Authors note: Time for another update! Now we really get into what this story will be about. As always I would like to thank Snake Of The Rose for helping me come up with names, a new chapter title, and being my epic editor.
Please Read and review! Enjoy.
Chapter 4: Harmful If Swallowed
-Corneria City, West Side, 7:00 a.m., 1 week since the end of the war-
It was a cold, Wednesday morning in Corneria City. A storm was rolling in overhead; dark gray clouds covering the rising sun in the east. The streets were slowly beginning to come back to life. Since news of the war coming to an end, people have started to venture outside once more. Much of the relief effort was being put into practice as well. Set up in many parts of Corneria City were military camps that gave out supplies to people who were in need. Many lost their homes during the war, and were able to stay at the camps for the mean time until they were relocated to government provided homes. Clean up crews now fill the streets, clearing away downed fighters, civilian wreckage such as destroyed cars and city buses, and rubble from many of the destroyed buildings throughout the city. Other parts of the metropolis were luckier than others, and didn't suffer the same amount of collateral damage, unlike the downtown areas that were almost completely brought to the ground.
The west side of the city was a more densely populated area full of towering lower class apartment buildings. It was also full of smaller mom and pop businesses that were beginning to reopen to the public. Many people migrated to this part of the city in hopes of finding a place to live but all the apartments were full and had no vacancy. There was a great deal of people who are homeless and have nothing. The economy was brought to a halt, and no longer were necessities sold to the masses; they were issued. Food, water, clothes, gas, and many other things were priced so high, that the middle and lower class citizens could not even begin to afford them. So, they were issued what they could live off of every week by the government until things became stable again; that wasn't going to happen for years however.
The post war depression had begun.
The fact that war was over didn't change the fact that you may have lost everything to it. It was a harsh reality, things don't just magically get better over night, it takes a lot of time, and a lot of money. Rebuilding Corneria would cost billions, and that's after the millions it will cost cleaning it up. It might take at least half a decade before the lives of the Cornerian people can return to normal or at least begin to.
For many though, the idea of living a normal life again didn't seem possible. Thousands upon thousands of people were mentally scared from the attacks on Corneria. There wasn't any help for these people; they suffered in silence, and slowly lost their minds. Suicides were on the rise, a lot of people just didn't know how to cope with everything they were forced to go through. Crime also spiked because the desperation got to a lot of the poorer citizens, and they just weren't getting enough of what they needed to live, which forced them to find other ways of satisfying those needs. On top of that, there were hundreds of thousands that were sick and dying out in the streets and unable to get to camps the military set up. Help wasn't getting to the people, and it didn't look like it was about to change any time soon.
In the eyes of the people, the system was broken.
In the eyes of someone else however, the system, was perfect.
--
--
"Yeah, right here should be fine, thanks again."
The rat taxi driver turned to his passenger in the backseat, "No prob, that's gonna be seven bucks."
The young coyote reached for his back jean pocket, "Alright."
He got out his wallet and pulled out a ten for the driver, "Here's ten, keep the change."
The rat took the money from his paw and smiled, "Thanks buddy, thanks a lot."
"Hey, not a problem, you're pretty brave for driving around only a week after the war has ended."
"Yeah, well, unfortunately, this is how I make my living, and someone's gotta do it my friend," replied the rat as he stared through the wind shield of his car, watching rain lightly fall upon it.
"Guess you're right. Hey, thanks again, names Aaron by the way." said the coyote reaching out his hand over the seat.
The rat reached over and shook his hand in return, "Name's Jack. Well Aaron, you take care of yourself out there, shits all messed up."
"You do the same, I'll see ya around."
Aaron opened the taxi door and stepped out on to the cold, wet sidewalk. He closed the taxi door behind him and waved to the driver as he drove off in search of another customer. The young coyote's ears twitched with every rain drop that fell upon them. He pulled his hood of his black hoodie over his head; his snout just barely sticking out from underneath it, and pulled out a piece of paper that said, "614" on it.
"It's gotta be close by," He thought to himself.
Aaron made his way down the sidewalk with his hands tucked away in his pockets, occasionally glancing at the address numbers of the numerous apartment buildings that lined the streets.
"Eh, I should probably just ask." He thought to himself.
There was no point just wandering all over the streets in the rain like he was.
Aaron noticed a small coffee shop on corner of an intersection he was approaching and decided to ask someone inside if they knew where 614 was.
He pushed open the door and it set off a small jingle letting the owner know a new customer was entering the shop.
The shop owner, an older raccoon, came strolling out of the back room behind the counter, "Hey how ya doin'? What can I get for you?"
It was a small yet, cozy little cafe. The aroma of the many different types of coffee beans filled the air. It had somewhat of a ranch style theme to it. Wood floors, wood tables, and an old fashion couch were placed by a red brick style fire place. The counter had a large cold case full of pastries and sandwiches that all looked home made, and appealing to the eye. A few other customers were quietly sitting nearby the warm, cracking fire, sipping their hot drinks and enjoying the hospitality that was very hard to come by these days.
Once more the raccoon asked his new customer of the morning, "So, anything I can get for you?"
Aaron snapped out of the comforting daze that the coffee shop bestowed upon him, "I'm sorry, uh actually I was just wondering if you could help me find the address 614?"
"Oh, okay, " The raccoon showed a little bit of disappointment but then snapped out of it, trying to remain friendly, " Yeah, you actually aren't all that far from it."
