#249
Now to the electrifying intro to the Tin Universe that I
change a little from time to time but it’s still basically the same.
This reality came to become known as The Tin Universe by
means of a traveler called Record. Hipster aliens call it The Tin but most hipsters
are duck tailed fuck wipes so no one takes anything they say serious.
Record isn’t…? Wasn’t..? I’m a bit tense stupid sometimes
and it’s hard to properly use tense with those who can travel through time. Anyways
he wasn’t a hipster. Technically he had hillbilly blood in him but that’s a
very long and complicated story that I’m sure not to get to one of these days.
What Record was, was lost at the time when he stumbled into
this universe; which is really an embarrassing moment for a traveler who walks
space, time, realities, and other such things. Not that he always knew where he
was going, the truth was he didn’t most of the time, but lost to his lot is
being stuck somewhere they know nothing about because escape of any kind comes
from knowledge.
The embarrassment caused him to get extremely drunk with a group
of Caspery scouts he met on a mining planet. After helping them sort out a mess
he decided to travel with them for a bit and on a scientific expedition to a
moon, not our moon, but a moon, that is when a party erupted.
Record was depressed at being lost and the Caspery scouts
where bored it had been days and more since they had gotten the chance to shoot
at anyone; so during the party when asked all the places he had travelled he
went on a rant and when he got to where he was he said, “…and then you have
this tin bit place.’
Of all the rewrites of this blasted intro was one was bone
idle incoherence at its best.
And that young writers is what happens when a writer drinks
coffee that was forty percent coffee and sixty percent cinnamon sugar. Does
things to the brain you see.
BREAKING NEWS:
Hundreds of people watching a fireworks display in Lake Eola Florida claim to
have seen in the middle of the finally of the fireworks a man flying through the
sky with a flaming head. Police are saying a number of the people who have
reported this incident have also tested postive for a new street designer drug.
BREAKING NEWS: Egypt
continues its violent march into a civil war as a group of soldiers are killed
in an ambush rocket attack while fighting police in Rafah. Rebels are telling
anyone who can listen that the states have been using a Beyond Human weapon
going against international treaties.
BREAKING NEWS: A press
conference was held today to announce that the last head of the terrorist group
involved with the recent pre-school bombing has been tracked down and killed by
U.S. forces in Pakistan. Pakistani officials say this operation was conducted
without their consent and it adds a highly uneasy feeling to their relationship
with the United States.
BREAKING NEWS: As
election for president gets closer in U.S. the crazy nature of America shows
its strips.
A FIRST SHOT FIRED, PART SEVEN
Like something out of a cookie cutter action film or
television episode from a show that will end up in the dollar bin at a library book
sale, once when Sergeant Luke was in Washington DC for a conference on city
police and how to handle Beyond Human situations, a conference sponsored by
Homeland Security; which had panels on such subjects as Being A Benefit To
Homeland Security, Enemy Combatants, When Pulpy Comes To Your City, and Don’t
Let Media Cloud Your Thoughts (That Creates Dead Bodies.)
Where was I?
Ok.
Sergeant Luke had been there a day and could already tell
the conference was nothing more than a propaganda push against any sympathetic
feelings towards Beyond Humans.
It’s not like Sergeant Luke is a bleeding heart liberal when
it comes to Beyond Humans. He voted for The Beyond Human Database Act but all
the stuff that’s come after that including the disappearances, the prisons, the
executions, the thought processes of turning the image of cursed everyday
Americans into terrorists was vile in his eyes.
His views on Beyond Humans was solidified one night at the
hotel bar. So far at the conference he was making friends bringing up human
rights and due process, and was sitting alone in a booth.
The hotel bar was dark, decorated in a lot of dark reds and darker
purples. Very 1970’s. Or 50’s. The place was normally filled with politicians
and lobbyists so any city ordinances about smoking in such places didn’t apply
here.
The loud noises of the bar were clinking glasses, flowing
smoke, and chatter but a voice stood out to Sergeant Luke, the voice of one
Detective Glenn from California.
