All Things I've Done To Save You

Five Percent for Nothing

Having dinner in that diner, he sat with others. While eating, he even thought of Amanda, whether she was well fed or starving. Whether she was healthy or sick, happy or sad, content or miserable. But maybe, as fellow Millenials and as Marx Reign's granddaughter, she would much likely survive with her resources and resourcefulness, he hoped.

Now that the cover-ups were done, it was time to spend some of the unlimited ankh credits for good use. As Herman had observed and learned how to drive a hover scooter from his teammate, he decided to buy a hoverbike from a nearby showroom. Naturally, he picked the sporty type.

Seeing Herman's shabby looks, the showroom salesman didn't talk much to him. He only looked at the buyer's choice, typed something on the electronic data capture or EDC payment device, and displayed the credit amount and QR code on it to Herman. Herman scanned the code and paid the amount due, his eyes widened a bit. The salesman nodded and smiled a bit, said thank you, and got back to his game on his smartphone, and Herman left with the hoverbike.

Herman then spent hours exploring the streets in the city whose name he now knew as Lainatupia. Every alley or every corner he passed through was seen thoroughly, hoping that he would find the one he was looking for that way. As he passed every district, he activated the Thoth Biometrics Search Engine again and again to no avail.

Thinking that he was through with streets and alleys, Herman tried the big roads and highways. He turned the hoverbike handle and it slid towards the fast lane. However, before he went far, suddenly he heard loud, fast beeps and a red light on the bike handle panel flashed intermittently.

The hoverbike slowed down abruptly and couldn't be accelerated. Herman didn't know what happened and became worried about a collision from behind by another speeding vehicle. However, every vehicle had its sensors, so although they were speeding, there was rarely any collision. Before they closed in on each other, the sensors of the vehicles on the back alerted the drivers or the auto-drive system, so they could avoid bumping into the slow one in the front by slowing down themselves. Note that while in the lane, each vehicle must maintain a space of approximately fifty meters from each other, allowing line entrants to join in immediately without having to wait.

That's cool! Herman thought with a more peaceful mind. Then he shifted his hoverbike into the slow lane. Its speed was back to normal.

Herman wanted to use the search engine to search for Amanda in another place and he tried to enter the fast lane. However, the hoverbike slowed down and the alarm beeped again. Now he knew that hoverbikes and the like were not allowed in the fast lane. He came back to the slow lane and his hoverbike could be accelerated again.

A sight of an ankh-like skyscraper building got Herman's attention. He steered his hoverbike on the way towards that building. The skyscraper building he was going to was closer and closer, but when he went past a portal, suddenly his hoverbike beeped again. This time it slowed down considerably to a stop.

The young man became upset. There were too many access restrictions on this hoverbike. Dammit, if only I knew about that. I should've bought a car instead! He snapped.

Upset as he might, Herman took a U-turn anyway. The beeps died down and the red light stopped flashing when he went back through the portal he passed earlier. And then he decided to search for another place and didn't try to go to the places he couldn't enter. Herman accelerated his bike to the maximum speed on a vacant road. It turned out that the maximum speed of this hoverbike was only seventy miles per hour. For Herman, this was the speed of a snail.

At the peak of irritation, Herman kept on speeding his bike past other bikes aimlessly, didn't know where to go anymore. After a long, suddenly the hoverbike lost power and decelerated real fast. It was dangerous, he thought. So he turned on the left turn light and pulled over aside. Just as he reached the roadside, the hoverbike didn't have any power to move even an inch.

Oh, come on! Herman complained. Now, what!?

Herman dragged the hoverbike out of the road to check what happened. But he didn't know where to start because he couldn't find the screwdriver or other tools, or even anything to open the casing on the body, the spot where the engine might be. Then he squatted, observed, and touched the bike thoroughly. How to open the case? Herman was still confused.

In a random thought, Herman tried to slide the casing to find out. Suddenly he retracted his two arms when the body casing of the hoverbike opened on its own, in a way he didn't understand. The thing opened and folded by itself, and then showed the insides, the engine and all.

"Wow!" Herman was amazed to see the little wonder of technology in front of him. Again he didn't know what to do, being a motocrosser who liked to tune the engine of his motorcycle. This time he didn't have an idea of what thing he saw. The most eye-catching one was a discus that still revolving slowly. It looked like two plates clasping into each other. Despite that, Herman was sure this was a symptom of out of fuel – cell fuel, to be exact. But, how could he recharge the cell fuel for his hoverbike? He looked around and found nothing that looked like a charging station anywhere – or something similar to the slot he could charge his smartphone. Unknowingly, he has gone quite a distance from Lainatupia City border, even from its suburbs.

Now Herman was at his wit's end. His emotion got the better of him and he hit the hoverbike so hard without a reason or cause. He felt like he wanted to abandon this bloke of a bike just like that or threw that thing away as far as possible. But how could he possibly get back to the city then? On that thought, Herman decided to drag his hoverbike to find the nearest garage or recharge station. However, only now did he realize that this place was far from nowhere.

