The Skull Lord

What's Death Worth

A large elevator cranked and snapped its heavy locks into place. The doors pushed out steam as the began to roughly slide open. A crowd of people all with different types of prosthesis tech and body enhancements casually strolled out the doors onto the 14th Block. They were workers mostly, but you couldn’t tell which were headed home or which were headed to lunch. 

Suddenly, commotion broke out in the back. People were being shoved; some shout the nastiest things that come to mind in retort others continue to scurry off the elevator hoping to avoid the confrontation. And out of the crowd comes stumbling a young girl with orange red hair. She couldn't have been no older than sixteen. “Get the f**k out of my way!” She shouted then tripped and smacked her face on the hardened floor. “f**k!” The girl shouted and shook off the pain. She rubbed her head with her metal arm and grabbed her satchel hanging off her making sure nothing fell out.

“Move ya will ya!” A grungy and startling voice shouted from the elevator. The girl looked back into the crowd and spotted three familiar men with black plates stitched into their heads. They were also pushing their way through the crowd. The one in the middle had a gold jaw and a face covered in ink stitches. The one on the right had a spiked Jaw and Razor teeth. And the one on the left stood above the entire crowd with a comically pointed nose and short arms.

“Can you see her T?” The man with the gold jaw asked the abysmal human bird.

The tall man scanned the crowd. “There!” He shouted. The commotion on the elevator rose as the three men continued to rifle their way through the people in front of them. An even larger guy wearing a construction vest, sporting a robotic body, and a rugged human head was not so easily persuaded.

“In a hurry, are we?” The construction worker asked and stood his ground. There were others wearing similar construction vests and slowly began to surround the three thugs.

The girl shot up to her feet and darted towards the sky bridge to her left, she’s seen enough. POP! POP! POP! Gun shots fly off on the elevator and through the skulls of those in their way. Half the crowd dispersed into a panic. The other half merely stepped aside and observed.

 Sirens rang out. Two panels disguised as apart of the wall across from the elevator slid open and ushered out two city security bots. “Stand down and lower your weapons you are under arre-” The bot was cut short with a slug shot fired from the man with the spiked jaw. The cannon latched onto his wrist released a trail of smoke from the barrel. The man inhaled it insistently and coked another round into his gun. The second bot opened fire with its weapon, but it was no use for it suffered a large foot to the body sending it back into the panel it came from. The foot retracted itself back onto the one called T earlier.

            “That way!” The man on the left pointed and they rushed after her.

The girl bumped her way across the sky bridge and through the tenacious foot traffic of Ipiturs' Citizens. Once she reached the other side she grabbed an orb out of her satchel and held it up to her face. The orb scanned her and beeped three times quickly then a fourth time shortly after. She rolled it down the hall to her left and took off right. The orb projected a duplicate of the girl and it continued its’ way through the crowd and down the opposite side.

“f**k! Look like she split!” T said as the three men approached the opposite side of the sky bridge.

“You two go that way I’ll go the other.” The man with the golden jaw said.

“But which one is her?” Spiked jaw asked.

“It doesn’t matter there’s three of us and one of her.”

“There’s two of her.”

“Just f*****g go that way!” Golden Jaw shouted and raced down the hall to his right and the other two broke right.

The girl slivered her way through the crowd and around the corner. The hallway spit out into a galleria full of grub spots, places to buy Prosthesis Tech, and overloaded with holograms of military propaganda. She made her way to the far side as Spiked Jaw and T continued to push their way after her. 

“C’mon f*****g move!”

“We’re gonna f*****g lose her!”

Spiked Jaw groaned. “f**k it!” he said and pulled his cannons out. He fired four shots into the crowd. The bullets missed his target and pierced through two people around the girl. 

The unlikely innocent citizens hit the floor in front of her but, she rolled over them and continued to run. More security bots exited panels around the galleria with weapons raised, others in the crowd pulled out their own unique hand cannons and rifles, T smacked the s**t Spiked Jaw immediately.

“You godsdamn moron!”

“What!? Let’s just snatch the pack and flex!”

“Looks like there's no choice now.” T said and leaped with his large legs over the crowd and toward the girl. 

“Everyone weapons down and identify yourselves.” A security bot colored different from the rest echoed to the crowd and again through the surrounding speakers. No one budged. Most were looking towards the ceiling with unease.

T grabbed at air nearly snatching the girls' hair after closing the distance. Silver Jaw bum rushed his way towards him as swiftly as possible.

