Chapter 4: Is It Considered Stealing…?
Ajax could not go back to his 'home', even if he wanted to. He was not afraid of Brandon, however, his body would break if Brandon were to confront him in their shared home. He had seen how abusive Brandon was whenever he was upset and he knew this body would not be able to withstand another strong blow coming from the said abusive man. He did not wish to spend another week being hospitalised whilst not doing anything to make his life better.
Other than that, he needed food to eat and a roof over his head if he was not going to return 'home'. 'And let's not forget about money. After all, the world will always be run by money, not the people. No matter which world I end up in, money always does the talking.' Ajax knew where he needed to go in order to survive in this unknown world.
At this point of time, he had nothing on him and he had been walking non-stop since he left the hospital building. It had been an hour walk and according to his memories, the destination was about half a mile from where he was. He knew it was impossible to reach there before the sky turned dark. 'The only way to get there is if I could just get a ride…' He looked across the street, just to spot a junkyard. He shook his head. 'I'm not going to steal a car for the sake of getting a ride.'
Ajax groaned in the driver seat in frustration as he repeatedly tweaked the cable wires in his hands. He had forced himself to climb over the fence and broke one of the junk cars' windows, in order to let himself in. He had been waiting for a car to show up and hopefully, hitched a ride. Unfortunately, there was no car in his sight and the sky had turned dark. It seemed the route he was taking was less frequented by people. He had no choice but to rob a car at this point of time.
'It's not considered stealing if it was left abandoned for years…' He silently assured himself even though he could feel a big brick hanging over his shoulders before he got back to the task in hand.
Fortunately for him, the run-down car was implanted with an old manual machine and he was familiarised with it. He had inspected the fuel beforehand and luckily for him, the half bar metre fuel was more than enough for him to use to reach his destination. In spite of that, the tricky part was stripping the cable wires. As it was an old car, naturally, the cables were degraded and the wires in them had long been rotted. Other than that, he had no tools with him and so, he was forced to get his hands dirty.
Working on a junk car that was coming close to 25 years old and getting it to start may have seemed impossible in the eyes of others. Nonetheless, Ajax was not giving up anytime soon and he would get the car started in no time.
With sheer will of resilience, he had successfully stripped the four needed cables, revealing four undecomposed parts of wires. Giddy in excitement, he hurriedly twisted the first two red wires together and within a second, lights and car radio were automatically turned on. He silently cheered in victory before working on another two brown wires, in which he just needed to shock them together to get the engine started.
Once the engine roared to life, he carefully put away the cables and placed them somewhere far from him in order to prevent getting himself a shock whilst he was driving. He immediately put the car in reverse mode and stayed clear of other cars. He then changed gears and revved up the engine before driving out of the junkyard.
He had a bumpy ride throughout the destination as the car would bounce up and down. He did not mind it at first since the car was old and this tended to happen to old cars. Though, for whatever reason that life was against him, the car had then started swaying left to right and right to left from time to time, as if he was sailing on a boat. At this point of time, his vision was swaying left to right and right to left as well, and he could feel giddiness rushing into his head.
Upon reaching his destination, he hastily got out of the car through the broken window. He almost threw up right there and then after experiencing the after-effects of driving an old car. He swore he would not drive the car ever again in his life, even if it means it would save him from death.
In front of him lies an old house and it seemed to be abandoned for quite some time. This was Ajax's old home before he was forced to move in with Brandon. His mother moved along with them as well since she preferred to live in a rich house over average.
The patches of grass beneath his feet were long and withered. Every step he took, the grasses were torn off easily from its roots. The family never hired a gardener and the land he walked on was used to clean by the previous Ajax himself. His mother was stingy and refused to call in a gardener to keep the grass trim short and neat. The previous Ajax had to do it himself when he was alive. Since he was forced to move out, he no longer had to tend to the grasses and thus, leaving the grasses to grow long and withered.
As he stood before the door, his hand grasped the doorknob. Unexpectedly, the door was not locked from the inside and thus, he pushed it open. The interior was covered in cobwebs and dust. There were visible dust mites and insects crawling around. Other than that, the stench inside was unbearable and he was deeply bothered by it as he got deeper into the house. From time to time, his nose tickled with itch and he tried so hard not to keep it in, but it was futile.
Without relying on Ajax's old memories, he was able to find Ajax's old bedroom. It was as if his body had an automated response and directly brought him over to the said room. As he turned the knob and entered the bedroom, the condition of his room was the same as the living room.
Ajax looked around the room and if it was not for the condition, he would say the room was neatly arranged and kept tidy for most of the time. Picture frames were neatly arranged by the wall and unlike a typical men's room, his books and shelves were kept tidy. It was easier to browse through and even the arrangements were in alphabetical order.
After he awed in wonder and admiration for a long five minutes, Ajax felt he had wasted enough time and proceeded to push the bed aside. The bed was a light single bed so he did not need to exert any force in pushing it aside. Recollecting Ajax's old memories, the previous Ajax used to work at night and come back during the day. He worked as a cleaner due to his low qualifications. Whatever savings he had, he would place them underneath the floorboards, away from his mother's greedy eyes. He was not expecting a weak rodent like Ajax himself to have such a brilliant intelligent quotient and he was more surprised his own mother knew nothing about it either.
Ajax bent down on his knees as he felt the rough surfaces of the wood before he felt a gap between them. He did not hesitate to pull open the wood board and he could see a small bag in there. He reached out for it and pulled it out. He then moved aside and unzipped the small blue dusty bag before flipping the bag over, letting the contents fall before him.
A number of rolled green papers bound by rubber bands fell before him. It was money. Somehow, his heart painted with guilt as he took a bound roll of it. Assassination was his forte, but not stealing of a poor man's savings.
'Is it considered stealing when this money is not mine but then again, it's mine because I'm currently occupying his body?'