Robbing Graves
AN: Honestly, I'm not sure where this came from, but it was one of those things I just kept wondering about, and I finally decided to write a blurb about it. So I guess you could almost call this a bit of a character study? Maybe? I warn you... This could be really shitty. I'm tired, and this is un-beta'd.
Hearing the unsteady clicking of heels on concrete, Graverobber buried himself further under the rot in the dumpster, not caring that there was something slimy making it's way down the back of his neck from some unknown source. He may be a dealer, but even he had his bad days, and to be honest, today was not a day that he wanted to deal with the drama and false glamour that was Amber Sweet. Sure, she was good for a quick fuck now and again, but he was clean out of Zydrate and didn't want to try to break it to her that she wasn't going to score with him tonight.
"Graverobber," she sang out, "I wanna party with you tonight!" Grimacing, he held his breath as she wobbled past his hiding place. She continued to sing as she made her way down the alley and back onto the busy street, oblivious that she had passed her target. Letting out a groan of relief, Graverobber pulled himself up out of the dumpster, shaking the leftover food and rubbish, and god knows what else off of his jacket. Wiping the goop off the back of his neck, he decided that perhaps it was time for a wash. After all, there was only so much grime one could accumulate on oneself before even they felt contaminated.
Sneaking into a graveyard was one of Graverobbers favourite pass times. Not only was there the thrill of getting caught, but you never knew what exactly you were going to find there. For example, there he was, minding his own business, trying to drain some Zydrate from the corpse of some sorry shmuck, when 'lo, suddenly he has the company of a strange little girl. Oh, now this was going to be fun. He has started singing to himself as he worked away, but with the appearance of the girl, he decided to kick it up a notch. Tell her exactly what it was that he did for a living. And he was having a grand old time too, even when the GenCops came and crashed his party. He was surprised though, when they didn't shoot him on site, but also let him go on his merry way. Puzzled, but not overly concerned. He just hoped it didn't come back to bite him in the ass later.
Up in his office, Rotti Largo watched the video feed with a sigh, settling back into his chair. As much as he despised grave robbers and what they did, he knew that there wasn't much choice with the tall man on the screen, that he had to be kept around. After all, with his daughter addicted to surgery, and constantly going out and spending all his money on street Zydrate, what else could he do? He found that this particular grave robber was a favourite of Amber's, and for good reason too. Even though he was a grimy drug dealer, he at least had enough morals to keep the drug as clean as he could. Rotti knew exactly what went into the pure drug, and was disgusted by the laced Zydrate that kept popping up on the street. Most dealers used fillers of other drugs to spread out the drug, make it thinner so that they could sell a higher volume for fewer hours spent scrounging about trying to find more Zydrate. Unfortunately, the fillers tended to be on the more lethal side, and could cause even more damage to the addicts than the Zydrate did itself.
And that was where this grave robber differed. He went and did the extra work to find more Zydrate, he didn't lace the stuff he did find. What he found is what he sold. Even if he could have earned more money by diluting the drug, what mattered was that he didn't.
This was the reason Rotti Largo kept him around, this was the reason this particular grave robber managed to keep himself from being shot, despite all of the stupid, reckless things he did which allowed him to get caught time and time again.
What a crazy random happen-stance! There he was, minding his own business as usual, wandering down the crowded street of the fair, when he saw the same kid from the graveyard being dragged into one of the operation tents. Of course curiosity got the better of him and he followed after her. Seeing her obvious distress, he thought that it might be nice to be someone's knight in shining armour for once. So there he found himself, cutting through the side of the tent and like a perfect gentleman, lead her out of the fair and away from the press of bodies. Not exactly sure what to do with her now, he motioned for her to follow him as his did his rounds. From the looks of her, the kid had never even seen the outside of her bedroom or something to that effect. It was time someone gave her a crash course on life on the streets.
"Zydrate comes in a little glass vial..."
After the frankly embarrassing encounter with Amber Sweet, Graverobber found himself sticking close to the kid. She intrigued him. From her completely innocent view of the world, to her very odd illness she claimed to have. And that fascination is probably what caused him to end up in this predicament. Raiding one of his more frequent graveyards, he found himself getting knocked over the head, bound and gagged and dragged off to places unknown.
Turned out that places unknown were actually located in the basement of the Geneco building. Who knew? Dragging himself out of unconsciousness, he was unsurprised to find himself still tied up. What did surprise him though was when the kid stumbled into the dank room.
"Kid?" he had asked incredulously. After all, this certainly was not a place you would expect a girl like her to find herself. He was then even more surprised to find out that she thought Zydrate was her cure. She was probably wrong, but hey, who was he to tell her what to do? She was also very eager to try to get the drug herself from the conveniently placed body in the room. Huh, must be really desperate if she was willing to retrieve it herself. Didn't pan out that way though, once she found that the body was that of her dead mother. Creepy. Even Graverobber had to admit that was pretty sick of Largo to set up. He also wondered what the old man was planning for the kid. Couldn't be good.
"Blood bath, it's gonna be a blood bath..."
It wasn't until much later that he was able to free himself, and by then, the major story was over. He managed to catch the end of the chaotic event when he finally slipped out the the building. Just in time to see the kid, Shilo, he reminded himself, drenched in blood, climb into a limo which proceeded to leave the scene. Figuring he could always catch up with the girl later, he returned to his stash of Z and set off to do his rounds. After a huge opera like that, there were always tons of customers to appease.
AN: Soooo... What did you think? I'm ending it there for now, but there is always the possibility of me getting attacked with plot bunnies while working on my other story, so I may come back to this some day.