- Invitation Status
- Posting Speed
- One post per day
- 1-3 posts per week
- Writing Levels
- Adept
- Advanced
- Genres
- Urban fantasy, cyberpunk.
I had a cigarette clamped between both of my lips as I drove down the street in my black 1970 Thunderbird - it didn't work too well any more but it would do until I got enough money to buy another car. No mechanic could fix the problem it had; I suspect the previous owner jinxed the car when he lost it to me in that poker game (talk about sore losers), and it had been my not-so pride and not-so joy ever since then. My mobile, an iPhone 4 was mounted on the dashboard of my car as I followed the directions provided in the text message to that power plant I was about to check out, owned by a particular AEF Holdings.
Stopping at the red light, I glanced up into the sky at the full moon that reigned above, while I tapped the cigarette I removed from my lips against the side of the car, getting rid of the excess ash. A light breeze blew by, and I sighed in satisfaction as I drove on, tossing the cigarette out of the window and onto the tarmac. It isn't a bad night to work on a case. After all, I had been in need of some money and this case did sound rather simple; the power plant's employees have been going missing lately, one by one. There was no sign of foul play any where, according to the police. I doubted that, though. The police are under the government and the corporations have their little fingers wrapped around the government. If they wanted to cover up something, they could, as long as they had money.
Oh, there wasn't a doubt that AEF Holdings had bucketloads of money - You could tell from what they did. This power plant promised clean and safe nuclear power, which was what it had been giving this city for a while, according to newspaper articles and reports. I didn't believe a word of that. It sounded too good to be true, no? And I had seen that technology. Clean and safe energy would not come, not for decades. How I got to know that? Not something I would like to discuss. Just something very unpleasant with wibbley wobbly timey wimey shit. Yeah, I got that quote from the guy that dragged me along. Sue me.
I pulled into a parking lot by the side gate of the power plant and I dropped some spare change into the parking meter, enough for about an hour or two. I doubted that I would be spending too much time in this place. In a single smooth motion, I got out of the car and I put my hat on. I could immediately smell something wrong here - There was a stench of .. Something in the air. It wasn't magic, exactly, say the trail left behind by a wizard but instead just a slight whiff of it. Like the stench left behind by ..
Creatures of magical origins. Now, this wasn't going to be as simple as I thought.
My best bet here was to follow the stench, but the smell of energy and .. Uranium here was far too overpowering for me to track the residual magic easily, but I managed to do it eventually, after some effort. It led me to the front of a manhole, under the shadow of a building and I could already guess what the hell was going on here.
Ghouls. Monsters that hid in the shadows and eaters of flesh. They were unnaturally strong, fast and agile but they were dumb as bricks. They had no sentient intelligence, that was why so many used ghouls as foot soldiers. They bred fast and they could soak up quite a bit of damage before they died. Within a minute I was already in the sewers, having pried open the manhole and climbed in - the dirty rungs made me feel thankful for the gloves I had on, for once.
I removed a small handheld torchlight from my coat and I shone it into the murky darkness, failing to penetrate it more than a few feet. This was going to be a minor inconvenience. I didn't have to walk long before I ran into my first ghoul, who had been snacking off the body of a dead ra- holy fuck that rodent was the size of a fucking football! The ghoul raised his head into the air and sniffed for a moment before it looked to me, it's eyes able to see in the dark as it saw a feast walking towards him. He threw the rat aside and bounded towards me, launching himself at my body.
I was caught off guard by it for a moment and I dropped the torchlight, as I fell backwards into the dirty and rank waters of the sewers. I could feel bile in my throat, both from the smell of the ghoul and the sewers as it tried to claw at my face, its powerful jaws constantly snapping away. I managed to free a single fist and I threw it in a wide hook, right into the side of its jaw and I could feel the joint crack underneath the impact. It howled in pain that echoed down the sewers - bad news. I could already hear the pitter patter of more ghouls plodding along the way, and I knew I had to deal with this one fast.
