welsh
Junkmaster
OC- ok, time to start it up. Remember you can have multiple characters. I ask only that when you create your characters you have them wake up around noon and that the you provide some notion of what your characters dream about. For now, let's leave the location "generic city". We can work out the specifics of our city as the story progresses.
Also- this has been edited.
IC- Sarah looked up at the stain glass of church and felt the bath of colors against her brown skin.
It was morning of the second day.
So many years ago her momma had taken her to the church and she had felt the touch of something more. But she could barely recollect those memories which slipped away from her like shadowy dreams. It had been so awfully long since she felt that spiritual sensation. She had come hoping of finding more of the spirit, but perhaps God had checked out of the world with most of the people.
Her shopping cart waited patiently for her next to the pew. She had guarded over the cart for so long that her instinct to defend her few possessions had not yet deserted her. She had pushed her cart up 23 blocks, up old brick stairwells from underneath, over empty streets, and had seen no one.
Save for the sound of on occasional dog’s bark or a cat’s meow, the city had been as quiet as grave.
She spent an hour on her knees searching her memory for some kind of prayer. But it had been so long since she’d come to a house of God that she knew no words to speak.
Perhaps when she had left her faith in God, God’s words had left her and now they were beyond her reach. Yet she tried.
“Our Father, you art in heaven, hollow be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as is in heaven…” Then she’d forget what came next. There was something about ‘forgive us our trespasses” and “lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.”
She had tried not to trespass, but she had been so hungry. Besides, wasted food was some kind of sin.
But that didn’t seem to work and so she tried another. “Hail Mary, full of Grace, the lord is with thee, blessed art thou….. blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Hail Mary, mother of God, prayer for us sinner, now and at the final hour.”
Or something like that.
Her thoughts of the fruit of the womb made her think of the dream she’d had right before wakin’ up yesterday.
Daniel had come to her like he was before Marcus got to him, still a child, only 5. So adorably cute and wearing his favorite sports shirt, all big brown eyes and short curly hair. And as usual her heart just melted to see him and she could feel the tears in her eyes fill with tears for the love she felt for the boy.
God help her, but in those tears she also felt the sting of hatred for Marcus. Marcus, her husband, who had killed the boy under his own belt. Marcus, who she had once loved more than her own life. Who she in turn had killed out of anger and sadness and madness.
Yet Marcus and Daniel had not quite died, for both still visited many a nights when she slept beneath the cold land.
Daniel had been playing with his ball and he looked up at her with thought big brown eyes that so forever and would never see age, and said, “Momma it’s all changed.”
“What’s change my little love.” As she had so often called him.
“The world, Momma, the whole world is different.” He said.
“How’s it change, my little love?”
“Be careful, momma, the boogiemen is afta you.” He said.
“Tha’s all just a dream, child. Ain’t no boogiemen. Ain’t real.”
“Ain’t no dif.”
“I don’t understand, what’s real and what’s dream?”
From behind her she heard the barking and snorting rising up through the tunnels.
Daniel, frozen, his voice turn desperate. “Wake up momma, wake up.”
Then she saw into the darkness, the lights coming up the tunnels. She knew them. The tunnel monsters that walked like men but had twisted faces with fangs, who swung the batons which broke bones.
She turned back for Daniel and reached for his hand, but he was already running away towards a distant light.
“Daniel, don’t leave mommy.” She cried out.
“I already have momma.” He called back and then vanished in the light.
Behind her she could feel their breath on her back, rancid and wicked. She could smell the stench of the hounds that were so desperate to bite. But before she felt the batons hit her bones, her eyes opened.
For a moment she lay there beneath the coats she had found in a dumpster, frozen in fearful expectation of some pain to be delivered. The moment, patient with dread, hung on for almost half an hour before she realized she’d just been dreamin wicked thoughts again.
Still she lay there waiting, realizing something was different, but not not sure what it was.
Then she heard it. Or rather, she didn’t hear it.
No trains.
In all her time living down in the under she had never known a time the trains stopped running.
No that wasn’t true. When they did their sweeps, they might stop the trains for awhile. That made her think of the dream and the wicked tunnel monsters.
She quickly got up, found her corner where she made her water outside her little hut. Like the others the hut was made of little but strands of wood, metal and cardboard- more a boundary of her home and the dozen or so others. Then she made her business, she became aware of something else. The other residents of the cardboard community were quiet too.
Maybe they were up in the above looking for scraps. Or maybe they had heard a sweep coming and had already made off, forgetting to tell Sarah because she was just a scrawny old nigga that didn’t smoke that crack, drink no liquor or put out for those horny stinkin motherfuckers.
