Nuku's NanoWriMo
From SCross
-1 After Holy
The thronging mass of Midgard is a sight rarely seen elsewhere in the world, at least not in the same level of oppressing claustrophobic glory. I knew I should have left earlier, but life gets real busy around this town. The kids will still be in school for another hour and change, and I don’t get a chance for this too often. I push through into the street, almost getting hit by a hurrying car. Letting loose with a curse, I have to remind myself that almost everyone is in a rush. There’s a feel in the air lately. The news goes on and on about terrorist activities.
Shinra will protect you. Shinra cares for you. Report all suspicious activities to Shinra for prompt reward.
It’s all bullshit to me. The name’s Lisa Thompson, mother of two, wife of an overworked engineer, habitual gambler when there’s money to do it with. Today, there’s money. A little luck and a lot of saving come up to this. I have a plan, and I repeat it to myself over and over as I hurry across the poorly paved street to the relative safety of the crowds on the other side. I glance up then, staring at the underside of the city above us. I remember the news clips earlier about one of those sections coming down. It’s still missing I can see. What would it have meant if I was under it? It’s a question no one down here doesn’t think once in a while. A cold chill courses through me as I force my thoughts back to the task at hand and my gloved hand curls around the dingy knob that would lead to my fate.
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I’m sure you’re wondering who’s talking to you. A name and a gender only go so far I realize, but I am in a hurry. If you must know, I’m about five feet and nine inches tall, I let my brown hair go long, a little past my shoulders, and I choose to wear a scandalous outfit today. It’s not because I like showing off, I already have one husband, more than enough. It’s a distraction. The men that wait for me as I descend down creaky metal steps don’t see too many women, and it’s one of the few advantages I have. Without thinking, I make last minute adjustments to the clothing, making sure breasts are properly tucked but displayed, smoothing wrinkles, and quietly bemoaning the idea of wearing such a thing. There’s no time to consider it now, they can see me. I smile, I nod, I enter their domain. “Hey Lisa,” speaks the eldest of them, Robert, an old man with grizzled beard and a bad eye. The one eye he has left seems more than adequate to spot anything going on at his table. Anything. “Haven’t you lost enough money here?” asks another, younger, maybe in his fourties, Mr. Kel. “You make your old man cry, or maybe he doesn’t know about this?” I cringe inwardly but force a smile at his words. It’s true, I haven’t told anyone that I come here. How could I? Only one other man is present, but he says not a word. He just stares at me, undressing me in his head. He’s the one I dressed up for. He’s the shrewdest of the bunch, and rarely wastes words. Offering a nod to each man in kind, I show my best forced smile, “Let’s play a good game.” The words sound lame coming out of my mouth, and I wonder if I haven’t already blown the night. Still, already in it this far… I set myself down at the table and take a moment to glance around. The gambling den is known as Viper’s Delight. A charming name that fits the usual clientele. Very few women come through here, and it’s easy to see why. Ignoring the men, the place looks like it hasn’t been cleaned in a decade or two. Hanging lights flicker as if in the last spasms of life and provide no meaningful light. The stairs are a rusted nightmare that announces your entry, and warns most to simply turn around and leave. The bar is stained several dull shades of colors that I do not dare to guess the origin of. My eye wanders over the television that hangs over it. I’ve never seen it on. For a moment, the thought of it being on is a comforting on, and I wish they’d watch something to break the uneasy tension that builds during serious games. I know it won’t happen though. The table I’m seated at is square, and metal with a glass top. I pull my chair forward with a soft scraping squeak of defiance, clearly happier where it started. The cards, my opponent and savior, rest in a somewhat uneven stack close to the center. The noise from the street only then dies out with the soft bang of metal on metal, the door to the street finally closing. The shrewd man stares at me from across the table for a moment, his name’s Paul, by the way, then speaks, “Let’s get this going.” Impatient, to the point. I expected nothing else, but it still brings tension to me to hear it. Mr. Kel and Robert rise, Robert dusting off his working overalls as he strolls over as if he was just moving to watch a movie, rather than risk precious earnings. I hated the man for his casualness. Doesn’t he realize how much I’m putting at stake? Maybe he’s just too old to care anymore. I turn my gaze instead to Mr. Kel, who nods at me and slides