I quickly kicked it off me, and while it stagged I grabbed it by the neck and spun him around, throwing him into a wall. Next, I braced a foot against the base of his spine as I pulled backwards, and after a moment of effort wrestling with the unnatural strength of the ghoul his neck broke, leaving him paralysed if not dead.
But then there were even more ..
Stopping at the red light, I glanced up into the sky at the full moon that reigned above, while I tapped the cigarette I removed from my lips against the side of the car, getting rid of the excess ash. A light breeze blew by, and I sighed in satisfaction as I drove on, tossing the cigarette out of the window and onto the tarmac. It isn't a bad night to work on a case. After all, I had been in need of some money and this case did sound rather simple; the power plant's employees have been going missing lately, one by one. There was no sign of foul play any where, according to the police. I doubted that, though. The police are under the government and the corporations have their little fingers wrapped around the government. If they wanted to cover up something, they could, as long as they had money.
Oh, there wasn't a doubt that AEF Holdings had bucketloads of money - You could tell from what they did. This power plant promised clean and safe nuclear power, which was what it had been giving this city for a while, according to newspaper articles and reports. I didn't believe a word of that. It sounded too good to be true, no? And I had seen that technology. Clean and safe energy would not come, not for decades. How I got to know that? Not something I would like to discuss. Just something very unpleasant with wibbley wobbly timey wimey shit. Yeah, I got that quote from the guy that dragged me along. Sue me.
I pulled into a parking lot by the side gate of the power plant and I dropped some spare change into the parking meter, enough for about an hour or two. I doubted that I would be spending too much time in this place. In a single smooth motion, I got out of the car and I put my hat on. I could immediately smell something wrong here - There was a stench of .. Something in the air. It wasn't magic, exactly, say the trail left behind by a wizard but instead just a slight whiff of it. Like the stench left behind by ..
Creatures of magical origins. Now, this wasn't going to be as simple as I thought.
My best bet here was to follow the stench, but the smell of energy and .. Uranium here was far too overpowering for me to track the residual magic easily, but I managed to do it eventually, after some effort. It led me to the front of a manhole, under the shadow of a building and I could already guess what the hell was going on here.
Ghouls. Monsters that hid in the shadows and eaters of flesh. They were unnaturally strong, fast and agile but they were dumb as bricks. They had no sentient intelligence, that was why so many used ghouls as foot soldiers. They bred fast and they could soak up quite a bit of damage before they died. Within a minute I was already in the sewers, having pried open the manhole and climbed in - the dirty rungs made me feel thankful for the gloves I had on, for once.
I removed a small handheld torchlight from my coat and I shone it into the murky darkness, failing to penetrate it more than a few feet. This was going to be a minor inconvenience. I didn't have to walk long before I ran into my first ghoul, who had been snacking off the body of a dead ra- holy fuck that rodent was the size of a fucking football! The ghoul raised his head into the air and sniffed for a moment before it looked to me, it's eyes able to see in the dark as it saw a feast walking towards him. He threw the rat aside and bounded towards me, launching himself at my body.
I was caught off guard by it for a moment and I dropped the torchlight, as I fell backwards into the dirty and rank waters of the sewers. I could feel bile in my throat, both from the smell of the ghoul and the sewers as it tried to claw at my face, its powerful jaws constantly snapping away. I managed to free a single fist and I threw it in a wide hook, right into the side of its jaw and I could feel the joint crack underneath the impact. It howled in pain that echoed down the sewers - bad news. I could already hear the pitter patter of more ghouls plodding along the way, and I knew I had to deal with this one fast.
I quickly kicked it off me, and while it stagged I grabbed it by the neck and spun him around, throwing him into a wall. Next, I braced a foot against the base of his spine as I pulled backwards, and after a moment of effort wrestling with the unnatural strength of the ghoul his neck broke, leaving him paralysed if not dead.
But then there were even more ..