Some luck! Herman grumbled.

Herman was never this upset in his life. His effort to find Amanda was wasted. To make matters worse, the sunlight became scorching hot, his clothes were drenched with sweat. After some time, he started to feel so exhausted, plus frustrated that a push of a breeze made him lose balance, and then fell onto the hoverbike he was dragging. Enraged, Herman kicked the bike and it rolled over, and strangely it still hovered above the ground.

"Ouch!" Herman yelled because of the pain from kicking that thing made of metal. Then, in a weakened state Hernan fell to the ground, writhing in pain.

After his pain subsided, Herman rested himself, leaning on a big rock. In this state of adversity, Amanda's shadow appeared in front of his eyes.

Amanda, Herman called, Where are you? So great was his longing for his beloved. He stared straight at the sky above, as though seeking the answer to Amanda's whereabouts. Soon, his eyes began to water. His face was reddened and wet from sweat mixed with dust. Red lines were shown on his face and were getting bigger. Finally, Herman cried without a voice.

At that moment, Hernan regretted that his spontaneous outbursts and his lack of experience overweighed his reason, causing him to get stranded alone in this strange world. He didn't care about his surroundings any longer. He dropped down to the ground because he couldn't sustain his body which felt much heavier all of a sudden. He just stayed in that position, mourning his misfortune.

An idea came and Hernan rummaged inside the pocket of his trousers. He took his smartphone out and tried to use the internet and Thoth Search Engine. Alas, this time he tried in vain because there was no network signal here. His smartphone was useless here.

Herman felt so useless, he couldn't do anything to search for Amanda anymore. He was so frustrated, more so when he saw that the battery indicator on his smartphone showed only five percent battery power left. That was how much his hope remained.

"Five percent for nothing!" He complained. Suddenly, his body felt so feeble like he had no energy left, and then he fell unconscious. []

Hernan has lost all hope and let himself lying lie unconscious at the roadside in the middle of nowhere, resigning to fate.

However, the chilly air in the night woke him up into consciousness. With a clear mind, he grabbed his smartphone, abandoned the now totally broken hoverbike on the spot, and traced his way back to the city.

Luckily, he didn’t go too far so he would be exhausted again. Before long, he reached the suburbs and checked into a cheap, moth-ridden yet the first motel he spotted. Herman then recharged his smartphone battery, bathed, and went to bed. Comfort was not an option because he was very exhausted.

The next day, after a good, long sleep, he woke up late near midday. He ate breakfast and checked out from the motel after paying for bed, breakfast, and all, including the tax. And then he walked on, bought and changed into a set of simple, decent Osirian shirt, jacket, and underwear, keeping only his jeans trousers he was wearing.

And then, after a bit and brief learning to improve his vocabulary for conversing with the locals, Herman was set to try his hands – and feet – on the mass rapid transit again.

Back in the district where he took his one-day job, Herman visited the hoverbike retailer showroom and met the salesman. Instead of complaining or demanding a refund for his broken hoverbike, he just asked a thing or two about hoverbikes and such, to decide on what to do next in his quest to find Amanda. Should he buy a car? Or should he rely on public transportation?

“The hoverbike was broken and I had to abandon it because it was heavy and beyond repair. Do hover bikes and hover scooters like that?” Herman didn’t try to hide anything at all. “Yesterday I tried to ride in the fast lane on the highway, and I tried to go to the ankh-shaped skyscraper downtown. But I didn’t get to go far because the alarm on my bike blared all the time. Is there any way I can get to the ankh building? Not through the fast lane by hoverbike, obviously,” he said.

However, as usual, the salesman was engaged in his game – this time, a console game titular “Everna: Fireheart Legacy”. There was a frown on his unpleasant face as he put the console game and the joystick aside. Herman was ready for his outburst or anything next.

Unexpectedly, the salesman smiled, put his joystick down, and said, “It’s no big deal!” as he reached for cold beverage cans from the refrigerator. Herman didn’t understand his point, so he waited.

“You’re new in town, huh?” said the bulky man with a big bad-pack tummy as a result of drinking too much beer. “Well, the engine capacity of hoverbikes and hover scooters were very limited compared to hover cars and other hover crafts. So, if they enter the fast lane or special roads that demand the minimum speed exceeding the maximum speed of that bike, the anti-gravity engine will be overheated. The long, non-stop usage also adds to the damage, so at the time it is out of fuel, the engine will be damaged. I guess you need a driving license to get the knowledge beforehand. But you sure don’t have one, do you?” To that, Herman only bowed his head down.

“But you don’t need to worry,” said the salesman. “When you bought the hoverbike, you paid the full price, including tax and insurance without haggling. That way, you are entitled to get another hoverbike as an insurance benefit. The insurance company has received the total damage report and has approved the replacement, awaiting your response. But let me remind you, it’s one time only. No compensations next time you totaled that bike.”