Chapter
13
A Serialized Story of the
Not So Distant Future
May 10, 2005
Part Twenty Seven
Sam got up and had the leftover pizza from the night before. Martha had the TV on in the living room which Sam could hear from the kitchen.
"Tonight on the 10:00 news, An elementary school in Atlanta is quaranteened for Avian flu, while two more schools here in New York City are closed due to lack of funds."
Sam wondered if the Avian flu was the disease the 'powers that be' were planning on making a plague with. Probably not since flu vaccines didn't even work back in 2005.
Martha was watching some sort of tear jerker movie so Sam decided to go out and enjoy the evening air. Sam went upstairs and surfed a bit on his computer, but he wasn't finding much of interest.
He remembered the place Dawn had mentioned, the Redeye. He had forgotten to get batteries for his old PDA, so he went downstairs to find some.
"Mom, do we have any triple A batteries?"
"I don't think so Sam."
"I'm going down to the store then." Sam went out into the evening air, it was dusk outside and the streetlamps were just coming on. The air was warm and humid, it would probably rain either tonight or tomorrow.
There was an all night Mini Mart on the corner, as Sam neared it there were three teenage boys hanging out around the side of the building. They were passing a bottle between them, and hid it as Sam drew near.
"Dude, it's your grandfather." One of the boys said.
"No. It's just some guy." The other answered. All three boys were wearing white jeans and t shirts with black leather jackets. They all had crew cuts and Sam could barely tell them apart.
"Evening Sir." One of them said, hiding the booze under his jacket.
"Evening boys." Sam said in his most elderly sounding voice. "Fine night for a walk, isn't it?"
"Uh yeah." One boy said, the other two just nodded.
"Just watch how much you drink," Sam said, "I'm only 30 years old."
They all started laughing and Sam continued into the store, he had hoped to show one of them his old driver's license, but the opportunity didn't present itself.
He looked around the Mini Mart, noticing some of the newer novelties for sale. Sunglasses with tiny cameras mounted seemed to be the latest fad, along with animated bracelets featuring dancing cartoon characters. The batteries cost Sam 9.00, which seemed an insane amount of money. Sam made a silent promise to get new rechargables to avoid these costs again. After leaving the store, he realized that the boys had moved on.
He noticed one weird event as he walked home, several streetlights actually flickered and went out as he walked beneath them. Maybe there was a power problem in the area or something, he thought dismissing it.
At home, Sam put the batteries in his PDA and went through the Hot Sync process to get his old programs and settings back. He was afraid that his Mom would protest his going out so soon after his release from the hospital, but he wasn't going to let that stop him. Luckily, Martha had fallen asleep on the couch, so Sam scribbled a quick note and left, locking the door behind him.
He walked to the corner and called car service, but since it was Saturday, the wait for a car was almost an hour. Sam decided to opt for the bus and train instead. He walked over to the bus stop and was fortunate enough to have a bus pull up almost instantly.
The bus was quiet and reasonably comfortable. Sam looked around, there were mostly older people on the bus, two of whom were clearly veterans, one man was wearing an army jacket and was clearly scarred on one side of his face. The other man was in a wheelchair and had no legs. They were talking in low tones to each other in the back.
Sam got off at 4th avenue and briefly considered going home. He felt weird and out of place, especially with crowds of people coming and going on the avenue. He shook off his angst and headed down into the subway. He bought a two fare metrocard and waited for the train to come.
There were several homeless people on the benches, and the platform smelled of urine. The station was silent, Sam was the only person actually waiting for a train. He wasn't as fortunate this time around, the train took twenty long minutes to arrive.
The trip downtown was pretty unremarkable, Sam almost fell asleep but he was afraid of missing his stop. He got off at Smith and walked up the stairs to the street.
The Red Eye was across the street. It had a neon circle that looked like a target instead of an eye. It was only after he walked into the place that he realized it was meant to be an infrared eye.
Sam stepped through the doors and noted that there were plastic security partitions by the doors just like the kind department stores use. He was surprised that there was no music playing as he came in, this was without a doubt the weirdest club he had ever seen.
"Narc alert!" Someone shouted as Sam's eyes adjusted to the low lights of the room. There was a wall to his right which read: "All files on this wall have been screened by the ACLU as legal files, and are regularly checked by the Dept of Homeland Security.
A scruffy looking man with brown hair that stuck out at crazy angles limped up to Sam. "You a cop?"
"No." Sam said, "I just wanted to see what this place was about."
"It's about freedom." The man said, his voice was edgy, as if he were hoping for a fight, "freedom from Big Brother."
"Then I guess I'm in the right place." Sam said.
