Purple Monster

The dream was upon her and she was deep within its womb. There was a strange churping noise and a thrumming like a thousand wagons going past. Fluid streamed past her and the world was perfect. Warm, still and full of life around her, her brothers and sisters, she could see them she could hear them she could feel them. The worlds shattered and the cold hit them full of foul stench. Her lungs suddered and she wailed.

Time shifted, fire, blood and pain, always or cold, rotting pain with dank smell and festering hunger – it often ended in firey pain. Fever, with dreams, fever with sweat, fever, always. Her mind closed down around her swollowing her whole.

She awoke in Matthews arms, she snuggeled down into his spicey warmth. The morning bell began to toll, but her and Matthew were still very cold even with each other and the leather screens, there was ice on the inside of the inner screen. It was probably a good job that they had been woken up – asleep for much more time in the fridged tempurature and they could have succumbed to hypothermia. Matthew shrugged on his clothing scowling, she could sense his tension and steeled herself for the hate, for the rejection.

‘It shouldn’t be this cold in here,’ he said suddenly, ‘even with the snow. He checked the leather shieling again and frowned. ‘The outside ones been slashed!’

‘What! she cried jumping up and clambering to get her own cloths on. She was less clumsy in the cold than Matthew but she could handle extreme temperatures better than other people. The screen was beyound repair, ‘this has to have happened whilst we were sleeping’ she said shuddering. He nodded looking grave.

‘We’re going to have to tell the Abbot.’ he said – her blood ran cold at that.

It was starting to look like staying here really was getting dangerous. She nodded, she couldn’t survived outside on her own with the weather being the way it was and she was loathed to leave Matthew, she’d even become attatched to Henry and Luke in away she knew to be a bond. Her fate was wound up with theirs and there was nothing she could do about it. For now she would have to just go with the flow.

With the food scraps hidden in the habbits, in ways that were not going to be comftable doing the pray sessions! She found it almost impossible to remain still during the long boring chants. From what she could see from her ‘naughty’ glances around Henry was having the same sort of problem and even Matthew and Luke were having issues. The adjouning room had been attacked to but a quick word with the other novices had shown them that this was not a general make the novices lives a misery but was most definatly a directed attack. What they couls and indeed should do about this she did not know. Even if they told the Abbot he’d be stumped as to what support he could offer them.

On the other hand it would look like and indeed was probably an attempt on the Bastard Princes’s by the Catholics. There was a chance that there were provisos in place to deal with this sort of situation. Of course if it was Them after her again then it didn’t really matter what the precuations were she was going to be in the shit.

They sat through the breakfast bearly tasting it and chewing on reflex she was pleased with the warm water that they were allowed with it to warm them up. There were even rumours that mulled wine would be making an appearance that afterenoon with the last meal ofg the day.

Luke showed them how to get down to the dog pounds, the kennels stank, and the dogs wagged their tails and growled in a friendly sort of way as they entered the stone building, The scraps where eagily devoured and the four of them stood there looking forlornly at the dogs hoping that they hadn’t just sentences the creatures to an early grave. She had sluaghtered dogs to warm her hands in the ice and she still hated it. She looked at the boys with her, they seemed so young and she was awear she looked about the same, they were a collection of ganglyness, pale ganglyness. You could just tell that they each had their own little quirks which if out side of a monestry could well have cuased them some problems.

Dejectedly they started back across the fresh snow to the monstery, their leather bound feet made cruching noises – not enough people had trodden on the snow to make it slippry with compaction but at the same time they were batterling their way through one of the thickest drifts of snow around. It had all swept up to the monestrys stone walls and gone no furthure.

The Abbot’s secratary angrially intercepted them before they could get into his chambers, they were cold wet and miserable, they had agreed not to say anything about the food (unless it did turn out to be posioned) instead they were just going to say that there things had been moved about. The missing shields and then the slashed spares were distubing. Their cells were one floor up so getting to the windows wasn’t easy though she knew full well she would have been able to do it easily.

The secratary a large man who tended to wear black and white and a rather large and though it wasn’t supposed be was also rather floppy, he’d been positioned abroad and had bearly come over to the ‘new’ religon. He tried to use his belly to force them back out of the anti-chamber but Matthew turned his burning intensity on the man. He was bueatiful and fevorent when he did so, she could swear he shone with his own engergy. A glow of something, and he was not leaving. ‘We have to see the Abbot it is essential your grace.’ he said perfunctionaly and boldly.

The large man seemed to wither slightly but still held his ground. ‘The Abbot is a busy man and does not have time to parly with novices who are shurking their chores!’ he spat.

Matthew glared, ‘we are not shurking there is a serious matter we need to speak to him about!’

‘Do you not think he’s having enough trouble as it is, do you realise how fragile our existance is here?’ his belly wobbled as he jiggled in rage.

She stealed herself for a boring triade on religon and existance but it turned out he was being ementantly practical, ‘the King is closing the monastic schools even threatening Cambridge and you want to see him over a problem of what room mantaince? Becuase you have been careless with what has been given you!’ She could see his point.

‘But its not that – we have been being careful but someone else went into our rooms! Someone is trying to make the princes’s sick!’ Matthew realised he’s made some sort of error. The Priest rose up and glared at them all.

‘I see no princes’s here, I see no devil spawn of the Bolyne witches and others like her – if I did I would be building a pyre – The King has one child and that is Mary, god annonted. What his current marrage brings will be naturally god anonted to though the Queen herself is a heritic the child is ordanded – if it lives.’ The guy was actually foaming at the moutn. They all stared at one another – he was obviously very much still of the old religon and what their next move should be they weren’t sure. The royal status of Henry and she had remind herself supposedly of her ment that they should have had the Abbots instant attention but they needed to get past this lump of lard.

She looked at Henry and he was grinning at her she grinned back Matthew was also starting to fizz, the tension between him and the secratary was growing. They both indicated their intent by slightly inclining their heads and waggling their eyebrows – if the secratary had been a trained worrior he’d have seen the danger coming before they’d even grinned at one another.

The both bolted either side of him just as Matthew started shouting – then it turned out that Luke had been slowely queitly and effiecently sidling along to the door anyway and as the Secratary roared and tried to catch her she ducked and he flobbled around with reactions the speed of a pesant cart laddened for market. Henry was around the other side and already through the door that Luke had opened, she hurtled through the room after him adn they skidded to a halt only becuase they had cannoned into the Abbot.

His white wire eyebrows were raised and he looked very startled. ‘What is going on here?’ he asked, in a voice slightly elevated to be heared over the full blown fight that appeared to have broken out between Matthew and the SEcretary. They all started talking at once. The babble was of course incomprehensible to the Abbot who disentangled himself from them and strode to the door. The Secretary entered with Matthew in a headlock, Matthews eyes were flaring with anger and pain as he was dragged mutely into the room, he was going slightly red.

‘Robbert let the boy go for goodness sake,’ The Abbot said.

MAtthew slupped to the floor spluttering, she rushed over too him, the Abbots gaze was disaproving at her ministrations, but Matthew seemed to have really suffered from the secretaries wrath.

‘Please your Grace someone is after the Princes’s’ Luke said quietly. The Abbots penetrating eyes bore into him. The Secretary begain his rant again about there being no Princes’s the Abott held up his hand to silance the fat lump.

