“Get up against the wall.” The stranger said. Alex was at the mercy of the figure and stood to stand against the wall. When Alex got up he immediately kicked the stranger in the groin, making him bend over in pain. Alex then kicked him again in the face as he bent over.
The stranger fell on his back and dropped both blades; Alex instantly grabbed both blades and stood over him, pointing both blades at the stranger on the ground.
“What the hell man?!” The stranger said as he leaned back on his arms, trying to get up. The stranger pulled his scarf down and removed his goggles, revealing his pitched black eyes. With his goggles resting on his head, he stood up painfully grabbing his groin. With his face revealed, Alex noticed that the man actually appeared to be a boy of his age. The ruffian stood up and spoke.
“Relax, I just dropped something. I came to pick it up, but you probably want it now don’t you?” The ruffian said with disgruntled anger in his voice and eyes showing pure detest.
“Sorry…” Alex said feeling guilty as he handed his blades back. He knew that this other boy was telling the truth.
The ruffian, with a confused expression, looked at the blades and then Alex and said, “Are you Serious?” Alex became confused by this response.
“Your new here, aren’t you?” The ruffian asked. Alex stood there silent. “You have a name?” The ruffian asked.
“A-A-Alex, I’m Alex,” Alex replied. The ruffian, still without introducing himself walked over to his home and examined it.
“I don’t know who you’re supposed to be Alex, but this is without a doubt the worst shelter I have ever seen. And that’s saying a lot coming from me.” Alex took it as an insult but didn’t show it.
“If you want to make it, you’ll have to get your hands a little dirty every now and then. There are no more decent people in the world now,” The ruffian stated as he walked over and jerked his blades from Alex’s hands.
Alex looked at the ruffian and asked, “You’re in a gang aren’t you?”
“No.”
Alex looked up at him in surprise and the asked, “Then what are you then?”
“Just making it by, just like you,” The ruffian said with annoyance as he walked toward the edge side of the building he came down from, reacquiring the can of food he lost in the process.
“Wait, let’s work together,” Alex said. The ruffian just laughed out loud at this; Alex looked at him with scorn.
The ruffian finally stopped laughing and said, “You’d just slow me down, plus I’d have to split my supplies just for you.”
“I can help, please just let me prove myself,” Alex immediately regretted saying that as he saw a smile grow on the Ruffians face.
“Fine. I’ll give you a chance. I’ll be back here first thing in the morning. Be ready to get a workout,” The Ruffian said and then grabbed a broken lamppost with his hand after sheathing his weapons.
“At least tell me your name,” Alex said with irritated eyes. The ruffian turned his head toward him and answered.
“Levi,” He stated and then slung himself high into the air and onto the building. With that, Levi was gone.
Alex laid back down in his new home and rested. I know I don’t have a choice, but the last thing I want to do is work with that punk. Alex thought to himself with his eyes closed. As he tried to go to sleep, he kept remembering the cold words of the soldier that brought him here. It was how the world thought of them now. They think that it’s better if they were all the same, no one was better and no one was worse than each other. He also remembered that Levi said there were no more decent people in the world now. With these statements recorded into his memory, Alex went back to sleep.
IV
PUs
Heather had been sleeping soundly in her bed. It had to have at least been close to six in the morning. The night was still and quiet as she laid there with her eyes shut and then there was a crash, the sound of glass shattering. The noise woke her and she groaned as she rose from her pillow with tired eyes. With her eyes adjusted to the dark at this point, she could see that her lamp had fallen and the light bulb broke. She sighed and removed her blanket as she began stepping out of her bed. However, instead of stepping out, she instead fell from her bed and landed on her chest, the force knocked the breath from her lungs.
