Blue
an illustrated novel
Friday, December 31, 2010
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Chapter 20 Death by Numbers-Act 1 Scene 7
Within about an hour, Samuel began waking up. It was a process. First he opened his eyes, then he closed them again, hoping that the world he opened his eyes to was a dream. If it was, that would mean that the pain was also a dream. Neither was true. Samuel had noticed Gus in the room and had immediately summed him up as useless. He also decided to keep his mouth shut until he had time to get his bearings. Unfortunately, Gus had been in the process of investigating his own reflection to see if he had started growing nose hairs when Samuel awoke. As chance would have it, Gus caught site of Samuel's open eyes and decided that it was his job to get Samuel to do some talking.
"Hello there," Gus began," my name is Gus. Look, I know you probably don't feel much like talking but Sal said I was supposed to tell him anything that you say. If you don't say anything, then I can't tell him anything and I will probably get fired, even though Sal is my uncle. If you do say something then I have to record it so could you tell me first if you plan on saying anything? Oh, and I know your name is Samuel, so you don't have to tell me that if you don't wanna. Also, I know that you're one of the toughest guys so whoever got you must've been totally beezle. So, do you have anything to say?" Gus really just wanted Samuel to say anything so he could call Sal and go home.
Samuel opened his eyes again. He reached up his hand and motioned Gus over to himself with his index finger as if he needed Gus close enough to hear a whisper. Gus came in close, pulling the recorder from his pocket and holding it our toward Samuel's mouth. When Gus was close enough, Samuel grabbed him by the throat and squeezed, just hard enough to sink into the fat. He pulled Gus's ear to his mouth and said," Go Bast Yourself, and get the Varst out of here before I pop you."
"Hello there," Gus began," my name is Gus. Look, I know you probably don't feel much like talking but Sal said I was supposed to tell him anything that you say. If you don't say anything, then I can't tell him anything and I will probably get fired, even though Sal is my uncle. If you do say something then I have to record it so could you tell me first if you plan on saying anything? Oh, and I know your name is Samuel, so you don't have to tell me that if you don't wanna. Also, I know that you're one of the toughest guys so whoever got you must've been totally beezle. So, do you have anything to say?" Gus really just wanted Samuel to say anything so he could call Sal and go home.
Samuel opened his eyes again. He reached up his hand and motioned Gus over to himself with his index finger as if he needed Gus close enough to hear a whisper. Gus came in close, pulling the recorder from his pocket and holding it our toward Samuel's mouth. When Gus was close enough, Samuel grabbed him by the throat and squeezed, just hard enough to sink into the fat. He pulled Gus's ear to his mouth and said," Go Bast Yourself, and get the Varst out of here before I pop you."
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Chapter 20 Death by Numbers Act 1-Scene 6
Opening one eye slowly, then the other, Leer began to look around the room he was in. He was in a hospital, there was no mistaking the tiny holes repeated over and over in the ceiling tiles. He'd been in dozens of hospitals across half as many galaxies and at least a third of them had the same ceiling tiles. Gus was over in the corner using some medical shears he had found to open a candy bar wrapper. Leer didn't know Gus. He looked in the other direction to see Samuel, equally beaten, still unconscious and reclined fully upon his hospital bed. He was having trouble remembering who Samuel was. He decided to close his eyes and think about things for a minute before letting anyone know he had awakened.
Slowly his memory returned. He had planned to be badly beaten, it was his own idea. The guy in the bed next to him was the one who did it because Leer had told him to. No one else could know any of that information. What everyone else was going to hear about the beating was part of a much larger plan. A plan that involved a bunch of rookie actors, an incredibly valuable shipment of JumpJuice and a natural disaster which Leer had barely survived, roughly thirty years ago, that was going to occur in less than seventy-two hours. Leer only hoped that Samuel would remember what he was supposed to say when he woke up, otherwise Leer might not live to see the natural disaster he survived thirty years before.
