Losing Time

5 | Maris

A/N: okay, this part is a bit longer because I merged two parts. Well, I hope you'll get through until the end. 

Maris was right, Tameron tried to follow her through the city; nonetheless, she eventually managed to shake him off and found a safe place to heal. Maris still winced in pain when a stranger bumped into her but it didn't make her cry out in pain anymore. The dried blood on her hand took on an iron color, almost making it look like she had artificial limbs almost all the way up to her elbow. Luckily, she didn't need any- though she still limped her way through the city, occasionally resting against one of the concrete walls.

Soon she had left the skyscrapers behind her. As the buildings got smaller, the people got poorer and scarcer, exactly what she aimed for. When she passed the people in this part of the city they just glanced at her and then hurryingly looked back at the ground; they reckoned she probably meant trouble  and they wanted nothing to do with it.

Secretly, Maris wanted nothing more than to be at home. She had a small apartment to call her home: She even had it decorated herself. Her mother frequently nagged about it being much too small for her but she liked it. It was all Maris needed, and now she didn't even have that anymore. Instead, darkness coated her surroundings. It smelled like mold, when she put her hand on the patch of floor next to her it came back wet, but her wound had stopped dripping blood.

Where she was now, there were no skyscrapers,no maglev train lines crossing each other and no maglev cars that populated the streets passing you without making any sound.Here, at least the people still talked, maybe because most couldn't afford a net chip. In the inner city, Maris had to crane up her neck to watch the news on the huge billboards surrounding her. She found herself relieved when neither her name or her picture were showed. Her mother must've managed to keep her name out of it.Maris had let out a sigh of relief when she read the headlines, at least the only one actively hunting her was Galen. The fifth circle, in which she suspected her being, differentiate itself so much from the inner circles like the first, that it sometimes scared her. The city stretched over huge parts of the country, home to millions of people, and yet, the different circles that made up the city were all so different. 

200 years ago the world had looked different. The country she lived in mostly made up of the old Canada, the city much smaller, not even inhabiting 10 million people. Today, her country stretched over parts of Canada and the once called USA but only consisted out of five huge cities that were all connected by maglev train lines. 

North America broke into pieces about 10 years after the mecha-wars started and a year later the country she now lived in had been formed. It was only about a quarter of what the United States and Canada once had been but it was strong and the most enhanced state in America.

And there she was. Hiding herself in some dim room that smelled of rotting food, only because someone must've found something to change the way they looked. Maris had heard rumors of such possibilities, though she would've never thought they could be true. An Enhancement that let you change into someone if you just had their DNA – making it the dream of every criminal. The only thing they couldn't change though turned out to be the eyes, more like the ID Chips hidden in them. 

She sat cross-legged on her brown leather jacket in that musty basement, thinking about why anyone would take on her appearance to break the law. Sure, it made sense in a way, but she didn't know enough people, she didn't know anyone who hated her enough to do this too. Maris let out a loud sigh and took her hands off her face. Her foot tapped on the ground but she stopped it suddenly. This wouldn't get to her head, she needed to sort this out. Firstly, she had to shake off Tameron. He resembled an annoying parasite that you just couldn't shake, always making her uncertain if he still followed her or how close he had gotten, but at least Maris found a place safe enough to settle down for a little while in order to get some sleep. That happened 14 hours ago.