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Chapter 23: Going a head

  20 different booths of equal length, all station beside one another at the main entrance into the Mega Mall. With a hundred or so visitors, waiting in line to get past one of these booths. "Woi what is this?" Princi questions "Can't walk around all these idiots!!".

  "Don't speak to loud, everyone could hear you" Connor answered trying to keep her under watch, feeling the watch of a hundred pair of eyes staring at them. "Oh those are the psychics" Pam pointed to one of the booth's window, with a blurry view of a person on the other side of that glass. "Mind readers?" Princi looks, unable to fathom the idea of these kinds of people existing. "I though their just a bunch of slackers!!!" she laughed. "There are people around us" Connor grabs on to her, attempting to restrain as she resisted. "Wait-psychics-are they-ggonna read us?" Jesse mutters, pointing towards herself, grabbing tightly against the cloth of Pam.

  "That's nonsense" Andi interrupts, popping between the four of them. The smell of a dead cigarette bud sat in palm, before digging around for another. "Your jobs, not to watch the entrance-" he explains, struggling to open a fire from his lighter. "Out of fuel?" Pam flirts. "Sir I don't think you should light a fire here" Connor hesitantly warns.

  After a failed attempt at lighting his cigarette, he agrees. "Your jobs are to keep an eye for what bypasses those guys" pointing towards the booths. "Most of these psychic aren't that accurate but it makes do" he explains. Retrieving a flask hidden inside his coat, gulping down all its content as the rest watches on. "Here". Passing on two white cards with a slick edge all around it. "You'll be using these to get pass the booth, from then on your all your own" he explains. "Wait sir, what about you?" Connor intrudes.

  Turning his back away from the group, with sudden movement causing his coat to momentarily float in the air. "I'll be watching outside" he answered before leaving.

  "Let down" Princi sighs. "Yeah I guess you could say that" in a shock expression before sighing, "Looks like I'm in charge" she whispered to herself, looking at Jesse, then Connor, then Princi.

  Should we begin? Connor wonders. In a moment of thought, noticing his absent mind, Princi strikes. Snatching up of the cards as she races off. "Too the back door I go!!" she declares, sprinting forward leaving the rest to follow behind.

  The mall has a liminal like design similar to an airport, build to hold up an efficient amount of shop lots while still maintaining it simplistic and organized look. With large pillars erected up in a formation of a circle in the middle of the mall. With the every direction stretching out and seven floor that stack upon one another. "Isn't this too big for just one entrance?" Jesse asked, stunt by the size of it. "There's more entrances on the other directions but those are heavily guarded" Pam points out. "So all this just for some Chairman's talk show?" Princi scoffs at the idea, displeased at the need for all of this just for some stranger to make a speech about implementing a few policies.

  "Well the amount of government officials and representatives have decreased due to these killings " Pam acknowledged, "Maybe its to finally catch the killers that's all" pressing her hands together in a shape of a triangle. "You don't say" Princi response.

  "Both of you focus! There's other agents patrolling around here too!" Connor intrudes, storming off with Jesse following behind. "He seems on edge" Pam remarks, crossing arms as she takes in the atmosphere.

  "What are doing with that face?" indifferent to her surroundings as she asked, her eyes flat but sharp, piercing straight through Pam. "What face?" Pam asked, with a nervous grin. Standing silently for a few more moments, with a displease look on her face she answered, "That weird face you did while sniffing the air".

  "I do?" Pam innocently respond. Infuriating Princi. "Hino would be better!!"

  "Why did you agree to work under Base 12?" Connor questions as they walk pass various shops. With their glimmering light, popping up at your face trying to snatch your undivided attention. "I needed the money. Family need it. That's all" Jesse respond as she follows along "I don't know what am I supposed to do".

  A feeling of regret washes over him, fearing he has just open some untouched wounds that should be touch in the first place, he sighs. "Just don't die". One simple instruction, don't die! Don't fight, don't run, don't cry. Just don't die! He pats on her shoulder, holding a soft smile. "Ok" she agrees.

  "Why did you join too?" she nervously asked.

  Knowing this would be inevitable, Connor sighs, stopping to take a deep breath. His eyes wandering towards the crowd around him. He sighs once more, the feelings, the memories, once again a burden to him. "I need the resources" he admitted "I needed to find my family".

  "W-what happened to them" her words coming out one at a time, each one more hesitant to be spoken then the last. "Same with everybody" calling the report he dug up on Hino and Princi respectively. "The disaster incident" he muttered thinking both the faces of Hino and Princi. "I'm not sure how much of my family had survive but I believe their still out there" chuckling to himself, aware of his delusion. 'Due you have siblings?'

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  "Two little sisters and a younger brother but the remains of my sisters had been found" every stinging deeper as he spoke. "Right now if my brother is still alive, he would be 19 I think".

