Log inIt's About Saving Yourself Ch 18
Good evening folks.
Not much to say today. I'll instead say it on the Writing Update...probably tomorrow.
Just. Take a minute to hug your loved ones. Hope you enjoy the chapter. Let me know in the comments.
=][=
I woke up moaning and thrusting up into Lucy’s moist, welcoming quim, making her moan and tighten deliciously around my cock. Which, honestly?
Best way to wake up, ten out of ten, would do again.
Also very confusing.
“Whah?” I slurred.
Lucy grinned and ground against me. “This guy woke up all hot, bothered, and ready to go. Seemed a shame to waste it.”
My input saw my morning wood and decided to have fun without me. A part of me was a little offended because, dammit, I wanna be in on the fun too.
The much larger rest of me thought it was hot as hell and told that smaller part of me to shut the fuck up.
Lucy intercepted my hands on the way to her hips, and instead brought them up to press my palms against her perky tits and stiff nipples. “You just lay there and relax, Al, let me take care of you.”
My answer was to gently squeeze her tits and I watched in rapture as she alternated grinding against me and bouncing on my lap.
As I let Lucy have fun, I bit my lip and did my best to hold on, it was a lot harder not to blow my load embarrassingly quickly without controlling the pace.
At some point we transitioned to holding hands, fingers intertwined, the points of contact helping her hold steady as she bounced up and down, repeatedly lifting herself up until only my tip was inside her before impaling herself on my cock. I was clenching every muscle in my body, biting the inside of my cheek, and failing to do complex math in my head backwards in a losing battle against the torturous bliss Lucy inflicted on me.
She suddenly tightened and dropped herself down, taking me to the hilt. Her channel milked me from base to tip as she threw back her head and moaned. I lost my composure and gave into my own release, thrusting up with such force that I lifted her from the bed and came so hard spots danced in my vision.
Our bodies remained taut for long, torturous seconds, until strength fled the both of us and we collapsed into a sweaty pile of limbs, Lucy on top of me as we tried to catch our breath.
“That…is a hell of a way to start the day.” I panted.
“Mission successfully failed.” Lucy said, then licked my chest.
“In what regard?”
“The face you made last night when I sucked you stiff was pretty cute.” Lucy said and wriggled her hips, making me shudder at the sensation. “I was trying to get you to blow your load early so I could do it again.”
I snorted. “You underestimated my power.”
Lucy chuckled and kissed my neck. “The faces you made trying to hold back were adorable, so it all evens out.”
“Oi. Don’t enter the weird-face-mid-fuck war, it’s a war you’ll lose.” I mock threatened.
“Shut up and cuddle.” Lucy ordered.
We spent a while longer in bed, a bad idea as it turned out, we had to all but peel ourselves off each other, then took a surprisingly unerotic shower together.
We each got ready for the day, one of the last things I did being switching out my casual arm for the black chrome arm I used for work.
I triple checked my guns, my knife, and my daemons, then kissed Lucy, gave her rump a goodbye squeeze and headed out.
I checked the time, realized it was Saturday (not having a consistent seven-to-six made it rather difficult to remember the day of the week) and wondered if I could maybe convince David to go to the range with me.
Sure, he didn’t like guns for some reason, but it was still something we could do together that would help the both of us, then I could hit up the usual Fixers and look for work.
I got in the car and started driving home, and jumped when, seconds later, Apex ‘appeared’ next to me and the car’s speakers shouted. +Hey dad!+
“Hey there, Apex.” I said past the ringing in my ears. “How was yesterday?”
+It was great! Grandma tried to bake cookies! Only she didn’t remember the recipe and burnt the first few batches and—!+
I two-thirds listened and made appropriately surprised, impressed, and questioning noises. Letting Apex’s excited chatter wash over me. It normally helped relax me after a long day worrying about my profession, but after the marathon yesterday and the sex this morning, I’d honestly be surprised if I had a bit of stress anywhere in m—
“Wait what was that about David?”
