Randomers

by Alexis Dogman

  After about a minute, Yuna comes out in a pair of long black pants, grey hooded jacket and the same glasses over her eyes. Seeing Yuna out, Kaew gets up and they both exit the coffee shop.

  As Yuna pushes the glass door open she says to Kaew, "I nearly got killed."

  "Welcome to club," Kaew smiles back at her through the nerdy glasses.

  "How did you know he will fall for the flirting thing?" Yuna asks as they walk over to the white scooter waiting just before the coffee shop.

  "I no horny man when I see horny man," Kaew replies as they put on their full face helmets.

  Ada watches the silent clip and manages to catch a glimpse of the scooter's registration - WAY 1289. She calls the same function and again a series of videos that has detected the whereabouts of WAY 1289 is downloaded onto her supercomputer. By slowly piecing all the information together, she finally locates their lair - the five stories high low cost flat.

  This is going to be their end.

  Chapter 33

  Malaysia: Tuesday, 18th November 3:32 p.m.

  The wind is howling like a lost wolf crying for its pack as the heavy droplets of rain hit the ground like a meteor shower. The roaring thunder and giant streaks of lightning against the gray sky seem to shake even the cement buildings. While everyone tries to seek shelter indoors, the shadow of a man in a dark brown raincoat is seen struggling against the heavy droplets hitting his face, forcefully and hastily trying to make his way down the street. The legs of his jeans and the sneakers on his feet are drenched with rain and he pants, trudging through the rain towards an unknown destination. The GPS direction being read to him through the receiver chip behind his ear tells him exactly which way to go. But only he can hear the voice. To the rest of us the world is silent with nothing but the pitter-patter of the heavy rain. The chip transmits messages to Zach through vibrations that is translated by the bones of his ears as speech.

  Zach has no idea where it is leading him or when his journey ends. He just knows that he is to walk at all times. No other mode of transportation is permitted. That was the first instruction given to him half an hour ago. Zach has been walking for so long under the blurring rain that he has lost all sense of direction.

  Just when he thinks that the journey is never coming to an end, the computerized woman's voice instructs him to halt his footsteps and cross the road. He starts to cross the road and halfway through the silent street of tall office blocks, the voice reads his next instructions.

  Stop here. Do not move until further instructions.

  Zach stands in the middle of the road like a ghost under the rain as an Indian man in a white shirt and black suit holding a brown briefcase in one hand and large, blue umbrella in the other hand watches him with awe from across the street. The Indian man hurrying off to court is out waiting for his ride. His new European sedan has somehow been stolen. Under the blurring curtains of rainfall, none of them can see each other's features clearly.

  In the midst of their stare-off, the roaring of an engine can be heard rumbling through the rain. It is racing towards Zach's direction from around the corner. Zach immediately lifts his feet to run off but the chip gives out an instruction before he can do so.

  Do not move until further instructions. Do not move until further instructions. Do not move until further instructions...

  The woman's voice keeps repeating the instructions. Zach's knees weaken as he sees the silhouette of a red car zooming towards him at high speed. He is going to die. Staring death in his face, the instructions become louder and louder. Zach closes his eyes tightly as the Indian man screams at him to move.

  Despite everything, Zach holds his post like a palace guard on duty and in a split of a second, loud screeching of tires followed by a deafening crash that shakes even the ground is heard. The car has crashed into the cement wall of a building. The smell of smoke fills the air as blood starts to pour down the curb, only to be immediately washed away by the pouring rain. Startled by the tremor and noise from the impact, tenants of the surrounding office blocks begin gathering around the windows to stare down at the street.

  Turn around and run now.

  The voice in his ear further instructs. Zach is spared. He is not dead. He opens his eyes and to his horror, the Indian man is squashed into the wall of the building, dead. His body is broken into two halves, the papers from his briefcase strewn all over the ground and some swept up by the wind. In his effort to avoid Zach, the driver has swerved his vehicle off course but the road is just too slippery. Jamming hard on the brakes, the vehicle goes out of control and veers up the curb. Before the Indian lawyer could comprehend the situation, the red car has rammed him into the wall like a squashed bug. It is a beautifully planned murder, executed without flaw behind the smokescreen of a freak accident.

  Turn around and run now.

  The voice instructs again and Zach shakily succumbs. He turns his heels and runs frantically, sobbing silent cries as he runs off before anyone in the surrounding buildings can catch a clear glimpse at the mysterious man who is standing in the middle of the road.

  Zach has completed his first task and finished what Mei had left undone. The Indian man she was supposed to kill before she took her own life is now dead. Neither of these two randomers know the identity of their victim - a famous lawyer representing a political figure who is about to run for election. With this Indian lawyer dead, the MAP or main action plan is one step closer to its desired outcome.

  Zach continues to run, deep inside him wishing that he can run away from this brutal and preposterous world. After about five hundred meters, his next instruction is read out to him.

