Wonders of Post Apocolyptia Chapter 4 - Constant Reminders
Wandering around these strange streets, it didn't take Mark long to make sure he VERY far from home. The cars were driving on the right hand side, which struck him as strange so it must be different from back home. Everyone had a strange accent and there were plenty of flags with stars and stripes hanging off of windows and over shops. Mark was tempted to read his files now but he felt like he needed to be somewhere safe before doing anything. He noticed a blue news stand up ahead with a yellow scaled dragon, who looks like he should be retired, trying his hardest to sell the huge piles of newspapers that have collected around his stand. Presumably, Mark thought, he hasn't had much luck selling papers today. Mark reached into his generously sized cash reserve and took out a hundred euro note- Mark stopped himself there. He needs to blend in, which means he needs to get used to being in this new country. Mark took out a hundred dollar bill, he'd heard the term on the way, and in his head tried to emulate the local accent as much as he could. It killed him at how he was murdering his vowels, which made him smile that his vowels were all he was worrying about at the moment. He walked up to the dragon and smiled warmly at him.
"Hey, whatsup? How much for the times?" Mark said, painfully aware that his accent was nowhere near as good as it sounded in his head. The dragon turned to him with an expression of curiosity, wondering what this boy with the strange accent wanted. "Paper?" He asked rather loudly "Three bucks." Mark handed him the hundred dollar bill, bemusing the aging dragon. "I-I can't give you change for this, ya know." He said, clearly confused. Mark smiled again, and this time decided to drop the accent. "Keep it, you need it more than I do" Mark picked up one of the newspapers and walked off, leaving the vendor frozen on the spot. He kept walking, looking for somewhere to sit down. Pretty soon he found a coffee shop and grabbed a table outside. He hated the strong coffee smell that eminated from inside. He put his bag on the table and sat back. Although his immediate surroundings were foreign, alot of things were very familiar. The feel of the paper, the smell of the coffee, the simple luxury of sitting down on a proper chair. Mark smiled, maybe if he waited long enough things would come back by themselves. He was about to take a look at his file when a waiter walked up beside him and tapped him on the shoulder "Excuse me, what would you like to drink?" Mark quickly looked up to see a red and black scaled dragon, a little older than him, waiting there smiling with a pen and paper in hand. Mark immediately started blushing for two reasons. One: He was starting to fall asleep outside a coffee shop and two: This was the sexiest thing he'd ever seen. The dragon must have noticed him blushing because he smiled warmly and blushed a little himself. "Oh, yes, sorry, I'll have... a hot chocolate and a chocolate muffin... please" Mark was panicking at this point. He had no idea how to react, but the dragon looked like he had all the confidence in the world. "Sure thing, I'll be right back" The dragon walked back off inside, allowing Mark to breathe a sigh of relief. He tried to reassure himself that he'll be gone after he's finished his food. Mark read the headline in the paper "CONFIRMED: ALL DEAD IN IRELAND NUKING" followed by some satellite photo's of the island from before and after, then the page goes off to some sort of celebrity scandal nearer to the bottom. Mark sighed and tossed the paper back onto the table. He was tempted to take out his file and read about everything he was but he stopped himself. As crazy as it sounded to one half of his brain, the other said that he'd be cheating if he read it, that he should try and remember it himself than have it told to him on an unfeeling piece of paper. He took out the files, being careful not to read any of it, and tossed it in the nearest bin. Mark had to walk to the bin and on his way back he noticed the dragon sitting opposite his seat with his hot chocolate and muffin. Feeling both curious and curiously defensive. What if he notices the money in the bag and tries to take it? He quickly returned to his table, although not too quick as to attract attention. He sat down with a smile and took a sip of his drink "Is nice." The dragon smiled "Thanks, I got the fresh stuff from the back" There was an akward silence for a few seconds, neither one meeting eye to eye until Mark blurted out, rather suddenly, "I'm Mark" The dragon smiled again, happy at some reaction from this strange wolf "I'm Daniel. Clearly," Daniel leaned forward, leaning on the table "You're not from around here. Where're you from?"
