Origin (Book 2)

Chapter 15

I rose from my feet as the sounds of a normal city reached my ears. I was in a dark, abandoned alley, with a brick wall at one end and the open street on the other. Traffic seemed to be heavy today.

I saw people walking by, oblivious to my unnatural arrival. I straightened my disheveled shirt and tried to leave the area as inconspicuously as possible.

"Where do I go?" I thought.

"You've never been to New York," the voice seemed to think out loud- or out in my head.

"Right again."How did it know I'd never been here before? Was it that obvious? Was he or she watching my obviously foreign behavior?

"Find Fifth Avenue." The voice shut itself out.

"Wait!" I accidentally shouted the thought. The person in front of me in between the weaving crowds of people turned around, looking at me peculiarly. "Sorry," I said.

"You're from the south?" The man asked me in a strong New Yorker accent.

"Yeah," I said.

"Don't get lost." He turned around and was lost on the crowded sidewalk.

After that, I attempted to ask someone where Fifth Avenue was as I wandered around. However, no one was willing to tell me without some form of payment or cursing me for being a 'tourist.' Why were they so hostile?

I was tempted to activate my suit and fly around looking for the street above ground. I knew better.

I found myself walking inside an all-day breakfast diner off the side of the street. I had, somehow, forgotten to eat breakfast, a mistake I regretted now.

I found a vacant seat and ordered a couple of pancakes and hot cocoa from the waitress. She hurried off to fill in the order.

I watched the TV while I waited.

Then, I froze. I had forgotten all of my things. They, including my wallet and phone, were in the bag I had left at the Afterlight complex, which had probably been transported to the facility...thousands of miles away.

I checked my pockets in vain, wanting some money to appear when I actually needed it.

Something dropped to the floor under my shoe. Yes! I thought.

I picked up the wad of cash and examined how much I got. Whoever was giving me this must have some big-time powers in order to know when and how to get money to me. I appreciated it.

I had a little over a hundred dollars. If I ate right, that could probably last me a couple of weeks on food. Not much, but I would take what I could get.

The waitress came back shortly with my food. The pancakes were huge, almost too big to fit on the plate. Luckily, my appetite was bigger.

As I finished, left my bill and a tip, and went to and came back from the bathroom to clean up my sticky hands, I heard a breaking news report come on.

I was not going to watch it. TVs were not my friends when they were on the news channel. Keeping my head down, I exited the restaurant as quickly as I could.

As fate would have it, a bank of TV screens were arranged in the front window of the business next to the place I just came from. And as I passed by, I couldn't resist the temptation to look at all of them. I was trapped between throngs of people on the sidewalk anyway- I had no choice.