‘Princes’s or not they are part of the gentry and Protistant though I belive you had a Catholic education,’ he said looking at her. She nodded, after all that was her cover story – she had been educated in France and in the orthodox way. ‘They are favourites of the King, he may wish them as advisors or there may be some familial tie we know nothing of and even if they weren’t they are within our care Robbert.’ The Abbot stifferend and looked as stone, the blob of a secraty grunted and then ground his teeth in an effort not to say anything.

He nodded gruddingly and then the Abbott dismissed him, the pit of her stomache went cold as she watched the man leave the room, they had humiliated him, they would pay for it later in some way. Matthew spat out some blood on the floor.

He was shaking with pent up frustration and his eyes were fever bright, ‘You Grace’ he said thickly through swollen lips. ‘Our wooms were searhed n they toog the sweens, den dey slahed the dare deem.’ the swelling was getting worse, he spat more blood.

The Abbot looked to Luke for a translation. He pursed his lips and then nodded when they said they’d checked with the other novices about pranks and the like. If it had been thieft they wouldn’t have come back to slash the replacement screens.

‘Now it may well still be a joke,’ he told them severlly, ‘But we can not take that risk, there have been several plots uncovered that you boys never knew about – intercepted at the coast.’ Henry gasped, and the Abbot nodded gravely and closed his eyes as if suddenly old.

‘I think perhapse we should start by moving you to another set of rooms, furthur up and harder to get too, now they must not be too isolated otherwise we are just trapping you futhure and for a while it might be prodent if you take it in turns to sleep. I will have to concider rooms very carefully so I suggest you go and pack up your stuff now.’ They all thanked him and left, Matthew a little shakily.

beginning: Checking the food out on the dogs

Middle: bench falls on Luke

End: Arrow leading to apprehension of assassin

The Uniform Room had a gruff wirey old man in it, she paused, she thought she recognised him, he looked like someone she had known a distnat relative maybe. A name formed in her mind Lennon, one of the last Reform Cops but she knew it couldn’t be. Ghosts in the living – she was always seeing them, people from centuries ago would spring up with different coloured eyes and a slightly different skin tone. They would talk with the same inflections though in different languages and accents.

She felt very very lonely suddenly. She didn’t belive in the spiritual shit she was pretty sure that what ever she was she had science at its core. She stared at the man, ringlets of iron grey hair framed his face. He was cheerfully greeting Gaz when he laid his eyes on her, he froze and she knew the lie he’d told her, knew the hurt he’d inflicted. ‘I’ll kit her out Gaz’ he said sounding far away. Gaz shrugged but he had plenty of stuff to be getting on with.

They both watche das the door closed, their attention snaped together. ‘Alicia?’ he asked questioningly, almost afriad. She glared at him, ‘you bastard’ she said quietly.

He flushed, ‘I was dead Alicia they reconstructed me, it took months.’

‘You must have had a cluas then,’ she said bittily. He nodded and lost eye contact with her.

The Medi-Cluase six if you diead and were in a profession that only paid half your insurance than they would reconstruct you anyway and depending on the cluase they would contact the next of kin to try and get the money or they would tell them you were beyound repair and you belong to which ever Corp had patents on the recustruction tech. Of course that happened if your family couldn’t pay as well but they at least knew you were alive. There were all sorts of tax and debt clear outs to do it and if you had a family they would get your life insurance pay-out – you were legally a new person if you did this.

She had infact had his pay out, had arrange a funeral and set a memorial stone on it, mainly for his mothers sake. ‘Do you’re family know?’ she asked he shook his head.

‘Most of them are dead now too,’ he said in a hollow voice – he would not have been able to attend their funerals unless he did it in a covert way.

‘You should be now too?’ she said furrowing her brow, he’d be what 108? He grinned.

‘Reconstruction, sort of altered things, I’m half machine, I couldn’t have seen you as I was after the surgery it was before athetics became cheap I looked like I belonged in the Terminator. Do you understand?’ The pleading in his voice was pathetic she wanted to hit him but she couldn’t quiet get over the joy he was alive. The hurt was becuase ultamatly reguardless of his motives he had rejected her – as they all had. He’d talked about ending it a few times before Fire Storm ended the concept of Bobbies on the beat.

It would all have been fine and she could have belived him if there hadn’t been a gold band round his finger. ‘How many kids you got?’ she asked. The question cut him, he sort recoiled from her.

‘Four surviving, 11 grandchildren. Alicia I’m sorry.’ he was coming out from behind his counter of uniforms. ‘I met her after wards honest.’ she turned her back on him.

‘I’m not Alicia, she never existed Lennon, you always knew that. I’m The Punk now and I’m 21 ok? she suddenly got nervous about the possibility of being monitored but then their convo could just show her to have had a sugar daddy perhapse before she was legal – such things happend on a regualr basis especially around the resort islands. No one would even question a name change when she owed the Corp as much as she did.

How many times had this happened?

How many of them had forgotten – how long before Snake dropped her for a family life. Her throat hurt and her lungs felt full of lead that could not be squeezed. The anger flared and allowed her to turn towards him.

He stroked her check she wanted to hit him, she wanted to cry and to be held, she hated him suddenly, ‘you really don’t age do you?’ he said softly. He almost kissed her – she pushed him away – she was strong, it hurt him dispite his machine innards.

‘Don’t betray her,’ she hissed at him.

He smiled sadly, ‘She’s dead Ali.. she died 30 yrs ago.’ The Punk felt small inside but she could not forgive the batrayal.

She wanted to ask what she was like, wanted to know everything about the woman, how she compared to her but it was only a burning gut and hatred that lay in that direction.

‘Get my uniforms please sir,’ she intoned formally. He looked hurt and like he would argue but he just sorted out what she needed – he didn’t even have to check the cloths size.

Curiosity still stired in her intestines, ‘why are you here?’ she asked bluntly.

He smiled, it was sad and small, ‘I’m still paying off the reconstruction plus I’ve had to have more stuff done – my heart gave out at sixty you know the normal stuff.’

She hadn’t really been paying that much attention to the medical advances in the last 100 years or so but if this was the case then did the Corps all have pentenures enslaved as middle aged looking cyborges who owed them their enter existance? That made ehr blood run cold.

‘Why are you here?’ he countered.

She smiled, it was a mirror of his, ‘my Band are intensive care and we’ve all lost our jobs, medi-allowance only stretches so far and the Corps aren’t so free and easy about shelling out loads for medi-care anymore.’ he nodded.

‘You were in the club raids?’ he asked, the policeman in him was straining for the investigation she could tell. Somehow he always did remind her of an alsation puppy and with his curly iron hair the illusion was somehow more pronounced.

Looking at him closely she could see his skin was made of synth – could see it for waht it was – too perfect, too flawless – there were no pours to fill with the filth of the atmosphere and erupt into spots.

Fire Storm was on of the worst terrorist attacks the world had seen it, affected nearly every country or at least those that had a formalised police system. Soldiers police the lot were affected and she new few surrived.

‘I was lucky they paid,’ it was almost WW III there for a while if the Corps hadn’t stepped in…’ he paused denying the trueth that she and many others had suspected – the very nature of the attack suggested Corp involvement.

She lay her hand on his shoulders – reguardless of how he had hurt her with the cluas, he had been hurt far worse, she had seen some of the surviors, hell she’d seen half the dying, seen how their flesh had metled onto their bones, had smelt boiled innards, had wept at those whos fluid losses had not killed them quick enough. And they hadn’t just been third degree burns they had been chemical burns, nasty corrasive chemical burns. To find him alive was amazing and even with the intevening time she found she still loved him though the passion was replaced by endearment.

