4 Section 3: The Riot

The next day, the people in the city are restless with the commotion of malfunctioned security robots and drones. Some of the robots in the city stopped functioning, some even injured a civilian. I had a bad feeling about this, especially if Ender's premonition were to come true.

The city has always been orderly and disciplined, but now fewer people were walking on the streets due to the malfunctioned security systems in the city.

I slapped both of my cheeks, pretended that everything would be fine if I just get rid of the negative thoughts that have been circulating inside my brain.

One of those thoughts is the possibility of cyberterrorism and the culprit tested it out on our security drones, the other was maybe the poor treatment of the mechanic that cause the malfunction security drones, the last one was a planned attack on our city but that's also included in the first possibility so I didn't know what to think.

The fact that most of our necessities were controlled electronically and digitally made it vulnerable to virus attack, which I wary of in this so-called practical city.

I walked as usual to my university, through the same subway and somehow less familiar people present on the subway train.

Even though the atmosphere was restless, I enjoyed the silence and nonattendance of the people around me. I listened to Winter Vivaldi, which matched my mood today.

After that, I noticed a group of protesters marching toward the government office. The city seems to be on the brink of war between the government and the people which is not surprising considering how hypocrite the government is.

Fortunately, the University grounds seemed to be safe from those protesters. I saw Joel in front of me who converses with his friend Andy. I tried to ignore him and mind my own business. However, he greeted me, as a friendly scholar I took my earphone off and flash him the nicest smile I had.

"Hi" he spoke softly to me.

"Hello" I smiled at him awkwardly.

Looks like I just failed my job as a friendly scholar, that's just great.

I sighed and put on my earphones again, the world seemed to be silent and tranquil when the earphones on my ears. I danced to the rhythm like lunatic I am, screw being a civilized student.

When I got to the hallway, my friends were already waiting for me with a concerned face."Hey", I waved my hands in the air to Glass and Narita.

Narita is Lola's bestie, but to be honest they were like lost lovers more than besties. They always hung out together intimately, different from Lola, Narita who is a quiet diligent student who always helps people in need.

"Narita, been a while", I said hi to her.

"Yeah, been busy with part-time work you know", Narita sighed. "Everything seems to be so tiring lately, I don't know why".

"Prolly because you're working a lot?", I asked Narita.

"Probably yeah, oh by the way did you guys see a stray cleaning robot in the middle of the hallway?", Narita pointed to the end of the hallway.

I saw a white robot go off on its own. To be honest, it seems like a normal sight to us but that one cleaning robot sure did act weirdly than the others. Cleaning robots have their section to clean like they weren't supposed to trespass the area they assigned to.

I wondered whether the robot incident mattered like they all seemed to be trivial to me but I sense malicious intent in every robot accident that happened in the city. The animosity and the sudden riot in the streets were riled up because the robots malfunctioned.

I felt like someone is pulling the string that causes the citizen distrust of the government judgment, but I hope I'm wrong.

"So what's your next class guys?" Glass broke the silence.

"Just for the record straight, I haven't even checked my schedule" I grinned sheepishly.

"Ah, you have the same schedule as me Aria" Narita explained calmly, "I think it's Japanese literature".

"Ah got it, thanks a bunch Narita" I smiled.

Not long after our conversation, one of the protesters got on the University grounds and yelled around like crazy, something about calamity and the end of the world.

"WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE! THE DEATH HAS FALLEN UPON US!!" the bald protester shouted violently.

The bald man with worn-out clothes suddenly appeared and making a huge fuss in our university hallway.

Joel, who happened to be near him, was shocked. I could see his frightened expression from miles away. The bald man dressed in a torn shirt with an injured arm threw himself toward Joel's direction. Joel backed off to avoid the man and yet he was caught by the man's grasp.

"BOY ARE YOU SCARED!?", the man jerked Joel upward with a sinister smile.

Joel quivered in fear, he pushed the man away but the man shook him in madness. I decided to run toward the man, I didn't know what's gotten into me as my body moved on its own toward the crazy man who shouted his negligible talk about God and the end of the world.