She picked herself up and looked at her bed. She was terrified by what she saw. With her mouth hanging open and eyes full of fear, she saw her bed levitating a few feet off of the ground and a few feet away from touching the roof of her small room. The bed then fell onto the carpeted floor and made a loud bang upon landing. Heather was silent as she knew the exact reason as to why it was floating, she had been infected. She started to hyperventilate at the revelation she was experiencing. Oh no, oh no, oh please God no! She thought as she was running out of breathe at the sight she had seen. She fumbled onto her desk opposite of the bed that had just fallen in front of her. Her hand went berserk as she scrambled for something to stop her condition. Just then, she found what she had been looking for. It was a small grey inhaler that she had grabbed after knocking off most of what was on the desk. She put the opening in her mouth and pushed down on the other end. The inhaler released the gaseous remedy for her problems. She had not had an attack in a long time, but this moment very much was cause for it. She removed the device from her mouth and began to relax herself. Once she could breathe again she made her way to the chair she had pushed away from her desk and fell into it.
Completely overcome with fear, her eyes had begun to water as she began thinking of what might happen to her. She heard stories of people who had been killed or sent to the quarantine zones to die at the hands of criminals, or to have done worse to them. Her life had ended here, she would never see her parents again, nor would she ever see her friends. She wiped her eyes and then she had an idea. Her new powers only worked when her brain was active, and she was having a dream about what had happened earlier, that’s how she was making the bed levitate. If she’d simply not think about it, she would be alright. She looked at the lamp that had fallen over and began to focus on that lamp. She imaged it levitating. Pictured it simply setting itself upright on the table again. As she thought that, it unfolded right in front of her. With that her idea was confirmed, she just had to not think about it. She nervously rose from her desk chair and sank back into her bed. She lay back with doubts about the plan she had made mere moments ago. What if she had thought about it for a brief moment? With this doubt in her head, she lapsed back into slumber.
Alex felt a cold fluid splash onto him within the confines of his rest. He awoke to find himself underneath his cloth acting as a blanket. The cloth had become soaked in the fluid, turning to a dark brown tint. He looked up to see a face that he had hoped he would have forgotten in sleep. Levi was standing over him with a bucket that was dripping with a dark, transparent liquid. The smell had wandered all about Alex with generous borders. It was an assault on the senses. Levi stood over him with a stern appearance on his face. His face, in the rising light of dawn, could be seen more clearly and Alex could tell that his once large, black eyes had shriveled to the point where you could almost see nothing but the whites. The holster in which he carried his car blades had really been a collection of leather belts that had bonded together to create a holster with a large loop to hold the thick tip of the blade. Alex could also see that the blades themselves, from the handle, had grown wider with the length of the blade. It had taken the appearance of an elongated machete meant for slicing rather than stabbing.
“Rise and shine, you’ve got a job to do,” Levi stated standing over Alex.
“What did you pour on me?” Alex asked swatting off the fluid from his hands.
“Just some leftover water I had that had spoiled, you’ll live,” He responded.
“Disgusting…” Alex said picking himself off of the floor. Levi set the now empty bucket on the ground.
“Not sure what good a wheezer would do me in this case, but you�
�re the one who wanted my help.”
“A wheezer?”
“That’s you, idiot. Don’t you remember blowing gas in my face last night?”
“Oh…” He said looking down .Alex hadn’t thought about that much. Perhaps he was a wheezer.
“Great, I’m working with someone who doesn’t even know his own ailment. You really do need me.”
“Hey, I can still work.”
“Fine then, gas me,” Levi said putting his scarf back over his mouth. “I’m waiting,” He continued after a moment. “That’s what I thought,” He said pulling his scarf back down over his neck.
“But I can still do more than that,” Alex insisted.
“What’s you’re secondary?” Levi asked with distaste.
“It’s, well, umm…”
“God, you do need my help,” Levi said with a disappointed sigh. The sudden sound of tires rolling across the hard ground made Levi stand straight up in shock. “Get on the roof,” Levi demanded of Alex.
