Six Months Later

Arin had to drag herself out of bed, hearing the alarm going off starting in her dream and shrieking until she was conscious enough to switch it off. Cath hadn’t texted her back, probably off on some new adventure with a new boyfriend. That’s about all she had done since mom had passed, jetsetting here and there with guys she had met in college. Arin couldn’t blame her though, seeing as she had been in the same slump. Here she was, past sunset and just waking up in a daze after a night of internet rabbit holes and hyper-fixations trying to see what, if anything, she could grasp at to ground herself enough to get work done.

Which wasn’t much, considering the notifications she kept getting about missed or rejected payments. Not much else she could do but face it, Arin was broke. Rent was coming soon and with Cath out all the time and not working it’s not like she could ask her for help. Not six weeks after mom died and her job had fired her. Asking time off for a funeral was apparently too much of a stretch for a massive corporation, so when she decided to go to take time for a personal matter instead of rushing to answer calls for the current healthcare monopoly her supervisors started looking for any reason to throw her aside. They succeeded too, and now here she was doing freelance work and scraping by on the minimal nutrition to keep her going.

“Oh joy, another one.” She muttered to herself as another notice popped up- DISCONNECT NOTICE. The power bill, fantastic. She groaned and walked out of the bedroom just as the oven beeped, signaling that the power company wasn’t fucking around today.

She sighed and gathered her things: laptop, phone, charging cables, and a small bottle of water. At least she could get writing done at one of the twenty four hour cafes around town and keep her stuff charged. Maybe she’d splurge a little and buy herself a coffee, making sure to stuff one of her own insulated cups in her bag so she could pay the least amount possible and keep getting refills. Arin started to place sunglasses over her eyes and open her phone to text her mom before laughing and looking to the sky through her apartment ceiling, wondering what god out there could have this much of a grudge against her that she was still texting her out of instinct six months later. She took a deep breath, shoving the emotions down and stepping out the door into sticky, humid Georgia darkness.

She looked at her phone as she walked, making her way to the nearest train station and hoping her MARTA pass was still good so she could hop the train to Little Five Points. The news was scrolling another bank robbery again, this time in Los Angeles in a much higher security bank than the group had hit before. Arin hit play on the video, hearing the news jingle start in her headphones as she went.

“A bear, jackal, sloth, and ferret walk into a bank… normally this would lead to a corny punchline but in this case it’s become just the latest in a series of escalating heists by a collective calling themselves “Strays”.” The anchor speaks over footage of the various heists from the past few months, with the group frequently showing up out of nowhere, strolling into the bank as if they had just walked in from the street in full costume. The various members are shown in action, with the Jackal in particular taking time to make a show of their antics, seemingly juggling guards in the air through digital haze while snapping his fingers in time. The ferret had recently made a reveal of being able to walk on air, small pixels being barely noticeable under her feet. “While it’s still not known how they’re pulling off these feats, whether it be a form of trickery or some real life magic remains to be seen but detectives have assured us it’s nothing they can’t deal with.”

The footage cut away from the Bear dismantling a vault door with a touch of her palm to a sweaty, red tinted man in a suit standing in front of a podium. The name plate on the screen reveals him to be the bank president.

“We will not let this continue, this senseless vigilantism needs to end and these thieves brought to justice! They are stealing the hard earned money entrusted to us by all our members, and we will not stand for any continued disrespect not only to us, but to those we faithfully serve every day. If you’re out there, know that we are pursuing you to the fullest extent of the law and will ensure you do not continue this stream of violence and crime you’ve begun.” He kept going as reporters began shouting questions to him. The screen cut from him to a younger woman in front of a house that had seen better days. She was dressed in a fast food employee uniform, grease stains littering the whole outfit as she bounced a young child on her hip, trying to load them into a small, beat up car.

“Look, I don’t know who’s pulling off this Grand Theft Auto shit but I know they got my mortgage erased and the title suddenly showed up in my mail. I’ve been working three damn jobs and I’m a single mother, last month they were threatening to kick me and my baby out of the house so no, I don’t give a shit about their losses. I woke up the day after that robbery to more zeroes in my account than I’ve ever seen. That’s a low fuckin’ bar but damn it was a nice surprise.”

She finished loading the child in and closed the door, getting in herself now and starting the car. The reporter held the microphone close to the window, shouting a question in, “and what do you have to say about the potential impact this has on thousands of investors and the banks members?”

