Tony had been living at the Italian colony in the Southeast district of Megacity since as far as he could remember. Even before he was born, his parents moved into the city. With the money his dad had saved until then, they could afford a decent apartment in the Southeast district. Although the place was known as 'Italian colony', only 40% of the population there were Italians. The rest were from all around the globe. The name originated because the early residents were majorly Italians. Then all kinds of people started settling down there.
Tony had barely gone outside the Southeast district. He had visited Nick's place quite a few times which was on the outskirts of the city, adjacent to the Southeast District. The only other district he had ever been to was the Southern district, where his dad worked as a banker. This was the first time he came to the Central district, the place popularly known to the outsiders as 'the Core'.
Although Megacity was referred to as a city, it was actually a self-sufficient state with its own government and legal bodies. The president of Megacity would have to be elected through the elections occurring every five years. The highest judicial body of Megacity, the supreme court, followed a set of laws specifically designed for Megacity. The forefathers of Megacity wanted the state to be a 'fair' and 'just' system. But contrary to their dreams and beliefs, the legal system proved to be as flawed as it could be over the next thirty years.
As Tony came out of the subway station, he looked around in awe and wonder. It was as if he had teleported to a completely different world. The Southeast district, where he lived, had its own level of magnificence, but compared to The Core, that place was like a backward town.
Nick's father used to work in the central region and due to that fact, Nick had visited the place quite a few times before. Tony had heard a lot about The core from his dear friend, but witnessing it firsthand was completely different. He recalled the things Nick told him about the place - the skyscrapers reaching beyond the sky, electric cars zooming past at the speed of sound, overhead streets zigzagging with one top of the another, the entire city being flooded by intense neon lights, the streets bustling with people who were too busy to look at others or stop- and now he was seeing the same thing before his eyes. He had drawn a picture of that place in his mind based on Nick's description, but now he discovered that the picture was not even close to the actual place.
The place was too huge for Tony to get easily lost. Thankfully, he had the exact location of Victoria's place on her mobile otherwise it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. He had a brief chat with her earlier where she sent him her location and the time of the meeting.
Tony was really excited at first because meeting her would give him the golden opportunity to visit the Core as well. But he would have come more prepared if only he knew what a crazy place that was going to be. Compared to his home district, this place was like a nest of madness. Tony never had issues with public places, but seeing so many people together at the same time, he started to get anxious.
So many strangers! So many unknown faces!
He had not taken more than a step since coming out of the subway station and he already felt lost. The wave of people kept coming at him, tossing him aside constantly, out of their ways. Some of them actually shouted at him and told him to move aside. Tony realized he had been standing there being clueless for way too long. So he brought out his phone, opened the GPS tracking app, and entered the location of Victoria's home. He had to walk towards his right.
He faced to his right and let himself get carried away along the stream of humans.
As he was walking, he tried to capture as much of the place as possible in his mental camera. He came across the famous entertainment center he had heard of. He crossed the biggest mall of the Megacity, which was also the biggest in the world. There were too many exotic restaurants, with cuisines beyond his knowledge and prices beyond his affordability. He saw the renowned modular stadium that could host twelve different kinds of sports. He even saw the giant statue of Denis Weber near the town hall.
Victoria had told him to take a cab or a bus in case he didn't want to get lost. But he wanted to walk as it would give him an opportunity to explore the place properly. At times he got so engrossed with the unique structures and impressive landmarks of the Core, that he lost the sense of time and the objective he had in hand. He looked around with his eyes full of curiosity and bumped into strangers over and over.
There were also too many food stalls along the sidewalk which attracted him immensely, but he restrained himself from buying any as he had brought very little money with himself. The money he had was enough to buy himself a return ticket to his district, which was the main reason he avoided taking a cab or a bus.
Due to his absentmindedness, he even took the wrong routes on several occasions before reaching the location being shown on the map.
He looked ahead and found himself in front of a building which was at least twenty-storied. He looked up in wonder, thinking if the people living on the top floor would ever get the phobia of height. He took a deep breath and entered the perimeter of the residence.
He stepped into the glass elevator and pressed on the button written '22' on top of it. As the elevator ascended, he got to see the entire city from a height. The higher it went, the more beautiful and breathtaking the city appeared in front of him. His eyes were struggling hard to process all the wonderful things they were seeing. He had at times felt suffocated staying inside his small apartment and hated city life. If he hadn't come to Victoria's home that day, he wouldn't have realized how beautiful the city could be.
Everything looks so pretty from up here. No wonder everyone wants to reach the top!
The elevator chimed as it stopped at the twenty-second floor. Tony stepped out and turned right, as per the instructions.
'Apartment number 22-C', he murmured as he stopped in front of the apartment of his interest. He rang the calling bell and waited.
The apartment was much fancier than the place he lived at. He wondered how many year's worth of salary his dad would have to pay in order to afford an apartment in that building.
The door opened in front of him and he found a girl in a dangerously revealing red dress standing there. She was holding a lit cigarette between her fingers which then she took a puff from.
"Tony Giordano," she muttered his name without appearing to be much impressed. "Welcome to my palace."