Angie's Story
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A Final Conflict Narrative
~
by Richard Daw
Chapter 1
Angie pulled the backpack tighter around her shoulder, and quickened her pace. She was being followed; that much she knew. In fact, she was surprised they hadn't started trailing her sooner. Usually it was no problem, getting from school to home, because she could loose them. However, this time was different. Either they had been following her so carefully that she hadn't noticed till now, or they were doing something different...
Regardless, she was being followed, and knowing this part of town, she didn't feel like being tomorrow's headline raped teenage victim. Then again, it happened so often here, why would she be any special? Last week a blonde girl she'd known quite well from Geography had been found on her side of town near dead. Mostly the parents sent their kids back to school pretty quickly, since it was cheaper than keeping them at home (and moving away was a near impossibility with the level of income around here). But she didn't know if she'd ever see the blonde again. The raped ones walked home crying; it was rare anyone found the near-dead ones before it was too late.
Rounding another block, Angie quickened her pace a little. She yelped in surprise when a large bus rumbled past her unexpectedly. She must've startled her pursuers as well, because when she looked back they had hidden.
Alright, time to end this pathetic game. With this brief opportunity, she bolted across the street like she was trying to avoid traffic, but continued to run at top speed once she was across. A quick glance back revealed that whoever was following her got the message. They know I know.
There was a park not too far from here. It descended steeply off to her right, and was filled with a dense mixture of trees. Going down would give her extra speed, but making any kind of quick get out would be near impossible. The park was sloped down on all sides, which meant only one other option; hide.
The group of thugs immediately stopped at the bottom of the slope, realizing her new game. Nowhere to be seen, they broke off quickly, and slowly scattered about the park aimlessly. From her lofty view point, Angie waited until they had passed around the bend in the park where it wound behind another subdivision, and then she leapt down.
Walking casually back up the steep slope, she continued her journey home, and arrived outside her apartments only ten minutes later than usual.
"Hey, Chester." A grayish white tabby greeted her as she stepped through the front door. It purred contently, and waited patiently as she handed it some meat from the fridge.
Although technically not hers, the cat had adopted their apartment as its own for the last month, and even though they had no extra money to feed it, it never seemed to go hungry.
"You're a survivor," Angie whispered, scratching Chester's ears.
An hour later her Mom walked through the front door, fumbling with their weekly supply of food. It wasn't much, but it was always barely enough.
"Angela?"
"Here, Mom." She always checked to see if her daughter made it home. Everyone did.
"Is your Father home?"
"Nope."
"Oh dear," she sighed, setting the groceries on the counter. "I was hoping he wouldn't have another late night this week. They've been working overtime so much lately."
Angie shrugged. Liked most of the cities population, her Dad worked for one of the processing plants here; the only thing this city was good for anyway. You either worked in the plant itself, or you worked in the offices that ran the plants. All the public services were government run, and no one was lucky enough to hold those jobs.
She could've cared less, really. How was she supposed to know whether her Dad's increased work was a clue to the production here?
"How was school?"
Angie shrugged. "Same as always."
"Your poor friend hasn't returned yet?"
"No, Mom. 'Fraid not." And she probably won't ever.
"Oh well...maybe tomorrow." Her Mom would probably ask again tomorrow, but then when the new week rolled around everyone would forget. She was as good as never have existed. Except to me, she thought sadly.
Her Dad showed up an hour after nightfall and was exhausted. He muttered a brief 'hi' to Angie, and then went off to the bedroom to sleep. Her mother followed, no doubt to try and ask something about his day before he fell asleep in his tiredness. Angie now had the night to herself.
She quickly climbed out her room window, down the tree outside their apartment complex, and landed safely in the alley three floor below. Chester was somewhere nearby; she could hear him sneaking about in the alley. Angie's parents never checked on her after they retired to their room, and because of that she had never been caught sneaking out for the five years she'd been doing it.
At the end of the alley she waited until she was sure no one would see her, and then darted across to the adjoining one across the street. This one curved around behind a few small industries, and then popped out at a small one-way street. A running car was waiting.
"Angie; didn't think you'd show tonight."
"Why?" she asked, closing the back door.
"Heard you got trailed today," Kyle replied from up front.
"Dude, I'm always trailed."
