When Hudson woke from a bitter night filled with swirling nightmares and visions of how his subconscious worked out the potential future scenario, a pale light was filtering through the slatted blinds of the bare bedroom and shining directly into his eyes. He pulled his eyes closed again and sat up, throwing the thin sweat covered sheet from off him. His head was pounding with a heavy set hang-over that could only be brought about by drinking far too much bourbon.
As he stood up and walked naked across his room, his foot contacted with an empty glass bottle kicking it across the floor as he left the room, grabbing the nearest green wife-beater from the work top and headed to the bathroom to try and wake himself up and relieve some of the pain throbbing it's way through his head.
Scant seconds after the shower started running cold water over him the loud trilling of the ancient phone rang. Hudson cursed, slipped on the bottom of the shower as he scrambled towards the noisy object while wrapping a towel around his waist, cursing under his breath all the while. The phone sounded a last time just as Hudson picked up the receiver. An angry voice sounded on the other end of the phone.
"Cars outside, Private. Get your ass out here."
Hudson grimaced as the caller hung up the phone quickly. Anger quickly replaced the grimace on his face and he lashed out hitting the top that the phone was resting on, the anger quickly subsided to panic. How could he not realise that it a day he had to go in and teach what his years of experiences in the Marine Corps to the fresh meat. Stalking back to the bathroom to turn off the running water from the shower, leaving himself unshaven as he once again grabbed the wife-beater pulling it over his head and down his cheat as he walked quickly around the small apartment for the rest of his clothing. A simple pair of combat pants and a stiff pair of leather boots finished the ensemble and it would have to do with the scruffy look that the Private had been sporting lately seeing as he had less than enough time to get himself prepared.
Storming down the stairs, after making sure that his apartment door clicked closed, he came out the door to a warming morning that had yet to cloud over with the large cities smog and quickly bundled him into the back of a black car that was waiting for him open doored, on the pavement of the street directly outside his apartment block.
–
The day had been long and tiring for the ex-marine. His services to his previous employer we're part of a contract that Hudson hadn't taken to kindly to signing, but the work was a source of income. The lads he was training for the technicians spot that he'd once had were all bright young men, and could generally see through Hudson and his issues with his drinking. Most of them assumed that why he had the position he did within the Corps now, it was the only thing they could think of that someone would be kept in the Corps, but not out with their squad. Why would they even think that Hudsons squad was killed by an unstoppable force of giant black monsters?
Hudson, as normal after a days work that reminded him of the fragile kinship of a squad of marines, headed straight to the bar. The day was slowly turning into evening time, not the earliest he'd been out drinking and drowning his time away. Although this time there was a twinge of excitement that gripped his stomach as well as the need to forget the past. The frail hope that the bar-keep had some developments for him on tracking what he needed.
The bar was filling rather early for once, a group of women were sat around one of the circular tables near the door. A couple of other people scattered themselves about the place keeping their own company or the company of their partner. Hudson, keeping his head down settled himself at the bar and ordered himself a small strong drink which the bar-keep poured for him. The Ex-Marine downed the drink and then had another one poured for him. A sound from the door way, a cry from the girly group as another one joined them with exclaims and apologies that they were late and how they got caught up at work had caught in Hudsons' ear. A small whistle caught his attention again towards the bar and the bar-keeper discreetly passed him a small white envelope.
"Don't look at it here." he was told, and Hudson quickly put the envelope in his back pocket. The twinge of excitement doubling as he realised that he'd have someone to contact on the inside of the company. Weyland Yutani was finished! He nodded neutrally to the bar-keeper and lowered his head again to look into the filled glass in front of him. Maybe the drink would taste differently now that he had some good news for once. One of the women from near the door, Hudson assumed the late comer, came up to the bar herself and ordered a drink which was quickly delivered to her expertly. However when she picked up and turned to move back to the table with her friends, the strap of her back caught hold of Hudsons small drink and spilled the contents over the bar.
"Oh my, I am so sorry." she quickly apologised to him. "Let me get you a replacement." She added quickly. Turning back to the bar, putting her pitcher on the top of the bar as she called over the bar keeper.
"No, it's alrigh'" Hudson told her just as quickly, it had been an honest accident after all, and it wasn't as though he didn't get most of his drinks here on tab these days anyway.
"I insist." she added, as one of her friends came over to join her, to make sure that everything was all right and that she wasn't being assaulted or harassed in any way.
"Everything all right Genna?" she asked, but then a grin came over the second woman's face as she looked down to Hudson as she towered over him in high heeled shoes.
"Everything's fine, just an accident." Then she looked to her friend and returned the smile with a grin of her own and she added. "What, you don't like soldier boys?" She asked her friend who discreetly gave Hudson another look and nodded to her friend with a broad grin.
The woman talked among themselves as the bar-keeper brought Hudson his replacement drink, taking the card off the woman once more so she could pay for the drink.
Although Hudson wanted to sneak off somewhere and look at the file he had been given, he just couldn't pull himself away from the bar and the evening turned to night and the few drinks turned to a few more. It wasn't long before Hudson found himself enjoying the company of the few women that remained a little closer. The conversation was as light hearted as their heads, fun and rather flirty with the woman who had spilt his drink. With the encroachment of the alcohol into his mind the letter in his pocket had almost been forgotten. A couple more of the women left, saying they had work in the morning and excused themselves, leaving Hudson and the woman called Genna with the other woman from the bar with them. It felt good to have a laugh with strangers.
"So where do you live... Hudson?" Genna asked curiously, the using of his surname felt strange off her tongue, but his christian name hadn't been divulged. There was a hint to her slightly drunken voice that she would like to be taken there tonight, to spend the night.
The other woman gave a laugh as she took hint of the not so subtle proposition that Genna had just layed out to Hudson.
"Not far away." Hudson replied rather vaguely, the alcohol had given him the hope that he wouldn't be going home alone tonight, and with the obvious proposition the hope had turned itself up in his mind.
As the women got to their feet, Hudson did the same, the three of them being as equally unsteady on their drunken feet as the last. As they left the bar, the other woman managed to excuse herself and bundle herself drunkenly into a cab, leaving Genna and Hudson standing, his arm around her waist as they leaned on one another for the laughing, whooping and enjoyable walk back to Hudsons shabby apartment. The night was cool, but the heat of their bodies and drunkenness gave them heat enough to keep of the worst of the nights chill.
The apartment block door was wedged open as it normally was by those who broke their curfews and Hudson led Genna into the building block, calling the elevator. Someone shouted at them through the door a threat that it had better not be their son crawling home drunk again, which brought a fresh uproar of laughter from the couple as the elevator came to collect them. Hudsons apartment was on the fifth floor, it was easy to bomb down the stairs in a hurry, but crawling up them in a drunken state of mind made them feel mountainous.
"Ta-da!" Hudson exclaimed as he pulled a card out of his pocket, motioning the key-card towards the slot near the faded red painted door, the scratch marks down the door gave the place it initial shabby look that was carried out through the rest of the apartment. "Home-sweet-shithole." He said as the door swung open. The lighting came on automatically as the door hit the wall. Further aiding a rapidly growing scuff hole where the door handle smashed. Hudson then looked back to Genna and quickly before she could protest picked her off her feet, slammed the door shut behind him with his foot and carried her to the bedroom where they would spend the night.