Slowly his memory returned. He had planned to be badly beaten, it was his own idea. The guy in the bed next to him was the one who did it because Leer had told him to. No one else could know any of that information. What everyone else was going to hear about the beating was part of a much larger plan. A plan that involved a bunch of rookie actors, an incredibly valuable shipment of JumpJuice and a natural disaster which Leer had barely survived, roughly thirty years ago, that was going to occur in less than seventy-two hours. Leer only hoped that Samuel would remember what he was supposed to say when he woke up, otherwise Leer might not live to see the natural disaster he survived thirty years before.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Chapter 20 Death by Numbers Act 1-Scene 5
Sal Lorenzo was not what one would call a compassionate man. He was concerned about Victor and Samuel's health, but only insofar as it pertained to his own interests, namely the JumpJuice shipment. While Sal did wonder what might have become of Max, his apprehension over the whereabouts of the shipment overshadowed his concern for her. The feelers he had put out for information about the shipment and any evidence of a violent struggle for the payload revealed a trail to nowhere and the headless corpse of Abe who he never really liked anyway.
He was a busy man, Sal had places to go, he couldn't hang around waiting for a couple of guys to wake up and tell him his JumpJuice was taken from them. He had to find who took it, get it back and kill everyone involved. "Let me know when either of these guys so much as blinks an eye," he said to Gus, his sister's kid who needed a job so he could pitch in a little rent money every now and then since he had turned his mother's basement into his apartment ever since he graduated from the Rat Town Community College with a MicroSalta IT certification. "If they say anything, Gus, anything at all, write it down," Sal added,"better yet, record it." He tossed Gus a small hand-held device about the size of a small iPod.
"Miss a word of it and I will personally pull your mother's black dress out of the closet for her, got it fat boy?" Gus nodded his head violently as Sal left the hospital room, littering an otherwise pristine hallway with freshly shucked peanut shells.
He was a busy man, Sal had places to go, he couldn't hang around waiting for a couple of guys to wake up and tell him his JumpJuice was taken from them. He had to find who took it, get it back and kill everyone involved. "Let me know when either of these guys so much as blinks an eye," he said to Gus, his sister's kid who needed a job so he could pitch in a little rent money every now and then since he had turned his mother's basement into his apartment ever since he graduated from the Rat Town Community College with a MicroSalta IT certification. "If they say anything, Gus, anything at all, write it down," Sal added,"better yet, record it." He tossed Gus a small hand-held device about the size of a small iPod.
"Miss a word of it and I will personally pull your mother's black dress out of the closet for her, got it fat boy?" Gus nodded his head violently as Sal left the hospital room, littering an otherwise pristine hallway with freshly shucked peanut shells.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Chapter 20 Death by Numbers Act 1-Scene 4
As they lay there in the hospital, it became quite clear that it was going to be awhile before Victor or Samuel could talk. So Sal just waited.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Chapter 20 Death by Numbers-Act 1 Scene 3
Sal Lorenzo walked slowly toward the bank entrance, careful to take his time, letting everyone who cared to look, have the opportunity to recognize that it was he who had just emerged from the stretch limo, guarded by three large, hulking masses of muscle and fitted silk. Sal was especially well dressed because today he was going to dispose of a bank president on his way to the Opera. He didn't really like the Opera but he did enjoy removing high ranking executives from their lofty positions by virtue of his own power and wealth, the Opera was for Sophia, his sister, who had no real power or money of her own but lived for the nights that her baby brother Sal would treat her to the Opera. She was the kind of woman who could pull the goodness from a person and make it dance, making the world seem a slightly brighter place even if only for a short time. She never dwelled on the particulars of Sal's reality, it was a truth she could not let herself acknowledge, which is probably why she was capable of such optimism, such joy even when in the company of such evil. She continued to treat him like her little brother, cute, spunky and deserving of love. And Sal let her, and only her, call him Sally. Several of the bank employees who wouldn't even dare to call Mr. Lorenzo, Sal, saw him coming and began to talk amongst each other about the possible reason for his visit. He never came to the bank unless something bad was going to happen, so suddenly about fifteen bank employees needed to go to the bathroom.