=][=
David tilted his head back and, suppressing his gag reflex, chugged the Broseph Lager that Pato had handed him. It was nasty, but it tasted like victory.
“Chug! Chug! Chug!” the guys all chanted, the sound filling the decaying parking garage.
David drank until the carbonation was too much and he came up for air, spilling some of it but having drank at least two thirds of the bottle, to loud cheers.
He wiped his mouth, smiling, and gave the bottle to Guero, who tilted it as a show of thanks and drank the rest of it.
Cuñado, Conejo, and Flaco all opened theirs and began drinking.
All the guys around him were thirteen to seventeen, some already had tatts.
Flaco, the leader of their little group, stood tall and raised his beer bottle. Despite his name, there was nothing thin about him. He was way more buff than David, moreso than Alex, even. “Alright pendejos! Shut the fuck up! Shut up! I said shut the fuck up!”
The gang quieted down.
“Okay! First! Congratulations to us! We have managed our biggest haul yet!” Flaco said, pointing to the half empty beer crate. “A few more hauls like this and we’ll be ready for the Big Leagues!”
The guys (and one girl) all cheered.
“But! It would not have been possible without our newest member! Many of us rightfully doubted the niño rico, but he’s come through! Showing he’s one of la Raza, give it up for David, who picked up the crate and ran with it, uncaring of the shopkeep’s shotgun!”
The convenience store guy was armed?
“That? That takes huevos! So, I think he’s earned his name!”
The guys all cheered and shouted. David stood straight and squared his shoulders. It had taken a while, but maybe he was finally ‘in.’
“David! From this day on, I dub you, ‘Pulpo’ for being one handsy and slippery fucker!”
David…could accept the name. Better than ‘Putita.’
David made his way to Pollita, the one female member of their group, apparently, she’d gotten her name from her blonde hair. What hair had to do with chickens, David would never know.
“Hey, what’s up?” he said, sitting next to her.
“It’s been great!” She said, looking up from her Agent. “There’s a rumor that Raven Microcybernetics’ stock dropped not because a power surge that damaged their servers, but because one of the Novaest Edgerunner Crews hit them on behalf of Biotechnica!”
“Oh?”
“See, it has to do with the way a Militech transport was attacked! From there—” Pollita launched into a long spiel about Edgerunners in Night City. David had thought he knew what Edgerunners were about, what with growing up around them in Megabuilding H4, and hanging out with Doc to see the latest in Cyberware. But Pollita blew him out of the water.
She knew of individual Edgerunners, could figure out what crews hit what depending on their MO. It was very interesting, the one issue being…
“So it had to be Redeye’s crew! No other crew in Night City has their calling card literally be that they have no calling card! They’re the only ones who inspire fear in the corpos by the only indication of their involvement, being the thing stolen or specific person dead! The attack on the transport must have been a diversionary attack so their Netrunner could sneak into Raven Microcybernetics’ data fortress!”
Her obsession with Alex and his crew. “Right, right. But what about other crews in the city?”
“Not as important! I’ve heard that Redeye’s crew are on retainer to Rogue Amendiares! They’re the top, but like, the top in the shadows!”
David’s response was cutoff by sudden shouting.
David turned, and was startled to see Alex come in, wearing his Edgerunning gear and making a beeline straight for him, his right eye glowing red in a glowing green skull that was his ‘face.’
“W-W-What’s Redeye doing here?” Pollita asked.
“Huh?” David turned to her and was surprised to see her white as a sheet and trembling from head to foot. “What’s the matter?”
“David, that’s Redeye! People are calling him Morgan Blackhand’s bloodthirsty grandson! The best estimate is that he’s killed several hundred people!”
David blinked. “I thought you admired him?”
“Adam Smasher is also Nova as fuck, but if he showed up, I’d freak out cause I don’t wanna die!”
“The fuck you think you get to come to my place like you own the joint!?”
Flaco stepped in front of Alex and confronted him. Maybe David should step in? He’d just been accepted; he didn’t want to look like he was stepping on any toes…
“Oh no…oh no oh fuck!” Pollita muttered, sounding more freaked out by the second.
