Superwomb

CHAPTER THREE

22nd of April 2013. Four days to the explosion. Cloud was starting to set and Holly was certain that it was going to rain. She had forgotten her umbrella at home and was trying to round up her shopping at the ‘Price mall’ and return home before the rain starts but unfortunately for her, it started to pour down heavily while she was still inside the mall and she had no choice but to wait it out along with many others who had no intention of waiting for some rain to decide when they leave the mall. As Holly sat and thought of the arts exhibition two days back in which her painting was awarded the first position, she could not help but smile as images of her painting was all she could see. She had captured a disaster caused by an alien invasion of earth and the judges were stunned at her creativity and the rich blend of events which got her the position. Was it a coincidence or a premonition that a teenage girl whose father was only days away from destroying the world unintentionally would emerge as the winner of an arts exhibition with a painting that portrays the end of the world? Well, to the man wearing a hood over a black leather jacket with gloves it was not a coincidence. It was for him a premonition that the girl had about the disaster her evil father was soon to unleash and acted on it ignorantly as though to warn him and the world. He had followed her from when she left her father’s house and now was watching her closely inside Price mall.

            The rain poured for about half an hour and when it stopped, Holly rushed out along with almost every one inside and as the day was getting darker, she hoped she would get a taxi on time. As she waited across the road, she saw the figure of a man wearing a hood, with dark leather jacket and black glove approaching her. It was then she remembered that she had caught a glimpse of the figure earlier in price mall and wondered if she should be worried. “Good evening young lady” he addressed her when he was close enough. “Good evening sir” she responded. He looked around and said “We do not have enough time so please listen carefully” “Wait what do you mean ‘we’ I don’t know you, we have never met before” “Correct” he said and continued. “Three days from today there is a birthday party happening at your friend Deborah’s house, do not attend it. Something terrible is going to happen there” Holly gave him a puzzled look and said “how do you know Deborah? How do you know me? Who are you?” But by then he was already backing away from her and replacing his hood. Just then Holly found a taxi and hopped in relieved that she was finally on her way home yet she kept looking back through the car back wind screen at the man who had just startled her with some weird prophesy.

            Few blocks away from price mall in a small apartment where Sam and his brother Jacob lived, the evening was full of joy and the rain was a sign of good fortune as Sam was finally engaged in the finishing procedures of his ‘real football 2014 application’ having gotten a tremendous deal of help from Rick the previous day. Rick had taken him into a computer restricted area and introduced him to his ‘boss’ who was technically a computer for he knew every single detail about computers from hacking of every kind to creating firewalls and you name them. When Sam finished explaining his methods to the ‘boss’ as everyone called him he was pleased that a teenager had such ideas about computing and app creation so he looked into the data Sam had presented, adding and subtracting where necessary and within minutes everything fell in place and Sam could already see himself playing real football 2014 that he created. The mystery he did not understand was why either Rick or the ‘boss’ refused to take any money after all they did.

            Locked up in his room, Sam was still celebrating as he looked up his computer screen and saw ‘finishing set up 49%’ what he did not know was that somewhere in the wave land, someone was at that very moment entertaining himself with a newly created and installed real football application 2014. This is how it happened. After the boss was through with the data on Sam’s hard disk, he transferred them to his computer with Sam looking intently on the screen but not seeing what was happening and that was how a duplicate of Sam’s precious game data made before his very eyes. When the set up was ‘100%’ complete, Sam called Jacob who came storming into the room. “Did it work?” he shouted “Yes it did” and the brothers ran about the room pushing off whatever stood in their way and at last settled down to play it for the very first time. Sam was to discover later with great disappointment that he was not the first to have ran the application that took two years of hard work to complete.

            When Holly got home, she heard her father singing upstairs. She walked quietly to the store and emptied her bag which was half full and started for the stairs. Just then, there was a knock at the door and Holly wondered who it could be as she went towards the door. “I’ll get it” her father said and she turned right on time to see him concealing a Pistol in the back of his trousers and arranging his shirt. Holly was alarmed and tip toed towards him while looking back at the door. “What’s going on dad?” “It’s nothing to worry about. Just go to your room I’ll explain later” her father said. But Holly was far from believing that her father was concealing a weapon to answer a knock at the door to be nothing to worry about so she pressed. “You are going to check who’s at the door with a g*n stuck behind your back and you really expect me to believe it’s nothing to worry about?” before he could respond, there was another knock at the door and he pleaded with his daughter to go up to her room and thankfully this time she adhered and went upstairs while he double checked his g*n and walked towards the door.

“Who is that” he asked. The panic stricken voice of his friend Stanley echoed all over the house. “Open up it’s me Stanley” Max relaxed his grip on his handgun and quickly opened the door. Stanley rushed in and banged the door quite loudly and the already disturbed Holly came running down to be greeted with the sight of her father and his close friend Stanley engaged in earnest conversation and what got her all the more curious was the fact that they were whispering. What was Mr. Stanley doing showing up this late and why was her father answering the door with a g*n, something was not adding up and she intended to find out as she approached the pair who had heard her climb down the stairs and like frightened children ended their little conversation.

“Hey there how are you doing” Stanley called to Holly not realizing how shaky he sounded. “I am fine but you don’t seem to be. I can tell from that look in your face and from the fact that he” she said looking at the direction of her father “is walking around the house with a g*n strapped to his back. At that, Stanley looked at his friend and was now shaking visibly “have they gotten to you too?” He asked Max who looked at his daughter wishing she was not there and said. “Yes Stan. They have.”