Dystopia (4)

Edited by: Kuro and Lille

Grey and Cyan were able to get back home safely. Fortunately, their home had no damage, but other people were not as lucky as they were.

About a quarter of the houses in their neighborhood were destroyed. Some houses only had minor damages, like some objects falling from shelves.

The earthquake was much larger than he expected or there were two earthquakes back to back. It was strange. He thought the city was the epicenter but it seemed to cause the same amount of damage throughout, even in the suburbs.

He could hear cries from various neighbors, many people coming forward to care for them.

Cyan also glanced at the crying people and then whispered to Grey. "Let's go grab some stuff to help them."

Grey thought so as well, so he nodded. They couldn't stand out too much with everyone helping out the victims.

The two went inside the house to look for supplies. They grabbed as much preserved food as they could and some extra cash. Then they went out to hand them to the neighbors in need. Many people were grateful, thanking them for their kindness. Some weren't the happiest about it, but still accepted their food and money.

Once the crowd dispersed, Cyan and Grey were finally able to go back to their home to rest.

After they finished eating and washing up for the night, System 225 finally contacted Grey.

[Grey, I was finally able to get the USB for Cyan to use. I had to make sure it was untraceable and add some other protective measures too. It took forever. It should be good now.]

'Do you think it will take a long time to get all the data from the City Hall?' Grey asked in his head while he laid on Cyan's chest.

[It shouldn't take more than 5 minutes. I really made sure it would gather the data as fast as possible. This is for Cyan's safety.]

'That's good, I will let Cyan know.'

Hopefully, Cyan had figured out a time and place to insert the USB. It can be inserted in any computer or laptop as long as it's in the building. Luckily, this society still used USBs.

"Love, I got the USB," Grey whispered just in case Cyan was falling asleep.

Cyan opened his eyes and yawned. "Really? Hmm. Give it to me in the morning so I don't forget." Then he went back to sleep with Grey in his arms.

"Okay." He also closed his eyes.

It was a long day, so the two went to bed early.

The next morning, Cyan dropped Grey off at the school as usual and went to work. He had the USB in his pocket where his phone was. He wore a gray suit. Everyone was wearing the same kinds of suits and even had their phones in the same pocket. He didn't look out of place at all, and the USB was undetectable even in the metal detector.

Grey wasn't joking when he said it was undetectable…

He did his usual routine of saying good morning to everyone on his way to his desk as well as giving his greetings to the supervisors. He sat down at the desk and took his phone and the USB out of his pocket. Everyone put their phones on the desk in case of emergencies so there was nothing off about his behavior.

There was also a stack of binders in front of his PC unit. Coincidentally, it blocked the USB port, allowing only him the ability to see it.

Once everyone was seated at their desks, Cyan stealthily inserted the USB. It didn't interrupt his screen. He knew the USB was gathering information because it let out a faint green light. He was told the green light meant it was downloading information and a red light meant it was done.

No one could see the light or the USB, so all Cyan had to do was act natural until his day was over.

It took 5 minutes for the USB's faint green light to turn red. He furtively grabbed it from the computer unit, put it back in his pocket, and continued with his day as though he had done nothing out of the ordinary.

No alarm was set off in their security system, so Cyan put his worries away and focused on work.

For some reason, he was organizing the data on the earthquake that just happened. Like the amount of damage that was caused, which materials could not withstand the earthquake, and things like that. Now that he thought about it, he did this for every natural disaster that happened since he started working four years ago.

Even if he thought it was quite strange, there was nothing he could do about it. He just had to organize the data for the rest of the day.

His work ended at the usual time. He got up, packed his things, and left the building unhindered.

Cyan was a bit glad no one could see the USB in his pocket…

When he picked up Grey from his job, Cyan kissed him on the cheek and sneakily placed the USB into his hands.

"I hope you had a good day at work."

Grey felt the USB but didn't say anything about it. He just slipped it into his pocket. "Thank you, my love. I hope you also had a good day at work."

If someone was looking at the monitor for their car, they would not be able to see anything strange. The two acted like a proper married couple.

Talking about work with each other was taboo since Cyan worked in the City Hall, so their car ride was silent.

They were able to get home safely.

"I will cook dinner," Grey said while taking off his and Cyan's coat. He brought them into the room, changed into home clothing, and went into the kitchen.

Cyan didn't have much to do, so he began to clean around the house.

In the kitchen, Grey spoke with System 225 about the USB.

[I will have Arisa and System 505 help me out, but there's a lot of data. It may take a few months to filter through everything. From what I can tell, this looks like a few hundred years' worth of data that's been collected…]

Grey was a bit surprised to hear that. He thought maybe this city was recently developed or something, but the history ran deep. As a teacher here, he wasn't allowed to teach any history past 50 years ago. Everything was regulated and he could not deviate from it.

'I understand. Good luck and I hope to hear from you soon.'

[Of course, I will do my best to quickly get all the data organized. In the meantime, continue to observe your surroundings. Don't let your guard down.]

With that, System 225 went to work.

Grey knew that in difficult worlds, they could either have a very limited time frame or one with waiting times so long that one might lose sight of what they were doing. He hoped it didn't take too long to go through these missions…

Just when Grey turned off the stove, he heard a loud boom sound. It reminded him of the earthquake that happened the day before.

Cyan quickly ran into the kitchen and grabbed onto Grey.

"It's another earthquake!"

Grey didn't think about the food he just finished making and ran out the door with Cyan.

Everyone flooded the streets, scared to stay in their homes that could collapse at any moment. Luckily, none of the houses were more than two stories high, but still, people tried to go to the park that was in the center of the neighborhood. No one wanted to test nature by standing near a building.

The park was crowded, but no one seemed to mind. Grey and Cyan stuck together, refusing to let go of one another until the shaking passed.

*****

Somewhere near the planet where XU239 resided, a group of scientists were looking at multiple screens that had every angle of the city.

They usually had their subordinates looking at the day-to-day things. These scientists only came around during times when natural disasters happened or when they needed to collect data.

A man with gold-rimmed glasses and white hair sighed at the data. "It seems the new steel we used is not sufficient. It's time to go back to the drawing board."

A lot of the houses and buildings were built from this new steel, but they were not sturdy enough. What they wanted was to build something that could withstand natural disasters.

These steels were to be marketed as the strongest. If they couldn't withstand simple earthquakes, then they were unusable.

Another man responded, who was much younger than the man with golden glasses, "I heard Dr. Kurtis made a new formula. Let's have the houses and buildings that collapsed rebuilt with that new formula."

"I heard there was a plan for a tornado. When will that be released?" The only female scientist asked. She was an alpha like the rest of the researchers in this room.

Gold-rimmed glasses man replied, "A month from now. If we are too consistent, someone will notice something strange."

All the scientists in the room agreed. They couldn't let these sub-humans figure out the secrets of this city…