Plissken stepped out of the arena with more money than he knew what to do with. He had drank away so many bluebacks in the passing weeks that even the bars had lost their appeal. For Plissken, this was a low point. He was easily bored and it was eating away at his mind. Snake was restless but he still had three gunfights left in his contract. One more week and then he could move on if he didn't lose his mind first. That possibility seemed more and more likely. He couldn't bare sitting in his room any longer and the city had just as little to offer.
Plissken started walking. The direction didn't matter. He just needed to move. Snake hated to stay still. He couldn't leave New Vegas yet but he could get up and move. The directions were all the same. Throngs of people, bars and solicitation from whores young enough to be his grandchildren or close enough. The children with painted faces were even more revolting then the crazies. Even so, Plissken had to face the cold facts. They had exactly what he wanted at the moment.
The Snake grumbled to himself as he pushed through the overflowing street. Didn't Thailand believe in actual women? He was regretting the trip across the Pacific. Part of him was wishing he had gone to Mexico but it was too late for that now. It would have been a lot harder too. The revolution over the preceding few years had made them good with guns.
"Cigarettes, Cigarettes." The voice over the crowd caused Snake to pause and check his pack. It was almost empty. Snake gazed across the throng toward the far side. People flowed past him while he stood still just off the edge of the curb. Snake took to the crowd cutting through the river of people. A heavy scowl settled on his features as the red glow of whorehouse neon fell on him.
He knew what he would see when he broke through to the other sidewalk. Another painted up kid in lingerie barely holding the tray up that she carried loaded with cigarettes. He couldn't even tip them well because the leeches working them would just take it and get a little richer.
He was burning with cold fury by the time his boots took the step up the curb. The crowd broke just up the street from the cigarette girl. Snake shot dagger stares at the crowd when he reentered the throngs. It made travel easier because the tiny Thai knew better then to push a scowling man with a gun. The city had too many crack shot gunslingers. They came from everywhere in droves to die in these streets but the Thai knew these crazy killers were just as likely to shoot on the street as the arena.
Plissken pushed his way against the surging humanity. This time he broke out in front of the brothel. As usual a tiny hand took his as soon as he came to a full stop. She might have been ten if Snake stretched his imagination. Her turquoise eyelids fluttered when he looked down at her. The repulsive feeling was overtaken by another feeling that Plissken kept so buried no one knew it existed. It was so deep inside that he even forgot about it until moments like this.
"Sorry baby."
Her lip wobbled in that way only a child managed as they fought against the urge to cry. Plissken got angrier as her eyes welled up. Every time a john passed them up the girl would pay. They paid with their bodies and souls, beatings and worse. Snake bent down and kissed her cheek while he slid a stack of bills into her garter. He had the money If it saved her from a beating later it was well worth it.
Plissken looked up from the smiling girl with the turquoise painted eyes to see four of her sisters. Not real sisters of course, just her working partners. Snake shrugged and handed out a few more bills before turning to focus on the cigarette girl he had come here to find.
She was standing right behind him but it wasn't what he expected to see. She was tall and full of curves. This place had a real woman working. Snake blinked, slowly, twice to make sure she wasn't a figment of his imagination. She smiled and Snake couldn't manage to keep the cold expression he had possessed a moment earlier. She wasn't Thai or at least not fully as rosy freckles dusted her nose and cheeks.
"Cigarettes?"
Snake grinned watching the sweat slide of her chest from the oppressive heat and humidity,
"How much?" Snake called as he moved toward her. He tried not to look like a predator but he was hunting. She held up five fingers and Plissken handed over the cash.
"What about for you honey?" Snake's eye made a sweep of her body unable to hold down the animal instincts. Her eyes widened and Snake smiled. She must be new to the job or at least to the outside where she would get propositioned.
"You don't have enough." She stated with an edge of defiance.
Plissken remained quiet but his brow rose with the unspoken question.
"500" she finally came out with "I only accept bluebacks."
"I'll give you 2000 'til morning." Snake produced his best smile. Her cheeks flushed in a shy, obviously coy expression. That did little to deter Plissken. In fact it only turned him on. Snake took a step toward her. Recognition flashed in her expression and she stepped back into the darkened doorway.
Snake misread her actions. Here, on these streets in the fighters' district it was a normal sight to see doorways with hookers and their clients. Even out in the open it was common. No one even gave it a second look any longer. Plissken therefore came to the obvious conclusion that he was about to get lucky faster then he had thought. Unfortunately, he was too caught up in his own desires to think that the obvious was not always the right interpretation.
The Smoke Girl bumped into the door and the tray tumbled from her hands. She made a move to pick it up and Snake stopped her by moving in too close for her to bend down.
"My merchandise." Her voice was filled with terror.
"I'll buy any you lose." Snake didn't care how much it cost. After a month, he was hard up in more then one definition of the phrase. 6-7 thousand bluebacks was nothing now and she would be well worth every cent of it. Plissken cupped her face in his hand and took a kiss. She resisted at first keeping her hands back against the door.
It didn't take long before he heard the gasp, felt the breath against his lips and then felt a warm mouth meeting his own. His body was in overdrive. That part had started long before, when he first saw her and even more so when she blushed. Tentative hands touched his sides under the beaten leather coat and it sent shivers through him. Any touch right now would have but her hands brushed so gently over the tight fabric across his middle that it raised goose bumps on his skin.
Her hands came to rest above his guns. Snake broke the kiss giving her a nasty look. Too many whores were thieves and he didn't trust any of them out here. The hands slid around his back and he resumed the kiss pressing her father back into the darkness.
