Chapter 1
" If someone read my mind right now, what would they hear?" Alice wondered as she stared at the fluorescent light overhead, " Static ?"
It was impossible to say how long she'd been laying in the dirty motel room. An hour? Three? Long enough that she was used to the ambient odor of stale smoke and cum.
" Hey, if I wanted a Hilton I would have found one. "
Besides, one night in so much as a Motel 8 cost as much as a week in the dirty little hole she was squatting in, and she wasn't exactly rolling in money.
" When I go out to find food, I'll splurge on a can of Lysol. " Alice promised herself. " That's good for cleaning, right? "
She let her mind wander once more, this time imagining spraying the cleaner and hearing the little screams of "99.9% of viruses and bacteria" dying around her. What about that other 0.1% though? Would it unite and come after her to avenge the fallen?
The thought entertained her frayed mind a while longer. By the time Alice's head had cleared and her stomach woke, a fierce battle had been waged- those little bacteria versus the big, evil human who'd destroyed their homes and made a graveyard of their once-proud empire. Their capital cities were the stains on the bed, pillows, floor, walls, and yes- even the ceiling.
Well, ' were ' being the operative word. The spray would leave nothing in its wake.
The next batch of bacteria would move in once she was gone. They'd see the dead empire, sense the lingering poison in the air, and turn right around. Her mark would live on forever in the room- on the bones and ruins of her enemies.
Alice giggled in the soon-to-be tomb, then clapped a hand over her mouth.
" Too loud, why did I scream?! Wait- did I scream? Or was I just quiet for too long?" She turned her head and groaned, " My stomach hurts… How long has it been since I ate? " she glanced at the clock. If it could be trusted, it was after 9pm. " I got here at 2, hopefully that was today. I didn't have lunch, I used my money on the Stuff. Didn't have breakfast either…. I don't remember dinner yesterday, but that's nothing new. So, it's been at least a day since you last ate. "
No wonder she felt like shit.
With a sigh Alice sat up, groaning against the hollow ache in her stomach. She was in her underwear- to a degree. Her bra was unhooked and pushed up around her neck, but the straps were still around her arms. Barely hidden beneath a cup she could see the dark stain of a fresh hickey on her pale skin and sighed. Her underwear dangled from one ankle and her legs had been pried apart- where they remained while the Stuff held her mind.
On the nightstand was a few bags of the Stuff and three fresh needles. Alice had vague flashes of memory of a dealer following her into her room before the world melted around her. Nudity wasn't part of her injection ritual, so the man must have taken his payment in flesh.
When it all started, the thought would have horrified her and sent her straight to the police. Now? At least he paid in Stuff. Alice wasn't entirely numb to it all yet- a part of her ached for what had happened, and made her heart heavier than she could stomach.
She fixed her bra and underwear, then retrieved her shirt and pants from the ground where they'd been discarded. She stumbled to the bathroom to splash her face and run fingers through her hair. Alice stopped a moment and checked the trash with a racing heart-
-two condoms, used and full. It was almost a relief to see them- some dealers weren't so courteous. Still… she vowed to never let another one of those in her room again.
"Like you haven't said that before. "
Alice pulled on her jacket and stuck a hand in the pocket. Surprisingly, her hand found the cash she'd promised the dealer. Last time she'd woken up, tits covered in drying cum, without so much as her duffel bag. Maybe in this part of the country people really were nicer- if still rapey.
Alice hoped some of the darkness surrounding her stuck to him, infected him like a disease. It would eat him from the inside out, just like it did to her every damn day. The rot turned her innards into a black, puss-ridden mass of dead tissue. At least, that was how she'd always pictured it.
With a sigh, Alice grabbed her bag and hunted down the room key. She slipped out into the night. Her neighbor hesitated halfway out of the door at her sudden appearance, but once he realized she had zero interest in him he went back to slowly closing his door. She glanced over him as she turned her key in the lock- was the crazy bastard putting a strand of hair between the door and frame? She half wished he didn't have a hoodie on- he probably had his tongue out in concentration like a complete tool.
"Paranoid much?" He shot her a look, but Alice was already walking towards the gas station across the street. The thought of making her bacteria graveyard was too tempting to ignore.
… ok, so maybe she was still a bit high.
She wandered through the sparse evening traffic, taking her damn time to cross the street regardless of crosswalks or other drivers. If someone hit her, she wouldn't even mind all that much. At least then the rot would be all over their car and she would be free from the poison of her own blood.
Was it the scowl on her face? The dirty clothes? The matted hair? The way she stumbled as she walked? Whatever it was, she made it as far as the welcome mat of the gas station before the manager came out from behind the counter with his hands up.
"Woah, no- you need to leave."
"What the fuck?" She crossed her arms, "This is a free country, prick."
"We've had enough of your kind in here. You walk around, buy something cheap, and suddenly we're missing inventory."
"My kind ?"
"Junkies." He shook his head, "Look, I'm sympathetic. My cousin was a junkie too, but business is business."
Alice held up the cash in her pocket so that he could see she had money, "Listen fuckface, I just want some poptarts and a can of Lysol. You can follow me if you want, but I"m getting them here." The old her would have taken her business elsewhere at the initial insult, but she could see her mere presence offended the dickhead, so she was determined to make him suffer a bit longer.
She and the manager glared one another down in the doorway, but of course she won. She learned intimidation at her grandfather's knee, and besides- she was still high enough that going full space-cadet was easier than focusing. Eventually he turned away with a sigh of disgust, "What flavor poptart?"