The young coyote pulled back his rain spotted hood, "Oh really? I figured I wasn't too far off."
"All you gotta do is keeping going north, up Main street here, and after about, two blocks, turn right on the uhh, the corner of Evercrest, yeah that's it, and it should be right there. It's a ten story building, you can't miss it."
Okay, great, thanks a lot," Aaron said as he started to make his way toward the door.
"No problem... Hey, you sure you don't want anything? It's pretty bleak out there; you may want something to keep you warm." The shop keeper was determined to not let Aaron leave without something in hand, but at the same time, was genuinely sincere about the wellbeing of Aaron.
With his hand outreached for the door, Aaron stopped and thought for a second. It was pretty frigid outside, so maybe something warm to drink couldn't hurt.
The coyote turned around from the door and walked back to the counter. "Okay, why not."
"Ah! That's more like it! So what will you have?"
Aaron looked up at the menu above that listed all the different drinks, coffee, and other things such as sandwiches to order.
Aaron gave a clumsy smile, "Do you have hot chocolate?"
"Ha! You didn't look like a coffee drinker, sure, one hot chocolate coming up, that will be ten dollars."
"What?!" Aaron responded, shocked.
"Sorry, that's the price."
"Wow I had no idea things were this bad, ten bucks for a hot chocolate?"
The shop owner sighed, "I barely get any business these days, the war really ruined everything for everyone. No one can afford my prices now, but I can't afford to lower them because then, I won't be able to keep this place open! I had to let go of all my employees as well."
"I'm sorry to hear that." Aaron replied, not really knowing what to say.
"It's okay; hopefully I can out last this depression and not have to lock up for good. Business use to be booming, this place was always full of customers, but look now, its a ghost town. All the regulars, I haven't seen them in ages, they could be dead for all I know. This shop was my pride and joy, but now, I'm not sure if I can keep it around. I hate the idea of starting all over, like almost everyone has to these days."
Aaron really felt for the owner, and really wished there was something he could do to help, but he was in no position to anyway.
"Alright." The coyote pulled out a ten, "Here you go, I'll take that hot chocolate after all."
It was the least he could do.
Taken back by generosity of Aaron, the raccoon smiled, "Thank you! Thank you so much! alright let me get that drink for you."
The raccoon gathered up what he needed to make the drink, mixed them together and poured it into a pot to warm it up.
"Sorry, it will be just a second. I don't have any boiling water ready at the moment."
"That's okay, no rush." Aaron replied.
The shop keeper popped open his old fashion register, and safely placed the money within its till.
"So, I didn't catch your name, I like to get to know all my new customers." implied the raccoon.
"Well you probably won't see me again anytime soon, I'm just passing through, I'm originally from Katina. Oh, and my name is Aaron by the way. Yours is?" Aaron asked, out stretching his arm over the counter for a hand shake.
"Just call me Jerry." The two shook hands, "So, Katina huh? What are you doing down here on Corneria? I hear things are doing a lot better over there."
"Yeah, we weren't hit as hard as this planet was so things aren't going as crazy on Katina, and to answer your question, I'm here to find my cousin and take him back home with me."
Jerry nodded his head, "I see. Does he live over at 614? Is that why are looking for that apartment complex?"
"Yeah, that's right."
"What's his name? I probably know him, I know almost everyone in this part of the city."
"His name's John. John McStacey."
"John McStacey?" Jerry's ears perked up.
"Yeah…Do you know him?"
"You're his cousin?"
"Yeah I am, so do you know him?"
"No wonder you looked like a familiar face, you must be a McStacey as well, and yeah, I know John. I haven't seen him in awhile, poor kid." Jerry sighed, "He lost his entire family during the 1st attack on this city. After that day he totally lost it, and has been on a downward spiral ever since. He use to be a good kid, he worked here about 2 years ago. He had so much spirit, and he loved his family; he seemed like he was really gonna go places. After he lost his family, he just gave up on everything. Now he's like every other hopeless ghost out there wondering the streets trying to find something to live for, and trust me, these days, that's really hard to come by."
This made Aaron a little nervous about his cousin's wellbeing.
Jerry continued, "You remind me so much of him, you seem like a good kid. It's really noble of you to come help him out, he really needs it."
Aaron was silent and lost in thought about how his encounter with John might turn out, with his head down, staring at the floor.
A timer went off signaling the drink was ready.
"Ah, it's finished." Jerry said, reaching for the pot of hot chocolate.
He poured the hot drink into a paper cup, put a lid on it, and set it down on the counter in front of Aaron.
The coyote had his hands in his pockets and was looking to the left, out the large glass windows in the front of the store. He watched the rain start to fall harder with a discontent look upon his face. He let out a deep breath; he was starting to get really nervous. He hadn't seen John in about 5 years, and he hated the idea of what he might find when he gets to the apartment.
"Hey, you okay?"
Aaron did a double take at the raccoon, nervously looking at Jerry, then back out the window, and then back at Jerry again, "Yeah, I'm sorry, I just... I don't know how to handle this. I didn't really think about how he has probably changed into someone completely different."
"People always change."
"Yeah, but not like this. Can you be honest with me? Just tell me what I might find when I get to his apartment, I gotta know what to prepare for."
