Saturday, December 11, 2010

Alice (The Trip Part 3 of 4)

As Alice hovered in the sky trembling in horror, one of the mechanical clouds that she had passed earlier began to float in a small orbit around her waist. At the appearance of the cloud she immediately turned her attention to her new visitor with a look and feeling of complete bafflement. Able to inspect the cloud more easily, Alice could see that it was a synthetic mesh of what truly appeared to be water vapor integrated with little pieces of what appeared to be a clear gelatinous material that housed electrical components. She held back her tears and tried to remain as still as she could as the cybertronic cloud orbited in silence.

After a few short moments, Alice’s attention returned once again to the scene of devastation that lay before her. The plumes of dust and ash were beginning to settle, giving way to the motionless sea of scorched and spent earth as far as the eye could see. Directly below her, Alice could faintly begin to see an enormous crater, presumably where little Alice made impact, through the haze. The mere thought of the child version of herself hitting the ground hard enough to cause an explosion of that magnitude brought tears to her eyes yet again.

Suddenly the cybertronic cloud stopped in its orbit and floated upward until it was about a foot in front of Alice’s face. She immediately silenced her sniffles and stared wide eyed at the cloud, as it remained motionless before her.

“Uh..” she began after a few moments. “Do you uh…” She paused as she realized she had no idea how to go about attempting to interface with a cybertronic cloud from the future. After a moment or so, of thought, Alice simply decided to ask it one question. “What do you do, Cloud?” To this, the cloud lightly quivered for a fraction of a second before plummeting toward the same crater in which little Alice had been consumed. Immediately Alice hurled herself downward, trying to catch up to the free falling cloud.

As she caught up to the cloud she realized that their fall had already continued past ground level and into the crater. It was far more massive than it appeared from the aerial view she had previously. Though vast and deep the crater did eventually have a bottom that both Alice and the cloud were rapidly en route for. Alice reached out for the clear gelatinous material inside the cloud, and scrunched her face focusing as hard as she could on not falling anymore. She felt the wind on her face quickly slow to a stop, and very carefully lifted her eyelids open. To her astonishment, she had stopped only a foot or so from the bottom of the crater with the cloud lightly, yet firmly, grasped in her outstretched hand.

Alice took a deep breath of relief before opening her hand to release the cloud, and dropping herself to the floor. As she stood she realized that she was not standing on scorched earth, but rather a thin cobblestone road leading before and behind her as far as she could see. When Alice turned her attention to the sky from whence she and the cloud had come, she was startled to find a solid earth and rock ceiling hundreds if not thousands of feet above her. She looked to the cloud which floated once again before her face.

“WHAT THE HELL WAS TH--” Before Alice could finish, the cloud began to float down the path of the cobblestone road set out before them.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Letter from the author

Okay honestly. I've had the most wicked writer's block in the history of writers block! I haven't had the foggiest of what to write and that's because I've been so damn busy with my hectic life. But I haven't forgotten about Flixom. I'm not going to make promises of regularity or anything for the time being just because I have no way of knowing 100%. But I'm in a situation now that's more conducive to the writer in me so yet again there shall be posts. And with the additional bonus of an AMAZING PLOT comin' up you'll just have to subscribe so you don't miss any of the flixom action!

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Tobe

I am the dragon
I am the midas of fire
I am the unholy waste layer of life
I am the fear in your eyes
I am the blood on the wall
I am the dragon

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Alice (The Trip Part 2 of 4)

Alice felt the sensation of electricity gently buzzing and snapping all over her as her head followed her body through the wall. When she felt her feet touching the ground she noticed that they made no sound. Standing in absolute darkness, Alice squeezed Little Alice’s hand trying to hold on to something familiar when she found herself squeezing a tightly clenched fist, with nothing between her fingers but her own flesh.

Startled, Alice began opening and closing her hand wildly trying to reach for the hand that was leading her through. “Hello?!” She called out, spinning around trying to find some sign of life.
Suddenly her entire body seized. Completely frozen, her heart began to beat harder as the electrical hum of the energy around her began to grow louder. Her strongest attempts to yell for help did not even yield a squeak. As the hum grew louder and louder she began to faintly make out a tiny dot of light in the far distance.

The light must have been at least a half a mile away, she could not understand why the sound of her calling hello did not echo even as much as a bathroom would. As the sound grew louder Alice felt the hairs on her arms and head stand on end. Slowly it began to feel as if every cell in her body were standing on end as the little dot of light moved closer and closer, growing with its proximity. Suddenly the hum began to sound like that of thunder with small cracking sounds of electrical arcs snapping and forming. The light rushed toward her, as if it were a train barreling down a tunnel. The thunder began to build, rolling hard and snapping lightly. Finally as the light reached her she squeezed her eyes as closed and tight as she could as the energy synchronized and cracked all at once in a cacophony that felt like being hit in the face with a bat.

“SHIIIIIIIIIIT!” she screamed as the energy sensation left instantly and was replaced by the very recognizable sensation of falling. She opened her eyes to find that she was rapidly being taken by gravity through the clouds. These appeared to be clouds. However, falling past them, Alice was able to see wires and silicon microchips running throughout them.

“They’re fake.” Alice looked up from her skydiver’s orientation and found Little Alice completely upright and unaffected by the wind, falling next to her. “The Hegemon had them built when the sky burned.” Little Alice solemnly informed.

