Kelly Lamb/Land of Sunshine pt2
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
Kelly felt much better about everything..except the traffic. She saw the flashing lights ahead from an accident and started to slow down, the radio continuing to play it's cheerful music. Things would work out she thoug-what the? She stared light started to flare in mid air, inside the minivan, just in front of her. There was a loud 'foomp' and a small silver object fell out of it. She caught it before it hit the floor...it was a device of some kind, made of titanium, having retractable ear buds on it as well. She stared at it...this ...what is...she knew what it was....or did she?
Flipping it over she saw it was engraved on the back...a logo like an apple, with a bite taken out of it..that's weird..Crey made everything There was something engraved on it too. “Kelly, let's see you break this one!”
She heard something out side, glancing up she had barely time to scream before the minivan plowed into the broken down Hydrogen tanker...
The fireball could be seen from twenty miles away.
It took a good hour or more to put out the fire, the fuel tanker burned hot enough that the steel supports for the bridge over the forbidden area gave way. Of the minivan there was not much left but a charred pile of slagged metal, as the investigators sifted through the debris.
“That's really weird.”
“what, the fact that we can't find any remains of the driver? The heat probably totally cremated her.”
The younger Crey security agent shook his head “no...the metal core of the steering wheel, it's bent, but the wrong way for the impact, almost looks like it was bent by hand” he said, looking at the indentations in the metal ring. “and see this? The roof is buckled outwards over the drivers seat, while the rest of the roof is inwards.”
The older man just shooks his head “it doesn't matter, weird things happen in accidents. She's dead and burnt to a crisp, a waste really.”
Kelly was cold, wet and sore allover. She groaned , sitting up slowly...the last thing she remembered was being on the skyway..then that thing dropped out of mid air into her lap...then the accident. She gasped as she remembered the sounds of shrieking metal, the shock wave and heat from the explosion. But she wasn't burnt... oh her clothes were pretty much wasted, but other than that and a bit of singeing on the silver box clutched in her hand still there was no indication that she'd even been in an accident.
She looked around, it was just after sundown, and there wasn't a light to be seen. Around here was abandoned buildings, more rubble than anything else really, they seemed familiar somehow though. Glancing around for a familiar landmark, she found none, just rubble filling the streets. To the east in the dimming light probably a mile or so away she saw what looked like the remains of a statue..something about it almost brought up a memory.
“Hello?” she bleated, the word echoing off of the ruins hollowly, bouncing back mockingly. Nothing moved other than her it seemed. Picking her way through the rubble she made her way carefully down to street level..how did she end up on the third floor anyway? The silence, like a cancer grew on her as the last of the twilights light faded to the west. There was always music around, in the houses, in the cars, outdoors from loudspeakers. It was the law after all, and by now the absence of it unnerved her. “ok, no need to panic Kelly.” she said to herself , reassuringly, or trying to anyway.
Shivering a bit, she decided to find something to wear, then find her way home, Rodger and the lambs would be missing her by now. She glanced at the silver box, other than some soot marks it seemed to come through just fine, better than her clothes anyway. The controls were fairly simple, it seemed to be a music player of some kind. “It's got my name on it...and it survived the crash.” she shrugged and put the ear buds in, the screen was too scorched to read what the name of the songs were, but she could see something marked shuffle, then almost dropped it in shock. It was nothing like what the radio always played.
“ We’ve been crying now for much too long
And now we’re gonna dance to a different song
Gonna scream and shout till my dying breath
Gonna smash it up till theres nothing left
Ooh smash it up
Smash it up, smash it up
Ooh smash it up
Smash it up, smash it up
People call me villain, oh it's such a shame
Maybe it's my clothes, must be to blame
I don't even care if I look a mess
Don't wanna be a sucker like all the rest
Smash it up, you can keep your krishna burgers
Smash it up, and your glastonbury hippies
Smash it up, you can stick your frothy lager
Smash it up, and your blow wave hairstyles
We’ve been crying now for much too long
And now we’re gonna dance to a different song
Gonna scream and shout till my dying breath
Gonna smash it up till theres nothing left
Ooh smash it up
Smash it up, smash it up
Ooh smash it up
Smash it up, smash it up
And everybody's smashing things down
I said everybody's smashing things down”
Oddly, even though it was angry and violent, it still made her feel better as she walked through the deserted rubble strewn streets. She stayed out of the buildings after finding bones covering the floor of the first one she entered, sending her back outside recoiling in horror. After getting her composure back she took a closer look. some of them were looking like sheeple, others..different, and some skeletons hideously malformed, as if halfway between normal and the other kind of skeleton, without hooves. Some of them had strips of fabric still clinging to the skeletons, in come cases looking like gaudy costumes, others black military uniforms with a strange logo on the front, looking like the letter V. but from the looks of things it had been years since whatever killed them happened. She managed to find a clothing store that wasn't littered with bones, not much was wearable but she did find a long trench coat that was better than nothing. Continuing on, she ducked under what had probably been an improvised barricade at some kind, emerging into a plaza. She almost knew what that statue was...looking like a giant, holding part of a sphere on his shoulders. His feet were wrong though, like some of the skeletons, no hooves.