The woman gave a hearty chuckle as she backed out of the driveway, leaning out the window and shouting as she did, “Fuck ‘em!”

The news cut back quick with the anchor looking none too surprised by the swearing. “Well, there you have it. Some are heralding these ‘Strays’ as heroes while others see them as villains and anarchists. The economic chaos they’re sure to be sowing can’t be understated though, and could be incredibly dangerous.”

Arin just laughed, scrolling through more news as she walked before noticing a muffled scream coming from ahead. She took her earbud out, listening closely as she heard what sounded like a woman’s voice from off the path, begging someone to stop. Arin approached slowly, peeking into the darkness to discern whatever she could.

“Stop, Jack! I told you I didn’t want to see you again. I’m going to call the cops!” A woman, Arin couldn’t quite see what she looked like but could see that she was on the ground. A man was on top of her, struggling to pull her pants off while keeping another hand to her mouth. “Stop! Please!”

Arin caught her breath, gripping her house keys in between her fingers like claws. She took a step forward off the path, pushing the flashlight button on her phone to turn it on. The light flashed, illuminating a hulking man with a buzz cut and forehead big enough to seat a family of five thrusting on top of a helpless young blonde woman, her eyes desperately pleading even as the light almost blinded her. Arin rushed forward, keys raised and light still focused on the man, who was now starting to get up in surprise as she let out a loud shout, “Hey! Get off her!”

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The man stood up, suddenly towering above Arin who was already taller at six foot two. No, he approached her, pulling pants up as he did and shouting at her about what she had just ruined. Arin went to make a swipe at him as he walked toward her, but he sidestepped as she stepped back, bag bouncing at her side and cup clanking against her laptop. She quickly shrugged it off her shoulder, stepping back again as Jack stepped toward her.

“Nobody wants me to have a good time tonight, do they?” He said, stepping further toward Arin as she swiped the keys at him again, this time tearing skin from his outstretched hand as he tried to catch her wrist. He let out a guttural scream of pain as Arin shone the light in his eyes, trying to blind him. “You bitch! That fucking hurt!”

“Get up! Call someone!” Arin shouted to the girl, now desperately pulling her skirt down as tears flowed from her eyes. She was trying to retract into herself when Arin’s voice snapped her back to, making her look at the girl now desperately struggling to drive back their mutual attacker. “I swear to god, motherfucker. I will ram this key through your dick if I have to.”

Jack laughed, shaking his now blood covered hand and causing scarlet to splat against Arin, staining her clothes. The girl began to stand up, reaching in her nearby purse as Jack lunged at Arin again, this time managing to catch her arm. Arin tried punching him desperately with her other arm, catching him with a solid hook to his ribs even as he twisted her arm around. The girl was screaming into her phone now, pleading with whoever answered as they gave their location to someone. Arin felt something snap as she fell to the ground, Jack now on top of her and rising to straddle her.

She swiped at him again with her now free hand, feeling a searing pain run through her wrist as the keys jingled to the ground, wrist limp and broken. Her other arm desperately grabbed around her, trying for anything to defend herself. Her breathing became more panicked as Jack started holding a hand to her throat. She could feel her vision fading and the girls voice go from quiet to glaringly loud as her senses went wild with adrenaline. Her hand finally found the strap for her bag, containing the computer and heavy insulated cup she had just minutes before looked forward to filling with coffee and having a nice writing session on. Now she twisted the strap around her hand quickly, making sure it would stay on even if her wrist broke this time and bringing it crashing into Jack’s face.

A tooth flew from his mouth to the sidewalk as he turned back, blood now pouring from his nose as he spat another tooth out. He looked at Arin for a brief moment before setting in on Arin again, this time bringing fists down into her face, one after another as the sounds of beaten flesh hung in the air after each hit. Arin saw her vision fade again, this time in a mass of red before fading to black. The last thing she remembered before losing all consciousness was hearing a small pop and seeing Jack quickly flail off of her, running off across the street and away while swearing curses. Before the red lights and sounds of sirens could reach Arin, she was gone.

The girl crouched over her, crying and holding her hand as Arin’s breathing slowed to a stop. Even as the paramedics rolled up and one peeled her away as the others began taking readings and initiating CPR, desperately making every attempt to revive the girl, now unrecognizable laying in the street.

Dead!

