Chapter Fifty-Five – Hunger of the Masses

Chapter Fifty-Five – Hunger of the Masses

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***

“So, what are they complaining about, exactly?” I asked. It was a semi-rhetorical question. I was on my way down and out of the hotel–using the elevator, because why would I sneak out–while eying up the protestors’ media feed.

Would-be-protestors. They were still huddled up in their homes, for the most part. A few had gone out to meet each other, it seemed, and the urge to do something was clearly spreading as people egged each other on, but for the moment things had yet to start popping off.

A quick scroll showed a lot of people complaining, and a lot of people encouraging each other to get out there and do more than just complain online.

It felt a little like I was watching the pressure building in a can that was about to burst. It needed a release, and I was worried that the release would cause some serious trouble. Most of all for me.

I didn’t mind people wanting to protest and hell, they were right, shit wasn’t fine. The problem was that while their protests would certainly kick things into high gear when it came to fixing some issues, it would also cause a number of new, fresh issues as well.

The complaints seem to be divided along three main points of contention. Four, really. The first is the quarantine that has been implemented across the city.

“There’s a quarantine?” I asked as I got out of the elevator. A few of the guards looked at me suspiciously, but if I was leaving, then I wasn’t going to be their problem for long.

It’s not in full effect. But there are Stay-At-Home measures in place at the moment. People travelling out of their homes will receive warnings. There are forms that can be filled to justify the leaving, and these can be filed in advance, but the restrictions are chafing.

I frowned, then went searching for some of those forms myself. I could see why people were annoyed a moment later. The form was top of the line bureaucratic bullshit. The first half asked for manual entry of information that my augs should have provided already, then I had to give a reason why I wanted to leave, where I would go, and when I’d be back. Failure to disclose the right information or come home late, or not go where I was supposed to, would result in a fine.

Or it would, for a normal person, I wasn’t going to bother with this.

“Okay, that needs streamlining. Who implemented this?”

The militia and the city government. It’s meant to reduce the number of people on the streets and in dangerous areas. It’s also meant to help keep track of citizens. It’s wildly inefficient, and there are several ways around it. The fines being credit-based also mean that anyone with sufficient resources can merely ignore them. But, they have proven to be successful in reducing the number of bodies on the streets and outside of their own designated housing areas.

I nodded along as I left the building. I wasn’t sure where to go from there, but I started towards the centre of the city. I wanted a walk to think, in any case.

Looking through some links Myalis gave me, I could see that the protestor faction had already found ways to break that system. It helped that some of the more vocal members were also on the city staff responsible for the quarantine system to begin with.

“Right, that needs fixing,” I said. “Table it as something I need to get a professional’s help with. Next?”

The Second issue is the militia and police force.

“The cops?” I asked.

Indeed. While the militia and police are separate entities, they are working together. There are several reports of violence against citizens, beatings, theft, profiling, sexual assault, and more. I can confirm the veracity of some, others were exaggerated for effect.

“Fucking hell,” I muttered. I never expected to be on the same side of things as the fucking police, but here I was. “Can you do me a favour, find out who the worst offenders are, tell the… chief of police or whatever. Get their badges, arrest those that went too far. It’ll reduce the number of cops we have, but fuck it. It’s at least one thing we can do to appease the protestors, and I don’t like dirty cops besides. Oh, and tell the chief of police that if he doesn’t, I’ll throw him over the wall with whatever police-issue peashooter he has.”

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Noted. Message sent. The third issue is the growth of rumours regarding our food shortage. Unfortunately, since these issues are founded in fact, they are rather persistent.

“Tends to work that way, yeah,” I said. “Okay. What’s Manic up to?”

She left the city with a militia convoy to start her grocery store raids.

Oh, thank fuck, I didn’t want to do everything myself. That didn’t mean I couldn’t help. “Let’s set up a bigger food supply,” I said. “Maybe someplace central. I guess the mall could work. Do I have anything like that big ass printer I have back home, but for food?”