He had met the fat, loud, and smelly Detective Glenn during
a panel on The Coming Beyond Human Gang Problem (And How To Deal With It.)
Detective Glenn was all on the side of quarantining arrested
Beyond Humans and Luke was against this as a lone voice and Detective Glenn
confronted him after the panel for his dissention.
That confrontation ended with Detective Glenn on his ass.
And that’s what Detective Glenn was talking about in the
bar. He was extremely drunk and pissed loud yelling about cops like Luke.
Luke just smiled and drank another beer. He would have been
happy to sit and drink those beers and eat his burger and fries but the fat ass
decided he wanted to walk from the bar and sit down in Sergeant Luke’s booth.
The instant of this man sitting across the table from him in
such close quarters sent Sergeant Luke’s anger meter up.
“Sitting here all by yourself because you’re a lonely voice
for the poor Beyond Humans?” Detective Glenn
“Drinking alone because you’re a complete asshole?” Sergeant
Luke
“You lucky punched me,” Detective Glenn
“So always says the man who ends up on his ass,” Sergeant
Luke
Before any more quips could be exchanged the smoke filled
air of the bar was immediately replaced by a thick foam that hung in the air
for a minute before falling down on everyone. The bits of the substance that
touched skin burned them like a kind of acid but it only hurt with direct
contact on skin.
Detective Glenn was screaming holding his face like a good
deal of the others in the bar except for Sergeant Luke who only was hit by a
few small splatters because he was wearing a baseball cap.
With all the screams of pain and panic a woman walked into the
bar dressed in an all white suit. She was smiling, “One of the many varied ways
I can cause others pain. You want to paint all Beyond Humans as killers. I’m
going to show you a killer.”
Sergeant Luke slide out from the booth with his gun pulled,
“Freeze right there or I shoot!”
“Well, well, one isn’t all whining and crying. Let me
introduce myself, I’m Bonnie Girl.”
“Don’t make another move. You have attacked a room full of
law enforcement. The only way you’re going to make it out of this alive is by surrendering
to me right now,” Sergeant Luke
Bonnie Girl walked over to the bar area, “So I’m in danger?”
she asked.
On cue all the people near the bar including the bartender
burst into a green flame that only burned them and nothing else and it was
burning really hot and turned them into ash very fast.
Sergeant Luke was thinking if he opened fire would it even
make much of a difference.
“You might be thinking would shooting this person have any
effect. The answer is no. You know one of these days people like me are going
to organize and you will find out just what its really like to be scared of us,”
Bonnie Girl
Sergeant Luke was startled as everyone else started choking.
“Tell everyone about me,” and with that Bonnie Girl
disappeared in a twisting of winds.
Sergeant Luke called for backup from local police and helped
with emergency personal but he was the only one to survive this attack. He
didn’t know if it was the vision of Bonnie Girl but this attack, on this
conference, helped stir anti-Beyond Human hatred even more.
The conference continued but Sergeant Luke left. He had
planned to do so anyways being tired of everything but now he wanted to get out
of town quick before anyone tried to use him to promote their own agenda.
Luke and Chris have been walking the streets of Billings all
day and night with Sergeant Luke pointing out to Chris the local color and what
to look out for, what cases they will be tackling, as in the things the police
can’t and at times won’t get involved in.
This night in Billings was punctuated by a celebratory
atmosphere as it was just announced that a major electronics manufacturer was
moving operations from Florida and would be setting up in Billings creating two
thousand new local jobs.
Well, in Billings. Melbourne Florida would be losing two
thousand jobs.
Sergeant Luke showed Chris the places where ordinary
citizens went to eat, drink, and relax. He also pointed out the locations were
gang members liked to hang out. Where he might find an informant or two. Also
the places to avoid because they are popular places for off and on duty police
hangouts.
Luke wanted to make sure Chris knew that they wouldn’t be
going after every law breaker. That they would be tacking certain sorts of
situations such as people hiding behind the laws and manipulating it to their
own advantage at the cost of the rest of the city and state.
