2018-08-01 - spike - The New Shop 71

Author: spike
Title: The New Shop 71
Date: 01 August 2018

Chapter 71
Warmth.

Comfort.

That’s all I felt at first, it was warm and I lay on something soft. It took a while for the rest of my senses to return.

Then I became aware of my ears. A faint… hiss occasionally, a faint rumble. It was a when I heard a car horn in the distance, the same one used in Dukes of Hazzard? What was that, the first bar of Dixie?

Car horn? Why the fuck would I hear a car horn? The hissing and rumbling became much more distinct as I shook off the last of whatever they’d fed me. Traffic. Heavy traffic.

I snapped my eyes open in alarm.

Sky. Pure blue, no, a large fluffy white cloud drifted into my field of vision.

But it was warm! It was December and it was… It was December wasn’t it? If I’d been kept unconscious for months I should… I flexed my limbs, twiddled my fingers. No sign of stiffness, I didn’t feel any different from when I’d stepped into the cubicle for the flush, so…

Oh shit, where the fuck was I?

I looked to my side. Green. A green wall. Some kind of plastic. I was in a green plastic… I was in a dumpster? They’d thrown me into a dumpster like last week’s trash?

What the fuck was going on? Oh shit, it had to be the store, they’d gone insane! Maybe some lingering effect of that concoction in the… But, how could… I…

I buried myself under the garbage sacks and prayed it wasn’t collection day. Wherever I was, it wouldn’t be safe to move until dark dressed like this. I tried to relax and get some more sleep. I needed to be on top form. Find out where I was. Find a way back there. Find a way to help them. To warn them.

I imagined a clock over my head, ticking. Five days, judging from past experience. Five days to get back before things got uncomfortable downstairs. I don’t know how long before it’d become painful or dangerous, accumulating so much shit and unable to shit it but at least this time I had the use of my hands. No threat of starvation or dying of thirst like when I was a stray dog.

I slept fitfully, constantly plagued by doubt, by the fear of what was to come. Was it M? Or did it go higher? Had Alpha or the sarge told them I was the vandal and given them the order? Oh, fuck! What if it was Q? No! No, I couldn’t allow myself to believe that. If it was Q then I didn’t stand a chance of survival. I squashed that thought.

I had to get back. Neutralise M and the others until I could speak to Q. Explain what was going on. But what about Beta? He’d been blanked too. What if the same had happened to him? What if he was lying in a dumpster in the middle of an unfamiliar city thousands of miles from home. Could that be it? A power grab? M dispatching the competition? Twelve might be next but he was more inexperienced. He might be safe for now.

Oh fuck!
* * *
It was dark. I’d finally managed to get some sleep. I’ve got no idea what time I drifted off or what time it was now but darkness was my friend. I had to remain unseen. I had to find out where I was but how to get back?

That was my biggest concern. I couldn’t steal a car. The moment it was reported… I doubt I’d even make it to the state line, assuming I was even still in America.

I scrambled out of the dumpster and hugged the wall of the alley as I inched to the main street. I poked my head out, looked around and sighed with relief.

Every sign was in English. That was something at least. Then I saw a parked car further down. That might offer some clues. I checked. No-one was about, so I rushed over to it.

The license plate. Georgia? There was a sticker too. A car dealership in Atlanta. Was that where I was? I ran down the street to the next and the next. All had Georgia license plates.

Right then. At least now I knew the direction I had to head. North. I was still on the east coast, thank fuck. God knows how long it would’ve taken to get back from California, this was going to be struggle enough.

I looked around in an attempt to get my bearings, some form of direction sense but I’d never been to Atlanta. I didn’t even know if the main streets ran east to west or north to south or even if there was any rhyme or reason to the city’s layout. I looked up at the sky but the light pollution was so bad, I couldn’t see any stars. Added to that there didn’t seem to be a moon tonight or if there was, it was hidden behind cloud.

I continued, but I hadn’t even got another ten feet before a hand grabbed my shoulder. Before I could even react, it spun me round.

He was maybe in his early thirties. Hooded sweatshirt, jacket and jeans.