When Sal was within a few yards of the entrance to the bank, a van screeched alongside the curb, directly in line with the entrance. Sal's bodyguards turned and drew their weapons with dazzling speed but did not unload into the van because Sal had raised his hand in a halting motion, curious to see what happened next. The side door to the van had already been flung open and a body was tumbling out, followed immediately by another body. Sal recognized the second body instantly, despite the badly beaten features of the face which seemed to slosh from one side of the head to the other as the body continued to roll toward Sal. The van sped off as quickly as it had arrived, leaving Victor and Samuel still rolling along the concrete, all eyes glued to them in an effort to determine whether or not they were even alive. Before the bodyguards had a chance to realize that they were being distracted a beautiful woman, dressed exactly like Max, except for the substitution of some very feminine stiletto heels in lieu of Max's customary jack boots, stood a foot from Sal. His eyes turned to her as she reached between her partially exposed breasts to pull out a small scroll, tied in a red ribbon. In the same motion her stiletto heel lifted from the ground and came to rest , dead smack in the middle of Victor's chest who's barely breathing body had stopped rolling just a foot shy of Sal and the young, beautiful woman. She held the scroll out to Sal, in just the right spot so his eyes would see the scroll and Victor's pummelled face at the same time. He took the scroll from the woman as she stepped through, walking directly across Victor's chest as if he were a minor, inconvenient little bump in her path.
"Take her", Sal shouted. As his bodyguards raised their guns they were all simultaneously eliminated. One by some sort of long-range tazer, leaving him twitching on the pavement. Another was just down, whatever happened to him had happened too quickly for anyone to see. A shorter person, dressed in a very dark black suit from head to toe, was running away about twenty yards from the spot where his motionless body lay. The third was tumbling across the ground after having been hit by a speeding cycle which not only threw him head over heels but also managed to pick up the girl and speed away before Sal even had the thought to draw his own weapon.
He bent down to listen for Victor's breathing as he unrolled the scroll and read 'Thanks for the Juice-Keep it Coming-We Need More'.
When Sal was within a few yards of the entrance to the bank, a van screeched alongside the curb, directly in line with the entrance. Sal's bodyguards turned and drew their weapons with dazzling speed but did not unload into the van because Sal had raised his hand in a halting motion, curious to see what happened next. The side door to the van had already been flung open and a body was tumbling out, followed immediately by another body. Sal recognized the second body instantly, despite the badly beaten features of the face which seemed to slosh from one side of the head to the other as the body continued to roll toward Sal. The van sped off as quickly as it had arrived, leaving Victor and Samuel still rolling along the concrete, all eyes glued to them in an effort to determine whether or not they were even alive. Before the bodyguards had a chance to realize that they were being distracted a beautiful woman, dressed exactly like Max, except for the substitution of some very feminine stiletto heels in lieu of Max's customary jack boots, stood a foot from Sal. His eyes turned to her as she reached between her partially exposed breasts to pull out a small scroll, tied in a red ribbon. In the same motion her stiletto heel lifted from the ground and came to rest , dead smack in the middle of Victor's chest who's barely breathing body had stopped rolling just a foot shy of Sal and the young, beautiful woman. She held the scroll out to Sal, in just the right spot so his eyes would see the scroll and Victor's pummelled face at the same time. He took the scroll from the woman as she stepped through, walking directly across Victor's chest as if he were a minor, inconvenient little bump in her path.
"Take her", Sal shouted. As his bodyguards raised their guns they were all simultaneously eliminated. One by some sort of long-range tazer, leaving him twitching on the pavement. Another was just down, whatever happened to him had happened too quickly for anyone to see. A shorter person, dressed in a very dark black suit from head to toe, was running away about twenty yards from the spot where his motionless body lay. The third was tumbling across the ground after having been hit by a speeding cycle which not only threw him head over heels but also managed to pick up the girl and speed away before Sal even had the thought to draw his own weapon.
