Welcome to Astral!

Once inside the car, the controller glared at Charlot with a furious look:" You! Boy! You are in serious trouble! Where are living your parents?" asked the controller.

When he heard this word, Charlot lost his calm and began to cry:" I don't have parents anymore!!! Never!".

The controller calmed him down and said:" What I'm going to do with you?" he sighed.

"You are going to sit down there and wait for me, I'm going to check the tickets of the other passengers, I will come back in two minutes. You should not think to escape! There is nowhere to go in this train so don't try my patience!".

Charlot waited half an hour begore the controller came back. He was completely lost in the thought of his two parents. They were farmer and they loved him. Charlot was scared to forget them, he already had problems remembering the voice of his father's voice.

The controller waked up Charlot and said: "So, I thought about you. Once we arrive at the station, I will call the authority. They will come and take you to the orphanage. You will see, once there everything will be okay. But you need to change your attitude and listen to the grand person. If you continue to steal, you will finish in the downtown of Astral where all the worst monsters of the city live. I heard that a monster who eats humans lived over there… Yes, so you'd better become a good citizen and make proud your parents who are looking for you from the sky."

The last part of the journey continued with a lasting silent. Charlot was amazed by the view. While he was watching the view, Charlot was observing different house that crossed his gaze. After a turn, the city of Astral stretched under the little boy's ingenuous eye.

Charlot was shocked by the city. It was immense and more impressive than in his wildest dream.

When you looked at Astral from faraway, the hightown was the thing that captured the attention. Located on a hill, it casted a shade over the rest of the city. All the nobles of Astral were living in this part of the capital and, at the center of the city, the congress was taking all the decision on the future of Astral in the Capitol.

The Capitol was the hugest building of the entire city. Its huge gold dome was illuminating the entire city. The Capitol was the representation of the power of the congress.

The congress was composed of a hundred member elected by the nobles. This people were voting the law but in top of this congress, five person who represented the different factions in the city were leading the congress. The five leaders were the one who really controlled the city from top to the bottom. But Charlot couldn't understand this notion and for him the Capitol was just a huge and beautiful building. He was even proud of the power of his country.

Soon after, the train entered in the town, letting place to large white stone buildings that had become grey due to the permanent and invasive pollution. Charlot had just arrived at Astral.

The station was situated between the hightown and the downtown. The authorities were everywhere in the station to preserve this hub symbol of the flourishing economy of Astral. The controller took Charlot's hand and went toward the station authority. He knew one of the guards who was assigned at this station authority but today this guard wasn't there. At his place, two guard were here.

"Hi! I caught an orphan. This boy is a real hothead! He was on top of the train and ran on the roof whereas the train was traveling! So can I leave the boy to you?" asked the controller.

One of the guards hurried to answer: " Euh, yes, it's not a problem. We are just going to do a round so we will put him in jail and bring him to orphanage after." Charlot saw that the guard seemed in a hurry. The controller felt it and it's why he gave Charlot's hand and left immediately.

Charlot thought that now he needed a way to leave this guard and escape the jail to begin his adventure in this new city. In fact, the situation was pretty good. He arrived where he wanted to go but he couldn't go to the orphanage, or it would be a sort of defeat for him. He had left the orphanage to start an adventure and if just after he had left, he finished in another orphanage, it's like his adventure had never started. He didn't care how but he would never enter again in an orphanage.

"Chief, we need to go!" one of the guards, the younger, said this to the taller one.

The chief as he called, had a cicatrice on his visage who showed that he was a warrior. His face wasn't ordinary. He has straight eyebrows, and deep blue eye. At first, when Charlot looked him in the eye, he had the impression to be naked before this person and that he couldn't hide anything from him. But after, he felt that inside the eye a black thing that would bring terror to the world was living. For one instant, he felt that this black thing would devour and kill him. Charlot felt that he would lose his conscience in the next second if nothing happened. When the chief blinked his eye, everything felt like it was just a dream. Charlot was relived but he saw the chief frowned for a little instant. "Did something happen? ", wondered Charlot inside his head.

"We are going! The boy, you follow me. We take him with us!" said the chief.

"What! Chief! Are you sure? Why are we taking him?" said the young guard.

"Obey my order and shut up Joe." Replied the chief.

The chief came close to the ear of Charlot and said:" if you cry or make anything that could bring attention… I kill you." said slowly the chief.

Charlot has already seen the death during the plague, but he couldn't do anything against the plague and the plague was a slow walk toward the death. Here, the threat of the death was present before him in the personalization of the chief. He was scared by this man, but he had seen too much to be completely paralyzed by the fear. So Charlot just gulped and took all his courage to concentrate on the present situation. Fear wouldn't rule him. Even, if he was alone in this new city that he knew nothing about, that he was with a scarry man, that nobody cared about him, Charlot would face all the new challenges. It was what he called adventure.

Joe and the chief went toward the dock number 13. Charlot was running behind them to keep the speed. Charlot couldn't stop to think about what this two people tried to accomplish here and what were their objective.

Two minutes later, they arrived in front of the dock number 13. There wasn't a train for the moment but a board showed that a train would arrive in four minutes.

The waiting felt like it would never end. The two men felt totally concentrated on their future work while Charlot couldn't feel comfortable and was moving in all the sense.

Finally, the train entered in the station, announcing itself with its famous whistle and bringing a flood of smoke that will invade the station warning passers-by of the arrival of a new capharnaum.

The closest wagons to the locomotive were the wagons for the second class. So, the people who could be important were in the back of the train and would arrive after the crowd. Joe and the chief were examining closely all the passengers.

Suddenly, a man dressed in a long brown cloak, covered in a triangular hat slightly hiding his face and carrying a black briefcase suddenly stopped.

The chief rushed straight towards the man with the long coat, he took out a knife from the bottom of his jacket and threw it directly at the man's throat. The man avoided it by jumping to the side and stopped the knife with his briefcase. But the chief pressed on him with a second knife which he had taken out with his other hand. Taking him to his blind spot, the chief stabbed his knife in the man's belly and then chained it with a right hook and finished him with a circular low kick to make the man fall. All these actions had been executed within seconds. The chief had a formidable efficiency.

"Joe, take the briefcase." Commanded the chief to Joe. Joe ran to take the black briefcase and came back to the side of the chief. Panic had invaded the station. The passengers all ran away from the scene. The hysteric cry from the crowd alerted the authorities who directly ran toward the dock.

The chief took the hand of Charlot and began to run to escape the authorities.