This wiped the smile from Marks face. How the hell am I going to get out of this? "Uhm..." Mark glanced subconsciously at the newspaper, trying to work himself out of it, but the glance to the paper made his effort all-for-naught because Daniel caught the glance and followed it to the paper. Daniel chuckled a bit "You must be kidding me! No one survived that." Mark sighed and held his cup with both hands. He wasn't sure whether to convince him that by all right he should be dead right now or that he'd come from from somewhere else. This pause was enough evidence to Daniel that it's possible that Mark, this one wolf of millions, this one wolf who he was sure fancied him, was possibly the only survivor of a nation that became hell on earth. There was a certain dullness in Marks eyes. A certain dullness as if he had only experience that hell, and any other that there was to offer. Daniel moved his scaled hand to Marks paw. As soon as they made contact, a string of pictures flashed through Daniel's mind. He could no longer see the wolf, but a quick succession of snapshots of a ruined city... a large fire... flying... a white, clinical room... and then himself. All of these images came with some of the emotion attached to each one. He snapped back into reality, into the chair by a table on a street outside the coffee shop. He looked at Mark to see him writhing in pain, blood seeping from his left paw and also dripping down the side of his face like tears. For Mark, this experience was not as pleasant as seeing someone else's memories. He felt his mind was being invaded, each snapshot was like a knife to the head and a nail through the paw. He couldn't stop this from happening, it's as if he was giving up the privacy of his mind freely but everything was still being wrenched out of it. When it finally stopped, Mark's head was pounding sharply and his left paw was throbbing. The pain was lingering and he put all of his effort into not screaming or collapsing. He felt like his head was going to explode and held his head in his paws and felt some sort of wet dripping off of him. He heard Daniel speaking to him increasingly loudly, trying to get some sort of reaction from him. With his head still in his paws, he managed to croak an "I'm grand" andimmediately
tasted blood as he did. Although the pain wasn't receding, Marks handling of it got to the point where he could move his paws away from his head. He opened his eyes, blood stinging them as he tried. He blinked the majority of it away to the point where he could see. He looked at his paw and saw a large gash on the back and front of his paw, but it didn't go all the way through. It was still bleeding, as well as his ears. He heard a siren, there were two men in uniform asking Mark questions. He couldn't focus on what was going on inside of him, let alone focus on the voices. Eventually he was put in the back of an ambulance. Daniel, who wasn't able to go along in the ambulance, scribbled his details on a napkin and threw it in Marks bag as well as the muffin. He handed the bag to the ambulance driver, a mouse, and stood there as the vehicle sped off down the road and around the corner.
Inside the ambulance, Marks pain slowly began to ease. The blood dripping from his ears stopped and his paw, his left paw, he could see the flesh knitting itself back together. "I see we've been making friends" said a familiar voice. Mark took his eyes off his paw to see James, the same mouse from the labs he was held captive in. He held up the bag "You seem to have 'misplaced' your files, or was that intentional?" He placed the bag on Marks chest "Now, listen to me, I told you that you were experimental, didn't I? Well even with any advantages you may gain from this, there are some disadvantages, such as the one you just suffered, we cannot forsee. Even with all the modern medical knowledge in the world, you are alone if things turn for the worse. So remember this: no one can help you." Mark tried to give him the finger but the German Shepherd jabbed a large needle into Marks chest and injected the entire syringe full of whatever chemical into his heart. "It's adrenaline" Said James "It should make you right as rain. Now, out you go!" The ambulance stopped and the doors opened to reveal a near-empty alley, with only a few large bins dotted by the walls. Mark was dragged out and dumped by the wall. The ambulance sped off again, leaving Mark sitting there recovering from whatever-the-hell happened to him. After about two hours, and a couple of people who dropped spare change by his feet, Mark stuck his hand into his bag to get some money for a hotel room or a B&B but instead felt some sort of food stuff and a piece of paper. He took out the muffin and a chocolate-smeared napkin with Daniel's address and number on it. He wolfed down the muffin (no pun intended) and made his way to a very much vandalised payphone. Mark punched the keys, or the space where there used to be a key, and didn't have to wait long for Daniel to pick up. "Hello?" Said Daniel calmly "Hey Daniel, it's Mark" He heard something drop on Daniels end "Mark! Where are you? Are you ok?" "I'm fine, listen, I need a place to stay and the hospital won't have me because I have no insurance. Mind if I spend the night on your couch or whatever?" There was about a ten second pause. "Uh... sure, let me ring my roomie and see if he's grand with it. You able to make your way there?" Mark sighed with relief "Yeah sure I'll grab a taxi" "Ok, well I should be back there in about three fourths of an hour" "What the hell is three fourths?" "What? You know, the fraction? Three over four?" "What? you mean three quarters?" "What, no, three fou-... nevermind. I should be home in about 45 minutes. Meet me about then" "Grand, thanks." Mark hung up, glad he had a place to stay, and even more glad he had a friend or at least someone who would let him spend the night on the couch. He took a moment to think if there was anything else he needed. A shower, for one, his fur was feeling all dirty and horrible. He also needed new clothes, which he made his highest priority. He'd worn these clothes for days in the wasteland then walking around here. He looked up and down the street and saw a fairly high end clothes shop near the end.
