After the Pandemic - The Onion Run - Part 1 (1171 hits)
Category: NoneLabels: Necro
Rating: 1.96 on 35 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Snark << snarkk.at.gmail.com (View user info) at 2005-03-07 22:36:31 EST
THE ONION RUN - Part 1
Some called it the Fools Highways, others called it Mephy's Audubon, but most called it the Onion Run.
A few years earlier, before the good things had gone out of the world, it had been simply designated as the I-5. It was the main artery between Vancouver and the United States, an almost straight shot from one to the other that varied from 4 to 8 lanes. It was also on of the most unremarkable drives in North America.
Markus could remember traveling it with his family in happier days - years prior - but the memories were dull, fading almost as fast as the numbers of the living.
Regardless of what one called it, it was the mostly hotly contested piece of nothing he'd ever come across. The underground in Vancouver had been rife with rumors about it for a year or more, about how it was a good way to get yourself dead but an even better way to get what you needed.
He'd heard local Resistance Cells were paying well for drivers who were crazy enough to make daylight runs with a carload of contraband. They paid with guns, car parts, food, and if you got with the right cell, someone nice to fuck. He'd heard anything of any value left in the world was being offered and so he sought out one of the more powerful groups in the city and demanded it all.
They'd met him with incredulity at first. They'd told him the Viper was too beat up and didn't have the room to hold enough contraband to make it worth their while. They pointed out that a few boxes of onions and some shotguns (the sum total of what they were able to cram into it) would hardly do anyone any good, let alone make a difference in the struggle.
He'd sat and listened stoically while they berated him for a fool, then let it slip who his father was and produced the birthmark to prove it. He watched with disgust as theirs eyes widened and their insults caught in their throat at the mention of his name, then ignored his wrenching guts, as he used it to leverage them out of their steadfast determination.
He didn't mind being the son of a hero so much. He had no qualms with using it to his advantage. Since his father's disappearance, two years earlier, he'd been left with nothing but the car and his family rep, and he would be damned if he wouldn't use it.
It wasn't the whoring of his father's past deeds that made him want to puke. It was the knowledge that the man they all spoke of with reverence had been the one to bring them to the hell they were all living.
He hated the secret he kept but he kept it. After all, who was he to taint the memory of the last hero of the living?
In the end his tactic had almost backfired. Having the son of a hero involved with a Cell would help to bolster moral and give a resistance group the kind of street rep that was as good as gold. He could tell immediately, from the greedy looks on their haggard faces they under stood it right away, but he hadn't counted on their fear of being the Cell to get the son of a hero killed on the Onion Run.
Fortunately for him, after a long deliberation, they had decided they would be willing to negotiate. Apparently the fear of saying "No" was stronger than the fear of getting him killed. He supposed they realized in the end that if he didn't survive, they could always disavow any knowledge of his existence.
They'd asked him to use one of their vehicles at first. They argued that they were better armored and could carry more than the belching spitting beast of a machine he'd shown up with.
He listened and nodded and then told them that it was his ass and he'd decide where it sat, then sealed the deal with a promise to make the run in half the fastest time to date.
They agreed eventually then offered him half of what he had originally quoted for payment. When he'd taken it as an insult, they had offered excuses designed to appeal to the sensibilities of a hero but he put a stop to that too, and assured them he was not his father. He let them know, with his cold demeanor and eager vulgarity that he was a mercenary with a mercenary's sensibilities, and if they wanted a hero they had better get their malnourished asses in gear and start digging up graves.
In the end they'd given him everything he asked for and he'd even managed to convince them to add some preliminary modifications to the car prior to his run. They worked on it for two days non-stop and sent him to bed the night before the journey, with a bottle of rum and someone nice to fuck.
The next day he got in his grey, armored, Road Warriorized baby and started it with a smile that was half hangover and half after glow. He started it and listened intently to the newly smooth purr of the engine, then pulled open the hidden panel in the inside of the passenger door to verify his only other possession in the world was till there. The double barreled sawed off shotgun was undisturbed. The name "Otis" was engraved on one side of the barrel and "Grievous Bodily Harm" on the other.
