Keith scowled at the glaring sun. When he had bumped into Bobby on the street a year ago he had begged the man to give him a place. It had been overjoying to find someone new who he hadn’t already taken advantage of, and he’d been wondering how long he could milk his old school friend's kindness.
He’d just managed to slot himself into Bobby’s life as a slight annoyance, but not enough to warrant being kicked out when he’d spilled coke on the floor and the man's dog had eaten it. From there it had been a slow spiral out of favour as Bobby found more and more reasons to hate him until earlier that morning he had snapped.
But now Keith had a dilemma, he’d hidden his stash behind Bobby’s TV and he couldn’t get back in. The man had locked all his windows before he’d gone to work and the nearest town was over ten kilometres away, too far for Keith to walk to and buy tools.
After Bobby had made him leave he’d circled back through the woods and had been scavenging the land near the complex for any sort of metal rod or tool he could use to pry the windowS open. But it was useless, the only landmark he’d found was the remains of a rusted boat, and all the metal tools which might have once been in it had long since rusted away.
Keith resigned himself to wait out the day, he could break into Bobby’s car after he returned from work and use the spare keys the man kept in there to get in while he slept or the next day while he was gone.
Keith made himself comfortable, hidden behind a log by the lane which was the only access to the complex. He’d get his beauty sleep and the moment any car went by he’d know.
He felt his eyes begin to droop, but then to his surprise, Bobby drove back in. Why is he home so early? He gets back at 6pm normally, but it’s not even 12 yet. Could he have been released early, or even fired? Keith wasn’t sure but he readied himself to watch the parking lot.
Bobby leapt out of his car with a weird grin and then dashed around to the passenger door, looking around as if seeing anyone was watching him.
“He’s gone completely insane!” Keith muttered.
Then he opened a passenger door and something jumped out. What is that? A possum? Why does he have a possum in his car?
He watched Bobby tell the Possum to follow him then go back into the woods with the creature neatly crawling after him. Why does he have a trained rodent, wait, are possums even rodents?
Keith got out his phone and did a Wikiverse search.
Possums or Phalangeriformes /fəˈlændʒərɪfɔːrmiːz/ are a paraphyletic[1] suborder of about 70 species of small to medium-sized arboreal marsupials native to Australia, New Guinea, and Sulawesi.[2] The species are commonly known as possums, gliders, and cuscus. The common name "possum" for various Phalangeriformes species derives from the creatures' resemblance to the opossums of the Americas
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“Damned invasive species”
There had been a lot more invasive species as of late. An asteroid everyone thought would bring about the end had hit the moon and put it into geostationary orbit, which made all the seas of the world drain to one side of the planet, halting all marine trade. Now Russia and China were underwater and animals of every type had spread across the dried sea beds, completely disrupting the world's ecosystems.
The ensuing great immigration crisis had put the world into a state of even more chaos, and the corporations had taken advantage of the distracted news to buy half of the world's governments and turn themselves into megacorporations. Now the planet was controlled by Cubecorp, FruityTECH and sUN (Some United Nations) along with a scattering of much smaller entities.
Keith shook his head, he didn’t want to think of history, he wanted to be high in the woods. His addiction was making him impatient, so he needed to make his move now. Slowly he crept up to the red car, making sure no one was in view, then he tried the handle.
Yess, the dumbass forgot to lock it. Keith ripped open the door and was momentarily surprised by the bloody footwell, but decided he didn’t care and seized Bobby’s spare key from one of the cupholders.
Then holding the key up high he kicked the car door shut and skipped to Bobby’s front door, letting himself in after fumbling with the key a bit. Ecstatic about being reunited with his stash he tore through the living room and reached behind the Tv and…
His stash was gone.
Keith hissed like Golum. Where is it, did Bobby steal it? He put his eye along the wall and looked down. A flash of white was visible, which made him sigh in relief. His stash had just fallen behind the oak chest that the TV stood on.
Keith tried to reach down, but his hand didn’t fit in the gap between the chest and the wall. Then he tried to pull on the chest, but to no avail, it was clearly full and very heavy. Curse my weak muscles, I’ll just remove some of the things inside of it! He pulled all the cables off the back of the tv and threw it onto the couch, then he opened the chest.
The hinges squeaked loudly as he pushed the far too weighty lid up, I wonder what Bobby keeps in this? Keith’s face went blank when he saw a massive black cannon ball resting on a nest of newspaper, its diameter was about the same length as from his elbow to his fingers.
He reached down and found he couldn’t even shift it with his wimpy build. “What the fuck? How am I meant to move that?” Keith tried many things to lift the Cannonball, even using a knife as leverage, although that just ended up bending it.
He was so preoccupied that he didn’t even notice when Bobby returned.
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