Things left Unsaid

Episode Nine.
Start at the beginning HERE

Our vacation had taken quite a turn, and being stuck in a one horse town downwind of the Grand Canyon wasn’t exactly the high point. It turns out Billy is a mean drunk, and there wasn’t much else to do but drink. I didn’t care much for Billy after that. Billy’s a dick. We parted ways, but I met Samantha at the Rotisserie, and we hit it off. Sam has a few alterations, but when the tech came back online, we went all out. Optic upgrades, interactive tattoos (I learned some moves I didn’t even know existed!), and now my Jag has limited flight capability. Earth is fun again.

 Of course, we still have Cleveland showing us around. Northern California is spectacular. We did almost three-hundred over the salt flats. Scary fast, what a rush. And Yosemite was out of this world. Samantha got me some Ultra boots and gloves. I love extreme hiking! 

 The big news was, of course, the Battle over New York, where Skyland Resort was caught up in a great big controversy. The news was slow in coming, possibly leaked out from resistance fighters who infiltrated the Resort. The photos, if they’re real, showed some pretty hideous creatures up there. Apparently they were eating tourists? Billy and I had applied for the chance to go up when we were in the area, but we were denied. The official letter somehow blamed our enhancements, which I thought was bullshit, since all of that came from the overlords to begin with. Now I’m happy we didn’t go up. The pictures of Mr. Atrocious, if you haven’t seen them, are atrocious.

 I’ve been trying to keep up on current events, and Cleveland helps out. He shuffles the headlines and keeps me informed. Here’s the gist: There is a new head overlord; he’s a stern looking gent, looks a bit nervous to me, sort of on edge. Though the man in charge is not an alien, but a local. Which is to say, he’s an earthling named Patrick. Sources swear up and down he isn’t a flesh eating alien from another world, even if one half of him is pretty damned ugly. His left side is bloated and three times too big, and there are squidish things wiggling out of him. He tries to hide most of the bad half behind screens and large potted ferns, but I swear I saw a second mouth coming out of the side of his neck, and it seemed to be repeating every word he said out of the right side of his face-mouth. Sam and I were in a bar getting drunk on tainted mocha creams the first week after the takeover above, and a table at the back of the joint was filled with a gang of unruly locals. They were a bunch from the resistance that backed our man in the sky. Said his name was Scutum, and he was one of ‘em. The Astrologers, big news, and their leader was there too, Leo. He wasn’t bouncing up and down like the rest, just sat still with a mug in one hand and a dink on his lip, coloring the air over his head. He had a melancholy look, and a tawny cloud.  Still, he took a good many slaps on the back, and smiled once or twice.

 The overlord guy goes by the name of Mr. Face. He always stands behind Patrick, sometimes off screen. He’s got us back on track; there’ve been more upgrades than shutdowns. News comes slow, when it comes at all, but I see an upturn. He wants to cede more power to the Regions of Earth, but we have to play nice. Mr. Face is fair, but I imagine he has a heavy hand. He lets Patrick do most of talking, but we all know who is really in charge.

 Cleveland wants to take us into some caverns next, but I don’t like the idea. I’m a bit claustrophobic; I would just as soon stay above the earth. And Sam doesn’t like spiders. She wants to head out east and see if we can get to the Skyland Retreat when it opens back up. Won’t that be fun!

The Very End!