"Honestly?" Jerry paused for a moment, then let out another mournful sigh, "I really don't know, it's been a long time since I have seen him. Last time I saw John, he was stumbling by the front of the store all drugged up on something, screaming about the end of the world at people. He had gained quite the reputation for doing stuff like that, but for the last few weeks, I haven't seen him once."
"Great..." Aaron said, snatching his drink off the counter.
"Seems like quite a burden has been placed upon your shoulders, kid."
"Taking care of my family is never a burden."
"Yeah, guess you're right. I would do anything for my family."
"Well Jerry, Maybe I'll see you around, thanks for the drink."
"Hey, thank you Aaron. Good luck with finding John, and take care of your self out there. Get back to Katina as fast as you can." Jerry said with a hint of laughter.
"See ya." Aaron said as he walked out the door with his warm drink in hand.
He pulled his hood back over his head now that he was back out in the rain, away from the warm comfort of the coffee shop. Fog began to roll in as the rain fell from the heavens at a steady pace. It was so cold that day and it made Aaron shiver with each gust of ice cold air the storm blew. He sipped his drink as he walked, trying his best to stay warm.
Aaron began to make his way up Main Street towards his destination. His shoes made a, splish splash sound as he walked over the rain soaked sidewalk, passing by others who had to be out in the storm that day. No one said a word to each other. Everyone he passed by had their head hung low, and didn't make any attempt to greet Aaron as he ventured up the street.
He felt like a ghost himself.
Up ahead, he could see a street sign appearing through the fog on the corner he was approaching.
Evercrest, it read.
He turned the corner, and there it was across the street from him, 614.
It was probably one of the most rundown apartment buildings in the area. It was a red brick building, complete with missing bricks, broken windows, and rusty fire escapes; one of which had snapped off half way up. Weeds were sprouting up from the cracked sidewalk of the apartment, and to really complete the scene, a car that was stripped of everything, sat on cinder blocks right in front of the old building. The way it barely stuck out of the fog gave it a very eerie feeling as well. It almost looked like the building was dead.
Aaron took a deep breath as he stood from across the street, uneasily gawking at the rundown apartment; his tail nervously stirring in all directions.
"Well this is it. Please still be alive John."
He gave a quick glance in both directions and made his way across the desolate street.
He had never been so nervous in his life.
Aaron drew closer to the front door of the apartment building, his anxiety grew with every step he took.
He was now at the foot of the small crumbling stair case that led up to the entrance.
He took a deep breath, "I can do this..."
Aaron climbed the stairs, reached the old wooden front door, swung it open, and stepped inside.
The coyote gasped at what he saw as the door closed behind him.
The main hall on the 1st floor looked like something you would see in an abandon building. The paint on the walls was chipping off, dead potted plants were scattered about, and it was poorly lit. Half of the florescent bulbs were either dead, or broken making it a bit difficult to see. The apartment had an art deco look to it; this building was ancient. The floors were covered with dirty white square tile, the walls were mostly wood paneling until it turned to bare white walls half way up, and rundown old fashion furniture littered the entry hall.
"Christ, I can't believe people still live in this place." He thought to himself.
Aaron turned to a row of old mail boxes that hung on the wall nearby. He looked over the names on each one, reading the small pieces of paper within a slot on the front of each box. Most of them were to hard to make out since they were so old and weathered.
"Smith, no…Jackson, no…Andrews, no. Come on, where's McStacey?"
There were hundreds of mail boxes, "This might take awhile."
A few minutes went by, and finally Aaron found what he was looking for, "Ah! Here we go, McStacey, room 512. Fifth floor eh? Great..."
Out of curiosity, Aaron felt compelled to take a look inside the mailbox. They were the kind that had a lock on the face of the small door, so he needed a key. He decided to try anyway trying to grip the edges of the mailbox's door with his finger tips. He gave it a jerk, and like nothing the door broke off entirely, spilling mail everywhere. It seemed that no one had checked the mail box in a long time. Letters, bills, junk mail, this didn't make Aaron very confident that John was even still here in the building. He took a closer look at some of the pieces of mail and saw the post date was almost 2 years old on some of them.
He gathered up as much of the mail as he could to take to John, but the fact that was so much really worried him, "God I hope I'm not too late."
He was a bit confused, we was told not to long ago that John was recently seen but a few weeks ago, and he had mail that dates nearly two years back.
He started to make his way down the hall, towards the elevators, passing the ground floor apartment doors. It was so quiet, not a sound could be heard. Maybe this place was abandoned and maybe John wasn't here after all. Something pushed Aaron onward however, he wasn't certain that his cousin wasn't in this building, so he felt compelled to keep searching. He reached the elevators and pushed the "up" button that was mounted in between them.
Nothing happened.
He pushed again and again to no avail.
"Looks like I'll be taking the stairs." He blankly said to himself.
Suddenly he heard a loud crash behind him, which made Aaron jump around, almost throwing the mail in his hands everywhere.
Apparently, one of the sections of mailboxes fell off the wall and broke into piece's upon hitting the ground.
One of the apartment doors creaked open and an old hyena wearing very ragged clothing, stuck out his head, looking for what caused the loud disturbance.
He looked at the broken mail box and then whipped his head around at Aaron and gave him a unpleasant glare.
Looks like this place wasn't abandoned after all.
"Did you do that?!" the hyena demanded to know.
"Uh...no! I didn't! It just fell off, I swear!"