But before David could ask what was wrong, Alex spoke without turning to look at Flaco. His voice was wrong, all flat and cold, missing something that David had never realized had always been present. It was like listening to a SCSM. “Step out of my way or suffer the consequences.”
By the look on Flaco’s face, that did not land well with him. He grabbed Alex’s jacket near his neck. “You think you can come to my place and make dem—” was as far as Flaco got before he violently shat himself.
Flaco looked down at his visibly full pants, already reeking, his face a mixture of confusion and humiliation.
“The next one is lethal. Step out of my way or suffer the consequences.” Alex said in the same tone.
Flaco continued to look down, not two seconds passed before he seized up, his body dancing, blood spilling out of his ears as he fell backwards, his eyes, nose, and mouth smoking.
The boys in the gang all shouted and jumped back, some running off, others staring at the body, mouth slack.
David recovered as Alex reached him. “Yo, what the fu—!?”
He woke up staring at the sky, his jaw throbbing, and he was being dragged on the ground by his ankle.
“Wha?” David slurred.
His ankle fell to the floor. “Good, you’re awake. Get in the car.”
David climbed unsteadily to his feet, the moments before his nap coming back to him. “You…you killed Flaco.”
“Get in the car, David. This is not a request.” Alex said, his voice flat, almost bored.
“How could you kill him in cold blood like that?”
“Last chance David. Get in the car.”
“The fuck I’m getting in the car!” David snarled. “I’ll—”
Alex was suddenly in David’s face. David felt three impacts on his stomach and chest, strangely enough he didn’t feel pain, instead he felt sick, and his legs turned to jelly. Without the strength to hold himself up, he fell to all fours and vomited his breakfast and his victory Broseph.
An impact to his side sent him skidding on the pavement. He lay on the floor and tried to breathe, and that’s when he finally felt the pain.
A shadow fell over him, blocking out the sun.
“Get in the car, David.” The enormous shadow with the glowing red eye said. “This is not a request.”
He looked up at the monstrous form. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
It reached down, grabbed a handful of his hair, and used it to drag him over the pavement. The tearing pain in his scalp made David kick and paw at the floor in an attempt to propel himself forward and relieve the pressure.
He was tossed unceremoniously into a car, landing face first into the passenger seat of Alex’s fancy Edgerunning car.
He pushed himself to his feet, snarling. “Al, what the fuck!?”
When Alex answered, it was in that same infuriating, bored tone of voice. “David. I need you to understand that anything I do to you, I can fix, this includes amputations. So be silent, and get in the car.”
David swallowed nervously. He considered trying to fight, but the growing pain in his chest, stomach, and jaw made him swallow his anger and do as he was told.
Alex drove in silence, and though David felt prickling in his eyes, he refused to shed any tears in front of Alex.
Alex drove to the edge of Rancho Coronado, and out to the edges of the Landfill. Where he turned off the car.
“Out.” He said, and got out of the car, leaving David with little recourse other than to do the same.
The stink of the hot, humid air slammed into David like a punch in the gut. He wrinkled his nose and gagged at the stench of putrid garbage.
Alex pointed in the direction of the mountain of trash. “Walk.”
The very idea was disgusting beyond belief, but when he didn’t immediately get moving, Alex shoved him. “Alright, alright!”
They walked in silence, the ground perpetually shifting or squishing beneath David’s shoes.
+The trash in the Municipal Landfill is the property of Night City.+ The intercom distantly pointed out. +To steal from the Landfill is to steal from Night City.+
David held on to his silence for as long as he could, and when he could take it no more, he demanded. “Alex, what the fuck man? Why did you kill Flaco? What the hell are we doing here?”
“You wanted a taste of Edgerunning.” Alex answered, his voice still lacking emotion. “Well, I’m giving you your fill, today, right now. Be silent and walk.”
David scowled, just like Alex to give an answer that only left him with more questions.
They walked, the smell only getting worse the farther into the landfill they went.
