8 Midland Park (Part 1)

Alex and company left from the gym and several hours later they reached the train station.

The train station was located at the center of the Marble lake city. Although the city was built around the lake on which it was named, the place which was called the city center was the busiest place of the city, the place where the train station was located.

The Marble lake city's center was also a transportation hub which had a train station, bus depot, metro junction which reached out every part of the city. From the city center, one can go to every part of the city to venture. And due to this, it was named as the city center.

This is the place where the gym was originally started. But, due to the lack of students and also the lack of interest among the people for this old martial arts practices.

They also feared the fatality rate of such martial arts due to the use of sharp weapons like swords and sabers although they used wooden weapons during training, they were still horrified. So, they had to shift to the remote parts of the city because they were not able to afford the rent required for the gym.

All types of exquisite shops were situated in the city center which was also the reason that it was always so busy. This place was slightly elevated from the normal terrain of the city. People often waited here to see the beauty of the entire city. Almost all the parts of the city were visible along with the humongous lake in the middle.

Alex and company came to the station by walking from the gym. They could have taken a metro to reach the center which was just a couple of stations from the station near to the gym. But they came by foot reliving all of there memories from two years back.

They mocked each other when they remembered some events which embarrassed the other before and laughed out loud. They didn't care about the people who looked at them whwn they laughed loudly.

They enjoyed their walk and admired the view of the lake. Now they were in the town center.

...

The town center was filled with all kinds of products, people, transport services, offices, etc. And due to all this, there were also opportunities for people to break out in fights. In order to maintain discipline, there were guards stationed everywhere.

They were stationed to protect people from burglary, stop nonsense fightings, carrying illegal weapons which could be used to harm others. Although weapons were not prohibited to be carried the individual carrying the weapon needed an appropriate license.

Alex, Tom, and others reached the city center of the Marble lake city, and they were suddenly noticed by the guards because they were carrying swords which can be seen by everyone. The guards asked them to show their license.

When the middle-aged man gave them the weapons, he knew of the rules of the city regarding weapons and according to that he had already given them the corresponding licenses of their weapons so they won't be questioned.

The guards were satisfied with their licenses and also surprised at the same time and one of them couldn't suppress his question and asked, "How come you all are carrying swords, no one uses swords in this generation. Everyone likes long range weapons like guns."

"Well, we studied swords out of curiosity and now it is part of our lives...", Alex answered sincerely without any delay.

After that, they started walking towards the train station, along the way they saw the shop where their gym used to be. They simply sighed and moved on as they can't change that.

They entered the station, as usual, they had to go through a lot of checkings than normal people because they were carrying weapons.

After all this, they looked at each other and said goodbyes to each other and headed to the platforms from where they will board their trains. Alex was the first to leave, while others left after some time on the same night. Their get together was over, now headed to their own respective cities where they resided now.

Alex lived in a city named "Midland Park". The Marble Lake City was situated in the far east of the country and Midland Park was approximately five thousand kilometres away to the west from the Marble Lake city. It was also a large city, but compared to Marble Lake City, Midland Park was thrice in size and nearly five times the population.

Midland Park was rich in all kinds of resources, be it food, security, jobs, etc. The reason Alex's family moved to Midland Park was that the company in his father worked was opening a new branch in Midland Park on a large scale which required large number of employees to work there. And it also had all kinds of benefits.

Alex's father was a researcher in the field of science and technology for the company. And he had the position of manager. He was well respected in his office.

The company needed employees in the fields of research and development and analysis teams on a large scale. They took up on a project to help in the research on the international level on the very profound topic of the human brain.

There were researchers from all around the world and it was going on from the last two years. There was a huge research facility was developed a two hundred kilometres away to the north of the city for this research. It took a lot of space as well. It was covering almost the space of twenty square kilometres. It was huge. All kinds of researchs were going on simultaneously on different topics.

It was far from the city to prevent any kind of disorders or avoid any kind of mishaps from happening.

And it was also safe being away from the city with no disturbances. And it was also considered that the research will go smoothly. When it came to transportation, people regarding the facility like cleaning department, researchers, management team were brought into the facility by the government.

The research facility was also protected by the "International Research Council" which was the official international committee of research and development in the fields of technology, medical science, nature, etc.

The research facility was the place where the researchers worked all the time, but the partner companies helping the facility like the company in which Alex's father worked were located in the city. Those companies had huge buildings and they were the IT clusters of the city providing all sorts of technical solutions.

The company in which Alex's father worked was also a partner company which was working with the International Research Council on the project and it is working actively from last two years. The work they provide was the analysis and analytics of the data collected from the lab. It also provided the service of documentation of the research.

Obviously, such a huge research facility will also have critics on the topics of their research. Not all the critics were concerned about the consequences of the research but there were plenty who just raised questions due to political reasons.

This facility was powered by the government, so the opposition were always on the lookout for something or some reason to throw the government off balance. They were looking for such opportunities very actively.

...

Alex Steele, who was on his way back to the Midland Park to his family, boarded the train and it was estimated that he will reach their in three days. There were a lot of small towns and cities in between Midland Park and Marble Lake City. But the train which Alex boarded was a superfast train with limited stops.

He didn't looked too good after saying goodbye to all of his old friends and the middle-aged man who was his master at the gym.

"I will definitely comeback to visit soon", Alex thought in his mind and made a decision.

Alex was sitting on his seat in train and he sighed heavily, "Why the Marble Lake City doesn't make an airport? Now I have to travel by train all the way to Midland Park."

Well, Marble Lake City was a small city after all... It was normal to not have an airport in a small city. So, people had to travel via trains to other cities.

Alex even thought of going to the nearest city to catch a plane to Midland Park. But he soon discarded this thought as it was too much work to switch for Alex. He was a bit lazy when it came to transportation.

"I wonder how dad's work going on...he is always so busy with his work...", Alex thought. Because Alex only had his dad as a family. He lost his mother when he was young and his father took care of him from the start, so he had a very high place for his dad in his heart. That's why he didn't argue when he heard that they were moving.

He was all this because he had a lot of time while sitting in the train and had nothing to do. "I wonder how are my friends from college, our vacation is also coming to an end", Alex was an engineering student at the "University of Midland Park" and now it will be his last year of the course.