Witness

As you walk down the aisle in between the individual compartments of the train, you curiously look into each window to see who is occupying it. One window holds a whole family, a father and mother with their two daughters, eagering looking at the large moving view through the large window. Another window holds a man, sleeping on his to his destination. You are actually looking through each room to see if any one is empty. Unfortunately, almost every room you look through, it's occupied by at least person. At the end of the train car, you doubt that you will find a compartment that is empty. And your doubts are right. You look through the porthole and by the large window you see a person. This person is a girl, but her disposition is unusually unhappy. She doesn't seem interested in the view outside or the fact that she is in a train car that in the whole is a very fast, Bullet Train heading for Neo-Francisco.

That one girl you saw in the last compartment is actually me. But there was a time that I wasn't her, happy without a care in the world, on this train heading for Neo-Francisco. To be honest, I didn't look like that 18 months ago.

18 months ago...

You are now standing in one of the busiest places in the known civilized world. Fact is, this place isn't on the planet Earth. Really, this bustling metropolis plaza is actually in the middle of a paradise on one of the last frontier ever set foot by mankind. If you guessed right, you are standing on the moon itself. This plaza, along with other plazas and markets and cityscapes, are occupied in one of three massive pressurized Domes embedded on the Moon's ground. The dome you are standing in is in fact a hotspot for gangsters, the mafia, rich crime bosses, theives, prostitutes, and tourists who don't know their way around.

People can't see you though, since I am giving you this view to make a point. But as your guide to this stunning view, I must lead somewhere not as populated. A little way's down the road going towards Metro Pagoda, the Chinatown of the Moon, you walk until you pass by a few drunkard on the near wall or a prostitute leadin an unwary guy with her tempting ways. You walk through a threshold and into the plaza of Metro Pagoda. Metro Pagoda is full of tourists wanting to see the artful scenery of the Mighty Lion, who stands upright in the center of the plaza. You walk to your right and up some stairs of a hotel. You go up at least five flights of stairs when you see a humble man, short in stature, but still tall to your average girl. He is smoking a cigarette without a care in the world.

This man in fact is me, then. I became very wealthy through being part of the crime business. I was well known as a driver back on the planet floor. My girlfriend who is currently in bed in the room behind, is also part of the crime business. We came here, not for the vacation but as a promotion by our boss Rex Tanner, owner of Rex's Casino and Hotel in the Paradise district on the Earth's Moon resort. We are here in Metro Pagoda to spy on the business usuals of the Chinese crime family Khan, headed none other than Lord Khan.

On the same balcony, I see a casual dressed man. What I know about him is that he is actually a undercover cop waiting to bag any Khan that does anybody wrong. He doesn't know me or my status unfortunately, for he would've bagged me for my progress as a driver back on Earth. Luckily, his interest isn't on me but the group of four rushing up stairs.

A hustled sound is heard nearby. On the opposite balcony, both me and the guy next to me sees two men, Asian in appearance. Another man follows behind and a similar man to the other two, behind him. They were walking to a room not far from mine. They knocked on the door and there a scared Asian man stood at the doorway. I was close enough to hear their conversation.

"Chang, you time is up. Lord Khan needs your payment now!" The short man tells the man standing behind the room door.

"Please, I need more time--" the short man interrupts.

"What you need is to get Lord Khan money in my hands now," he says, taking a hand a grabbing a chunk of the man's shirt pulling him out and against the balcony railing. "What have you been doing, Chang? Using up all the Lord's money to gamble it all off in the casinos, are ya? You know you are better of not playing slots, for it get you killed around these parts." He finishes his comment, pulling a gun after and pointing it dead center of the man's forehead.

At this moment, I wished I was in my room with my girlfriend instead of witnessing a potential **** about to happen. I get back from the railing and onto the wall near my room door. I peek my head out to see the scene brewing doors away.

"Please, give me more time," the man cries out desperately.

"Didn't you get a Red Letter lately? No? Then you should have got one," the short man says pushing his gun into the man's forehead and pulling the trigger. The loud bang shocks me and freezes me firm on the spot. The blood from the man's cranium gushes out the back of his head and he tumbles back and falls down on the intricate marble fish fountain below. The short man laughs a similar laugh to the late Lord Khan. Then a sound of a soda can is heard.

One of the bodyguards and turns and looks directly into my eyes. That can that sounded was actually a can I had set down because it was empty of soda. I must have knocked it down, still shocked at the scene I just witnessed.

"You there, stop," he shouts to me and instead of stopping I run. I run towards the opposite way of the bodyguards. I run so fast that I almost bump into the guy next to me. He is pulling out a gun, but I'm too scared of my life to believe he is a cop.

"Run," he says and I obey. As I get to the nearest stairway, a couple shots are heard. The crowd in the plaza floor are still running from the first shot the short man triggered and by the falling of a man with a hole in his head onto the marble fish fountain. I run down the flights of stairs only to find that two bodyguards running after me, wanting to clear my witness. I run towards a nearby alley with the two bodyguards still on my tail. I run past a corner and into the dumpster nearby. I peek out to see the two bodyguards run past.

I breathe hard in the dumpster now smelling like rotten bananas and rotting pork. I wait a while before getting out to make sure the bodyguards don't double back. I am really cautious at this point. I don't want the short man to see me or a suspicious bodyguard looking for me. I really stand out in the crowd, since I have buzzed blonde hair, due to hydrogen peroxide bleaching. The way back to my hotel room is treacherous, but I manage to make it. I scan my card into the door and it unlocks. I open it and find my girlfriend running to hug me, looking very worried.

"Oh my god! Frankie, what were you thinking going out there?" my girlfriend Isabella says in a hyperventilating voice. Her looks are very Italian, having brown hair that is curled and slightly tanned skin from sitting on the fake beaches of the resort. Her worried voice and face doesn't her look pretty, since she is still half-dressed.

"I don't know. I shouldn't have stayed out there. I think they've seen my face," I say doubting myself.

"Don't say those things, Frankie!" she cries out. "But who was killed? I freakin' heard the gunshots, they sounded very near the room."

"It was the Khan's, searching for somebody's payment to the Lord. The guy got shot-"

"Shit Frankie don't tell me, dammit," Isabella cries out again.

Still arguing, we don't notice the knocking against the door. Once we do stop arguing we hear the knocking getting more rapid and loud voices coming through the door. We look at each in confusion. I suggest that we open the door, but Isabella disagrees. Disagreeing with her I advance to the door to open it with Isabella protesting in loud whispers. The unlucky part is that these hotel's never have any windows or peepholes to see the people at the door. But building up the courage to unlock the door, I answer the door and see the person behind the door.