"That ten dollar haircut marks you as a cop or a Hoser."
"I'm neither." Sam said, "would you believe me if I said that I was in a coma for the last ten years?"
The scruffy man looked him over for a second. "Not really. I'll bet you brought a PDA with you."
"Yeah, a friend told me to."
"Oh, whose your friend?"
"Her name's Dawn."
"Dawnie knows you? She's not here now, but I'll give you a chance till she comes in."
"Thanks." Sam said. "I'm Sam."
"I'm Shotzie." The man said extending his hand. As Sam shook it, he noticed the man had some sort of scarred lesions on his arm.
"Don't mind the scars." Shotzie said, "they're from DU shrapnel."
"DU?"
"Depleted uranium." His tone suggested that knowledge should be fairly obvious. Were you really in a coma?"
Sam smiled and said. "Yeah, I was." Shotzie ushed him in.
"How long have you been awake?"
"About a week now."
"Damn! What a shock you must've woken up to."
"You can say that."
"Let me see your PDA."
Sam passed it to him, and Shotzie took out one of his own. They sat at a table and Shotzie lined up their infra red beams.
"Shit, you got an eel in here already."
"An eel?"
"It's a Hoser worm, they automatically download everything to Hoser central. As long as you're not under investigation, it's still legal for you to remove them. Did you hot sync to an unprotected computer?"
"Well, I have ten year old protection, plus my brother is a Homeland Security agent and he gave me a monitor and printer."
"Uh huh. Why am I not surprised. I'm giving you a program to protect your PDA, but you'll need one for your computer too. I'll see if someone has a disk, come on I'll introduce you around."
Now that Sam's eyes were fully adjusted, he realized that this had to be the most "unhip" place he had ever seen. The ages of the patrons ranged from about twenty to sixty, with styles from classic looking nerds to a guy who looked like he walked off the set of "Lord of the Rings" and a handful of men who were clearly veterans. There were several girls around as well, although the men outnumbered them two to one. The girls were dressed more casually, although one was totally goth with black lipstick, and layers of black flowing clothes.
The walls of the place were covered posters for various rallies, petitions to sign and featured prominiently on one section under a glass frame: The U.S. Constitution. Next to it was a xeroxed copy, with several lines blacked out and the words "UPDATED" scrawled across the top. On the far side of the bar, just to the left of the File Wall, was a small podium, presumably for a band.
Shotzie led him over to a skinny guy with thick glasses and a white button down shirt who looked about thirty. He had been talking with a short heavyset man who was unshaven and at least in his forties. "Hey Fix, Stubs, this is Sam he's a friend of Dawn's."
"Hey." Fix said.
"Dawnie huh? If you're lying she'll break your teeth." Stubs said. "Unless you bastards locked her up again."
"Cut it out Stubs, I think he's alright." Shotzie said. "He needs some computer protection, do either of you have an extra disk?"
Fix reached down into a soft briefcase and removed a cd case. He glanced up at Sam and froze for a second, looking at his face for the first time.
"Whoa! You must be a day before retirement officer."
"I'm not a cop, really."
"Whatever. You'll see that this disk is perfectly legal to use, unless you are currently the subject of a government investigation as per the findings of the 9th Circuit Court U.S vs Morales."
"Come on you two, give him a break." Shotzie said, "I think he's alright."
"Thanks." Sam said, taking the cd case from Fix.
"Nice clothes," said Stubs, "wheredja get your underwear?"
"Excuse me?" Sam said.
Stubs got up and pulled a baseball cap off the wall, he walked over and waved it between the partitions, a high pitched beep filled the room. "It's a scanner." Stubs said, "now you can get clothes easily enough, but there's only a few places to buy underwear these days."
"Would you believe my underwear is ten years old?" Sam asked.
Fix just started chuckling, Stubs gave him a 'how stupid do you think I am' look.
"Seriously." Sam said. "I was in a coma for ten years, these are the clothes I had ten years ago."
"That's pretty weak." Stubs said.
Sam pulled out his wallet and passed his Driver's license to Stubs. "Look at the birthdate."
Stubs looked, and snorted at first, but then looked again closer. "Oh shit, I think this is real." He passed it to Fix for confirmation.
Fix studied the license closely. "It's the right design and all, but dude you don't look much like this guy."
"It's him." Stubs said. "Look at the eyes."
"Could be his father for all we know." Fix said.
"Whatever." Sam said, taking back the license. "I'll just get a drink and go."
"No, hang out," Stubs said. "it's cool." He offerred Sam a seat.
"I'll get us a round of drinks." Shotzie said. "What's your poison Sam?"
