I woke to the sound of birds.

  My head felt heavy and shaken, like it had been in a tumble drier.

  I moved my fingers around and felt what I thought was grass beneath my palms, but that wasn’t right because I hadn’t seen a patch of grass anywhere in this forsaken city.

  One side of my face felt cold as I tried to open my eyes but all I saw was green. Shifting my head to the side I got a better view of my surroundings. I had landed in what appeared to be a patch of grass, with ill-looking trees surrounding me. I got up to my hands and knees and rolled over onto my back.

  I was alive.

  I was alive!

  I couldn’t remember much of what happened after the van had struck us, only that I had somehow been thrown from the car’s open door and had landed in safety.

  I moved my limbs anticipating pain at every flex and turn but with a sigh of relief not finding any. Something ran into my eye causing it to sting; wiping it away my hands came back bloody. I touched my forehead tentatively, wincing as my hands touched a lump that tried to double as another head.

  If I was thrown from the car, then where is it?

  The sound of movement to my far left answered my question. The patch of grass I was on was on a slope that came to rest at a river some hundred feet below me. The car belonging to the Junk Yard Dogs was upside down, resting at the bottom of it, wheels still spinning.

  I looked up as I heard movement above me and saw the van that had rammed into us, come to a rolling stop on the road above me. Keeping my body low to the ground, I turned my head back down the ravine and saw movement in the shadows of the car.

  This was my chance to escape.

  I wouldn’t get another opportunity like this one.

  Keeping my body as close to the ground as I could I crawled away, forcing my body to move with all the speed I could muster.

  * * *

  It had taken me hours to walk along roads and alleyways so I wasn’t seen, until I felt somewhat safe. I had run for the first half an hour—well, when I say run it was more of a five-minute sprint that turned into a jog, which turned into me dragging my legs behind me while I coughed up all the bad food and drink I had eaten since I left college. I had always promised myself I would get back in shape but life had kept getting in my way, or so I told myself.

  I leaned against a wall and planned my next move.

  I was on a foreign planet in a foreign city, with no money, food, drink, friends or any way to contact anyone that I loved.

  I slowly slumped to my knees as the weight of my situation piled on me. What was I going to do? I couldn’t trust anyone, as everyone was out for my blood, and I couldn’t show my face anywhere public or I would get noticed.

  I needed to gain someone’s computer as they had taken mine off my wrist after they took me hostage. It would be the only way to get a message to my family, the only way to get rescued, but the real answer was how would I acquire one, as everyone’s computer was DNA coded to only work for them.

  A glint on the ground drew my eye to an object on the alleyway floor,

  Bending to pick it up I saw it was a shard of glass. Weighing it in my hand I gripped onto it and closed my eyes at the thought of what I was about to do.

  * * *

  The sun had set and pushed long shadows into nothing but darkness. My heart was in my mouth as I waited at the edge of a corner for someone to pass by; my palms were sweaty and the shard of glass in my hand kept on slipping out of my grip. I tried to close my eyes and steady my breathing but it still didn’t slow my heart rate down; things had gone from bad to worse once I had gotten on that Xcorp ship and they would not get any better.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  People passed me by who were too tall, too big, too muscular or too mean-looking.

  I didn’t know the target I had in mind, but I needed to overpower them easily and quickly. I kept my face in the shadows, biting the inside of my cheek, while I waited.

  Shit!

  Come on. Come on.

  My lower back poured out enough sweat to cause my shirt to stick to it. I unloosened my tie and pulled at my shirt trying to get my body to cool down.

  I saw someone walk past me who looked about my height and I walked towards them until they stopped and turned around.

  A mop of grey hair covered most of his eyes, “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

  “I, errr, I wasn’t doing anything,” I said hastily, taking a few steps back, “I was just walking.”

  He took a step closer to me and I held up one palm in an unthreatening manner.

  “Well, it looks to me you were about to jump me, Necktie,” he said, spitting out the last word in disgust.

  “Nah, you got it all wrong. I wouldn’t dream of doing anything like that, it’s just I need to message—”

  “What’s in your hand!”

  I hid the shard of glass behind my back and gave him a shrug.

  “You trying to play me, cocksucker?” he said, taking another step closer.