She pulled her car out of the house and went past the others for one of her favorite exits, checkin the time. Past 12, but was in midnight or mid-day? Down in the tunnels, in the below, night and day had little meaning. It was always dark.
No time to worry if a sweep was comin’. Past the hut owned by Leroy and Gootch, but those two crackheads weren’t there. Old Bob was gone though his hut smelled of piss too. So was Ruthy, who was nothing now but a cheap crack ‘ho.
It was all quiet, but it looked like everyone left their meager things. That was strange cause those down under knew perhaps better then those in the above that you was what you had.
So damn quiet.
No trains,
No sound of the pigs with their dogs and batons.
Where the hell where they? What tunnel where they comin from?
All quiet and peaceful. She barely made a sound as if by breaking the silence she’d be trespassing on the peace. She waited for it, but it seemed never to come, not aware of what was watching her.
Teeth and claw to her back.
Sounds of barking and growling.
Angry, hungry, full of malice and cruelty.
The sensation of hot breath on her back, the anticipation of a the snap of jaws.
The suddenness made her jump and almost lose her control of a scream.
But it was just Otis, Crazy Luke’s dog, in his pen. Dog was big and mean, fed off the rats and scraps and whatever Luke gave it.
It growled at her from it’s chain.
Overcoming her fear she brought her fingers to the dogs nose, expecting it to bite at her. But the dog overcame it’s fury and sniffed curiously, until it recognized the smell.
Then a long pink tongue snaked out from behind its teeth and licked her fingers.
“That’s fine Otis. You know me. No reason to get angry.” She said quietly, easing the dog.
The dog whimpered. More bark than bite, unless you weren’t from the community. The dog was distressed and probably hungry.
“Where’s Luke, Otis?”
The dog whimpered again, then moaned. Pulled on the chain, tightening the choker around his neck.
His food dish was empty, which could be expected. The water dish was also without. That was strange. Luke had never been known to leave the dog behind, least not without water.
If the men and dogs were doing a sweep they would take Otis and bring him to animal control, and that would mean that Otis would be dead in a week. Sarah wouldn’t allow that.
Overcoming her doubts and the unspoken rule not to trespass on the property of others, she unleashed Otis, hoping to take the dog with her to the above. But the dog surprised her, getting past her and dashing down a dark tunnel towards one of the exits. Perhaps chasing after her owner, thought Sarah. It scampered away down a tunnel, the echo of it's feet on the stone fading away.
Uncertain of which direction to go, Sarah had followed the dog until she came to the exit, then, her eyes barely open due to the glare, she came up into the above. Only then did she realize that what Daniel had given her was not a dream but a prophecy.
No movement.
No cars.
No buses.
No sounds.
No people.
What the fuck?
She recognized the area for being a business area and for a moment she thought it might be a weekend and that everyone was gone. Like sometimes on weekend. But a half hour went by and not even a car screeched by. Nor an airplane soared above.
Deserted.
Was this a joke? And of so, it could only be God that was playing the joke.
Or had she slipped again?
No, no. She moved those crazy thoughts from her mind and began to look around.
She pushed her cart up 12 blocks and into a shopping area before she realized that it too was empty. Not even the restaurants. If it were some kind of holiday it was like none she knew. The sun on the back of her skin told her that it was already late in the afternoon.
Not a soul in sight.
Around 4 she stepped into a pet shop which, like most stores, had unlocked doors but no people. After searching awhile she found the keys and let go all the birds, then the cats and finally the dogs. Wasn’t good having animals like that imprisoned. She also opened some cans of food and tore open dry food for both cats and dogs, hoping that in an empty world, at least the cats and dogs might get along.
Shortly after 5 she got hungry and stepped into a Burger King. Like everything else it was empty.
It had been years since she had enjoyed the Whopper, and there were a number just waiting to be eaten. Shame to let food go to waste. She ate her burgers and then helped herself to some cold fries, alone behind a plastic table.
Yet she couldn’t help but feel guilty and wondered if someone was watching her on one of those video cams. But after she had her burger and no one came for her, she stepped back out, dragging her cart with her filled with Burger King cookies for later.
So it went. She stepped into a Hilton hotel, but it too was deserted though the TV seemed to be still working. She tried a CNN station, and it was on, but there was no one behind the anchor chair. She flicked channels. On some of them programs continued, but wherever there was supposedly a news show, the stage was empty.
It was all beginning to make her feel disconcerted.
Where the hell was everyone?
Why the fuck she was still there. Bad enough they took all the above folks, but they seemed to take all the below folks too. A good bet that all the whackos in the house of nuts were also gone off.