"Hey, I've never seen you before, who are you, why are you here?" The hyena snapped, leaving the doorway of his apartment, making his way toward Aaron..
Now he was standing right in front of Aaron, eye to eye, with a very irritated look on his face.
"I uhh, I'm just here to see my cousin, please, I don't want any trouble." The nervous coyote stammered out.
"Who is your cousin?"
"Juh...John McStacey."
"What? That nut job? Haha!" The hyena broke into a cackling laugh. "Oh please, another McStacey, just what we need! I hope you're not as fucked up as he is."
"What?! How dare you! He's been through hard times! He lost his family! He-"
"Yeah yeah, whatever! He's no different than everyone else around here. We have all lost something to the war, just like that McStacey kid. He had a chance to leave this place, but he chose to stay. He just couldn't let go of the fact that he lost something he could never get back. Now he just sits up in that empty apartment, slowly destroying himself with whatever he can find. Please do us all a favor, and take him the fuck with you on your way out, we don't want him around here anymore."
And with that, the hyena turned back to his apartment and slammed the door behind him.
Aaron had no idea what he was in for, he was genuinely scared at what he might find. He made his way over to a large metal door that was labeled, "stairs" and pushed it open. The stairway had a musty smell to it causing Aaron to cough into his hand after a deep breath of the stale air. Faint rays of daylight seeped through the dirty, grate covered windows on each floor.
He started making his way up the square stairwell.
2nd floor.
3rd floor.
4th floor.
Finally he reached the 5th floor. Above he heard the slam of a door as some one else entered the stairwell, and started making their decent down followed by the sound of hurried foot steps. Aaron didn't feel like having another encounter like the one he did with the hyena on the ground floor, so he quickly passed through the door and entered into the hallway of the 5th floor swiftly closing the door behind him.
It was almost the same scene as the ground floor, just another run down depressing site to behold, and most of the apartment doors were boarded off.
"How could anyone live like this?" Aaron thought to himself.
He slowly walked down the hall, mail in hand, looking for John's apartment number.
509, 510, 511, 512...
He finally had arrived to his destination; the time had come.
Aaron's heart was starting to race, and his hands started to tremble.
"Okay, okay, I'm alright, this is going to go fine, everything is going to be okay, I bet he will be happy to see me anyway, yeah...I'm gonna be fine, I'm gonna be just fine."
He tucked the mail under his one arm, and raised his other to knock on the door.
He knocked a few times, although not very loudly, and waited.
Nothing, not a sound.
"John? Are you in there? It's your cousin Aaron, open up."
Aaron knocked again, only this time much louder than before. Still nothing...
He reached for the doorknob and gave it a twist but the door was locked.
"Great, now what do I do…" Aaron wondered to himself.
He figured he would give it one more try before he went to plan B, "JOHN, OPEN UP!!"
Still nothing.
Aaron started to become worried, what if John was dead? What if finally did himself in because he just couldn't take the pain of his losses anymore? The way people talked about him, it could be a possibility.
"Alright John, plan B, I didn't come all this way to let a locked door stop me."
He stepped back from the old wooden door and glanced both ways down the hall to see if anyone was watching him.
Then he gave the door a swift kick. It rattled loudly from the impact and broke the deafening silence that filled the hall.
He kicked it once more without result.
"I can't believe I'm doing this." He thought to himself.
With all his might, he gave it one more try and broke the door's deadbolt. The door swung wide open and slammed against the wall on the inside of the apartment.
Aaron was a little startled from what he just did, breaking into his cousin's apartment like that. He saw something out of the corner of his eye, a small wolf sticking his head out of another apartment doorway halfway down the hall.
The coyote turned his head and locked eyes with the child.
Frightened, the pup retreated back into his home, and slammed the door with locks falling into place soon after.
Aaron looked forward into the dark room before him and swallowed hard.
"This is it." He tucked away the mail in his hoodie's pocket and then cautiously stepped through into the apartment.
"John? Are you in here? It's me Aaron!"
It was so dark and the air was thick with an overpowering stench. He could hear the sound of trash being crushed underfoot as he made his way deeper into what seemed to be a small living room. He couldn't find a light switch but he could see daylight leaking in from the drawn blinds on the other end of the room. He blindly felt his way around the apartment towards the window, and tried not to trip on all the garbage that was on the floor.
Finally he made it to the window, "This will help." He said reaching for the pull string to raise the binds.
He grabbed tight and gave it a pull. The blinds shot upwards releasing a cloud of dust right in Aaron's face.
Surprised, Aaron let go of the string and covered his snout feverishly coughing and sneezing. The blinds came crashing down, ripping the entire frame right off the wall, exposing the window, and flooding the apartment with daylight.
Aaron opened his watering eyes as the coughing stopped and was dispirited at the site he beheld.
Dirt and blood stained carpet floors, an old couch turned in its side, news papers scattered everywhere, a shattered old television over in the corner of the room, crumpled beer cans, dirty clothes, empty prescription bottles, old moldy pieces of food, an old wooden dinner table that was broken in half, several holes were punched into the walls, an old china cabinet turned over and smashed, and many assorted picture frames that were cracked and snapped in half were only some of the many things that littered this apartment.
Aaron picked up one of the picture frames and took a look at it. Although the glass was shattered and the frame was broken, it still held a picture of better times. It was John and his family but only three years ago according to the date on the back of the photo.
