A Sunflower Cried

PRESENT - OCTOBER 2029

Her hands shook as she pressed the muzzle against the forehead of the man that was crying and pleading before her. He sat on his knees, his hands behind his back, exactly as she ordered him to do. Although it wasn’t her favorite method of finding what she was looking for, she had only herself to blame. If she just stayed calm, she might have heard the guard approach and she would be perfectly fine hiding for a while. But she was too restless to notice his presence, and all of a sudden, the man stood behind her.

Lightning reflexes saved her.

“Quiet,” she hissed. Her finger trembled, occasionally touching the trigger of her handgun slightly.

“I have a wife... and a daughter. Please. I just want to go home tonight.”

She wanted exactly the same. Someone once said that killing gets easier after the first murder, but she didn’t agree with that and only hoped the guard would cooperate.

“If you ever want to see them again, tell me where I can access the Lazarus archive.”

To her knowledge, the archive should be accessible from somewhere in the building, which she entered through the roof ten minutes ago. She had no idea where to start though, so she just decided to begin looking in the very first room she came across. The computer on the desk didn’t provide anything, and neither did any of the files in the cabinet.

“I-it’s in the basement. You need to take the elevator all the way down,” the guard whimpered.

“I have no doubt it’s heavily secured. How do I get in?”

“Take my access card. It’s in my back pocket.”

“I will, thank you,” she said and whacked his head with the grip of her gun. He fell face forward to the floor. She softly kicked him in the side to confirm he was as unconscious as she hoped he would be, and grabbed the card from this pocket, after which she left the office and locked the door.

Focus. Breathe.

There was hardly any light in the building at this hour. In the hallway, there were lights on the wall every 10 meter, emitting a soft blue light that lit up their surroundings. The full moon and its light contributed a bit of lucidity as well, which enabled her to quickly find the elevator. On the way down, she tucked her gun behind her back again.

The elevator reduced its speed and came to a stop. “Please identify yourself,” a woman’s voice sounded from the intercom, and a scanner near the door lit up. She held the access card against it. As expected, a green light flashed and the doors slid open. “Welcome, Mister Koda,” the somewhat robotic voice greeted. It didn’t really sound welcoming.

The hi-tech machinery in this basement was a bit overwhelming for those not familiar with the latest computer technology. Multiple mainframes were connected to each other, and the walls were adorned with flashy screens that showed a logo, bouncing across the screen. She put her right foot into the room and looked around carefully. There was no one to be seen, but there was a ridiculous amount of security cameras. They must have spotted her already, which meant she had to hurry.

She dashed to the nearest mainframe, kicked the chair aside, and grabbed a flash drive from her pocket. Her trembling hands caused the little device to drop on the floor. “Fuck,” she said in a somewhat raised voice and examined the drive, but to her relief there wasn’t a scratch to be found.

As soon as the drive was connected to the mainframe, the screen lit up and presented a window that asked for a password. She looked at her hands and up to the screen, to enter the characters she scribbled on her hand with a marker two hours earlier, and tapped the button that said “CONFIRM”.

“Access denied.”

“What the...”

A second attempt yielded the same outcome. The heat flared up inside her as time progressed while she stared at the characters on her hand to see if she made a mistake. Did she switch an o for a zero? Maybe the 9 for a g?

“All right, one more time, and get it right this time. You can do it,” she whispered.

“Access denied.”

“Hnnng. Damn you Sara,” she groaned. There was no time for an alternative approach, so she quickly unplugged the drive, ran to the elevator, and pushed the button for the top floor.

Once out of the elevator, she heard the faint voices of two men talking to each other. The whole building was probably on high alert already. She inhaled and walked out of the elevator on her toes. The sound of her heart beating deafened her, and the thought of others being able to hear it too made her hands sweaty.

It took her a few seconds to realize the gravity of the situation when she saw a red laser dot moving slowly on her upper body. Her eyes grew when she saw the silhouette of a person slowly appearing from the darkness. They were at least 30 meters away, yet a trigger pull away from ending her life.

Dying was a better option than being taken prisoner, she deemed, and with that thought, she took her chances and jumped to the left. The door gave in to her weight and cracked open, and she fell into a small office.

“Stop, or I’ll shoot,” the guard shouted through the hallway. She got up from the floor and scanned the room. The only other exit was the window. Without hesitation, she opened it and climbed into the opening. Although she wasn’t afraid of heights, seeing the floor 12 meters below her made her head spin.

