There was an eerie sound of cracking cartilage, and
then pain. Anthrax screamed for his father to stop. His father twisted
Anthrax's arm harder, then pressed on his neck. His mother shrieked at
her husband to let go of her son. He wouldn't.
`Look at you crying,' his father sneered. `You disgusting animal.'
`You're the disgusting animal,' Anthrax shouted, talking back again.
His father threw Anthrax on the floor and began kicking him in the
head, in the ribs, all over.
Anthrax ran away. He went south to Melbourne for a week, sleeping
anywhere he could, in the empty night-time spaces left over by day
workers gone to orderly homes. He even crashed in hospital emergency
rooms. If a nurse asked why he was there, he would answer politely, `I
received a phone call to meet someone here'. She would nod her head
and move on to someone else.
Eventually, when Anthrax returned home, he took up martial arts to
become strong. And he waited.
Anthrax was poking around a MILNET gateway when he stumbled on the
door to System X.* He had wanted to find this system for months,
because he had intercepted email about it which had aroused his
curiosity.
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