He bent down to listen for Victor's breathing as he unrolled the scroll and read 'Thanks for the Juice-Keep it Coming-We Need More'.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Chapter 20 Death by Numbers-Act 1 Scene 2
Victor moved with unprecedented speed which stunned the members of the team who had assembled to witness the challenge, particularly those who were his crew, Manny and Franco Fiorelli, Gavin and Marv, even Max who had witnessed Victor's skillful fighting at Sal's clubhouse but thought she might have been a little biased since she had just spent the greater part of the morning making love to him. Now however, he was up against Samuel who was undeniably the mightiest as well as one of the swiftest fighters in the team and Max hadn't gotten so much as a lick of sexual attention from Victor since they reached the hideaway. They all marveled as Victor leaped to the side of Samuel who attempted to follow his crushing punch with another jab only to be thoroughly thrown off his feet by a flying clothesline headlock from Victor. Leer knew he had to allow himself to be pummeled, but the point was to mess up Samuel in the process. Besides, he didn't much like the idea of losing any of his share regardless of how long he ended up staying on Salta. The first fall went to Victor. Samuel, though not physically scarred from being dropped was sufficiently enraged by the fact that Victor had gotten the drop on him so quickly that he completely ignored Victors offer of a hand up. Sulking stormily, Samuel rounded on Victor with a relentless series of roundhouse kicks. The first two missed wildly but the third was truly unusual, coming twice as fast around as the first two, catching Victor off-guard, caving in the side of his face, nearly breaking his jaw. Leer went down hard.
"Hey Victor," Samuel taunted as he towered over his fallen boss," you can spare yourself th'beatin' and just give up the quarter." He laughed a deep and gloating laugh which was suddenly cut short by an excruciating howl as Victor caved his knee backwards with a quick kick from the ground. As Samuel doubled over forward to clutch the knee in agony Victor bounded up directly into his face with an elbow pushed from below by the full force of his other arm and legs standing up directly into the blow sending Samuels head back fully. The big man tried to stay on his feet as he fell backward his nose gushing blood, both lips bleeding. Then Victor reached out and caught him, helping to steady him on his feet. Despite the assistance, Samuel lit into Victor with a series of punches. the two men stood toe to toe, bludgeoning one another with punches from the gut to the head, so quickly and forcibly that there was a shower of blood drenching the onlookers. Then everything stopped.
Both men stood teetering on their own feet, arms dropped to their sides from exhaustion. With one final jab of the base of his hand into the chin of Samuel, Victor put the big man down for the second and final fall. He had won the contest but collapsed directly upon his advesary.
Max leaned in close to check to see if he was breathing. Leer pointed to a pocket on his shirt. there, slightly sticking out of it was a bloody piece of paper. She removed the paper, unfolded it and began reading. The plan had begun.
"Hey Victor," Samuel taunted as he towered over his fallen boss," you can spare yourself th'beatin' and just give up the quarter." He laughed a deep and gloating laugh which was suddenly cut short by an excruciating howl as Victor caved his knee backwards with a quick kick from the ground. As Samuel doubled over forward to clutch the knee in agony Victor bounded up directly into his face with an elbow pushed from below by the full force of his other arm and legs standing up directly into the blow sending Samuels head back fully. The big man tried to stay on his feet as he fell backward his nose gushing blood, both lips bleeding. Then Victor reached out and caught him, helping to steady him on his feet. Despite the assistance, Samuel lit into Victor with a series of punches. the two men stood toe to toe, bludgeoning one another with punches from the gut to the head, so quickly and forcibly that there was a shower of blood drenching the onlookers. Then everything stopped.
Both men stood teetering on their own feet, arms dropped to their sides from exhaustion. With one final jab of the base of his hand into the chin of Samuel, Victor put the big man down for the second and final fall. He had won the contest but collapsed directly upon his advesary.
Max leaned in close to check to see if he was breathing. Leer pointed to a pocket on his shirt. there, slightly sticking out of it was a bloody piece of paper. She removed the paper, unfolded it and began reading. The plan had begun.
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