Was it God? Or did everyone get picked up like from some aliens or something?
For the first time after years of being on her own and living underground, Sarah felt lonely.
And she felt watched. Like there were eyes, hidden from view, but watching her movies. Preying on her, meditating on her, observing, waiting. It was almost as if she could feel them crawling up her back.
Somethin’ definitely wasn’t right no more. The feeling of it left Sarah feeling disturbed throughout the late afternoon. Driven by instinct more than thought, or perhaps by a desire to find something familiar to return to, she approached one of the stairwells that led to the below world, stepped down and began to pull her cart behind her.
That was when she smelled it. Something foul and ugly, decay.
Wormfood.
Death.
The smell filtered through her nostrils and like tendrils crept down into her lungs, making her feel more nauseous than any BK whopper would.
Something down there. Something not quite right.
And faintly she thought she heard the sound of growling and barking. She paused, still uncertain.
The sound seemed to grow louder, as if it were approaching.
Perhaps it might be better not to underneath tonight.
But the darkening sky gave little comfort despite the street laps that flickered on against the gathering gloom. More hurriedly than before, and with an occasional glance backward, she moved up the block until she came to the steps leading up to a massive gothic church. Leaving the cart behind her (the first time she had done so that day) she climbed up the stairs and tried the massive doors to the cathedral. Unlocked, they gave way as she pushed them open. Then she turned and went back to the cart.
Before going up the stairs she looked down both streets. Darkness was rising from the ground like a mist or a fog that even the street lights could not ward away. Quickly, she pulled the cart up after, each wheel banging against the stairs until she climbed up all 15, and was next to the door. A glance down to the street and she could barely see where she had just fled. She pushed the door open, and brought in her cart.
Watched as the door closed behind her with a resounding boom that echoed deeply into the cathedral’s eves.
Sarah backed out away from the door, unwilling to touch it, and waited. But whatever was outside, stayed outside.
After awhile, when she felt foolish for looking at the door so long, Sarah moved around the cathedral and checked the other doors. They too where unlocked. Foolish nigger woman afraid of shadows. Just the same she left the doors unlocked. Maybe someone else out there in need of church.
She went to a pew and sat down, removed one of the bibles and started reading, hoping it would calm her nerves and give her peace. But it need neither, and it was only the exhaustion of a long day, and the small print of the bible, that put her once again to sleep.
That was yesterday. Today the world seemed still empty.
Yet by the afternoon she had crossed paths with another person.
Also- this has been edited.
IC- Sarah looked up at the stain glass of church and felt the bath of colors against her brown skin.
It was morning of the second day.
So many years ago her momma had taken her to the church and she had felt the touch of something more. But she could barely recollect those memories which slipped away from her like shadowy dreams. It had been so awfully long since she felt that spiritual sensation. She had come hoping of finding more of the spirit, but perhaps God had checked out of the world with most of the people.
Her shopping cart waited patiently for her next to the pew. She had guarded over the cart for so long that her instinct to defend her few possessions had not yet deserted her. She had pushed her cart up 23 blocks, up old brick stairwells from underneath, over empty streets, and had seen no one.
Save for the sound of on occasional dog’s bark or a cat’s meow, the city had been as quiet as grave.
She spent an hour on her knees searching her memory for some kind of prayer. But it had been so long since she’d come to a house of God that she knew no words to speak.
Perhaps when she had left her faith in God, God’s words had left her and now they were beyond her reach. Yet she tried.
“Our Father, you art in heaven, hollow be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as is in heaven…” Then she’d forget what came next. There was something about ‘forgive us our trespasses” and “lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.”
She had tried not to trespass, but she had been so hungry. Besides, wasted food was some kind of sin.
But that didn’t seem to work and so she tried another. “Hail Mary, full of Grace, the lord is with thee, blessed art thou….. blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Hail Mary, mother of God, prayer for us sinner, now and at the final hour.”
Or something like that.
Her thoughts of the fruit of the womb made her think of the dream she’d had right before wakin’ up yesterday.
Daniel had come to her like he was before Marcus got to him, still a child, only 5. So adorably cute and wearing his favorite sports shirt, all big brown eyes and short curly hair. And as usual her heart just melted to see him and she could feel the tears in her eyes fill with tears for the love she felt for the boy.
God help her, but in those tears she also felt the sting of hatred for Marcus. Marcus, her husband, who had killed the boy under his own belt. Marcus, who she had once loved more than her own life. Who she in turn had killed out of anger and sadness and madness.
Yet Marcus and Daniel had not quite died, for both still visited many a nights when she slept beneath the cold land.
