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A Xenon Christmas
Robert Salvatore woke up to what felt like a normal day in Xenon city. A cold, dark
city made completely of steel and computer technology. During a Xenon winter, the
temperature could drastically change from fifty degrees below zero, to one hundred and
eighty above.
He awoke to the crisp, cold, metallic air beginning to cycle through his estates oxygen
filters, but he did not mind the metallic air; he had been exposed to it since he was a very
young boy about the age of three. Robert tapped a flat-screened button on a panel in front
of him. The bed, a sleeping capsule, slowly ejected from the wall and tilted forward for
him to step out.
His home didn’t seem like it normally was. There was no smell of the androids, which
every morning cooked him his food and brought it up to his room. It was hard to come
by “real” food in Xenon anymore; it was all simulations and meal capsules now. Robert
was rich. He had shimmering, wavy black hair with which he combed to the right. He
had pale, silky white skin which seemed to glow like the moon in the dark night sky, and
deep sky blue eyes, which were cold and seemed full of hate, As if he had been through
much pain and suffering, causing his soul to be numb.
Robert Salvatore used to be a police officer in Xenon, a high-ranking police captain. He
resigned due to cruel laws being passed that sickened him, and that would sicken anyone
to see what the XCPD had done. The police officers were trained to their breaking point.
They had no emotions anymore; they would arrest people within 15 feet of the police
department prison stairs, they would murder someone whom was “too close” to them, or
the chief. The chief, a tall, slender man about the age of 29, whom went by the title “lord”
Arcus, was a cruel, harsh man. He was once a friend of Robert’s but a tragic incident
happened in the marketplace one day, about two years before Robert’s resignation, where
his parents, siblings, and friends were all killed during an invasion including two of
Xenon’s biggest gangs. That is why Lord Arcus was such a cold, cruel, hateful man.
Upon Robert’s resignation, he solemnly swore to oppose the Xenon police. He smuggled
out 150 cargo crates of high-ranking police equipment to bring to the rebel bases in the
lower levels of Xenon. He sold most of the materials. He sold what ever he had in the
stock market, supplies he no longer needed, and pieces of furniture and weapons he
had crafted and produced himself. He paid for many years of education with the money
he had earned. He learned advanced medical procedures, carpentry, programming,
gunsmithing, merchanting, mechanics, and many more skills such as advanced math, etc.
and quickly became the richest, most intelligent man in Xenon city.
Although he was extremely rich, he wanted more in life; much, much more.
He knew of a mine full of gold, possibly billions of dollars worth just past the police
station and down the road next to it. Was he going to risk being caught near the mine and
possibly get arrested? Or would he sneak out after the ten o’clock curfew set by police?
The most dangerous time of the day; night, in Xenon was full of bandits, assassins, other
rebels, and animals even the most powerful of police could not come to capture.
Robert decided to go and attempt to get into the mine during night. Despite the risk of
being mugged, or possibly killed during pitch black of night, He knew that during an
Xenon winter, nobody would ever want to go out during night anyway. The temperature
on a Xenon winter’s night could reach two hundred degrees below zero. Everybody
stayed inside with the nuclear heating to keep warm, and if someone did not have a home,
they would go into the Xenon subway tunnels and bundle up next to a barrel they would
build a fire in. Robert also knew that he could keep warm with his white silk suit with
thermal plates build into it would keep him alive in the cold night air and also help him
blend into the snow.
Robert just had to figure out how he was going to get into that mine. Two weeks after the
first tunnel had been dug, leading to a big underground cavern, the walls covered in ice
and the miners had to leave until it heated up. That night however, a rock slide appeared
in front of the mine and blocked anyone from getting in. The police would not assist
either, because the excuse that they were “protecting” the citizens of Xenon.
Robert knew that this was even more of a bonus. Nobody was able to get into the mine,
so nobody else would be at the mine to risk meeting. That meant that there was also
generators and heaters in the mine and he could keep himself warm for a long time with
them. That is, if they have any fuel in the generators anyway.
Robert spent the next few days gathering supplies for the mission. He talked to
ex switchblade members, which was a gang started several years before that had
been “erased” by the police, or so they thought. Robert gathered two thousand meal
capsules, all-together weighing about five to seven pounds. He packed enough H20
tablets to keep him hydrated for months, even though he knew he wouldn’t be there
for that long. He needed defense last. The switchblade members provided him with 2
anaconda pistols, a hard to find pistol crafted out of complete shimmering steel that
looked as if it were made of chrome. Robert also spent about two thousand dollars for
four berretta pistols and ammo, which he put two on either leg. The anaconda pistols, he
put on each side of his waist. Lastly, Robert collected ten S.W.A.T. door charges, used
in gang raids to blow open walls, etc. that he would use to clear the front of the mine of
rocks and other debris.
He was ready to do the mission. He put his equipment on his shelf, and went to his
sleeping capsule. He would leave and proceed to do the mission in the morning.
The next morning, Robert awoke to his best friend, Keven Smith.
Keven was a rebel like Robert. He had skills unlike any of the other rebels and Robert
paid for his education as well. They were accomplices in crime and both were very
intelligent and unpredictable; perfect, for good criminals. Keven had dark, wavy brown
hair that looked almost red; like dark cherry wood. He had big, dark; mud brown eyes
that made him look young and innocent, and he really wasn’t.
When Robert opened his eyes, Keven was standing there with a smile bigger than life.
Robert expected that he had just gotten an A+ or something in the medical classes he was
taking, but when he looked down from Kevens face, he noticed that he was suited in the
most weaponry and armor he had ever seen even police elites carry.
“Looks like you are going to need some assistance in a few hours.” Keven said while
loading a S.W.A.T. tactical pistol. “What? A few hours? What time is it?” Robert asked.
“About 7:30 at night, sleepy head. Now hop out of bed darlin’, we’ve got work to do!”
Keven said with a chuckle. “You’re lucky we are friends, Keven. I used to beat kids up
for saying annoyin’ things like that to me.” Robert joked.
Keven and Robert laughed together. “Lets get something to eat, and then we will head
out Rob; it’s after dark already, and its pretty cold too.” Keven said, packing thermal
pouches in his sleeves and coat body. Robert put on his thermal-plated white silk suit
with a gold shimmering trim on it. Then he equipped his pistols. “Okay Keven, I have
everything; lets move out.” Robert said while grabbing his backpack with the meal
capsules and H20 tablets inside.
Robert and Keven headed out the front door. They thanked the android waiting for them
at the bottom of the stairs with a breakfast roll. You couldn’t get breakfast rolls anymore;
only few people knew how to make them in Xenon, and they would program it into an
android to make it; selling them for hundreds of dollars. Every once in a while a trader
from a neighbor city would come through selling goods such as fresh pancakes, breakfast
rolls, or other goods you could not get in Xenon anymore. It was hard for traders to get
into Xenon anyway; the XCPD would not let them through the gates due to “civilian
safety” or “illegal goods”. So most of the time the traders took the very expensive
transport unit at the edge of town, the Electronic Pod Transportation System; the EPTS is
what everybody called it.
While Robert and Keven were walking down the street, they noticed some movement in
nearby shadows and decided to climb some buildings, sheds, etc instead, so they could
avoid bandits and XCPD officers on the street. After what seemed like a hundred years
of running and climbing, they were surprised they weren’t tired yet. They had taken
two energy capsules at the estate before they left and they just assumed that is why they
weren’t tired yet. They got to the entrance of the mine and tried to figure out the quietest
way to get in. Even though both of them knew there really wasn’t a quiet way.
They stuffed some TNT, military satchel charges, and other various explosives inside
holes in the rocks and calculated about how far the boulders and other items at the
entrance of the mine would fly, how loud the explosion would be on different sides of the
mine, etc.
The entrance to the mine was cleared in no time. The explosion sounded like a crack
of lightning, striking hollow bark. The noise of the explosion seemed to roll on for
an eternity before it quieted, and then subsided. They were both worried that the loud
explosion would alert the police jail guards. If it did, they would have Xenon search
squads after them in minutes. Robert and Keven stopped for a moment, just in case
someone had heard the noise. Then, they heard the blood curdling screeching siren,
booming from the police department speakers. At first, they thought it was just the ten
o’clock curfew siren, but this one was different. This siren was much, much louder.
Suddenly, a search light from a distant police tower locked on to Keven. Robert, with
lightning speed, whipped the anaconda pistol from the silk tie on his waist, aimed, and
fired. The man in the tower collapsed and fell to his knees, tumbling from the tower at
a great speed and falling upon four other XCPD officers, the impact killing them all in
an instant. Keven fell to his knees in fright. He had never really been in such an intense
situation, but he had trained for them. Robert patted him on his shoulder and explained
that everything was alright. Keven was as frozen as a statue for a moment and when
Robert kneeled down to talk to him, Keven swiftly kicked a pistol from the floor into
the air; he spun and caught it with one hand, knocked Robert out of the way, and fired
six shots into the air. Robert turned around and was able to clearly see the bodies of two
XCPD officers that had been sneaking up behind him to kill him the whole time.
“Well buddy…” Robert said, “I guess we’re even now, huh?” Keven was starting to feel
better now. He laughed with Robert for a moment and then slapped him a hi-five.
Robert and Keven, feeling much better, ate a meal capsule and H20 tablet and then
headed into the mine before more officers noticed them and showed up at the scene. They
walked down into the mine shaft until they came into the main cavern. Sure enough, there
were generators and hundreds of fuel crates for them, all left from the last miners.
They were both exhausted so Robert and his accomplice Keven, decided to set up the
camp site. Robert powered up some of the generators to set up the lights in the tunnels.
They used a laser to carve a small tunnel in the wall and created a room by setting off
some TNT in the tunnel; completely unheard from outside the mine. Now, if any police
did get into the mine, they would have to take off all of their armor, etc just to get in the
tunnel they had created.