into the seat at my left. Of the three, he’s the one I feel most comfortable with. He talks to me like a human being, and with just the right level of solemn tone. I imagine he has a wife at home. I wonder if she knows he’s here. “Ante up,” breaks my reverie and I snap my head up, regretting it immediately. I can’t let my weakness show like this! I dig into a pocket and my gloved fingers curl around a smooth round orb, about two inches in diameter. As I drew it out, I enjoyed the faint warmth from inside of it. This materia is worth two month’s pay for my poor husband. I can’t lose this… I worked out the numbers, I know how to win. I just have to… smile. Paul collects one materia from each of us. Mine was a soft green shade. Mr. Kel and Robert had yellow, and Paul’s own was a blue color that drew my eye to it for a moment. Each was set in a row in a special holder with round depression that kept them in place, but also in sight. The target and the sacrifice were laid out cleanly in view for everyone to see. Of course, I knew what mine was. That little marble could put a shattered leg to right, make cuts go away, and make boo boos a thing of the past. If I was a more responsible mother, I’d jealously guard it at home and never remove it from a closet until it was needed, or keep it in a pocket at all times, just in case. Here I am, risking losing it. I can’t lose it, I have to win. My hands tense on the cards I’ve been dealt, and I look up across at Paul, who’s still enjoying the view I’m providing. I can do this…
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I stumble out of the door. My children will be livid. I’ve left them waiting in school for half an hour with no ride, no call, nothing. None of this matters to me right now. Clutching to three spheres in my pocket, I can’t stop smiling, or crying. It took all my willpower to escape the four men with a straight face. Now that I’m outside, I find it all pouring out against my will. I hurry through the dimming streets and wave down a taxi at the corner. It’s not that I couldn’t have walked, in fact, I usually do just that. Still, it was getting dark, and Midgard is nowhere for a mother to be walking after dusk. Especially not with three materia in her pocket. Besides, with the money I would get selling off the won materia, there won’t be any problems spending a few dollars now. The very thought of it renewed my smile as I gave a glance around the slum that I call home. The children will be so excited after I tell them the good news. Maybe we’ll even move upside, but probably not, takes more money than that… This taxi has no wheels. Many cars that go by don’t. While the poorer folk still have to get by with wheeled transport, hover craft is the better way to go. Tonight, I feel like splurging. Sliding into the cushy back seat, I smile triumphantly, tears still clinging to my cheeks as I announce the address of my children’s school to the driver, who appears female. You can imagine the surprise when gun appeared. The driver turned as if in slow motion, though I feel that was a product of my own mind. The gun, a short little stubby device, almost laughable if not for the fact that it was aimed at me, was drawn smoothly into position. I opened my mouth to raise objection, but then there was nothing but pain, and darkness. Thoughts raced through my dying mind. Who would pick up the children? Why me? Who ever gets hurt in the rich taxis? I can vaguely feel my right hand twitch, and my body falls sideways into the taxi as it accelerates towards destination unknown. Warmth spreads from several wounds in my chest and belly, and the warmth of my previous tears. The rest of me I feel growing colder, and I know that death has come for me. As my spirit began to separate from the body, I heard a few words spoken into a phone, “I got them honey,” they said, which, though I was beyond the point of care, still dug into me. “See you at home…”
I guess some men just have better wives than me.
0 Holy
Why did Lisa have to go? The world’s falling apart, and here I am, driving away from the city in a stolen truck. Behind me, heat washes over us, me and the kids, from the destruction raining down on what was our home just a few hours ago. A glance in the rearview shows huge columns of blue green energy ripping the city apart by the block. I could see another section collapsing down, like a sandcastle that had been kicked, to collapse on the suffering people below, and probably killing the people on top as well. “Everything’s going to be alright,” I lie to the kids. Little Rob gives a big smile. He always was the brave one. Cindy’s not looking quite as sure. I made sure to buckle them both in tightly before we left, so they can’t see what’s going on behind us, but they can hear it. The sound… I doubt I can ever forget it. Concrete and metal groan and wail as that strange energy rips and tears. Even as we put more distance between ourselves and the destruction, the city’s death is like a great dry wail of horror across the grassy fields.