“Stop.” Alex said and pointed down. “Dig.”
David looked down at the literal hill of likely toxic refuse he was standing on. “What? Fuck no!”
Alex’s skull mask regarded him coldly. “You are going to start digging, David. The only variable you can control, is in how much pain you will be in when you comply.” The knuckles of his left hand popped threateningly as he clenched it into a fist. “I don’t care which you choose. But if you haven’t started digging by the count of three, I will start beating you.”
“Al, this is crazy! Why the fuck are you doing this!?”
“One.”
“Do you just get off on a power trip!? Is that it!? Happy to show off how you’re the better son!?”
“Two.”
“Fuck you! You don’t get to do this! I’m done playing this stupid fucking game! Either tell me what the fuck is going on or fuck off!”
“Three.”
David had just enough time to put his hands up into some kind of guard, he tried to parry aside Alex’s fist, but it was like trying to stop a car by punching it. He still ended up with a fist tapping him on the nose, making him see spots, before Alex’s metal hand was buried in his gut.
David folded over Alex’s fist as the air was beaten out of him. Alex stepped back, and David fell to his knees, the ground squishing disgustingly beneath him.
“You have until I count to three to start digging. Or I will continue beating you. One.”
David tried hard to draw a breath, but his stomach would not cooperate.
“Two.”
David was able to draw a single, putrid breath, whatever was in the air burned his throat, but it gave him the strength he needed to surge to his feet and take a swing at Alex.
Alex dodged by leaning back just enough so that David felt his knuckles graze his brother’s gasmask. He continued to dodge David’s punches by insultingly short margins.
“Three.”
Alex stepped forward and delivered a set of three deceptively light looking punches into David’s stomach and chest, strength fled him again and he fell to the floor, retching.
Alex continued, still in that awful, bored tone. “You have until I count to three to start digging. Or I will continue beating you. One.”
David had to be knocked down seven more times before he acquiesced and started digging. His only victory that he was able to disguise his tears as sweat and his snot with the blood dripping from his nose.
He waited until he was sure his voice would not betray anything before asking. “What am I digging for?”
“Be silent and dig.” Was the only answer he received.
He dug, doing his best to ignore the feeling of the occasional organic thing squishing on his palm, until he hit something both solid and soft.
Intrigued against his wishes, he dug more of it out, before realizing it was a dead body. “Oh shit, what the fuck!?”
He felt Alex’s cold metal fingers on the back of his head before he was ruthlessly pushed down, his face mashed against the garbage smeared shirt of the corpse, the chest having a give to it that was as unnatural as it was disgusting.
“Don’t back away from it David.” Alex said, his voice finally different from the bored monotone he’d had the whole time. Now he sounded fevered, his voice a growl from deep in his chest. “Treasure it, get a good mouthful.”
David tried to push up, but any time he tried to push against the corpse, it squished and gave, his hands slipping on slime he didn’t want to know the composition of.
The smell was horrid, he could all but taste it as some of it got in his nostrils. The fact he couldn’t breathe forced him to open his mouth to gasp, and he knew without a shadow of a doubt, it tasted worse than it smelled.
Alex let go, and David pushed himself up, gagging and retching, were anything left in his stomach, it would be voided.
Alex again pushed him face first against the corpse. “You can’t possibly have had enough yet! Get all that you want! The premier Edgerunning experience! Courtesy of a genuine fucking Edgerunner! What’s it like David!? Is it everything you fucking dreamt of!?”
David was flung back, he landed badly and felt something give in his leg. He leaned over and retched stomach acid onto the trash.
“I see you haven’t had fucking enough!”
David looked up just in time to see the morbidly bloated corpse flying at him. It slammed into him with a gurgling groan and threw him to the floor, pinning him.
“Come on then little brother, tell me how you fucking like it! How is the Edgerunning experience treating you!?”
David was able to summon just enough anger to throw the body aside. “What. The fuck. Alex!?” He wheezed.
