Bright City - The Streets

The city is on fire. I mean, I knew that, but now I really know it. I can see the flames and feel the heat. There’s also a lot of people running around and shooting. And no place to get coffee. All the local shops are burnt or barricaded. Kind of annoying. I finally have money.

It was getting hard to relax at the Cheddardrome. Volt won’t talk to me and Bear kept waking me up. So I decided to step out for pizza. I armed myself to the teeth, expecting some static, but there was no trouble. I walked past corporate strategists and generals, guards and mercenaries, gun drones and war bots. Through situation rooms, barracks, check points, murderholes, fortifications, and open combat. Nobody bothered me at all. I don’t think they know who I am.

Likewise, I’m pretty much ignored by the street level violence. It’s mostly looters versus property owners, and neither wanna start shit with a heavily armed homeless guy. All risk, no reward.

I should be fine as long as I abstain from the drone blitzkriegs at the Cheddardrome and the Immobile Market. Which I plan to. Because I own one, and have no reason to attack the other. I mean, personally. I guess Volt is giving them hell on my behalf.

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So, yeah… It’s pretty easy to get around, but I have nowhere to go. All the pizza joints are closed. I don’t know why I was holed up for so long. Everybody wants me dead, but they don’t know who I am. Also, I don’t know why I’m out now. I’ve regained my freedom, but society has collapsed, so I have nothing to do with it.

I’m left to wander. Experience the collapse. It’s not very interesting. I miss my coffee shops. My sexy pizza girls. My home. Having plans.

Eventually, my feet lead me to the tournament arena. Arenas are always crater shaped, but this one takes it to extremes. Fucking bombed out. There’s large cracks across the killing field. I hop over them, spit down them, try to amuse myself. One of them is different. There’s light.

I peer and poke, then climb down. Why not? It’s a small, secret, apartment. Very nice. Reminds me of what I once had. The main room is a computer lab, chef’s kitchen, boudoir combo. There’s plumbing - gotta be a bathroom somewhere. I poke around for secret doors, eventually find one. It opens to reveal a clinically sterile room with a single sleep tube.

I hold my cheeks and take a deep breath. A secret lab with a secret sleep tube. Should I get Volt? Do I have enough guns? Or, fuck it, they’re asleep. I pop it open.

Empty.

Dang. Thought I found something. Big Cheddar or Harkon.

But, I do know where they are.

I get in the sleep tube.