It didn't take Mark long to get to the shop, but he new he was out of place when all of the high-and-mighty business people wearing suits were staring at him as he walked down the path. He quickly darted into the shop and started having a look around. The place looked like it sold a wide variety of clothes at a variety of high prices. He grabbed a plane white t-shirt off a rack and some black combats aswell. He was looking around for some more clothes when a female skunk in a grey suit trotted up all hoity-toity with a burly, black-furred wolf behind her trying as hard as he could to look menacing but clearly had an aura of boredom about him. "I'm sorry sir, but we do not allow homeless people in our store" Mark chuckled and turned to the skunk, putting his hands behind his back and making himself look as tall as possible "I'm sorry madame" Mark said with sarcasm as thick as mud, "But I do not allow bitches to take up my time" With that, Mark turned back around and picked out a nice black long-sleeve shirt. The skunk tapped him on the shoulder again and said, with a strong undertone of frustration, "If you cannot pay for the clothes, you must leave" Mark sighed and ignored her, looking for a coat. He found a nice long, brown, cotton trench coat. "Awesome, now all I need is a fedora and a gun and I'll be a 1960's detective" "SIR!" The skunk yelled rather loudly in a shrill voice "If you do not intend to pay for those item I'm afraid I must call the police" Mark continued to ignore her, meandering around the shop closer and closer to the till. True to her word, two policemen showed up minutes later, but Mark had already gotten everything he needed from the shop. She began talking to the policemen, and pointed towards Mark. Smiling, Mark slowly made his way towards the till. The two officers made their way towards him. The baffled badger at the desk turned his head from Mark to the pile of clothes on his counter then back to Mark "can you-" "Yes, I can pay for it, and there's a tip if you can speed up the process" The badger nodded and scanned everything in as quickly as he could "That's $249.99 sir" said the badger nervously, as though he was doing something wrong. Just then the police reached the till and stood behind Mark. "Sir" one of the officers said "One sec" Mark said, kind of getting annoyed of constantly being called sir. Mark took out 300 dollars and reminded himself that he should really slow down with his spending. He handed the money to the badger and told him to keep the change. He put the clothes into his bag and turned towards the officers "How may I help you two?" They chuckled and turned towards the skunk and sighed "Maam we need to talk" The look on the skunks face forced Mark to bite his tongue to stop laughing. He slipped out of the shop and grabbed a taxi. Mark handed the piece of paper to the the driver and sat in the back. He leaned against the window and let himself get absorbed in his own little world about James and his "thugs". Would they follow him everywhere? Would they hurt Daniel? Thoughts like this were all Mark could think about until he reached a fairly fancy looking appartment complex. There was a fountain, a simple one but a fountain none the less, in a green near the entrance to the complex. The appartments looked modern, kind of minimalistic modern, and each of the six buildings looked the same except for the large "A", "B" etc. The cab stopped infront of building D and barked out "$75". Mark gave him $75, staying true to his word that he'd be careful with his money. The driver gave him back the piece of paper with the address and Mark made his way to the foyer. Mark walked briskly to the large glass doors and pushed on the shiny metal handle... but it didn't move. He looked around and saw a panel with a list of twelve names and buzzers. Mark looked at the paper grinned. He presses the twelfth button. He heard a short buzz and a familiar voice crackled through a speaker. "Hello? Who is it?" Mark started looking for the button to reply, even pressing randomly around the speaker to try and find it. "Where the fuck..." He muttered. "Hey, Mark, it's ok, there's no button. Come on up." The door clicked softly and opened. Mark walked through and made his way towards the lifts. The floor was made up of marble tiles with a large mosaic in the center of the floor. The walls were made up of a black stone which seemed to sparkle. There were two leather couches and a coffee table in the foyer, nothing else. Mark tapped the button for the lift and the door opened instantly. Inside the lift was all metal. The floor, the ceiling and the walls. He stepped in and pressed the button with "twelve" written out in small, fancy letters. The doors closed and the lift jerked into life. It made it's way up faster than he had imagined. There was a soft ding inside the lift and a womans voice calmly said "Twelfth Floor. Watch yourself". Watch yourself? What? Mark didn't have time to dwell on this because when the doors opened what he saw took his breath away
"Hole....ee....shit..."