“HELP ME!” Alice screamed.

“Just stop.” Little Alice chuckled.

“I’M FALLING! I CAN’T STOP!” She retorted.

“You’re falling because you think you’re supposed to. You’re looking around seeing clouds, and feeling wind and you think “that means I’m falling.” So you fall. Because you want to. If you want to stop, all you have to do, is stop.” To this Alice looked down and scrunched her face.
“And you might want to stop soon, there IS a ground.” Little Alice chuckled.

As Alice fell past the last artificial cloud she was able to see the earth below her. She stopped suddenly in mid-air.

“I knew you would stop.” Little Alice giggled as she floated over to Alice’s dangling position.
“What is this place?!” She begged as she stared wide eyed at the scorched planet below her. The ground had been burned to the point that it looked like a dry lake bed, with little jets of flame shooting through the cracks. In the distance from all around intermittent screams of pain could faintly be heard. Some sort of tree like plants even sported perpetual fire rather than leaves. “Is this hell?” she asked as tears formed in her eyes.

“Close. It’s Earth, about eighteen years from now.” The tears that were forming in Alice’s eyes fell, but she felt nothing on her face. When she looked at Little Alice she saw the tears falling from her eyes.
“What happened here?” As Alice inquired, Little Alice suddenly dropped toward the ground screaming. Alice could do nothing but stare in horror as Little Alice came nearer and nearer to the ground. Until...

The mushroom cloud almost reached Alice, dangling in the sky. The tears flowed like a spring from Alice’s face now. The shockwave traveled for miles in all directions in a wall of dust, destroying trees and rocks, leaving behind it flat barren, cracked earth.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Icarus (part 2)

The translucent woman tapped her ear, and paused listening intently as the words BREAKING NEWS hung in the air before her. As the words faded, the woman set her hands on the desk and began. “This just in! A horrifying murder has taken place just ten minutes ago, at a local convenience store. Much is still unknown about the murder, including motive.” The woman and her desk were replaced by what appeared to be a live shot of a man in a police uniform.

“No motive can possibly warrant this heinous of an act! Rest assured we have determined a suspect and are on the move as we speak to bring him in. This has appeared to involve drugs, we can only assume that the man tried to sell this young man cryozyte, and when the young man refused, the suspect used an explosive bullet gun to settle the matter.” As the police officer was replaced with the woman and her desk, I carefully drove the knife into my left arm. One wrong move and my arteries start pumping air, or worse. As far as I’m aware no one knows what happens when you pull out your chip. They put it in early so it can meld with your nervous system, and they’ve only been trying to get them more and more integrated with it. But God only knows what I’ll be told next. That cop was telling people I was the freezer!

It’s become all too apparent to me how well our government’s been treating me; Been treating us as a whole. I winced as the knife moved through my flesh. Finally it found its target and stopped with a padded click. Blood flowed smoothly from the blade flowing from my arm to my leg and finally pooling in a small puddle on the tiled bathroom floor. I had taken quick refuge in an upscale restaurant bathroom to do this, and with virtual projectors in almost room of every building in the country, I had little time to worry about pains of the flesh.

The knife acted as a fulcrum the lift the chip out of the fleshy cave. As it rose I began to feel twinges in my spine. The more I continued the higher the twinge grew until I could see the technological flag and the twinge was right below my skull. As I examined the chip I found that there seemed to be a tiny chip installed into a housing that fused with tissue and nerves.

For a moment I considered trying to remove just the chip, after all that is what they would be using to find me, and I had no idea what pulling out fused nervous tissue would do. And then I remembered the look on the detectives face in the police station as he choked on his own donut in laughter.

As the chip and its housing flew across the room through the head of another police officer’s virtual image, my body was sent reeling to the ground. Lying on the floor, I tried to catch my breath. I felt as if I was dying and being born at the same time. The sensation was so overpowering and liberating that I couldn’t help but weep. As the initial shock began to fade, my sobs became shorter. I sat up and opened my eyes, and oh the things I saw.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Icarus

I took a breath before I opened the door. A small part of me hoped the man inside would answer the questions in the right way, and I would be able to go about the rest of my day as usual.
But I knew how he would answer. I knew what I had seen day in and day out for the past month. These cryozyte dealers got smart, started using legitimate stores as fronts to move their drugs, selling paper plates at 30 bucks a pop; Just a cover so that kids can go in and buy drugs with their chips instead of having to steal their parents transfer cards.
Zyte junkies, freezers, they make my stomach wretch just at the thought. The sad degenerates that the world had turned their back on even in what are supposed to be called prosperous times. The government claims transfer cards are for person to person sales “like books”. Funny. My friends let me borrow their books. Meanwhile the zyte user statistics rise daily and they claim they have no idea how they’re getting it!
What’s worse, the public is so wrapped up in their own lives, that they refuse to see that kids can start freezing at a store on the corner. I couldn’t allow myself to be that naive. When I went to the police I saw the true face of justice.

“You think a convenience store is sellin’ zyte?” The detective burst into laughter almost choking on the chocolate donut in his throat, funny how stereotypes never change. “Next you’ll be claiming they got blow at the shoe store!” he hacked up chunks of pastry, continuing to fight back laughter. “Come on now. We have a lot more to deal with than ridiculous theories about drug shops in suburbia.” as I left the station grieving my faith in authority, I was passed by no one and the only commotion in the building was that of my own footsteps.

