Still beating...
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It was the year 2017. 14 year old Heather Bot was sitting at the dinner table with her mother and father. Set before them was a delicious masterpiece of a dinner, prepared with as much love as there was salt, and there was a lot. Heather picked up the B.L.I. brand ketchup and squirted it on her instant French fries.
“Wait a second little girl” said her mother in a kindly cautioning way “it’s your turn to pray”
Heather rolled her eyes, slapped her hands together and began to pray.
“Dear lord, thank you for this food, and, um, my family, um, amen.”
Heather snatched up her fork and gobbled down her food. Her parents looked at each other smiled and shook their heads.
Without warning the family felt a vigorous shake deep in the ground and heard a loud and growing roar. Heather fell from her chair and crawled to the living room window. She ripped open the curtains and revealed the monster that was responsible for the growling. A mushroom cloud was rising from the east and swallowing the world in its poisonous gas. Heathers parents grabbed her and had to practically drag her and her staring eyes down to the B.L.I. brand bomb shelter in the basement. The family curled up in a corner, dad holding mom, mom holding daughter and waited for the rumbling to pass.
6 Months Later
The family was crowded around the radio.
“Officials have announced it is safe to come out from your shelters for about an hour at a time. Better Living Industries public service units are in every zone.”
Heather giggled theatrically and ran up the stairs and into the living room. Her mother gasped in horror and went running after her screaming.
“Heather! It’s not safe! Come back! Please!”
“The radio man said its safe!” She argued rebelliously.
Heather danced in her living room as happy as can be until she opened her front door. Her heart sinks for her once beautifully manicured lawn had been reduced to a pale pile of sticks and dead grass. The front bumper of her car had melted and a Lhasa apso was lying dead and burned in her driveway. She slams the door shut and backs away. Her dad comes up from the basement with the radio blasting.
“We have to go to battery city!” He exclaimed. “They are providing food, shelter and clothes! C’mon! Get packed!”
Her mom validated him and warned everybody not to eat anything from the upstairs kitchen. Her dad only packed necessities. Her mom packed her best paintings, heathers baby pictures, and clothes. Heather, still stunned by the apocalyptic world outside, packed her clothes slowly and quietly. She did not want to go to battery city but she could not muster up enough courage to say so. Heather did not want to leave her home either. She cried in the corner of her room until her father drug her out into the driveway were she gave up and began walking with the other families to Battery City.
Present. 2019
Heather and her mother are fighting after her mom tries to make her take B.L.I. brand meds. They scream words of venom.
“Just take the damn pills!”
“What are you gonna do? Hold me down and shove them down my throat?”
“Don’t tempt me.”
“Bring it on!”
“God child, If you would just take the pills you would see that they are trying to help.”
“Don’t you realize the hurt in this family that’s been caused by them? For christ sake, they killed dad!”
“You know very well he died of natural causes.”
“At age thirty-five? You stupid, ignorant…..I hate you!”
“Oh heather, you don’t mean that.”
“Trust me mom. Heather died a long time ago.”
“ What the hell do I call you then?”
“ Heart Beat!”
She runs back to her room grabs her ray gun and marches out the front door in rage. As she makes her way out of her apartment building and down the street she takes off her white doctor’s coat and drops it in the road. She walks the streets of downtown battery city looking for the thrill of thoughtless shenanigans to distract her from what just happened at home. With her shoulder-length, wavy, blood red hair, skinny jeans, combat boots and colorful scarf the B.L.I. exterminators could pick her out as a free-thinker easy. She doesn’t care. Her entire view of the world has changed. She was suddenly thrown into a large battle of good and evil, survival of the fittest and eat or be eaten. Better Living Industries, once just a big business like Wal-Mart, has taken over as if they were the government. With their “miracle drug” they have brainwashed a great majority. Since the explosion the cities are now zones numbered by their distance from battery city. There are different dangers in each zone. Killjoys are the creative and intelligent people braving the dangers of the zones and rebelling against B.L.I. Heart Beat has joined the killjoy’s to fight to bring the color back in the world. Heart runs into a fellow killjoy. He is a tall tan man with an afro and a leather jacket.
“Hey Jet Star” she says in a whisper. “You got my thing?”
“Yeah girl! You know I got you covered.”
The man looks around and hands her a box.
“Thanks “she says. “I’ll be back later.
Inside that box is a new invention called a vend-a-hack. It looks like an old game boy attached by a series of cords to a plate that fits into the cash slot of a vending machine. Heart finds a vending machine herd hidden in a covered area behind a shopping mall, and attempts to get a new ray gun. As she is messing with the device she glances to the left and spots a draculoid in the distance half-way hidden by the automatic haircut machine. The Dracula masked, white suited, B.L.I. exterminators killed her father for the same reasons they are after her now. She ducks, but it’s too late. She feels a ray gun to her back. The dracs push her into a black van. Immediately she tries to strategize a way out. Being a worker for B.L.I.’s equine unit she knows their tricks, but her original mission was to go to work anyway, so she relaxes and accepts the free ride. The black van pulls up behind a tall sky scraper. The dracs push her out of the van and into the building but instead of hopping on the elegant chrome elevator, they open a fake emergency exit and lead her through a dark hallway and into a plain white and overly lit holding room. When the door closes behind her there is no evidence to show that a door was ever there except for the small square window. No evidence to show that there are walls either except trying to walk though them would result in pain. Out of nowhere appears a short, black-haired blue-eyed beauty that heart recognizes. She is an old friend of hers named Rose Gold.