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I feel bad for the others. Not everyone made it out in time. I have Lisa to thank, I believe. I thought I saw her, just a moment, and she was pointing away. I don’t usually pay much mind to visions, but something struck fear in me, a cold grip. I gathered the children out of school and made my way to the city limits. That was when it all started. With a great crash, the first beam of light came crashing down somewhere on the far side of the city. I pushed the kids into the first truck I could see and we were gone. I feel like I murdered a man. Who owned this? They could have used it to run themselves I’m sure. They were probably close by. I didn’t even stop to look. I’m so selfish… But I can’t really stop to worry about that now with the world ending. We’re not the only ones to make it. I can see other vehicles pouring out from the direction of the city behind and around us. If I squint, I think I see a few groups walking, but we’re too far away to be sure, and I’m not stopping to use the binoculars. Where are we driving to? As panic settles into a more morbid fear, I pull the truck to intercept and run along with a hover car and shout out this question through my rolled down window. The driver of the car is a young person, maybe just entering college. He leans out of his window and, his short brown hair going wild in the wind, “There’s a bunker, maybe half an hour from here, follow me!” So I did. I’m painting an unreasonable picture. The force that was tearing apart Midgard was not limited to just our home city. All around us as we drove, smaller dotted columns of blue green energy were raising from the ground towards the sky, possibly to act as fuel for the destruction. On the southern horizon, past the mountains, bright flashes could be seen, which I could only presume to mean we were not alone. I knew the road we were driving along. It led to Kalm, but we turned off of it before getting that far, diving into some thickets and up to a military fence. ‘Trespassers will be shot – Shinra Corp’, read the sign. Friendly. I grew a bit worried at that. I can only imagine that any guards would be even more on guard than usual with all this going down. The man in the hover seemed untroubled, setting his car down and boldly stepping to the gate with the all the confidence in the world, which he carried to the next one, still smiling, with a spreading red mark across his forehead and an exit wound I had the discomfort of witnessing. Cindy starts screaming now, high pitched and piercing. Rob’s asking questions. I can see Shinra soldiers stepping out from some building past the fence, guns raised towards me. “Remove your hands from the steering wheel slowly and place them on the dash,” comes a voice through a megaphone. Not wanting to meet the fate of my friend, I slowly comply, and the soldiers come, opening the doors and extracting myself and the kids. “Sorry about your friend,” speaks what sounds to be the same person. The speaker, female, is wearing a black armored assault suit, complete with a helmet and visor. They all seem dressed for trouble. “One of the new guys got itchy. You can’t blame him, just look.” She seemed to gesture towards the still glowing and crumbling remains of the city. Though the rationale was clear, it did not bring much comfort when I glanced down at the cooling remains of my recently acquired ally. “You’re welcome to stay. We have room for five civvies,” continued the commander, who said her name was Captain Longston. “Your quarters will be this room, and your children stay with you.” The room she referred to was made of concrete, except the bed, which was metal with a thin layer of something I suppose someone would call a mattress, and I would call a sheet. The only light provided was artificial, coming from a fluorescent above that occasionally flickered faintly. There was a sink, but no bath or toilet. The sink was entirely metal and polished brightly. I suppose I couldn’t demand more from an underground military bunker. I wasn’t allowed to know everything at first. They treated me and the kids as outsiders. Speaking of them, Rob and Cindy both dislike the place, and remain at my side at all times, sleeping or waking. We try to find ways to occupy ourselves, playing games, reading books in their library or using the computer, as restricted as it is. The global network seems to be down, which, while it doesn’t surprise me, only adds to my fears. Cindy starts to open up, and this brings questions. “Why do we have to live here?” “Home isn’t safe anymore.” “Why?” “I’m not really sure, but we have to stay here for now.” “They’re not nice to us. Did we do something to them?” “No, they’re just afraid. You’re a little afraid too, right?” “A little..” I pat my girl on the head gently and tell her it’s all going to be ok, but I’m not sure if that’s true or not. Cindy is about thirteen years old. She’s an A student, or she was anyway. Sensitive and smart, but a little shy and naïve, She is the light of my life, especially since Lisa disappeared. She has long brown hair and big hazel eyes. Her hands are small, and they felt nice in my own as I guided her back to our room. Rob was there waiting for us. Younger, at 11, he still had more street wisdom than Cindy, perhaps more than she will ever have. He was born brave and curious. Ruffled black hair was cut short on him, but he shared his sister’s eyes. He was dressed in a baseball jersey that he had on when I pulled him out of school so suddenly. I suddenly wished I had thought to grab some clothes before we ran. Too late to worry about that now.. We sat down as a family and I read a book to them. Normally we’d watch television, but we have no set to watch in this bare room, so the world I paint with my words has to do, and I put my best to it. I think it became their favorite part of the day.