She put her hand on his shoulder, ‘how did you survive?’ it was truelly amazing.

‘I couldn’t find my trousers or police issue vest so I just put on a pair of my dad’s old ones I had lurking, You’d not done the laundary again.’ he grinned mirthlessly. She grinned crookedly back.

‘The washing machine exploded, I ended up in A&E.’ her eyes clouded. That was why she had been there when the victims had started to arrive. There had been so many of them. And she hadn’t been the only family memeber cuaght in what was laughingly called the cross blast. Some of it – well most of it she would prefer to have consigned to the swiss cheese part of her memory that was the distant past.

‘My helmet was also knocked off my head during the riot.’ He shrugged, ah yes the riot, most of those poor sods, the protesters were just as much a target as the police and army had been. Anti-globalization didn’t sit well with the Corps, she supressed that thought.

‘A global protest,’ she smiled sadly if she hadn’t been living with a cop who would be struck off she would have been on the protest. Ironically the attack lead to anachy but it was not the sort she liked.

‘I didn’t know the machine exploded, I thought I’d saved your life by stopping you being at the riot.’ she nodded she couldn’t think of anything else to do.

‘Did you follow up on it?’ she asked she knew what he was like the cop on him was far too stronge to have let it lie. The attack destroyed governments, it killed the nhs in the UK as it insitution owed most of the days resources to the Corps who had stepped in with cutting edge untested medi-care. Stuff they just happened to have laying around.

It had also been the first use of nano-tech as a weapon. She suddered at the memory. ‘Sort of makes me not want to give you this uniform you know.’ he said. She nodded not really suprised, all the uniforms, or as many as they could get too of the police, armys and fire departments of the world had been targetted the shear amount of planning, money and time that must have gone into the plan. it was a strock of genius and she doubted one Corp could have been involved, It was never traced and was blamed on the Green Anarchy movement.

It was cold and calculated and need access to multiple industrys and nano tech – bucky-tubes minute filled with different chemicals, woven into the fabric, undetectable with optical electronic recevers. When the signal was given the tubes where fractured and the chemicals mixed to become a burning exothermic event. The uniforms melted and ignited on their bodies. And those off duty had their waldrobes and laundary baskets exploding generally in the room they were sleeping in.

If she had been ‘normal’ she would not have survived the washing machine explosion.

She too the uniform, ‘guess we just have to trust these days,’ she said shrugging. Lennon shock his head, ‘I check it all under I had them put in a lab out back.’ he jurked his head to indicate to her were the lab was. She nodded – that ment he held alot of wait here she was suprised.

‘What level are you?’ she asked suddenly, his eyes seemed to pierce her.

’15,’ he stated. She hovered on the brink of opening the door to the changing rooms to check the uniforms. That was a top level that ment he was half UN agent. It also ment he was a danger to her – he knew she hadn’t aged and he was mostly machine at his own admission. Even if he didn’t actively passed info on her over her paronia told her that he might be part of the system. In which case they all ready had her and there was no where she could run. She gave herself a little shack and turned the door handle.

The changing rooms were cold and dinging and somewho still smelt of cheesey socks even though most modern fabrics were impregnanted with antifungals. She changed into the ‘excercise’ uniform, it fitted perfectly so she proceeded to the physical. To her suprise thise was less than thura. They bunged her on a tread mill to see how long she could run for and weather she could duck stuff thrown at her – though the last bit she suspected of being an additional add-on invented by Rookie and the group of cronies he’d turned up with. It infuriated her – they were behaving like such – girls!

She got back to her room 12 hours later – she had ignored her concousness and avoided the hospital – she was just too tired. She slept deep and fully clothed.

Here is the Chapter Plan – however with today’s writing I have already altered at least the middle bit :/

Beginning – At hospital awaiting Snake to awke

Middle – secondary attack destroying equipment

End – aprehension of human assasin

And she had a trick with it, she had a small cord keyboard – a cylinder that fitted into her hand, most people used them these days and they were quick, so unbelievably quick compared to the old QWERTY they were also alot smaller and harder to damage. But she didn’t really need the keyboard for most of her computer access she didn’t have an uplink and she didn’t so things by tactile touch the way Mashers did – they liked to still keep their minds free of the system that way security ice would kill their brain just their equipment. She was comunicating somehow with it directly, sort of a mechanical ESP thing going on but she had her suspicions had known things like it in the past.

Had been burnt for it, accussed of witch craft and ostracised from the humanity of those parts, oraised as gods messanger and set on the route of cannonisation and many other things. She didn’t like it it pulled at the center of her mind. Like a creature stired within her. It was however useful and she had built her computer specifically to be capable of letting her in.

With her in the little machine she could use it to surf the system, it gave her strange vertigo. The systems were not quiet right for the technic she was using and her capability to do so made her squirm with questions – but that ment looking at her past and that was one of the things so avoided doing at the best of times. Now was not a best time, now she had her new ‘family’ in intensive care and a killer on her tail. She should leave but she didn’t she just accessed a shopping bot and gave it the list of compents she wanted and authorised the transfer – most of it was inter Corp so just added itself to her bound debt. One or two items were a bit more tricky but she sorted and rolled her mind out of the system. She looked at the little pink monstrosity and disconnected it. Wrapped its jacks around it and placed it cradled lovingly in one of her many pockets.

She had a feeling she’d need to be leaving fast at some point and well the computer was more than useful, infact it had sort become part of her. She run a hand loveingly over her bike and then headed off to see the Ent’s Manager – she needed a gig or something. They needed money and quickly.

The slimy man glared at her though and then shoved her out of his club screaming and shouting about sabatarge. It was clear and something she hadn’t really countered on – the band it would appear were out of a job. No job on the Cruise Islands could be bad – she had exactly 5 days to locate herself a job or she’d be homeless and have no choice other than to go to the Advisor. She headed for Dev’s he was bound to have something – the crap bit was nothing would pay her as high as she had been getting not unless she wanted to present herself as a Masher and that just somehow didn’t seem wise to her.

Dev was cheerfully behind the greese splattered counter he spotted her and the cheefullness sliped slightly – if it had just been pity she wouldn’t have faltered at the door but there was something their mixed in with it and shea wondered weather she should even continue into the joint.

‘Hi Dev’ she said waving, she hurriedly ordered a pot of tead (Dev was always trying to get the authentic feel of a greasy spoon right – she didn’t knwo wheatehr to laugh or cry).

‘How are the Bros?’ he asked as he set the willow pattern chipped tea set down, the cup was tea cup shaped with the traditional blue and white, the chips she saw where artfully added for that flavour of the archaic, however they had mixed the fashions and styles up so it had a twisty wave to the procaline which was perma-plastic anyway. The design would have been nice on a plain white cup – it also had no handle and obviously never had had. She pursed her lips at it.

‘Still not awake,’ she said numbly.

He nodded looking sad, she was glade to see he had taken off the Nora Batty outfit she supposed it wasn’t the Patron Siants day anymore and might be concidered disrespectful. ‘I here it was a hit job?’ he asked carefully looking slightly left and right, the fear begain to boil off of him , she could actually smell it.

She shrugged ‘some coocks get strange ideas nothing security can’t handle though.’ Dev nodded and smiled reassuringly at her.

‘Listen Dev, I don’t suppose you’ve got any vacanys going…’ his smile had frozon on his face she continued anyway you never knew, ‘the ents manager sort of sack me – I think’ she added lamely. Dev was sweating.

