Thursday, April 25, 2019

Aftermath, Chapter Eleven: Run through the Concrete Jungle

Sometimes we need to lose the small battles
                    in order to win the war
~Sun Tzu, The Art of War
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A howl echoed off the plascrete as Crank race past the dilapidated storage units.  His heavy footfalls resounding like the opening beat of a troll thrash metal concert, Crank ran for all he was worth, his chummer Tommy slung under one arm.  Behind him a beast snarled and howled in frustration as Crank's fierce pace maintained the distance between them.  Sweat ran freely and his breath came in heavy gusts as his pink machinegun beat against his back, dancing on its reinforced leather and nylon sling.

"Damn'it Tommy!" Crank swore as he raced down the broken pavement. "Wake up!"

Tommy hung limply under Crank's massive arm.

A burst of gunfire thundered and bullets raged after the fleeing shadowrunners.  A round struck Crank's left horn, blowing half of the carefully manicured and polished growth away and tearing open Crank's scalp.

"DREK! " Crank's yell rang out as he spun to his right and crashed through a barely substantial bit of fencing, his legs churning to get back up to speed.  Behind him, the howling sound grew louder, closer.   "Lil' help here!  Ratchet! Angel! Respond!"

An explosion boomed in the distance behind him sending a plume of fire and smoke into the night sky.  Crank spared a glance to the fireball before ducking around a stinking dumpster.   The veteran shadowrun changed course, heading north as he tugged the priming pin from a grenade he saved for emergencies.  He skidded to a stop and pitched it into the dumpster before turning back and dashing toward a run down apartment complex.

Crank was breathing hard as he dashed past a bullet-riddle sign that once read "Welcome to Camelot."  The beast's howl was interrupted by grenade detonation.  Bits of flaming garbage rained down on the potholed street.

"Frag it!  Sorry chummer." Crank dropped Tommy behind the sign and threw himself down next to him.  "Getti always said, bring a medkit. 'Crank, what happens when you need it and don't have it?' he said.  'Always good to have' he said." Crank pulled a battered nylon case from his pocket.

A howl shattered the night, making the hair on the back of Crank's neck stand up.

"Thank you, Getti." Crank whispered as he tore open the stimulant patch.  Crank slapped the patch on the back of Tommy's limp hand then unslung his pink light machine gun and worked the action.  "Sometimes, it ain't easy being your friend Tommy."

The barghest was bleeding from a dozen injuries.  The beast barreled over the street, fangs bared and eyes fixed on the old sign and the two blazing heat sources behind it.

Crank leaned into the stock, forced his breath out in a slow, controlled exhale, and squeezed the trigger.  His light machinegun sprayed a dozen rounds into the oncoming monster.  The barghest tumbled forward, yelping and baying in pain and anger.

"Shoot straight." Crank whispered as he rose from behind the sign and sighted on the writhing barghest.   He took three long, quick strides toward the monster.

"Conserve ammo." The words crossed his lips unheard as he put six rounds into the barghest's skull, splattering bone and brains across the plascrete.  There was a sudden silence that fell on the night as Crank jogged back to his friend.

Tommy "the Machine" Gunn opened his eyes and took in deep rapid breaths.  The magician bolted upright, gasping for air while his eyes darted about.

"Never, EVER make a deal with a dragon." Crank finished the old street proverb, extended his hand to his friend and pulled him to his feet.

{Gaiman-Zimmerman app used to describe what we pulled from the feeds. ~ Angel}

****************************

I came to with my heart hammering in my throat.  I was laying on broken pavement and felt like I had been beaten to death. Crank thrust his hand out and I took it, pulling myself upright and trying to get my bearings.

"Where the frag are we?" I asked.

"North of the safe house.  We've got angry people chasing us."  Crank replied.  He ducked down behind a bullet-riddled sign and trained his pink light machinegun toward a rundown storage facility. There was a dog-like creature the size of a small horse twitching in the street, its head blown apart.

"My family?" I asked.

"I don't know chummer." Crank replied.  "We came rolling up and you were falling out of the sky.  The whole neighborhood was up in flames like hell had opened up to swallow the block. I managed to catch you but people were shooting at me and then they turned the dog loose on me."

"Thank you." I said.

"Don't thank me yet.  Angry people with guns coming.  Thank me later." Crank's eyes never wavered but he smiled, revealing those perfectly polished tusks.  "And pay me.  Don't forget to pay me."

A quiet little laugh escaped me.  "You got it, omae."

The first shot nearly took my head off.

The tip of my right ear was torn away as bullets streaked out of the night.

"Told you!" Crank called out.  He returned fire, sending a storm of death downrange.

"Yeah, yeah. I hear you!"  I called back.  My ear was a sharp pain piled atop so many others.  I was wrung out, my body coursing with a chemical cocktail that made me jittery.  Spell casting was a bad idea. I whispered into the astral plane and felt the spirits respond.   "Get 'em!" I shouted.

The fire elemental manifested, instantly causing the placrete it stood upon to melt and bubble.  It gave a curious little curtsy before it rolled away leaving a molten trail to mark its path.

"Good one, lets roll!" Crank shouted.  He clamped his hand down on my shoulder.  It hurt.

We ran past rundown apartments, rusted hulks of ancient automobiles and abandoned shops whose vacant windows stared out at us like the skulls of dead men.  The spells woven to my senses detected a ghoul to the west but I ignored it.  Crank was running and his longer legs gave him a huge advantage in speed.  His own spell enhanced reaction time and speed, courtesy of my own magic, made him faster than me.  As I began to fall behind he slowed, allowing me to keep up, as we broke out to the east and headed back toward the I-5.

My commlink was fried, killed in the initial attack that had knocked me from the sky. I reached out with my thoughts, praying my family had survived. "Rose, Lily, are you girls safe?"

"Father!" Rose replied. "Lily and I are well. Jasmine and Violet are fussy.  Mother has been shot."

My blood ran cold, my vision swam and I collapsed in a heap on the street.  The stimulant patch's chemical cocktail had finally been purged by a spell I had laid upon myself years ago to protect against poisons and stun gas.  The last thing I remember before the darkness engulfed me was a flare of panic as Rose's words struck home.

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Thank you for reading my fan fiction.  

I hope you'll check out my current project on KickStarter, Sinopa Omnibus Volume One which contains characters, creature and monster entries.  These are written for the 5th edition game mechanic (not Shadowrun unfortunately) and each entry consists of a story, stats, treasure information and more.  I like to think it’s a lot like the old dungeon magazine, though I may be flattering myself a bit.   Please do take a look (link below) support it if you can and help spread the word by sharing it out on social media.



I hope you'll  join me next time for Chapter Twelve as Aftermath continues.  As always, your comments and questions are most welcome!










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