"Yeah, I heard they tried to grab you."
Angie frowned. "Where'd you hear that from?"
"Sam. Said he saw you being chased into Jason Park."
While it was usual that all the females were followed home, it was rare that any got grabbed. It happened, yes, but everyone knew that only happened to the unlucky. You stayed out the dark alleys, you stayed out of trouble.
"If Sam was so worried, why didn't he have his boys on the scene?"
"Sam knows you can take care of yourself."
"Hmm, and yet he feels the need to spread the news..."
Kyle chuckled. "You know Sam!"
Ten minutes later and the other door opened. Jenna hopped in, trailed by her newest boyfriend. This one looked about her age; tan, kind of gangly, but with sharp brown blonde hair. He also looked like he could've cared less about anything else right now. Typical of Jenna's usual pick. He's probably still thinking about those long legs of hers...
"Hey Kyle," she said through a giggle. "We ready?"
"Yeah, we're ready," he said nonclantry.
The car shifted gears, and they headed down the street.
"So what's this new place we're diggin'?" Jenna asked, as her boyfriend started kissing her up her neck.
"It's an empty warehouse on the east side. Cojack staked out the place weeks ago. Figured we'd be needing a new place sooner or later."
Minutes later they pulled up outside the large structure, and as far as Angie could tell, the place looked dead and empty. The four of them piled out of the car, and Kyle led them around to a large, oily steel door. He pulled on a latch, and then pushed it open slowly. It groaned closed on its own as they walked in.
On the inside techno music could be heard now, and somewhere towards the end of the dark hall there was bright disco light flashing. The rest of her friends and her split up among the crowd, and began dancing to the music. In the old days there used to be glow sticks at Raves like this, but even now when the law prohibited even these kind of social gatherings, they were taking a risk. Besides, who had mony to buy something as trivial as a glow stick these days?
It hand't always been liked this. Not till they started the sanctions against the others. It had started so small on one of the outer colonies. Nothing more than a rumor. But as soon it started spreading, even now here on Earth, the government began to panic. So what if they called themselves magic folk? It made no sense. There was no such thing as magic!
Angie didn't know, nor did she care, but the stories were getting hard to ignore. A group of terrorists claiming to be vampires struck a village in Europe somewhere. It was all over the news, but no one dare use the name they'd given themselves. And surprisingly, the media never described in full how they'd gone about doing their business; just the village had been masecred, the thousand or so that lived there all totured to death or insanity.
None of it had hit the West, though. These were all just problems foreign problems. What concern did they have for someone as powerful as the United States? Even our colonies were devoid of these freaks.
A couple of hours later, and Angie collapsed in a chair exhausted. The music was still playing, and a few still braved the dance floor. But the majority were now wrappd up with each other in the dark corners. She caught Jenna somewhere off to the side with her boyfriend; his shirt long since removed.
She wiped the sweat from her face, and pulled herself up slugishly. It was time to go, and Kyle was chatting with the DJ.
"...I have a few mix disks; see if you like 'em."
The dark kid took the two crystal disks from Kyle, nodded, and turned back to his equipment. Kyle glanced over at Angie.
"Hey girl, what up?"
She shrugged, slinking up to him. "I need a ride home. It's late."
"It ain't exactly a school night, either," he said, looking back at the DJ.
"Yeah well, I've had enough for tonight."
Kyle shrugged. "Hey, whatever. Wait out in the car, and I'll be out in a couple of minutes."
Angie nodded, and navigated her way across the room. She managed to get the massive steel door open, and lumbered out to the car, where she curled up on the back seat to doze. Almost immediately, however, she heard a loud bang, and sat up quickly.
She glanced around, but it sounded more like it had come from inside. A moment later there was another bang, and she jumped, startled. The door slid open quickly, and she could hear muffled screams from the crowd.
Kyle had opened the door, and he was frantically trying to close it. At first she couldn't tell why, but then it became apparent that others were trying to pull it back open. Angie stared on in shock, and jumped out of the car.
"Kyle, what the hell are you thinking?!"
He completely ignored, using the last of his strength to pull the large door shut. He then swung a metal hatch down in place, securing the door shut. The crowd on the inside banged on the metal in protest, their screams barely escaping the building. Kyle turned to Angie, a look of total fear in his eyes.