I pulled the door open, the store was set up to look like a convenience store, no doubt they had to move a lot of zyte to pay for it all. The detail of the deception portrayed by the storefront only fueled my hatred. I was feigning interest in a holographic display of Yosemite national park, set up as part of a contest, when I was addressed by the counter person.
“How’s it goin’ today?” a tall young man, probably in his early twenties called to me blithely.
“If I had to save some chicken for a long time..”I started as I approached the counter, hoping he would pick up on my implication. My mind was abuzz with anticipation, the next words that came out of this boy’s mouth would determine a world of events.

I realized after I left the police station and my car had driven me halfway home, that if the police wouldn’t even acknowledge the possibility of this happening, and they’re supposed to be the ones looking out for it, then no one would. I knew that I was the only one who was willing to see anything and that meant that I was the only one with the power to do anything about it. As far as I was aware, and I still hold to this, there’s only one way to deal with these kinds of people.

“You would want a freezer!” the kid had obviously picked up on the innuendo, his eyes brightened and a cocky smile grew on his face.
“Yes I would!” I agreed as I put my hands on the counter top.
“How many wafers are you lookin’ for?” the kid reached down below the counter and produced a small brown box.
“Four please.” I told the kid as he opened his container.
“Oh no! Just two in this one.” he called as he held up two cryozyte wafers and scanned a little card 4 times. “Not to worry!” he raised his eyebrows with excitement. “There’s more!” he ducked his head to obtain the alternate container. I hadn’t been expecting a slip up like this on his part. It made it almost too easy to calmly reach back and remove my .45 caliber spiraling daisy from the back of my waistband and hold it to the kids head.
“Whoa! WHOA! Hey dude look I just work for these people I don’t give a shit if you steal the wafers man, just take them!” the kid screamed as he dropped the box and raised his hands above his head. The wafers fell onto the floor like a drug confetti, a freezer somewhere wept.
“I’m not here to steal your drugs. I’m here because you sell the drugs.” I explained calmly trying not to let my voice shake. It’s surprising how much you tremble in a situation like that. I wasn’t afraid, but my body was dealing with so much adrenaline it was like I was plugged into a wall.
“Oh shit man! Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. Look man I’m not a bad guy.”
“SHUT UP! You’ve got some balls. Opening a shop, right in front of everyone. I bet you thought you were clever.” my grip on the gun tightened.
“I didn’t think I” he started.
“I SAW THE SMIRK ON YOUR FACE!” I screamed at the boy as he flinched with terror. The anticipation was building in me. It was almost fun to call this kid out in his last seconds. He cowered at the prospect of justice being exacted, those with guilt usually do.
“You have destroyed several lives, most likely lead to the self destruction and deaths of many unknowing little kids. Don’t you think you should have to pay for a crime like that?” I felt as a bear must feel to a squirrel.
“Oh God, oh God, oh God.” a dark stain began to move from the kid’s crotch toward his feet.
“AND PAY YOU SHALL!” The words boomed over the explosion of gunpowder in my hand. As my hand recoiled the world seemed to slow around me, the spiraling bullet buried itself quickly into the left side of his face causing his head to jerk back with a tiny spurt of blood. As his head pulled back to where it was I saw a look of confusion plastered on his face. He had apparently never seen someone shot with a daisy.
Before he was able to move his hand toward his face, the bullet lodged in his cheek exploded, and what was left of his head was jerked around as it fell onto the counter in front of me. Small and large chunks of brain and bone fragments were splattered on my face and hands. For a split second the kids left eye dangled from where an eye socket had once been, until it broke off as his body slid into a pile of a decrepit attempt at a human being. As I pulled my arms away from the counter to shake off the drug dealer entrails, I heard a beep all too familiar.

My chip had just been scanned and charged!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Intermission :D

Hello Adventures In Flixom readers! I hope you are all thoroughly enjoying the story and will continue reading. :D I just wanted to take a short minute to say that I'm happy you all read and to let everyone know that I greatly appreciate comments! let me know how i'm doing, if you like something, let me know. If you don't like something, let me know. If you're in shock about something, or think you realized something, Let Me Know! use that little comment button at the bottom! Also don't forget to show sponsor love! ---> ads = money so sponsor love is greatly appreciated. and if you haven't already, add the rss feed, and follow with the blogger.

In short. I write this story for you guys, let me know if i'm doin a good job :D show the love.

(and sponsor love -->)

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Wendy (Gaia Part 1)

The laptop clicked and clacked away as Wendy stared dismally at the screen. She let out a sigh as she took a short break from composing her latest assignment to pop each of her fingers. She stared out her dorm room window at the sunny quad below and noticed someone sitting under her favorite tree. Daydreams of sitting under that tree, watching the squirrels run past her for hours, began to take hold of her focus. Her malaise was abruptly interrupted by a blunt pounding on her door. Startled, Wendy stood and crossed the small room toward the door.

“Wendy!” She heard her roommate call from the other side of the door as she placed her thumb on the scanner. “Open the -” Wendy opened the door to find her roommate Charlene, a tall slender girl with black hair and vibrant green eyes, holding a picture frame almost half her size. “Move please. I gotta put this thing down or I’m going to die!” Charlene cried as she dashed into the room. She carefully laid the frame on her bed, and sat down beside it.