‘I have too many staff already,’ he lied.

‘Oh ok,’ she said sounding small, he rubbed his fingers over his head and made an embarrassed little jump.

‘I sorry hon but your hot property,’ he smiled apologetically and then shruged she suddenly wanted to smash his face in. ‘The Security bods are recruting though?’ he said. Her face lit up and she poured her insipid tea.

‘Thanks Dev and can I have a Sushi burger?’ she was almost humming to herself again.

He smiled looking relieved ‘Its on the house ok?’ he stated. She grinned back at him.

The sushi burger was somehow greasy she was amazed that he had managed that but then she was releived that he did sushi of any sort. A sushi burger was a bizar concept but then Dev didn’t really under stand the historical culinary landscape at all. This ment he’d come up with some very interesting and some them even tasty dishes. She chomped her way steadily through the burger and swilled the tea, the dregs as always were cold, the self heating teapots where on the blink and Dev couldn’t afford new ones.

Sighing heavily and thanking Dev again she rose and made her way to The Security she thought about the stupid security office uniforms with their elf feet – she almost turned back. But at the end of the day she reasoned Snake and even Bodge was more important to her than what she had too waer – if she was honest to herself – anybody was.

When she entired the office she noticed Rookie sitting behind the reception desk, a swerling dark blue black plastic counter, clouds of shimmer and so shiny Rookie was checking himself out in it. She almost back out – there was no way a bod she had been accostic to was going to give her a job. She sighed and stepped forward anyway.

He smiled nastily at her, ‘Come to confess?’ he said cooly leaning back on his tempra foam chair, she wished it would snap and send him toppling. ‘Nah come for the job vacancy,’ she said striding over to the counter in a show of confidence she did not feel, the smile slipped frfom his face and he narrowed his eyes, she felt the ice roll off of him. She swallowed inspite of herself.

‘You’re what?’ he spat.

She smiled wonkily, ‘Applying for the job vacancies – they all gone?’ she asked cheekily cocking her head to one side – she had resurrected the Moheccan hair style and wondered how that would affect her prospects.

‘Well no their not all gone, but are you really serious?’ he asked suddenly unsure of himself.

‘Of course I am,’ she smiled sweatly this time imagining breaking his ball sac.

‘And you think this is an appropraite job for someone like you?’ he sneered covering up his uncertainty. She bristled and then settled back – she needed this job. But mainly she wanted a chance to save this idiots life, he’d hate it so much.

‘Of course why not?’ she snarled back.

‘Well look at you!’ he said.

her anger was seething, she pushed it down smiled and again and said, ‘Ah yeah I would do well in the Miss I’m Talking to an Arse Whole Contest wouldn’t I?’

He jumped up and slammed his hands on the desk top, ‘get out of here before I lock you up!’ he shouted.

‘No! I want an application form,’ she said.

His nostrils were flaring and she was contemplating how she was going to get out of the lock up when Gaz strode in.

‘Whats all the noise?’ he said looking startled.

Rookie could bearly speak through his fury, ‘She… wants… a… job.’ he said through his teeth. She sighed and shrugged at Gazzes slightly startled look.

‘Ents sacked us cos of the clubs being totaled. And I need the dosh to pay for Bodge,’ she smiled apologetically at him, he nodded. His big shoulders showing the tension he felt at someone neeeded medi-allowance boosted – she felt a joilt of gilt over it. She knew his past and this was… this was manipulation. But what she felt really bad about was just how little she was actually affected by what she was doing, always and again, survivial came first.

He looked her up and down and then got some smart paper out from behind the counter, it was already set up as an application form, ‘You’ll need to fill this in and have a medical,’ he said. Shit! a medical she wondered what would happen if they had proper imagin equipement – she wasn’t entirely set out like most people, the hospital unit hadn’t been the only time she’d run into problems but the course was set and she really had no choice but to follow it not if she really cared for her friends.

‘Oh and your hair,’ he said carefully, ‘and the piercings?’ she nodded she knew how bad it could get if a nose chain got yanked she could always have them pierced again when things settled down. The wholes would be gone in a day. She could put flesh formers in the wholes but it was more trouble than it was worth.

She took the trasparent device out of her hair and it collapsed, ‘I can hide the colour under the hats cant I?’ she asked.

‘Of course not!’ snarled the Rookie.

‘Edson shut up,’ Gaz said and then nodded to her. She felt low filling in the forms Gaz was sticking his neck out here for her and she might have to bolt at any moment she hoped if that happened he wouldn’t get into too much trouble.

The form took a lot of memeroy power for her – she’d had to reinvent herself so many times it was hard keeping track of who she actually was legally. The other thing was that the pay was less than she’d been getting in the clubs – this was bad news – she had a set up going with the Corp over the sky bike and oncce that came out it just about covered accomadation and she was in the smallest unit as it was. Food nearly always eat everything else. She had to eat more than others , she could survive on less but it wasn’t a good idea plus she wasn’t sure her body would let her do that if it detected food about. But she was very much going to be on a reduced budget – she might have to go to the Advisor after all.

She filled the form in and gave it to Gaz he ran it through the systme and not red lights showed up so he took her out back to find the uniforms she’d be needing. ‘Gaz where is everybody else?’ she asked suddenly – the Cruise Islands had a large sercurity force so why was there only him a Rookie in the office?

‘Ah well alot of them quit after the shooting,’ he shrugged, she stared at him.

‘But… ?’ she couldn’t believe it why would they it was just one shooting she’d seen worse of Old London’s back streets.

‘Most of them where here to get free use of the facilities and most the time we deal with drunks – there were only a few level 9 and 10 security anyway.’ he sounded tired. He was level 11.

‘Oh’ she said sounding stupid.

I had the fun of turning up to a write in on Wednesday and being the only on there but this was fine as I was behind and I cuaght up I wrote 5000 words in a day – the next day I did 2000 and was once again ahead of where I should have been and then the family came back and productivity stopped.

Friday and Saturday were whiped out completely ie no writing what so ever and then it was the Sunday write-in and I made it past the 40, 000 word barrier!

And I am excited – not only am I now back on track especially with todays word count added but I am on the final count down – it now looks immently possible – every 1000 words I write carves another chunk off.

I am kind of tempted to just write myself out today – I have already whittled the remaining 10 K down to more like 8 K but this has come at a structural price.

The novel so far has been progressing as one chapter in the past and one in the future, and each chapter has been 6, 000 words long – 3 posts of approximately 2, 000 words but chapter seven hiccupped, it didn’t want to be 6, 000 words and obstantly ended at 2600 approximatly. This made me said but everything that needed to happen had happened and cramming extra words into it felt somehow like sacrolage. So I decided to go with my standard maxime of – a story has a shape and a length it wants to be – that it should be and forcing it is bad news and comes out in the writing. After all it is not some school or college assingment so I have left it at that and moved on.

Also my over all chapter outline is now so departed from what I’m actually writing it is becoming a bit useless – this is due to characters appearing when they shouldn’t and stuff and yes I am letting my characters have free reing, I am letting the story form itself around the skeleton I have set down. I am doing far more fore shadowing for the rest of the series than I thought I would and generally I’m quiet chuffed with how its proceeding.

Still rather than writing all of this – I should get back to whittling the remain 8 K away to complete the nano!

The dream was all stark colours and glaring lights the smell of antisceptic stung her nasal passages and made her want to vomit. Others hung in the space around her and she saw their shapes forming and felt no fear at the dangling tendons and blobby organs sitting on glass. Warmth spread around her spiked by cold in ebbs and flows. She floated too.