Arin awoke facedown on a rough surface almost reminding her of sandpaper. A cool feeling like water washed over her as her vision of an expansive beach was suddenly overtaken by a blue wave, not quite crashing around her so much as retreating just to repeat the motion. She pushed herself up, looking around as she did and noticing the beach seemed to stretch infinitely in either direction, the only thing visible through distant fog all around her a small city that looked more like a backdrop than actual buildings. She turned back to the ocean, noticing the blue-orange hue of the horizon didn’t quite match each other as the waves again repeated their dull crash around her, sounds not matching up with the wave patterns by a few seconds.

“What the fuck.” Arin whispered to herself, noting the ground below her wasn’t even actual sand, but just a lightly textured, hard surface colored to look like sand. Everything looked like an old demo for an unfinished game, with Arin herself appearing hyper realistic against the low-res background. “Where the fuck am I?”

“Not hell, I promise. That’s the first question I usually get, at least.” A voice came from behind her, startling her enough to make her jump backwards and fall back into the still glitching water. She felt cold as she plunged under, feeling the familiar inability to breath as she somehow stayed completely dry and moved more slowly. The young woman that had approached her snapped a finger, bringing Arin out of the water and suddenly setting her still writhing on the sand beside her. Arin reoriented herself, taking stock of her surroundings and finally looking at the woman. She was shorter, with dark hair and a business suit well tailored to her. Arin even thought she would be cute with her dark skin and bright pink glasses making a stunning contrast with gray eyes and dark hair falling around her face in curls. “Welcome. You probably have a lot of questions.”

“Am I dead?” Arin asked, still unsure of what to do as the woman snapped her fingers, causing two chairs to appear next to them and ushering her to take one. “Are you god? Oh god should I have stayed in church? Fuuuuuuck.”

“No, no no no I don’t like being called that. No, I simply oversee and document what happens, setting things back on track when needed. I’m definitely not god, more like… a record keeper. Just call me Recorder, if you like.” Recorder smiled at Arin, again motioning to the seat as Arin collapsed into it, breathing a massive sigh and looking to Recorder with wonder in her eyes before having the realization of where she had come from.

“Is that girl okay? Holy shit that guy was… ugh that piece of shit! Is he why I’m here?! I swear to god…” Arin was back up and pacing now, smashing a fist into her open palm and shouting into thin air. “That motherfucker… so what? Is this heaven? You said it’s not hell, right? So that makes it heaven.”

“Apologies but, not quite. I unfortunately can’t tell you anything about what happens once you leave the program. I can only tell you your options now as a variable.” Recorder was explaining to Arin in basic, gentle terms so as to ease the shock, or at least that’s what Arin thought she was doing. Everything was catching up with her fast, mind racing with thoughts jumbling over each other for attention, each one trying to be louder than the last to make her think about them for more than a second. “No, Arin. You are a variable in the program. Your data indicates you still had quite a long life ahead of you before tonight. By our predictors, you were supposed to simply call the authorities before running to a nearby house and pleading with whoever answered. By then it would have been too late and the individual that just killed you would have left her there barely breathing while he ran off into the night. We don’t get cases like you all the time, but on the occasions that we do we usually give people like you a chance to go back, if you so choose.”

“People like me? Explain please?” Arin was rubbing her temples and pacing now. If this was the afterlife why was she getting a headache? Everything was so overwhelming, pain shooting through her forehead as lights flashed in her eyes.

“People who died in unexpected acts of selflessness. By all data we have people would have been more concerned about their self preservation in these situations, and that was the prediction, but you proved us wrong so we make the offer based on… altruistic value, if you will.” Recorder was explaining faster now, obviously trying to speed things up for some reason or another. “Just know that you can choose to end things here, and that’s totally understandable. Some people feel they’ve done enough and just decide to call it. If you go back there is always a chance you could experience some strange side effects but for the most part you won’t even remember we spoke.”

“So that’s it? I saved that girl and I can just magically go back? Why do I get this choice? Like yeah I was selfless this one fuckin’ time but weren’t there kinder people that could have gotten a better chance like this? Come on! My mom didn’t deserve to get ripped away like that and you couldn’t give her a chance!” Arin was yelling now, a floodgate of emotion suddenly unlocked and overflowing her from within. “Why does all this shitty stuff happen if you have the ability to do this?!”

“I can only take a yes or no answer from this point, Arin. Will you be returning?” Recorder simply looked at her with her hands folded over her knees now, awaiting a response from the now seething woman in front of her.

“Yes! I’m at least going to beat that asshole that did this! Fuck!” Arin barely got the sentence out before Recorder snapped her fingers, causing all the surroundings to go white before Arin lost consciousness once more.