The room was dark but cool. If the blindfolded children could look around, they would notice that they were locked up in an old warehouse filled with boxes, which were themselves filled with computer chips waiting to be recycled.
Gaku, who had just turned 12, had actually been awake for the past 30 minutes but had chosen to continue to act as he was knocked out. He had been on guard duty for the Yoyogi Park International Tent Village, otherwise known as YANKEE PAPA, earlier in the night. Or, at least he thought it was earlier in the night. Gaku had no idea how long he had been put out. For all he knew he could have been out for days. All he could remember was being hit by something in his solar plexus and having his wind knocked out of him before a masked man in a military uniform covered his mouth with a damp cloth.
The next thing he remembered was the sound of a screaming child, most likely someone from YANKEE PAPA. The scream was muffled, and right after that, Gaku heard the voice of an adult male yelling, "Shut the kid up!"
It did not take long for Gaku to decide to pretend to be asleep, listen, and learn.
It must have been 15 or 20 minutes later that Gaku heard a door open and several people jumping to their feet.
"Report!" A gruff voice echoed through the room.
"Yes Sir! 781 subjects have been collected from the targeted location. Roughly 400 of the subjects seem to be over the age of 10, but it is hard to tell with some of them."
"Casualties?" The gruff voice continued with his questions.
"None, Sir! The team encountered a few curious bystanders, but all of them have been dealt with accordingly. A few of the younger subjects did not make the trip, but the number is well within the acceptable ratio." The voice replied.
"Ok. Clear the room and gas them up again. Once gassed up, load them up in the trucks. ETD is 0230."
"Yes, Sir" Gaku could hear several men reply as they snapped to attention.
It was 5 minutes later that he lost his consciousness again.
'Wh... where am I?'
All Hideki could remember was being stirred from his sleep just to notice smoke filling his tent and the fragrance of lavender before he fell back into a deep sleep.
Instinctively Hideki jumped awake and looked around, only to find that he was on a cot in a small room, with a man who he didn't recognize reading a report.
"Ah, you are awake." The man, who looked like he was in his mid-20s looked up and smiled.
Hideki was in a panic. This was definitely not the tent he fell asleep in, and he had no idea who the man in the room was. Hideki quickly looked down to take a look at his arms and legs and was relieved to see that he was not restrained. What was more shocking, is that he realized that he no longer had a collar. His hands shot up to his neck to feel for the metal object that was no longer there.
Quickly pulling himself together, Hideki turned to the man.
"Who are you? And where am I? What happened to the tent village?"
The man put his tablet on top of the bedside table before he clapped his hands as if he was congratulating Hideki.
"Not bad. I guess they got the intel right this time." The man grinned. "My name is Hibino Sora, a second lieutenant of the Shadow Force NightHawks, oh, and just in case you are curious, I specialize in black ops."
YOU ARE READING
2067 the equilibrium
Science FictionIt has been 42 years since an earthquake destroyed the city formerly known as Tokyo. It has also been 42 years since the beginning of the end of the world as we had known. It wasn't one big incident that took the world down, it was just a chain reac...
