It was a random encounter, a chance meeting with a childhood friend. He hadn't seen him in years, had almost forgotten him, but seeing his face reminded him of his childhood. It had been years, the memories locked up by war and terror, but that familiar face pulled things through the shadows. Time spent running through the grass, climbing trees, and digging holes. All gone now.
His friend looked up from his phone, and he saw his friend's face as he recognized what he was. Hesitation, fear. He wished it wasn't so. A small sound played his HUD flashed, and he pulled the notification onto the center of his screen.
"Wanted for Crimes Against the State"
He raised his arm and fired four rounds, then strode past the limp body, his metal suit whirring and hissing with each step he took. His mission here was to talk to the man that currently stood three aisles away, and he could not be distracted.
Through the dark glass that covered his face, his gone friend had only recognized what, and not who he was.
Written for the prompt "crossings" from . Might have subverted the prompt a little, but I intended it to be about two old friends crossing paths, and it kinda ended up touching on past lives and new lives crossing (though I decided not to include any conflict there).