"Just a Coke, I can't tolerate much alcohol yet."
"Vodka and Lime" Fix said.
"Cranberry juice on ice," said Stubs. "I like to keep my wits about me."
"Half wits you mean." Fix said.
"Bite me."
"So fellows, who's the tall pale stranger." The girl had come up behind Sam, she was about 5 foot 8 inches with short blonde hair. She wore a plain gray sweatshirt and faded jeans, she had a solid build bordering on chubby.
"This is Sam." Shotzie said, coming back over with the drinks. "Sam, this is Eve."
"Hi," Sam said looking backward.
"Nice scar," Eve said tracing a small line on the back of his head. "Cut yourself shaving?"
"Car accident." Sam said. He never realized there was a visible scar on the back of his head until now.
"Got any tattoos?" Eve asked.
"No, sorry."
"Damn. Nobody gets tattoos anymore."
"That's cause they have nano-riffs in the ink." Stubs said. "It's like asking Big Brother to brand you."
"Oh come on, that's a lot of crap." Eve said. "I just had my butterfly re-inked and it didn't set off the scanners." She turned around a pulled down the neck of her sweatshirt, showing a small butterfly tattoo.
"Nice," said Sam, who wasn't really a tattoo fan.
Just then the scanners went off making Eve jump and everyone laugh. It was actually Dawn coming in with a guitar case. "Sorry! The handle on my old case broke, so I had to buy a new one."
She put the guitar case down on the podium and started out the door again.
"Hey Dawnie, I thought you guys had no bass player." Stubs said.
"We got a new guy, he's real good." Dawn said. "I'll introduce you as soon as we get the gear unloaded. Hey, it's Sam right? Glad you could make it."
Sam turned around to face Dawn, who was wearing an oversized "Radio Free New York" T shirt.
"Thanks. The jury is still out though on whether or not I'm a narc."
"Yeah," she said smiling, "these guys don't trust anybody. Don't let it bother you."
She turned to go back out the door and stopped and backed up as a very petite form came in carrying part of a drum set. Two larger guys followed her, each carrying more equipment. The RFID scanner started going crazy with every piece of equipment passing through it, until finally the bartender turned it off.
"Thank you Dave." Stubs said. "Well, I guess we're not getting any more work done tonight." He said to Fix.
"Yeah well, it's not like we've gotten anywhere."
"What are you guys working on?" Sam asked.
"The Holy Grail." Fix said, "a new communicatons system that isn't controlled by Big Brother."
"Is that possible?" Sam asked.
"In the long run, no." Stubs said. "But in the short run, yes. If we can invent a mass communications system that is not currently covered by any laws, then legally the government will have no control over it. Of course, for it to be any use for us, it has to be encrypted or secured somehow."
"That's pretty heavy stuff." Sam said, "have you actually come up with anything."
"Theories mostly," Stubs said. "Although there's a guy in California who has found a way to project data on smart plastics with magnetic resonance imprints, but there's no means of broadcasting it more than a few feet."
"How come?" Sam asked.
"Ever been through an MRI?" Shotze asked. "They screw you up real bad, I get them every few months on account of the shrapnel in my system, and I'm always sick as a dog afterwards. I think those guys," He indicated three people sitting at another table, "have the right idea. They're trying to develop telepathy as a means of communication."
"Wow." Sam said, "that's pretty amazing."
"Hey Dodge, come join us over here." Shotzie said.
Fix looked a little annoyed, but he didn't say anything.
Dodge was a chubby man in his twenties. He was about 5 foot 6, with curly blonde hair, an upturned nose and reddish cheeks. He was wearing a silk shirt that looked like it came from the disco era, and beige dokkers. He walked with a noticeable limp, and his left arm was oddly bent as he came over to the table.
"Sam's new here, you want to tell him about your experiments."
"Nice to meet you," Dodge said, his voice was clear but his words were slightly slurred. "I don't mean to be rude, but my friend picked up a weird vibe from you, she's afraid you'll contaminate the group energy."
Sam glanced over to the table where Dodge had been sitting, the Goth girl was sitting their along with a long haired and beared guy that resembled Jesus.
"Oh come on man, has everyone around here gone completely paranoid." Shotzie said. "Give the guy a break will ya?"
"That's all right," Sam said, "I'm starting to get used to it."
"Come on, Misty and Baker, get over here." Shotzie said.
The two figures got up from their chairs, Misty in particular seemed very reluctant to come over.
"Come on girl, he ain't gonna bite." Shotzie said.
Baker came up first and offered his hand. "I'm John Baker, most people just call me Baker."
Sam shook his hand, which had a powerful grip. Baker was easily in his forties, with deepset eyes and a prominent nose, even through all that hair.
