35 Rebirth

Lucas groaned as the man lifted him up by the collar. The whole office went silent and abandoned their works to watch this freak show. 

Lucas was a stick compared to Rose's boyfriend and he was badly losing this one sided game. Rose lifted her hands, "You can leave him alone, Jeff. He's fine."

Jeff looked down at his girlfriend who was pouting now. He reluctantly put the boy down and pushed him back slightly, "Watch your words next time, or it will be not just that collar I'll pull."

Lucas didn't say anything and decided to endure it. If he did act up, it would cause a bad impression on Rose anyway. In the end, all he wanted was Rose, so enduring this seemed like nothing when he thought of what he was going to get after 11 PM...Maybe they'll stay till 1 the next day. Who knew? He smiled on the inside as he saw Jeff go.

"Nice boyfriend, Rose," Lucas turned back at Rose and smirked. But the moment she saw her boyfriend leave, she frowned harder. "What is wrong with you? You barely know me."

Uh-oh. Lucas did a double take. He didn't expect such a sweet face to be so angry. That too, at him!

"Honestly. I thought it was some useless employee chatting you up. I just came to protect you," Lucas said innocently.

She sighed, "In what way does Jeff look like an employ—" she stopped and raised her eyebrows, "Oh. You won't know the people here. You're a newbie too."

Lucas held on to his smirk and bowed slightly, "Yes, m'lady. Now. Have you eaten lunch? Why not grab a bite together?"

She deadpanned at Lucas and tried not to smile, "You're unbelievable. My boyfriend just came and left and you still have the guts to say that."

Lucas giggled and cupped his face, "I'm a cute stubborn puppy. Love me."

"Awww!" Rose covered her mouth, her blue eyes glistening. "How can I not?"

Lucas stood up straight and looked at her seriously, "What about your boyfriend then?"

She winked, "We'll decide that tonight, right, puppy?"

Lucas's eyes widened and looked the other way and covered his eyes with his elbows, 'Oh God, she's cute. It's so hard to resist her,' he mumbled under his breath.

She tilted her head and grabbed the file from the desk, "What did you say?"

Lucas shook his head and looked back at her, "Nothing, nothing." Before he could continue, someone turned on the news channel and the hurried voice of the news reader filled the office air and everyone turned to look what it was about.

Lucas looked around and saw people pointing at their phones to in surprise. He fixed his eyes on the TV now and he understood.

Random clips of game stores played across the screen and they were more crowded than it had ever been. Boys, girls and even a good number of older people struggled to get inside the open doors.

"It's like nothing we've ever seen before," the reporter screamed into her mic to get above the noise, "Ever since, the news of six robots who could be national threats started spreading, the country was at unease. But now as we can see, thousands of people have gathered at every Systema Games showroom in the country to buy Breakfire Online 2: The Next World as the first 200 customers are to get its VR version for half the price! And it's creating the biggest upheaval since the last President election!"

Goosebumps ran through the skins of all the people in the office as they stared in awe at the rebirth of the long forgotten game. Breakfire Online 2: The Next World? It was new to even those who worked inside Systema Games.

Darren was watching too, in his office. He sat on his revolving chair, his legs rested on the table as he watched it all unfold with a light smile on his face. His face, in general, was no different. Instead, it was only worse, deep bags under his eyes, messed up and dry hair, but there was a happiness in his face that wasn't there before.

A childish joy as he saw the start of what looked like a new era.

"I did it," he whispered to himself. He had been planning this for a long time. And especially with the company at the brink of extinction and lack of money to work on the Beamers, and the cancel of the new movie release, this was the only option.

He and his personal team had pulled all-nighters to make this happen. And it was totally worth it. "Let's see how the government is going to shut us down now. From today, we fund a huge percent of their treasury," he laughed to himself.

The door flew open and a woman came inside. She looked out of place, in her casual shirt and denim jeans, her hair tied up in a loose bun and barely any makeup on her face. Not very professional at all. She was like a brown streak on a perfectly white canvas.

Darren looked up at this brown streak and his smile fell. He didn't get up to greet her, though, just returned back to look at the news screen.

"Will you not even say hi?" 

Darren cleared his throat and changed channels. "Hi."