Before I knew what's going on, my first fist flew to the man's jaw. The old bald man thrown off unprepared, he glared at me with his injured lips and bloodstained mouth.

"Geez where the heck is the University security drone anyway?" I could hear someone chatter behind me.

That's right something seems off, the usual responsive security drones didn't come to our rescue despite this man animosity. There are several types of security systems in this city. First of all, security drones act as surveillance while the robots were the ones who did the job. However, none of them present by the time this man trespasses our University Ground which is weird.

The old man persisted as I predicted, he screams on top of his lung as he charged at me wildly. I rolled over to the other side as I pushed Joel out of the way. What annoys me is that the rest of the university people only watched us being wildly targeted by a crazy man that flailed his fist like a wild animal.

Joel moves like a sloth that I had to push him away from that crazy man fist, Joel was terrified and panicked to even think straight. I felt like he wanted to let himself got beaten up just because he was shocked, it would be a funny sight to see. The bald man wanted to punch me for real, he means business.

"DAMMIT, YOU GUYS! ARE YOUR EYES ARE JUST FOR FUCKING DECORATION!?" I screamed in frustration with the rest of the people who watch our struggles.

After my heroic speech, the horde of university students decided to join in the fray and stopped the crazy bald man who still yelled about the end of the world. Not long after that, the security robots came with a red smile on their screen.

"Alert! Alert! A violator of law has been detected!" the security robots said simultaneously.

The university student handed the offender to the security robots. Hopefully, the protester left the University ground for good this time. I sighed in relief, that's some balls that man had to trespass the most influential University in this city. Joel poked my shoulder awkwardly, he scratched his cheek as he said his gratitude.

"Thanks, you were pretty good back then" Joel frowned. "I'm sorry for not doing anything".

"No sweat", I grimaced.

I decided to sit on the nearest bench with Joel. I could hear the flatter and compliments from afar, 'how brave', 'how cool', 'how heroic I am' just your daily typical flattery that they couldn't admit in front of the person that was directly involved in the incident. My friends rushed over-worried, especially Glass who had this shocked look on her face.

"Jesus Christ Aria!! What you just did is reckless!!!" Glass scolded me like how my mum usually scolded me.

"I agree Aria, what if he had brought a knife instead of the only fist?" Narita said sternly.

"Yeah I know, it's very unlike me I get it" I sighed in frustration. "I just felt like it".

When I watched that the man was about to hit Joel, my blood boiled and my body moved on its own to intervene in the hit he would have landed on Joel's face. Frankly speaking, I'm not the sporty type either so it kind of surprised me when I could avoid his fist like it was nothing. I had a history in parkour though, but I didn't learn that much since my mentor is the person I wish never existed.

"But you look cool back then" Joel smiled like a little kid he is.

His flattery made me want to dig myself in a hole, I could die in embarrassment from his flattery.

My friends scolded Joel for encouraging what I just did, I giggled quietly as I saw my friends and Joel argued. Joel looked relaxed and instead made a joke of my coolness, he's weird as ever I couldn't understand his intention.

When they argued a certain cleaning robot distracted my attention. It looks like the same cleaning robot as before but this time he hit the wall continuously like an idiot.

"Guys wait for me here," I told them.

They nodded in unison as they continued their pointless argument about my heroic acts. I walked to the robot to fix his position when suddenly I heard a familiar voice shouted from a distance.

"STAY AWAY ARIA!" that voice called me.

I turned around to the source of the voice on my left, which belongs to Ender.

"Huh? What is the-".

When I was about to finish my sentences, a spark of red and orange color exploded right in front of me. The once previous cleaning robot has exploded, the explosion threw me back pretty far that even my back hit the window frame on the other side of the wall.

I could feel the glass jabbed their way back hideously, I should have brought my thick leather jacket with me this morning.

I coughed up blood as the impact hurt my entire body, I twitched my eyes a few times when my body landed on a cold sharp floor.

The sound of screaming and yelling, the sound of rattled voices, and the crowd ran away. Even with the buzz engulfing my ears, I managed to hear the agony and scream around me.

"Sheesh...I guess I'm going to die", I slowly let my vision be taken by the darkness.