Girl Cyborg: A Dystopian Action Adventure Thriller

From Behind

Bess had never known the Market when Bedabun City was peaceful and its stores were open during the daytime. Tonight, the side streets she drove past were so crowded with vegetable stands and vendor tents she couldn't turn her car down them. On the larger roads bordering the market, she drove past crowds of round-shouldered people, shuffling their feet and rubbing their arms to stay warm. It was a chilly fall night, although there were no oil drum fires here. Those could attract attention and this place was designed to be discrete. The market was one of the few places people could congregate safe from air strikes, particularly after dark.

Since the air above Bedabun City was plagued with drones during the daytime, children were afraid to play in the streets, or venture out to attend school. Not that children were ever the stated target, but during daylight hours drones could carry out what the enemy described as "targeted strikes." They were targeted alright, targeted to produce the most terror in the population.

In her previous visits to the city, Bess had noticed that cloud cover and rain brought children into the streets. It was a relief to see them outside on rainy days, kicking a soccer ball and playing jump rope. Their faded clothing was still colourful compared to the khakis Bess and her peers had worn at that age. They never called it a uniform, but Academy students looked alike, despite differences in skin and hair colour. Most were orphans like Bess.

In the Market, Bess noticed all the children with parents. By her headlights, Bess could see them pass, hand-in-hand with mothers and fathers. These children might be growing up in tough times, but they had parents who were building their lives on love, using whatever materials they could scrounge.

To keep from being spied on from above, the inner streets of the Night Market were sheltered using tarps, suspended on wires between the telephone poles. From the air, the streets were partly camouflaged during the daytime but the roofs were pure propaganda. Local artists had painted magnified images of children on the rooftops to make sure the drone operators could see that these buildings housed innocent children.

At night, the tiny wood stoves and electric lights of the shops were hidden below the tarps. Even with night vision sensors, it was hard for drones to locate and target individuals with so many closely spaced fires and machines running. Bess tried to imagine what the knife sharpener's tent would look like to a drone operator, or the bakery with its stone oven.

Enough sightseeing. With maybe an hour to spare before she was missed, Bess had to either drive past or get out of her vehicle and go in. The side streets which crisscrossed the night market were too narrow for her big SUV. Reluctantly, she parked near the corner of two main streets and left the safety of the vehicle. As walked back, a school of children flocked around her, chattering and urging her to give them money. In her perfectly-ironed civvies, she probably looked rich to these people, but rich people wouldn't dare come here. At the Academy, they drilled into their heads. Students were only safe within the sterile Academy walls. It was against the rules to visit the Night Market alone, and discouraged even in large groups. Yet still many went, like mosquitoes drawn to the pulse of the city.

Cherry said even the headmaster disappeared regularly from campus. Where else could he be going? She told Bess he liked to entertain the police chief with ostrich steaks and single malt scotch. Those kinds of supplies couldn't be requisitioned. You needed local connections and currency.

Bess had been scandalized when Cherry suggested the headmaster considered himself above the rules but she had evidence. "Look how he refuses any kind of surveillance. Every building on campus has alarms, isometric locks, and cameras. Every person in the Academy is tracked by cameras inside and out, and by signal. Did you know the headmaster doesn't have a signal rig installed?"