A few moments later he got a verbal confirmation from the Provisioner, that the goods were safely stowed away, followed by a quick review of what to expect on the road ahead.
I5 was the main thoroughfare for smuggled goods between BC and Washington and the Leeches knew it. They knew that cutting off the constant flow of Onions and Communications from North to South would greatly diminish the threat the resistance posed. They had tried to keep the artery open at first, for the sake of commerce, but it had quickly become a favorite place for Sniper's from both sides of death to ply their trade. Add to that, makeshift mines laid by Spikes in the hopes of wrecking and salvaging goods from their victims (be they living or dead) and the regular occurrence of Munchers wandering into traffic, and the link between the two cities had become rapidly untenable to any but the craziest motherfucker.
Markus wasn't concerned about the mines so much as possible roadblocks or wandering Zmbies. Speed would protect him from the shitty pressure detonators the Spikes had access too. He'd made his way out near the highway the morning before and observed a Runner in action. He'd watched as the speeding car hit a mine and cleared it easily before it exploded meekly in the distance. The mines he could handle but a barricade formed by the twisted wreck of the 4 out of 5 runners to regularly die, or a broken Muncher carcass slamming through his windshield would most definitely cause problems.
His car was supercharged and armored but the added weight gave it the braking ability of a cruise ship.
He pushed the threat posed by possible Sniper's to the back of his mind. Incidents of sniping had been waning. Both sides had begun to conserve ammunition or simply didn't feel the road was worth it. The Leeches still the Trains and Ferries and time on their side.
As long as he could keep his speed up and his vision clear he stood a good chance and he knew it. He could return with added prestige and negotiate enough of a payment for the following few runs to comfortably get him further north. North was his promised land. The Leeches were almost cold blooded and couldn't handle temperatures much below zero. Munchers simply froze where they stood.
He'd get what he needed and leave the fools, who stood and saluted as he drove into the morning sun, to a fool's fate.
He'd head north to Alaska and leave the living behind to rot in the city along with his father's reputation and his childhood memories.
He'd change his name from Markus Pitt to something else and spend the rest of his life forgetting the nightmare landscape of his early 20's.
Somewhere deep down he knew he would get what he wanted but resisted the urge to ease into daydreams of the frost bitten future.
The future could wait its turn.
He had Onions to deliver.
User Reviews
Submitted by zakalwe (user info) at 2005-09-05 19:57:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
excellent, a necrosiac tie-in. did you take this any further?
Submitted by notyou (user info) at 2005-06-30 19:42:32 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Snark (user info) at 2005-06-23 12:20:51 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Damage Control
Submitted by ProgramGeek (user info) at 2005-06-22 17:37:06 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
No Comment
Submitted by nrduncan (user info) at 2005-05-12 17:41:18 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I have just got done reading these all and I have enjoyed them all. Great work everyone, +2's for all!
Submitted by Professional_Peon (user info) at 2005-03-12 11:53:17 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Here is my contribution - http://www.ubersite.com/m/61730
Submitted by Spam (user info) at 2005-03-10 03:17:19 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by TimeCop (user info) at 2005-03-10 00:04:01 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Bodacious.
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2005-03-09 18:17:55 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by BLITZKREIG_BOB (user info) at 2005-03-09 16:07:41 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I read this one before I started mine, and never got to read the ones that come after this because I was writing mine all day.
Submitted by LadyPlural (user info) at 2005-03-08 23:21:38 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/03/08/high_school_zombie_threat/
Submitted by tlozoot (user info) at 2005-03-08 22:35:22 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
WHAAT??
I still have to finish reading the Necro series...
Submitted by Kre8rix (user info) at 2005-03-08 16:02:19 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Badass as always my friend.
Submitted by indoninja (user info) at 2005-03-08 13:53:30 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Thanks, I will have to check that out.
Submitted by Snark (user info) at 2005-03-08 13:44:47 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Indoninja,
Yes it is a differents series. I have loosely tied it in to my Necrosiac series which can be found here...
http://www.ubersite.com/m/40647
Submitted by indoninja (user info) at 2005-03-08 13:40:22 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
"Markus is Matt's son. Likely unborn as of the Necro series and named after Markus Tasker, the agent that originally housed Spivey. "
Is this from a different thread than the one listed at the bottom of the comments. This series totally makes me want to get drunk and go undead bashing this weekend.