  Stop here. Go to the taxi stand on your right. Take off your raincoat and throw it into the dustbin.

  Zach obediently does so.

  A taxi will be here in five seconds. Go back to the hotel immediately.

  The voice further instructs and before he knows it, a red and white budget taxi has stopped for him.

  Zach climbs in as instructed and as the budget taxi starts to drive off, the voice speaks again through his chip.

  Congratulations, you have completed your first task. Two more to go and you will be free.

  Zach can only hang his head low in sorrow and guilt. Two more?? This is horrible enough. God knows what they will make him do next.

  Like dust in the wind, all traces of the mysterious man are swept clean by the rain. He will never be found ever again.

  Chapter 34

  Malaysia: Wednesday, 19th November 2:04 a.m.

  In the dead of the night while almost everyone is asleep, a yellow super-bike softly rumbles into the compound of the low cost flat and circles the blocks like a hungry shark in a dark ocean.

  The rider is hunting for a white scooter with the registration WAY 1289. During his first round, he doesn't locate anything. Then he circles the compound again and amongst the densely parked motorcycles in the covered ground floor parking area of block B he spots a motorcycle that is covered with a gray plastic cloth.

  Instinctively, the biker halts and alights from his super-bike and with heavy steps of his black leather boots, marches towards the covered motor vehicle. Still wearing his full-faced helmet, the gray jacket rider pulls the gray cloth off and finds what he is looking for - the white scooter.

  The lurker takes his full faced helmet off, puts it onto the back of his super-bike and immediately starts his march up the dark and chipped cement staircase by the side of the building.

  The stairwell is dusty and the white walls stained with moss. The greenish paint of the metal handrail has been smoothly stripped from its place by the thousands of rubbing it receives everyday, leaving the bare brown surface to rust in the air.

  The lurker, Chin, climbs up the five flights of staircases in just one breath and steadily walks through a set of opened beige wooden door that leads into a dimly lit corridor. He already knows which unit they are staying in - the corner most.

  Chin reaches the padlocked grill doo
r and from the gap at the bottom of the inner wooden door he is sure the lights are off. They must be asleep. He continues to examine the padlock and with his right hand, he takes a special knife with jagged edges out from its holder hanging behind the back of his waist.

  This is not just any knife. Its blade is made from a material invented by the Hive called Tanetun and it has a higher melting point than any other metal in the world. At the bottom of the knife's handle, level with the pommeau is a depressed button and by pressing it, a high voltage is generated within the blade to emit such heat on the blade's surface that it will slice through any metal with just one smooth cut. It is also a deadly weapon, burning any flesh that it would cut through.

  Chin presses the depressed button and in one smooth cut, slices the shackle of the padlock into two. He quietly takes the lock off and enters into the tiny and dusty anteroom before the wooden front door. Chin tries the knob and surprisingly enough it is not locked. This is too easy. No fugitives ever leave their doors unlocked.

  Chin slips the knife back into its holder and pulls the gun out instead. He opens the door slowly and enters, closing the door after himself.

  The living room is pitch dark and quiet but his digital contact lenses have automatically switched to night vision mode allowing him to see everything clearly. There is light coming from the gap beneath the door of the first bedroom. Chin quietly moves towards the door and puts his left hand onto the knob. It can't be that easy. His gut tells him something is not right.

  Ready to shoot, he swings the door open wide and clears the room. Staring back at him is nothing but an empty room with a paper pasted on the wall teasing him, 'Follow the love'.

  Chin looks down onto the floor and sees hearts drawn with pink chalk onto the cement floor leading him back out into the living room. Chin knows they have left the flat and that the bitches are only playing him. Feeling angry and frustrated he sends a heavy kick into the door, crushing a hole into the thin plywood. Chin marches out of the room, his boots ringing onto the cement floor heavily as he turns the lights to the flat on to see where the hearts lead to. Like a dotted line, it leads towards the window in the living room and up onto the wall.

  Chin can smell a trap but he is determined to see what games they are playing. Chin stomps towards the opened window and looks down into the street.

  From across the building, a woman's voice excitedly cries, "Mouse in trap!" It is Kaew and she is looking through the binoculars through a gap between the heavy curtains as she jumps excitedly in the dark.

  "Here goes," Yuna whispers to herself before taking in a deep breath. She aims through the scope of the rifle and pulls the trigger.

  Pffttt!

  The bullet speeds through the crisp, cold air, bending from its course as slight wind blows and finally hits the wall next to the window sill sending cement chips flying like stray bullets at Chin. Chin immediately ducks as he shields his head with his arms.

  "Yu miss!" Kaew grunts at Yuna.

  "You think it's so easy??" Yuna retaliates as she takes another aim through the scope of the gun. The moment Chin sticks his head out to fire a shot back at them, she pulls the trigger. This time, with the wind gone her shot is good, missing his face by just an inch. Chin's random shot goes no where near them. But from his projection of their shots, he knows they must be in the unit directly facing this one. Chin tries shooting again and this time before Yuna can fire a shot he sends a bullet straight at them, missing Kaew's shoulder by mere millimeters.