The girl slid under a food cart and made her way towards some steps heading down into another area. But T cuts her off with another leap. She looks to head back into the crowd but Silver Jaw has her dead to rights after musing a security bot and shooting another person in front of her.

“Hand over the chip.” Silver Jaw said.

“Ok, ok, ok, ok. Just. Just. Give me a second.”

“Times up.” Silver Jaw said and he fires a round through her head. It hits T and he flies back down the steps.

“What the f**k?” Silver Jaw said and looked at his hand cannon while the girl remained standing with a smile on her face. The Orb beeped three times and a large explosion erupted in the galleria caving in the area behind her, blasting a few stores, and shattering some glass projections.

“Haha, got ya.” The girl said with a smile as she swiped closed a POV hologram from a pad.

“And I got you.” Golden Jaw said. He grabbed the girl by her hair and tossed her against the wall. She couldn’t get to her feet quick enough to avoid his next grab. He shoved her head into the wall then grabbed her by her throat and rose her up against it. He pressed his silver and gold smart revolver into the wrinkles of her forehead. “Now give it up.” He said.

“Ok, ok, ok, ok! Just, Just don’t kill me.

“That’s what your friends said. Tell em I did you all a favor.”

The girl grabbed the barrel of the revolver with her metal arm and Golden Jaw pulled the trigger. But, instead of the sound of a loud pop the sound of a click followed up by the sound of a dying laser surprised Golden Jaw.

“What the..?” Before Golden Jaw can figure out what had happened, a plasma dagger poked its way into his neck. “ARRRGHHH! f**k!” He shouted.

The girl kicked him away from her and scrambled for her pad. She quickly tapped on it and the Elevator doors behind Golden Jaw opened. She sprinted and threw her shoulder into him. Golden Jaw stumbled into the doors and a red light illuminated the shaft. A siren rang out for a warning but, it was no use. An Elevator split Golden Jaw at the shins, and all you could hear is the emergency brakes mixing with befuddled voices, scraping metal, and hot flesh.

“Tell em yourself.” The girl said.

Moments later, the girl exited another elevator stopping at the 212th Block. She limped and dragged her way down a series of hallways and turns until she reached the far side of the building. There was a series of doors in organic language signaling apartment numbers. She arrived at the last one tucked into the corner and revealed the palm of her right hand to the reader on the door. The door slid open after lighting green and the girl fell inside.

“Welcome Home Anne.”  An artificial voice said. It sounded like someone’s favorite aunt, encouraging yet absolutely annoying. “You made it back. Shall I start your game where you left off?”

Annie sighed and buried her head into the carpet.

“Something to eat first then.” The rooms' AI said.

“Annnd Boom! We’re outta there.” Marsh, said to his friends.

“I’m sorry that just doesn’t sound like a good plan.” Kitty said back to him.

“This doesn’t sound like a plan at all.” Anne followed up.

“That’s exactly why it is, a good plan. They’re not stupid, they would expect someone to-”

“-Ok ok we got it. We don’t need you to explain it again. It’s f*****g raining.” Anne cut Marsh short. The six of them were unconventionally huddled in an alley outside a Unionist building in Casino District.

Marsh grabbed a key card out of the satchel hanging by his thigh. “If this goes right, they might not even shoot at us.”

“This seems like a lot for a damn hard drive.” Gjacolb said with a horribly attempted mumble.

“Actually, it’s smaller than that.” Marsh said.

“WHAT!-” Kat shouted and grabbed Marshes forearm “You said!-”

“Obviously, I mean in dimensions not in implications.” Marsh reassured his friends.  

“We’re all gonna f*****g die.” Desmon said and held his head.

“Just trust me. After this we’ll be kissing this moon goodbye.” Marsh said and swiped the key card through the reader on the door.

What happened next, Anne still can’t believe as she sat in her shower replaying the events over and over in her head; A large electric bowie knife exiting the skin of a Union worker, His body collapsing to the floor, The large man with reptilian scales on his shoulders staring them down, and the incomprehensible improvisation of Kitty and Kat.

 The water ran hot down her shoulders. She curled up as tight as her bones would allow but, her eyelids wouldn’t do the same. The images of splattering blood and her friend’s lifeless bodies wouldn’t escape her. She swiped through the redundant handful of unitards displayed on the shower door. One couldn’t tell if she had already made her decision or not. The news was displayed on next to it. ‘LOS ARIA GANG VIOLENCE CLIMBING TOWARDS ALL TIME HIGHS AMIDST INTERGALACTIC WAR.’ The headlines read. The time lapse video before and after the explosion cleanup had already hit a over a million views. And more footage of shoot outs and explosions found their way behind it.  

