Amber Waves (Pt. 4) (545 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 2 on 15 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by <ksj3888.at.hotmail.com> (View user info) at 2007-11-19 00:33:38 EST
David looked at the black youth. Amil's face was stern, his shoulders tense. But his eyes betrayed his optimism. He was hoping. Hoping for a comrade. An escape. Hoping for someone he didn't have to kill. David cleared his throat.
"I'm David."
"And I'm Amil. You still ain't sayin' shit."
"I grew up around here."
"Where at?"
" Wheaton. Right on University Blvd."
Skelly chortled at this. Amil glared at him.
"So you one of them county boy's..."
Skelly interjected, "Amil thought you were from Langley Park."
"Shut up Skelly."
David laughed. Skelly grinned. Amil looked back at David.. His shoulders had relaxed a bit.
"So why ain't you in Wheaton? The cat's taking over? Or maybe the rats?"
"I haven't been home in four years. I was with the resistance..."
Skelly's smirk dropped. He gripped his rifle a little tighter.
"Aren't we all wit' the resistance?" Amil chuckled bitterly.
"The real resistance."
Amil and Skelly both eyed him now.
"You were one of those terrorists fucks!! This shit is because of YOU! THEY KILLED MY FUCKING FAMILY CAUSE OF YOU!! THEY"RE KILLING EVERYONE CAUSE OF YOU!"
Skelly screamed rabidly at David, his eyes red and watery, and raised his rifle at the David's head. Amil pulled his rifle down gently.
"It wasn't them. We was dead the day they turned everyone back from that damn wall..."
Skelly put the gun to his side and stared at David.
"You..."
He walked away from Amil and David, back to the front of the building. Amil looked back at David.
"Misery loves comedy ya know. He tries to laugh at the shit, but it's in him deep. It's in everybody."
David looked at the overcast sky. Waning light feebly poked through. It was almost nightfall.
"It'll get better."
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Amil and David sat inside a building further down 16th street, on the corner of Monroe, astride a small fire of wheat and random debris. The moonlight cracked weakly through the smog overhead, their fire granting light to the dark block. They were sharing an MRE and one of the soldier's canteens. David had his rifle back. Skelly was outside, fiddling with a broken radio he had scrounged off of a dead soldier.
"Will he be alright?"
"He straight. He lost alot in the riots ya' know? It's funny tho', we probably messed ourselves up more than the wheat. Looting and burning...'
"Mass hysteria they call it. How we did ourselves in over wheat I'll never know."
Amil chuckled. "Yeah joe, I thought it be a nuke or sum' zombies? We got murked by bread. Hell, I ain't neva' figure out how the damn power went out. Wheat ain't do that."
They laughed together heartily. Their revelry sailed over the block, the only sound besides the distant gunfire. Light shone over to the south. Likely a fire. The east held a fight. Like the fireflies that used to sail around the city years before, bullets and explosions lit the July night sky.
"Sounds like the fighting is up in Northeast..."
David looked at Amil.
"You can tell? Every place I've been before the gunfire's indistinct, like it's everywhere. Just pops and rumbles all around."
"Jus' a talent I guess."
David laughed. "I'm really surprised there's nothing going over here. It's like a total lull."
"It's the eye joe, they'll be back."
"Maybe we're the only ones here. Everywhere else the shit was block by block, no peace, no rest until you ran away."
"Maybe. Mos' of the people moved to the center and the east side. And you got them crazy asses in the Metro....But up here was kinda' deserted you know? The resistance's HQ is up in Souf'east by the Naval Yard, so everybody went there"
David put down his food.
"That still doesn't explain the lack of soldiers. Where the hell are they..."
Skelly burst in.
"We gotta move! Like now!"
Amil stood up. Concern dawned over his face.
"Why?"
"They're sending troops! They're sending the fucking calvary straight through Northwest!"
"Shit...Let's go."
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Their feet pounded the pavement, their breath curling up in feverish wisps. A sound of a mechanical whirl tore through the air, overtaking the sounds of their steps and the distant gunfire.
