Sometimes the whims of fate can be a blessing and other times a curse, for a young Noah valentine it was often the latter. On a humid summer night, the rain blasted down against the thin metal roof of an old 1999 Mazda hatch in an empty parking lot. A young man with drenched clothes and a creaking shopping trolly full of plastic bags, suitcases and cardboard storage boxes was sprinting away from a rusty old house towards the car.

“SHIT SHIT SHIT!” he yelled, as a sickly middle-aged man gripping a rifle can be seen fumbling out of the front door attempting to load a round into the old gun. “Get back here you orphan scum!” the man screamed as the rain began to drench his old and stained grey singlet. Finally managing to load the round, he pointed the rifle towards Noah just as he makes it behind the old car.

A bang echoed briefly before again being drained out by the torrenting rain from above. Glass shatters above Noahs’ head. His heart beating rapidly and his tension at the limit, he reaches his hand up and unlocks the side door of the car through the broken window, still crouching as he opened the door and throws his most valuable possessions from the shopping trolly into the car and leaving everything else.

The man chasing is obviously unfit as he hobbled forward, reaching into his pocket for a second shot, a crazed look in his eyes, signs of obvious drug use. “You can’t run boy! I’m not letting my pay check escape that easily!” he taunted holding the rifles metal barrel high in the sky as he walked through the carpark.

Noah desperately searches the car for a spare set of keys, the likelihood of anyone actually keeping keys in their car in the 21st century was astonishingly low, but he had no other choice, he couldn’t leave behind his precious belongings, the only mementos from before his parents died. Searching through the cars’ storage he tears through the compartment. At the back he finds what looks to be a glowing credit card, causing him to pause momentarily before he remembers the precarious situation he’s in. Putting the strange card in his pocket he briefly looks up only to see the man staring down at him through the car’s windscreen, barrel pointed squarely between his eyes. The rain sliding down his thin frame as he motions for Noah to move away from the car.

“Hahaha idiot” the man cackled with a sneer creeping across his haggard and bony face. “you’d have had a better chance if you just left all that useless shit and ran but I guess your parents were too busy being dead to actually teach you common sense!” the man screeched, laughing like a hyena. “Why do you care about all that crap anyway? It’s all just photos and books and shit. Your parents were fucking useless, I barely got a year of fun out of their money.” Noah was at his limit, he could take the abuse, he could take the blatant theft of the inheritance his parents left him, but the one thing he couldn’t take is the slandering of the people he loved. The people who raised him. A fire was lit in his heart as he stared daggers towards the hateful man.

After his parents passed away in a car accident two years ago the state forced him to stay with the only remaining ‘family’ member left. A distant relative whom he had never met invited him to stay with him until he was 18. He made it clear very soon he was only in it for the insurance money left behind by his parents. But he had no other option, as he couldn’t access the money on his own until he was 18. At the beginning it wasn’t awful, he was given food, although usually it consisted of frozen foods and cheap snacks. He was able to continue school, somewhat alleviating his sense of loss as he distracted himself with his work. While his name was awfully exaggerated for an Australian, he made some friends with the more academically inclined kids, even performing well in classes. Noah figured out quickly that his ‘uncle’ was rapidly draining the remaining money on useless shit and drugs to feed his addiction. Noah, in an attempt to distance himself from his ‘uncle’ decided to earn his own money, doing odd jobs around the neighbourhood, and with that money he begun buying and selling items he found in garage sales. He even began dabbling in FOREX and stocks until his ‘uncle’ found out. When the man found out Noah had money, he demanded he hand it over to him as a fee for letting him stay, completely ignoring the fact he had been stealing his inheritance from him for the last 2 years.

This went on for a few months and as Noah made more money the man became increasingly greedy. One day Noah reached a tipping point, as he discovered the man attempting to pawn off his comic books. Precious memories of a better time when he would sit and read with his dad while his mum prepared lunch. Precious memories of the people he loved, and the man treated them like fuel for his drug addictions or prostitutes. This was the day when Noah decided to run…

“No!” Noah cried, his voice piercing through the air in tandem with a crack of thunder blasting through the dark sky. The man was slightly startled by the abrupt outburst, not accustomed to being challenged by Noah, before regaining his greasy smirk. “Oh, you finally grew some balls huh?” SMACK. A loud and heavy thud rings out as Noah falls to the floor, clutching his face as blood dribbles out of his nose. Pulsing pain permeates his head as he lands on the hard wet ground. Adrenalin surges through Noah’s body as he climbs back up, not caring about the consequences any longer. He hated the man for how he treated him, but most of all he hated him for how he mocked his parents, the only two people that ever showed him warmth.

