Tech Bums

Jesse and I sat cuddled together in the back of the ship.  Claude was up front with the Raven pilot.  It worried me that a Raven was flying us, the same Raven who would’ve killed me the day before if he caught me in the street, and maybe that’s why Claude was babysitting him on our flight to P-1.  The television was on a news channel and they were showing live coverage of the humans at the refinery plants being liberated and freed.  I wasn’t sure who ordered their release, but all of the news reporters were already talking about Marcus like he was the new President.  Jesse hugged me tight.  I kissed her on the forehead. Continue reading →

I woke up startled and confused, unsure how or when I fell asleep.  Claude and Marcus were getting ready in the far corner of the room.  They wore Raven uniforms and toyed with their guns, cleaning and assembling them in unison.  A bowl of noodles waited beside the Colt revolver on the floor next to me. Continue reading →

Claude and I sat in the ship’s cabin and watched a television show about a Pinnadu family.  It was intended to be funny, but we weren’t laughing.  Claude still showed pain from his operation, occasionally moaning and twitching in his seat.  My brain felt numb, my body ached, and I wished I could fast forward into the future, having saved Jesse and come back to Earth to live a normal life.  Marcus was in the cockpit, and I began to get up to ask him where we were going, but the television cut out and turned to static, then black, and then a triangular symbol with a sword in the middle of it, like a military badge, appeared against the black background.  Three loud beeps screamed out from the television and Claude jumped up. Continue reading →

We flew over a barren land of darkness, the city far behind us now, until landing outside of a swampland.  The trip was quiet, without one word spoken between Marcus and myself.  I was lost in my own mind.  How many creatures were in that ship that I took down?  I killed them.  My hands were bloody and I was now stuck in this war, no backing out. Continue reading →

I ate.  The flow of food steadily poured into my room, each plate brought to me by Marcus, and after every visit he reminded me to find him when I was ready.  He said it was important for me to recover my strength before we embarked on our journey.  Piles of dirty plates and trays lay on the floor next to me, and the smell was horrid and thick like a clogged garbage disposal.  I was sweating, suffocated by the fumes and stuffed full of waste.  It was late, but I decided to get up and find Marcus.  Outside my room was a dark hallway lined with doors, one of the overhead lights flickered in the distance like a horror movie hospital set, and toward the end of the hall a door hung open.  A ray of light shined through the door’s opening, and broken talk and chatter echoed out and danced down the hall.  I never feared the night, or believed in ghost and goblins, but as I started walking down the hallway, I got a chill and the sick feeling that something was wrong.  Before I knew it, I was jogging toward the open door, sliding to a stop just outside of it.  Marcus was sitting at a circular table, talking back and forth with some unknown Pinnadus who wore lab coats like doctors.  Upon noticing me, they all stopped talking, and Marcus nodded to the Pinnadus, who nodded back and stood up and walked out, leaving Marcus and I alone. Continue reading →

My eyes were throbbing and crusted over when I woke up.  I wiped the dirt from my eyes, my face soar to the touch, and looked around.  A hospital room—white bed sheets, white walls lined with countertops cluttered up with different tools, a monitor and an incessant heartbeat, my heartbeat.  At the end of my bed was a small table holding a vase full of yellow and red flowers.  I turned on my side and tried to go back to sleep, but I started crying again.  A knock on the wall, Marcus was standing in the doorway. Continue reading →

I slept alone through the night on a pile of papers and plastic bags in the far corner of the room.  When I woke up, Marcus, Claude, and Tristan were still standing around the single chair in the middle of the room as they were when I fell asleep, but they were now wearing yellow suits that reminded me of the HAZMAT suits people wore back on Earth, the kind they used whenever there was a chemical spill or something toxic in the air.  A black box with a handle flipped up on top, strange symbols stamped on its side, was on the floor a few feet away from them. Continue reading →

My head felt swollen and tight when I woke up.  A thousand times worse than any hangover.  I felt around, fingers through my hair, for any kind of swelling or bleeding.  The top of my head was swollen and wet with blood; a ball of hair held clumped together by dried blood below the wound.  The floor was cold and hard under me.  I sat up and examined the situation.  I was in a small metal room, well, not really a room, more like a big crate.  If I were to stand up, I’d bang my head on the ceiling.  A single tube of fluorescent light ran along the top of the wall across from me, and the left corner of the room, where the light and the adjacent wall met, was rusted and moldy from an apparent leak.  A gap or hole wasn’t visible, but moisture covered the area of rust and the damp, sticky floor.  A few drops of blood were stained on the ground and glistening in the soft light.  No handles or door knobs or key pads, I was locked in here. Continue reading →