  "I hope you succeed" Jesse prayed, unsure on what to say or if there are anything that she could say. "It's alright. Lets just continue" he sighs once more, leaving Jesse there as he jumps back to work.

  ........

  "Next" the speaker announced for the next one in line to step forward. Behind the safety of the glass, face concealed to the public's watch. A psychic enters and observe the thought of many civilians. Most normal and mundane but a rare few with odd ideas running along their subconscious but not enough to press the red button on the side of wall.

  "Only when malicious and disturbing thoughts" a high ranking agent had instructed them too but looking into his mind, she knows that agent was just scared, scared of them. Looking through the glass she could see all those face from all ages, young, old, mid-40's even babies. Non of them seem to be out of the ordinary, even her headache was starting to return from all this overdue digging through the minds of regular folks, there's clearly nothing and communicating with the rest of the other 19 of her coworkers, they agreed.

  Nothing was here.

  For moment, turning away for some refreshment and maybe some aspirin, somewhere in her bag. Popping in one of the tablet as she takes a gulp down. Her body feeling youthful once again her mind revitalized, she turns back towards the glass barrier. Noticing some has already taken a seat in front.

  "Did I press the "next" button?" she wonders. Unsure if she did or not. Who knows, maybe its the slip of the mind that happens to people who were busy. Even a psychic could forget repetitive things like these. Brushing it off, she begins the same process once again.

  Like the feeling of stepping onto a grassy field with your bare legs, she enters another realm that only she could see, having witness countless other minds up to this point, to her this feel no different. Oddly enough, the normalcy in this person's mind felt to normal, even for the average. "Is there anything wrong ma'am?" a radio voice of a guard checks in. "Its nothing" she quickly answered "A minute please".

  Sweating from being in a closed off booth for so long, she chuckles at the heat, taking a sip of water as she inspect the person she's reading once more. A young woman in her early 30's, obviously a foreigner-China she suspects-with jet-black hair that end right before touching the shoulders and a single mole right below her left eye lid. Reading further, she knows her name is Zhang-Min but there's something odd about how she gotten her name.

  Not from birth as a child by a parent but by a collective? "That's odd" she whispered to herself, still not seeing anything odd or significant in this person's head. It must be the aspirin, she thought.

  Lingering over the "Go" button, thinking there shouldn't be anything wrong, somehow her stomach hurts. Maybe she shouldn't press that button yet or was the aspirin also effecting her stomach or was it the exhaustion in here?

  "Yes press the button"

  Someone spoke. With only her inside the booth and all sounds being completely isolated from the inside and outside, the only sound that she could hear was her own. Her breath draws nears, the sweat rolls down her forehead. "Maybe I need another sip" she thinks.

  "Are you gonna press the button?"

  That voice returned, startling her. That's clearly not her voice. "Ma ,am!!" the radio called once more. "Are you alright in there?" the burly voice of the guard, sounding impatient chime through. "Another minute" she respond.

  "Are you the one speaking?" she asked herself, staring towards the glass. Zhang-Min on the other side, unaware of her gaze. This statuesque person couldn't be the one talking right? Maybe it really was the aspirin after all.

  "I'm done holding back" the voice spoke again, this time solidifying its existents. "Are you the one?" she whispered to her herself looking at an unwary Zhang-Min.

  "I know you can see me!!" the voice appeared again, with Zhang-Min staring at the glass, directly towards her. Now the once too perfect mind begin to opened up, this sharp feeling like spiders crawling across her skin as she continues to read her mind, unsure to press the red button or not. Voices of children cries could be heard inside her own mind and the tragic plea of many sound inside her. All those last words before her, Zhang-Min. No!, not Zhang-Min, what wearing her, that isn't Zhang-Min that's her skin. Behind that pert innocent smile, the tall stature of allegiance, except those eyes. Those belong to the person wearing her.

  "Press the button" her voice echoed inside her. "I can't!!" she answered out loud, reaching for the red button before a surge of pain bit into her. Stumbling off her chair, her back injured from the impact, her face dreaded. Sitting on the ground beside her, the two slender parts of her finger, cleanly removed from the rest. "I need help" her breath shaky. "I need help!!" she yells trying to reach for the radio as her hand detaches from her arm.

  Crying and panicked on the ground, with no one to hear her. Peering through the window, Zhang-Min's eyes stared through the glass like it wasn't there at all since the beginning. "Could you see me?" she asked. Without waiting for a response she asked another. "What are you gonna do to me?". Zhang-Min's answer? All readable through her mind, first her, then all 19 of her coworkers, then the mall.

  Shaking her head, muttering "Please please please don't" as sweat and tears fall over the place. Zhang-Min through the other side, her last words heard by the psychic "Sweet dreams", winking as it goes dark.

  Stepping through the entrance, past the booth with confused guards and onlooker investigating the sudden lack of responses from all 20 booths. Followed by a few others following behind her, as they step in to the mall. Once again blending with the crowd.

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