“AHHHHH!” Noah screamed tackling the man down to the ground. A dull thump as the man clutches his head with his left hand. “You fucking orphan cunt, get the fuck off me!” The man roars, bashing the butt of the rifle in his right hand down onto Noah’s back repeatedly. When Noah refuses to move away, tanking the dull thuds of the wooden rifle butt, the man hits him in the side of the head. Briefly losing consciousness, Noah turns limp as the man crawls out from under him.

The man begins kicking noah as he lied face down on the ground, blood from his head seeping into the cracks of the old bitumen road. “How dare you tackle me you ungrateful shit! You should be grateful for me even keeping you alive after your parents became roadkill wha-!”

Noah grabs onto the incoming foot, pulling it down causing the man to fall on his back. Crawling on top of him Noah begins wailing down his fists on the man, not caring for the dull crunching he feels under his fists and pain in his now bloody knuckles.

BANG. Noah freezes, his ears ringing and strength rapidly draining from his limbs. The man had fired, a bullet passing through his lower abdomen. Noah falls to the side clutching his stomach, warm, thick blood seeps through his fingers as the he sees the man panicking. “Look what you made me do you shit! I’m not responsible for this! Fuck!” The man curses in a panic as he begins to quickly hobble away, clutching his jaw and now broken nose.

Lightning forks across the sky followed by a crack of thunder, the sound of rain once again taking centre stage in Noah’s mind. The pent-up tension begins to burst out as he succumbs to his emotions. Tears stream down his face, indistinguishable from the torrent of rain. He soundlessly wails, no one to hear him, no one to help him, alone. He cursed the man for everything, every curse word in his vocabulary screams out from his mouth as his voice begins to break. The sound of rain perseveres as he gasps for air, his anger slowly morphing into sorrow.

Why me? Why did I lose my parents? Why is there so much pain? I’m just a kid. Self-pity consumes his thoughts before a strange pulse in his leg briefly steals his attention. A feeling of warmth, pulsating like a heartbeat. As the blood slowly drains from Noah’s body, painting his left leg in red, Noah mutters self-deprecatingly, “Well at least I got a few good hits in”. A weak smile tugs at the sides of his lips.

At least now I’ll be able to see them again, he muses as the pulsing feeling becomes faster and hotter. Pain returns as the adrenalin runs dry. Noah fiercely bites down on his lips as the burning pain in his stomach increases, stifling his own screams. The pulsing continues to increase, faster and faster, his pocket glowing brighter and brighter and at the same time as Noah lets out a roar of pain, a blinding golden light burst out, with Noah’s pocket as the epicentre. Silence filling the surroundings.

DNA sequence acquired, unregistered void card designation {Earth}, transferring to new representative [Noah Valentine]. Please wait while your body is scanned.

Registration scan identified lethal wounds. Would you like to use Void Credits to initiate emergency life saving measures?

“Huh?” As Noah lies down on the cold hard bitumen of the carpark, grasping the wound in his stomach an uncanny automated voice appears in his mind. Noah turns his head to the side to see if someone is here to help, only to find nothing. Well not nothing… the world seemed to be moving in slow motion, likely as a result of that explosion of light. The figure of the man can be seen in the distance, still trying to run as far away as he can, caught mid stride by the mysterious phenomena. The individual rain drops fill his view as they crawl towards the ground. What the fuck is going on? Noah thinks to himself before another message appears.

Reminder: Registration scan identified lethal wounds. Would you like to use Void credits to initiate emergency lifesaving measures?

“Um yes please?” Noah responds incredulously, his mind still in a daze due to the blood loss and insanity of the situation he finds himself in.

Lifesaving protocol activated: Number of times protocol has been used= 0. Void credits deducted from account = 1. Please stand by.

Elevator music begins playing in his mind as a spinning loading wheel appears next to the message hovering in his head. Ok whoever is doing this has a terrible sense of humour. Ever heard of TPO?! Noah thinks, half cringing as he looks down at his stomach. A few seconds later a ting sound echoes out like a toaster as it inevitably either under cooks or carbonises the innocent piece of bread. A wave of energy surges through him, his mind clearing and the pain disappearing. The wound on his belly closes leaving only a hole and blood stains on his shirt, the aching in his body and throbbing pain disappears as if it were all a dream.

Lifesaving protocol complete, continuing registration scan, registration scan complete welcome to the Void, Noah Valentine.

“What the fu-“. A Blinding light cuts off Noah’s words as the surroundings turn white. The light quickly enveloping Noah, taking the old car and shopping trolly with it. The only thing left as time begins to turn once again is an empty carpark, the distant sound of the man running disperses into the rainy night for no one to hear.