As if by command, the city’s noise dimmed to a soft hum. There was a weight in the air, not like the smog, nor the humid summer, but something that weighed down the atmosphere, and raised a sharp burn to his chest. He swallowed the weight back down. His organic eye stung, and its vision blurred.
The night breeze carried a chill, though not discomforting. He felt cozy under the jacket, and the tingling breeze at his cheeks reminded him of the warmth in his chest.
“You’re here.” Her whispered, raspy voice echoed through the air, and the breeze suddenly felt still. As she sat upon a concrete ledge, the matte black hair softly shifted, though her thin, white coat more than made up for it, billowing like a flag, reflecting the distant city’s neon lights upon its synthetic fabric.
“I said I’d come, didn’t I?” Leo replied. “You say a lot of shit. Makes you an asshole.” She snapped, looking off at the looming skyscrapers, held back by elevated highways like concrete fences. Another holographic advertisement for Kiroshi’s Nanoscarf crept over and dissipated into the night sky. “So what’s the game now then?” Her face was lit by the distant lights, she didn’t turn to look at him.
There was a long silence that the distant cars on the highway strained to fill. “It’s not a game, Risa. And I’ve made up my mind.” He drew his Lexington from its holster and pointed it at her.
“It’s a game to them,” she said, gesturing to the flying adverts. “A massive, never-ending numbers game. But to you it’s your life. You’ll always be chasing me, never moving forward. I’m your fucking muse.” She turned to him, expression hardened. “I’m your reason to sing, the backing track of your sorry life. Please, Leo. Just end the cycle. It’s why I wanted you here.” She opened her arms wide, replicating a messiah, and looked up at the dark sky. “Put me out of our misery.”
Leo’s hands shook, he struggled to keep his aim straight. Every second, a new memory flashed into his mind. A different smile, long-lost tears, arguments and promises. “I swore I’d always do what was best for us, that I’d wade through the shit of this city for it. I haven’t broken that promise yet, even if the others are long buried.”
Leo moved the pistol to his own temple. “You didn’t deserve any of this. It was my fault, and I’ll make it right.” Risa suddenly looked down at him in shock, “Don’t be an idiot Leo! You’ve got a life to live, mine’s been spent!” She took a step forward, “This isn’t some Romeo & Juliet story, let it fucking go!” She tried a quick-hack on his pistol, but it gave no signal. Set to offline, Leo still aims organically. “It’s our lives Risa. It can be whatever story we want it to.” He closed his eyes, and squeezed out the tears welling up in the same ‘ganic eye.
Leo gripped the trigger of the Lexington, and felt a sudden calm flow over him. For the first time in a while, he felt every ounce of weight lift from his chest, there was no more debt to pay, no more jobs to run. He no longer had to hunt, to chase, to run. He no longer had to decide between right and wrong. It just didn’t matter anymore.
“No!” Risa ran towards him, tripping and stumbling over herself. Tears welled up in her eyes, blurring her vision of Leo. He began to squeeze the trigger, and heard her voice ring in his ears so full of life. It reminded him of how far they’d come.
“No!”
“Not the high-fat one, I’m watching my weight!” Risa said, slapping the packaged real-meat burger patty out of Leo’s hands. “I don’t wanna use rippers for my figure anymore, it’s not good to keep synthetically adjusting ourselves.”
“But the high fat’s always tastier!” He protested. “Why don’t we just get both and keep them in the freezer for next time?” He grabbed another low fat variety and held them both up in his hands. Risa pouted disappointedly “World’s in enough of a shit-show as it is, lets not overindulge. The consumerist epidemic is a real one!”
“We’ve had that epidemic for the last couple hundred years, and probably had it a few thousands of years back too. Another pack of meat isn’t changing anything.” Leo shrugged and put both packs of meat in the shopping trolley drone. “You’re so greedy. Always gotta have everything!” She grunted, and continued down the aisle.
What the hell was that supposed to mean? Leo thought. But decided it best to keep it to himself. As Risa walked off, he let out a deep sigh, and put the high-fat patties back in the store fridge.
A couple hundred eurodollars for their shopping this time around, Leo expected less, Risa expected much more. “Didn’t you always say groceries are cheaper in Japan? I don’t remember Tokyo being better than this.” Leo mentioned while the drone loaded shopping bags into their car–a Thorton Colby; midrange, effective, and horrendously boring.
“Tokyo isn’t like the rest of Japan. It’s its own little Night City, though way bigger. You’d still find the cheaper stuff if you knew where to go, and if you’d be happy with low-grade, unhygienic slop.” Risa replied, amidst loud chews of bubblegum. “Anyway, we didn’t spend that much this time, did you get the Centzon?”
Leo pulled out a square-shaped blue bottle from one of the bags “Yep. Indigo as usual. Ah shit, I forgot to buy cola!” He slapped a hand over his face. “It’s fine, I prefer it straight anyway. Get in the car, let’s do something! Don’t wanna waste one of your only days off this month.” Risa impatiently tugged on his sleeve and jumped in the passenger’s seat as the drone finished its work, closing the trunk.
He sat in the driver’s seat and set the autopilot to home, “Y’know, rushing me to enjoy my time-off as much as possible is basically like work. Let’s just have a drink nearby and make dinner at home. Good dinner, no scop.”
As they began to drive out of the parking lot, the car abruptly halted.
“DANGER DETECTED, RE-ROUTING…” Blared the car’s AI. A loud whirring and gunshots filled the air as an armoured black van rushed past them. “Leo, get down!” Shouted Risa, pulling on his arm. Boostergangers hung out the van’s open doors with machine guns firing behind. In another instant, three motorcycles, with two riders each, followed suit. The back riders had rifles of their own and wildly shot at the van.
Leo grabbed Risa and pulled her down, covering her with his body. As he guessed, stray gunshots flew at their car, most bounced off the bullet-proof windows, but eventually they wore down and a couple made their way through. Leo felt a sharp burn on his back and arm.
In an instant, the gunners were all gone. Though the ringing of police sirens and screaming pedestrians filled the air, they were both in a surreal stillness. A few drops of blood rolled off Leo’s clothes onto Risa’s head, “You’re bleeding! I’m getting the medpack.” She said, rushing to rummage through the glove-compartment. Meanwhile as the adrenaline calmed, Leo felt the pain shoot through his body and heard a warning alarm in his mind.
CRITICAL INJURIES DETECTED, TRAUMA TEAM RESPONSE EN ROUTE.
ARRIVAL IN 6:58
6:57
6:56
Risa grabbed hold of a MaxDoc auto-injector and jabbed him in the arm. A wave of calm overtook him as his muscles stopped tensing, his vision wavered. Leo looked into Risa’s eyes one more time, and passed out.
