Chapter 85: Family Affairs, II

Sekani walked out of their house before his daughter woke up. He knew, if he waited even for a little bit, once she was awake it'd be difficult to leave the house.

Ever since they informed them of the situation, she didn't want any of them to leave the house. But her father needed to be out there, looking for jobs.

He walked down their street, none of their neighbours were out. Either they were still asleep or they were off to work already. He was quite used to waking up this early, he had been doing it since Kiro was born after all.

He was headed to town, he decided to walk the distance. The train ticket wasn't exactly cheap, he needed to save all the money he could for his family.

It'd take him roughly 2 hours to get to town by foot. The further he walked, the more clean the neighbourhoods became. Their Area 50 was by far the dirtiest.

Even his nose breathed with a bit of freedom. Not like it bothered him, not really, they were used to it, but the air down there was really polluted. He had no idea why the government left it be.

"Mr. Waynworth, Mr. Waynworth!"

An excited voice called out from a damp and dirty alleyway. Sekani was too familiar with the young man, his name was Philip, he lived in that alley. He usually gave him usable computer parts to sell for food.

"Philip, how's it going?" He shook the young man's hand firmly without so much as a change in facial expressions, despite how dirty the lad was.

"Not so good sir, now that you're out of commission. Things are pretty dire, but we live to survive," he said wearing his boyish grin, revealing yellow and dirty teeth.

His once white skin was black with soot, clearly he hadn't bathed in a long time too. The clothes he wore were getting too big for him. His trousers were stopped from falling by a rope around his waist.

"We can only hope."

"That kid of yours, the eldest, it's Kiro isn't it?"

"Yes," Sekani answered sceptically, his heart raced as he thought of the potential that his son had joined a gang. Did Philip know something about it?

"Strange coincidence..." He trailed off.

Sekani was also aware of how much the young man sitting across from him, admired him. He slipped out a lot and called him pops. Which is why he wanted to push him out of here, this was no life for a promising brainiac like him.

He waited while Philip used the pub's toilet to clean himself up. He came out looking confusing, he was clean but his clothes were still dirty, so he still had the homeless look about him.

They walked around shops giving their credentials, most shops chased them out the moment they saw the experience they had. Some tried their luck, offering wages way less than the recommended wage.

Once they realised that, these two knew the law surrounding salaries and wages, they got chased out.

"What did I tell you Mr. Waynworth? They'll never hire us."

"Well, we wouldn't have known until we tried."

Just then, another Asgard video came into the billboard, sure enough it was Kiro vs Isaac. Sekani couldn't be sure however, he squinted and squinted to get a better look but he concluded that it wasn't his son. It couldn't have been. The game was too expensive.

A dreadful feeling seeped in, when he thought, just maybe, he joined a gang and was able to afford one. He shook his head.

"Not my Kiro." He mumbled.

It was about time to go home, as the sun was already at bay. He did groceries for that week, since Kiro told them he'd give them money weekly. He used 250 on groceries that would last them 2 weeks.

He gave 50 creds to Philip and scolded him not to waste it. He had to keep the extra 200 for emergency funds, he couldn't know what might happen.

He rode a taxi home. It was cheaper than trains, but it was still not worth it if you didn't have luggage. But he did so he called for one.

He hadn't even opened the gate, when Alora opened the door and ran outside yelling 'daddy's home.'

She didn't care that he was carrying things, as she jumped for him to catch her. So he did.

"Welcome home, daddy," she said with the most innocent smile.