He also wanted them to go after the criminals the police
chose not to go after. The ones they seemed not to have the time and resources
to address and those that for political reasons were avoiding.
But more than anything else Sergeant Luke wanted Chris to
understand this was about finding a place inside of him, if it was there, to
make him the protector this city needed during these twisted times.
As they head towards the home stretch to start this journey
they are going on together Sergeant Luke wanted to see how Chris’s head was
grasping what he would have to do.
‘You need to learn how to spot a threat before it emerges.
Know what a threat is, when to take action and then figure out the
circumstances that might unfold if you do act. Sometimes not acting is the
safest and best move to make,’ Sergeant Luke
Walking through the city center of Billings.
‘Having a good eye for everything at all times isn’t about
thinking the worst could happen at all times, that distracts you into reading
things into situations,’ Sergeant Luke
‘Then how do you use your awareness?’ Chris
‘Do you play video games?’ Sergeant Luke
‘Mainly sports games,’ Chris
‘Well, everything is laid out in front of you as a
quarterback. You still have to see and react. See and react. You will either
have that instinct or not. In real life that’s what separates being able to
play quarterback from being a professional quarterback. Planning, being ready,
these come with training and hard work but to live and react to the height of
any situation that comes from a place deep inside a man,’ Sergeant Luke
‘Or women,’ Chris
Sergeant Luke rolls his eyes.
Sitting inside a fast food restaurant having some
appetizers.
‘Our mission must be one of planning strikes but sometimes
plans clusterfuck up. Sometimes you are just thrown in cause sometimes a fire
can spontaneously ignite around you without warning,’ Sergeant Luke
Chatting at a library.
‘This can’t be a job to you or me. This is our lives now.
You have to be in this state of mind at all times. You are taking up this life,’
Sergeant Luke
‘So no vacations?’ Chris
‘Only on my birthday,’ Sergeant Luke said with a smile that
was interrupted by a shushing librarian.
Walking down a dark alley.
‘The thing you’ll do will be walking into the fire. We can’t
act like that isn’t what it is We will be screaming for the attention of
crosshairs, drawing them away from the regular police at times. This will be making
things build and boil over to where we are the issue for a lot of people. The
thing people want to kill the most. Learn to love the muck, filth, and shadows,
they can sometimes save you if you are on the short end of a beating stick,’
Chris
Driving back to Pompeys Pillar.
‘We are going into a modern war and need to fight it like
insurgents and even insurgents need a support team if they wish to last past a
few hit and run missions. This is not an individual sport and me and you won’t
be able to do it alone,’ Sergeant Luke
Check out all other
Tin Universe releases at the below places:
SMASHWORDS:
Also can be found in Barnes&Noble Nook Store, iTunes,
and many more places to buy ebooks.
The sale of this book without its cover….well, is, sort of,
impossible since it really doesn’t have a cover but let us go through the legal
spray out anyways. If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be
aware that it was reported to the publisher as “unsold and destroyed.” Hands up
to you who have books like this in your collection? Now that I put my hand down
we can continue with the credits and copyright and legal and stuff that people
just don’t ever pay attention to unless it is pumping their own horn.
An Original Publication of System* Publishing,
a Tin Universe book published by System*Publishing, a
division of System*Productions, Melbourne, Florida. This book is a
work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the
author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events
or locales or persons, living or dead or living dead, is entirely and very much
so in the coincidental.
Smashwords Edition Copyright © 2015, Brian
C. Williams, System*Productions. Tin Universe Daily, and
all related titles, characters, and elements are trademarks of System*Productions.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions
thereof in any form whatsoever. While unauthorized reproduction is sometimes
needed, please remember us writers types are for the most part a poor lot just
in search of a ways to tell our stories and enough money to add to our Doctor
Who collections….well, at least that fits me. For more information on Tin Universe Daily, the artists who
contributed to this book, and Tin Universe contact System*Productions at
hangofwednesday@gmail.com
Written by Brian C. Williams
Edited by Brian
C. Williams
Any Additional
Photography by Stainless Photography
Cover Digital Work by 74
Images
