Part 1
Part 3
Part 4
Finale

"No."

"Whaddaya mean no?"

"I told you Flint, no. I'm not going down there to help with a wedding, I don't care which world leaders are involved. I've had it. I'm out of here."

With that I heft my pack onto my shoulders and head for the airlock. I am done being a team player, done with getting the crap kicked out of me. It's time I started looking out for number one. As the airlock cycles and I drop out I see them all in the window, shock etched clearly on their faces. No one has ever quit the Society. I fire up my rocket pack and skim the atmosphere to scrub off some speed before I begin the spiral descent to the east coast, home. The massive roadways that have sprung up over the last two decades can be seen from a hundred kilometers in the sky. They look like something an angry cartographer might do when told his work is shit. Massive straight lines cutting across graceful curves and contours.

---

"What?! I was evicted?!"

"Yes, you didn‘t pay the rent for the last two months."

"I was busy fighting to keep people like you safe and..."

"All of your possessions were sold and your bills were paid out of that."

"Geez, can I catch a break around here?"

"Well, there was some money left over. Let me see..." The manager rummages around in a drawer overflowing with files and envelopes. "Aha, here it is. Sign this and you are all set." I walk out the door while tearing open the envelope. Four dollars and fifty-seven cents spill out into my palm.

"Shit, barely enough for a dozen donuts, not even enough for a lousy six pack." I begin to go through the whole scenario in my head, when a kid runs by swiping the money from my hand and ditching down an alley.

"That's IT!" I bellow, my body transforming as I turn the corner in chase. The alley is dark, like most of them are in the city and my eyes aren't quite adjusted when.

CLANG! Something hits be from behind. Something metal, wielded by someone not so smart. I turn to face my opponents, a couple of street thugs with aluminum baseball bats and I chuckle, don't they know what I am?

"You boys picked the wrong day to mess with the wrong person." Too bad for them they're too stupid to be afraid and come at me simultaneously. I grab the bat away from the one on the left which throws him off balance. As I swing the bat he lifts off the ground, every single rib cracks like dry twigs. Before he even hits the ground the second thug swings at me catching me in the ribs. CLANG! I slam my arm down over the bat pinning it to me and, with my other arm, crush his skull like a melon.

That’s when a shot rings out and I stumble forward from the impact. When I regain my balance I swing around to see the kid, no more than fourteen, aiming a gun at me. He cocks the hammer as if to take another shot, the four dollars hanging out of his front pocket. I get my hand up to the front of the barrel just as the hammer falls. The gasses in the barrel, having nowhere else to go, shatter the chamber sending shrapnel into the kids face. He drops the gun screaming as he falls to his knees in front of me. I can tell he's in extreme pain, but it doesn't matter. I rear back with my foot and end his suffering, forever.

---

My actions don't sink in immediately. My mind is still upside down in my head. Everything is a blur. It takes til around the third or fourth drink, purchased with stolen money. Money stolen from those who stole it in the first place, before I realize what I have become. I smile at myself in the mirror and tip up my mug emptying the sweetest tasting beer of my life into my mouth.