  "Ahh!!" Kaew shouts and jumps away from the window, "I nearly die! I nearly die!"

  Yuna quickly resumes her position after ducking for safety. Aiming at the window, she pulls the trigger repeatedly, firing a string of wild shots at Chin. Chin slips back behind the wall and without looking, fires back at Yuna. His shots are far better than hers, so accurate even without looking that it nearly hit her. Kaew on the other hand has gathered their things and left the unit, preparing for stage two as Yuna returns a series of shots, trying to keep Chin busy.

  Chin, watching the bullets shoot randomly into the tiny living room decides it is enough of playtime from these two idiotic women and sprints towards the front door.

  Yuna, seeing him dart out tries her best to shoot at him but misses with every single shot. Chin makes it to the door and like a tiger springs towards the stairs. He is going to kill them right there and then.

  "Shit!" Yuna curses as she sees the killer having successfully made it to the door. She immediately puts her rifle into a bag and runs out of her unit as well. She has to be faster than him or she is nothing but a dead body in seconds. She knows she is no match for him when it comes to a face to face duel.

  Yuna dashes down the stairs but half way down she can hear heavy footsteps storming up from downstairs. Yuna sticks her head outside the hand rails and looks down the stairwell from the fourth floor. She sees what she hopes not most - the killer staring back at her from the first floor.

  Yuna turns around and runs back into the corridor with the killer now only floors away from her. She runs towards the staircase at the other end and when she is about to go down, she halts her steps and instead, she runs up.

  Chin reaches the fourth floor to see the corridor quiet and clear. Instinctively he runs towards the staircase at the other end and peeks down the stairwell. There is nobody. He looks up and there is nobody as well. Chin is about to run down the stairs when a voice interrupts him in his ear piece.

  "No. Go up," a woman's voice instructs.

  "There's no escape if she goes up," Chin argues. He hates it when the ghost from the Hive interferes. He hasn't requested for visual assistance from the Hive but with those cursed lenses he is wearing, the Hive can watch the live feed at anytime and interfere when they deem fit, which is what is happening now.

  "She is smarter than you think. Go up," the ghost instructs. Chin has no choice. When it comes to authority, the assigned ghost has a higher level of decision making and the lurker is compelled to comply.

  Chin reluctantly runs up the stairs. He reaches the fifth floor and the ghost immediately instructs, "Go up."

  Chin runs up another level to the roof and the moment he reaches, he sees the door already opened. Chin is frustrated knowing that the ghost might just be right again. With his gun in his hands, he prepares to clear the entrance and the roof.

  Ada watches through the lurker's lenses as he clears onto the flat cement roof that has a huge metal water tank. Chin clears the whole area of the roof and Ada continues to instruct, "Check inside the water tank."

  Chin heeds the instructions and climbs up the metal side ladder. Looking through the night vision mode of Chin's lenses, Ada sees that the inside of the pitch dark, water-filled tank is nothing but water. She is disappointed that she is wrong and that the lurker is right. She overestimated the women.

  As he is descending from the ladder, the rumble of a motorcycle echoes through the still early morning air. Chin immediately goes over to the edge of the building and stares down. It is the women, rapidly racing off on their white scooter and as they drive off, Kaew, who is seated on the pillion seat, turns back and gives Chin the middle finger, letting out a laugh of excitement. Chin takes one final aim at the scooter and pulls the trigger of his gun.

  Pffttt.

  The bullet misses the moving target by two inches and scrapes a hole into the tar road.

  "Abort mission," Ada finally instructs her lurker, her voice lost of energy. She has lost yet again. With full faced helmets on, auto facial detection won't work. Tracing them through manual video search will take too long a time. She will just have to plan another ambush on them and this time a fool-proof one with no escape possibility.

  "The mission was over the moment you interrupted," Chin snaps sharply and turns back angrily around into the stairwell before stomping down the stairs.

  Chin climbs down the stairs and puts his full faced helmet on before climbing up his super-bike and speeding off. What he doesn't notice is
that something is stuck with black duct tape to the inside of the back mudguard of his super-bike. Kaew has indeed done an excellent job.

  As the two women ride away to safety, Kaew pulls her visor up and shouts Yuna a question, "Why yu so long? I thought yu die oledi."

  Yuna pulls up her visor and shouts a reply, "He nearly got to me but I got lucky."

  MOMENTS AGO

  Yuna races towards the other end of the fourth floor corridor and dashes through the beige double doors into the stairwell. Instead of going down, she sprints up the stairs to the fifth floor hoping that the killer will go the other direction. When she reaches the fifth floor she hesitates for half a second. Going up is as dead as it can get. That's when she decides to make haste for the other staircase again.