Milk Run, pt 3

It's 2075. A lot has changed since the old days. Cybernetic enhancements are relatively commonplace, the rule of law has been largely replaced by corporate decree, men and women can cruise a fully VR Matrix or overlap their day-to-day with Augmented Reality. Despite all of that, some practices and traditions going back thousands of years are still in practice today.

When the Awakening brought magic back to the world in the early part of the 21st century, a lot of these traditions gained new life. Hermetic magic, shamanism, and ancient martial arts disciplines that fuse magic and physical combat all have new adherents. Drex was about to give the wageslave mercenaries that had fired on us a lesson in some of that.

She was standing now, and a malicious grin stretched across her face as she cracked her knuckles, "All right, boys," she said, her voice soft, "Who wants it first?'

The two of them looked dumbfounded to one another, then back to Drex, before reloading their guns without another word. I chuckled from my hiding spot, "Go for the guy on the left. I don't like the way he parts his hair."

Drex nodded and, still smiling, dropped into a fighting crouch as her whole body began to glow. Literally. She was emanating a soft, golden light in waves that made small bits of dust on the floor spin around in a thin vortex around her.

You'll have to take this next part on my word, because I didn't experience it myself, but later she described it to me.

She closed her eyes, shutting out the enhanced visuals usually provided by her cybereyes, and allowed her other senses to extend outward. She smelled the oil in the guns, the sweat on the mercs foreheads, and the powder in their ammunition. She felt the shifts in the air around her as they began to raise their weapons. She heard their fingers tense on the triggers. She could taste the pressure change as the miniature explosions that sent the bullets from the barrels went off. Then she moved.

Watching her was like watching ballet. She danced through the air as they began to fire, filling the air with leaden death. She twirled, spun, jumped, and dived over, under, and around their bullets as she made her way toward them.

After an instant that felt like an eternity she landed in front of Lefty, her eyes still closed, and snatched his gun from him by the still hot barrel. Absently, she brought it across her body, tossing it into Righty's face. There was crack as his nose broke and he staggered backward, but Drex wasn't nearly done yet.

Like flowing water she continued to move, her eyes still closed, as her free hand curled into a fist and found it's way into Lefty's windpipe. From where I was sitting, I could almost hear it crunch and collapse, and Lefty fell to the ground. Righty came at her, blood running freely and mixing with tears as it ran down his face, and swung his gun at her like a club. She dodged lightly, ducking down and coming back up so that her shoulder slammed into his extended elbow. Her hands came out of nowhere, one moving down and the other moving up, and using her shoulder as a fulcrum she snapped his arm nearly in half.

The glow faded as she opened her eyes. She smiled at me, "C'mon, Gavin. Let's get what we came for and get the frag out of here."

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 4

Milk Run, pt 2

As quick as I could manage, which was pretty quick considering how much cyberware was lining my nervous system and musculature, I snatched Drex by the arm and hurled her in front of me and away, towards a large statue of a Greek warrior goddess that stood on the left side of the office we were in. I dove after her, hiding my bulk as well as I could behind the relatively small hunk of stone.

"What in the...!?", she shouted, before slapping at me ineffectually, "Are you totally whacked? What happened!?"

I grunted and reached into my coat, pulling out a small device, a round, flat thing about the size of a human palm. Like a hockey puck with buttons.

"They had Black ICE, Drex," I explained, pressing a few buttons on the device and sliding across the floor behind us, towards our attackers, "Intrusion countermeasures, the highly illegal and really, really nasty kind. I almost didn't manage to jack out in time."

I pointed to the back of my neck, where my cyberdeck, now ruined, would normally be plugged into the base of my skull. Wires still dangled from it, from where I had simply ripped them out of the deck instead of my head.

Johnson had told us this job would be simple. A smash and grab. A milk run. Go in, take out a few guards, and extract a file marked "Rutherford". He'd claimed it wouldn't be well protected, and we'd believed him.

"You're supposed to be the hot drek Decker, Gavin," Drex said, inspecting the cables briefly. I pushed her away idly, closing my eyes and switching to Augmented Reality.

"Not now, Drex," I muttered, opening my eyes and focusing on the picture-in-picture display that popped into the left side of my vision, taking up a quarter or so of my total view, "I have to concentrate."