"This is Misty," Dodge offerred, since Misty was intent on hanging back from the table.
"Hi." Sam said with a smile, trying to ease the girl's worries.
"So Sam, are you interested in psychic phemomena?" Dodge asked.
"I'm a little curious." Sam said.
"He's lying." Misty said.
"I'm holding back." Sam said sharply, "that's not the same thing."
Shotzie started laughing, as did Fix and Stubs "see I told you he was alright." Shotzie said. Apparently Sam had touched on some 'in joke' accidently.
"That deserves a round of drinks." Stubs said heading over to the bar.
The band had finally finished setting up their equipment, and Dawn came over with two people in tow. A third band member, an Asian guy with blue hair went directly to the bar and started talking to Eve, they obviously knew each other.
"Hey guys, this is Sabatino, our new bass player." Dawn said. Sabatino was about 6 foot 3, with shoulder length hair and a beard. He was a stocky guy who looked pretty intimidating until he smiled and just said "Hey."
"And this is his girlfriend Daniela, she might be Johnny's new drummer now that Bobo's been drafted."
"Nice to meet you." Shotzie said. "I'm Shotzie, and this is Sam, Fix, Dodge, Misty, Baker and this guy is Stubs.
"Remember that because we'll test you on it later." Stubs said as he handed everyone fresh drinks. "I'd offer you something, but Dave gives the band free drinks in lieu of paying them."
The band started warming up and more people began funneling into the bar now. The RFID scanner was back on again, and every time it went off the crowd would yell "busted!" at the offender.
Sam watched the people filing in, it was mostly a young crowd. There was no dominant fashion style except that RFID chips were to be avoided at all costs. Hair colors and styles were all across the board as well. Although, he noted, there were only a handful of guys with crewcuts.
Sam braced himself, expecting the frantic chords of a punk band, but like everything else he was seeing, the genres of music were blending here as well.
"Good evening peoples," said Dawn, "for those of us who don't know you, we are 'Proud to be Left Behind' and this is Sanity's Fire:
We move through stones of a bygone day
Lost in a gunpower haze
The call is inticing to some at first
Until that burst, until that pain
(The tempo suddenly shot into overdrive)
Did you think we wouldn't see
Did you think we wouldn't know
How many really died
How the rich never go
Do you think we can't count
the loss of finger and of toes
Do you think we can't hear
Do you think they don't show
We are saying ENOUGH
This is Sanity's Fire
We are saying ENOUGH
To your Madman's desires
DU Deaths
Pocket Nukes
Rich affiliations
Forced to serve
Forced to Die
THIS IS NOT A CHRISTIAN NATION
We are saying ENOUGH
This is Sanity's Fire
We are Saying ENOUGH
To apocalyptic desires
(The tempo slows down again)
The Rapture is taking you into its grasp
Not your Christ from the past
Just Sanity rising at last.
The band jumped back into the chorus and Sam found himself getting into the music. Dawn had an amazing voice, it had a haunting quality that reminded him a little of Faith Evans.
As bodies began crowding in more and more, Sam found himself being pushed against the table.
"This is what I call the unhappy hour." Stubs said, "unless someone cute gets knocked against me."
Sam nodded, barely able to hear against the din of the music. The energy of the room was a little overwhelming, but he felt it would be rude to leave so early.
From across the table, Dodge asked Sam for his PDA, Sam passed it over and Dodge beamed in a file, then he passed it to Misty who beamed something into it as well. She passed it back to Sam, and he looked at the little display. Several document files had been beamed in, the last one said: Read Now, so Sam tapped it with his stylus:
"I know who you are. Meet me out the back door."
posted by John at 6:26 PM | link |
Sponsor
|
|
MAF Main Page
Serial Story Main Page
Story Archives
Monday, March 21, 2005
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Friday, March 25, 2005
Saturday, March 26, 2005
Sunday, March 27, 2005
Monday, March 28, 2005
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Friday, April 01, 2005
Saturday, April 02, 2005
Monday, April 04, 2005
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Friday, April 08, 2005
Sunday, April 10, 2005
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Thursday, April 14, 2005
Saturday, April 16, 2005
Sunday, April 17, 2005
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Friday, April 22, 2005
Sunday, April 24, 2005
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Saturday, April 30, 2005
Thursday, May 05, 2005
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Sunday, May 15, 2005
Saturday, May 21, 2005
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Monday, July 11, 2005
Saturday, July 16, 2005
Saturday, August 06, 2005
Monday, August 22, 2005
Sunday, September 04, 2005
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Powered by Blogger
Sponsors
|
|