“So what’s that all about?” Wendy inquired as she closed and scan locked the door. She crossed the room again to her desk by the window.

“I got this picture from my grandma today.” Charlene explained as lifted the frame to show Wendy. The picture was an oil painting of the vast landscape of Yosemite national park, in a stained oak frame.

“Oh wow!” Wendy peered in amazement. “It’s beautiful! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a real painting outside of an art museum.”

“Well, digital frames are useful, and a whole lot lighter I’ll say that much. But I love the texture of a real painting. My parents are putting my grandma in an old people’s home, and she knew I’ve loved this picture for years so she gave it to me.” Charlene explained, sharing in Wendy’s awe.

“Wow. How old is it?” Wendy couldn’t move her eyes from the painting.

“I don’t know. My grandma’s had it for like fifty years but who knows when it was actually painted. I’m gonna put it over my desk.” Charlene motioned to the desk facing the wall with a closed laptop, slightly buried under a mess of papers. “That way we both can have a view!” she chuckled.

“There you go!” Wendy laughed, “I have to see things moving though. If it’s not alive, it’s fake. Do you need help putting it up?” she offered.

“Oh yes.” She laughed, “But I don’t want to interrupt you, I know you said you were working on that human anatomy paper today. I can wait till later, my arms are killing me anyway.”

“Ugh! I don’t want to do this stupid paper for this stupid class. I don’t care which veins are where and why they are where they are,” Wendy began to thump her head on an empty space of her desk.

“You’re so full of it. You love it. Otherwise you wouldn’t be a biology major!” Charlene tried to reason with her.

“I’m not a biology major; I’m an anthropology major; There’s a huge difference! But my stupid parents want me to minor in biology, and they pay for the school. I wanted to major in zoology but no. ‘Wendy there’s no careers out there for someone with a bachelor’s in zoology, get a practical degree’” she mocked as she continued to thump her head on her desk.

“How exactly is anthropology practical?” Charlene carefully moved the picture frame to lean against the side of her bed.

“They think if I get a degree in physical anthropology, which is why I’m a biology minor, that I’ll become a scientist and go to work for the government and make a new and improved biochip or something.” Wendy stopped thumping her head to flop onto her bed next to the desk.

“What’s wrong with the biochips now? I like mine.” Charlene smiled as she rubbed her left arm.

“I guess they’re doing research to get them to join with the nervous system better so that people can have neural control of the chips or something. I think they’re trying to do away with the thumb scanners. But, I don’t know. All I know is that I’m not gonna do anything with biochips as an anthropology major. They’re just confused. There’s not a chance in hell that I’m going to be a biotech major though. I’ll just let them go ahead and be confused.” Wendy pulled her pillow out from under her head and smashed it on her face.

“mpt mah mon mna mrte mm fufr!” Wendy yelled as she kicked her legs fervently.

“I don’t speak pillow.” Charlene raised an eyebrow at the melodramatic display before her.

Wendy raised the pillow from her face. “But I don’t want to write my paper. It’s stupid. I want to go bird watching with Argyle again. But this stupid paper’s due at eleven!” she replaced the pillow over her face.

“You know I think it’s a little weird that you keep spending so much extracurricular time with Professor Wallace. And I also think it’s a little weird that you call him by his first name. Are you putting in a little extra class effort if you know what I mean?” Charlene prodded. Wendy sat up and replaced the pillow with a look of outrage on her face.

“I know what you mean! And of course not! Why is it that a female student taking an interest in a male professor’s line of work is automatically linked to sex? I admit that I find him attractive, but he has a wife! I’m no home wrecker! Besides, I’ve been dating Paul how long? I’m not interested in getting someone else when Paul and I are so obviously perfect for each other. I want to marry him someday Charlie you know that!” Wendy playfully threw her pillow at Charlene.

“I was just asking, jeez!” Charlene threw the pillow back. “I just haven’t seen Paul around in like a week. I thought you guys might have broken up.”

“No he’s been in California working. He’s working on getting a promotion into corporate, so I’m really excited for him. We’ve been video linking everyday, but you’re never here, so you don’t see him.” Wendy chuckled.

“Forgive me for challenging myself this semester! So is he going to still be in advertising or is he just moving on to something else?” Charlene attempted to feign interest.

“Still advertising I think. I don’t know we’re supposed to link at -” Wendy looked to the alarm clock on her desk, which read 4:28. “- TWO MINUTES. Damn it you distracted me! I’m never going to finish this paper!” Wendy jumped to her mirror and put her hair up with sticks. When she finished, she sat at her computer and turned on the holographic projector that was connected to her computer. Just as it warmed up the computer began to beep and the words “INCOMING CONNECTION. DO YOU WISH TO RECEIVE?” floated above the projector.

“Accept!” Wendy squeaked excitedly.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Alice (The Trip Part 1 of 4)

As she lay back on the dumpster she began to see the world around her change. The texture of the alley became more defined and exaggerated until it looked as if each miniscule peak and valley shaped themselves into blades of grass.

The walls of the two buildings beside her became like molasses flowing upward to the sky, trailing off beyond her view. The walls began to flow faster until they resembled waterfalls that had been turned upside down trying to reach the magenta clouds above.

Alice noticed that the trash can that Jeremy lay against had been slowly transforming into a metallic tree stump. He too appeared to be in a daze about the world around him. The cryozyte wafers he had produced had been very high quality indeed.

"How ya feelin'?" Jeremy's voice resonated in her head, although she did not see his mouth move.

"I'm trippin' pretty hard right now!" She felt herself exclaim with little control over her enthusiasm.

"Yeah me too." Jeremy muttered as he dove into a fit of laughter. Alice could not help but to join him in her own compulsive laughter. As she regained her composure she began to feel another presence in the alley.

Her heart raced as she carefully peered around the corner of the dumpster she was leaning against.
To her astonishment, she watched as what appeared to be a young girl jumped into and out of the waterfall walls. Alice stared in awe as she began to recognize the young girl's face to be her own. The young Alice giggled and danced as she was moving closer to the dumpster.

"What's up?" Jeremy inquired, noticing the trance that Alice was in. It didn't appear that he could see the girl that was calling Alice's attention. Jeremy’s eyelids subtly began to lower, with each passing second.

Alice's attention was abruptly jerked from the girl to Jeremy. "Oh!" She laughed "I guess this stuff is better than I thought."

"Nothing but the best." Jeremy chuckled as he eased himself closer to sleep.
Alice returned her attention behind her to find the young Alice standing only inches away.

"Come with me!" the young Alice smiled, and reached out her hand.
Dumbfounded Alice took her hand and quickly found herself upright and standing. The young Alice lead, holding Alice’s hand and started toward the waterfall wall on the other side of the alley.
Though it appeared to be a waterfall in her mind, Alice knew that it was actually a wall.

"That's a wall! I can't-" Alice began.

"There is no end to what you CAN do." young Alice pulled at Alice’s hand as they both stepped through the wall.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Grayson (The Intro Part 3)

The rain seemed to fall harder with every passing second. Jeremy glanced over his shoulder as he was running to find no one behind him. He turned down the nearest alley still unsure if he had lost them. The towering buildings blocked some of the rain but Jeremy was more grateful for the wind block they provided.

He found a spot under a fire escape to attempt to catch his breath. Jeremy tossed his 9mm onto a box behind the dumpster and slid down the wall into a sobbing pile on the ground. Suddenly his heart began to pound as he heard running footsteps from outside the alley. He mustered himself to an absolute silence as they came to a stop just before the entrance of the alley.

“That little fuck runs to fast man!” a gruff voice exclaimed.

“Ha! If that little bitch thinks that he can get away by runnin’ he’s got another fucking thing comin’! He picked the wrong people to fuck with!” another voice agreed, as the footsteps slowly began to move in the direction from which they came. Jeremy’s arms began to tremble as they left, and slowly his whole body followed. He thought he might have been cold, so he began to blow into his hands, when he noticed the ground to his left began to look like it was moving.

He tried to adjust his eyes, blinking and rubbing them frequently but he distinctly saw movement. The ground appeared to have ripples going through it as if someone had thrown a rock in a pond. He reached down to feel the rippling but only felt cold, solid, asphalt. The waves seemed to be getting bigger as if more rocks were being thrown into the pond of the alley, while he began to hear footsteps.
He reached behind the dumpster he was next to and found his 9mm on the box coated in a light film of water and cardboard residue. Jeremy squeezed his eyes shut trying to block out the rippling in the ground below him, and focus on his survival. The footsteps seemed to stop right next to him, so he turned his head up and pinched open one eye.

Standing next to him was a college aged looking girl, in a tattered outfit and dirty blonde hair. It was evident to Jeremy that this girl was homeless, and as he opened his other eye, he noticed a melted candle and a box of matches. The girl had a mortified look on her face, staring at the gun in Jeremy’s hand. He noticed and quickly concealed the weapon in his torn leather jacket.

“Oh sorry. Uh. Do you live here?” Jeremy inquired as he rose, patting his pants. The girl’s breaths were short and riddled with fear. “Don’t worry I’m not going to hurt you. I’m not a mur-“ Jeremy stopped himself mid-word realizing he was about to lie to this girl. “I’m not a dangerous person.”

“Y, y, yeah I live here.” The girl’s shame was evident in her radiant green eyes that fell to the floor as she spoke. “B, but if you need it I can probably go find somewhere else.” She shivered.

“It’s pouring. Why don’t we share the spot?” Jeremy offered. He would have told anyone else to get lost, but something felt right about this girl to Jeremy, it felt wrong to let her leave. “Here go ahead sit down.” He motioned to the girl to sit where he had just been sobbing. The girl uneasily complied, all the while keeping focused on his chest, with anxiety. Jeremy sat leaning against a trash can facing the girl.

“So what’s your name?” He crossed his arms as he settled into a comfortable position.

“Alice. Alice Burke. Uh, what’s yours?” she trembled as she spoke.

“Jeremy Gray. But most people call me Grayson. Relax. Really. It’s alright I just need to stay here to lay low for a few hours.” He explained attempting to ease her discomfort.

“Why do you need to lay low?” she inquired, mildly accepting his reassurances.

“I did some things that some people aren’t very happy with. Hell I’m not happy with it.” Jeremy chuckled.

“What did you do?” her anxiety seemed to slowly be resurfacing.

