sequitursomnium

[sequitursomnium]

Excerpt from Middle Class Depravity

He finally looked up, “What?”

    “Nothing,” Melissa smiled, “How was school?”

    “Really Mom, blah, blah,” he said as he looked over at his dad.  However, when he saw the worried look on his dad’s face he asked, “Really guys, it’s on, isn’t it?”

    Melissa smiled at her son’s intuition.

    “Yes it is.  I think tomorrow,” Melissa said, “Remember James, your role is that you know nothing about this.  Remember everything we’ve practiced when it comes to talking to the police.  I have to keep you, your brother, and your father out of this for this to work.”

    “I know, I know.  We’ve been over it like a hundred times.  I’ve got you covered Mom.  No worries,” James replied.

    Melissa just shook her head.  Her teenage son always seemed to have “no worries”.

    The house was eerily quiet the next morning.  John and James had both taken off already.  Both of them took the time in the morning to wish Melissa well, knowing that this was going to be her big day.  James, being the funny one, had told his mom on the way out the door that he could use a new gold watch.  She had just laughed at him and reminded him that she was supposed to get caught, so he would have to get a job and buy his own gold watch.

    Melissa took out her red wig that she had hidden away in the back of the closet, the same one she wore in the bank robbery.  This time she picked out black jeans, a blue blouse, and a leather jacket, rather than the slinky dress she had worn before.  The one thing about her cancer was that Melissa had slimmed up quite a bit.  

    As she looked in the mirror she thought, Dang, I haven’t looked this good since high school.  I can’t remember fitting into these skinny jeans since then.  Dang, they look good.

    For some reason they felt right for a jewelry heist.  She wasn’t sure why, but they just did.  Getting cancer had been bad, but at least this way she got something good out of it, she got to wear her skinny jeans again.

    She put on some bright red lipstick, which made her laugh and wonder where she ever got it from in the first place.  She grabbed her extra large hollywood sunglasses off the dresser.  This time she took the Glock 22 handgun and its holster from the dresser drawer.  She unloaded it first, knowing she didn’t really want to take a loaded weapon into the heist.  The holster was slid onto her belt so the gun would fit at her hip.  She hadn’t told John she was taking it, but she had decided she needed something to make this work.  It wasn’t as easy as passing a note to a bank teller.  

    The more she had planned this little jewelry heist, the more she found that it was going to be complicated.  However, the one thing she didn’t want to do was tell John and the boys the details.  The less they knew the better.  They had all agreed on that earlier.

    This time Melissa grabbed one of John’s gym bags rather than her large purse.  On her way out to the car, she stopped  and rummaged through John’s tools.  She pulled out a medium sized sledge hammer.

     This should do well, Melissa thought as she slid it into the gym bag.

    Melissa stopped at Starbucks first.

     By golly, I’m going to enjoy one last Caramel Frappuccino before I go to prison.

    There was nothing better than a little caffeine to get her going anyway, not that the adrenaline wasn’t enough already.

    The  Starbucks was just a few blocks to the north of the jewelry store on Alameda.  It was around 2 pm. and the lunch traffic had now died down.  Melissa figured it was as good a time as any.  There was a King Soopers grocery, along with several other smaller stores just behind the little strip mall.  She figured the parking lot for that area would make a great place to park.

    Melissa pulled into the King Sooper’s parking lot  and picked a spot that was in the middle of the mix.  She found her hand was way more steady this time as she pulled the cars keys from the ignition.  The keys were then carefully tucked into her front pocket for easy access, just in case she did make it back to her car.

    As Melissa got out of the car, she made sure her leather jacket was covering the glock at her hip.  She grabbed the gym bag from the back seat and made sure it was unzipped so that she could easily reach the sledge hammer.

    As Melissa shut the car door, she glanced around to see if any one was looking, but no one, as usual was paying her any attention.  

    She reminded herself,  okay, you’re supposed to get caught.

    However, deep down she couldn’t help the feeling that made her want to get away with this heist..  Something wanted her to get back at the old man that had ripped them off so long ago.

     Quit thinking these thoughts, she had to tell herself, you don’t even know what you’re doing.  Surely you will get caught this time.