The disk I had hurled at the guards behind us, two mundanes with machine guns and a wagemage, sprouted eight little legs and an eye stalk, then stood and scuttled over to our attackers unnoticed while they continued their assault. On the end of the eye stalk it had a small, but excellent, camera that was feeding into my commlink and filling the picture-in-picture display of my AR. I grinned and directed my little spider-bot towards the wagemage.

Our attackers finally took notice of us when the spider-bot leaped up a full eight feet and wrapped it's legs around the mage's head, enveloping it. The mage screamed and stumbled backward, reeling and spinning his arms, shouting for his allies to get the thing off of him. I allowed myself to finally laugh out loud when I sent the command to flip the kill-switch, shorting out the drone's systems and sending a several thousand volt shock through the wizard.

He dropped to the ground and shook violently, his body seizing. Drex took that as an opportunity. Smiling, she gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and stood, her whole body glowing as she dropped into a fighting stance.

PART 3 TOMORROW...

Milk Run, pt 1

One of the first things you learn when you run the shadows is that there is no such thing as a milk run.

That's the thought that was going through my head as bullets whizzed by it, followed shortly by the sound of flaming, magical napalm slamming into the heavy wooden desk that my partner Drex and I were, up to that point, using as cover. I cursed out loud and attempted to roll away from the hunk of kindling that had once been the only thing standing between me and certain death, and tried desperately to find another place to cower.

Mr. Johnson was an elf this time, which should have been a sure sign that things were fragged from the start, but I didn't pay much mind to that. Besides, it was Drex who did all the talking, as usual.

"We want half up front," she had said, leaning in close so that her pink and blue dreadlocked hair dangled in front of her face, a cocky smile crossing her face, her cybereyes lighting up just a bit in the gloom of the nearly abandoned bar, "You say it's a milk run, so our success is damn near guaranteed. You lose nothing."

The elf in the sharp business suit and fashionable shades glowered at her from across the table, and huffed, "It's just the two of you, then?" he asked, "Don't 'runners usually come in bigger teams?"

Silently, I returned his glower. Mine was more impressive, the bulk of my seven foot frame and the heavy horns on my head adding to my intimidation factor. Johnson gulped and sat back about an inch. Some days it was good to be an troll.

Drex chuckled, pushing her hair out of her eyes and leaning back casually, crossing her arms over her chest, "Yeah, it's just the two of us," she said, "What you gotta understand, chummer, is that  Gavin and I have more skill between us than most 'runner teams. We've got this."

I rolled my massive shoulders, flexing a bit and crossing my chromed arms over my barrel chest to emphasize her point.

She continued, "I've got the magic, he's got the tech. I've got guns, he's got those," she pointed to my arms, "And those say half up front or no deal."

Johnson curled his lip, and I could tell that beneath his tinted shades his eyes were bouncing between the two of us, "Fine," he spat after a moment, "I don't really have the time to be picky, anyway. Give me your credstick."

I slammed my hand, palm down onto the table, and grinned as I slid it across to Johnson, "No credstick," I said, trying to sound as stereo-typically trollish as possible, "Account number. Deposit now."

It was hard to keep up the act, but I'd had a lot of practice pretending to be dumb muscle. It helped lure Johnsons into a sense of superiority that often caused them to reveal more information than they intended to, as well as intimidating them into keeping up their end of any bargains we might make.

Drex tapped her ear, turning on her AR readout so she could keep an eye on our bank account, even as Johnson began to tap the numbers into the air, using his own Augmented Reality device. Within a few seconds, Drex smiled, "Good. Thanks Mr. J," she said, and hopped off of the barstool, "We'll see you here tomorrow evening with the data. Don't be late."


PART 2 TOMORROW...

Second Chances

It was late, almost three in the morning, and in the dark a large black Hummer sat idling in front of a middle-sized apartment building. Sitting in the truck, nervously tapping on the steering wheel, Kim Howard leaned forward to look out the windshield at the window of one of the 4th floor apartments.

"Hurry the hell up, guy," he muttered, moving his hands to fiddle with the radio while in the back seat the reporter, Alex, jotted something down onto a sheet of yellow notebook paper.

"He'll be out shortly," Alex said, trying to reassure the tense professional killer in the driver's seat, "Just give it a couple more minutes."