Alex picked up the body with one hand and slammed it down on David. “I’m giving you what you fucking wanted you retard! The true, genuine, undiluted Edgerunning experience! Fucking bask in it!”
“This isn’t what Edgerunning is about!” David snarled, rolling the corpse off him again. “It’s about becoming a Legend!”
“The fuck it’s not you nincompoop!” Alex shouted. “You think Edgerunning is a fucking adventure!? Bitch I kill people!”
He started pacing back and forth, gesticulating wildly as he shouted. “Every time I go on a job I risk my life! I whore myself out to the monsters that are choking what little light remains in this cesspit we call the world!” He pointed to the corpse. “That’s me you fuckwit! That’s me tomorrow! Next week! Next month! If I’m lucky, that’s me next year!”
He grabbed the corpse’s head and held it up, its mouth opened, and a literal mouthful of maggots spilled out. “Say hello to Jenkins! I worked with him two weeks ago! He was strong, smart, trained, groomed! He crossed his ‘t’s and dotted his ‘i’s! He had the backing of one of the top fixers in the city! He was good and now look at him! A dead body rotting in a pile of fucking garbage! That’s my future! You want to meet a ‘Legend’? Keep fucking digging! You’ll eventually uncover Johnny Fucking Silverhand!”
David jumped to his feet. “Rogue’s a Living Legend!”
“Rogue is Arasaka’s whore!” Alex snarled, bringing David up short. “She sold out! She exists at Arasaka’s and Militech’s sufferance! She can manage only minor rebellions! Every Edgerunner is a fucking parasite suckling at the teat of the fucking Megacorps! Two weeks ago, I stole and destroyed research data that could have bettered the lives of millions! I sold my fucking soul David! I threw away any claim I could have to morality! I made a Faustian Bargain and signed my own death warrant! All for Mom’s sake and yours!”
He tossed the body aside like so much trash. “Finish school, work at Arasaka, make my money, get out, do my own thing and live in relative safety and comfort! That was the plan! That was the future! And I threw it away! Ensured I won’t live to see my third decade so you might be able to! And now your grades are not only down, you joined a gang! You risked your life for a crate of the cheapest, most disgusting beer in the city!? What the fuck!?”
David felt about two inches tall, but he set his jaw. “I didn’t ask you to do that!”
“No shit Sherlock! I wouldn’t wish this on anyone!” Alex thundered. “And before you say that you could be different, you could make it, you could be the Chosen One, the one who is special.” Alex pointed to the corpse, it started beeping with a jingle, one of the more annoying default Agent rings for an incoming call.
It was joined by another. And another. And another. Dozens.
Soon, the entire hill was singing out an annoying little jingle, muffled by the trash, loud only because of the sheer quantity making up the chorus.
“All of them were ‘special.’ All of them went on their grand fucking adventure! Feast your eyes, David! Behold my kingdom! Behold the army of the special! The adventurous! See where I’m going to end up! What do you think about my fucking tomb!?”
David looked around, the annoying jingle stealing his words, making his protests die stillborn.
“I didn’t want this, David.” Alex said, no longer shouting, sounding defeated. “I wanted what I gave you, to have a chance, the possibility to live in relative safety, to build up to a share of comfort and security. To take care of Mom, to give back to her for all she sacrificed. Instead? I’m doing everything in my power to make enough money that when I go to a job and don’t come back, you and her will be set for a few years, just long enough for you to take over. The path I’m on doesn’t have a future, David. This is where being an Edgerunner leads you, to a hole, in an unmarked grave, in the middle of nowhere, buried in trash, and if you’re exceedingly lucky, some whore of the corporations will name a drink after you in a club that exists to perpetuate the cycle of pain, death, and making the world a worse place.”
He turned around and started walking but stopped and looked back. “Please David, don’t make my sacrifice mean nothing. I don’t want Mom to outlive the both of us. I don’t think she would take that too well.”
David watched in silence as Alex left, his back bowed, head hanging.
He remained, sitting in the trash, next to the dead body of someone whose skill Alex had respected.
Thinking.
