text: John scurried around his room, throwing things from his closet onto his bed “where the fuck is it!?” he asked himself. His mom called from downstairs “Johhny sweetie what are you doing?” she asked “N-nothing mom! Just... gonna go hang out with my friends. I am looking for something...” he waited for a second. “Um... ok honey just be careful”. John sighed “yea, I’m not going right now, but I have to walk through the kitchen to get to the door so... you’ll know!” he said finding his duffle bag he was looking for. He threw it to the side and packed food and water into the bag. He looked at the pistol laid out on the ground and the pack of bullets with it “it’s an antique” he thought “do I really wanna use it as self-defense?” he shook his head “of course I do. The police have protections against light beams. These things will go right through them.” he threw the revolver into the bag and covered it with the food. He smiled a little bit of an evil smile. He found an airsoft mask. A metal mesh face mask and tinted goggles he threw them in the bag too and slung it over his shoulder. He walked past his mom and gave a little wave before quickly getting to the door. He sighed and got a little choked up before putting the mask on and his earbuds in. The older music was hard to find and frowned upon to listen to. Anything the government frowned upon John was all for. He walked across the street and into the park. He reached into his pocket grabbing out a fist full of coin. “Ok... that’s just enough for one meal along the way and a one way trip to the freight district,” he said walking to the kiosk in the middle of the park. He slipped two coins in the kiosk and waited “Please State Destination” a robotic voice said. John nodded “the freight district please,” he said. The screen loaded for a few seconds “please display a worker ID to be sent to the freight District” John’s heart sank “um... alterer motive” he said, he never had to use this command before and this was not a time he wanted to try but there was no other option. There was a static noise and he was connected to a person “hello sir, it says here you stated alterer motive after being prompted for a worker ID.” a woman asked “yea, that’s about right, I don’t have an ID cause I don’t work there yet, I want to go apply” he said as instantly thousands of better lies flooded his mind. The lady paused for a moment “ok, I’ll transfer you through, sorry for the inconvenience” John sighed and waited until he was teleported to the freight district. He looked at the teleportation kiosk and looked at the train about to leave. He grabbed a metal pipe and smashed the kiosk screen in. he then ran looking at the pit the floating trains were suspended over. He jumped onto one of them slipping and barely catching himself from falling into the twenty-story deep pit “ok!” he called out jumping to the next and almost dropping his bag “ok... one more” he said jumping the last gap and quickly onto the train. He let out a long sigh and climbed into a neer empty freight. He landed onto a pile of raw metal ore. He grabbed his back and writhed a little “OUCH!” he called out before clamping his hand over the mask. He waited in anticipation for something to happen before relaxing again he set up a camera on the pile of ore as the train started “hey! If you are seeing this... either they are making a documentary about me, I am dead or... both. And if the police hadn’t vaporized my body and possessions on sight.” he pulled a necklace out of his shirt “I want my mom to have this. It was my dad’s he was killed by the damned corrupted system we live in. I was named after him actually. Our names are the exact same. I’ll tell his story later. Just... see ya” he said flipping off the camera and putting it in his bag. He sat back and went to sleep. He was awoken to the train docking at a landlocked stopping point, this was rare. John looked up seeing a police drone over him. He reached into his bag and grabbed the pistol aiming to the top of the container. A policeman jumped in and was shot by John without hesitation. John sat shaking “I’m not getting out of the country” he cried to himself “nope” he heard a policeman say from behind him John shot that one too, grazing his cheek and breaking his heads up display but not hurting him worse than that. The cop brought his hand to his cheek and swore “you fucking kids are too ambitious.” he said picking up John and throwing him over the side of the container and onto the grass. John coughed and readied his pistol “please! I just wanted to spend my sixteenth birthday in a country that won’t immediately feed me to the bears!” he shattered another’s heads up display and was shot through the shoulder with a light canon “sorry kid... but you’re not the god damned resistance” the cop shot. John cried and saw the cop bringing a vaporizer to him. John threw the gun as if it was on fire putting his hands in the air “Look! Vaporize me then! But give my mom this!” he broke the clasp on his necklace and threw it into the grass. The cop with the vaporizer scoffed and kicked the necklace into the pit that the Freight traveled over “NO!” John shouted collapsing in tears. He sobbed and didn’t resist as the man placed the device on his back and pressed the button. The device fell to the ground.