Daniel had been playing with his ball and he looked up at her with thought big brown eyes that so forever and would never see age, and said, “Momma it’s all changed.”
“What’s change my little love.” As she had so often called him.
“The world, Momma, the whole world is different.” He said.
“How’s it change, my little love?”
“Be careful, momma, the boogiemen is afta you.” He said.
“Tha’s all just a dream, child. Ain’t no boogiemen. Ain’t real.”
“Ain’t no dif.”
“I don’t understand, what’s real and what’s dream?”
From behind her she heard the barking and snorting rising up through the tunnels.
Daniel, frozen, his voice turn desperate. “Wake up momma, wake up.”
Then she saw into the darkness, the lights coming up the tunnels. She knew them. The tunnel monsters that walked like men but had twisted faces with fangs, who swung the batons which broke bones.
She turned back for Daniel and reached for his hand, but he was already running away towards a distant light.
“Daniel, don’t leave mommy.” She cried out.
“I already have momma.” He called back and then vanished in the light.
Behind her she could feel their breath on her back, rancid and wicked. She could smell the stench of the hounds that were so desperate to bite. But before she felt the batons hit her bones, her eyes opened.
For a moment she lay there beneath the coats she had found in a dumpster, frozen in fearful expectation of some pain to be delivered. The moment, patient with dread, hung on for almost half an hour before she realized she’d just been dreamin wicked thoughts again.
Still she lay there waiting, realizing something was different, but not not sure what it was.
Then she heard it. Or rather, she didn’t hear it.
No trains.
In all her time living down in the under she had never known a time the trains stopped running.
No that wasn’t true. When they did their sweeps, they might stop the trains for awhile. That made her think of the dream and the wicked tunnel monsters.
She quickly got up, found her corner where she made her water outside her little hut. Like the others the hut was made of little but strands of wood, metal and cardboard- more a boundary of her home and the dozen or so others. Then she made her business, she became aware of something else. The other residents of the cardboard community were quiet too.
Maybe they were up in the above looking for scraps. Or maybe they had heard a sweep coming and had already made off, forgetting to tell Sarah because she was just a scrawny old nigga that didn’t smoke that crack, drink no liquor or put out for those horny stinkin motherfuckers.
She pulled her car out of the house and went past the others for one of her favorite exits, checkin the time. Past 12, but was in midnight or mid-day? Down in the tunnels, in the below, night and day had little meaning. It was always dark.
No time to worry if a sweep was comin’. Past the hut owned by Leroy and Gootch, but those two crackheads weren’t there. Old Bob was gone though his hut smelled of piss too. So was Ruthy, who was nothing now but a cheap crack ‘ho.
It was all quiet, but it looked like everyone left their meager things. That was strange cause those down under knew perhaps better then those in the above that you was what you had.
So damn quiet.
No trains,
No sound of the pigs with their dogs and batons.
Where the hell where they? What tunnel where they comin from?
All quiet and peaceful. She barely made a sound as if by breaking the silence she’d be trespassing on the peace. She waited for it, but it seemed never to come, not aware of what was watching her.
Teeth and claw to her back.
Sounds of barking and growling.
Angry, hungry, full of malice and cruelty.
The sensation of hot breath on her back, the anticipation of a the snap of jaws.
The suddenness made her jump and almost lose her control of a scream.
But it was just Otis, Crazy Luke’s dog, in his pen. Dog was big and mean, fed off the rats and scraps and whatever Luke gave it.
It growled at her from it’s chain.
Overcoming her fear she brought her fingers to the dogs nose, expecting it to bite at her. But the dog overcame it’s fury and sniffed curiously, until it recognized the smell.
Then a long pink tongue snaked out from behind its teeth and licked her fingers.
“That’s fine Otis. You know me. No reason to get angry.” She said quietly, easing the dog.
The dog whimpered. More bark than bite, unless you weren’t from the community. The dog was distressed and probably hungry.
“Where’s Luke, Otis?”
The dog whimpered again, then moaned. Pulled on the chain, tightening the choker around his neck.
His food dish was empty, which could be expected. The water dish was also without. That was strange. Luke had never been known to leave the dog behind, least not without water.
If the men and dogs were doing a sweep they would take Otis and bring him to animal control, and that would mean that Otis would be dead in a week. Sarah wouldn’t allow that.
Overcoming her doubts and the unspoken rule not to trespass on the property of others, she unleashed Otis, hoping to take the dog with her to the above. But the dog surprised her, getting past her and dashing down a dark tunnel towards one of the exits. Perhaps chasing after her owner, thought Sarah. It scampered away down a tunnel, the echo of it's feet on the stone fading away.