It had been a long night up to that point, and in lieu of snapping at his friend he instead chose to remain silent, leaning back in the seat and closing his eyes. There were here to gather some of Ethan's crap before hitting the road. They were on the run, each of them having had encounters with things that were beyond possibility, and they had apparently attracted some attention as a result.

Kim growled impatiently, pushing his long black hair out of his face, "I can't take this anymore," he said, "I'm going to get him." He checked to make sure the gun in his lap was loaded for the fifteenth time since they had parked, and made to open the door when Alex tapped him on the shoulder and pointed.

"Look," he said, as Ethan made his way towards the car, waving one hand. The other had a large satchel in it, probably filled with a bunch of his personal effects. Kim set the gun back down and gripped the steering wheel as Ethan got back into he passenger seat.

"Sorry," Ethan said, straightening the gear on his lap while Kim started the car back up, "I really didn't want to leave any of this behind."

Before either Kim or Alex could say a word, the windows of the fourth floor shattered and blossomed with flames as a massive explosion ripped through the building. The three men could feel the concussion of the blast in their chests as debris began to fall around them.

The hitman's thoughts moved quickly, going over everything that had happened that night in an instant. Ethan's apartment was just blown to pieces, each of them had been attacked that night in places where only the three of them frequented, and Kim's only worldly possession was the Hummer that they now sat in.

"Fuck," he said, quickly opening the door to the Hummer and rolling out. Alex and Ethan looked around, still surprised by the explosion, but didn't move.

"What?" Alex managed to mutter right before the truck exploded in a ball of flame. Kim rolled onto his back, his eyes wide with horror as he looked at the conflagration that had, until a moment ago, been his only home and his only two friends.

"FUCK!" he shouted, and slammed his fists against the concrete until they began to bleed.

                                            *                 *                   *                    *

Across the street, hidden in an alley, James Garrett shook his head. This wasn't how this was supposed to go down. They weren't ready yet, they didn't know the full extent of the evil that surrounded them. He dropped his cigarette, grinding it into the pavement with the tip of his cowboy boot, and then cracked his knuckles. This was going to hurt.

A lot.

                                            *                 *                   *                    *

Time stopped, congealing around the building, the burning hunks of steel, and the distraught assassin in the middle of the street. Without knowing why, Kim found himself standing up, watched as the blood on the pavement ran in rivers back onto, and then into, his hands. He watched as the skin closed back up, even as he went through the motions of slamming them to the ground again, this time in reverse. He hardly noticed when his mind began to rewind similarly.


                                            *                 *                   *                    *

The hitman's thoughts moved quickly, going over everything that had happened that night in an instant. Ethan's apartment was just blown to pieces, each of them had been attacked that night in places where only the three of them frequented, and Kim's only worldly possession was the Hummer that they now sat in.

"Fuck," he said, quickly opening the door to the Hummer, but he stopped for a fraction of a second to turn back to the others. He wasn't sure why, but he felt like it was the right thing to do.

"Get out!," he shouted, diving out of the truck quickly, "Bomb!"

The others registered the imperative, and moved their asses, rolling out of the Hummer just in time for it to go up in a massive blast of flame. Ethan was thrown a few feet, his shirt catching on fire, and Alex slammed his head on the pavement in his attempt to dive out of the way, but in the end the three of them were alive.

Kim moved over quickly to put out Ethan's shirt, and for reasons he couldn't quite grasp, he looked up towards the alleyway. Slowly, clapping his hands like a comic book super villain, a man dressed head to toe like something from an old Western movie approached them from the darkness. Kim noticed immediately that he had twin trails of blood running from his nostrils.

"Good evening, boys," he said, his voice not even remotely matching his outfit, "I think it's time I finally introduced myself."

Mugging the Monster

The alley is dark, mostly, illuminated only by a bare bulb on the side of one of the buildings just above a service access door. It's perfect for the predator's needs, out of the way and isolated just enough that any potential screams will be unheard by passersby.

He grins, pulling the girl he's with tighter to him. She's drunk, this little black-haired beauty, but that's fine by him. He prefers them more alert, usually, but a certain amount of booze adds to the flavor of the kill, adds spice to the blood. She mutters something, but he doesn't hear it. He's not really paying attention to her, after all. Too busy trying to make sure the alley is really empty.

