The next day, I woke up and rubbed the sleep out of my tired eyes. I couldn't sleep last night. I kept tossing and turning. I had a different dream this time, I found myself flying over the City. It was beautiful from above, but it was still a horrible place to gaze upon. I couldn't remember much of the dream, it was all very fuzzy. I remembered Bill's Hotel and flying over to it... but that was it.
I stretched my wings and kicked the covers from my body. I lazily shuffled out of my cold room, and down the tunnel to the Meeting room. The Meeting room was where we would discuss things about the City, rumors, and have meals at the table.
I came into the Meeting room. Priscilla, Beans, Elgin, Wounded Bird, and Ambrose were already up. "Good Morning Banshee," said Beans and placed a plate of dry bread and cold scrambled eggs in front of me. I said good morning back to her and sat down. I looked at my plate sadly, then picked up the fork and shovelled the cold scrambled eggs into my dry mouth.
Food was scarce in Market Street. I have sometimes bought from the traders in the Market. I was in charge of getting food, but as I said before, I wasn't able to get food yesterday.
"Banshee, I don't want you going outside today," said Beans firmly, interrupting my thoughts. I swallowed my cold eggs. "What?" I asked. Beans took my empty plate away. "I dont want you going outside today," she repeated. My eyes widened. "What! Oh come on, please? I'm sure the security guards don't come out early in the morning, can I just go out till nine and come back?" I asked her. Beans shook her head. "You're a wanted person, it's too risky," she said with her hands on her hips.
"Can I go?" asked Priscilla. Beans turned to her, "Yes, but you can't stay out too long, I don't want you caught either, even though you aren't wanted as much as Banshee," she said. I sunk low in my chair and muttered angrily under my breath.
The conversation was cut short when Wounded Bird lifted up his wing and shushed us. "Ssshhh! Waffles approaches," he said flatly.
As if on cue, the short lizard came running into the room. "Hey! Guys! Guys! I just got word from Gerald the Market trader!" said Waffles excitedly. He tripped, but regained balance and ran up to the table. I straightened up in my seat. Elgin's ears perked up from the top of his hat. "What? What is it?" asked the black bobcat. Waffles just kept jumping up and down excitedly.
"Did a slot machine fall onto Bill's gang again?" asked Priscilla, smiling. Ambrose and I laughed, Elgin snorted. Waffles shook his head, he kept jumping up and down excitedly. "Is there more food in Market Street?" asked Ambrose hopefully. Waffles' smile was widening, but he shook his head again.
We kept guessing. Suddenly, Waffles lost his train of thought when he saw a small pathetic pile of stale waffles on a cracked plate. He reached over and started to gobble them down. We stared at him. "Waffles? Waffles! Tell us what Gerald told you!" yelled Elgin impatiently. Waffles jumped from Elgin's yell and took a cold waffle out of his mouth. He swallowed and cleared his throat. "The Nightmare was spotted last night!" he said excitedly. Everyone at the table exchanged looks.
The Nightmare was a mysterious flying creature. It comes out mostly at night and destroys everything in Its' path. No one has ever seen it, but rumors say that it came from the depths of Hell. I don't really believe that rumor. My belief is that The Nightmare was just a mutant from The Prairie Dog Territory.
The Prairie Dogs' chromosome pool has 'finally dried up' as Beans puts it. They weren't able to make more of themselves amongst each other, and what do they do? They attack the bats. Its very gruesome and disgusting. Now, every so often, we get attacked by these mutant prairie dogs with bat features attacking the City. Bill and his army of Security Men fight against the mutants and it usually ends up in a stalemate. So, most likely, The Nightmare is The Prairie Dog Clan's "secret weapon" or something.
"The Nightmare hasn't been spotted for days," I said. Waffles nodded happily. "Yeah! Yeah! It hasn't! and Gerald says that it destroyed part of Bill's Hotel last night!" said Waffles excitedly. I blinked. Destroyed part of Bill's Hotel? My mind instantly went back to the dream I had. Flying over the City...Bill's Hotel...Nah, I thought. I shook the ridiculous thought from my head and turned back to Waffles. Beans, Wounded Bird, Elgin and Priscilla just smiled a small smile to Waffles. "Yay," said Ambrose half heartedly. We were sort of excited that The Nightmare had come back, but mostly we had lost our hope into The Nightmare. Nothing has really given us hope into taking down Bill and his security men.
...
After breakfast, Priscilla left. I waited a couple of minutes before heading out as well. I sneaked out of the underground home, putting on my cloak over my grey shirt with the strange red symbol on the front, the same one I wore when I first came into Dirt five years ago. I walked outside, down the street, and toward Market Street. I didn't want to stay in one place for long, it was boring to stay in the cold underground tunnels of our homes. I pulled the hood lower over my face so people wouldn't recognize me from the posters.