  “I would never dream of it, sir, but you see I’m in a bit of a predicament. I need help making a call—”

  I stopped mid-sentence as I noticed a laughing hyena with blood dripping out of its mouth tattooed on the back of his hand; I licked my lips as I tried to get my thoughts in order.

  “You need to make a call because?”

  I tried to think of what to say without giving much away, but the words failed me.

  “Don’t worry about it,” I said, turning and beginning to walk away, but I didn’t get far as a hand landed on my shoulder.

  “Don’t I know you?” he said behind me.

  “Nah, don’t think so,” I said, trying to shrug his hand off and walk away, but found I couldn’t as he redoubled his grip.

  “Yeah, I know you, you’re that corporate dickhead my crew’s been looking for, Arun’s gonna give me a fat bonus for bringing you in.”

  I spun around and struck him with my elbow across the side of his face; the blow was messy and uncoordinated, but it got the desired effect of getting him to let me go. He leapt for me, but I struck him again with a punch that sunk into his eye with a sickening crunch. He staggered backwards, hand going to his eye, and I knew he wouldn’t let me go unless I put him away.

  He came for me again and I was ready for it. When I lowered my head he slammed his nose into my forehead; the sound of his nose breaking turned my stomach but I kept up the attack, hitting him with windmill punches wherever I could.

  I had hoped my onslaught would subdue my opponent but I was wrong.

  He took a step back and smiled at me with bloodied teeth.

  Shit.

  “You really ain’t from around here, are you?”

  I said nothing as I looked to my left and right for a way out.

  “You’re like a lost little lamb stranded in the big bad wilderness with no way to get home, with no shepherd to look after you and no flock to take care of you. It’s a shame you’ll probably die here, so far from home, but the universe doesn’t give a fuck about you and it never will.”

  He spat in my face, which took me by surprise, as he ran towards me and tackled me to the ground, his hands wrapped around my throat fingers digging into my flesh as I tried to fight him off but failed. The corners of my vision darkened as I grew light-headed. I struck his face, but each blow became weaker and weaker the longer he held onto me; I turned my face to the side and a flash of light caught my eye. I grabbed onto it and stabbed him in the shoulder with the shard of glass, causing him to yowl in pain as he tried to roll away. I stabbed him again and again, this time catching him in the leg and arm; he crawled away and I got up and walked after him. He didn’t get far as I stamped on his leg, which caused him to scream in pain once again.

  “Unlock your computer,” I told him in a hiss.

  “Fuck you!”

  I stamped on his leg again and was alarmed at the amount of blood pouring out of it.

  “If you don’t do as I say then I won’t be able to call for help, as it looks like you’re about to bleed out.”

  He looked at his leg, face already going pale, and pressed his finger against his computer; I grabbed his wrist and used his forefinger to quickly type out a message to Claire and hit send. I didn’t have time to call her and I didn’t know if she would pick up, but this way she would get my SOS for help no matter what. I looked at the sleek glass of the computer, which was more of a fashion accessory than anything else, as you could get ones that projected their screens in mid-air, and thought of my next move.

  Who else should I call or what else should I do while I had access to the galactic web?

  Still pondering the question I frowned in confusion as the screen went dead, and shook my attacker’s wrist to bring it back alive. It remained blank as I looked down at him in annoyance and saw his vacant stare looking at me.

  I dropped the limb and jumped back.

  “Hey, you OK?”

  I crept forward and nudged him with my foot but didn’t get any response.

  Shit. Shit. Shit.

  This wasn’t how this was supposed to go. I only wanted to scare someone into letting me use their device so I could get some help; now I had a corpse at my feet. Coming closer I nudged him again before I knelt down and touched his neck not knowing what I would find, but seeing it in the movies enough times, hoping that it would cure him of what was wrong.

  His skin still felt warm, but he was definitely dead.

  A sound behind me made me turn around. A man was in the mouth of the alleyway looking at me.

  “Can, can, can you give me a hand? My friend has fallen and I need to get him some help.”

  “Yeah, sure,” came the reply as feet approached me.

  I kept my face away from the stranger and began walking towards him. “Just keep him company, I’m gonna get some help,” I said, passing him by, my face still half turned away from him.

  I kept on walking keeping my pace steady until I heard a shout behind me. “Hey, stop! This man’s—”

  I didn’t wait to hear the rest of what he had to say before I tucked my head down and ran for my life out of the alleyway as fast as I could.