“Well, I’ve use cryozyte from time to time.” Her face lit up with the mention of cryozyte.

“You don’t happen to have any on you. Do you?” she suggested.

“I actually do happen to have a couple of wafers on me. You freeze I’m assuming.” Jeremy began to dig in the pocket of his jeans.

“I don’t really have any reason not to; except money of course. Um, I think I have a transfer card in my purse somewhere.” She began to frantically search the large brown fake leather bag to her left.

“It wouldn’t do any good.” Jeremy produced a small blue baggy with two pale wafers in it. “My account’s most likely being monitored. They’d find me as soon as I accepted the transfer. Just think of it as me paying rent for this spot.” He handed her a wafer. “Cheers.” They both held up their wafers to cheer and placed them under their tongues. “These take about five minutes.” Jeremy informed.

“Nice! Thank you. So what’s up Grayson? People are after you and monitoring your account because you use zyte?” she inquired more openly now. It seemed that the ingestion of drugs made her more comfortable with Jeremy. Jeremy chuckled.

“Well, not quite. I’ve been seeing stuff recently. And not like someone with freezer burn, I mean weird stuff. I keep seeing these waves in everything. More and more often it looks like everything’s making these waves.” Jeremy readjusted his sitting position.

“Yeah, usually with freezer burn you start to see in black and white, not waves.” She laughed.

“Well, I was at my dealer’s house today getting my usual zyte order and he had on this music. It was like neometal with techno and tribal drums. It wasn’t good at all. It was horrible, and I started to see these waves everywhere. I told him what was going on, and the bastard turned it up! When, I went to turn it down he grabbed my hand and I don’t know what happened but the next thing I knew he was splattered across his painting of Yosemite on the wall across from me!” He saw the anxiety in his companion rise, as her eyes once again focused on the gun in his jacket. “I didn’t shoot him. He kept his gun in the kitchen drawer. So I was freaking out because my dealer just happens have mafia connections, and from what I understood these guys liked him a lot. Which wasn’t hard; Jay had one of those personalities that everyone likes. And it just happened to be my luck that as I’m freaking out about my splattered dealer the door chimes! So I run to his kitchen and start beating on the drawer his gun’s in because of course his drawers don’t recognize my prints. Then I hear these guys outside his door shouting about how he’s going to smash the door in, and who does Jay think he is trying to skip out on payments or something like that. So I bust open the drawer finally and grab the gun as these guys start pounding on the front door. I’m freaking out at this point because there’s no back door and no windows I could climb through. So I aimed at the door and waited until they broke it down.” Alice was leaning forward with her hands folded, focusing intently on Jeremy.

“Then what?” She urged him.

“Well, they broke down the door! There were these three big guys in the doorway. I ran forward and fired a couple of rounds. The two on the sides dove out of the way, but I know I hit the center guy because he went flying backwards in a mist of blood when I ran over him. After that I ran as fast as I could, for as long as I could until the other two guys couldn’t follow me anymore. That’s how I got here.”Jeremy sighed.

“Wow!” Alice blinked in amazement. “But why do you think they’re monitoring your account? Or even know who you are?” she questioned puzzled.

“I was buying something hand to hand, not with a chip reader. I had to use a transfer card to be able to transfer the money to him.” Jeremy began.
“You left your transfer card?!” Alice exclaimed. “Well that wasn’t a very good –“ Jeremy could see her pupils instantly double in size, as she quickly shivered, and slowly leaned back against the dumpster.

He smiled as he felt a familiar cool sensation crawling up his spine to the base of his skull. His body twitched in a slight shiver as his eyes rolled up and he sank into his comfortable position.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Phoenix (the intro part 2)

Throughout the rest of the morning Phoenix pleasantly found himself in a steady regression to his former demeanor. He felt much more able to tune out the distractions of his wandering thoughts and focus more intently on his work.
After a few hours of intensive studying in his office Phoenix was surprised by a knock at his door. When he looked up he found a tall slender man in his mid-twenties standing in a black suit and red tie. The man stood in his office doorway smiling and holding out a set of car keys.
“Oh hey Will! Sorry, I completely forgot it was Tuesday.” Phoenix said leaning back in his chair and stretching his arms.
“No worries. We’re still on for lunch though right?” Will inquired jingling his keys up higher towards his face.
“Yeah, definitely. Where are we going?” Phoenix rose from his desk and walked to the wall where his suit coat was hanging from a hook.
“How does Panera sound?”
“Yeah we can go to Panera again. Haha.” Phoenix replied sarcastically as Will turned to walk down the hall toward the exit to the west parking lot. Phoenix rarely ever picked where they would eat on their Tuesday lunches, and recently Will had been choosing the café at Panera more and more. “What about someplace who’s main product isn’t bread?”
“What’s wrong with bread?” Will asked as the biochip in his arm signaled his black Mercedes to unlock its doors. “People have been eating it for thousands of years! It’s great stuff, it’s got everything you need in a neat little loaf.”
“DESTINATION PLEASE” the car chimed in a female voice as yet another face appeared on the screen before Will.
“The nearest Panera Bakery with a café, please.” as Will responded the automatic seatbelts came across from the sides and secured them in place.
“DESTINATION ACCEPTED. PANERA BAKERY. ESTIMATED TIME OF ARRIVAL: ONE O’ NINE PM.” the Mercedes carefully backed itself out of the parking space and began its journey.