0 Holy
Hello! My name was Rob. My father worked as an engineer for those Shinra people. I’m pretty sure that’s the only reason we made it and that other person didn’t. Father thought I didn’t know much, that I was just playing macho. I read and I watched TV. I know what was going on. Our home was wrecked and now we’re living with these military people. Around the second week, they called us all in, and explain that they’re finally going to accept us. They gave each of us a military fatigue, and a name badge with an honorary rank of Private. Honorary means that if everything went back to normal, we’d stop being privates. I didn’t think that was going to happen. Still, we were all really happy about it, because it meant we could do more, and they’d let us explore the bunker. Me and Sis liked reading in the library now that most of the locks were off. Once in a while I’d hear gunshots from above, but I never saw anything, and life became simple for a while. A week and a half after that, the changes started. I woke up with bad rashes over my hands and on my back, near my butt, and down on my feet, especially at the toes. Dad took me to the doctor who said I should take some pills, which he gave, and that I shouldn’t run around for a while. Not a big deal, I thought, though it itched like mad. I had been sick before, and I was sure I could lick it. The rash didn’t go away with the medicine though. It spread over my face, and my ears. I had a strange dream about running through a forest, which was really weird because I only saw forests on TV. When I woke up, the itching on my back was gone. I got up and wandered off. The others were still asleep, and I was feeling restless, besides, I had to go to the bathroom. My bare, rash infested, feet were comforted a little by the cool cement floor as I wandered into the shared bathroom. I went to lower my bottoms when I found they caught on something, and it hurt a moment. A bit of struggle and peeking and I found out why. A tail! Long, brownish beige with deep black rosettes. The tip started twitching wildly as my eyes went wide. My scream woke up everyone in the bunker who was trying to sleep, and they all converged on me pretty quickly. My sister, on seeing my tail, went right over and grabbed it. It felt weird, very weird. As she was going all star struck about it, the doctor finally made it into the room and shooed the others away to examine me. He let Cindy and dad stay though. After a quick examination, he said, “He’s perfectly healthy.” Dad’s expression said he didn’t agree, staring at the doctor like he just said the sky is polka dotted and purple. I thought the doctor was right though. I didn’t really feel sick, just different. We returned to our room, after I finally got a chance to use the bathroom, and tried to go back to sleep, but none of us were feeling tired that way anymore. Cindy’s hand kept finding its way back to my tail. At first I was annoyed by it, a lot, but then I got used to it. She asked over and over what it felt like, and I tried to explain. How do you explain something like that? I mean… you have an arm, right? How do you tell someone else what having an arm is like? It was the same thing. I thought, maybe… Maybe my sister wished she had a tail too. The next day, I was the star of the bunker. Everyone stared at me when I went by. Only Cindy and the doctor touched though. I didn’t let anyone else. I tried to get to work and do my share, but they refused to let me, saying I should relax. Relaxing was boring. I had already done my share of that. Still, they refused to change their mind, and I was forced to wander and find something else to do. I find the gym and invite Cindy over. I knew times were changing, like I did. I told her she has to get stronger, like dad and me. She wasn’t too eager about the idea, but she and I were good friends, we were close… She at least wanted to be with me, so she mostly watched me work out, and helped a little. In the middle of a push up, something hurt real bad in my hands, and I sprouted claws, bursting through the rash and digging into the padding under me. Cindy went wide eyed as she always does when something unusual happens, and rushed over, starting to paw over my hands as they tingled and throbbed. I wanted to tell her to ease off, but I couldn’t talk, the weird feeling in my hands distracted me. I think the rubbing helped a little. As sis fawned over me, my hands swelled up a little, then burst with fur. The palms of my hand remained swollen and pink, becoming large pads. I had paws, though the fingers remained long, and I could still use them like fingers. Cindy was beside herself, shaking her head at me, “You’re becoming a cat!” she announced, though I had figured this out already. “That’s so amazing! Why you?” she adds, leaning in close on me as if I knew some kind of secret to cat changing that I was hiding from her. Unfortunately, I didn’t.
