City of IF

[misterbiz]

Biz Bit: These are chapters or scenes that never made it into my works for one reason or another. I am posting these to allow you a backstage look at my writings and to see whether or not you all think that a character or scene should be placed back in or included in another work. First up is my first attempt at Escaping Eternia, starring the legendary Venus.


Eternia. It was heaven once for a girl like me. It was an interesting place filled with interesting people. Every weekend, one could have an untold number of eventful encounters from hooking up with a complete stranger to snorting cocaine off of a stripper's ass with a sumo wrestler. True story. Or at least I think it is, I was fairly messed up that Tuesday. That was the life. No care and no worries. Unfortunately all good things have to come to an end.

Drugs wear off, people die, flowers wilt and cities become glorified nightmares. My good thing came to a crashing end about a week ago. Some homeless chap showed up. He looked sick, stricken with a disease of an unknown origin. When an officer tried to assist him, the bum took a chunk of the cop's hand along with a bite of a businessman and a slab of skateboarder. The copper went home and infected his family. The businessman did the same to a board room and the skater help to eradicate some of his little buddies. The process repeated until the whole city became fucked and the military shut us off. Built a fucking wall and quarantined us, hoping that we wouldn't kill, destroy or eat each other while they thought of a better idea. Bastards.

Seven days and several hundred thousand casualties later, my heaven was hell and I was brought to hiding in a tavern because it felt like a home to me. And I need some felling of safety with the current state of affairs. I was awoken by the sound of the two-way radio on my hip going off.

“Venus,” a feminine voice crackled out. “You still there?”

I let out a moan before reaching down, unclipping it and bringing it up in front of my mouth.

“Yeah, Juno,” I said. “I'm still here.” I had met Juno here a couple days ago. Her voice crackled out of a policeman's radio. It had been a long time since I had heard another living person's voice so I answered. I don't know if Juno is her real name or a code like mine. Either way, we've been unofficial friends ever since. Our feeling of being grateful to hearing another voice besides our own bonding us in ways I hadn't thought possible. Every day, we helped keep each other sane by simple conversation.

“Thank god,” she said. “I'm planning on moving.”

“What?” I said, quickly sitting up on the bar on which I was laying. “You mean, you're actually gonna leave you're shelter. Why?”

“I'm outta food and water. I'm running low on ammo and a shuffler nearly got in last night. My place isn't safe any more. I'm making a move toward Joseph's. Try to hold out there.”

“Hold up, don't leave yet,” I said. I was greatly worried. She was my only source of sanity in this topsy turvy world. I couldn't risk having her mauled. She was right, she had to move but if she was low on ammo, a solo trip was the same as suicide.

“Why not?”

“Because I'm coming with you. I've got plenty of ammo and a shotgun. My food supply is starting to dwindle too. I'm coming with you. There is safety in numbers after all.”

“But,” she said, pausing for a moment, “What about you? What makes you think you'll fare better alone? Especially, when I'm at least twenty blocks away from you.”

“Remember the story I told you about my dad and the basement of the liquor store?”

“Yeah.”

“Did it three times. I'll be fine.”

She sighed. “OK. Be safe, hun. Remember where I am?”

“Henry's Pawn and you too.”

I clipped the radio back on my belt and hopped off of the bar. I moved across the room to where my stuff sat in a small pile. My belongings consisted of a large gray backpack, filled with boxes of ammo that I borrowed from my father's stockpile along with a pair of . 45 caliber handguns, a few packages of fruit snacks shaped like cartoon characters and a couple little baggies of cocaine.

I grabbed it and slid it onto my shoulders. I made sure that I could still move at a good speed before moving behind the bar and grabbing the semi-automatic shotgun that sat behind it. I made sure that all eight rounds were loaded into it before tearing apart my barricade and marching outside of my home, not knowing if I would see it again.

There was only a couple of shufflers in the streets so I moved past them carefully, trying to keep a good distance between me and them. I ducked into a back alley and started to jog, the only type of running that I could manage with my heavy pack. As I emerged from it, a shuffler quickly appeared from my right.

It stretched its rotting arms toward me but before he could put his hands on me and accomplish what no man had accomplished before, I thrust the butt of my gun into his face, crushing his skull. I did it once more and sent him to the ground. I turned to the left and saw another beast nearby. I aimed and blew half of his skull into a fine red mist. I hurried along after, not giving enough time for any of the friends to catch up and weaved my way through the streets.

Halfway to my location, I stopped as the sound of gunfire reached my ears. It sounded like some sort of automatic rifle. Military grade. That couldn't be a good thing. I swallowed and looked in all directions. The lack of shufflers surrounding me meant they were being kept busy by whoever had the other gun. I thought briefly of going to whoever it was, maybe they would help me reach Juno. Or they could be complete asshats. As I have found most military types to be.

Juno was my main priority. I had to assist her. I wasn't losing my last friend to the monsters of this city. I held my gun close as I prepared whether to keep running to my friend's side or to investigate the shots. Gotta love Eternia.