“Oh my god! I missed you so much! Are you okay? Oh man, look at that cut. Did they do that to you? Don’t worry. I’ll get us out of here.”
Heart stands up to kick what looks like the door when her friend screams,
“NO!”
“What? What?” she says in shock and concern. She kneels down to comfort her shaking crying friend.
“They put a chip in the back of my neck. Every time I come close to the door I get shocked really bad.” Rose confesses. Her makeup pours from her eyes with the tears she sheds.
Heart shakes her head and begins to cry too.
“I’ll find a way to get out of here.” She promised. “Let me see your neck.”
Heart gasps at the sight of the wound on the back of rose’s neck. Protruding from it is a green disk with flashing lights. It is about as round as a golf ball, and somehow it is wrapped around her spine.
“I don’t think I can remove that without doing serious damage to your nervous system.” Heart states professionally.
Rose sighs and says,
“I know. That’s what they intended to do. Does this mean I’m one of them forever?”
“No!” Heart exclaims. “You were not, are not and will never be one of them. You’re too sweet.”
A draculoid comes up to the door and opens it. The girls freeze in shock and fear. Heart grabs her ray gun and stands up to fight. The drac points his gun back and fires the first shot. Heart doges it but the ray flies right past her and hits rose. Her friend groans and rolls over in pain. Suddenly she feels renewed. The ray hit the disk on the back of her neck and completely disabled it. The friend heart beat remembers rises up with a look of pure war on her face. She kicks the drac in the head in one super smooth, ninja-like motion. The drac falls to the ground. Rose steals his gun and follows Heart out the door. As they run for the emergency exit heart spots her vend-a-hack in the hands of a drac standing right in front of the door. She shoots the drac in the hand, snatches up the device and pushes her way out the door. They run and run laughing like maniacs until they reach a desolate part of zone 01. Heart spots a bunch of vending machines against the wall of an old gas station.
“Want something to eat?” she asked.
Rose nods her head. They jog over to the gas station and set up the device. Out from the vending machine pops a ray gun, a bag of chips, a white doctor’s coat and a bus pass. Rose munches on the chips while Heart puts her things in her pack. Heart stops, puts one hand on roses shoulder, and asks,
“Are you sure you are going to be okay?”
“I’ll be fine.” She says confidently.
They hug and both go on their way. Heart notices Rose is going a different direction from where her house is.
“Where are you going?” heart yells.
“Home!” She answers.
“Come here!”
Rose walks back.
“What’s going on? You live by the old Seven Eleven.” Heart asks.
Rose looks down and tries to find a way to explain this to her friend. Finally she says,
“I don’t live with my family anymore. They moved.”
“Were did they go?”
“Heaven”
Heart feels a stabbing pain in her chest and she feels her eyes filling with water.
“The dracs?” Heart asks already knowing the answer.
“Yeah. But It’s okay. I’m fine. I live with my brothers’ friend now. He takes care of me.”
Rose claims. “You should go. I’m fine. Really.”
Heart gives her friend another big hug and lets her go. She looks at her watch and runs to catch the next bus to battery city. An old man passes her and she notices a scar on his neck. She looks down in shame. As she stands at the bus stop in the middle of her old neighborhood she feels guilt really start to set in. Heart knows that she is very fortunate. Her apartment is nice and clean, she is never hungry and she is relatively safe. The bus pulls up and scares Heart out of her daydream. She shows the bus driver her pass and finds a seat while trying very hard not to make eye contact. The bus reflects the condition of the zone. Dirty. Sitting and staring out the window she drifts back into her daydream. She remembers her dad and her mom, together. She recalls her mother painting instead of doing paperwork. Her mom was once proud of the work she had done. Now she spends many lonely nights at her desk drunk and crying. Heart hopes one day she can get her mom to admit her guilt. Heart remembers Roses little sister telling her she wants to be a doctor. The screech of the bus’ old intercom announcing her stop interrupts her daydream once again. She gets up and off the bus and walks to the next building where Jet Star’s apartment is. She climbs the steps and rings the doorbell. He opens the door.
“Whoa. Are you okay?” he asks scanning her dirt covered body.
“Yeah. Business as usual around here.”
She hands him the gun.
“Thanks. Can I give you a ride to work?”
“Yes please.” she almost begs.
Star nods his head grabs his keys and heads out the door. On the way there the car is almost silent. Jet knows she doesn’t want to talk and Heart is too tired to notice. He stops at a nearby street corner.
“Here you go.” He says.
“Thanks so much.” She says with a smile.
They share a secret handshake and go on their way. Heart goes into a public bathroom and changes into her work outfit. When she comes out of the stall and looks in the mirror to put her wig on she stops and looks at herself in disgust. She remembers she does this for the horses and continues putting it on.
She walks out of the bathroom down the street and into the B.L.I. animal facility. She signs in at the plain white front desk were a Japanese woman scans her fingerprint and checks her badge. When she is all checked in she heads straight to her favorite horse. He’s a massive black Friesian. He is one of the last in the world. She looks around to make sure no one is looking wraps her arms around his neck and gives the horse a big hug. Happily she whispers in the horse’s ear.
“I love you.”
