no time for proper rest.
Lucien looked away from Mikky, glancing at the day-illuminated environment surrounding their makeshift tent.
Empty. That was all it was. Empty. There were no buildings, no streets, no alleys, no shops... nothing. Just a stone-tar road that stretched, seeming infinite in its vastness, as if there was nothing in the direction where they’d come from, and nothing in the direction they were heading toward.
But Lucien knew better. After all, as he gazed in the direction where they’d come from, squinting his eyes properly, the far, almost imperceptible sight of familiar shoddy buildings became visible to him.
Sighing, he took his focus away from the distance, willing the system-map into existence.
The floating blue screen hovered in his field of vision, the map fully loaded.
Lucien smirked.
"That’s it," he whispered. "Halfway there now."
They weren’t far from the border between sector 5 and sector 4. In fact, they were just about half an hour away from there.
Which meant they were half an hour away from actual danger.
At first, Lucien had dreaded the thought of going on a long, possibly dangerous road trip without a vehicle, but then, as they eventually embarked on their journey, he realized that his initial wariness had been unfounded. While there were definitely more than a few vagrants on the roads, there weren’t any major threats. He hadn’t encountered any organized criminal movements, no gangs, not even the type of people he often saw in Old Man Darrell’s place.
But he did know that it would all change around the border as there was a—
He carefully surveyed the map, studying the landscape near the Sector 4 border.
—Small bustling area around there, kind of like a miniature city of some sort, where all kinds of criminals mixed.
Even those damn Prowlers were active around borders. And most of them were undercover. After all, smuggling and all other heavily illegal zero stuff occurred in those small border cities.
Not to mention, territorial wars between Sector 5 and Sector 4 gangs happened around the border...
Lucien massaged his forehead, grimacing.
Great. So, so great.
"What a nice place to bring a kid, Lucien," he whispered, groaning softly.
He waved the map off, breathing in deeply.
And he breathed out.
He had considered the danger of all these a lot earlier, of course. And the fact that he’d still chosen to embark on this journey with a child meant that he was confident in his ability to keep them both safe.
Well, why wouldn’t he be?
After all—
He suddenly grinned, folding his arms.
—Lucien had a plan.
Grrr–!
A rumbling sound echoed.
He blinked, feeling his stomach cry out in hunger.
Right. He hadn’t eaten since he had dinner yesterday evening. And it was currently—
He quickly glanced at his camo-watch.
—[10:56 am].
Lucien winced, glancing at the sleeping Mikky–
He was awake! Finally!
The boy was stretching while yawning softly as he glanced at Lucien, his white oversized t-shirt rumpling.
"Luci..."
Lucien cracked a nervous, anticipatory smile as his emerald eyes held onto Mikky’s wide, blue eyes.
"Yeah?"
Grrr–!
’Great.’
"I’m hungry."
’How great.’
Now they really had to get moving to the border to get some food.
But, as they both knew, Lucien was dead broke. He’d spent his last 24Units on dinner yesterday.
Which meant, as he had earlier planned, it was time to play thief.
And so he stood up, resolving himself.
And as he did so, Mikky mimicked him, standing up in a smooth motion while wearing a small, mischievous smile on his lips.
Although Lucien was quietly amused by the kid’s action, he ignored it, quickly scattering the tent and packing his backpack. He only hoped that the one-hour recharge had been enough for Michael.
And if it wasn’t... Well, at least the sweat on their clothes had dried off.
"So what now? Where are we going to find food, Luci?" Mikky asked, running circles around Lucien as he broke and scattered wooden sticks.
"You seem really excited for someone so hungry."
"Of course! Although I was a bit exhausted from the whole walking and walking and walking... but it’s the first time in a long time since we’ve left the house and gone anywhere together! And so..." Mikky stopped running. "Wait. Where exactly are we going?"
Lucien crouched, buckling his shoes as he chuckled.
"Adventure, remember?"
Mikky’s eyes immediately lit up, and he smiled, nodding frantically.
"YES! Adventure!" He spun a little, then stopped, mellowing slightly as he asked: "We aren’t going back home, are we?"
Lucien raised a brow.
"Perceptive, aren’t you?"
"Per– what?"
Lucien sighed, standing up straight.
"Nevermind kiddo." He ruffled Mikky’s hair, walking forward while adjusting his backpack. "I’ll explain everything later. Right now, we have to go find food."
"Yes." Michael nodded. "Understandable, my good teammate. But how?"
Lucien’s eyes widened, and he looked down at the short kid, whose glistening blue eyes seemed to sharpen.
There again. There it was... That faint whisper of something more... wise in the depth of the kid’s gaze.
Luci shrugged.
’Well, shit,’ he thought. ’Looks like I’m about to teach a kid how to...’
He smiled.
"You’ll see."
’...Thief.’
Grrr–!
As his stomach rumbled once more in hunger, Mikky clasped his palms, a praying gesture. The kid even closed his eyes.
"... Please let two plates of fried rice magically fall from the sky."
"..."
Flabbergasted, Lucien faced forward, summoning the map. And they began their march to the border.
