FUJIMOR h.s

4

"So why didn't you have your tattoo in my dream?"

    "You've expressed in your mind the fact that you find it unattractive. Being that my motive was to get you to sleep with me, it'd only be wise--"

    I stopped him with a gesture of the hand and began to get up from my seating mat. We had been staring at each other ever since I'd awoken from my drug induced slumber and my stomach made it a point to growl in the deepest octave humanly possible. I never got into the habit of eating breakfast or any hearty meal really, it seemed as though after a few months my unhealthy habits had finally started catching up to me. I also wouldn't want to disgust him any further with my unpleasant cottonmouth.

    The cool air hit my face when my palm clasped around the refrigerator handle to open it. The smell of packets of moldy fruit and vegetables wafted its way into my nostrils. I grimaced and shut the door, knowing that had been my only food source for the past month and it wasn't going to cut it for the times being. The sudden movement of me pushing the heavy door closed caught up with me as I leaned against the counter for support. "I feel.. Like I am.." I exaggerated towards Owen and he ran a hand through his very dark hair. "Dying." Surely he should have felt some type of obligation being that he was the one who gave me the drug, but it seemed as though other things were on his mind. "Does Oxio know you're here? Have you been here all three days—"

Owen nodded but that all too familiar expression of panic didn't reach his face, but more irritance. "Of course she knows I am here."

"Something in me just questioned if she trusted you enough to sleep with your neighbor," talking felt like walking with my mouth so I leaned on the counter for support. 

"Owen? Honey?" A twinge of annoyance struck me hard as Oxio's nasally voice interrupted my train of thought. As if on cue she barged through my front door in search for her husband, with one of her very elaborate purses clutched under her armpit. "Baby I knew you were going to be here for a bit, but the game starts in just a few hours and you know how mad he gets when we're late!"

A thought ran across my head as I pushed my eyebrows together, suddenly calculating the day and time. "Do you guys mind if I ride with you?"

    The game was always held on a flat field surrounded by heightened stands. Flying drones with cameras got all the angles, the events were broadcasted by television screens placed right in front of each section, and a microphone was placed on both the criminal and the supposed hero so every grunt and groan was caught. Often the sections in the stadium were covered with a  silicone meshing to protect the audience from any sort of flying object or limb, which wasn't necessarily needed. The possibility of a limb or weapon flying that close was slim to none but on the B towards the game, Oxio and Owen informed me of the many players who were somehow considered famous. These games had only been going on for a few years, before them the criminals were sent to prisons to do time instead of being sent to a stadium with blinding lights to get killed. The only odd thing resulting this were that the population was totally fine with it. Expressing any sympathy for criminals was very rare, and understandably so. I often did this to the girls in my cumulative home up until they started reporting me for questionable behavior. That was when I noticed showing sympathetic feelings towards anyone was bizarre and odd.

    "Have you ever been to one of these games?" Oxio asked me.

    I shrugged. "No I haven't. I usually just watched them at home."

    "I have a friend playing in the game today." Owen was occupied looking down at his watch as the B shuttered along, hard enough for those standing to sway and slightly bump into each other. 

    Oxio finished for him. "His name is Harry and he is one hunk of cheese."

    She reached over to touch my thigh, her thumb rubbing circles on the massive bone my skin covered . Before we left to join the B, Owen and Oxio explained that my attire of sweats was not quite proper enough for an event like a game. I obliged, though I remembered seeing many in the crowd wearing regular clothes by watching the broadcasted games. The dress itself was very tiny, made of a thin material comparable to silk but not as soft. It hugged me tightly because Oxio was of a miniscule size, with no hips or breasts. The darkness of the dress was the only thing I really liked. It wasn't completely black, in fact there was a blood red tint to it which Owen seemed to like very much. "His first name is Harry? That wasn't taken?" 

    "He's an oldbug like Owen," She pulled her watch up to her face in preparation to use her front camera, and began to apply another layer of lip gloss.

    "Is he married?" I hummed and watched as Owen shifted in his seat.

    "I'm not quite sure, Owen baby?" She turned to him and he put his watch away before puckering his lips in thought.

    "I'm not sure."

    "He could be."

    I nodded. "Hm."

    "You could ask him when we get there! He has a few minutes before he goes on but its just a matter of whether he listens to you or not," She began to laugh and leaned back in the metal chair, clasping her hand to her mouth. I figured she'd stopped talking and took a breath of relief but thought too soon. "He never listens to me!"

    A laugh stifled its way out of my lips and I tiled my head to gesture my attention elsewhere. The B travelled underwater on tracks similar to train tracks, and the walls surrounding the vehicle itself were glass windows. The water was polluted so there weren't many creatures to see. However pieces of bombardment seemed to fall slowly down the ocean bed. If you detected one a few feet away from you, you could watch it descend slowly before eventually passing it. When the B was first built, the girls in my cumulative home took it to new homes if ours were ever detected and in danger. It was in place for cars and other ways of transportation because of the constant question of when and where the next bombing would occur. The B ran through two different plots of land. District Fujimor and Jasmor which was fairly new and up and coming. Before the revolution, these plots of land would be found in a country called Japan. In the year 2025, America successfully acquired North Korea, South Korea and Japan, along with successfully overthrowing their government during the period of the nuclear war. Only to have their own government collapse within the years to follow. History never interested me for no particular reason, but we had to know these things for certain courses and I couldn't afford to fail.

    "We're almost there." I heard Oxio. I seemed to have fallen asleep again, even though I gained tremendous amounts of sleep during my three day period. Owen noticed my irritance with my inability to keep awake.

    "It's the drug. You'll be back to normal in a couple days." He began to gather his things, a small leather satchel and a bottle of crystal water. As did everyone else, who I had yet to observe since stepping onto the vehicle. They all fairly looked the same, some type of biracial face with a common golden brown tint to their hair. Their eyebrows melted into their faces and they all shared brown eyes. The women wore fancy dressed like Oxio and I, and the men nice suits that gripped their muscles quite well. Owen looked out of place when getting up from the seat, his towering height placing everyone on the B in his shadow. Oxio and I stood close to him as he began to walk towards the wide doors that opened with a slight warning.

    "Be aware of the entertainment walking alongside the building. If they do approach you, politely smile. Do not give them any money or any form of sharp object." The women on the B began to stand of their tip toes to look out the windows to see if the "entertainment" had begun to line up yet. It was then I noticed we weren't being sent to the regular seating, but instead we were above the stadium seats.

    The doors opened with the sound of sealing. Behind Owen's shoulder, I could see a young man built like a rectangle leaning against the large wall placed behind him to separate the outside from the in. His face seemed to have sunken in just a bit, and he had thin slit eyes. After all personnel began to exit the B, he stood upright and tried his hardest to keep his lips closed. At first he started to pucker them as if he had eaten something sour. Then he flared his nostrils and rested his arms, crossed, over his heaving chest. His lips then opened just a bit, thick lips they were, the skin on the sides stuck together due to lack of him using them. The three of us kept walking, yet I found myself getting just a bit closer to him, intrigued.

    "Help me." He coughed out.

    Owen realized I had stopped and pulled my arm harshly. I jolted forward and pushed him in a slight but effective manner, causing the crowd to sway at the diminutive impact. "The fuck are you doing." He made sure I was now in front of him. I looked around to see if Oxio was near, but she seemed to have gotten further ahead.

    "He asked for help."

    "Of course he did, he's about to be murdered in front of thousands of people." He chuckled it off as if his grip on my arm wasn't deafeningly tight.