Burning Road

The Twenty-First Century- Part I

Cali giggled to herself as she struggled to hold the rope steady. DotPrince didn't believe she could do it. The burden was far heavier than she expected, but nothing that she couldn't handle. She adjusted her grip for the dozenth time, and planted her feet firmly against the wooden railing. DotPrince had also said he didn't believe she could be a hunter, but she'd helped him on over a half dozen different hunts. He had to grudgingly admitted that she was useful. He'd allowed her to do more than just monitor from outside. Finally he let her try her hand, finally she was living her dream. All she had to do was hold the rope steady. It was heavy but she could do it.

When his voice shouted into her headset she managed not to jump out of her skin or lose her grip, barely.

"Cali, there are four heading your way," he said with heavy breath. Sounded like he was running. "Be ready!"

"I'm ready! I was born ready, grew a bit, and put a little more ready on top!"

"What? Forget it, just be ready. Be there in a minute and a half, tops."

Less than two minutes. Cali felt blind. She would usually have cameras set up around the hunting ground, and one of her drones following DotPrince. She'd have a front row seat to all the action. Instead she had an overhead view of a wide dim hall, and a fat dusty rope. She was starting to think that she liked watching more than participating. After all HighCaliberCali was a voyeur at heart. She stared at the rope and her straining hands, the muscles were starting to spasm. Cali gritted her teeth and tightened her grip, which did nothing to help the pain. In fact it made things worse. DotPrince needed to hurry.

She heard them just before they turned the corner. Four little men with absurdly long beards raced down the hall, Between two was a marble statue, the others carried bulging black garbage bags. DotPrince was not that far behind them.

He looked like her favorite silver screen vampire hunter, dressed in all black from his boots to his goggles. He moved like something inhuman. Cali had once asked him how he did it, and he said that he slipped into a trance allowing him to push his body to unbelievable heights. When she asked him to teach her he said that she didn't have the blood for it. It all sounded cool and mysterious.

"Any second now," he breathed into the mic.

She redoubled her efforts to hold the rope which caused her fingers to go haywire. Cali thought it was like playing her MMO with players experiencing lag. To DotPrince she shouted "I'm glitching!"

The rope shot up and out of her hands, she fell back on her butt, and a heavy net fell to the ground. She was already devising an excuse for the debacle as she scrambled to the wooden railing. HighCaliberCali's entire purpose in life was to become a monster hunter, and be awesome. Her glitch threatened both. To her shock and joy three of the four little bearded thieves were entangled in her net. DotPrince slapped the fourth atop the head with a pipe and it dropped like a sack of potatoes. Cali stood and for a moment was speechless. Then she ran down the stairs, through the winding hallways to the ground level, and to the net.

"DotPrince, I did it! I mean, we did it!" she shouted as loud as she could while out of breath. She leaned forward with her hands on her knees, and sucked in a lungful of air. "I did it," she gasped.

"I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, but yeah. Good job, Cali. You did it." He couldn't have known how much his words meant to her. Warmth washed over her, and she fought back tears.

"Victory pose!" she said with a sudden leap into the air.

"No."

"Please? I've earned it," she pouted knowing it was a fifty-fifty gamble at gaining his sympathy.