The streets weren't so crowded in the mornings. It was only at night when the "real fun" began. I turned the corner and walked down Market Street. Market Street was never really crowded, even at night. Market Street was only there for the citizens, like us, to shop and pretend there was no New Las Vegas next door to us.
Market Street was mostly made up of food stands and tents. A lot of traders lived there, and tried to sell as much food as they could to the starving poor families that lived here. The posse and I would occasionally talk to the traders, and keep up to date on what has happened in the City. We mostly got our news from Gerald. I walked along the food stands. the stands had only a couple scraps of bread, thin slices of fruit, and little jugs of warm water. I sighed sadly at the poor market traders as they sat behind their stands, trying to make a living in poor conditions.
The population for the town/City has doubled over the years. Mostly because people become obsessive over the poker games and slot machines that they waste all their money on. Then the people find themselves in the dirty streets of traders and other homeless people who don't have enough money to get back home.
Fights have also doubled over the years as well. More crimes being committed, and more drunk people getting into fights. Bloodshed and little gangs running around murdering people. Bill doesn't seem to care, and his security men as well. Their job is to only capture the hiding citizens of Dirt, and me, a wanted outlaw.
Trash littered the streets, graffiti is written on every wall and door of the buildings and there was no sheriff to straighten out the fights and stop the crimes. If only Rango were here…
Suddenly, My ears perked up to the sound of a scream. I turned around and looked down the street that connected Market Street and Main Street. A crowd started to form at the scene, blocking my view. I jogged to the scene and pushed my way through the crowd. I gasped. In the middle of the wide circle was Priscilla, fighting with one of Bill's security men.
"You are comin' with me girl!" yelled the security man. "No!" screamed Priscilla, trying to pry the uniformed lizard's fingers from her wrist, but the man's grip was too strong. Suddenly the lizard brandished his club and whacked the teen Priscilla upside the head. She screamed in pain and collapsed. Blood stained her hair and hat.
I felt anger boiling in me. "Stop!" I screamed and broke through the crowd and entered the circle. The security guard turned and swung his club at me. "Get back woman!" he yelled at me. The club made contact with my face. I screamed and collapsed to the ground. Pain shot through my face. My wings trembled as I helped myself up from the ground.
I lightly touched my face. My wing brushed up against the spot where the security man whacked me. I removed my wing from my face and looked down. Blood. My blood. I narrowed my eyes at the security guard. The lizard went back to Priscilla. He grabbed her arm and tried pulling her to her feet. Priscilla struggled in his grasp. The crowd around us just watched, not bothering to help. My wings tightened into fists. A volcano erupted in my body and I screamed at the lizard. The security man lost his grip and was sent flying backwards through the air. Priscilla sat up and groaned.
I suddenly felt everyone's eyes on me. I looked at them confusingly. The crowd of people gawked in horror. That was when I realized something was wrong. I…transformed. I suddenly grew ten times bigger then my normal size. My wingspan stretched out and grew to the right length as my new size. I opened my mouth and roared. My fang jutted out and grew longer. My cloak was stretched out and then ripped from my body.
Priscilla gasped in horror and bolted down the street. Everyone ran away screaming from the huge monstrous bat. The monster that was once Banshee, roared angrily and then took flight. "It's the Nightmare!" screamed the lizard who got up from where he landed. He took out a whistle from the pocket of his uniform and blew into it. The whistle sent off a loud high pitch sound. The Nightmare screeched in pain, thus knocking into one of the rooftops of the casinos. She shook her head, and flapped her wings.
Suddenly, a whole group of security men came rushing out of the casinos. Chorizo and Stump came out of a casino as well and gawked at the monster in horror. "The Nightmare!" said Chorizo in a loud whisper. Security men brought out some ropes and lassoed The Nightmare. The huge bat screamed as two ropes lassoed around her neck. Two more tightened around her feet and yanked her down toward the ground. Banshee/The Nightmare, flapped her wings harder.
Chains were thrown over the huge bat's body, thus pulling her down. The Nightmare flapped her wings harder and harder. The Security men yanked and pulled the ropes, keeping the huge bat from flying away. Stump and Chorizo stood frozen in their tracks as they watched the scene.
I didn't know what was happening, but I knew one thing: I was scared. I tried flying away but more ropes and chains went over me and pulled me down. Suddenly, I turned and saw one of the security men aim a blow dart at me and fired. A syringe came out of the end and came flying toward me at lightning speed. The syringe dug its needle right into my thick course fur and through my skin near my neck. The strange liquid drained out of its' small tube container. I used my teeth to pull it out, but it was already too late. My vision started to get blurry.
The syringe fell out of my mouth and onto the ground. Everybody's screaming and yelling suddenly was muffled and hard to understand. My wings became heavy like lead and my eyes started to flutter shut. I groaned, trying to keep up in the air, but then finally collapsed on the ground.
The security men rushed to me and finished tying me down. The last thing I saw was Stump and Chorizo rushing to me. They grinned. "This will please the boss…" said Stump, exchanging glances with Chorizo. Then everything went black…
