VISORLINK - cybergoth short story
The last three bolts in my light pistol rang out through the alleyway. Two bodies dropped. I looked behind me to see Nav still standing there. Nasty in his appearance, saliva dripped from his purple mouth and his long contorted maw. Shoving my hand in my pocket, I ejected the last magazine from the light pistol. Through the smoke and fog, I could see the red and blue lights from the LANDCRUISER headed toward our location. Behind the dumpster, I heard Nav’s footsteps pounding the wet puddle. His face leering toward me in the puddle. Once that levitating grin hit me, it went up in flames. Next to me, the flaming corpse of Nav tumbled into the pile of garbage next to me. I scrambled to my feet, brushing the dirt and ashes off of my grayed out face. I scanned my VISORLINK, two more bodies were headed toward me. Fucking cops. Contractors paid out by the city, beholden to no one except the barrel stuffed in their eyeball, inevitably.
Straddling Nav’s charred, warmed corpse, I reached into his brown coat pocket, plasma bolts, like gold in this economy. He was looking to really make a name for himself. Ducking back behind the dumpster, I loaded the pistol.
The silhouette of the two City Contractors loomed over the far wall of the alley. I could see a probe light scanning the corpse of Nav. I quickly pulled the edge of my boot fully behind the dumpster, pushing myself further into the trash piled up on the outside of it.
“DEAD. THREE DEAD. SEARCH OVER. MOVE OUT, SEND IN CLEANERS.”
The two shadows waded away from me into the inky black fog that covered the city. People who were blind here were blessed, their senses could easily get them around this city which was basically a maze of smoke and emissions. I hurried back to my own LANDCRUISER which was parallel parked a little ways away from the alley. Inside the car, I checked my ammo, 4 bolts left. My VISORLINK began to vibrate. Someone was calling me. I answered the call. To my surprise, it was not a conversation at all “40,000 CREDITS DEPOSITED.” The gig was over and it was time to move on. I tapped the blue assistant button on my VISORLINK. “Deposit all creds into my drop account.”
It was cold. Freezing on a night that felt like the gates of hell had opened up, and I was cerberus. I had to make my way back to the Electric Banana before it was too late. I slammed my accelerator and took off, quickly. I used the ratways to get back across the town, Contrasctors didn’t dare come down there. I knew the path to take, the one with LESS bombs and explosives that could be triggered at any moment. I knew the path to take, and I was going to take it. BLAST! As I whizzed by an empty tunnel, one of the triggered bombs had already claimed a victim. I noticed the neon green smiley face on the side of it. This was one of Nav’s gangers, and they were looking for me.
At the Electric Banana, I thrust what creds I had left in my pocket into the hand of the bouncer, a piggish, mohawked minotaur looking beast of a man with strong gold teeth and a matching cobalt chain strung around his neck. He pushed me into the bar, knocking me off my balance.
Inside, finding my footing, I looked up at the tubes of the dancers. Electric sex orchestra, every type of flavor and feel. It was too much, I knew I was sick of the lights. That’s why I had killed Nav. I was sick of the lights, the smoke, the mindset it took to grow up in this place. Contractors got a whiff of me, told me I was a radical for what I believed. I always knew there was a better way and this was the next step.
Scanning the club, I looked for the yellow door, the yellow door with the hundreds of men behind it. I entered the room.
Inside, a massive army meeting was undertaken. The HAVANA GUARD was ready to seize the entire bloc. And I was ready to kill their leader. As soon as the door opened, my light pistol was aimed at the head of DONOVAN.
CRACK! His head split open like a watermelon. Immediately, the room turned the shade of cobalt blue, the alarms had been triggered. Hundreds of Havana guardsmen scrambled to their feet, loading each and every gun. It had not been time to die. Immediately, I was met with heavy gun fire, but I had made it just in time for RECK’s crew to enter. The wall of the armory was blown open, the hovercraft RECK had built was huge, like a tank that swallowed a yacht. Hundreds of bodies collapsed to their feet, blood filled the space. I had exactly a 5-second window to escape. Behind a tier of storage crates, I sprinted my way over to the vault door that held the key to the outside. Freedom.
