The Borg Kingdom - Chapter 2

“FUCKING...PAY...SCARED?”

Uggh. I feel every muscle on my body tired as I start waking up.

“BITCH...KILL YOU...SCRATCH”

My arms are so weak, and I feel a headache coming on.

“TIRES COST?!...PAYING FOR IT!”

“Would you please relax?”

Steve turns to me “WHAT DO YOU MEAN RELAX?! DID YOU SEE WHAT THEY DID TO MONIQUE?!”

Sigh. “Yes, I did,” I raise my head off the table and massage my temple “and I also remember them having some kind of monster chasing us, so can you please shut up and sit before they kill us both?”

Looks like Steve forgot about that monster while ranting and raving about his beloved car. “So what? I can still kick their ass...” Steve said meekly while sitting down on the chair beside me.

I can feel the unrest and nervousness in him. I hope he doesn’t do anything stupid when they come in.

Right now, we’re in a shitty-looking metal room with nothing but an old table and the two chairs we’re on. The only other thing I can see in the room is a red blinking light in the corner. They were watching us.

I look at the table in front of us and notice this brownish paint across one of the edges of the table. Weird colour choice, I thought. I run my finger lightly on top of it. It felt like something dry, so I brought my finger to my nose to smell it.

This sickening, slightly metallic smell. I recognise it immediately. With all the scrapes and scratches I had, how could I not? “Fuck.”

*Clank*

The door opens and two men in suits walk in.

“YOU SONS’A BICTHES-” Steve explodes as soon as they walk in and starts getting up. I quickly grab his arm and push him back down on his seat.

“Shut up!” I say to him, in a low voice. I don’t want to antagonise them even in the slightest. Steve noticed my look and understood that there must’ve been a reason I acted like this, so he calmed down and folded his arms”

The two men stand across from the table. One was bald, the other not. Both had sunglasses on. There wasn’t much else that differentiated them from one another.

The one with hair walked back to shut the door, and the bald one proceeded to open a folder he had under his arms when they came in.

There was silence for a good few seconds, which felt like an eternity to me.

The bald man finally looked up at us and spoke. “Steve Myers, and Mike-” he looked back at his folder again “-Kristoff”. He looked back and forth between Steve and me, then back to the folder. “Both suspected a few times by the police of unauthorised exits and engagement with Borgs.” I don’t know what he’s hoping to see, but he keeps looking at us. “General disregard to the law, property damage, illegal street racing -”

“That was only ONCE-” Steve said holding up a single finger. The bald man just looked at him saying nothing.

I slapped Steve on the arm and hit him with a stare.

“What?” Steve says, rubbing his arm. “I put in a new mix for the turbo and wanted to test it out”

The bald man throws the folder down on the table which turns out heads. “The list goes on.”

He puts both hands on the table and leans a little closer to us. “I just want to know why two children decided to take a joyride through a restricted area, known to be infested with Borgs?”

“What do you mean known?” I ask him. “They never told us this area had Borgs. I had to pay a lot to get this info from the dark web!” just as I finished talking, I realised what I had just said.

“Exactly my point” Now the Bald man is looking at me with a slight smile. “Civilians don’t need updating about restricted areas, do they? The authorities don’t expect them to waltz their way in accidentally. If someone searches and pays for information on the dark web, however... is that person considered a normal, reasonable citizen?” the man asked, obviously rhetorically.

He stands up straight, fixing his suit jacket. “What were you two doing out there?”

Steve and I look at each other before I start speaking again. “We heard parts from these Borgs go for a lot, and we can all use a little more money.” This was half the truth. We did get money for these parts, but that wasn’t why we started this whole thing.

The man stares at me for a few seconds. Then, with his right hand, he points at the red blinking light over his left shoulder. “Do you see it? That has the latest monitoring technology. That includes lie detection.” he puts his hand back down. “One more chance”

Steve and I stay silent. This was too personal. Why in the hell do they need to know this anyway?

After some time of this awkward silence, the bald man gives the other a half-nod. The other man, who was standing on the corner the whole time, started moving towards us.

“WHO THE FUCK CARES ABOUT THE BORGS?! THEY KILLED OUR PARENTS, WHY THE HELL SHOULDN’T WE KILL THEM BACK?” Steve burst out, and the man stopped moving.

There is no point keeping it in if we’re gonna die anyway. “He’s right,” I start talking. “They killed both our parents 10 years ago in that attack on SM mall.”

I don’t remember my parents much, but I have seen pictures and recordings. They were nice and warm people. They were loved by many, but these Borgs took their lives away so suddenly. I’m not going to pretend to have happy memories, because I was too young when they passed, but I could see how much they loved me through these recordings. And I can see my mom’s face whenever she sees them.

My mom is actually my aunt. She is my real mother’s sister. She never lied to me about who she was, and I could see her in so many of the recordings of my parents. After they passed, she took me in and raised me. I call her mom because, well... who else is there?

“So you guys want revenge and decide to hunt little Borgs here and there? That's pointless.” The bald many said, very matter-of-factly.

“No. I want to train myself before eventually joining Atlas’s Academy. Then I can kill these basters in the thousands and make an actual difference.” I turn my head to Steve and put my hand on his shoulder. “Steve doesn’t fight, but he is a damn good driver, so he drives us to wherever these things are. To this day we were never caught by the Borgs.”

“Yeah!” Steve chimes in. “And this doesn’t count! We definitely got away from the Borgs. Just didn’t anticipate your goons and their giant monster”

We said all we could. There was nothing else we could add here, so all we did was wait to see what happens.

The two men stare at us for a few minutes. Eventually, the bald man holds a finger to his ear. “Got it.” he puts his arm back down “Looks like the boss wants to see you. Come.”

The bald man opens the door and walks out. The other man stands there looking at us.

“Let’s go” I get up, and Steve does the same.

“I just hope they let me see Monique before they kill us. Even prisoners get a phone call, right? Why is this any different?”

I chuckle a little. “Just walk man” and push Steve through the door.

The man inside walks out after us and shuts the door.

“This way,” the bald man said, as he walked forward.

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Check out Chapter one below: