It was the middle of the night in a dark lane. The moon and star was nowhere to be seen. In the darkness, a man who looked no older than twenty-five, wearing a red T-shirt and blue jeans, being bald, having no face hair and was running while breathing heavily, like prey running for its innocent life from a brutal predator. He stopped near a garbage bin after seeing a light about a mile away, indicating a populated neighborhood. He smiled as wide as he could, tears coming from his eyes, as if he had escaped death itself—or something worse...
Suddenly, he heard a gunshot. The garbage bin near him flew away from the bullet's impact. He looked behind him, terrified. When he saw what was behind him, his smile faded. His eyes widened in fear, but the tears were still running. Now, however, they were no longer tears of happiness… they were tears of terror.
He saw a group of three humans wearing red cloaks, their faces hidden behind wooden masks with two holes for the eyes. The one in the middle was holding a gun—the one who had fired the shot.
He spoke in a deep voice:
"I didn't miss. It was just a warning. Be glad our superiors told us to bring you back alive and without injuries, or I wouldn't hesitate to kill you. Now be a good boy and come with us without causing any trouble."
The man, still terrified, his face covered in tears, spoke in a shaky and panicking tone, screaming with all his strength while breathing heavily:
"I am… I am not going with you!!! You would… you would… I will kill myself instead of going!!!"
He pulled a knife from his pocket. He grinned like a cray man, not caring about his life, smiling as if he had won a lottery.
But before the knife could reach his throat, he was hit from behind by a metal baseball bat. The metal clang rang in his ears. His vision became blurry, his knees felt heavy, and he collapsed to the ground.
Before he became fully unconscious, he heard the masked humans talking.
"Now we have to inform the superiors," said the masked man with the gun.
"Those superiors always take our credit!!" said someone angrily from behind—the one who had attacked him.
"Shut up and do your job," the masked man with the gun said again.
Some time later, the dark lane became clear and quiet. No one could say that the lane had even been crossed by a human or what incident had happened there. The only thing that remained was the damaged trash bin lying on the ground, with the trash inside it scattered from the bullet impact.
Some crows were feeding on the garbage, but suddenly they flew away as someone sprinted past them.
The guy who was sprinting did not look older than the bald guy, but he had short, straight hair and no facial hair. He was wearing a suit with a tie and office jeans. He noticed the damaged trash bin, but he was too worried to pay attention to it, cursing under his breath.
"Shit! Shit! Shit! I can't be late for this interview!!"
He got out of the lane, entering a big city with huge buildings, expensive cars running on the roads, and people moving everywhere—some running just like him, while others were simply hanging around—your typical big city. The sun was out and shining bright, showing that some time had passed since what had happened in that lane.
He slowed down as he reached one of the huge buildings in front of him...…