Anne finally realized that sleeping in the shower wasn’t ideal, no matter how comforting the hot water felt. She crawled out the shower and onto her feet stepping over to the counter. She leaned over the sink and looked in the mirror. The past few hours continued to flash and ping her right on the bridge of her nose. Her eyes slammed shut as she tried to think about anything else. Sadly, only tears seem to work their way out of her head. She looked back into the mirror and didn’t quite notice it at first. She looked at her reflection a bit harder and her heart skipped a beat. She jumped away from the mirror recognizing her reflection wasn’t identical.

The reflection had two arms made of flesh and digital markings on its forehead. It had richer red hair and glowing eyes.

Anne touched her arm then quickly her face. She rubbed her eyes and looked back into the mirror. The odd reflection only stood there and smiled back at her. Anne’s eyes widen and she ran out the bathroom and towards her window. The outside rains were beating upon the glass, but she could still see her face. It was how it’s supposed to be. She rushed back into the bathroom but her reflection this time was her own. There were no digital markings nor a normal left arm made out of flesh and bone. She stepped back again. The sound of steam pressing out of a wall behind her made her jump. She shot around ready to strike with her enhanced arm, but she would have only damaged her closet opening up with a unitard hanging from a pole freshly pressed.

“Is this the one you wanted?” The room AI said.

Anne yanked the unitard off the pole and slipped into it. “The f**k is-”

INCOMING CALL! A notification from her bathroom mirror rang. A window popped up onto her mirror with the letters T.R.Y. She tapped on her mirror and a boy similar in age with nappy hair appeared on it.

 “Annie what the f**k! You’re on the f*****g news! s**t! Where is everyone! I.. I can’t reach-”

“They’re dead Terry. I… I…” Anne struggle to formulate a sentence.  

“What? What do you mean they’re dead!? What happened? I, I just spoke to you guys a few hours ago! Annie what the hell is going on!?” Terry asked.

Annie stared at her reflection. She still had no words to explain how everything fell apart so fast. And she had no inclination to begin describing what she just witnessed in the mirror. “I dunno what’s going on Terry.” She said.

“Neither do I! So f*****g tell me Annie! Where’s Marsh, Kat, her brother, and everyone else? What f*****g happened? Did you guys even get the drive?” Terry asked.

“f**k that drive! We should’ve never gone for that stupid ass s**t! I knew it! I knew we should’ve-”

“Annie! You’re not about to tell me our friends are dead and then spiral into a panic attack. Just tell me what’s going on. We… We need to just figure this out.”

“There’s nothing out to figure Terry! We opened the door, the security guard was already being mugged, and we f*****g winged it from there!... Marsh and I got the drive but, he… He didn’t make it. None of them did.”

Terry sighed and dropped his head as he tried to take her story and formulate it. “f**k…. f**k Annie. I’m, I’m sorry. I… I should’ve been there.”

“No Terry, you shouldn’t’ve. Cause you would’ve died first.” Annie said.

“Yeah… You’re probably right. I told you guys to wear the damn earpieces. I could’ve at least done something.”

“Well… What do we do Terry?”

Terry sat back in his chair and thought for a few moments. “You got the drive, right?”

Annie looked over towards her bed where her satchel was leaned up against on the floor. “Yea.. Yeah I got it.”

“Then let’s hope Marsh was right.. Let’s just hope this drive is what death’s worth.”

“We’re still gonna try and sell it?” Annie asked.

“That was his plan. Our plan.”

“Yeah but, I don’t think he planned on not seeing it through for himself.”

“Marsh also didn’t plan for you to come along and burn down the orphanage. Now look where we are.”

Annie was silent. Terry could tell she was reminiscing and gave her a few moments.

“Just upload and send the data to me. I’ll let you know what I find. And we’ll go from there.” Terry finally said.

“What do you want me to do in meantime?” Annie asked.

“Well you just blew yourself up on camera. So eat those nasty ass pickled chips you like and play dead.” Terry said. 

“f**k you Terry.” Annie chuckled.

“We’ll get through this Annie. We got our ticket off this moon now; we just need a ride.”

Annie and Terry stared at each other for a lingering moment; each unsure about what happens next. But one thing that was for certain, their story was only beginning. And the crosshairs were lining up directly with Annie’s Head.