“I know this place...but what is it?”
Silence answered her. She sighed, nothing for it but to go see what was inside, if for nothing else than to silence the nagging curiosity in the back of her mind. Taking a deep breath she worked between the piles of rubble and bones, up the stairs towards the building entrance.
The inside was even worse than outside. Outdoors, at least time and the elements managed to get rid of the worst of the smell, indoors however, was another story. Kelly stepped carefully over the bones going deeper into the building..City Hall it said , and a sign off to the right said something about New Hero registration. That was was blocked by rubble for the most part. There was something about the skeletons in here that seemed familiar though, the one , no, two, both wearing some kind of helmet, one of them with eight rusted metal arms coming from it's back, some of them broken off. She was just about to turn and flee screaming into the night when something made her pause. There was a voice , faint but barely audible coming from down the rubble choked stairs.
Her curiosity got the better of her..besides, it might be someone who can show her out of this cemetery. She hesitantly climbed up on the pile of rubble blocking the stairway, her hooves knocking off a shower of pebbles. So much for being quiet.
“Hello?” she said, her voice echoing in the open area beyond, sounding uncomfortably like a tomb.
There was no response..then as she strained to listen she heard a grinding noise...coming from somewhere under her...”aww crap!” she squealed as she tried to scramble back up, finding the rubble she was balanced on shifting underneath her. She flailed helplessly as the debris shifted, sending her careening down the rubble filled slope, a shower of dust rising around her.
Rubbing her sore shoulder where she landed she got up, looking around the downstairs hallway. It too was choked with skeletons, some looking familiar in some way. She shook her head and sniffled a bit, sneezing from the dust kicked up in her fall.
“Is there someone down here?” she bleated. The words bounced back mockingly, for a second she thought she saw a glimmer of light from one of the bodies, this one with a metallic shell, but no..must be a trick of her imagination.
The source of the voice watched silently. It had been too many years...yet there was no real hope of rescue, and even if there was...to what end? This wasn't what he was waiting for, couldn't be. She was scrawny, barely over a meter tall, and clad in tatters. Her hooves clicking against the rock and tile gave it away though, just another sheeple, like all the rest of the survivors. He might be trapped and crushed, but he still received signals constantly. The singer who was reported killed in an accident on the news, Kelly Dermont her name was. Yet there was something else. He would have shrugged if possible. No matter, a singer isn't what he needed.
Kelly looked closer , it definetly was a robot of some kind, made to look like a man. Though he , it, whatever didn't have any horns. But then not everyone did. She shrugged dejectedly, trying not to look at the skeletons on the floor, metal or otherwise. This wasn't going to get her home. She turned and approached the rubble, slowly starting to work her way up.
A vibration detected by his survivng sensor network was Citadel's first indication of danger. As the sheeple started to pull herself up on an exposed piece of rebar he felt the shudders of the largest slab on the pile start to give way. Despite his not wanting to involve her in something she couldn't do anything about, he was still a hero down to his root files. Unfortunately, other than some visual and vibration sensors, his voder, emergency power pack and his memory core nothing else was intact. All he could do was warn her and hope she got clear.
“LOOK OUT!”
Kelly didn't really need the warning as the slab started shifting, but it helped as she leaped backwards off of the pile. She landed painfully on her rear..unfortunately it wasn't far enough. Even the dim lighting from outside was cut off as the black shadow of the concrete covered her, she screamed and threw up her hands over her head as dust obscured the room.
Citadel cursed using everyone of the multitude of swearwords he'd learned over the years from Manticore. Yet again, he had failed. The slab was easily several tons (7,428.245 kg the analytical part of his mind helpfully offered), at least...it would be over instantly for her. Instantly. Any second now, there would be the crash of the concrete meeting the floor. Any second.
As the dust cleared, it was debatable who was the more surprised. Kelly was on one knee, arms over her head, glowing brightly as she held the slab up off of the floor. “wh...h...how...” she stammered, setting the small truck sized chunk of rubble down with a thud.
Citadel reevaluated his data. Perhaps there was hope after all. “I believe I know” he replied, running the calculations. Satisfied with the answer, he waited for her to get closer. As she approached ,the glow faded from her slowly.
“W..who are you?”
“I am known as Citadel, and I apologize in advance if this hurts.” with that there was a piercing wail bordering on the ultrasonic coming from his voder.
Kelly screamed again, grasping at her head before collapsing in a heap unconscious.
