Cold and darkness seeped into my body. Goosebumps covered every inch of my skin. I crossed my arms in hope that it would provide me with more warmth than that of my rags. The brown knitted coat I had was dotted with holes, created by mice and moths. My leather boots had icy toes bursting through them. The thin, holey gloves were barely effective, and my dark jeans had been ripped and torn with age.

I coughed and sent a frosty breath into the cold midnight air. The sound echoed down the dark alleyway, bouncing off large, rectangular bins. Colourful neon lights flickered with small insects hovering about them. They gave off minimal light, but enough to see the silhouette of surrounding objects.

The distant, chaotic noise of the skyscraper infested city was the only sound I could hear, apart from the slow stomp of my boots.

The end of the alleyway was near, and sounds became clearer. Distant, but approaching sirens made me wonder what "crime" someone had committed. It was rare for someone to need paramedics. Emergencies like house fires and arrests were a common occurrence. It was a norm that happened nearly every day, and with every siren you heard, you'd expect it to be one of those two emergencies.

I suddenly felt prying eyes watching my every move.

I chuckled to myself and kicked a stray rock to the towering brick walls beside me.

The people in the city didn't know. They didn't have a clue that those emergencies weren't accidental. Those house fires, they weren't caused by an unattended candle near a window curtain, or an electrical shortage in the wall outlet. No, those house fires were intentionally caused by that of their own government. Though, of course the citizens of the city were manipulated to believe that they were in fact accidents. News advertisements of these false incidents were plastered across electrical billboards, blaring brightly into your face wherever you went.

The government had infested the city with their lies. However, I wasn't going to be deceived. I knew the truth.

I used to work in the newspaper department. I was controlled and highly paid by the government to type every letter as a lie. A convincing lie that forced citizens into sympathy of an accident that was truly a murder.

As a Deceiver, you had four years to serve the government. After you slaved, they forced you into retirement by shooting you dead. You lived nowhere other than that of the city centre. A place with the tallest, most luxurious skyscraper. You would never leave the building. You were tracked with a microchip. You didn't have a family either. You were just a homeless nobody with no family from the beginning, and you chose to live a sinning life, or you were taken from your family, and they were engulfed in flames. Hence all the house fires.

The government would take citizens around the ages of 20. They'd take them from the streets or their own houses. Arrests were a coverup from prying eyes. This didn't mean there weren't actual crimes committed, they just weren't frequent.

A highly technologized microchip would be implanted into your brain. The memories you once had would be replaced with intelligence. Just like that, you'd be an expert in being a Deceiver.

I was supposed to retire near to a year ago. However, I had managed to escape that maze of a building. My microchip was still in my brain, but I was no longer tracked. It miraculously expired right before I escaped.

The high intelligence of a Deceiver disappeared, but I kept all the memories from my time there. Hence all the knowledge of what normal citizens couldn't collate.

With it being quite a long time and being forcefully manipulated, the memories of my family had remained a cloud in my brain. That had been one of the few side effects of the implant.

The lack of tracking didn't stop me from being seen or watched though. The tiny cameras nestled amongst the city couldn't easily be spotted, but they were there. Thousands of them remained unnoticed by the citizens. I felt their presence though. I knew when they watched me. I knew I couldn't escape and hide from the government if I didn't use technology to change my appearance and become unrecognisable to those cameras.

I lived underground in my own technology lab for a while, experimenting on ways I could change. Eventually I succeeded, but I knew I wouldn't be able to hide for very long when I exposed myself to the city again. The government's technology was too advanced to hide forever, but it would've been enough time to succeed in my plan that I had concocted.

When I walked down that dark alleyway, I knew my plan was ticking. I knew it was bound to work. It had to work. I planned it to the very second.

My mind drifted back to my surroundings. The police sirens were close. With every second, they became louder and clearer as to who they were after.

I stopped in my tracks. A puddle of icy water swallowed my vulnerable toes. I lifted my hands to my waist, resting them on my tattered leather belt.

I could hear close helicopter blades break through the air. A beam of bright white light shone upon me. I tilted my head to see the black flying machine. A policeman had leaned out the side and blasted his voice through a megaphone.

He roared, 'put your hands up and remain where you are.'

Police cars drifted to a stop at the end of the alleyway. Their lights flashed red and blue, combined with blaring sirens.

I ripped both my highly technologized handguns from my belt. One faced the policemen and the other at the helicopter. An L shape was formed with my outstretched arms.

I stared at the oncoming policemen; a grin of knowingness crossed my face.