[WIP - Story] - Just Another Day, In Black 2154.

[ZenitYerkes]

Part 1 - The wanderer

Act 1 - The goose

"Don't"

Jaggers had dared to touch her wife's precious black box, the place where she had everything she had earned by herself; and uselessly hid from her husband, who knew perfectly where she placed it every time.

"If you take a single dollar from it I'll cut your balls off" rebuked the voice under the unwashed and tangled blond hair.
"Don't get like that, I'm just going out"
"Don't f*cking dare, motherf*cker!" and she threw away the cigarette pack to him while taking the ashtray in the other hand; preparing to do the same. "Every single cent in there is sacred to you, understood?!"

Jaggers wasn't stupid, at least not as much as he seemed, but he knew how to treat her woman in this cases. Unfortunately for him, divorce was too dear by those days; instead he had to learn how to get rid of the fat, wrinkled and selfish wh*re he was forced to live with. It was incredible that such an ugly woman could maintain her job in the sex services.

"Alright" yelled the voice at the end of the corridor. In opposition to her, he was a skinny guy that still conserved traces of his youth. He smelt, most of the times, of smoke, cigarettes, sweat, alcohol and cheap perfume; the long hours working at the factory made him a man with very bad health who spent most of his time doing simple work or, as he intended that day, having fun at the local brothels.

"You see, darling, I always loved you. Remember the day we married?" said the voice again, getting closer to the sofa in which the spare tires of the woman spread freely. "It was a nice night at Antonie's Night Church, you were laughing all the time because the priest had a big big wart on his nose" She slightly giggled "And he did, and he did"

"And remember the night at the Italian restaurant? Forno di Pietro, you took a pizza and I had spaghetti..."
"We ended up eating the spaghetti together" she interrupted with a smile, showing her yellow teeth.
"And we had the best night of all, didn't we?"
"Yes we did, we did" replied pleasant the wh*re.
"Hon, I love you" and he kissed her on her forehead.
"I love you too" she answered, smiling while she saw the walking skeleton getting out home. As the door closed, the smile on her face faded away, realizing what had happened: she moved out the sofa and found the black box completely empty.

"Bugger" she said, as a tear dropped off one of her eyes.

Jaggers never loved the wh*re he had for wife. In fact, it was strange to find someone with whom Jaggers had shared any kind of feelings; but anyway that wasn't what worried him. Times were hard enough to care about those little things; he, as the vast majority of the male population, had to work for a misery at the RDA industries; while the ladies had to offer their bodies for anything they wanted, earning the same misery.

Since that great company had the control over everything, there hadn't been any war; because they decide to whom sell arms; and like a puppeteer, they decided who attacked who, who starved and who was on the top of the world. As good puppets, the people wouldn't say a thing about it; because who would listen them? The RDA people seemed to do whatever they wanted as long as they could pay the bills, and now they've found their goose that laid golden eggs they wouldn't ever stop.

That goose was named Pandora.

Jaggers, walking to the vicious hotel, found a group of activists who were handing around papers with strange photographs on them, shouting nonsense such as "There is few green remaining on Earth, and it's worth more than all the RDA's money!" or "Protect the Na'vi! They're being wiped out of their home because the greed of a few people!". One of them, a tall, black young with wide lips, showed Jaggers the photograph of a blue woman. The being was laying on the ground; in fact, crying.

"Why the f*ck would I give a single damn for... that?"
"Because we're killing them sir. It's in your hands to say "no" to the slaught..."
"Shut the f*ck up nigg*r. It gives me enough trouble to keep me alive, don't make me care for something that you'd imagined while you were on LSD"

Rudely pushing the boy away, Jaggers kept on his way to the cathouse taking care of his feet, avoiding the ponds of urine and the dirt; while the motors of the tube train sounded, almost as loud as the music and the hubbub of the bars; while the police tried to reach two criminals on their motocycles. Thanks to the multiple levels, roads and railways were suspended in the air, a few meters above from the passerbies, by giant concrete pillars; but that also meant that everything that went off them would crash on the pedestrian level. Despite the protective walls, it wouldn't be the first time it happened.

A woman who went in the opposite direction fell over Jaggers' shoulder, and he took her off it quickly: although wearing an exopack, she hadn't been able to keep breathing anymore, later on the paramedics had found she had asma and had been having trouble with her black lungs since several weeks ago. In Jaggers' own words, it's the survival of the strongest; he had proved with his ability of being able to inhale the grey smoke of the factory and keep being alive, hence why he believed in belonging to these.

However, there were people stronger than him; something he would find out that day.

"Hey buddy, you left something behind"

As he turned, three pale, tall and wide-backed eighteens, armed with a big club each and suited in a black shirt in which it was written "Fortis super debilis" around a white claw; stared at the poor bastard with no good ideas under their shaved heads. He tried to appear calm, at least for the first five seconds before they rised their bats; when he ran like the blowing wind down the street.

"Come here f*ggot!"
"Run you son of a b*tch, run before we kill you motherf*cker!"

Jaggers might had been lighter than them, but they were quicker and could easily skip all the obstacles he tried to put them. Desperatly throwing away the trash cans and the stools from the pubs he passed in front of, the three shadows ran with ease and jumped over all of them with an incredible agility.

Undoubtedly, they were from the iron and steel industries; the hardest in which to be working at before the mining sector. It was known in the area that there have been appearing some kind of gangs in the last weeks which were joining the anti-RDA resistance, the RDA-PAW (RDA for the People And Workers); one of the many terrorist organizations which, in cold blood, could wipe out of the Earth's surface a whole city with their nukes. They were respected and feared; in the case of Jaggers, rather the second one.

Taking advantage of a near line that was being made in front of the local food market, he went inside an alley which entrance was covered by the mass of people; being such a thin person, he could get in with ease, unlike the skinheads who finally decided to stop hunting their prey. He got some air and tried to stop his heart from getting out of his chest. The rest lasted little, however; before he could even notice three dark figures appeared at the other side of the alley.

It rained pain.