Velocity City

Chapter One

    Blood running down the street like a river, clouds as dark as cigarette ash, fear is the only emotion that Vivian can feel. Holding her baby tightly, she crawls to her room. She stores the baby in the closet on top of her laundry. Then suddenly, footsteps. She knew who was coming. The footsteps got louder and louder. Vivian reaches for her shotgun that was under the bed. Then she grabbed a picture frame. With tears running down her eyes, she loads the gun and examines the picture. “Oh honey, I wish you were here.”

The footsteps finally reached the doorway, then stopped. The ringing in Vivian’s ear made it hard to hear anything else. Long minutes have passed and nothing has happened. The baby in the laundry sneezes. And within that moment, the door begins to shake and with a loud boom, it falls to the floor. A man slowly creeps into the room and steps right in front of Vivian. The man’s mask was shaped to be a horrific samurai.

The knife in its mouth was drenched in blood. Vivian didn’t hesitate; she shot the man in the head. The man fell and bled. Full of relief, Vivian got to her feet and grabbed the baby from the closet. She was finally safe. Or so she thought. The man stood up and his head regenerated with a weird water-like sound. He grabbed the woman and yanked her back into his chest and strangled her till’ she stopped moving. The baby laid in the corner of the room crying and bleeding. The man walked over to the baby and grasped its throat. Blood ran down his arm and then the baby went silent. After a few minutes of observing the corpse, the night sky filled the city. The man threw the body into the wall with all of his strength. He walked over to the bed and sighed.

     “Velocity City. One of the finest and richest places in North America. And one of the most Futuristic-”. The television makes an electrical crack, followed by a screech by the door. Richard lets out a bark and waddles over to the door. Jandel leaps off the couch, releases an audible “UGH” and opens the door.

“Hello Jandel, we’re from the Housing correction unit.” Jandel gulps. “Yeah, you’re not supposed to have a dog in the building.” The two men in suits grabbed the dog and examined it. “Corgi?” Jandel let out a sigh. “Corgi.” “Ok, Jandel. We’ll cut you some slack if you let me and Robbie here pet the dog.” “Um, sure. I suppose you can pet my dog.”

      After the two men pet the lovable dog, Jandel shut the door and walked back to the couch. The apartment was dark and some-what comforting. Jandel laid down and stared at the ceiling. At that moment, it was completely silent and ominous. Even the dog knew something wasn’t right. “Come here, Richard.” Richard the dog waddled over to the couch and curled up into a little furball. “Do you want food?” The dog instantly ran to the small bin in the kitchen and clawed at it. “Imma take that as a yes.” Jandel got to his feet and walked over to the bin. Once he opened it, Richard leaped off the ground and dove into the bin full of little cheerios. After three minutes had passed, Jandel lifted Richard into the air and realized that the dog had eaten the whole container of cheerios. “How the hell did you do that!”

      He set Richard down on his little bed in the corner next to a potted plant and within minutes, Richard was asleep. But that didn’t mean Jandel’s night was over. He grabbed his grey hoodie and black hat from the hanger in his closet, examined himself in the mirror, and left the apartment. The night air was cold and foggy. Cars zooming past the apartment building, people talking about politics and stocks. All of these things meant nothing to Jandel at the moment. None of it. The time was 12:45 A.M. He walked down the block and got on the subway train that was gonna take him to the one place he knew he wouldn’t come back from. “Next stop….Grapevalley Park.” That was the one place where an amusement park meant danger. All the city’s gangs met there.

     Many of the world’s criminals gather here and just rob each other. It's like a sport of some kind. But a weird sport. There are many groups of criminals in the park. You got your average group of guys (or girls) in colorful fox costumes who call themselves “The Furries of Alabama”.Then there are the guys (or girls) who wear ski masks and carry around guns that most likely don’t have ammunition. There are many types of criminals at the park and honestly, the police force doesn’t know about it. Which makes everything a little funny if you think about it.

     The train screeched and finally, it had stopped. Jandel began to shiver and walk off the train and into the park. It was brightly lit, but the further he walked, the darker it got. In the distance, there was an abandoned rocket blast roller coaster that was meant for little kids. There was a group in black jumpsuits just waiting to pounce on anyone who dared to trespass. Jandel was only a couple of feet away from them. The whole group stepped forward and shook hands with Jandel. “Well, well, well. Look who decided to show up?” The man on the far right had said. Jandel looked up, revealing his dark brown eyes. “Look, I’m just here to do the thing and go home. THAT’S IT. Now, where is the little fellow? It's him I’m after.” The whole group backed away slowly. The man on the far left walked forward. “He’s by the Ferris wheel. Be careful. He’s not in a good mood.” Jandel tightened his shoelaces. “Neither am I.”