Big eyes stared at her through distortion, dark and liquid grey mottled skin drifted past her vision. The world was new and crumbling, the glass hissed and spewed her forth, the world was pain, she was small and fragile and lost. Webbed fingers wrapped themselves around her foot and lifted her into the air – all was vertigo.

She shuddered awake.

She was curlled up painfully on the plastic chairs at the hospital unit, the same anticeptic smell as her dream permeated the air – a similar smell had been presant in the mid-wive apocraphies through out the ages. She gagged – it always reminded her of vomit.

Her necked clicked and fizzed painfull as she straightened herself out from the little protective ball she had been, she’d drawled down the acid pink bomber slightly, and scrubbed at it with her hand. Disgruntled she sat up and stretched, the room was too bright and too steril and too full of money that could have paid for Bodges and many other’s treatments. She gritted her teeth, health care was definatly somethng she felt was a human right though she never thought it was until it had come ito existance. She had seen the system way before the British’s doomed NHS and definatly before the UN mandates had made medi-allowences a global and orbital phonomina.

If you were inside a system, a government a Corp they were responsible for your medical attention and they had to allow basic medi allowances. The side effect of this was that the homeless tended to be shoes to another place so when they collapse, from cold or hunger or disease they were hitting someone elses pockets.

She had seen that before too.

A new receptionist smiled coldly and with far too much perfect teeth at her. She suddenly felt like a live lobster in a tank in a resturant knowing its fate lay on a bed of crisp rocket. Her stomache rumbled she wanted her morning grub and she wanted it now. She scrubbed the scratchy sleep from her eyes. Stretched some more and demanded to know how Snake was. He had passed the night in peacefull sleep though he still hadnt regained concousness.

Bodge was still on life support his position stable though said position was so low she didn’t even want to think about it. She went to see Snake and kissed him gently, she half expected him to awake but was far too cynical to really contemplate such things.

She left to shower and then headed for the Sea Room with its aqua light and fish surrounds, she ached to swim and dared not, the ocean thrummed in her veins as it always had. She ordered prawn satee and Tuna Stakes – of course Tuna had been extinct for about 100 years that was until 2 yrs ago someone had found an old food store with tined fish uninfected by botulism. Tuma, Salmon, Pilchards and Sardines where now all back on the menu though those that made onto the plate were synth and the results of those Lazarian reserection were swimming rather expensively past the diamond glass that was the under water resturant. The fish were not just released into the sea – it was still too toxic and they were still too expensive – they were in a second sphere. The rate things were going the entire ocean would be such fractual structures and the Ocean currents would die.

She knew the danger in this and so had the scientists a good 100 yrs ago but they tended to be ignored by those who saw a convience in environmental issues to gain power.

And then the US had splinted anyway and the rest of the world bearly felt the shock waves of its protracted death throws. The splintering had harmed academia in a way she knew to be irraparable, all the universitys with their labs and computer models gone, what was left in th eUS now was a fractured monster, religous cults and environmental disastors had plagued the place. The Corps had taken over whole bits of it especially the Japanese who’d made great Techno-Castles in harsh Montana and the Chinese who had been welcomed open armed to places that had once fort communism with a blooded tooth. China was one of the countries to still retian its government, it was also more than a super power. A creed had grown out of the place permeating other cultures aand distorting itself.

She chewed on her kelp flakes thoughtfully thinking of the stagnation of the ocean currents and the end of nutrient cycling, she stabbed her spoon back in the bowl and slurped noisily at luke warm tea.

She sat nonchantly in the chair staring at the little darts of silvered blue that was a shaol. The day was dragging but the hospital surround was starting to grind her down and it wasn’t like she was really being much help to Snake and Bodge by hovering at the hosptial. She should go and sort out their equipment – blood would probably have fried some of the electonics of Bodges stuff and then there had been the pressure bullets they had probably mangled quiet alot of important stuff. She’d fix it all up so it was ready for them when they came out of the coma.

She knew this for the displacement activity it was but just couldn’t stop herself. They had to be ok, but she had thought that so many times, wished it so with every bit of energy she pocessed and still she had seen those she cared about sluaghtered or burn up with fever. But she had to try.

She’d go now straight away and get her teeth into some micro-soldering, she didn’t move just remained there staring at the fish, thoughts racing through her head. When the waitress arrived in her silly mermaid tail in neon green she ordered another coffee and continued to stare.

There were other problems – if the equipment was wrecked they couldn’t work, if the clubs and bars they worked were totaled they couln’t work and if Bodge and Snake took a time to recover they couldn’t work. She was left with the thorny issue of what exactly the Corp would do about this. She could go and see the Advisor. But she was quiet frankly scared of the woman. Obviously she was linked to the Corp system, she had even seen a skin jack – the whole concept of making another orifice in the human body and one with alien objects embedded in it really seemed beyound stupid to her. They were prown to infection and rejection or worse assimilation. Having a skin jack was dangerous. But it did make the humans who had them – part of the system, the huge vast computing systems complete with tendrils reaching out globally and even onto the orbital plateforms.

Humans with jacks had become something else – they had also become somehow less human. Distracted when jacked and agitated when not.

The Advisor would make her a repayment plan, would organise a minial job for her on th ecruise islands or maybe relocate her to one of the other instalations that belonged to the Corp. If her debts got bad they would even concider selling her off to another corp. She was bound to them – it hadn’t seemed that scary a prospect until she suddenly had a laid out band. Of course she could just leave. She had her own secrets about the computer systems – she could cover her own trail up and emerge as a new identity – if she was willing to abandon Snake and Bodge that is.

She ordered a third coffee and added sugar to it.

She knew she couldn’t leave them but felt that perhapse she should be laying down plans to take them with her – what they would do once out of the cruise islands was anyones guess as the Corp would be very angry with them, very angry indeed and an angry Corp was not something to take lightly. She sighed and stirred more sugar into the now surapy mixture. The day was stretching out before her in gloomy tones.

Finially she got up and headed for the doors, she cuaght a movement but than it was gone – it wasn’t the first time she had cursed her poor periferial vision. Someone had reacted to her getting up to leave she stared around the resturant but couldn’t see anyone suspicios.

She shrugged the ice from her should blades away and left a little too quickly.

The venue was still all taped up but Gaz was on duty and let her in with the minimal of fuss to retrieve her equipment – the foresics had been and gone, as had the position moderlers. Everything that could be gleaned from the room had been.

She stared at the wreckage of the room, clubs and dance halls never looked pretty with the lights turned up but this was even worse. There was blood splatters everywhere and though there were often injuried such as cut eyebrows the pure volume and spray affect of the blood was enough to make her think she had thrown a few of her pain filled condoms during an act.

Tears stung at her when she looked at Bodges Decks – they were probably not worth repairing but she begain to collaspe the blood socked thing down any way. The other instraments where in bad shape too. She hefted them all onto the trolly, the physical exersion felt good, and the tuaghtness in her muscels was being pushed out, they felt tired and strained and the work made her feel a bit more alive.

With it all bundled up securely she left for the lock up. Gaz nodded bye to her.

At the lock up she was relieved to see the door locked down tight still and her things all still in order. She trembeled slightly as she sorted the cleaning solvents, blood and electrons didn’t mix well – you have sugars and stuff in blood – it fries curcuitry in a way water alone could never.

