shit happens
‘Smoke some more fags’ my colleague urges me, ‘the ash makes it burn slower’.
My colleague and I are smoking z grade crack from a pipe fashioned out of a plastic coke bottle and a foil kit kat wrapper.
We are holed up in a cheap hotel in the crappy end of Kings Cross. Our crack smoking is interspersed with cheap booze, plus copious amounts of fags, joints and the occasional blackout.
It hasn’t always been this way, only a few years ago my colleague and I were in the peak of physical and mental fitness. We were corporate astronauts on a sponsored mission to Phobos. Hailed as the last true pioneers, explorers into the furthest reaches of space, heroes. That was until that whole thing.
As I start to remember the events that led us here I quickly down half a can of syrupy lager. Sensing my pain, my colleague hastily skins up.
Down on the street below the sound of the mob grows louder, jeers, the roar of flame, policemen shouting through megaphones, trying in vain to control the murderous masses.
‘Turn the TV up again’ suggests my colleague; shuffling over to the portable, I spin the volume knob as high as it will go.
The repeat of the comedy panel show we had been watching is interrupted by a news flash, we see our photos on the screen, shots of the mob outside.
The newscaster recaps the history of our mission, the launch attended by thousands of cheering people, our sponsors eagerly telling viewers that we are the pride of the nation. As the newscaster goes on to retell of our misfortune on Phobos, his face drops into a scowl.
‘Turn this shit over’ mutters my colleague, ‘and pass us the stuff’.
My colleague loads the pipe while outside the noise grows louder. I hear windows breaking downstairs, the police had lost the battle, or just given up, the mob were now entering the building.
‘Fuck it mate anyone can make a mistake right?’ says my colleague exhaling a lungful of smoke. ‘Here, try not to think about that whole thing’.
I smoke in rapid bursts, coughing hard, a deep bark that makes my eyes water. Regardless I smoke more, we had been abusing ourselves like this for about two months now, ever since we returned. A desperate bid to try to quell the nausea we had felt since the breakout, the breakout that we had inadvertently caused.
I toke deeply, holding the smoke in my lungs for as long as I can. Perhaps when the mob get here the narcotics might deaden the pain of a thousand angry Londoners beating the living crap out of us.
If only we hadn’t if only we had gone East instead of West, not found that box, not brought it back with us, not caused the…
‘Don’t, don’t think about it Ad, we couldn’t have known, it’s just one of things… shit happens mate’. My colleague snaps me out of the sickening spiral of thoughts that have looped endlessly around my head ever since we opened the box.
The voices grow louder now, I can hear footsteps thumping up the stairs, soon the room door will burst open, the mob will flood in. Any minute now the vengeance of many will descend upon us.
‘I think were out of fags Ad’.
Shit happens.
Interesting concept. I think if you tighten it up a bit it might read more smoothly. For intstance, “That was until that whole thing.” – to me, it would sound better just to say “That was until”, leaving out “that whole thing”, or changing “that whole thing” to exclude the second “that”. I hope that makes sense and is helpful.
Good atmosphere.
Interesting concept indeed, I wonder what it was they brought back?
I disagree with Deanna on the “That was until that whole thing” line, I think that’s one of the lines that gives a recognisable voice to the narrator. Perhaps it’s an English vs. American usage thing?
Thanks Deanna and Kari, my intention was to give the narrator a voice as Kari suggests, mind you I did write it on the hoof in an hour last night so could bear a little tidy up as Deanna suggests.
The Belgian ale don’t help neither
I liked this concept. At first, I thought this was just going to be a depressing story of addiction. The scifi take on Pandora’s box really grabbed me. Nice.
I also went with Pandora’s box. I’m interested in knowing a little more about what they did to the world, but it probably doesn’t fit with the voice of the characters. You did a good job bringing that voice out.
For some reason, I kept expecting zombie hordes.
I wonder what they brought back – some kind of plague?
I had deleted the words ‘space plague’ in an attempt to be ambiguous… Busted.
Muahahaha! I am psychic!