Midland Park (Part 2)

Four days have passed just like a snap.

Sitting on the train for four days was really taxing on Alex. He was very tired. He also enjoyed this journey as well.

While sitting on the train, he saw a lot of very good sceneries which were really pleasing to the eyes. He took a lot of pictures and also noted those places with a thought of visiting those places in the future.

On the way from Marble Lake City to Midland Park, there were seven small tier and middle tier cities, through which his train stopped. Apart from those cities, there were a lot of small towns where the didn't stop.

The cities which were considered a small city which had a population of at least two million. And the cities with a population of ten million was considered a middle tier city, as for large cities, their population was more than twenty-five million.

As for the transportation system, bus and taxi and train services were available in all types of cities. As for airlines, they were only present in medium and large tier cities, small cities did not have any airports, due to less population.

Furthermore, middle tier cities only had domestic airline services and large cities had both domestic and international airline services. Due to this type of system, people who wanted to go somewhere out of the country and were from small or middle tier city, they had to travel to a large city by different methods of transportation and then carry on their journey.

Different types of services were provided to the cities according to the population.

As for the towns which Alex's train passed through without stopping had very low population and it could be counted in thousands. Those towns didn't have a population of more than two to three thousand, they were very small. Some of those towns had the train service but it was a small countryside train station. And they each had a taxi service. Unlike cities, these towns didn't have more than one supermarket.

But these small towns were very beautiful sceneries and were blessed by nature. Alex noted and thought to visit these towns sometime in the future.

Marble Lake City was a small tier city, due to which it didn't have any airline services and due to this Alex had to travel by train to Midland Park.

Midland Park was a middle tier city. It had all types of transportation services available just not international airline services. But the city was bustling and growing rapidly be it in population or business. The main reason was the research facility, which was near the city two years ago and now it required a lot of manpower to operate different functions and run the facility as well as the research itself.

Now, the governing party of the city was considering to extend the airport and make it international and they already started the work by doing all the paperwork to get the approval from the central government which governs the whole country and the one of the governing body was "National Congress Party" which was called "NCP" in short.

NCP was also in favor of the development of Midland Park, so it was highly unlikely that the proposal of extending the airport will not be accepted.

Apart from the transportation facilities and the newly established research facility, Midland Park had many more facilities to offer when people came to the city.

Being a mid-tier city, Midland Park had Ten major hospitals and many small clinics. It also had a cricket stadium and a football stadium where national matches, as well as international matches, takes place. Midland Park had many amusement parks in different parts of the city. It had many schools and a university. The university was the place where Alex goes now for his further studies.

There were lots of high raised buildings which were clearly not residential, they were all offices. And those offices mainly situated on the western side of the city and the buildings near stadiums were mostly hotels. Hotels also were situated throughout the city.

There were police stations for each sector. Midland Park was divided into several sectors. There were 120 sectors in total, it included the whole city. Midland Park also had a mountain range towards the south, which gave a very nice view of the city.

...

Midland Park had one big station to travel between cities via train and the entire city was connected by metro and subway. There was also a transportation hub at the train station which allowed people to go wherever they wanted to go in the whole city from the train station by using different methods.

Alex got out of the train as fast as he could, he didn't want to spend another second on the train. He looked horrible when he got out. He was looking like he hadn't had his sleep for a month. His hair was a mess, he wondered how much it would take him to undo the messed hair.

He didn't have much luggage when he went to Marble Lake City, but now his hands are full, but not by gifts for his father or friends, but swords.

Again he had issues getting out of the station with those weapons. It wasn't like they didn't allow, but their checking procedures were quite slow and annoying.

He got out of the station and took a cab to home, the metro was much efficient but he was sleepy at that time and the moment he sat in the cab he slept like a baby till the time driver wake him up.

He lived in a row house with his dad which had two bedrooms with integrated bathrooms on the first floor and hall and kitchen were on the ground floor. They also had a basement which they used as a storage place. Apart from that, they had a car parking garage and there was a car parked in the garage the time when Alex came home and the car was his dad's.

"Woah... dad is home right now... that's unusual...", Alex thought when he saw the car and went ahead to ring the bell.

"Hey dad, how are you?", Alex said and hugged his dad. His dad was indeed home and he was surprised because he seldom saw his dad come home early. The work hours were still on and his dad was very serious about his work, so, how come he came home early? That's unusual.

"How was your trip? And how are your friends? Woah... what are these?", Alex's father bombarded questions after questions and finally, he saw the swords which were covered and asked about them curiously which bringing him inside.

He also noticed that Alex is quite curious why is he home so early. So, he changed the topic to his swords, which he himself found curious about them. He obviously knew that Alex practices swords, but where did he get those real ones.

Alex sat down beside his dad as he unfolded the swords and showed him. He also started explaining and telling him about everything that has happened when he visited Marble Lake City for the reunion. He told every funny encounter he had there. The fighting that happened in the gym. Rewards they got from there. About how magnificent the lake looked as always.

Alex and his father both had a long talk and Alex was the one mostly speaking and his father listening with great interest. Some of the details which Alex mentioned, even he got surprised by hearing them.

More than three hours passed without them noticing, it was almost night time. Today they didn't make food at home, they ordered from a restaurant instead. They had a good father-son evening.

"Dad, how is your work going?", Alex asked suddenly while eating. He remembered his father was home early and didn't get the chance earlier to ask.

"Nothing much, I had a bad day at work today... that's why I came home early.", Alex's father understood what Alex wanted to ask and replied immediately. He continued further, "Those guys at the research facility keep sending huge chunks of data which we analyze and send them the reports next day at the earliest."

"It has become more and more stressful because the data keeps getting two times the data came a day before, and they still want the same pace. It's only reasonable that if the workload increases, time to complete it also increases. But they are bent on going at the same pace."

"Well, that is good in a way for the company as more work with good quality gives more money and it is also good news for the research facility as it is making further progress in their research."

"Now, to keep up with the input of the data we are getting, we need to hire more and more people to expand. But the problem lies with the research facility. They don't pay in advance and only pay after the work is done, and we can't do anything about it as it is in the partnership agreement."

"And that's the problem we are facing right now. We are constantly asking them to revise the agreement and pay at least thirty percent of the amount in advance, but they just keep denying."

"I came home early because of the recruitment process and negotiation with the banks for short term loans which will allow us to keep using the resources we are using right now and expand on it. Before you came home earlier today, I was working on the presentations and going through the resume of nearly a hundred candidates."

This time Alex's father was the only one speaking, he took another piece of meat in his plate and continued.

"It's good that people are showing interest in working with us. But tomorrow is going to be a very busy day...", he sighed.

He looked stressed after saying all that continuously without taking any break.

They had their dinner together and a long talk before going to their beds.

On the next day, Alex woke up and saw that his father already left for work.

He got up and thought, "Since my college will be opening tomorrow, I think I should ask dad that I would like to visit the research facility. I want to see as it well. Dad earlier said that they were researching something related to the human brain and on a large scale. I wonder what they are researching..."

"I should take my friends from college and professors as well and make it like an industrial visit, or... maybe not..."