The half-forgotten
Other half of my short life
In short story form

 
Bandaged Up and Rested
3-05-1996

Nighttime. Lots of rubble. A fence. Watching 3 people in some old, abandoned warehouse-type place in the middle of nowhere. A white man in a suit, a white woman in black clothing, and an athletic black man in Mortal Kombat-type cyberpunk clothes. They're part of some kind of covert operation, waitinf for something. A helicopter in the distance. The white folks shout to each other, nod, and hit the ground. It flies over, seeing nothing. The black guy sees his opportunity and lights a fuse or bomb or something. Flames start to where the other two took cover. The woman sees it late and goes "firebomb." They start to get outta their position and barely make it. They're still caught on the outside of the explosion. She's badly hurt. The black man is gone.

I run up from the darkness from where I watch and help them walk to safety. Inside a dilapidated building or something. The woman is badly burnt, but the guy seems to be ok. I keep watch through a big hole in one concrete wall. A few cars go by. Even a Military Policeman...but in these days they're just remnants of the old days...loners...he walks around, then moves on. I make sure they're ok. She's getting bandaged up and rested.

I rest, too. I have a dream (within the dream) or flashback where I'm running through corridors and dungeons just like from Dragon's Lair. Tendulkar and Thompson are there, moreso in presence than for real, watching me, guiding me. I snap out of it. My two friends have arrived. Andrew, my roommate, a bodyguard-type guy, and a little girl--his girlfriend--quite helpless...the other white guy is gone. I watch tons and tons and tons of cars go by, but noone stops. Not sure if they're looking for us or not.

A bunch of black guys close by. They all leave us alone except one stays. Possibly some one from the beginning. He's being a smartass and won't leave. The little girl, the hurt woman, and I get into our car to leave. Andrew gets into a fight with the black guy, crippling him with a sharp metal rod. The black guy comes back and almost wins...blood everywhere, but I get out of the car and help kill him. We take the body and run. Dunno what happened to the women.

It's daytime. A view of some multi-colored woods. Every bright color imaginable. Floor of spores, leaves, and needles. An especially green spot where a body had been buring a while back by me and my comrade. In a little shack, an old enemy is talking to his boss...he still can't find the body, and just got news that we had struck again. His boss commands him to find us and get the black guy's body back.

I run ahead through the woods, quickly, as if I'm scouting ahead. I pass the enemy shack almost without notice. I pass where the first body had been carelessly and wastefully and non-ritually buried...now, just in a few days, overgrown with new spores and stuff that it would never be found again. I run for a long time, find nothing, then head back.

I'm now running with Drew. We have the body somehow. Maybe it's ground up, or ashes, or something. The head is separate. We take various forest paths to get to our destination in a run-down suburbia-type place or apartment house. The enemy has mountain bikes and are catching up to us. There's a lot of them.

In an old, wooden room in the apartment building. I have the rmains of the body in a bowl, preparing it for the ritual burial. I place the bowl in a bunkbed and squueze a sort of package of broth into it, all aware that I must hurry. I pull back the mattress and spread the remains underneath...theyll never find it here...I even take a handful and spread it somewhere else just to add to the confusion. I make sure Andrew has the head...we need it.

The enemy are at the doorstep of the same building. In front are three guys who, at one time, were part of their troupe, but who were now thought to be dead, perhaps by us. Whether animated corpses, illusions, or now-allies is not sure. They stall the enemy with their simple existence.

We're not sure how to get away...

posted by Phlegm at 11/23/2003