“What?” Alex asked in disbelief, and then suddenly he was flipped upside down in midair. He ascended up toward the building his house resided under and fell on his back on the roof of the building. He quickly got up in surprise and almost fell off, as he stood on the edge trying to regain his balance. He saw Levi come flying to him from the ground and push him back onto the building. Levi landed nimbly on his feet on the building. Levi made his way to the edge of the building above the road and he crouched down to avoid being seen. He motioned Alex to come to him. Alex carefully and fearfully crawled over to him on his hands and knees. He had put his hood back over his head as well. He and Levi, side by side, saw an old pickup truck roll up with four people in the back. The truck stopped and the men and women left the vehicle, including the driver. “What’s going on?” Alex whispered, but Levi just put his hand to Alex’s mouth.
They watched as the people began to investigate the ally way like vultures in search of food. The men and women were all armed with automatic and semi-automatic weapons. What was most notable for Alex was the driver. He was carrying a double barreled shotgun and was wearing a grey short sleeved shirt with military boots and cargo pants. A woman at Alex’s house shouted for him.
“Hey Merrick, can you come here a minute?” The woman shouted. Merrick made his way over to the woman wearing a baseball cap and a brown coat and jeans. He looked at Alex’s house with calculating eyes.
“We also found some food under some papers nearby. Do you think someone lives here?” The woman asked.
“Maybe…” Merrick responded.
“What do you want to do?”
“Let’s come back later today, to make sure that someone does. Because it doesn’t look like anyone could live in these conditions.”
“Other than a few cans of peaches there’s not much here.”
“Alright let’s load up!” Merrick said to the rest of his people. In that instant, Merrick had gotten back into the driver’s seat and his men fell back into the back of the truck and drove off. Levi removed his hand from Alex’s mouth.
“Who were those guys?” Alex asked.
“Just some rag tag band of revolutionaries,” Levi said getting up and walking toward the center of the roof of the building.
“What are they fighting for?”
“Peace and equality for all, that were not all that bad, personally I think there cause ain’t worth jack. That’s actually where were going too.”
“I don’t follow,” Alex said. Levi turned and replied.
“They have way more supplies than they know what to do with; the problem is that they keep trying to raise an army so their constantly searching for more. We’re going to hit those gluttons tonight.”
“You mean steal from them?”
“Just some food and maybe a gun or two for you,” Alex looked at him in disbelief. As though he could actually do better.
“What? I don’t like guns, that’s why I have these,” He gesticulated at his blades.
Changing the subject from less darker matters, Alex asked, “So, what can you do?”
“I’m a specter and a nocturnal.” Levi put his goggles back over his eyes and then removed them again to reveal his black eyes growing and shrinking again to colossal levels and then to micro levels.
“So that’s how you could see me in the dark.”
“Precisely.”
“But how can you move like that if you’re just a specter?”
“I can imagine my own skeleton. It’s a lot easier than trying to be superman,” He said nonchalantly.
“So you don’t fly. You can just apply force to yourself,” Alex said with a confused expression on his face.
“You’re on a roll, newbie,” He said then flung himself high into the air and then landed safely behind Alex, making him jump. Levi stood precariously on the ledge, but calmly smiling a boisterous smile.
“But before we hit them tonight, we need to get you familiar with the new you.”
Alex sighed as Levi stepped off the ledge and made his way toward him. If all went well, he would be actually eating something for a change later tonight. Thinking about food only reminded him of how painfully hungry he was. The problem was that for the rest of his life he would have to put up with the little twat in front of him. Levi had already almost killed him last night and he had poured dirty water on him this morning. I don’t like it, but this twat may be my only chance to survive this place. Alex thought as Levi continued toward him, today would mark the first day of the rest of his life as a thief and possible murderer. Whether he wanted this life or not, he needed to get food somehow, and it was like Levi said, there are no decent men left.
