“Please st-” barely a word before I could feel the air in my lungs explode. A boot to the diaphragm will do that to you. Why? Why was this happening? I wanted to scream out, to call ‘Help!’ or ‘I beg you!’ but there was nothing else but bile and a quarter of bloodied breath that managed to come up.
“Piece of shit!” Another round of kicks, this time aimed at my head. I managed to curl in deeper and cover my head before the blow came. Still didn’t make it less painful though.
A different voice this time, more feminine; “You think you’re tough shit huh? You fat fuck!” More kicks, this time aimed at the back. “Huh!?” I only noticed I had been holding my breath in all this time when another kick to the lungs expelled the very last gasps of air. “Agh!”
Then there was a lull from the abuse. A moment too little. I could hear the sound of heavy footsteps marching up to me then-
The world went spinning, accompanied by a cacophony of sounds and lights brighter than any lamp. Then came the pain, sharp- overwhelming paralysing. I wanted to scream but I could not feel anything but tears and hot gravel stuck to my face.
“Holy shit! Where the hell did you get that pipe from?” the words barely filtered through.
“F-Fuck! guys… He ain’t moving anymore!”
[Critical Trauma detected. Please find the nearest medical facility] a professional voice, robotic, rang in the back of my head. My bio-detector, flashing icons indicating red on almost the entirety of my body. [Critical Trauma detected. Please find-]
“Long! I’m not going to be a murderer! I know your dad is in the force but mine’s not!”
More arguing, louder and louder this time. “Nah choom, I’m out. We came to bring justice- not murder, yeah? I was fine with this before this.. gonk brain over there brought the pipe!”
I could only force my eye to open in time to see my assailants sprinting away under the darkness of night, the pipe with my blood laid next to me. Before I knew it, the lights went dark.
[Critical Trauma detected. Please find the neare-] I woke up with a sharp breath. Still in the same shitty alleyway. This time I could feel everything, the pain aching everywhere. That’s good. That meant my bio-regenerator worked. The one thing I splurged on.
Clang clang clang. Footsteps. Scurrying of trash. Not good. Gutter rats. Scums of the earth. Little more than scavengers and thieves.
While I might still be alive, if one found me, I’d be disassembled and my cyberwares (though I only have a few) sold on the blackmarket by tomorrow or so I’ve read.
Alright. Breathe. If I panic. I’m gone. Then making as little noise as possible, I start crawling towards the other end of the alley. Centimetre by centimetre. I passed by the pipe that still had my blood on it, and thought about keeping it for ‘just in case’ but if it came to that, I was sure a crippled versus a dosed-up gutter rat would be a pretty obvious conclusion. So I left it there lest it slowed me down.
By this point, ignoring the pain, I was making decent progress, with my bio-regenerator pushing its limits, I could start to feel my legs again. Still not enough. I can hear the scurrying coming close, then speeding up.
Seeing as I could not out-crawl the gutter-rat, I did the next best thing and hid myself right behind a dumpster. God the smell was terrible but I prayed that the rat found the smell worse than I did and would look the other way.
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“Oi! Já [I] know you’re there! You ain’t příliš daleko [too far] here! You’re bleeeeeeding~” the eastern-european words came out filtered through my auto-translator.
“Look, I’ll even let you live to see vaše [your] arms get taken!” the deranged laughter came ever closer.
“C’mon, [stop] hi-”
“¡Cállate! [Shut up] Rat! I’ll Kill you!” Bang bang! Two shots rang out from behind the rat at the other end of the alley. It was deafening, I could feel my heart hammering as the shots kept coming. Breathe. I edged over as much as possible to the wall, hugging it and curling up hoping not to get shot as I took cover behind the dumpster. Bang bang bang! Top-of-the-line bioware or not, a bullet is still a bullet.
“Fucking Čarodějnice [Hag]!” The gutter-rat screamed back as he ran past me forgetting about me entirely. On the bright side, the icons of my body were indicating orange. Still, despite the rat being gone it still took me a couple of breaths to will my body moving. Everything was shaking and my ears were still ringing, the edges of my vision was slowly returning back to normal as I sat there fully comprehending what had just happened- how close to death I had been. Shut up. You’re still in danger. I had to remind myself. That’s right. The shooter.
While the shooting scared off the gutter rat, there was no telling whether they were friendly or not. Everyone you’ve met thus far tried to kill you so… I did not think it would be a good idea to reveal myself. Maybe I should-
“Oi! You there! You can get out now, I can see your damn horns!” a voice called out, rough and accented.
“Uh! D–don’t shoot me!” I yelled back, stammering. Slowly, I raised my open hands above the dumpster, terrified.
“That’s right, slowly, now I want you to step out from behind the dumpster. Now.”
“I don’t have any weapons so I can just stay-” I reasoned, not wanting to show myself. Just in case.
“Boy. Do as I say, I’m not going to shoot you. Unless you give me a reason to.”
I complied. I slowly rose to my full height, eyes locked onto the gun as I stepped out from behind the dumpster, shuffling sideways to the middle of the alley.
The revolver she held was long and sleek, and it was aimed squarely at me. Threatening to put a sizable hole. “Um… ma’am, am I being robbed?” I squeaked out managing to put on a strained smile.
In front of me a couple of metres was an old lady- maybe 60s or so, it’s hard to be exact. Her blazing red eyes were examining me, chromed up I bet. Yet, old or not, I could feel the fierceness and passion that she emitted. You’re talking nonsense.
“Hpmh, like I would klep someone who’s already got klepped.” At that she lowered her gun. “You’re clear, not another rat or ganger-wannabe” I nodded. “You should really get yourself cleaned up, you look like shit” She turned her heels and started walking away, gun placed carefully in her holster. I need to check where the hell I am. Wait what? My NaviMaps weren't working. Worse, I didn’t even have a clue where the hell I was and this did not look like what District 7 looked like. At all.
“Uh! Do you know where would be a suitable place for me… to get cleaned up?” limping slightly, I quickly yelled after her hoping to catch her before she turned the corner.
“Bah! Why the hell should I care?” She kept walking. Her gait, unlike any elderly woman in her 60s would imply.
“I… uh…- I can pay?” I called out behind her meekly.
I could see her silhouette stand still, as if to ponder. She then quickly turned around, a smile visible underneath grey bangs. “Well why didn’t you say so?” She motioned for me to come, which I obliged, hurrying to follow.