I stepped back in fear at the look on his face. In his eyes. I saw pure hatred and rage. It’s the only way I could describe it. He didn’t say a thing, just pulled his hand out of his jacket pocket and swept it. It was then I saw the glint of steel.

My hands raised reflexively as he slashed them with the knife.

“Oh my god, you’re going to die, you (edited)!”

Oh, the knife slashed my hands of course, but I knew something he didn’t. I threw the metal dust into his eyes, kicked him in the nuts with as much force as I could muster and when he doubled over I gripped his head and smashed it into the sidewalk. His head hit it with a satisfying thud. A grunt, and he stayed down.

Fuck me. I’d heard they were bigoted assholes down south but this was something I’d never heard of. Randomly attacking someone with a knife just for wearing rubber? I’d heard of the odd punch up but… I looked around in alarm and heaved the body into the nearest alley. Now I knew. Even being seen in this at night was a risky business. I had to wear something to cover it up and who better?

I dragged him between two dumpsters and stripped him naked.

When I was dressed, I opened one and dumped him into it. I closed and locked the lid just to be on the safe side and tapped my pockets. A cellphone. I turned it on. Thumb print scanner?

I opened the dumpster, grabbed his arm and unlocked the phone.

Maps. That’s what I needed and the phone? Perfect. I paused before opening the app though… It was on 90%. Could I… I checked the settings, turned off security, turned off the thumb print. It required another thumb for confirmation so I did that and locked the dumpster again.

Now I knew which way north was, that was something at least. The sneakers were a little tight but better than running in socks. Even graphene ones.

I followed the map north, not knowing what else to do. I avoided being seen as much as possible but I was seen. A few times. Each car that passed blew its horn, a few yelled insults for good measure and each time I saw a person in the street, they recoiled in horror and bolted. When one immediately took out his cell phone, I bolted too.

So much for southern hospitality. Something was seriously fucked up about this situation.

Another alley and when I got to the end of that one, oh, fuck!

It looked like scenes from the riots in Police Academy! The street I’d just been about to cross was filled with people, most of them armed with baseball bats, crowbars or shot guns.

I had no chance of getting away from them. I doubled back but that street was filled too. I was cornered! I stared around in a panic. Then I saw it. The left hand wall, it was shorter, about eight feet in height. I ran at it, leapt, and gripped the top and scrambled over, dropping down into the yard beyond just as voices emerged from the other side of the wall.

“Where is he? I saw him! He went down this alley!”

“We just came from the other end, he din’t come out that way?”

“We gotta find him Jed! We got that rope special!”

“We will.”

Rope? What were they planning? Oh fuck, a lynch mob? For what? I sighed. At least I knew something to search for. If they were communicating via social media I should be able to find it.

I opened the twitter app and searched for #lynchmob.

“It needs to be punished. #lynchmob”
“I saw it! #lynchmob” This one had a photo attached. It was me, before I’d stolen the clothes.
“It’s wearing jeans, hooded shirt and a black jacket now. We’ll get it. #lynchmob.”
“Still in that freaky mask? #lynchmob. #pervert”
“Yes. #lynchmob”
“Why the fuck doesn’t he take it off? #lynchmob”
“Maybe because he knows we know what he looks like under it? Maybe he can’t. #lynchmob”
“What? Why? #lynchmob”
“Punishment? Remember? #lynchmob”
There followed a long series of “LOL”s from different posters.

What the… How could they know what I looked like? Hell, even I was beginning to forget. Had M seen me before the… Actually, thinking about it, I suppose he had. He was on display at the time, but why tell anyone that? The mask was impossible to remove.

I shrugged.

More messages, all directing them, forming the mob I’d just avoided.

Shit, if everyone… How the hell do you get out of a city where everyone’s out to kill you?

I waited half an hour and then, an idea. I looked at the map again, scrolled, that looked like a good one. I moved to the middle of the yard so no walls were visible, selected the camera app, took a picture from a very low angle and reopened twitter.

“I just passed him near the intersection of proctor and cairo, heading south. I got a pic. He didn’t see me take it, I had my lens poking out of my pocket. #lynchmob.”