    Melissa walked up to the front corner of the small strip mall and stood there for a moment.  She was trying to gather her thoughts and her courage.  The jewelry store was about three stores down from the corner.  The little strip mall seemed fairly quiet.  She finally took a step forward, but as she did the jewelry store door opened.  It was Mr. Holzer.  She would not ever forget that face.  He was leaving the store with several papers and what appeared to be a bank bag tucked under his arm.  Melissa assumed he was making the daily or the weekly deposit.  For a moment she considered changing her plan completely and just robbing the old man right here and now.  However, as he walked up the sidewalk towards her she just looked down into her bag like she was doing something.  

    She uttered, “hello,” as she let him pass.

    He didn’t even say “hello”.  

     Well, I will show him then.  Plus that means there is probably only one employee in the store to deal with right now.  I can do this.

    Now, after seeing the old man again, Melissa really did want to get away with this, even if it did mean delaying her health care once again.  

    She waited until the old man had rounded the corner.  Her heart was pounding, but she knew she couldn’t wait any longer.

    “Ding,” the bell on the door sounded as Melissa walked in.  As she quickly looked around she could see that the store was completely empty.  A younger woman walked out from the back.  Melissa guessed she was probably only in her twenties.  She was a small girl with bleached blond hair, but she was still very pretty.

     Of course this of the kind of girl Mr. Holzer would have working for him.

    “Can I help you?” the young woman politely asked.

    Melissa immediately unholstered her gun and charged toward the woman with so much aggression that she was only a few steps away.  The young woman was definitely taken off guard.

[sequitursomnium]

This Earth or the Next

The Drone Wars

The Drones

    I ducked behind the partially ruined building that used to be a great bank tower in Frankfurt.  Ironically enough it was one of the “green” buildings that was on the same side of the wars as the company were I had worked.  My three friends followed behind me just in time as we watched a Phantom drone make its way along the open street that we had just crossed over.                                       This drone was a quadcopter and had been upgraded by the opposition since the beginning of the wars.  Not only was it highly capable of videography, but it had also been altered to house weaponry.  Our only hope was to double back and expect that the enemy watching through the eye of this drone would think that we were still moving forward.  So my three friends, Garrick, Berty, Elsa and I crawled along the backside of the rubble pile in the same direction  from where the drone had just come.  If it had thermal imaging we would most likely be found.  Hopefully it was just a basic drone and didn’t have too many upgrades.  We would soon find out.  

      I could hear the drone stop at the corner of the street intersection where we had ducked in behind the ruins of the old tower.  I stopped crawling and looked back to see what action the drone would take.  Had it spotted us?  My friends and I lay there silent along the edge of the rubble pile.  None of us could see the drone through the ruins, but we could hear it.  We dared not risk trying to take a peek over the top of the pile, even a glimpse of our heads would be enough to give us away.  So we just lay there trying to listen to the sound of the small but deadly drone.  Then, with relief I could hear the drone move further on down the street in the direction we would have taken if we would have kept running forward.  

     It had been only two years since the first strike.  Diedrick Gottschalk would be the one to create the Smart Drone.  This drone would be the closest thing our Earth would have seen yet that resembled “Artificial Intelligence”.  However, the drone would wreak more havoc than Diedrick could have ever imagined.  It didn’t take long before the entire Earth found most of its cities in ruins.  The people were forced into battling sides just to survive whether they wanted to or not and with all the available technology it soon became total chaos.  Place and time, or just to say fate had chosen the side I was to take.  

First Real Job

    I loved this Earth, there are no toxic marshes, no threat of an ice age, and no impending disasters that I could foresee.  It was definitely the best Earth I had seen thus far and I was cherishing every moment.  I see other people whine and complain about the small things in life, but they have no idea how nice they really have it here.  It’s funny how much more you can appreciate a good Earth when you know how bad a harsh Earth can be.

    This Earth has the great cities, just like the old stories Richard had told me about.  The cities were bustling with a variety of life like none I had imagined.  There were people that seemed to be from all walks of life in the great cities.

[sequitursomnium]