"Get in the car...NOW!"
Angie turned around quickly, swinging herself in on the passenger side, while Kyle darted in on his side. The engine started, and he peeled out of the parking lot with a loud screetch on the pavement. Angie began to panic.
"What...what the hell happened?!"
Kyle shook his head, focusing straight on the road ahead of him. "Freaks..." he muttered. "There started popping out of thin air!"
"What?!"
There was a much louder bang somewhere from behind them, and Angie glanced back to see a burst of electric blue light engulf the entire warehouse. She screamed and looked back ahead.
A few minutes later they pulled up outside her apartment, and Kyle looked over at her frantically.
"Grab a suit case, hurry back out."
"What? Why?!"
"We're leaving. Now go!"
Chapter 2
Not bothering to question him further, she pounded up the three flights of stairs, and hurried in through her front door. She didn't try to stay quiet (her parents no doubt too deep in sleep to even hear her anyway), and she began throwing clothes into a suit case. She grabbed up her purse, making sure it had cash in it, and then hurried back down. Kyle was still waiting.
"Where the hell are we going?!" she shouted, as he peeled out.
"I don't know," he whispered. "White City is only a couple of hours from here, and Houston is only an hour further."
She shivered. "What's happening?!"
"The same thing that's happening everywhere else!" he screamed. "The village in Europe; you remember?! The bastards finally came here!"
Angie's eyes darted back and forth quickly. "But why?! Why here?!"
"Who knows?! Maybe something these factories were producing. Maybe they didn't like what these people were up to..."
"Up to?! We weren't up to anything! We're just an industrial town!"
Kyle grunted. "Well I don't know why these freaks attack where they attack! They just do, and we're next!"
As they passed the last city limit sign and out into the country, it became clear that he was right. Five miles out, and Angie could see the lights. It looked like the city was being bombed. Several louds cracks filled the air, and various colors of light illuminated the dark night sky. The city was being desimated.
When Angie opened her eyes again it was still dark, but there were now in a city. Bright neon or halogan lights were castup everywhere, but at this time of night no one else was on the road. Tall buildings filled the skyline, and she could see they were pulling up to a small motel.
Kyle payed for two rooms, and she fell alseep on the musty matress, reveling in the sleep. For a moment she forgot that her family was probably being tortured to death right that moment...
When she awoke again, it was ten in the morning, and the city was alive. From her window she could see the morning traffic moving across one of the parkways. Up higher on one of the terrances, people crowed the sidewalks.
She was surprised to find Kyle wasn't in his room. After changing into some new clothes she explored the motel grounds, but could find him nowhere. About noon he returned, several groceries bags filled with food.
"This should be enough to cover us until we figure out what to do," he said.
Angie had given some thought to it. She didn't know any other family, really. All her life she'd either lived in their first house back in the town. Her parents had moved them into the apartment when she was thirteen, and the land had been claimed by the government to open a new mine shaft. Here she was almost five years later, and she didn't even know if she had relatives in the state.
Kyle was no more than a school friend. She couldn't exactly see herself growing to like him any more, or even spend the rest of her life running with him.
"Maybe we should go back," she suggested timidly.
He chuckled bitterly. "Unlikely..." He tossed the morning paper down on the table.
The front page was riddled with reports about her town's attack. Almost two thousand people were dead, a hundred more missing. It was a disasterous tragedy, and the first attack by the others...the freaks.
She growled. "They always call them the 'others'! Why not call them what they really are?! Freaks, terrorists!"
Kyle sighed, rubbing his eyes. "The government is too afraid to do anything. The President has issued a statement that were shipping out troops to Europe, but everyone is afraid." He looked her in the eye. "What if bullets can't stop them."
She laughed bitterly. "We know they can." She remembered the stories about the Crystal Mascere. Crystal was an outer colony; one of the first where these freaks started showing up. A bunch had attacked a military city, trying to scare the people. The military replied by shooting everyone of them down. Two months later and contact was lost from the planet. The government said there was some kind of disease outbreak, but everyone knew the truth. They'd been slaughtered by the freaks.
"I have an uncle who lives in this city with his family. Maybe we can stay with them for a bit."
"Yeah," she muttered. Maybe.
Stumble!