It was John, his mother, his father, and his brother, at what looked like Corneria Central Park. The family of coyotes in the picture looked so happy.
Aaron pulled the picture from his eyes and clenched his fist as a tear rolled down his face. To think they were all gone; such a terrible thought.
He walked over to the kitchen counter, and propped up the frame the best he could.
A makeshift memorial.
He also pulled out the mail he found earlier and placed it on the counter as well, trying to keep in a neat stack.
Aaron took a look at the kitchen only to find it being as disgustingly filthy as the living room across from it. The sink was full of dirty and broken dishes, the counter tops were overcome with chipped and moldy tile, and the trash can in the corner was turned over, spilling garbage everywhere. He walked over to the refrigerator and opened it up. A strong, revolting smell punched Aaron in the face as the door swung open. Everything inside was spoiled many, many months over. The discouraged coyote closed the refrigerator door, and walked back over to the living room.
It couldn't be more clear...This apartment was abandon a long time ago.
John wasn't here.
It didn't make any sense. People claimed to have seen his cousin but only a few weeks ago and the way the hyena talked about him made it sound like he was here in the building recently.
Or maybe, he was here.
Aaron noticed the entryway to the hall that led to the bedrooms and bathroom off in the corner of the living room.
Yet again he stepped through all the trash and filth, making his way towards the unexplored parts of the apartment.
He was now at the foot of a small hallway that had two doors on the right side off the hall, and one at the end. The door at the other end of the hall however was crudely boarded off by wooden panels with rusty, bent nails. On the left side were windows so caked with dust that no sunlight could get through. The door that was boarded off had to be John's parents' room. Aaron could imagine his cousin doing something like that out of sheer anger, trying to block off memories he didn't want to revisit.
Aaron walked up to the 1st door he was closest to and placed his had on the doorknob. He gave it a twist and slowly pushed it open although he was extremely nervous about what he might find on the other side. With a loud creak the door reveled what it was hiding, Johns room, and it was just as run down as the rest of the apartment. This room was the strangest site out of the entire apartment however. The walls were covered in newspapers all headlining about the attack on the Lylat system, about the war efforts on other planets, Star Fox, and many other things related to the war. A lot of the articles however had many markings seemed to be drawn on by hand, and other small sticky notes placed over them. What made it all so frightening was the fact that Johns notes all seemed to be insane babble; he seemed to have really lost his mind. His notes spoke of conspiracies against Corneria and the rest of the Lylat system. The only other things in the room was an old dresser, a wooden desk with a computer set upon it along with many scattered papers and notebooks, and a bunk bed.
"A bunk bed?" Aaron thought to himself.
John did share his room with his younger brother though, so that made sense of it.
There was nothing here, so Aaron decided to check the last room before he left and searched elsewhere for his cousin.
He swung open the door and found the bathroom. It was filthy beyond anything he had ever seen. On the bathroom counter sat many different prescription bottles with John's name on them. He took a closer look at them. Anti-depressants, anti-psychotics, muscle relaxers, pain killers, and almost every drug you could imagine were scattered all over the place.
Aaron shook his head in disappointment, "Where are you John?"
He turned away from the bathroom door and made his way back to the living room thinking about what he should do now.
Now in the living room, Aaron took a seat on the old beat up couch and hug his head low. The only thing he could picture in his mind was his cousin dead in an ally somewhere. Why was he talking all those drugs? How did he get them? He could only imagine he used them to suppress the sorrow of losing his family and being all alone here on Corneria. Or maybe he really was ill and needed them in a legitimate manner.
Unlikely.
He remembered John when they were younger. He could never let things go and let every little mishap in his life bother him, so Aaron could see John choking down those pills every morning hoping they will help him forget what happened to his family. Aaron remembered getting that fateful phone call from John on the day of the 1st attack two years ago. He was in a hysterical, uncontrollable panic as he yelled about how he had to watch his family get slaughtered by the attack. John happened to be in the right place at the right time and was spared, but in all honesty, Aaron has no idea what happened that day. He just remembers his cousin mourning over what he had lost, he was so heartbroken and claimed he was going to take his own life, saying he was the one that deserved to be killed and not them. Aaron begged John to come to Katina and live with his family but he never agreed to and all space travel was put on hold because of the war anyway. It was only a a few days ago space travel was approved safe again and Aaron took it upon himself to come to Corneria and convince John to come back home with him.
The soft pitter patter of rain was heard against the living room window. Aaron was feeling a bit depressed himself because of how this trip turned out.
He glanced up and peered out the window that overlooked the broken cityscape.
He locked eyes with his faint reflection on window and asked himself, "Alright Aaron, now what?"
"I figured that was you." A voice came from behind startling Aaron.
Aaron whipped his head around with mouth hanging open and his eyes wide with surprise.
Standing before him was another coyote just like him, only a bit shorter and dressed in ripped jeans, and wearing an old, stained white t-shirt. His eyes were blood shot, his complexion was pale, his fur was grimy and discolored , and he held a brown paper bag in his hand.
It was John.
"Christ you scared the hell out of me, John." Exclaimed Aaron
"Oh I'm sorry, I tend to do that to people who break into my apartment." John snapped back.
Aaron got to his feet, "I'm sorry, I just, I thought you were...I just." He didn't know how to explain himself.
"Well, that really clears it up for me, good to see you too." John replied blankly as he gave Aaron a very insincere hug before he made his way over to the kitchen, "Oh you brought my mail. I have been meaning to get it myself, thanks."
