"PS9" (PS9)
09/19/2015 at 17:23 • Filed to: None
1
5|
"PS9" (PS9)
09/19/2015 at 17:23 • Filed to: None | 1
| 5 |
Totally not car related fiction story thingy inside. Also, it’s a long post, so TL;DR warning. Actually, thanks for reading to anyone who gets to the end of this. Hope you enjoy it!
5:00 Had finally arrived. “Alright, that’s $500 even, sir.” David said.
“I
asked
for this in all hundred dollar bills.” The man snipped.
“Well sir, as I already explained earlier, we are out of hundreds. Twenties will have to do.”
“You can’t just go into the vault over there and get some?” The man demanded.
“Well I could go into the vault if you want,” David answered, “But that wouldn’t fix your particular issue, as we don’t store any bills there.”
“Fuckin’ unbelieveable...” The man uttered, snatching his money out of the gap beneath the bulletproof glass.
“Have a nice day!” David said. He then quickly logged out of the banking terminal, making sure it was fully powered down this time (unlike yesterday), snatched his burlap satchel out from under the desk and headed for the door.
“Hey!” Skayla yelled from behind her desk. “Don’t forget to-”
“I already did it!” David yelled as he scooted out the door.”
“It better be done right, or you’re getting a writeup tomorrow!” Skayla yelled to the door, as it eased itself closed.
“C’mon, c’mon…” David muttered at the graveyard of cars before him on the freeway. Traffic inched forward. He sat there tapping the wheel. He sighed. He yelled at the guy next to him. He tapped his foot. He fidgted. He did everything he could but somehow everyone failed to move their cars out of the way for him. It’s almost like they didn’t even know he existed or something.
With one flick of the dial, people who talked on the radio for a living started speaking to him;
Today, NASA announced it will reveal a major breakthrough in theoretical physics tomorrow.
Wait...did they just announce an announcement?
Seems like it.
Useless. No reason they couldn’t just tell us what it is right now? Why do we give these people money again?
You got me on that one, Johnny.
David was suddenly reminded why he never has the radio on when he’s driving and flicked the damned thing off.
“FINALLY.” David exclamed as his exit came up, completely clear of cars. His foot went right to the floor...and then immediately rebounded as a police car crawled up behind him. “Not now, goddamnit...” He uttered. The lights came on, but the car rolled around him and went the opposite direction, joining two other cruisers in chasing a lowered Civic with a giant wing on it’s trunk. David eased a sigh of relief and sped home.
“David?” Camila uttered as she heard the door open.
“Did you get it?” He asked.
“ Hi, honey. Haven’t seen you all day! Come on over and give daddy a big kiss! ” Camila said in her deepest man voice.
“Fiiiine” David uttered as he walked over. He gave her an ernest hug, a light kiss on the lips, and wrapped his hands ‘round the small of her back. “How was your day?” He asked.
“I know you don’t care.” She spat.
“No. Really. Tell me everything that happened today. I’m all ears. Promise.”
Camila sat him on the couch and chatted with him about her long day at work, her boss’s firing over the affair, the meeting, the embezzlement investigation, the food poisoning, the cat fight between two of her best friends over a man they’d both been eyeballing…
“Camila.” David interrupted. “I asked about your day. That stuff that happened on Fear and Loathing in Southern Florida last night doesn’t count as your day just because you watched it.”
“So you
do
listen to me!” She said.
“You don’t think I know my own wife?” He asked.
“You’re closer to that stupid xbox than you are to me.” She spat again.
“Camila, we talked about this.” He said. “You don’t make fun of my dumb video games, and I don’t make fun of your dumb reality shows. Okay?”
“I already know that.” She said. “I...I just wanted to spend some time with my husband before you jump in and forget about me.”
David rose from the couch and embraced her again.
“ No one’s going to forget about you, hon.” He said. “That’s silly. I don’t even know why you think you have to compete with a machine for my time and energy. But...you didn’t just come to that conclusion on your own. I must have done something to make you feel that way. So here’s what we’ll do; I’ve got friday off this week. You call off at the bakery. Once the kids are in school, we’ll just spend the whole day doing something you like. Together. And it won’t be the last day, either. Everytime I have some free time, I’ll be sure you get most of it. Okay?”
“...alright. I like that.” She said. They kissed and he held her a moment.
“You did get it...right?” He asked.
“I can’t put it off any longer, can I?”
“No.” He answered. “Don’t make me go to the store and buy another copy!”
“You can’t” She said, pulling out a green blu-ray case marked ‘OppoLock 6’ on it. “Every store is sold out and I got the last one.”
“YAAAAASSS!!!” David squealed as he reached for the case. Camila surrendered it, and off to the xbox and tv he ran.
“You don’t have to just go upstairs.” David said. “Stay down here for a bit with me.”
“I...well...this isn’t really my thing...”
“You’ve said that once before...”
“DAVID!” Camila said, her light brown skin turning a deep red.
“I’m just saying; Give it a shot before you decide it isn’t for you.”
“We’ve both got to work tomorrow...”
“Just one half hour...pweeeeze?” David pleaded.
“Fine. ONE HALF HOUR”
Three hours and two endurance races later, both David and Camila had forgotten completely about work tomorrow, which is now today and just a few hours from now.
“Damnit, David!” Camila spat.
“Hey, that last endurance race was your idea!”
“Well...we only needed a few million more to get the P1, and you know that’s my favorite car...”
“You always said you hated cars.”
“I always said I hated driving. ” Camila argued. “Traffic sucks, it eats your clutch away. Cars aren’t the problem, people are.”
