1 Witness

October 10, 2042

I remember that day so well. I was eleven back then. It started out as another normal day in my life as a normal 11 year-old boy, but ended as the night that changed the course of my future.

It was sometime around dusk, and I was tinkering with an android's head inside my little shed outside the house. It was my father's gift for me for my 9th birthday. Hanging on the walls were all sorts of tools and below them were all sorts of equipment and materials: 3D printers, industrial tools, metals and plastics in different shapes and sizes, power tools, and a lot more. Littered on the floor were all sorts of random things, some of which I don't even remember where it come from, and the worktable in front of me was messy enough for Ant-Man to get lost in if he shrinks into it.

I heard my father's car pull up in our driveway and its door closing. Through the tinted glass walls of my shed, I saw him rush towards the house at an agitated pace. He was still wearing his lab coat, but his necktie was already undone. I figured he just got home from work.

My father, Dr. William Maysen, PhD, worked at Entropy Co., one of the largest technological institutes in the world that helped build Frontier City. He was accepted there straight out of college, having graduated at the top of his year. During his time in the institute, he has slowly built his reputation as one of Entropy's most brilliant research scientists and engineers.

Frontier City is one of the many technological cities, or technocities, for short, around the world that features highly advanced technologies in its surroundings and establishments. It lives up to its name as the most advanced technocity in the world, being the frontier of human technological advancement. But despite being the world's most advanced city, it is also one of, if not the most eco-friendly place on the planet, with its near-zero carbon emissions, and the city's entire electric source coming from renewable means, such as solar power, wind power, and even biogas. I guess after the terrifying Event Zero thirty years ago, humanity finally learned its lesson on taking care of the planet.

I turned off my equipment and went out of the shed, heading straight to our door to greet Dad. I was about to go in when I heard my parents talking.

"…as much of our stuff as you can now. Just get the essentials: food, cashcard, clothes, whatever. I'll be in my office sorting out my things. They could be here any moment." It was my dad's voice.

"But William, what's happening? Why are you in a rush? Who's coming?" My mom Edith asked him, her voice slowly rising with the panic she was feeling.

"I'll explain everything when we're finally on the road, but I need you to hurry right now. And Hal," my dad said to our AI house assistant, "compress all of the files on my computer and move it all to Drive D. Where's Vince?" He asked Mom.

I opened the door and stepped inside. With the season about to turn to winter, the warm atmosphere inside the house was comforting. Our spacious living room greeted me as it always did with its modest furnishings and LED walls which constantly changed its color, providing an aesthetic and transient background for the room. I saw my parents standing at the foot of our wide staircase. They both looked at me. "What's up, dad?"

"There you are." He turned to my mom, "Edith, go", and she briskly walked upstairs, looking frantic. Dad walked towards me and I asked him before he could speak, "What's happening, dad?"

"Something serious, Vince, but don't worry, nothing's going to happen to us. All you have to know is that NTRP is-"

A low booming sound suddenly came from outside, followed by the house lights and power going out. We looked around as our eyes adjusted to the dimness of the emergency lights and heard Mom calling out to us from somewhere.

"Shit, they're here." Dad grabbed my hand and led me upstairs. We saw Mom walking down the hallway towards us, her phone flashlight turned on in her hand.

"Turn it off." My dad whispered to her once we got near. "Stay close. We'll try to get out through the back-"

We all heard a faint hiss from downstairs and Hal's voice said "Welcome home, Dr. Maysen." They already bypassed the door security.

Beams of light bounced off the walls from downstairs and the sound of multiple footsteps echoed towards us, but one footstep in particular stood out the most. It was slow, heavy, and menacing.

The footsteps ceased for a moment and I saw my dad take the opportunity. He whispered to the watch in his hand and I heard Hal's voice reply, "Understood, sir."

The sound of blasters, running on the back-up power source, emerging from the walls and priming themselves lasted for only a second before they started firing and we started making our way towards the upstairs terrace, where we could ride a moving platform down to our backyard and hide in the forest beyond our house. Flashes of blue light from the blasters outshone the yellow beams of light from the intruders' flashlights and some of the people downstairs were audibly hit, but a deep humming sound told us that a force field has been activated and the constant firing from the house's guns were taken down one by one by louder explosions

We heard loud orders being barked at by someone downstairs, followed by echoing footsteps. People started to comb every corner of our house, but we were already at the porch's door. Then…

"Shit, I forgot the hard drive!" Dad suddenly exclaimed.

"Leave the hard drive, Will, that's not important!" My mom replied, pulling my dad's arm.

"It is important, Edith. If they get that hard drive they get exactly what they want from me! You two go on ahead, I'll catch up."

"Are you stupid?! We have to go now, let them get what-"

"Edith, listen to me," my dad grabbed my mom by her shoulders, "if I let them get that hard drive then the whole city- no, the whole world- will be put at risk. That hard drive contains all the research documents that me and Louis have been working on for years! So please, just take Vince and go out through the back door, I'll catch up, I promise."

Mom didn't reply, she merely kissed my dad on the lips and they embraced while doing it. I'm not sure if they remembered that an 11-year-old kid was standing nearby and was witnessing the disgusting thing they're doing in full view.

"C'mon, Vince, let's go." Mom grabbed my arm as we went in the opposite direction as dad was going.

"What about dad?" I asked her.

"He'll come back," my mom said with a smile as she faced me, "he always does."

We could still hear the sound of heavy footsteps, but they were faint, and so we were safe. We turned a corner and the door was there, but there was also a problem: the house had no electricity, so we can't open it unless we type in an override code. Mom looked at me, then to the glass window beside the door. I already knew what she was planning.

We approached the window and she pushed the glass upwards, then she spoke to me.

"Hide in your shed. Wait for us. We'll come and get you." I nodded and started climbing out the window. I fell on the concrete floor of the terrace overlooking our large backyard and walked towards the moving platform that leads down. I pushed the manual control lever and it started to slowly descend, but I stopped the platform midway and jumped to the ground, so as to let my parents have a way down as well. I looked back at my mom looking out the window and she gave me a thumbs up, as if telling me that she hadn't thought of that.

I moved quietly in the dark backyard towards my shed, avoiding rays of light coming from out front. As I was about to go inside I saw a tall man direct some of his men who were wearing night vision goggles towards the side of the house, where me and my shed were.

I hastily opened the door and slid inside, closing it just in time before someone looked at the spot where I was. Through the wall of the shed I saw the men move towards my direction. Then, I saw the back door open and mom and dad making their way towards me.

I felt relieved for a second, before I realized that if my parents didn't stop, they were going to bump into some of the armed men heading this way.