Uncertain of which direction to go, Sarah had followed the dog until she came to the exit, then, her eyes barely open due to the glare, she came up into the above. Only then did she realize that what Daniel had given her was not a dream but a prophecy.
No movement.
No cars.
No buses.
No sounds.
No people.
What the fuck?
She recognized the area for being a business area and for a moment she thought it might be a weekend and that everyone was gone. Like sometimes on weekend. But a half hour went by and not even a car screeched by. Nor an airplane soared above.
Deserted.
Was this a joke? And of so, it could only be God that was playing the joke.
Or had she slipped again?
No, no. She moved those crazy thoughts from her mind and began to look around.
She pushed her cart up 12 blocks and into a shopping area before she realized that it too was empty. Not even the restaurants. If it were some kind of holiday it was like none she knew. The sun on the back of her skin told her that it was already late in the afternoon.
Not a soul in sight.
Around 4 she stepped into a pet shop which, like most stores, had unlocked doors but no people. After searching awhile she found the keys and let go all the birds, then the cats and finally the dogs. Wasn’t good having animals like that imprisoned. She also opened some cans of food and tore open dry food for both cats and dogs, hoping that in an empty world, at least the cats and dogs might get along.
Shortly after 5 she got hungry and stepped into a Burger King. Like everything else it was empty.
It had been years since she had enjoyed the Whopper, and there were a number just waiting to be eaten. Shame to let food go to waste. She ate her burgers and then helped herself to some cold fries, alone behind a plastic table.
Yet she couldn’t help but feel guilty and wondered if someone was watching her on one of those video cams. But after she had her burger and no one came for her, she stepped back out, dragging her cart with her filled with Burger King cookies for later.
So it went. She stepped into a Hilton hotel, but it too was deserted though the TV seemed to be still working. She tried a CNN station, and it was on, but there was no one behind the anchor chair. She flicked channels. On some of them programs continued, but wherever there was supposedly a news show, the stage was empty.
It was all beginning to make her feel disconcerted.
Where the hell was everyone?
Why the fuck she was still there. Bad enough they took all the above folks, but they seemed to take all the below folks too. A good bet that all the whackos in the house of nuts were also gone off.
Was it God? Or did everyone get picked up like from some aliens or something?
For the first time after years of being on her own and living underground, Sarah felt lonely.
And she felt watched. Like there were eyes, hidden from view, but watching her movies. Preying on her, meditating on her, observing, waiting. It was almost as if she could feel them crawling up her back.
Somethin’ definitely wasn’t right no more. The feeling of it left Sarah feeling disturbed throughout the late afternoon. Driven by instinct more than thought, or perhaps by a desire to find something familiar to return to, she approached one of the stairwells that led to the below world, stepped down and began to pull her cart behind her.
That was when she smelled it. Something foul and ugly, decay.
Wormfood.
Death.
The smell filtered through her nostrils and like tendrils crept down into her lungs, making her feel more nauseous than any BK whopper would.
Something down there. Something not quite right.
And faintly she thought she heard the sound of growling and barking. She paused, still uncertain.
The sound seemed to grow louder, as if it were approaching.
Perhaps it might be better not to underneath tonight.
But the darkening sky gave little comfort despite the street laps that flickered on against the gathering gloom. More hurriedly than before, and with an occasional glance backward, she moved up the block until she came to the steps leading up to a massive gothic church. Leaving the cart behind her (the first time she had done so that day) she climbed up the stairs and tried the massive doors to the cathedral. Unlocked, they gave way as she pushed them open. Then she turned and went back to the cart.
Before going up the stairs she looked down both streets. Darkness was rising from the ground like a mist or a fog that even the street lights could not ward away. Quickly, she pulled the cart up after, each wheel banging against the stairs until she climbed up all 15, and was next to the door. A glance down to the street and she could barely see where she had just fled. She pushed the door open, and brought in her cart.
Watched as the door closed behind her with a resounding boom that echoed deeply into the cathedral’s eves.
Sarah backed out away from the door, unwilling to touch it, and waited. But whatever was outside, stayed outside.
After awhile, when she felt foolish for looking at the door so long, Sarah moved around the cathedral and checked the other doors. They too where unlocked. Foolish nigger woman afraid of shadows. Just the same she left the doors unlocked. Maybe someone else out there in need of church.
She went to a pew and sat down, removed one of the bibles and started reading, hoping it would calm her nerves and give her peace. But it need neither, and it was only the exhaustion of a long day, and the small print of the bible, that put her once again to sleep.
That was yesterday. Today the world seemed still empty.
Yet by the afternoon she had crossed paths with another person.