She lay her hands flate on the scared old style steal work top and supressed a sob. Time suddered around her, she tried to supres herself – the feelings that rose with in but still a droplet of salty tear joined the clenaing materials.

She begain the cleaning in urnest. Her fingers tingled from the Chemicals and she gritted her teeth against the corosive itch and continued. Finially all the blood she could see was gone she would have to use her scanner to check down on a molecular level but that was hard graft and may not be necassary for a useable repair. Stuff like that could in fairness wait for an over haul.

She decided to start on Bodges instrament first as it was the most totaled and totaled it really was – it was optical and copper spagetti, it was ceramic fractured and plastic melted. It was a mess. She know that with a wreck like this there really was only one thing you could do and so she stripped it down to its components and begain making piles – one of good bits one of repairable, one of maybe repairable and on of no way hosay that would end up in the recycling shoot.

The fact she could repair it was a UN achivement she was truelly grateful for.

That done she woke up her computer – linked into the islands system it was never the less hers and to be honest it was one of the more power full computers around – well that was at least portable! It was about the size to fit neatly into her jacket pocket – ugly squat and nailvanished a lurid pink, 150 years ago and it would have been running whole countries – now it was a toy – still a powerfull one. She’d made it, it was her’s and it responded only to her. She loved it lots.

The dream was on her, she was burning, the fire blistering her skin, baking her bones and boiling the marrow, she screamed and writhed but there was no let up cedar burned smokeless. To purify the soul you had to burn not suffocate. The heat made her sick. The jerring sounds and the priests intonning driving her mad, the darkness blurred her visoin. She awoke in a sweat, it was running off of her and nusea cramped her stomache. She lurched out of the bed and threw up.

Matthew stirred looked over at her and woke up with a start – he was there by her side helping her up back into the bed. He stared at her hard and placed his hand on her forehead. ‘I’ll get you some boiled water.’ he said and left the room.

The acrid smell of her vomit was stinging her nostrils, she curled ip and told her self off for the hundreth time. He returne3d and gave her the flat tasting water she gratefully sipped it whilst he cleaned the room up. This was the second day of fever and it was already abatting, it could have killed a normal person – she wasn’t sure if it could have killed her.

She settled back to sleep.

It took three days in the end before she could shake the fever and even then she felt weak, she knew that if she wanted she could have still fought still been stronger than most humans but that came at a price and whilst she was in a situation where she didn’t have to run on reserves like that she wasn’t going too, besides her system was still weak from a hundred odd years of recovery and starvation.

Life at the Monestry was being pretty boring, but it was safe and stable and contained the first people she’d met for a long time who she actually wanted to be around, namely Matthew followed by Carey and Luke the albino monk.

Her lessons were easy and she was spending most of them improoving Matthew and Henry’s Latin, she also spent large chunks of each day sparring with the young prince – far from this being frowned upon by the Monks it was considered a normal princely tyoe thing to be doing and they kept trying to convince the ‘boys’ to go hunting. They’d had one lecture from the old wirey monk about gay sex which she had tried to look solum during. Apparently her and MAtthew were close friends that they should be careful not to cross the line into the unholy practice of buggery.

Considering how much of that was going on within the stone walls she found it slightly hypocritical. Still with the boys contacts in the village she had enough food and if she was honest – she was starting to enjoy herself. Her lesson was dragging on and she was staring out the window – a chill remanicant of winter was stinging her noise and making it run. The sky was a sickly yellow colour and her head felt heavy, ‘I think its going to snow,’ she said suddenly.

‘Don’t be silly, its almost Easter.’ Cary said.

She smiled, Easter snow – not that unusual, especially as the celebration kept swapping its place in the year.

The other boys came and stared out of the window, the first sultary flake drifted large and fluffy past the window. The stared, there was no glass in the windows. The bell began ringing. They scurried to the main hall.

The Abbot was there giving orders that certian plants were to be brought in and that others should be covered over with various blankets. If they didn’t do this they could loose a quarter of their food production.

They all rushed about like maniacs.

Within half an hour they were all soaked right through, there course habbits flecked with snow and their hands blotchy and clumsy with the cold. It took another hour to complete their allotted tasked by which point even she was feeling the cold, Luke had been sent back in early on.

Back in the hall warm soup was served and the fire was roaring for once. They defrosted slightly and were sent to their cells to chang into dry clothing. they were all charged with coming back to the hall.

This was basically so the Abbot could tell them they were back on winter preceedings and that they had to batton down the windows. She wasn’t entirely sure why so many of the monks seemed so happy about this – they tried to hide it but they were looking at each other out of the corner of their eyes and smiling. She followed the boys back to their rooms Matthew was being very quiet, he hadn’t said a word and was once again not meeting her eye. He’d been like this when he’d come back from the village one of the times, the reason? The village girl had been pregnant but had also been betrothed and marrade the next week to the Black smiths apprentice.

He had been grumpy, still was really, he’d bitten her head off when she’d tried to comfort him, it had taken a ton of needling to get out of him what was wronge in the first place.

Back at the room the boys pulled out stiff leather screens that they places inside and out of the windows, the room became darker but alot less drafty. the other two disappeared into there room and MAtthew got out a plank of wood from the adjoining annex. and too her suprise he placed it between the stone bunks he then took out some extra blankets.

‘What’s that for?’ she asked, he blushed.

‘We’ll have to sleep under the same blanket to keep warm it can get dangerously cold other wise.’ the blush went deeper and he bizzied himself. She felt her own cheecks begin to burn, she had been waging a war with herself over pouncing the poor sod and now she was expected to sleep in the same bed? Snuggled for warmth how was she supposed to reign in her own libedo?

Evening vespers seemed to drag all she wanted was to be back in the room but at the same time she dreaded being there dreaded his shy clumsyness and her own bearly supressed desire.

Back at the room Matthew stood gazing at the door with a perplexed and slighlty pained look on his face, she tried not to smile, and blushed deeply instead. ‘Shall we go in?’ she asked finially starting to loose her temper with him, his eyes flared as he turned to glare darkly at her and she reminded herself ruthlessly to rieng in her damn labido.

If she jumped him and he didn’t want her to – which he blantedly did but his emotional stablilty was fundimental to her saftey. He opened the dark wood panneled door and the ice of the room hit, them, reguardless of the screening they had put on their window they were in for a rough night, the thought of sex momentarily fled her with the remembered chill of winters in the wood, of cold on the tundra where the moisture was stripped from your breath to build the monsters of ice that could crush and kill far more ambivantly than the worst war horde.

The leather screen billowed and snow drifted in to twerl around the room in a chaotic dance. Matthew rushed to the screen and to her suprise swore, ‘Someones taken the outer screen!’ he spat, venom and hate boiled on the surface for a moment and then he was intense carm once more.

She stepped forward to examine it herself, and a nasty unbidden thought hurtled into her brian, she begain to check the caches of food and the more obvious ones had indeed been taken. ‘Matthew – we have a problem!’ she hissed. He came over and looked at the empty alcoves a worried frown twisting his face added ten or so years.

‘This is odd’ he said finally but went to the store cupboard for another lot of leather screening. That in place Matthews fingers were too cold to do much else, they like a melted stone that had once been a bunch of pebbles on the beach – she had seen such rocks cut and polished with blues, yellow and pink ovoids stretched and distorted. She took the frozen hands and against his protests placed them in the pits of her arm, the cold slicced through her but as the initial shock went she felt the warmth flow into him and the stone hands came to life once more.

‘Thankyou,’ he said shyly – she wondered if he was heating him himself up more from the blushing than her.

