Altered

Chapter 2

2. Deceiving Looks

There is a weird doorbell sound coming from outside our house. The thing is, we don't have a doorbell. You can say that Fiona and I are not exactly the friendliest neighbor in the neighborhood. Well, no one in the Rust area actually is. Even in the Rust-Gem area, interactions are still kept to a minimum. The  Rust-Gem area, as we call it, is just the upper class of us Rusts. It's not saying much since the Rusts are the lowest caste in RNA, but even that much is beyond what most Rusts can wish in our entire lives. When you fish for food in the dumpster, how do you even maintain social interaction? (Well, excluding us, that is.)

Fiona is my housemate. Well, to be more intimate, she is like a sister. But we didn't sign any papers or anything, so it's just our perception. But if normal sisters out there usually do their own different things, in this case, Fiona is my partner in crime. Quite literally and figuratively.

"Ding dong!"

"Ding dong!"

"Ding dong!"

After the third ring, I force myself to go and greet whoever it is that has an interesting way of calling. Surprisingly, the one on the door is not a person, but a drone instead. It floats until it's about my height and it opens its locked compartment, showing a sealed brown box.

I blink a few times. Apparently, I am not seeing illusions because of the sleep sand on the corners of my eyes.

"A package delivery from Robert Uchida, to Marcus Oakley," the computer-generated voice squeaks.

"How the hell did that old geezer find my address, and my name, nonetheless?" I think, leaning down to lift the brown box from the compartment.

"Please press your thumb on the screen for authorization," I press my thumb on the screen that is shining a green light. "Thank you, we hope you enjoy our service,"

"Wait, how did he.. Um the sender, Robert Uchida, know my address?"  I ask the drone.

"Insufficient information,"

"I do not enjoy your service," I sigh, pressing a sad smiley face when the screen asks about how I felt about the delivery.

There is a name written on the brown box. 'To Hawk', it says, with 'Robert Uchida' on the bottom.

I unwrap the brown box, only finding 2 sets of uniforms. One of them is a set consisting of a dress shirt, a pencil skirt, and a suit. Your classic office worker uniform. The other set is a light grey long sleeve shirt with a navy blue pair of labour worker pants.  I raise my eyebrow at the stark difference between the two uniforms. I guess me and Snake will be working in different sections after all.

From the box, there is a weird whirring sound. It sounded like a bug, but somewhat like an overheated laptop. The whirring sound turns out to be coming from a tiny floating bug-like robot.

"Hawk? It seems like you've gotten my package," The floating bug robot suddenly speaks out in Uchida's raspy voice.

It shows a hologram of his smug face, and as usual, he is smoking leisurely. In an attire with colors that completely clashed each other. "I did," I reply to the hologram.