Rx: A Tale of Electronegativity by Robert Brockway

Author:Robert Brockway [Brockway, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: drugs, Science, Time Travel, Dystopian, Science Fiction
ISBN: 9781482520217
Amazon: 1482520214
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 2012-01-01T11:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Two

It was no more than a brisk walk, but Red found the pace dizzying. After a night spent navigating first the darkened tunnels of the lower levels, and then the cramped, stifling ‘Wells, he had grown accustomed to taking quick, shuffling half-steps. His sense of what was an appropriate pace adjusted itself drastically downward, and now, traveling at a normal rate of progress felt like stepping onto a people mover -- as if covering twenty feet in under a minute somehow defied the fundamental laws of physics that governed mass and speed. With King Big Dick’s influence, doors flew open without negotiation. Even after they’d left his own disconcertingly sparse, empty territory, other gatekeepers took one look into the impassive mirror slabs of his guards and tripped over themselves to throw their doors open. One tiny fiefdom, barely the size of a catwalk stall and tucked entirely into the upper corner of a single landing, went so far as to appoint a blonde-haired serving boy to their entourage. He rigorously avoided eye contact while tossing glimmering, shredded pieces of nano-fiber at their feet as they passed through the territory – all twelve horizontal feet of it. As the door swung shut behind them, Red stole a glance back, and caught the boy nervously vomiting on his own shoes.

On the rare occasions that they did come across an uncooperative territory, the King’s men started hopping around in a primitive war-dance, before stoically raising their long, narrow tubes. The opening at the bulbous tip of the staves was no larger than a screw, but they fired a thin, densely weighted projectile that unfolded just before impact into a large, flat discus. The discs were entirely geared for demolition, not lethality, but they tended to take large chunks of wall and the occasional support beam along with the offending door.

And suddenly, Red understood why the territories opened themselves so freely: Even fiefdoms that felt no personal fear of reprisal from King Big Dick still felt a sense of duty to the general structure of the ‘Wells. Their homes were all built on top of, around, and inside of one other. Each territory stood only by virtue of the support structure of its neighbors; a communal sense of sanctity for the foundations was all that kept them from total collapse. The complete disregard for structural integrity that King Big Dick’s guards displayed was tantamount to insanity, and Red could not help but wonder just how much reprisal Zippy would face for their own earlier mad, destructive flight.

The guard at point pulled up short, broke his slovenly gait, and stood erect to stretch. The break in protocol warranted a sharp, disciplinary elbow from his companion.

“Fuck it all, man, we’re here,” the reprimanded guard snapped back, “you see anybody but us around? KBD hisself broke character back in the cube; I think we can relax a little in the middle of bumfuck nowhere.”

“All right” the other agreed with a shrug, swiveling his distorted reflection face toward Red.

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