“You get no argument from me there, babe.”
“Oh my god, the kids lunches...alright you have to leave earlier than I do, so go upstairs-”
“No.” David said.
“David-”
“I’ll take care of everything. You go upstairs and get some rest. A few hours won’t do me any good anyway.”
“Are you sure? ...you’re not just saying that to get a few more hours of OppoLock 6 in are you.”
“No.” David said at first. “Well...maybe. I mean, I didn’t think about that until you mentioned it just now, so...”
“DAVID!”
“I’ll have the kids lunches ready. I promise.” David said. “They won’t go to school hungry.”
“...alright.” Camila agreed. “You should come to bed right after that, though. You can play that game some other time!”
“No promises.” David said with a smile. Camila gave up and headed upstairs. David then rustled some sandwiches together from the bologna and cheese in the fridge, grabbed two barbecue chip bags at first, then tossed one and replaced it with sour cream flavor. “Almost forgot how much Cathy hates that flavor.” he muttered. He arranged two bags with Juice boxes in each one, and immediately sat down for more OppoLock 6. “I’ll just mute the tv so’s everyone can keep on sleeping.” He uttered as the xbox 1 logo whoosed on to the screen.
David was not greeted by the Orange 2016 Ford GT on the cover screen this time. Instead, a message was displayed in a box, a small yellow triangle covering the right corner;
“Fatal Error 37: Xbox Live Cannot Be connected to at this time. Please try again at a later date. If you experience any further issues, please call microsoft at 1-118-776-3535”
“Crap.” David said. “Freakin’ day one servers, always overloaded. Oh well.” David retreated upstairs to kiss his still sleeping children goodnight, and then finally joined Camila in the master bedroom. As he slipped into bed with her, he wrapped his arm around her and the clasped hands as they always did. David was soon fast asleep.
David slowly awoke. He inhaled, felling his lungs fill with dust particles. He coughed and rose out of bed, wiping the sleep from his eyes to see the window had been completely broken.
“Oh my god...Camila..!” He almost yelled, but she slumbered right next to him still, unstirred.”
“Camila...” David said, “Wake up, something has happened!”
Camila slowly rose out of bed, inhaling and coughing too. He rolled out of bed and put his feet on the floor, noticing that every square inch of the room was covered in a thick layer of gray dust.
He looked out the window, and there were gray clouds rolling through the neighborhood; boiling and wafting like clouds usually did, but abnormally close to the ground. It was thick outside. Only the immediate area and a few houses were visible. A thick was of boiling gray blocked everything else.
“David...what’s happening?” Camila asked. “Why is our window broken?”
“The kids!” David yelled. “He ran out the bedroom. The hallways too were covered in gray dust. It coated the floors, wafted through the air tiny clumps, speckled the white walls, and poured in through the visible vents, even though the air conditioning wasn’t on.
Both children were fine, sleeping still in their beds, but both their rooms too were coated in this gray dust. Both their windows were broken. David guessed that all the windows in the house are broken too, and then tried to work out why someone would break all of his windows and fill his house full of dust? How did it coat the whole house so fast? Why didn’t all the window shattering wake any of them?
“David!” Camila cried. He ran back into the master bedroom. Through the broken window, they both saw a man stumble out into the street. A thick layer of dust coated everything outside, too. The man was completely covered in it head to toe. It colored his clothes and skin. He coughed, and a cloud of it emerged, wafting through the air “Hey!” David yelled. “Are you alright?” As he looked up at them, Camila screamed. His eyes were a shattered pattern of gray and blue. Black tears oozed from the corners. He mouthed something, but his skin started to crack and flake around his mouth.
He collapsed to the center of the street on his knees. Falling to his hand, a giant fracture cracked his arm in two. In place of flesh and bone, rock and mortar crumbled out of him. At the sight of this, the man closed his eyes, and completely crumbled into the street. His remains disintegrated and flaked into the wafting clouds. There was nothing left but a pile of rocks, sand and gray dust.
“Oh my god...” Camila cried. David comforted her.
“What’s wrong?” Cathy asked, standing at the door. “Why is mom crying? Why is the house all dusty?” David immediately dragged both Camila and Cathy out of the room and closed the door, locking it.
“What’s going on?” Tom asked emerging from his room as well. “My window’s all broken and everything’s dusty.”
David reached for his smartphone, still in his pocket from last night, But it was dead. “What? I had 98% battery yesterday!” He held the power button on the device but it failed to respond. “The power’s out, dad.” Cathy said, trying the hallway light but nothing happened.
“Alright. Here’s what we’re gonna do.” David announced. “We need to get out of here.”
“Where are we gonna go?” Camila asked.
“The police station.” David answered. “Maybe they know something about this.”
“Dad...” Cathy asked. “The man outside...”
“Don’t think about that right now, honey.” David answered. “Our first priority is to get to the police station. Worry about other things after we’ve done that.”
XJDano
> PS9
09/19/2015 at 18:09 |
|
Ok
MLGCarGuy
> PS9
09/19/2015 at 18:43 |
|
This is what deserves to be called a literary work of art, not the boring stuff from Homer.
Agrajag
> PS9
09/19/2015 at 21:16 |
|
AND THEN WHAT HAPPENS?!?!
10/10 would read next entry.
SirDrivesAlot (now with hybrid powerrrr)
> PS9
09/20/2015 at 15:34 |
|
You need to submit this to http://365tomorrows.com/
They might publish it...
Snuze: Needs another Swede
> PS9
09/21/2015 at 14:40 |
|
Not bad... not bad at all. Interested to see where this goes next.