Tasha glared at him, "What is the explanation of this? You fire me for no reason at all and in the next few days, the company is skyrocketing. Breakfire is No. 1 on Trending, do you know that?"

Darren nodded, with no expression at all. He did feel regret right after firing her. He just didn't want to hurt her anymore. He thought maybe, if she left, she'll find a better place to work at. Not a place where employees are under danger and could be killed at any time. He was only trying to protect her. Then why she kept coming back, he didn't understand.

Tash walked over to him and placed her hands on the table, "Did I do something to you?"

Darren's eyes flitted and met Tasha's. "Go back. This place isn't safe. Your sister needs you."

Tasha scoffed, "What will I do without a job anyway? I stayed by your side for two years! Why are—"

"If it's money you're worried about, I'm sending your weekly bonuses all together to your account for 12 months. It should be enough until you settle down."

"Why do you want me gone? Especially at an important time like this?"

Darren sighed on the inside. I don't want you gone, I want you to be alive. But he didn't dare say that to her. No more turning back now. Tasha should learn to forget about Systema Games. "You'll have a place here once all this is over," Darren said instead and got up to open the door for her.

Tasha didn't move. She shook her head, "You don't understand. There's something I need to tell you."

Darren pushed her out of the door lightly, "You don't have to concern yourself about the company anymore. Leave it."

She tried to get back inside, "But Darren, let me finish. Your life is in—"

He slammed the door on her face and she took a step back in surprise. "Danger…" she sighed and turned around to leave. She didn't see many familiar faces in the offices. They had all disappeared, like dust. She had risked everything and come here, trying to hide from Spiders who had a chance of killing her next. She was the last contact Haffar had after all. If they found him then finding her was only a step away.

She groaned and held her throbbing head, "Who are these Spiders anyway?" She tried to shake off the bad feeling building inside her.

"Ahh!" two women screamed as they bumped into each other. Tasha turned around to look who she had bumped into. A short girl—no, lady—with blonder hair and blue eyes. She looked down at her ridiculously huge chest and gulped.

"I'm so sorry, I should have looked where I was going," the shorter one apologized and Tasha nodded her head, "It's okay." That was when she realized that she had never seen her around here.

"By any chance, are you new?"

She nodded her head, "Yes. I'm a replacement for Mr Haffar Thompson. I'm Rose."

Tasha narrowed her eyes. A replacement? So fast? It had only been more than a day. Tasha nodded and went her way and wondered since when Systema Games became so fast at procedures. It was almost like, with her gone, everything finally fell into place.

And that was sure to hurt.

...

The wind picked up with the thickness of the crowd outside the showroom. The gale was insanely fast at the top spire of the tall tower opposite the Systema building.

If you craned your head upwards and looked at the spire, you'd see absolutely nothing. But inside the glass, a person in a black coat hid in the shadows, coat whipping wildly in the strong chill.

"Report," a voice from the other side of the Bluetooth earphone boomed.

The black coated man set his sniper on the window sill and tapped his ear, "Hawthorn reporting. Location, Systema Games branch 32 on our map," he replied in a bored voice before he spotted a boy with a yellow shirt happily walking away from the crowd. The man grabbed his binoculars and zoomed in.

The boy was about the age of 17 or 18. He wore a yellow hoodie and those costly Abbibas shoes. A white suede box shone in his hands, with the picture of animated characters erupting from the center. The wide smile on his face explained it all. He had just bought the VR version for Breakfire Online 2 for half the price!

"Target in sight," the man reported hurriedly, "I repeat, target in sight. Waiting for order."

He set up the sniper back and flipped the safety switch and took aim. The boy stopped and looked left and right, probably waiting for a taxi to come by.

"Hold you fire, Hawthorn," the other side replied.

"But sir…he's under direct range. If we don't—" before he could complete, the connection broke. He was alone now. He sighed and looked at his watch. It was a sleek one, with diamonds encrusted on the sides. The dial had a logo on it. An intricate design of an eight legged insect.

A taxi arrived soon and the man took in a breath, his finger curling around the trigger.

Just before the boy got in to get back home, the man above heard his Bluetooth device connect again and another more demanding voice spoke.

"Target still in sight?"

"Yes!"

There was no pause, no hesitation. No consideration that it was just a kid.

"Shoot."