The city only got stranger as Karl made his way to the capital. Everything was an abstract mix of colors, no burnt-yellow wallpaper or muddy streets, everything was being cleaned and disinfected constantly by passing robots, scrubbing and sweeping away at the sidewalks. He realized his clothes looked very out of place in the desolate whiteness of the downtown streets. It would be best to hide his visage from the public, as they were most likely looking for him after he smashed up an information center. Karl wrapped his face with his tattered shirt and kept moving.
Karl wondered why there was such an absence of life in the downtown. It was only a few cars and a bystander in scarcity. It made him… sad? He never felt such an odd feeling at the absence of life. He used to just shove his way through the rabble of the streets, but he realized that life was much more precious than he could imagine. He couldn’t see very clearly through his torn-up shirt mask, but he didn’t really need to. There were no obstacles lining the sidewalks. No trash bags or litter on the sidewalk, no boxes or other miscellaneous items were seen at all. Karl felt concern for the state of society without Communism.
“Have you seen this man? News at 10.” Emanated from a screen on the side of a building. He assumed the man mentioned was him, as he left quite a few witnesses at the information center. He had to hurry his way to the capital. He needed to find this “Trudeau.”
“Hey, buddy, going anywhere?” Two men in a flying streetcar started slowly following Karl. Karl turned around, and noticed the men were in some sort of police garb, with their car being labelled DPD and bearing sirens.
“I am on my way to the capital.”
“That’s nice, mind telling us where you were about… 30 minutes ago?
“I was walking.” Karl observed the officers exiting their vehicles, seeing their outfits a bit clearer. They seemed to be wearing some sort of thin skeleton-like armor that made odd gyrating movements to conform to the men. Their helmets covered their faces, and they had very heavy body armor. Karl was surprised to see them moving with such ease in their heavy metallic shells.
“We’re going to have to detain you on the basis that you match our description. If you are innocent of the attack at the information center, you’ll be fine and released very soon.” They both pull sleek bolt-operated rifles from their back, like a holster. They seemed set for a cartridge similar to the robots that attacked Karl.
“Please put these on and come with us.” One of the men tosses a set of metal cuffs to Karl while they aim their rifles at him. The men were visibly uncomfortable, even Karl’s size intimidated policemen in full body armor. Karl stood ominously, ready to grapple with the cops.
“Please sir. You have 10 seconds to put on the cuffs.” One of the officers audibly gulps in fear, the other readjusts their aim in discomfort.
“I move for no man.” Karl strides towards the officers with malicious intent, ready to break limbs of these men. The officers yelled for him to stop, but Karl didn’t care. Karl grabbed one of the officers by the helmet and curb-stomped his kneecap, twisting his leg into unimaginable positions. Karl’s attacks burst clean through the officer’s armor. The first officer screamed in pain, while the second tried to immobilize Karl with his rifle. With each shot to Karl’s sides, the bullets kept bouncing off, there was nothing the officer could do to save his partner. Karl threw the now unconscious man at the second officer, knocking his gun away. Karl delivered a flurry of punches to the second officer, breaking half of his ribs, each punch reminding him of the mugger from Trier. Karl turned away, the officer thinking that he showed mercy. That was a ruse rather, as Karl sent the police officer through the white concrete wall with a single roundhouse kick, causing an incredible amount of dust to rise.
“The spirit of Communism is not held back by your inferior law, pig,” Karl remarked.
After all was said and done, Karl took the car keys and drove off with the squad car. The controls were remarkably similar to the old streetcars back in Trier, so it was rather easy to get moving. He couldn’t recognize any of the buttons on the dashboard though, so he just left it alone for the time being. The map was still open on the woman’s phone, so he knew he was almost there. This “Trudeau” would face justice for defacing Communism.
To be continued.