"Blueberry, I need my vitamins." Alice waited with her arms crossed as the manager obediently grabbed her purchase and rung it up. She wadded up a bill and threw it to him, not leaving the door mat. He dumped her change in the bag and came back around.
Halfway to the door he hesitated and sighed, "Look, I'm sorry for being a dick. It's been a long day." He grabbed a couple bottles of water from the fridge by the door and handed them to her with her purchase. He was being generous- they were the liter size, "It's safer to drink than whatever lead-soaked shit comes out of the drains of that motel. Have a good night, ma'am."
Alice snorted and yanked the tops off both bottles. She dumped them on the floor and gave a kick for good measure as the manager cursed and jumped back from the growing pool of water, "Go fuck yourself, sir."
Mister Paranoia, her neighbor, was walking along in the darkest shadows he could find. Alice watched him for a moment, bemused. Her day literally could not get any worse, so she decided to follow him for a bit. Maybe he'd at least be an interesting distraction. The TV in her room was visibly broken, and she didn't want to return to oblivion just yet.
The man stuck to the shadows, retraced his route, and then vanished. Alice wandered down the deserted streets and- purely by chance- spotted him again going the opposite direction she'd last seen. He clearly didn't want to be followed, and was damn good at hiding his path, but she managed to keep pace more often than not.
At first Alice thought he was headed towards a church- someone that twitchy had to be an alcoholic. But he gave every church he passed a wide birth- no matter if the parking lots were filled with alcoholics, junkies, or just some evening gamblers. She followed at a distance as he went deeper into the skeevy end of town. She'd been in the city for three days and never came this far from the motel.
Industrial buildings filled the streets- but they were all empty and abandoned. Shattered windows and graffiti- so either she was in gang territory or near a homeless camp. Alice had been caught by a gang of men once while she wandered lost and looking for a score. What they did almost made the dealers who assaulted her gentlemen.
Maybe this was a bad idea after all.
She caught sight of him slipping into a large yard surrounded by a rusty fence topped in barbed wire. Two guys were waiting inside, illuminated by the headlights of an old van. Alice cursed herself soundly as curiosity drove her closer. The Paranoid Man jogged over to the other two- one tall, black, and athletic (with impressive biceps) and the other a shorter, slightly round Latino man.
"How'd it go? You make contact? She gonna do this or what?" The black man crossed his arms, clearly bored.
The Paranoid Man pulled back his hood, revealing brown hair neatly cut, "Didn't get the chance." he looked to the Latino, "Thanks for zeroing us in."
"Yo, it is my genuine pleasure, man." The Latino guy went on at about twenty words per second, "See, the way I see it? We family now, and family helps one another out, ya feel? Ohana-style. Your boy is my boy and well all fugitives together now that those Accords happened. Well- I mean you two are fugitives, I'm a rehabilitated fugitive, all clean here. But if they go after my boy Scott they go after me, ya feel? And now you two are my boys too. Well," he babbled, "you're not my boys but you're my boys, get it?"
There was a long silence. Just before it got awkward, the white guy clapped him on the shoulder, "Sure do."
"Fugitives? What the fuck? " Alice hadn't exactly been keeping up with the news as she wandered place-to-place. She was more concerned with making sure he didn't find her than she was about current events.
"We don't have time to waste on this." The black man was speaking again, "I say we just grab her and sort it out at home base."
"I don't disagree with you Sam." The white man was matter-of-fact. "That's why Scott's clearing out the motel as we speak. He'll be here any minute."
"What's your plan for grabbing the girl?"
The white man turned to the Latino, "Got a ranged tazer on you?"
"Sure thing!" the bubbly guy ran over to the passenger door of the van and started to dig around in a pile of junk.
Alice watched carefully. An itch on the back of her neck told her this wasn't somewhere she wanted to be. Whatever those guys were into, it was bad. Kidnapping? Fleeing the motel in the middle of the night? It sounded too much like something her grandfather would do. The rot in her blood was reminder enough of that world and those who inhabited it.
She'd gone to ground to escape them, she couldn't stomach the thought of the three in front of her hurting someone- but what could she do? Calling the cops would draw undesired attention to the area.
They would inevitably find her, capture her, and take her to her grandfather.
" I'll never go back," she vowed. " Granddad will do whatever it takes to keep me there this time- chain me to the wall, implant a tracker… I'd rather die. " Perhaps she was condemning some other woman to death, but Alice reassured herself that there was no guarantee they'd catch their prey.
" You're making excuses ," she told herself. " But isn't that what the Stuff is for? To forget the bad? I've been through the bad already. Days like today are weekly now. I don't owe anyone anything. Not when all they do is take from me anyways."
The Latino man found what he was looking for and ran over to the white man as Alice began planning her retreat. "Here it is! All charged up! Well, it was three weeks ago. Hey, it'll still hurt." he grinned broadly, "How are you going to get close enough to use it?"
The white man took the tazer as Alice backed away from the fence. She willed the plastic bag in her hand to be silent as she moved. The white man inspected the device carefully, "I'm going to act weird enough to draw her attention, run her around town until she's tired and a bit lost, then I'm going to do this."
She gave up stealth and broke into a run as the white man turned and took aim directly at her back. There was a short pop and she felt the searing pain of hooks in her back- followed half a second later by a wall of electricity that made her bite hard on her tongue and sent her body into a spasm. At some point she felt a humiliating warmth between her legs as she pissed herself- but the pain was almost too great for the realization to sink in.
Her mind was lost in pain and shock as the white man knelt beside her groaning form, "Congratulations, Alice Pierce. You are now in the custody of Captain America."