When they finally reach the end of the alleyway, he moves in to kiss her. She returns his false affection with fervor, reaching down to fumble at his pants. He pulls away, laughing, and uses one arm to pin her against the wall. She looks offended, and says something to that effect, but he still isn't listening. He's caught up in the blood lust now.

The predator smiles at her, and her eyes go wide as his four inch fangs slide into view. Something about her demeanor changes then, but he's too far gone to notice. He moves in for the kill, snapping her head to one side and lunging for her neck, and that's when he finally hears her. He hears her chuckle right before he's thrown across the alley.

Slamming against the opposite wall, the predator feels the bones of his ribs snap and break with the force of impact, and blood spurts from his mouth. He licks it away with a growl, calling on something inside him to knit the bones back together as he stands. He looks up at her, and it's finally time for his eyes to widen.

The girl is floating now, a foot and a half above the ground, and a blue aura of pure power surrounds her. Here eyes are gone, replaced by twin orbs of shining blue fire, and a smile crosses her face. The vampire hisses and lunges at her, determined now to kill this witch before she can embarrass him further. His limbs move, and he calls on unholy speed, but he can't reach her. The alley seems...wider than he remembers it being.

Panic blossoms in his breast as the girl just laughs at his efforts. An amused look crosses her face, and finally he's able to clear the gap between them. His hands extend into vicious claws, and he laughs out loud as they dive towards her belly. The beast's laughter ends abruptly as pain explodes from his back again, and he coughs up blood as something rips it's way out of his chest cavity.

He has just enough time to register his own blackened heart in front of him, in the grip of his own gore soaked claw as it erupts out of his chest. Then there is darkness as he turns to ash before the small, once-again innocent looking girl.

She chuckles and pulls a cell phone out of her pocket, flipping it open and hitting the speed dial, "Bagged another vampire," she says, "They're going to notice soon. I'll see you at home."

Doors.

Doors. Doors lead to everywhere, and to nowhere.

Don't look at me like that, you know what I'm talking about, you've seen it!

It doesn't matter anyway. They know that I know, and it won't be long now before they come for me. What do you mean you don't know what I'm talking about!? You were there!? You saw what happened to Erika!

Fine, fine, I'll explain it again. The Shadow People, they've been hunting. You don't remember? Well, THINK, you piece of shit! It can't be just me!

They probably made you forget. Again. It's okay, I suppose. No, I don't know why I remember. It doesn't matter, they'll make you forget again anyway.

They live in the City, y'see. You know, the Empty City? This is basic stuff, guy, get it together. The Empty City is where the Shadow People live and that's where they take people. It's the center of it all. The...the Nexus of it all. It's where They gather, the players. The ones in charge of this whole thing.

See, it's all a big Game to them, right? And us, normal people, that is...we're the pieces. We're pawns, no, we're worse than pawns...chess metaphors are old hat anyway. We're like checkers. They move us around and add and subtract from the board, and every once in awhile one of us gets to get a nice fancy crown but it doesn't matter because they control it all and we don't even know the rules and goddamn it they are LAUGHING at us, don't you GET IT!?

DON'T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN, YOU CALM THE FUCK DOWN!!

Fine, fine...so, the Shadow People. They hide in the cracks and crevices of the world, in the shadows and the dark. They come through Doors, any door can be a Door, and they come to our world from the Empty City, a place of eternal twilight where everything is just...off. It's like a...a shadowy reflection of our world.

They take people. They took Erika, and They're gonna take me, next. I know. Because I remember Them.

What do you mean, I'm babbling! You asked me what happened, and I TOLD YOU! Stop writing things down, it's not helping!

No, I don't think there are monsters in my closet. I'm not stupid, and I'm not insane, I'm...fuck you. Fuck you.

No, sit the fuck down. I'm not done yet. I saw Them take a man off of the street a few weeks ago. I saw Them take him in the middle of a busy street and I'm the only one that saw it happen. A week after that, I watched them following a little boy home from school. That one was worse.

See, as soon as I realized They were hunting this kid I decided to follow them. I followed them all the way to this kid's front yard. I saw his parents come out of the house and wave to him. I saw Them envelop him, cover him head to toe like some immense black sheet. I heard him SCREAM for them, and I watched them look confused for moment before going back into the house.