Once he was feeling warmer they moved through the adjoining annex into the other boys room Henry and Luke looked over at them slightly startled in the middle of setting up their late leassons, ‘Was you leather shielding taken too?’ they asked sudeenly. She looked at Matthew and he he was staring at her with the same shock, maybe someone didn’t know about her them, maybe one of the other monks had lost their shielding and had just come accross the food by accident. ‘You checked your food stores?’ Matthew asked them, Luke instantly scrabbled about checking their equivalent alcoves. Several of their stashes were also pilfered. Henry hit the bed grazing his nuckles on the rough stone. ‘Dam!’ he cried, ‘Who’d want to steel are food?’ everyone stared at one another.

‘You,’ she said slowely, ‘I don’t think we can actually trust the stashes that are left either.’

They all looked at her, the sudden focus of attention had her blushing dispit herself. ‘We’ll I was just thinking – how do we know they didn’t find them?’ Luke begain to nod but Matthew puzzeled and angrey still.

Henry suddenly looked incredulous, ‘You mean they might have spiked it with posion? Don’t you?’ he said.

Matthew jumped at the statment and edge perceptably closer to her. ‘Yes, I mean its how they got Fitzroy wasn’t it?’

The others nodded and then Luke begain to retrieve the remaining food from its hiding places, ‘But we can just scrap all this food – with the sonw and all we might really need it and it might only be posioned – is there anyway we can check?’ They sat down on the beds and looked at each other in a muted horror. With the food they would be playing a gambling game with their lives but if they didn’t keep it they may well find themselves on a slow starve in the monestry though unlickely the weather had been erratic the last few years and you never knew when the crops would fail.

‘Dogs?’ she said suddenly. The others stared at her – we can feed a bit of each to different dogs and see if any of them get sick?’ She finished on an uncertain note – it was definatly what she would have done on her own but the boys were staring at her as if she had said something horendous.

‘Not my hunting dogs!’ Henry squeecked finially.

She grinned crookedly, it was his trained dogs he was concerned for , she’d wager they were worth quiet alot of money. ‘It;s up to you,’ she said shrugging her shoulders.

Henry shrugged slightly and then gave grudging concent, Luke nodded and started hacking bits off of each of the cold meats and cheeses. Matthew however was staring at her with a new loathing on his face. She dragged him back through the annex and begain to lay out their own supplies. Of course she had even more of a vested interest in the food then the others did. She might have to run away at short notice and knowing where she could get a quick set of supplies was always essential.

Matthew was not helping her though he sat remosly on the bed. ‘What?’ she snarled finailly once bored with his silence adn fed up with doing the hard slog of food preperation herself.

‘You’re going to sacrifice the lives of those creatures for your own?’ he asked, startled she stared at him, she had not heared that sort of question since she had left Vedic. ‘Look Matthew – I’ve had to fight for my life in ways even I don’t like, I have seen your fellow religon men sluaghtering child in the streets, torturing pregnat women and staking little old ladies. Would I sacrifice a dog for a human life? Of course I would and though I will be sad if on of them dies I would still try the rest of the food on the remainder.’ Venom leaked up from the depth of her, she tried to supress it hard. It didn’t work wvery well and he was looking at her with a washout paleness that she associated with shock.

He gave a little shudder and then begain to hack chunks of the meat. ‘I don’t even like meat you know.’ he said quietly, she nodded and squezed his arm compassionatly.

‘I know, I understand your reasons really I do but my survivial will alwasy come first above an animals.’ she said.

He smiled sadly at her. ‘I know so would I, I’ve just alwasy wanted to protect and look after you know, bit strange I know.’

She grinned at him, ‘Thats not strange,’ well it wasn’t for humans in general – given the right circumstances and she had seen some bueatiful things- she tried to cling to these when the horrors rose to swamp her in the night.

The others crawled through the annex, ‘We can’t do it tonight,’ luke said solomely. They all agreed, they had certain freedoms but wondering around in the evening was not somethinhg that was permitted.

‘We also need to find out if anyone else was targeted,’ Matthew said. He smiled apologetically, ‘After all they might just had picked these rooms at random and not becuase there are two bastard princes’s who are a constant danger to the Holy Roman Empire.’ She nodded though her gut was telling her she was right. She was fearing she would have to leave this comfy home and its comraids far too soon.

And then suddenly it was time for settling down, and sleeping and she was faced with a fluttering creature in her stomach. Matthews movements had become clumspy and jurky – they left the candles all lit – mega as it was they added an extra warmth to the room that was most definatly needed.

Blushing they both changed out of their habbits but the extra thermals they had wrapped around their legs earilier where staying put. Breath condensing in the air around them they crawled under the covers. Snuggling wasn’t something you thought about when the cold hit – she knew she’d snuggeled with the foul old preist in the woods – body temperature was easier to maintian when you were next to someone.

Shivering she snuggled in close and heard Matthews breath catch, her femanineness would be evident to him now in ways it just wasn’t in the loose fitting habit or that puff chested shirts of the time.

She could feel his desire and his restraint, she could see the longing in his eyes when she looked up but also the sad with drawel, he was still morning his love from the village reguardless of her own happy endiing. She sighed and wrapped her long fingers, around his.

His nose was running and he shuddered with supression. She kissed him on the check, felt his stumble scrap on her lips. He turned to her and locked their lips. They were soon warm enough to sleep in a pleasant deep sleep.

Beginning: Settles into the monestry

Middle: Late spring Snow

End: Her and Matthew finially end up in a romantic relationship

The Nurse showed her to a waiting area and pointed out the vending machines – She vended a black coffee and sat down, she would wait until he came – out new lungs were still tricky. They’d asked her who his next of kin was she had shrugged and said she didn’t know then they’d asked her if he had any girlfirends or boyfriends – she’d said she didn’t know about boyfriends but she was his girlfriend. With that answer she had been placed on the forms as his next of kin. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that.

His family had disowned him but this gave her the right to kill him. She shrunk into her coat – the still suit regulated temperature but she was still cold. She stared at the walls full of important medi notices about being careful clubbing she smiled wanely these had been a continueal thing for almost 200 yrs now and the paranoa was still mounting though with synth safes drugs had pretty much seised to be illigal in most places bar a few religous states. One or two of the remnant states of the US were the worst for this and appearing in the wrong outfit could result in a beheading – hell being the colour or wronge sex could end with similar fates.

Then her mind turned to the concept of hunting down the attackers and inflicting pain on them entered her mind. If Snake died, even if Bodge died and Snake lived she would find them, these human assassines who had stripped her of her heaven. She should have asked about the audience – she felt a stab of muted guilt at that – with the club having been hit too alot of innocent or at least clueless people could have been hurt.

She thought she should have asked the Security if they had actually caught/killed any of the attackers. She vowed to go down to their offices as soon as Snake was safe. She felt she should visit Bodge again but found that her revoltion for the life support was making that the least of her prioritys – this cuase yet another stab of guilt – she chewed her lip in distraction.

Snuggled down in her jacket on the hard plastic seats she begain to doze off, nightmare images creeped in jerking her awake – that and the stabbing pains from her own wounds. About 2 hrs later the Nurse turned up to say there had been a complecation with left over bone fragments and hemeorgin but that the surgoens were working hard to stem the bleeding. Unfortunatly with replace large complecated things like lungs they still had to chop you open. The stress on the body was a danger being knocked out to do it another. They were working on being able to grow the lungs inside a person but that was still some way off. They now grew you the necessary organs from a sample of your own tissue – the denuuded your cells and got them to replicate into stem cells, the stem cells could then be programmed to grow into just about any organ that was needed and it was keyed to that person riding transplantation of the fear of rejection. It was a fantastic improvement unfortunatly autoimmune diseases where still abit of a trial and if you had one of them the transplant was still out the window.

