Sera moved quickly, she ducked and then she crouched. She was aware that she did not want to hurry. Of course, she did not want to be slow either. Speed is greed, slow is death, she reminded herself. She crouched behind a set of boxes, two of them, stacked, one on top of another. The boxes seemed heavy, they were not made of metal. Sera got jumpy, she did so also, she got up quickly and moved. It was the ground floor of High Rise. The ground floor was empty and desolate. There was no one there, there was supposed to be no one there. Sera looked behind. There was no one behind her. She moved and came into an open space. She looked up from there. It was a little breath taking, one could see the grey blue sky above, through the stack of 30 floors which rose above the ground. The High Rise gave way there, to the view of the sky. Sera looked for a second. Then, she looked ahead and moved. This was not a sight seeing visit. High Rise was no place for a rookie. It was a place for her to do her job.

She kept moving. She arrived at a staircase and looked up, there was no one there. She walked, up on the stairs. She walked up some three floors like that and then she stopped. She looked around, there was no one. She looked up. Then, she looked around. There was an elevator shaft nearby. ‘Let me take a look’, she thought and went up to that shaft. It was open, the door had collapsed. She leaned in and looked up and then down, there was nothing in there. She looked down, there was darkness below, ‘the elevator car has probably fallen there’. She looked down there, in the darkness for a few seconds and then looked up. There was light above. She stepped back. And then she removed her backpack. She zipped open the pack and removed a rope thrower. It read ‘Raisin’. It had a handle. She inspected the device for a bit. She checked the hook at the end of the coil of rope. The hook looked okay. So did the coil, the coil was housed well in the enclosing case. She put her hand around the trigger at the end and moved back to the door. She looked up and aimed her device at the edge of the shaft, the aim was very high up, the aim was the edge at the top, on the 30th floor. She took a second and then she fired, the device gave out a loud hiss, the explosive charge behind the hook fired and the hook went up, straight, it flew very fast and took the rope with it, it disappeaared from her sight and in a second, there was a light thud, it seemed to come from the 30th floor, Sera pulled the rope, it came tense, in her hands. She pulled it again. She knew she was ready. In a moment, she pressed a button on the side of the device, the big button clicked, and it started a rotor inside the housing which housed it. Sera quickly gave up the floor and held well onto the handle of the device, ‘Raisin’. It pulled her to the top. It took some few seconds. As she approached the lasr floor, she quickly gave up the grip on Raisin and grabbed the edge of the floor and then a bar on the side of the door. She pulled quickly out of the elevator shaft and on to the last floor. It was the last floor. She pressed another button on Raisin and got the rope fully wound back into the device. She looked around. It was time for business.

The business did not look good. ‘Scar’, she exclaimed lightly and shot at the head of one as it aprroached her. The scar went down, it lay on the floor motionless. The scar was a common problem now. A nasty evolution in the city. It was a creature which would eat you alive if you did not take it down, it was always covered in some kind of filth, it smelled bad, like a mix of rotten eggs and meat, topped with a week old garbage. Another one came at her and went down the same way. Sera kept moving. It was a big wave. It was non stop. Sera took down 2 more scars as she walked fast. She knew she had to keep moving. She kept moving. It was needed. The scars came at moderate speeds at her. Sera had only one response, shot of her gun. She reloaded after the fifth scar went down and kept going. It was business. She looked around, 2 scars came from behind, she shot each one of them twice. They fell on the floor and rolled and then stopped. She moved on. Now, 3 scars came up from the front, they appeared suddenly. Sera had to shoot them qucikly. She sprayed around bullets horizontally and they were on the floor. She moved, one more came up from behind wall, just inches from her face. She took it down quickly with the butt of her gun and then shot it, it rolled around and stopped. She hissed and reloaded her gun. Suddenly, a hand touched her shoulder. She froze, a bolt of fear went down her body, she could not movve or think for a second, the gun also froze, in her hand. ‘It’s me, Teya’, a voice came from behind. Sera unfroze and looked back. It was her business accomplice, Teya, she was a little pleased, then they both, each shot down 2 scars which came up towards them. It was nice after that. Sera and Teya chatted as they moved and shot down scars. “When did you get up here?”, Sera asked Teya. “Just now, how is it going?”, Teya answered and asked. “It is as usual, I got one in my face, it’s over there by the wall, it did not look good”. “Sure”. “This is not going to go away anytime soon”. “My mother says the same”. The conversation continued. The walk continued. The shooting continued. A scar came from behind, and now, Teya shot it down, without even looking back. Sera looked at her. They both appreciated each other, they did not appreciate the scars. “Let’s keep moving”, Sera said. They walked on. They took half an hour. After which, it was done. They both stopped and sighed. A quiet second went by and suddenly a scar emerged from the staircase, “Fracture”, Teya shouted. There was no way now, a Fracture could only be killed by a set of multiple grenades. They would have to bail. They both knew it. They both ran and they both jumped off the roof and then pulled the cords of the parachutes, behind them, they could hear the loud grunt of the fracture. They were both away now, and were sailing safely from the height of the building towards the ground. Teya looked at Sera, she was some 20 feet away, Sera had fainted, ‘Oh, she is going to land badly’, Teya exclaimed and looked down towards the ground which was coming up at her fast.