A Roll Of The Dice - 03
This series of narrative fiction is based on random words that are picked via dice rolling.
Link • Please • Equation • Tissue • Acceptance • Reinforce • Incentive
Part 3
“Water,” the old man said harshly. It wasn’t really a question.
“Please,” I say. Too quickly. He lifts a bushy eyebrow at me. A cave of yellow teeth opens as he gives what might have been a grin.
“Three,” he says. Fuck. That’s more than I’m willing to give, especially to this pile of bones.
“One. Two, if I see you again.”
“Three, or you can walk another 40 miles to quench your…thirst.” He eyes my mask wearily. We’re bartering favors. I’d prefer not to owe anybody in this desolate place, but we’re running out of resources.
“Two, and you can keep your teeth.”
His brow furrows and he makes to bark back at me, but thinks better of it. He nods a brief acceptance of terms, then turns to rummage through an old toolbox.
“First, I need you to fetch some of these babies,” he’s holding an electrical switch box, wires and all.
They’re in very high demand. In fact, I’m surprised he has one. Back in the day, of course, they were everywhere. You could raid a suburb and get a couple thousand from the drywall, another few thousand from an office building. The incentive? Well. That was a bit more complicated.
Gene editing has made everyone a bit different. Two of the more common mutations are bioelectric tissue sensitivity and bioelectric-exofield-generation. We call ‘em bots and beggars. See, electricity is great for hunting prey if you’re an animal. Humans, though…. We immediately found our own way to use it.
A Roll Of The Dice - 03
“The old man doesn’t know who we are. Doesn’t know that my skeleton is reinforced from slip-seed experiments. Doesn’t know that his bullets are better used on something more killable.”
Switches interrupt the flow of electrons in a circuit. Couple of bots link up with a beggar, building a circuit. Ends of the loop connect the switch to themselves. Being that its biological, the current is being generated no matter what the switch does. Beggar at the end of the loop holds onto as much power as they can before flipping the switch. Everyone gets a surge. Fuckin’ junkies are everywhere now.
Point being…there ain’t no fuckin’ way we’re finding switches for this asshole, and he knows it.
“Deal,” I say. “Now, water.”
“I don’t think so,” He holds up a sidearm and points it at me. “Go dig up some switches first. Beggar told me there’s a circuit circus ‘round here, not two days ago.”
The old man doesn’t know who we are. Doesn’t know that my skeleton is reinforced from slip-seed experiments. Doesn’t know that his bullets are better used on something more killable. Carbon lattice bones hit a little harder than he’s used to.
“Tell ya what. I lied earlier. You’re not going to keep your teeth.”
It was impressive how fast he managed to unload on me, but it wouldn’t matter in the end.
Seven holes ran across my abdomen like some fucked up math equation. I knelt by the man’s corpse to pull some re-gen patches out of his toolbox. Least he was good for something. His jaw was a few feet away, the coppery scent of his insides filling our nostrils as blood spilled out of his neck.
We refilled our masks with water and stowed the rest before moving on.