John placed the paper bag upon the kitchen counter, and then looked up at Aaron who was somewhat puzzled by his apathetic attitude.
"I would have cleaned up the place if I knew you were coming." John said in an unemotional manner.
"I tried to call you. You never answered your phone!"
"Hmm." John scratched his head as if he was pondering deeply about something.
He snapped his fingers, "Ah! That's right I forgot." John walked over to his apartment phone that sat on the edge of the kitchen counter, picked it up, and without hesitation, threw it across the room. It flew past Aaron's head and smashed against the wall behind him, breaking into pieces.
"Phone's broke."
"Oh...shit, he has lost it." Aaron thought to himself as he stared at the busted phone that was now scattered all over the floor. "Do I play it straight? What do I do?" He was worried he might say the wrong thing and set his cousin off.
John dumped the contents of his paper bag onto the counter; more prescription bottles. John would pick each one up, examine the bottle, and then tap it on the counter a few times, and repeat. After he performed what seemed to be like a ritual task he neatly lined them up on the counter and pulled a dirty glass out of the sink.
Aaron walked up to the other side of the counter. "What are those?"
Johns head snapped up from looking down at the glass he was rinsing off, "What is what?"
"All these," Aaron reached for a bottle, reaching over the counter.
John's eyes grew large, "DON'T..." Aaron froze with his arm still out reached for a bottle. "Touch those please..."
Aaron obeyed and pulled his hand away, "Jeez, I'm sorry."
"...For what?"
"Wanting to see what you are taking?"
John filled the glass with water, and popped open on of the bottles, "Why do you care?"
"I'm your family; I care about what you are killing yourself with!"
"That's pretty harsh."
John scrunched his brow, carefully poured out a couple of small white capsules, and tossed them in this mouth. He took a large gulp of water, threw his head back as he swallowed, and then slammed the glass down on the counter. "WHY ARE YOU HERE?"
Aaron's ears turned backwards as he was yelled at; this wasn't going very well. It has only been a few minutes and he could already see John was very distraught. He thought his cousin would be happier to see him after all these years but he was acting as if he detested his presences.
"I'm here to take you back to Katina with me."
John choked down some more pills, "No thanks."
There was no point in beating around the bush, "John, we know what you have been dealing with. Please, come with me, your more than welcome at my family's home. There's nothing left for you here so please, come with me back to Katina."
"You have no idea what I'm dealing with."
In a serious tone Aaron replied, "Enlighten me then."
"Sure, what I'm dealing with right now is some asshole who broke into my apartment, and thinks he knows what's best for me, when he doesn't know shit, and that's what I'm dealing with right now."
Aaron rolled his eyes, "Oh I'm sorry! Sorry for caring! Sorry I came all the fucking way to Corneria to see my only relative left on this planet so he could come home with me and have a chance at a better life. Yeah, I sure wasn't thinking clear on that one, sorry."
"Yeah me too, you seem pretty upset about it." John took some more pills.
"What are you taking!?"
"My medicine! What are you, my mother? What business is it of yours?" John snapped, his right eye twitching.
"What is it for?" Aaron demanded.
"You don't want to know. I don't think it's working either because I can still see you."
"Ugh! Why are you being like this!? I though you would be happy to see me or something. Or maybe thankful that I came to get you out of this shit hole."
"Yeah, it's a pretty nice place isn't it, thanks for noticing."
Aaron was starting to get frustrated, "John...Look, the war is over. You can begin to move on now. I'm really sorry what happened to your family, I would have come sooner but that wasn't an option for me. It's time to let go, it's time to move on, I can get you help."
John locked eyes with his concerned cousin, "Do you really think it's over?"
"The war? Yeah I do, haven't you seen the news or anything? Star Fox ended the war! It's pretty clear now that it's over."
"You know what I think? I think its the exact opposite of over. I think it's just begun really."
"What the hell are you talking about! Have you totally lost it?"
"Wait here." John asked as he left the kitchen and walked over to his room.
A few minutes went by and John walked back out into the living room with a news paper in hand.
"Isn't it amazing? This day and age, and they still print newspapers." John casually stated.
He laid the paper out on the kitchen counter and then turned to Aaron, "Come look at this."
Aaron looked down at the article and read the words, "Hospitals over run with sick and dying patients. Experts can not pin point exact cause of sudden outbreak of this mystery disease plaguing parts of Corneria City."
He went on to read the article.
