NOVEL WEB Chapter 267: Taxi.
It was truly something spectacular, something gorgeous as they were going through the city, the streets, the buildings, all of it just made this grand scenario which was hard to describe.
Everything was just kinda perfect… and James, even though he still was kinda off, still his head hurt a bit, understood it well, that what Darvik said is true and not just a trick, not just an operation against him or a move.
But truth as everything in the street was just clean, the roads were not bumpy, there wasn't even trash on the street and there was huge skyscrapers, office buildings up to the sky… it was just truly something mesmerizing… but moreover, how they made it to be green, because there was green everywhere, trees and flower everywhere… like a jungle.
And what came at the red light was something not even James or Mike knew existed.
It looked like a rollercoaster that's going through the city… but there was a train moving on it… up in the air.
"They're truly rich, huh…" Mike said as he was looking out the window as the train passed them.
"Yeah…" James whispered as he was too just watching as it went past hanging in the air.
Then a chuckle came from the taxi driver.
"Tourist or here to work?" He asked as he looked at the mirror, though he too had a heavy accent.
"Both." James answered him.
"Oh that's nice, but I advise you to not get your mind blown away, because it's only the outside of the city, inside the center is just more mesmerizing, with its open parks and of course the greens everywhere."
"Why are there so many plants though?" Mike asked back.
"Because of the heat, I don't exactly know how it works, but the government chooses specific trees and plants to be brought into the city." He explained as the light turned to green. "They have huge flowers, huge crowns, that give a lot of shadows. The air quality has improved too, but the main reason is keeping the temperature in the street lower. But look to the right, you see that?"
They looked, and there was a big-ass truck misting water to the streets.
"So they are trying to battle the heat, huh?" James asked.
"Exactly, with the plants, with misting the street with water, but of course, there are many cooling agents, too." He was proud, it could be heard by his voice, that it isn't just what he repeats to every tourist, but he is truly proud of his country and city. But James just felt the need to ask about the bad.
"I heard Maraci is strict about its laws… is it true or just a hoax?"
"Ohh, it's true. Very true, sir." He laughed again. "A lot of people think the government is controlling us, with the laws, but not really. We live in a democracy, we can protest, we can rally, we can do whatever we want, but the law is truly strict, if you do something bad." He looked again at the mirror as they came to a stop. "Like if I scam you two, with this ride, I would get 2 years prison time, this is how strict it is, no fines or warnings, but prison time." He explained.
"What about the prison camps, they say Maraci built concentration camps." Mike asked because it was all over the Union, all over the world when Maraci began to reform its system.
Though it was a strange situation… everyone around Maraci, the Union, the States, every single fucking country was protesting against the laws and against the government of Maraci, while the citizens of Maraci were celebrating the law since they had voted for it.
"It's not true, there are strict rules and laws to it, there is an oversight board that consists of civilians, who look and investigate if something goes wrong in the so-called camps which are just the workplace of them."
"But they're slaves, aren't they?" James asked, and he saw the driver start to get stressed about it, he began tapping his fingers on the wheel and even sighing.
"You know sir, every time tourists ask about the camps, without even knowing the history of the country, and how the civilians, me, fought…" He looked at the mirror, his voice now firm and least welcoming. "Those camps have rapists, pedophiles, serial killers, murderers, and so on, people who did terrible things… not all of them get executed because we civilians can decide about it with votes."
"Votes?" Mike asked.
"Yeah, let them go out the easy way or let them work hard labor until they die like a dog… it's not a concentration camp but a hard labor camp, and they get what they deserve… but of course, it's up to the victim's relatives, if they vote in the favor of execution then that happens." Another stop came and he was now fully looking into the mirrors at James and Mike. "They're mining, they're doing the jobs that would be dangerous for civilians, and they're doing it until they collapse, because that's what they deserve. "And meanwhile, they're suffering… they're benefiting us, the civilians who obey the law of Maraci."
There was a silence for a bit as they both thought about it.
"That's still slavery," Mike said, not because he was against it. No, he agreed with that view on dangerous fuckers like rapist and pedophile working until the die… but it's just the reality of it and what a lot of people think it is… modern-day slavery.
"Yeah, it is, but we're enslaving criminals, not by color, by ideology, by religion… they are all monsters and they deserve to be—"
"Isn't it a little bit ironic? Hypocritical?" James asked, suddenly interrupting the driver.
"What?" The driver asked as he glanced at the mirror and what he saw was James's eyes staring right at him and even though it was just through the mirror, he could sense that something wasn't right.
On the other side, James just wanted to know how much the civilians really knew about what was truly happening in Maraci… in the gangster's paradise.