~ chapter one ~ part two ~
The entry, Nocturne enters, Mishil in the middle of the room staring at the ceiling. Dead float in the water from the ages' tales, seen through the windows, all encrusted with sea life, dried over. Nocturnes slows ...
Nocturne - "That's fucked up."
Mishil - "Yeah ... it really is. Recognize it ?"
Nocturne - "From my file. They were transporting my tube."
...
Nocturne - "You ?"
...
Mishil - "I ... was transporting with your tube."
Mishil - "Yeah ... it really is. Recognize it ?"
Nocturne - "From my file. They were transporting my tube."
...
Nocturne - "You ?"
...
Mishil - "I ... was transporting with your tube."
...
Nocturne - "That's fucked up. So should I kill you now or wait until you're thinking about something else."
Mishil - "Fun ..."
____
Mishil bobs out of the water, Titanic sinking behind, undercurrent drags at her. Underwater the people swirl into the sinking undercurrent, she works back out.
Breathing hard at the surface she looks for floating wreckage.
...
Nocturnes tube pops out of the water.
____
Nocturne - "Wow. You're welcome."
Mishil - "Best sidekick ever."
Nocturne - Giggles, "I totally am. Ask this head !"
She pulls a zombie head from her side-bag, snapping it's jaws at her with wide eyes.
Nocturne - "Wow. You're welcome."
Mishil - "Best sidekick ever."
Nocturne - Giggles, "I totally am. Ask this head !"
She pulls a zombie head from her side-bag, snapping it's jaws at her with wide eyes.
Nocturne - (zombie voice) "... nnn ... best sidekick ever ... arrrr ..."
('Nearer My God, to Thee' by Sam Cooke)
Mishil
floats in the open sea on the tube, rescue ships in the distance. On
her stomach, staring through the glass at Nocturne sleeping.
Mishil - (voiced over) "I almost ate you, you know. I was floating a for a really long time."
Nocturne - "Why didn't you just flag down the rescue."
Mishil - A sigh ... "Name was getting old again ... thought maybe it was time to let it die."
Floating on the sea, staring at Nocturne sleeping, she taps on the glass.
____
Mishil - "Couldn't get the tube open. No hard tools, no leverage."
She turns to Nocturne, the zombie head stares back from her hand.
Nocturne - (zombie voice while it snaps it's jaws at Mishil) "Meeeeeh ... My name is Yorick ... and I wanted to eat her tooooo ... meeeehhhh ..."
...
Nocturne - "Wait. So then what happened."
...
Mishil - "Forty days. Forty nights." She lights a joint and passes it. "No shit. And then we arrived in New York."
Nocturne - Gigglesnort through the smoke, inhales again, "And then what happened." Passes.
Mishil - Inhales ... "I was arrested for transporting human cargo."
Nocturne - Coughs laughing, "Holy shit ! And then what happened."
Mishil - "They wheeled you away, I broke out, been looking for you ever since. I was curious if the incident made you very lucky, or very unlucky. ... For me."
...
Zombie head - (Nocturne) "Yorrrrrick. My name is Yorrrrick."
Mishil - "The library."
Zombie - "O ... Kayyyy ..."
________
A spiral staircase, a door creaks open unseen from the top, silence, a shadow toes down the stairs. Crouched at the bottom, a slow load of a pistol's pull, to quiet.
________
They find the library torn apart, books strewn, an empty book-stand in the middle of the room. From atop a shelf ~
Mariposa Liddell - "Are you the reason it's the fucking Titanic in here ?"
Mishil - "You the reason it's fucking zombies ?"
...
Mariposa - "No ... I'm the reason it's a fucking mess. The book's gone."
Nocturne - "... i might be why it's zombies ..."
Mariposa - "I don't think you alone can be. There must be someone else here. It takes two." To Mishil, "I found you in the library. Right here." She slides a book from atop the shelf next to her, it hits the ground open at Mishil's feet, documents and photographs taped within."
Mishil - Picking it up ... "And you ?"
Nocturne - "Frock-blocking my future cunnilingus ..."
Mishil - Paging, "No she's not."
Nocturne - "Oh !"
________
A flashlight clicks on, Timepiece pokes in the halls.
A zombie jumps out, she beans him with a baseball bat from the left and shoulders it. A suppressed shot from the pistol in her right, light from underneath, drops another.
The light shines examining down the long corridor. Ending with a left and a right, broad doors in the middle. A pause ...
The light goes out, NV activation sound (it doesn't actually make a sound) to a green view. View steps to the zombie, half crushed skull from the bat, the other eye looking back at her.
She switches to infra-red ... nothing. Changes back, shoots.
Down the dark hallway, another flash.
________
Mariposa - Interrupting quickly, "Mariposa Liddell ! She looks at Nocturne, "But you I saw on the TV."
Nocturne - "It was that alien invasion, wasn't it."
Mariposa - "That's the one ! But they never did say your name ..."
Nocturne - Smiles mysteriously, "They never do ..."
Mishil - Paging through the scrapbook. "It's Nocturne."
Nocturne - (background) "Aw man !"
Mishil - She closes it. "We already killed everything on this floor. You can come down now."
Mariposa - "Oh my god thank you. That was up here already. I was paging through it ..."
She hops down to fours.
Mariposa - "... when I heard the shots."
She stands, zombie face in hers.
Zombie - "... one of usssss ..."
________
Timepiece stands in the armory, face and rest half mechanical. Walls of weapons, every kind.
"God damn it."
____
________
~ Cranium ~
After separation from the others like her, she's been adapting our grade equipment. These are her eyes, set into her head, probably in black. Peripheral night vision goggles (L-3 GPNVG-18), with a VR headset, set over
All a bit too big, fused to the cranium. Vision modes and clicks are as an '80s 'View-Master' toy. VR mapping is public military grade, which is nothing like any movie.
________
____
Eyes zoom and focus, clicking to a pair of flintlock looking pistols.
Timepiece - View zooms and reads over them, back out. "Huh."
________
Nocturne and Mishil share a blanket on a sofa in the lounge, Nocturne laying with her head on Mishil's chest. Mishil stares into the fire, watching the scrapbook burn, cradling Nocturne's head with one arm, the other stretched across her.
Mariposa - From a chair, stoking the fire, "It was the only book like it in the library. No one else. It seems like Persephone's had her eye on you for a long time."
Mishil - "Yeah ..." She stares, her arm under the blanket moving ...
Nocturne - Gasps for air with a quiver and pushes into Mishil, legs braced against the arm of the sofa. She looks up at her, "oh my god ..."
Mariposa turns around.
Mishil stares coldly into the fire, her thumb lines Nocturne's mouth.
________
Timepiece pulls tubes from her lower back and plugs them into the pommels of the pistols, a hiss.
________
Asherah gasps, head forward between suspended arms. Tears stream, "I love you." His hand reaches under her chin, she jerks with a roar.
The wooden chest lid jumps again, unnoticed.