I attached the photo and hit send.

Almost immediately, I got a reply.

“Why didn’t you get him? #lynchmob”
“I didn’t want him to know. We all want a piece of him. #lynchmob.”
“Good thought, last thing we want is for him to go to ground. Might take days to catch him. #lynchmob.”

I waited another half hour to give them a chance to leave the area, scrambled over the wall and it was then I heard something. Something that could be my salvation.

The regular metal on metal of wheels on tracks. A train! If any of those lines headed north… I checked the phone again, the map app and found it. A goods depot. I followed the tracks at maximum magnification and there… Was that… It looked like the shadow of a pole, a signal? I pinned it and selected a walking route.

It was half an hour later, another alley and at the end of this one, a police car parked outside a convenience store. I listened as the radio sounded.

“All units, suspect last seen on the intersection of Proctor and Cairo. Get him before the mob does. We’ve had reports of a few roaming around wanting to lynch him.”

“Confirmed. On our way. Out.”

“Yeah, right. We get him, we give him to the mob.”

“Damned right.” The lights turned on, the siren blared and the car sped into the distance.

So even the police? What the… Everyone really was out to get me? What the hell had they been told? It couldn’t just be the pervyness of the suit? Not with all this? That convenience store though… There was a vending machine. Oh god, I needed something to drink. I checked my pockets again, the wallet had enough quarters for a few bottles. Twenty dollars in small notes too. I rushed over and loaded up before continuing.

The next alley, I lay on my back, popped my mouth cap and emptied two of the bottles. Oh god I needed that.

It was another alley, just reaching the end, when things took a serious turn for the worst. A screech of tyres, a pickup reversed.

“That’s him!”

I turned and fled, but the pickup had turned down the alley after me. I heard a bang and something struck me in the side, sending me spinning. Oh fuck that hurt! It felt like I’d been punched by Dolph Lundgren! The next thing to hit me was the truck. I flew into the wall of the alley and collapsed face down on the floor.

If such a thing was possible I would’ve screamed to high heaven. The pain… Oh fuck, it was worse than level ten and I knew it meant something serious. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t do anything as I heard two car doors slam. As I heard the booted feet approach. As I heard the cock of a rifle.

“Save your rounds, bud. We got him.”

“We gonna give him to the others?”

“Nah, screw that, just slit his throat and chuck him in with the garbage. He’s not worth anything more.”

“But they’ve been huntin’ all night.”

“Fine, if they want a lynchin’ they can pick up the body and lynch that!”

And with that, something grabbed my forehead, pulled it back and a blade slid across my throat. He’d put some force into it too, I could feel that. I struggled, then weakened and relaxed to make it look like I’d succumbed.

Hands grabbed me. Oh fuck, my leg! My side! It was agony as they lifted me and dropped me into another dumpster. Then, the sound of car doors and the screech of tyres. I sent a prayer of thanks to whoever might be up there that they were too dumb to look for blood.

It was a while before I could move. I… I had a broken leg, that much was sure and god knows how much damage a bullet could do at such a short range, even if it didn’t penetrate the suit. I drifted in and out of consciousness but the pain helped in the end. It helped me focus. Helped me stay alert and I knew I had to get away from there before someone came to claim me.

I bit down on my gag and forced myself out of the dumpster. Using the wall for support, I got to the end of that alleyway and there, at the end of the next one a chain link fence and a railroad up a steep gravel embankment, weeds strewn all around. Another check, another empty street, my leg screamed in agony as I shambled, then crawled across and down the next alley.

The fence would prove a real challenge now. You try climbing one with a mangled leg, but I had to. I had to. Desperation gave me the strength I needed. Two arms, one leg, I selected the ideal place near the concrete strut and oh my god it was hard. The barbed wire at the top poked me and hooked onto the clothes I wore but with one final heave, I was over but there was nothing to grip onto on the other side. I fell with a tear as my jacket was shredded on the wire and a crunch as I landed.

Another silent scream of agony.

That’s all I need. A fuckin’ broken arm as well.

Using what limbs I had left, I scrambled to a bush some way down from the signal and waited.