Submitted by Snark (user info) at 2005-03-08 13:27:52 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Hahaha
Yep,
Something about the sound of a howling chicken flying by as it's chucked from one end of the office to the the other is good for the soul.
Submitted by Xena (user info) at 2005-03-08 13:25:09 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
====================
Amber,
I knew you'd get a kick out of "Otis"
========================
I bought a Rubber Chicken for the team I used to be in as a mascot and named him Otis.
It's funny cuz it's rubber... and it's a chicken...
===================================
Not only is he a rubber ...and a chicken....but when you squeezed him he howled...
Submitted by Snark (user info) at 2005-03-08 13:20:08 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Dannie,
Bingo.
I couldn't help but tie this in, I mean c'mon, it's got Zombies.
I wanted to have Matt and his son exist in this universe but I don't want to hijack the story. After all, this is a world without magic.
It'll make sense later on.
====================
Amber,
I knew you'd get a kick out of "Otis"
========================
I bought a Rubber Chicken for the team I used to be in as a mascot and named him Otis.
It's funny cuz it's rubber... and it's a chicken...
Submitted by engine13 (user info) at 2005-03-08 13:06:54 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Now I gotta read that other one, but it's really long.
Woohoo for Alaska. . .or something. I'm too sick to come up with anything witty.
Submitted by munkeypants (user info) at 2005-03-08 12:55:10 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Xena (user info) at 2005-03-08 12:37:26 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
OTIS....HAHAHAHahahha, I think that might only be funny to me...
Delivering Onions?! For some reason I picture Bruce Campbell an awful lot while reading this...
best be gettin those onions delivered!!!!
this was a great read...you never disappoint
Submitted by Dannie (user info) at 2005-03-08 11:50:42 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by matrix2681 (user info) at 2005-03-07 22:51:52 (#)
Ranking: 2
Awesome read. I thought Markus died. When does this vampire story take place?
_______________________________________
Markus is Matt's son. Likely unborn as of the Necro series and named after Markus Tasker, the agent that originally housed Spivey.
Or I could be talking out my ass.
Submitted by jumpinjellyfish (user info) at 2005-03-08 10:40:59 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Cool...I like where this is going.
Submitted by DonkeyOnTheEdge (user info) at 2005-03-08 08:57:58 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by Snark (user info) at 2005-03-07 22:39:15 (#)
Ranking: 0
Oh yeah.
I did NOT proofread this at all. I wrote it in a very small time frame while under alot of pressure to be somewhere else.
I do not apologize.
_________________________________-
I do not accept your non apology.
Submitted by Avals (user info) at 2005-03-08 02:12:26 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Jesus built my hot-rod!
Submitted by shitfuck (user info) at 2005-03-08 01:57:59 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
They all said it best.
Submitted by hcp28 (user info) at 2005-03-08 00:52:21 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
nice
Submitted by LadyPlural (user info) at 2005-03-08 00:01:50 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
That was a sneaky tie-in.
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-03-07 23:50:17 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Cool. This is getting interesting...you've set the stage for a nice 'action movie' story.
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2005-03-07 22:58:09 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Here we go!
Good tie in, fun read, and I LOVE the contraband!
Submitted by stardamage (user info) at 2005-03-07 22:55:33 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Holy crap!
Haha, I wonder what would happen if I tried to introduce Davoren, Kailestis, Kjartan and Kieran into this.
I can't though.
This was awesome, as per usual, you bastard.
Submitted by matrix2681 (user info) at 2005-03-07 22:51:52 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Awesome read. I thought Markus died. When does this vampire story take place?
Submitted by Snark (user info) at 2005-03-07 22:39:15 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Oh yeah.
I did NOT proofread this at all. I wrote it in a very small time frame while under alot of pressure to be somewhere else.
I do not apologize.
Submitted by Snark (user info) at 2005-03-07 22:38:07 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Much of this story will make little sense if you haven't read the following...
http://www.ubersite.com/m/61238