Boom Boom the shaking of the floor and bright little squares flashing in a rhythmic fashion of neon pink, baby blue and yellow as a crowded warehouse was overrun with runaways, teens, punks, and rebels; all accumulation on the neon retro disco floor. A few of the lights were busted and it was old Hog didn’t fancy himself wanting to spend the funds to fix it. The guy was a really son of a bitch, Dillion thought to himself leaning over the rail of the upper deck, a cloud of smoke leaving his lips as he exhales; smoke also coming from his hand as he puts the glass tube to his lips again and inhales a swift amount of air before a soft pop sounds comes off the device, only drowned out by the bass of the music coming from the stereos below him. As he stares at the crowd dancing below that’s when it hits him, his vision goes from the dull colors of reality to brighter and vivid colors almost saturated, the sound the electronica rhythmic pattern begins to make his body subconsciously move, the old broken disco all above reflecting the lights of the floor leaving Dillions normally wheat colored skin in temporary colors of pinks and blue with flashes of green and purple between the mixture. Before he knew it his whole body is moving on its own, swinging his head from side to slide along with his upper torso, left , left, right, left , left ,right. As the music crawling on his skin, he could feel it through every cell in his body. The world for that moment, was quiet, he was alone but only for that moment.
A tap on his shoulder brings him back from his fantasy, he turns around whipping his head like a boomerang “Hey Zero”. See Zero, she was if one had to describe her was mensch. She was Dillion’s best friend since they moved into the neighborhood, a very skinny girl not sickly looking just she could probably use a biscuit or two on her plate, her blueberry skin darkens as the colors from the blinking lights wash over her smile; predominately the purple. “Hey didn’t expect you to see you at Hog’s”, “Ah-nah, I was actually about to head out of here” she laughs “Yeah right, If I hadn’t tapped you, you would probably in full breakdance performance” he makes a face only causing her to laugh further. She notices the smoke coming from his hand, nodding her head in approval “Slingshotting I see, I wonder how Mr. and Mrs. Lebowski would feel knowing their precious honor student boy is at a rebel’s party.” Dillion’s face drops as Zero burst out laughing harder “I don’t know, pops would probably be like…. those punks are nothing but low life hackers and scum”, “not just any scum the worst scum” she adds “ the worst of scum” they share in each other’s up spirited energy.
The doors to the back of the warehouse come flying open as they exit into the open night sky the rush of the downtown lights from all the advertising that corporations buy. Hologram models on the side of some of these large overly towering buildings, his father wasn’t such a man for the light pollution the big city brought and his mother felt the same. I forgot to add Zero is what we called a witch, she has a custom computer that links to her coven’s servers, they keep tabs on corporations in the wasteland and hit them with catastrophic hidden virus; hell there was one time her coven completely made the wasteland’s warehouse malfunction lost them power for a month but that was a double edge sword for her as her father didn’t get paid ,so it made Christmas rough for everyone. He knew she had done it too, Mr.Loky was no fool far from it actually but I guess it’s hard for a father to be mad at his daughter. Her skinny fingers grabbed his rough hands tugging him along down the road but he didn’t resist much, he knew where she was leading him to. It didn’t take long before there they were at the bridge, it was rusted almost everywhere, covered in algae and wild vines but what wasn’t on this side of town? It’s a relic of it’s time before the climate disaster hit.
When the disasters hit hundreds of years ago, it took a while for people to adapt and recover. People took to replacing rock and concrete with solar energy seals, but it wasn’t long before the constant storms begin to make it intensely difficult to not fuel the many Eco-technology our ancestors attempted but hurricanes ripping away all the hard work, tsunamis and earth quakes killing thousands. In the end the it really split old America, many branching off the land but still trying to keep the whole country in tack. Those corporations that were still around got the opportunity to rebuild up but many coast places weren’t having it, remaking small governments to keep these elites in check. If they wanted workers then they needed to supply material for people to rebuild, and it was a functioning relationship while it lasted.
This bridge was a place Dillion and Zero came to often. “ So, have you come out to your parents yet?” He asking climbing over the rail sitting on the edge watching the zooming by of traffic underneath him always gave him some weird rush, his fingers clutching the cold metal as a slight breeze brushes through his mid-length dreads. “No” she replies leaning forward on the rail both looking down in sync at the highway below, the older model cars were zooming by with a lot of them having been revamp to advanced bio-diesel from the old junk they use to use. They whoosh by no wheels, hoovering a few inches off the ground, I thought you said this past weekend would be it?”, “Yeah but not everyone is so brazen as you Dillion, you should understand how it is breaking away from tradition”, “Don’t make it sound like that” the coldness in his voice only matched by the chilling air of the wind blowing around them “what does that mean?”, “It means we aren’t drug runners like our grand parents in the 2500s” Zero pulls out a spliffed cigarette out of his pocket, you could always tell which ones were spliffs cause they had this all black paper as it sits in her lips she lights it “Oh the ever so delightful state we run off the so called Tradition that’s just the previous generations trash” she clutches her jaw as she exhales the drag she took while turning her attention back to the light flooded uptown.