"Where can I take you?" The question had a double meaning to it both in the actual location and the more immediate desires. The only answer he got was a moan but actions speak louder then words. He was fine with staying right here. His hands found their way to her thighs and slid her skirt up. They were pressed tightly together but Snake knew the game. Gently he ran his hands over the soft inner thighs coaxing them open, sliding his hands farther between.
His hand brushed over smooth skin all the way up to the short clipped tuft. He couldn't bear to touch anymore. It was driving him to insanity. So strong was the desire that he imagined he could smell her over the reek of the street. It was all a game in his mind though she was quiet real under his fingertips.
His hands returned to her hips and then the tables suddenly turned. Her arms wrapped around his neck pulling him into another kiss. He pushed into it and her legs spread wide hooking over his holsters. He could feel her feet lock, the heels digging slightly into his back. Snake knew she had been playing up the coy act and he had proof. Her hips began to grind against him. Warmth and wetness soaked through the fabric driving the intensity to a place where Plissken was taken off guard.
Her lips and teeth moved down his rough neck. It was more then he could stand. Snake's eye closed and his neck arched back giving in to the needs of his body without much regard for his surroundings. Her nails grazed his neck working down his chest. Another wave of shivers came before Snake felt something was wrong. At first he couldn't place it but then it came to him. All the sudden it was like his eyelid was under a full afternoon sun. It was night he was sure of it.
Everything in Snake's mind crashed to a screeching halt. His eye flew open and he saw the arch of bleaching, white light. Spotlight! His head snapped around looking straight into a blinding police light. He could just make out the jeep it was mounted on. Plissken swore in the first language that came to mind, Thai, American, it didn't matter. Noise drew his attention back to the corner. Plissken tried to blink back the blurs of color distorting his vision as quickly as possible. He caught the glint of metal and instantly recognized the cuffs.
"Shit!" Plissken tried to shove her away but her feet were still locked. All his efforts managed were to ram her sharp heels into his kidneys. Something cut into his hand and next he saw blood pricked up from a gash on his right hand. She cut him. Lust turned to a flare of anger and Snake slammed the cigarette girl full force into the brick doorway. Her legs went limp.
Plissken let her fall like a dropped bag of garbage before he took a gander at the street. The jeep was emptying out like a clown car before him and the mass of people was moving in one direction. He knew they were running from cops. Snake ducked into the crowd and went with it. That was his only chance for escape.
The crowd took him a few blocks before he pulled out and ran down a deserted alley. By this time Snake had no idea where he was. He needed his bearings. Slowing he walked out into the next street. There were a few people but no blackbellies that he could see. Behind him the noise had turned to a roar of screams and gunshots. Plissken wanted out. Fuck the contract, the money all of it. He was going back to the states.
Snake ran for the docks. Boats were always leaving New Vegas for the islands and in some cases the west coast. He wanted on one of them. The docks were deserted when he got to them. All of the boats bobbing gently. Noise and light hit him simultaneously. First the thwump and blinding searchlight of a chopper drowned out everything else. The light was so intense it seeped behind the patch forcing Snake to scream as the pain consumed him. Reflexively his hand covered the patch. He turned bleary eyed to run only to be confronted with a truck and another light.
The dock was lit up like an explosion had been paused at the apex of its burst. It was disorienting to see the world illuminated to such an eerie bone white. It was like one big corpse. Plissken staggered forcing his head to clear enough to run. He spun on his heels making for the helicopter's direction. It would be easier to run past.
Once he left the ring of fiery light the pain subsided and he picked up speed. Snake didn't take the chance to look back and he was soon accosting himself for it. The circle of light caught up and he pumped harder, pushing his body for every ounce of power. Things were looking good. Plissken felt like he might escape.
In an instant he was falling face first into the wooded boardwalk. Something was on him weighing him down. He collided with the ground and the weight slammed down with him taking his already labored breath. Plissken struggled and as he turned over the situation came to light. A net lay over him. It was made of cables nearly as thick as his wrist. The weight was too much to struggle with when he had to put his arm strength into keeping it off his chest so he could breath.
The chopper was up there hovering and drowning him in that excruciating light. If he could have put energy into retrieving his guns he would have shot the damned thing out of the sky. The light changed to dark like a solar eclipse in just this small corner of the world. It was the woman. Fury burst into his mind and he let go of the cables. The weight pressed down on his chest but Plissken ignored it as he attempted to get free. He wanted that bitch but not for anything nice.
More weight pressed down on his chest. Snake couldn't ignore it and ended his efforts of escape in order to relieve the pressure. The bitch was there on him, sitting on him. Insult burned hot in his veins when she leaned down toward him.
"You're pretty stupid for a gunfighter."
Snake bucked under her unable to control the violent thoughts and hatred. Her hand came down on his face when she floundered for balance. Plissken took advantage of it and buried his teeth into the side of her hand. Blood poured into his mouth faster then he could spit it out from behind his clenched teeth. His teeth ground down into the flesh until she finally screamed. That cry of sheer pain was satisfying, better than sex and cheaper. This was free. She tried to retrieve her hand but Plissken held tight sputtering under the flow of blood.
She continued to cry for help. It was coming but Snake wouldn't let go. They'd beat him no matter what he did. At least this way it would count for something. She'd never be able to forget him now. His teeth would forever mark her hand. Snake glared defiantly at her from under the suffocating weight of metal net. She was crying and he chuckled before the world went black like God shutting off the lights.