"It has been one week since the end of the war and things have only seemed to gone bad to worse within that time. If one were to imagine walking the streets of Corneria City today, you would picture a grand celebration, parades in the streets of our men and women in arms returning home, and the signs of happier times that are soon to come. I haven't seen anything close to that. All I have seen these days are locked doors and drawn curtains. This city is a ghost town. The only place I have seen people gather together is at our medical facilities. Thousands are sick and dying in this city and none of the so-called "experts" can draw a conclusion as to why this is. There was no biological attack on this city, and there has been no evidence of anything kind of new epidemic spreading. People are just sick. Sever flu cases, heart problems, psychological problems, are some of the most common symptoms of the hospitals visitors. As anyone knows, it's not flu season, but all over the city people are coming down with the illness and, as the statistics have been showing, most die from it within a matter of days. Heart attacks have becoming alarmingly more common within the younger demographic; ages, 20-45. There need be no explanation about how unusual that is being the fact heart attacks tend to only affect the elderly. Psychological illnesses have spiked as well affecting citizens of all ages. Chronic depression, hallucinations, and schizophrenia, are just some of the few diagnoses doctors have been making on hundreds of people. The many military checkpoints throughout the city are issuing many different types of medication to the public as a response to the outbreak of the many different illnesses. Many don't think that is the right solution however, and want answers rather than quick fixes. Our government has issued statements claiming the war has caused this and in time things will slowly return to normal. How can the end of a war that mostly took place outside of Corneria possibly cause an outbreak of advanced versions of these everyday illnesses? Maybe it's something we aren't seeing that is causing this, maybe it's a silent biological attack, or maybe it's the planet responding to a natural disturbance. What it ever it may be, we need to figure it out soon. This war has been officially over for a week now, but the body count is still on the rise. This epidemic needs to be controlled before it spreads to other planets and becomes a system wide problem. The biggest mystery of this entire debacle is it has only been affecting only certain areas of the city, the West side and South side downtown area, and the suburbs which are north of the city. This leaves everything in the middle totally unscathed by this strange disease. Why would the suburbs, about 30 miles away, be effected by this before the central downtown area? I just doesn't make any sense at all, diseases just don't leap frog entire areas, how can that be possible? Talks of quarantining the effected parts of the city until this problem is resolved have passed through meetings of higher government. People are scared, and seem to be more frightened now than when the war was still taking place. The war may be over, but it appears that something entirely different has just begun. So for now, many stay locked away in their houses, doors locked, the curtains drawn and popping pills to get them through the day. We need a solution soon, before this turns into something much worse than the war ever was.
Aaron slowly lifted his head from looking down on the news article and found John on the other side of the counter again, staring him down.
"So you wonder why I take all this shit. There you go," said John.
"This...This is for real?" Aaron replied, with a nervous shake in his voice.
"Ha! Aren't you real glad you came here now? As you can see we are having a real good time ever since the war ended."
"Christ, I had no idea. They haven't said a word about this on Katina."
"That's for sure, you probably wouldn't be here right now if you knew about this."
"That's not true! Hey, we are blood, we are family, and I look out for my family. I'm sorry it took me so long to get here but at least I made it."
"What are you sorry for? I didn't ask for you to come rescue me, and I'm doing fine anyway so what the hell makes you think I would want to leave Corneria?!"
"Fine?! You're doing fine?"
"Well sure, then you came along, broke my dead bolt and ripped the blinds off the wall so, maybe a little less than fine right this moment, but sure, I was doing just fine!"
"Bullshit! You show me this newspaper that says people are mysteriously dying by the truck loads, your apartment looks like a dump, and you are choking down enough pills to fill a pharmacy with and you tell me your doing fine?"
John let out a quick laugh and gave a crooked smile. "More or less."
Aaron hung his head and placed his hand over his eyes, "You have lost it John."
"You have lost it John, you have lost it John, you have lost it John, YOU HAVE LOST IT, JOHN. You know how fucking tired I am hearing that?! DO YOU?!"
John grabbed the half empty glass off the sink and threw it over Aaron's head. The glass sailed across the apartment and hit the window causing it to crack as the cup shattered against it.
Aaron's eyes grew wide with fear and surprise, he was just totally shocked by what just happed, and he just sat there starting at his enraged cousin.
Then John totally snapped.
"I have NOT lost it Aaron. Everyone else, has lost it. No one sees that it's all crashing down around them. Everyone is in denial about that nothing is getting better at all! It's not going to get better, it's just gonna keep getting worse, and worse, and worse, until the entire city falls to the ground. I have seen it Aaron! I have seen, I have seen in my dreams, yes, I have seen the future; I know how this story ends. I have seen the buildings of this city fall over on one another, I have seen the sky lit on fire, I have seen what will become of all of us if we don't...open our eyes to this. Please Aaron, listen to me, you have to listen to me, you have to get out of here. You have to get back to Katina before it's too late for you! There is still time!"
Aaron was terrified by the insane speech that was just made to him. John was severely unstable and Aaron was afraid he might do something rash any moment.
John had more to say. "Why doesn't anyone listen to me? Don't they care? No they don't, no one ever seems to care anymore about anything and I know why. I know what is causing this. I know what is bringing this city to ruin once and for all."
John pulled another dirty glass from the sink, filled it up with water, and slammed it on the counter in front of his cousin.
Aaron looked down at the glass, "Uhh, no thanks, I'm not really thirsty."
"No stupid! This!" John pointed to the glass, "This is why everyone his getting so sick! This is the cause of all of the problems around here."
Aaron was totally confused and was still totally unsure how to handle the situation.
"John, it's just a glass of water, how could this possibly be harming everyone in the city."
"Damn, you are so thick. Look, last week the water was turned off in this building for two days. So that meant no water at all, no showers, nothing to take my pills with, nothing to drink, nothing."
"Yeah...and?"
"I went insane Aaron!"
"You're going insane RIGHT NOW!"
"Hey, fuck you. Look." John held up a bottle of pills, "You know what happens if you just go cold turkey on a muscle relaxer like this?"
"Well sure, you would go through with drawls. You would have to wean off of it like anything, it might even kill you."