“So what’s been up with you lately Emerson? You seem to have been a little off.” Will inquired of Phoenix, still trying to swallow the mouthful of sandwich he had just been working on.
“You know, Summer said the same thing to me this morning. Or last night. Or whatever the hell it was.” phoenix replied after swallowing his bite.
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. I just haven’t been getting any sleep. The nightmares have still been keeping me up.”
“I thought you saw that Dr. Andrews guy. Wasn’t he supposed to help you?” Will reached for his blackberry iced tea.
“Anderson. And yeah I suppose he prescribed me these little blue gel caps, I think he called them Prozium or something.”
“Have you been taking them? And I think you’re thinking of Prozac.” Will suggested, taking another bite of his sandwich.
“It’s not Prozac, I’m pretty sure it was Prozium. Anyway I haven’t been taking them until today. But just the one pill is making it a lot easier to work.”
“That’s good! You should take them if it helps you work. Matheson has been getting worried about your performance.”
“Of course. He’s worried about my performance and not me. And why’s our boss talking about me to other employees?” Phoenix chuckled and took a sip of his peach iced tea.
“Phoenix, it’s fairly common knowledge that everyone in the firm’s been getting a bit worried about you. But as long as you’re taking those pills and things get better everything should be fine.” Will shrugged waving his sandwich that sent a small piece of meat flying onto the arm of the burly man at the table next to them. The man glared at him as Will mouthed sorry to him.
“Yeah I suppose” Phoenix sighed, pretending not to notice the meat incident. “My biochip’s been a little itchy recently too.”
“You should probably go get that checked out. Those things attach themselves to your nerves so they can link up with your nervous system you know. If there’s a problem with it, it can seriously mess you up.” Will gestured at his left arm where his biochip was located. “That’s why they implant them so early, so your system has time to grow around it and integrate with it.”
Phoenix morosely looked at his own left arm. “I didn’t get my biochip until I was seventeen.”
Will coughed and put his hand to his face to block the potential airborne food. “Jesus Christ! were your parents hippies or something?”
“Oh no, nothing like that. I had some sort of cellular disorder. They tried to implant it earlier but my body kept rejecting it and getting infected. So they put me on this series of medications for about 8 years until my body finally accepted it.” Phoenix explained.
“Holy cow! How did you pay for anything, how did you get into school?” Will pressed as he took another sip of tea.
“They gave me a wristband. It had my basic account information and what have you in it, but I wasn’t allowed to go very far from my parents, you know incase someone tried to steal it or anything. I don’t know what they would have done if I had turned eighteen and not had an implant. I probably would have been sent to one of those reservations they talk about.” Phoenix chuckled.
“Oh you mean those sovereign reserves or whatever they’re calling them? I don’t think they even exist. I’ve never seen one. Or ever heard of someone going to one. I think it’s just a scare tactic the media’s making up to try to get us to think we could do better without the government or civilized society.” Will finished the last bite of his sandwich and motioned his head toward the door. “Should probably get back, I’ve got a two thirty appointment with Mr. Dawkins.”
“I thought you lost that one.” Phoenix finished his sandwich and they began to walk to the door, cups in hand.
“That’s the beauty of appeals my friend.” Will took another sip. “You can keep milking it and milking it until the old bastard dies of old age.” They both laughed and returned to the car.

Friday, January 8, 2010

Phoenix (the intro part 1)

Phoenix’s eyes slowly began to adjust to the darkness in his room. He gingerly sat up making sure not to disturb his wife, who lay asleep next to him. As he wiped the cold sweat from his brow Phoenix tried to slow his pounding heart by calmly breathing deep in rhythm like his therapist had taught him. He looked around the room with only the alarm clock light to illuminate the features. He focused on framed picture of Yosemite on the wall closest to the door, then the alarm clock itself, trying to ground himself in reality.

The clock read 3:15am, and to this Phoenix rolled his eyes. His nightmares had been waking him up at exactly 3:15am every morning for the past month and a half. They were always the same, he would walk across a dry lake bed for what seemed like hours until he came to a large white door, with no walls and nothing but lake bed on the other side. It was simply a door, in its frame with a golden dragon handle. When he opened the door he saw nothing on the other side but more dry lake bed. It wasn’t until he walked through the door that he was suddenly under water, in the same lake he was in before. He would try desperately to swim to the top of the lake when he would feel a pull at his leg. When he looked down to see what was pulling him he found a giant squid with a middle aged man’s face smiling. The squid had it longest tentacle around his leg and in another tentacle held a torch, which somehow managed to stay aflame in the depths of the lake. No matter how hard he would fight the squid, it would pull him in to its beak. When the squid would open it beak, inside he would see a wall of flame and hear thousands upon thousands of screams. Then he woke up. It was always the same.

Phoenix carefully slid the floral pattern comforter off of his legs and silently let his feet to the floor. He walked to the kitchen, admiring the pictures of his wedding and parents that flashed on the digital picture frames in the hall. He put his right thumb to the scanner on the left refrigerator door and covered the speaker above the screen to try to muffle the anticipated greeting.