Roberts set up a motion-tracking laser that would set off an alarm in the room they were
sleeping in. It would also produce a hologram of them in the main tunnel; that would
buy them some time. The two had trouble getting to sleep on the old-fashioned sleeping
bags. They were used to sleeping pods and holo-beds. They got to sleep soon however;
they were completely exhausted. The next morning, they woke up feeling completely
rejuvenated. For hours they cut through the rock with lasers, prospecting for gold.
They found a couple sections of the mine with hundreds of rocks that could be more
than two million dollars worth, and marked the wall with an X next to the ores. They had
months of supplies in the mines, so they did not have to worry about how long it took to
get the gold.
They were not bothered by the police, robbers, animals, or any other dangers when
they brought crates of gold to the underground safe at their estate every night either. It
was months of gathering gold and one night; they realized the police hadn’t forgotten
about them after all. That night they were coming back to the mine from another night
of unloading gold, they stepped into the mine and found a squad of fully-armed XCPD
officers waiting for them in the middle of the room.
Robert stared at the police for a few seconds and recognized the figure of the tall man in
the back. “Hello, Mr. Salvatore…” the man said through a static-like radio in his mask.
“Arcus? Is that you?” Robert said a half worried half sickened voice. Robert had a sudden
flashback of his time of service in the police. He remembered how cruel, harsh, and
unforgiving this man, his old police commander standing before him, was. Robert jolted
back into reality by the sound of a Mossberg 500 police shotgun being loaded.
“Yes Robert, It’s me.” Arcus said with a cold, expressionless voice. “I am sorry it had to
come to this.”
Robert and Keven stared at eachother for a moment and nodded. The look in each of the
friends eyes told a tale of “We have been though too much. I’m not going down without
a fight.” “Any last words, Salvatore?” Arcus said in a cruel voice. “Yeah…” Robert and
Keven said in unison. “Catch.” Robert and Keven each pulled out a berretta pistol and
open fired upon the room in the direction of the officers. They both fired the whole clip
in each gun. Thirty shots were fired, thirty shots hit their target. Arcus fell to his knees,
aghast; then he collapsed onto the floor. Arcus was dead. The cruel man that had made
Xenon the worst city on the face of the earth, was dead.
Robert turned to congratulate Keven and was horrified with what he saw. Keven had
been hit in the shoulder with the bullet of an M60 machine gun. An M60 was banned
weaponry in Xenon due to the damage they are able to cause. They have bullets as
long as your hand, fully extended. Bullets projected from the gun are thrown at such a
tremendous speed they are able to puncture through bulletproof metal. Robert wasn’t
sure how to save him, but he knew he had to. Robert got his medical kit and looked
inside. “Let’s see what we’ve got here…” he said. “Hand in there buddy” but before
Keven could say something to him, he hushed him and said “Don’t speak. It will make it
worse.”
Robert inspected the wound and found it, amazingly, hadn’t went all the way through,
and it hadn’t hit any major arteries either. He administered a shot to numb the area where
the bullet penetrated and then got his handheld laser and made an X over the gunshot
wound. Then he got out forceps and gripped the bullet, and pullet it out without hesitation
and sealed the wound with the laser. He got out a med-pak, a patch similar to a smoking
patch, but it administers medicine with nanobots created inside to quickly heal a wound.
He placed the med-pak on Keven’s shoulder and gave him a H20 tablet to keep him
hydrated.
The next day, Keven woke up with nothing but a light scar on his upper-chest by his
shoulder. He was feeling a lot better that day, and was waiting for Robert to come
back to the cavern. He was wondering where Robert was; he never woke up early. A
few moments later, Robert came in, with bags under his eyes, still in his pale white
medical scrubs he had quickly changed into last night. “Well, sleepin’ beauty…” Robert
joked “How are you feeling today?” he said while handing him a breakfast roll and
coffee.
“I went home and got the androids to make it for you” Robert said laughing. “Wait a
minute… aren’t the androids in the back of the mine working?” Keven asked.
Robert smiled. “Yes Keven, I made it from scratch… now eat up before I shove it in your
face” he said laughing “If I die… you stay away from my funeral” Keven said jokingly
and they both laughed together like they used to before the whole mission started.
Robert and Keven brought the remaining supplies and gold home and split the twenty
billion dollars worth of gold with each other. They purchased additions to their house, a
new car, took more school classes, and bought everything else they had needed and still
had a total of 19 million dollars left over. They threw the biggest party they had ever
seen. They had enough drinks, food, entertainment, and prizes for more than half of the
town to come to it. After the party, they had a conversation about how happy they were
that Lord Arcus was dead and now they could live in happiness their whole life.
Or could they… As Lord Arcus outstretched his arm, he pulled himself to his knees and
then stood up. He pressed a button on his wrist and an XCPD bulletproof vest that had
never seen before, fell from his chest. “I will get you Salvatore…” he said in a cold, cruel
voice. “You just wait…” and began to walk towards the entrance of the mine.
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Hopefully the story has the effect it had on my family and draws them in as a good Sci-Fi shoot-em-up style story.