She hurriedly got dressed and ran out the front door of her apartment. She had a thirty minute commute from her apartment on East 13th Street to East 89th Street which she was dreading because she knew how fast the pods go and she was in a hurry. As she bolted down the steps of her apartment building her best friend and neighbor ran along beside her . "Debora! Debora!," she yelled constantly trying to get Debora's attention but Debora was already to far gone in thought about what was going. Debora's friend decided that the only way to get her attention would be to throw something at her since she couldn't keep up with her. She picked up the nearest item and threw it at Debora hitting her on the back. Debora stopped at the front door and turned around to see who hit her. "Susan what was that for!," she proclaimed after taking a second to massage her back. "I've been calling your name since you left your apartment," Susan was annoyed at this point because she was out of shape and working as a tenth grade teacher didn't do much to help that. Debora quickly explained what had happened and told Susan that she was in a hurry to get to the lab to find out what the authorities had found out and to see what had been stolen. "My God what has this world come to," Susan said in a disdainful voice,"what do they plan on doing with what ever they stole and why blow up the building?" "I don't know but that's why I'm in a hurry," and Debora darted down the street to the nearest pod station. She stepped into the nearest unused pod and said where she needed to go, the door closed and she was off.
Pods were introduced six years ago as a means of safe and clean transportation from one place to another. They were designed by one of Debora's colleagues and the government gave a grant to install the stations all over New York. She was grateful for them because the only other means of transportation was a little electric powered car that required its rider to stand in a jell-like bubble that wraps around the inner walls the entire ride. As she passed through the streets briefly noticing the few robots that cleaned the streets and a very small fraction of the population who were considered homeless, even though they weren't, dotted the near empty streets. The New York City Council passed a bill called homes for the homeless which converted all the old unused railways and stations into homes with all the basic needs. As the pod reached the entrance to 89th street she could already see the mayhem that had been caused. The street was filled with debris from the building and people lined up outside the yellow tape watching the police and fire department work. The pod floated down the street and came to a stop at the nearest pod station. She got out and ran down the street hoping she could find someone she worked with that could tell her what had happened since the news.
She stood outside the tape staring at the research papers that were now littered across the road and flying freely in the air. Tears began to roll down her cheek as she thought of all the hard work she had put in and how all that had been ruined in a matter of minutes. Noise pulsated in her ears as she stood there staring at everything that had once been organized was now in ruin. She could hardly hear anything because of the fire department's sirens. As the sounds pulsated in her ear she heard her name being called and in an attempt to find the source she turned her head around and around looking. After a few seconds she saw her friend Marcus pushing through the crowd of people stammering this way and that to try and keep balance. "Debora! Debora! We've lost our jobs, our lives, our research, everything!, he sounded over dramatic even for what Debora could ever think Marcus could do. He had tears running down his face too which was very unusual for him but given the circumstances she didn't doubt that his feeling were fake. She screamed out to him above all the noise in her head and around her," How's everyone and where are they?" Marcus looked around and then told her that everyone else was alright he'd spent most of the morning calling people telling them about what happened. Marcus gave a heavy huff and looked at her ,"they stole it you know that right?"He looked at her and then noticing that she was confused he rephrased his statement,"the government stole our research our experiments everything, you and I know it!" She was in no mood for his conspiracies right now so she ignored the statement and began asking him what he'd found out since the robbery.
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