She was annoyed and he knew it, he hands her the slingshot. With no hesitation she grips it from his hands “I’m surprised you still have a hit left in this” she says pressing the end of it to her dry cold lips; the chamber filled with smoke before making another popping sound similar to a gun suppressor followed by her coughing while handing the device back over, “you okay” he says while laughing; she only holds up a single finger as she continues to cough before spitting out a loogie over the rail. “geez, is that a new strain?” using her light hoodie sleeve to wipe her mouth. “yeah the guy called it comet dust or something like that”. Zero throws up her with index and thumb making a circle with her remain fingers giving the visual presentation of okay. She then makes her way over the rail as well “If you could change anything about the afro-republic, what would it be?” taking another drag while Dillion looked over at her as she absorbed the light pollution then there was silence for a brief moment “you know what I would change?” she returns her attention back to him “I’d change the Afro-republic so my friend could be a wicca if she so chooses” she glims him a smile “Come on, goof ball I need to show you something”. Exiting their way off the bridge and cut through a tunnel, a few alley ways before they were back in their neighborhood, cutting through the housing construction site before entering the tail end of their neighborhood. It wasn’t a rough place no far from it, though it was nothing like what those from the Corporate Wasteland they gentrify the middle of the country, creating more jobs from cleaning up their toxic waste from 20th century choices.
Zero’s house laid in the middle of a cul-de-sac, nothing too fancy as they walk up the pathway to the stairs, he looks at the for large pillars each one has large grooves in them. Dillion put his right hand on the pill, something he always did since they were kids, his attention turns to the dark cherry oak wood doors each having a single cheetah head with golden, mouth open with dull points on the tip of the teeth. Classic Afro-republic insignia; as she opened the door from the structure of the large door you would expect it to be heavy but it wasn’t as it swung open straight away. They both stand in the large living room, zero scanning her hand print, the green scanner turning red reading locked on it where her hand was” that’s new?” Dillion’s face is surprised by the identification system “Yeah well pops was getting tired of the eye recognition we had before. It kept ordering parts and glitched updates so he went for the hand recognition system replacement” walking away leaving Dillion in the living room as she enters the kitchen “Hey, that’s cool….but where is your old man?” He walks over to the staircase, looking at the long curling staircase that leads up to the second floor “Mr.Loky!”, “Dude!” she slightly moves her head from behind the fridge “you’re trying to get me grounded or something?” he laughs only simmering to a smile seeing her face stone as if she was challenging the stare of a deity. The stare was heavy like aship anchor, but he knew what it was for, he moved to the kitchen “you got enough snacks? Or is this for a whole soccer team”, walking about out of the fridge with hands full of food, Zero replies but the sandwich she had in her mouth was making everything she said muffled even though Dillion could make out a few words it still wasn’t clear. “So, what was it you wanted to show me” he asks with her replied but again muffled, they both walk through a door under the staircase, uh more stairs? Dillion says to himself rolling his eyes as Zero’s white hair descends further into the darkness.
Once they reach the bottom steps the basement lights automatically turn on, Dillion stays quite as Zero leads him further into her woman cave. She drops all the snacks she was holding onto a old foosball table, the wood on it smooth like Mr.Loki had gotten back into his favorite hobbies again. It was a odd hobby of his, not the sanding of wood but refurbishing old 21st century items. It was a strange obsession that he says he had since he was a lad, especially when it came to taking apart old communication devices. Zero plops down in her chair pulling up to a large screen that light up in a flashing of red and green “new tower?” Dillion squats down taking a look at it “ummm-huh, and a new processor too. Now pass me that apple pie behind you” he complies holding back a chuckle as Zero’s fingers begin typing away with a fury. When she pulls up a video,” Caleb? What are you….?”, “I was just playing around hacking through camera’s in the local area and lookie who I find, but this isn’t about who….it’s about what” she stands up tapping on the keyboard before touching her monitor and zooming in on the footage “look here”. She increases the zoom in by four “See right there”, Caleb passes something off to the guy in the SUV”, “Any detail on the insignia?”, “no, but you’re not going to like this next part” the sincerity in her voice but he doesn’t acknowledge it, he leans over her shoulder watching the clip; Caleb was a slim man couldn’t have been older than thirty. He’s wearing a fully beige suit only covered by a classic and oddly clean 20th century trench coat. Rumors spread about him once it was known that he came from another one of the thirteen settlement to be in the corporate wasteland, the main theory is he was persuaded to give up numerous rebel information and in return he got relics of mobsters from the 1950s. “What a jackass” Dillion says shaking his head causing Zero to chuckle, semi choking on her pie.
Caleb was standing in front of a restaurant; Dillion knew of it but he couldn’t place it. The door behind Caleb opens, a man stepping out in a black suit with a red coat dripped over his left arm while his right goes around Caleb’s shoulder and in return, he pats the man in the black suit on the back as he moves towards the car. As the crowd of people on the side walk around them thin out for the moment, Zero pauses looking up at Dillion his face in shocked, he squints leaning further in making sure he is seeing this correctly “D…dad?”
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