They don't remember. I asked them. They don't remember him. He's gone. Like he never existed. And I'm next.

What are you doing, I said SIT DOWN! No, no I don't want you to check the closet for monsters, the fuck is wrong with you!?

Anyway, that wasn't the end of it. You and I, we went to Erika's house last week. We went to hang out, maybe have a few drinks. Well, I wanted a few drinks. They were already there. You saw Them. You pointed to Them. You shouted for us to run. We didn't get far, did we. No, They ate her all up, took her to the City, probably to make her one of Them.

Sit. Down. You asked, and now I'm telling. I'm here to save your ass, even though by all rights I should have just run. I saw Them coming here. They are after you, too, now. Get away from the goddamned closet! What are...

Why the fuck do you keep...oh, I get it. Yeah, sure. Open the Door. That's the deal, right? Give Them people to leave you alone? Huh, I should have thought of it first. I'm coming Erika.

Hitman

   It was too hot for a suit, but that didn't deter him. A well dressed man is a happy man, he thought, and in his line of work it paid to look professional, even in the damp heat of a South American micro-nation. He sighed, and looked around the small hotel room, wincing at the accomodations his employer had set him up with, and turned to look out the window, making sure he had a good line of sight. He straightened his tie and made sure that his long black hair was securely tied back behind his head, and with that done Kim popped open the briefcase he had brought with him and smiled.
 
   Carefully he removed the pieces of the Remington 700 rifle and laid them on the bed, making sure that every piece was in its proper place. Satisfied, he began to put it together, like a giant LEGO construction, each piece sliding into place with a click. When he was done, he grinned again, the massive weapon filling him with joy. It wasn't that he was a psychopath, though he had been accused of that more than once, he just took pride in his work.

  He sighed again, checking his watch. The time was near. He moved across the room and set up the gun on the windowsill, taking care to extend the bipod legs so he could rest it comfortably, and slid open the window just enough to allow the barrel to poke out. He shifted, getting himself comfortable as well, and looked down the scope, waiting for his target to come into sight.

  While he waited, the assassin let his mind drift back a bit, to the day he'd been hired for this job. He'd met his contact, a thin, bespectacled bastard with a sweating issue, at the baggage claim at LaGuardia. They sat down on a set of plastic chairs, and the weasel had insisted on trying to look everywhere at once while they spoke.

  "He will be coming in a grand parade, for his birthday," the weasel had said, his thick accent making him irritating to listen to, "You will perform your job when he reaches the high point of this hill." Weasel pointed to a photograph taken from the window of the motel, "You'll be staying in this room, and we've already determined that this will be the best place to take your shot."

   Kim chuckled to himself, not bothering to ask why they needed him if they already had the job planned out. It wasn't in his nature to turn down a milk run. Still, he had his own plans on how to perform the job. Professional pride and all.

   "This is El Presidente," Weasel had said, handing him a picture of what looked like an anthropomorphic pig wearing a general's uniform, "He is your target. One shot, to the head, quick and clean."

  Kim flashed back to reality, gritting his teeth and looking through the scope. The sun was high in the sky, and he had to adjust a bit to compensate for glare from the hood of the car that was coming over the hill, but he was soon able to line up his shot. Sure as told, there was El Presidente, waving from the back of the car that Weasel was driving for everyone to see. Kim grinned and checked the wind, just to make sure.

  There was a loud crack, and then the screaming started, as Weasel's head snapped back and bits of rotten brain and blood showed El Presidente. The car veered off to the side, slamming into a fire hydrant and causing a ruckus. Kim laughed and started packing up his things.

  Weasel had handed him the picture, and for the first time Kim noticed something off about the little bastard. His hands, or at least the hand that had gripped the photo, were black. Not dark, not brown, but black. The assassin normally made a point to respect the wishes of employers who didn't want to be looked at, but he couldn't help it this time. He looked the weaselly bastard right in the eye and saw him for what he really was.

   "I really, really, fucking hate zombies," he muttered to himself as he walked out of the hotel, pulling his satellite phone out and dialing quickly. When the voice on the other side answered, he grinned, "Got him," he said,

"Fuckin' rot bastard paid in advance, can you believe that?" he chuckled again, "Fine, fine, just get me home."