Logan parked a car that he had hotwired on the curb of small building. Above the shack of a building was a collection of small white letters that showed their age and negligence by the scratches and dirt that lay upon them. The garbage spelled out Freeman’s metallic art studio with the S in Freeman fallen off. Logan exited his vehicle and proceeded towards the front entrance. It was a glass door with steel bars attached to the other side of it. The appearance of the door stated that Logan was standing in the premises of a neighborhood notorious for the amount of criminal activity. A bell sounded with the unsealing of the door and drew the attention of the store clerk. Gavin was, instead of his typical war ensemble, togged up in a leather apron and wearing leather gloves on his hands. He also sported a welding mask sitting on the top of his head. “Looking for something special?” Gavin asked.
“You know why I’m here. Why haven’t you been returning my calls?”
“We can’t have the pigs listening in on us. It’s no secret that this militia exists. Besides, I was too busy with business,” Gavin said relaxed.
“Seems to me that all you do is play with junk and fire all day.”
“Excuse me,” Gavin said in a dejected tone, “but this ‘junk’ as you may call it, is merely my canvas. Not that you would know anything about art.”
“Whatever, did you get what I need?”
“Yes,” Gavin said handing over what appeared to be a brown bag. Logan felt the weight of the bag and peered inside to find at least a couple thousand dollars in cash.
“Thanks,” Logan said as he started towards the front glass door, Gavin stopped him.
“The colonel has another assignment for you,” Gavin said holding a picture. Logan took the picture and shut his eyes again.
“I think you might enjoy this one,” Gavin said as Logan focused. A moment had passed and finally he opened his eyes and spoke.
“Alan Fitzgerald,” He said.
“It never ceases to amaze me how you do that. I swear, you could make a killing as a fortune teller.”
“Well it doesn’t really pay the bills as well as this,” Logan said holding up the bag.
“What exactly do you need that money for anyway? When you applied for our group you didn’t have any family to speak of. You were a bounty hunter since before this even started.” Logan just stood
silent at this statement.
“If it’s the supplies you need the colonel’s already hooked us up with some new stuff. You just keep up the good work and we get what we need. If you need something just ask.”
“Thanks, but I’ll pass,” Logan said. He approached the glass door and opened it.
Before he could leave, Gavin said, “Remember, we’re family in this madness, we’re in this together.” With that, Logan stepped out of his small studio. He reclined back in his seat in the car when the small sound of catchy music played. He reached into his back pocket to find a small flip phone with a tiny screen. He read the screen and a slight happiness overtook him. The words that had appeared before him brought back a time when even in the madness of the infection, it was still possible to find happiness. The military never made the choice to contain the infected, the public did. Furthermore, it was the public that deemed these people unfit for living a normal lifestyle and for walking among them. The military merely does its job; after all, it is a democracy. Still though, seeing the text on the phone reminded Logan of those who are not slaves bound by mob rule and are constantly shut out from the rest because of their standpoint. One human cannot change the world, nor can that one person save it from itself. But can change what one other thinks. He inhaled through his nostrils, and answered the phone.
Alex had been training the entire morning with Levi. A blade swished by Alex, who stepped back from it. He then blew his wheezer gas at him and blinded him once again. His gas was a simple combination of bodily fluids and gasses that when combined create a deadly toxin. In other words, he was a walking bio weapon. Levi, instead of being blinded by the gas, lunged through it and took an overhead slash at Alex. Alex, using one of the blades Levi had given him, blocked horizontally overhead with both hands. Just then, Alex kicked him in the shin, causing him to fall to one knee. Alex tore off Levi’s scarf that was over his mouth and blew black vapor into his face. Levi held his breath and struck Alex in the stomach. As his fist met with Alex’s lower intestine, Alex grabbed his arm and threw him to the ground on his back with tremendous force, knocking the wind out of him. He held the blade to Levi’s throat. Levi regained his vision from the blow and opened his eyes. Alex then gave his sparring partner a hand in truce and pulled him up. “Good,” Levi said, “Now you play the starving orphan with a knife.”
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