A piece of his original rib had lodge as a sliver in the side of his aorta – the large blood vessel of the heart. It may have stayed there all his life without cuaseing a problem but it had been dislodged during the surgery and mass bleeding had occured – trueth be known he had infact bled to death before they found the problem. That of course wasn’t as bad as it sounded with modern technics the nurse informed her to try and carm the adjitation.

‘Why wasn’t it picked up in the pre op scan?’ she asked. The nurse stuttered and failed to answer that ment they had probably skipped the scan as they’d already opened him up one and ‘sorted him’ out. She was furious, she was scared , she was worried and she was pacing a whole in the hard wearing carpet. She drank three more cups of foul bitter coffee from the vend – this increased the adjitation – she didn’t care.

Finailly the nursse appeared again -‘hes in the recovery room now – you can look at him through the glass but untill the steri-gel hardens over the wound you wont be able to go in.’

She stared through the glass bubble at Snake. She lay her forehead against it, it was an insipid warm denoting plastic rather than the coolness of glass – she’d wanted the cold to joilt her – to check this was reality.

Finally tears begain to stream down her face, but this was quiet controlled crying not the raking sobs of grief – she hoped those wouldn’t be needed for a while at least – with her life they where always inevitable.

It was a furthur 45 minutes before the steri-gel had hardened over the wound – a one way semi permiable membrane – it kept the blood in but the could escape out without letting germs in. It also created a transparent hard layer over the top which protected against knocks and the movement of the patient – though it made the wound more uncomftable. Letting moisture out ment it didn’t go so manky either – it was brilliant stuff.

The felsh eating infections that came with the super hospitals of a 100 years ago had made its invention pretty much necessary for the continuation of the medical practice as the anti-biotics became less and less effective and needed more money to get pathetic results.

She sat by his bed again hoping to be there when he opened his eyes but two Security turned up to talk to her – this time they were in the job uniforms, this time they were intimidating. Face screens and all. ‘I can’t talk to you with helmets,’ she said. ‘They make me go cross eyed.’

She heard a muffled laugh and thought it was Gaz one of the guards she tended to have breakfast with at Dev’s. He pushed the visor up, ‘How’s Snake?’ he asked, she warmed to him. They hadn’t been allowed in the clean room – well you never knew what Security might have on thier shoes.

‘He’s had two ops and not woken up from either yet – he’s got a ton of diamond in his chest and a new lung.’ she shrugged sort implying it was nothing – she ad to or she would cry infront of them and that was the last thing she intended to do – she’d rather get in a fist fight with them. Gaz whistled, he looked genually concerned unlike his mate who was standing nonchantly to the side looking bored. He was young, tanned chocolate and had rookie written all over him. She’d seen that stance before – its what they generally did just befroe they threw up.

‘Bodge?’ he asked.

She looked away from him, ‘Corp have given him my excess medi-allowance but it don’t look good.’ There was no way she was going to look at him she was controlling her shaking bearly.

‘Ah’ was all he managed to that news, medi-allowances where a sore point as it was with Gaz.

The Young Rookie interupted with impatience, thrusting a pic infront of her nose, the smart paper seemed to be corroded though as there was an corrupted image of the goth chick. She squwinted at it, ‘What you done to your smart paper man?’ was all she could think to say – she recognised the goth but what should she say?

‘Do you recognise her?’ he hissed, eyes flaring in his head. Gaz was starting to get twitchy.

She took the smart paper from him and squinted at it some more, ‘This looks like the goth-chick whoi was follwing me about the other night – followed me inta the bog an everything.’

Rookie nodded his head and then tried to bully her into revieling more about an illigal old drug and sex ring she was supposedly running. She pursed her lips and stuck her hands on her hips and glared, it was cold hard and old. He shrank back.

‘Look Mr Rookie,’ she hissed ‘I like music and beer why would I be setting up a ring that fried my audiences brains? Think about it.’ she thrust the smart photo back at him. ‘Why’s this so manky anyway?’ He was stuttering with indignation.

‘All the images taken – all the vid-stream everythng is like this.’ Gaz said.

She chewed the side of her mouth distractedly with that news, ‘they have some sort of pulsed scramble?’ she asked.

Gaz shruigged he was secuirty not a systems expert. ‘That’s how they nocked the lights out – I doubt anythings shielded here – not since the nuke embago. An EMP devic that cycles would do that – shit.’ she ran her hands through her hair – she had failed to put it back up- it was in a tangled matted state. Gaz was staring at her, the Rookie had the imbecilic slake jaw. She didn’t notice she was pacing.

‘What do they want?’ she looked at them expectently, Gaz shrugged.

‘We were sort of hoping you could tell us,’ he smiled apologetically.

He put his hand on her arm, she tensed inspit of herself, he didn’t seem to know. ‘The Nurse said Snake was your Boyfriend but do you know what he does in his spare time?’ the question dropped in the void. No she didn’t did she – otherr than he was obviously some sort of Masher.

‘He had lots of tech,’ she mumbled but shrugged. Gaz nodded.

‘He’s deep in the Corp and we’re not allowed access to his file, he’s a top level MAsher, we think he was the target of the attack.’ He said The Rookie stared at him, he’d broken about ten protocals and she was greatful. The other thing was he could be right – she’d been bloinkered thinking that she was the target, Snake was obviously in deep – he knew about the security systems becuamse they were there to protect him.

‘Anway you know where we are,’ Gaz said.

She nodded, ‘How many people actually got hurt?’ she asked.

‘Tenty-six, two fatalities, it was the panicked crush that cuased most of the damage – the bullets only aimed at the stage.’ Gaz said.

‘Oh… thanks,’ she said feeling small.

She went and stared at Bodge from a distance, the greasy monster was still pretty terryfying. Snake Didn’t seem to be even thinking about waking up so considered going back to her room to sleep but she just didn’t feel at ease with that descission so she got her self some more bitter coffee and set herself up on the plastic chairs once more.

The cute nurse came back on duty and told her she should be resting, she got another free meal from him and tried to ignore the rummbling of her belly, it was also starting to cramp from all the black coffee she was throwing at it. The plastic seats were ergonomically designed meaning they were uncomftable for any sort of relaxing position. She still swung her boots up onto it though flecks of pink glitter rained from them onto the turgid white. Her arms up behind her head she pondered the nature of the attack. The Goth Chick had been involved somehow and even if Snake was a high level masher him being the target didn’t quiet make sense. Normally Mashers were kidnapped or defected to other Companys. Even if they had crippled a rival the rival would still want them alive.

Mashers rarely had loyalty to a Corp, Snake did but most didn’t – mainly becuase you were bound to be stolen at some point and if you remaind loyal you ended up very very dead or worse. Snake was only loyal becuase they had given him a gateway out of hell Juvi was not a nice place and once in there were few ways out. He’d been offered the chance of Masher and taken it. he was getting past Corp security on an electronic level, finding info or scrambling it, maybe stealing money though that concept was a bit redundent as each Corp had their own finiancial system.

He eyes where becoming heavier and the dry thinking harder, the Dr frowned when he walked into his foya to find her snoring and drooling over his carpet.