"Thank you, you got it right for once. Yes you go through with drawls when you change a daily routine of giving your body something it thinks it needs to live. Your body goes haywire! The two days I went without being able to drink any of the city's water were two days I had never felt so close to death in my life."
Aaron finally figured out where his unbalanced cousin was going with this.
"No, that can't be, I don't believe it." Aaron said with much discredit.
John picked up the cup of water and held it out towards his cousin, "Then drink it."
Aaron hesitated, but why would he believe such a thing? Especially something coming from someone as crazy as John.
"Come on, you say you don't believe me, prove it."
Aaron took the glass from his hand.
He held the glass up to his snout and stared at the glass.
A few seconds passed, it was dead silent.
Aaron let out a sigh, and set the glass down on the counter.
John's ears perked up in surprise, "So, so you do believe me?"
"So what you're trying to tell me is there is something in the water that's causing all this?"
"YES!! Thank you!! Finally, someone believes me."
"I'm not totally convinced John, give me something more than some crazy theory."
John ran back to his room once more.
Aaron could hear him talking to himself, "Where is it? I just had it? AAH! Here it is!"
He came stumbling back out of his room with another news paper in hand and then handed it to Aaron.
"2nd page, 3rd article down, read it."
Aaron flipped to the second pages and read the news piece aloud, "In attempts to find new ways to protect the general public from serious threats against our everyday ways of life, the government has approved funding for the research of a drug that could be implemented into our water system that would protect citizens from biological terrorist attacks if one was to occur."
There was much more to the article but John had read enough; a chill ran down his spine.
" When was this printed?"
"Five years ago."
"No, I don't buy this, this just can't be. How could they do something like this?"
"My theory? They shut down this operation because the people didn't want to be poisoned on a daily basis but they kept doing the tests away from the public eye. Andross comes along, biological weaponry and all, scares the shit out of our military, so they decided to finally implement this new form of weapon against biological attacks, but don't tell anyone. Little do they know this shit is more addictive than any other form of heavy narcotics. The bio-attacks never happen, and now everyone is drugged unknowingly everyday for no reason at all. They won't tell us they fucked up Aaron. If they did, well, one could only imagine the outrage it would cause."
"So basically, what you're telling me is there's something in the water that's making everyone sick? And the government is behind it? And they won't fess up?"
"...Yeah pretty much, you believe me right? I mean it makes perfect sense doesn't it?
"John I don't know, I just, I just got here and already, everything has gone freaking crazy on me, no offense."
"None taken, and yeah, it doesn't take much to see that things aren't going so well for this city."
"I just don't know, I'm sorry but you could imagine this being a little hard to wrap my head around, this is like something out of a movie!"
"Listen, I have some friends, that use to work for labs and stuff, and they are doing test on the water to find out if I really am crazy or not, just a couple of more days Aaron, if I'm wrong, I'll go with you back to Katina."
"But if you're right?"
"We need to tell someone, we need to get the word out, we need to let the people know the truth!
"Who would we tell? Who would believe such a thing?"
"Star Fox!"
"How the hell would you get to them?!"
"We would have to find away! Please Aaron, you don't know how important this is, the entire city could be dead within a couple of years!"
"NO, THIS IS CRAZY." Aaron slammed his fist on the counter.
"NO AARON THIS IS NOT CRAZY! THIS IS FOR REAL-"
"JUST SHUT UP!! You are choking down anti-psychotic medication and you honestly believe that I'm going to by this shit, you really are crazy John, you have fucking lost it!"
"NO! NO I AM NOT CRAZY!! THIS IS FOR REAL, OPEN YOUR EYES! OPEN YOUR-your..."
John suddenly stopped yelling and a blank stare was drawn upon his face.
"John?"
John dropped to the floor, and started twitching violently and began to foam at the mouth. His eyes turned blood red, he clenched his chest, and tears were streaming from his eyes as he choked and gagged, gasping for air.
"OH SHIT! JOHN!!" Aaron got down on his knees beside his cousin in a panic, "What's wrong?! John, please! Oh God no, please."
Thoughts started racing through Aaron's mind, maybe he took too much of his medication, maybe not enough of it, or maybe it was something entirely different. Did he cause this? Did he push John off the edge? He couldn't think straight.
He looked for a phone to call 911, but remember it was smashed against the wall not to long ago, "Shit, shit! God dammit John, why did you do that!"
John was still on the floor not calming down at all, he was getting worse if anything.
"HELP!!" Aaron screamed.
He ran to the door front door of the apartment, and threw it open. "Somebody help me! Please!!" He cried out.
He got no response.
"ANYBODY! PLEASE! MY COUSIN IS DYIING!"
Nothing, not a soul came to his aid.
He pounded on the doors of the other apartments, crying out for help, but no one would answer.
"PLEASE SOME ONE CALL 911!! PLEASE!! ANYBODY!!"
He ran back to the apartment, with panicked tears streaming down his face.
He found John on his back with blood streaming from his snout and his eyes, he was gasping for air and convulsing like crazy.
"John! John, can you hear me!"
John's eyes shifted towards his distraught cousin.
Aaron didn't know what to do, if he went for help he might not get back in time because he didn't know the city, and no one would respond to his cries for help, but if he staid here and hoped John would pull through, there could be a chance he would watch his cousin die.
"Please John. Don't die on me, not like this."
He clasped John's hand in his, and John squeezed it tight.
"Please."
Thanks Again for reading everyone, more to come soon.