“PRINT ACCEPTED! HOW CAN I HELP YOU PHOENIX?” the refrigerator yelled through Phoenix’s hand, as a happy little face showed up on the screen below.
“Low volume fridge!” Phoenix whispered to the machine.
“Sorry sir. It’s quite late would you like your usual glass of milk?” the refrigerator whispered.
“Yes I would. Warm it too please.”
“Certainly sir. Should I have the pantry prepare you a cookie?”
“No I don’t think that will be necessary tonight fridge. Thank you.”
“No problem at all sir. Here’s your milk. Do you need anything else?” a steaming glass of milk was produced in the dispensing alcove on the right side of the refrigerator.
“No, that’ll be all for tonight fridge.” Phoenix whispered.
“All right then sir. Have a good night.” the screen went blank and Phoenix removed the glass from the dispensing alcove, being careful not to spill the milk on the gleaming black surface of the refrigerator.

“Baby?” Phoenix heard his wife, Summer, call from their bedroom down the hall. His absence in bed must have woken her up.
“In the kitchen hon.” he called to her. He could hear her footsteps down the hall towards him.
Summer groggily wiped her perfect grey eyes and instinctively called out “lights” when she came to the kitchen. Suddenly the lights above flicked on and the room was washed with bright white light.
“Aw Jeez hon!” Phoenix called out as he shielded his eyes from the light with his free hand.
“Oh sorry babe.” Summer squinted “dim level 2" she called out, and the lights dimmed to a low amber color. “Did you have another nightmare?” she concernedly asked.
“Well I wouldn’t call it another nightmare seeing that it’s always the same nightmare every time.” he remarked with sarcasm.
“You know what I meant.” Summer sighed as she came around the island to Phoenix and tip toed for a kiss. He bent down to kiss her, then resumed sipping on his glass of milk.
“Have you been taking the pills that Dr. Anderson prescribed you?” she asked as she put her thumb to the refrigerator scanner.

“PRINT ACCEPTED! HOW CAN I HELP YOU SUMMER?” the refrigerator yelled, as the face appeared once again on the screen.
“I’ll have what he’s having. And that’ll be it.” Summer said blithely.
“Certainly ma’am! Have a good night!” the refrigerator chimed as another steaming glass of milk was produced in the dispensing alcove, and the screen went blank.

“I don’t like the idea of taking pills to make dreams stop babe, I told you that. I swear these days doctors seem to be so quick to prescribe you something for a problem they know nothing about. Who knows what they’re even prescribing you!” Phoenix plead.
“Yes well honey, you need your sleep. You haven’t been able to focus at work and I know your case load isn’t getting any smaller. Nobody wants a sleepy defense attorney. And you haven’t been the same here at home either. If the pills will help you sleep I think you should take them.” Summer took the glass of milk and leaned against the counter by the pantry.
“What do you mean I haven’t been the same at home?” Phoenix asked as he scratched at the biochip in his arm. He knew exactly what she meant. His temper had gotten shorter and they hadn’t made love in over a month.
“I mean you seem short recently. And I know it’s because you’re not getting good rest. Just please take the pills baby.” She said, trying to word it as softly as she could in her sleepy state.
“I’d really rather not honey.” his face plead to her to say he didn’t have to take the pills, but it was no use, she was focusing on drinking her milk. Not that it would have worked anyway. One of the things Phoenix loved and hated most about his wife was that she was very stubborn when she wanted to be. “But I guess I will.” he sighed as he put his glass in the cup receiver of the dish manager next to the refrigerator.
“Please do baby.” Summer plead as she too relinquished her glass, and walked to Phoenix for another kiss. Phoenix embraced her and kissed her again. “Now come back to bed.” Summer pat his butt and walked back down the hall. Phoenix sighed, called out “Lights Off” and as the lights were dimming to darkness followed Summer to the bedroom.

The next morning as Phoenix was stepping out of the shower, Summer called to him from the closet. “Don’t forget to take those pills darling!”
“I’m doing it right now.” he lied as he wrapped a light green towel around his waist and walked to the sink to begin shaving. He heard the whirr of the closet pulling the garments Summer requested and shook the bottle of pills Dr. Anderson had prescribed when it had finished.
“Good! I want to get some sleep tonight!” she called out again. “And I know how many pills are in that bottle Phoenix so I’ll know if you didn’t really take it!”
Phoenix rolled his eyes and put up his arms in surrender as he opened the pill bottle and dropped a little blue pill into his hand. “Water” he said to the sink, and it began to flow. He took a drink and begrudgingly swallowed the pill

Wtf is Flixom? Wtf is this blog about? Wtf am i reading this for?

Well to answer the first question, Flixom is a fictional world! It's parallel to our universe, but it's in the near future. I'm not gonna tell you much more about Flixom because you'll be reading about it in future posts and such.

This blog is about various characters in Flixom. The blog will be written in 3rd person narrative as a frame story. Each post will consist of a new short chapter in the overall story. As you will see we will be first following Phoenix in his plight to gain a bit of freedom from the tyranny of the Global Union and their attempts to subconsciously enslave the general populus! New adventures will be posted at least weekly if not more often so of course be sure to subscribe to the RSS to make sure you don't miss out on the action.

Why you're reading this. Well you're probably reading this because you know me OR you have learned about the New World Order stuff that's happening in our society and want to read a cool story with that as its premise :D

Stay Tuned for more Adventures In Flixom!!!!