“There you are! Come down, and put your hands behind your head!“ the guard said with an intimidating voice as they entered the room.

“Never.”

A loud bang made her ears ring, and she felt a force pushing her left shoulder. Then the feeling of cold air rushing. She put her arms before her face, just moments before impact.

Eyes open. Nothing but darkness.

How long was I gone?

The muscles all over her body burned and when she tried to stand up, her left arm refused to move. The branches of the foliage pricked her legs, but she could only be grateful it broke her fall.

The flashlight that shone from the window she just fell from blinded her, and she rolled away to get out of the vision of the guard. The bushes provided enough cover to evade the bundle of light. It took a while to reach the adjacent building crawling with only one good arm. The wall of it proved helpful in getting on two feet again.

After zigzagging through a few alleys to lose any possible pursuers, she arrived at a large street. It was still crowded, despite the late hour. At first she didn’t understand the strange looks of the passersby she attracted, but then she noticed a sharp throbbing in her left shoulder. She touched it, but quickly retracted her hand and closed her eyes while whimpering. Her eyes grew when she saw the dark red blood on her fingers, that slowly mixed with the raindrops that fell on it.

“Excuse me, Miss?“ she said as she walked towards a young woman.

“Oh dear, what happened? Are you all right?“ the woman asked, her eyes drawn to the blood soaked sleeve.

“Not really. Could you help me and fetch some gauze from the clinic over there?“

The woman looked to the building on the other side of the road. “Just let me take you there. You need medical help.”

“No! They... they won’t help me. If you just can get it for me, please?”

“What do you mean they won’t help you? Wait, you’re not one of those dissidents are you?“ the woman replied while she narrowed her eyes. “Perhaps you should ask someone el-”

The young woman stopped her sentence when she felt the cold touch of a gun against her belly.

“Apologies for doing this. Just act normal, and give me your scarf. Then you can walk away.”

This could backfire massively.

She felt the body of the woman tremble, eyes quickly moving left and right, looking for help that didn't come. After what seemed like an eternity. the woman handed over the scarf and did a step backwards.

“Thank you. Now, go and don’t look back.”

Five minutes later, the scarf was tightly bound around her shoulder. It probably wasn’t the best solution and it looked horrible, but it stopped most of the bleeding. She left the alley where she sealed the wound, merged with the other people on the street and set for her home, while the distant thunder rumbled in the Osakan skies and the drizzle became a downpour. Every time a patrol car passed by her, she directed her eyes to the ground to make sure she didn’t catch their attention by making eye contact. There wasn’t much to fear though. One of the perks of not knowing who you are is the fact that others most likely didn’t know your identity either.

She slammed the door of her one room apartment and rest her back against it. Tears ran across her face, her hands trembled, and the water from her soaked clothes dripped on the wooden floor.

“Fuck this!“

The neighbor replied by knocking on the wall a few times, but his lack of sleep was the least of her problems. She let herself fall on the mattress that lay in the corner, grabbed her phone and started typing away. The screen reflected her face, her squinted eyes, her pursed lips.

Sara, wth! You gave me the wrong password. It was all for nothing, and I almost got killed!

The second she tapped ‘send’, a shock jolted her body. “No...“ she mumbled as the room started spinning and her vision became blurry.

Not... again.

Her phone dropped on the laminated floor as she stumbled to the kitchenette and took out a tiny bottle from one of the cupboards. “Owww,” she moaned and grabbed her head. With her other hand, she turned over the bottle and took the pill that fell out of it. With her vision almost gone, she touched inside the cupboard to find a glass and once she found one, she filled it with water to wash away the pill with one big gulp.

Within a minute, her headache subdued and her surroundings became recognizable again. Her relief lasted shortly though. She looked at the bottle, laying on its side. “No!” She started to shake it frantically, as if that would magically fill the bottle with pills again, but it stayed empty. “No...” She slowly fell to her knees and crawled back to her mattress.

She hit the mattress on various places to locate her phone, tapped the screen a few times and put it to her ear.

Please pick up.

“Hello?“ a sleepy voice answered.

“Becca? I ran out. Can you help me?”

“Hina, what... could you stop calling me in the middle of the night?”

“It’s bad.”

“Fine,” the woman on the other end sighed. “Meet me tomorrow at nine. The usual place.”