"You...hear...that?" Skelly gasped between words, the run taking away his breath.
"It's a helicopter!" David's eyes opened in fear. Amil's thoughts raced.
"Fuck! Yo we'll make a left on Irving and go through the Metro!"
"The...Metro!?! You...Insane?! Fucking....plague...and rats...dude!!"
The helicopter turned the corner behind him, hovering around 60 feet above. It turned on a spotlight.
"DAMN! SPLIT UP AND MEET AT THE..." Amil's voice was covered by the chopping of the rotors. They heard a gear wind up.
"OH SH..." The Gunship's Gatling gun spewed out round after round in a deadly line towards the three below. It ripped up the distressed asphalt, creating a black and gold dust that blinded their eyes. David ran towards what must have been an old soccer field, only identifiable by the silhouette of rusted goal posts. Amil ran down 16th street, ducking and dodging behind wrecks, the chopper pursuing him relentlessly. Skelly tailed behind David. David paused and turned his neck. He watched the helicopter continue down 16th street.
"Amil..." Skelly caught up to David breathless.
"We've...got...to...help..." David froze and stared at Skelly.
"You...pussy..." Skelly ran down the field, cutting across a basketball court. He was going to try and flank the chopper.
David ran back across 16th. Back towards death.
------------------------
"Damn." Amil was out of breath, his body was screaming at him. But so was that cannon. It was playing with him, letting him move to different cover while it obliterated whatever he had been behind previously. He was a rat in a sea of grass, and the chopper was a hawk, enjoying his prey's fear. The cannon wound up again. Amil rolled away from the wrecked pick-up. The chopper turned it to scrap. Amil ran towards the curb, a trail of pot holes and dust following his wake. The building in front of him was a large gray office building peppered with signs of small-arms fire. There was a large hole in its wall that must have been made by a rocket, but it was too far to run towards. It did however have multiple windows facing the street, many of which were shattered or missing completely. He aimed his shotgun towards one window and fired. The glass flew inwards, he dove through. He landed upon a thousand shards, the broken glass ripping through his pants and his jacket. The helicopter flew across from the building and rose. Amil held in his urge to scream and stood up.
"God..."
The place stunk to high heaven. Bodies were spread down the corridor. This too was the scene of a fight. Men and women alike lay dead, weapons lost in passing. Each body had methodically been shot in the head. "They don't believe in prisoners..." He could still hear the chopper outside. He looked at the wall across from the way he burst in. It had a window which gave view to what was once a courtyard, but now a field of grain.
"I'll cut..." He heard a high whine come from the outside. He dove to the floor.
User Reviews
Submitted by DudeThatsBOSH (user info) at 2007-11-30 15:40:26 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
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Submitted by Spacegrass (user info) at 2007-11-27 16:49:51 EST (#)
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Submitted by wookie (user info) at 2007-11-27 14:34:43 EST (#)
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Submitted by TheDoctor (user info) at 2007-11-20 17:13:21 EST (#)
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Submitted by monkeyswithguns (user info) at 2007-11-19 18:48:02 EST (#)
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Submitted by triangle_man (user info) at 2007-11-19 17:10:09 EST (#)
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Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2007-11-19 12:46:58 EST (#)
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Submitted by Lib (user info) at 2007-11-19 12:44:12 EST (#)
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Submitted by EatMeCompletely (user info) at 2007-11-19 11:27:41 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
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Submitted by CaptainThorns (user info) at 2007-11-19 10:37:43 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
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Submitted by Director (user info) at 2007-11-19 10:25:19 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
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Submitted by DrogoRoch (user info) at 2007-11-19 09:02:30 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Consistently excellent!
Submitted by orphelia (user info) at 2007-11-19 04:19:40 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
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Submitted by orph (user info) at 2007-11-19 04:03:31 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
good stuff
Submitted by supadupapupa (user info) at 2007-11-19 02:02:08 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
keep it up, this one flowed quite well I thought