Chapter 7: A Cory Story
The Royal Rounds apartment complex was a ten story building constructed in the early eighties as a hotel and resort. It started out as a hot spot for local celebrities and the upper class, bringing in all the top names of the Royal Woods and the Huntington Oaks area. In its early days you could find pretty much everybody who was anybody in the small circle of local money. Local sports heroes to TV personalities, even business men and politicians found their way there. All of them getting a room and taking long vacations where they sat near a pool and were waited on by bathing beauties in bikinis. By the late nineties the spot had hit an all time low, with the times changing and people realizing there were better places to go on vacation than Royal Woods Michigan. So the building was sold to the highest bidder and set to become apartments, once again catering towards the upper class. Before the reconstruction, each floor had six rooms, which were of a pretty decent size and had their own hot tubs. Those rooms were then converted into two high class suite like apartments, with an up to date kitchen, world-class entertainment center, and yes the hot tub stayed.
It was in 2014 when William and Fiona MacMillan moved into apartment 4B at the Royal Rounds, a few months after Fiona's mother had lost her long battle with pancreatic cancer. They had lived in Edinburgh Scotland since the couple had married, and had Cory in December of 2005. Fiona had spent most of her life in the states, growing up in Michigan. She spent a few years abroad in Scotland where she met William and fell in love, going back after she finished school and marrying him. Though the years overseas had made her miss her family greatly, never living farther than a good few hour drive from home. Her husband knew this, and when the news came of her mothers cancer it was actually his decision to move back to Huntington Oaks, no doubt feeling guilty that they were not there when her father had passed a few years before. So in 2011 they packed up and moved to Michigan. The ad agency that William worked for had an office in Royal Woods, a good twenty to thirty minute drive from where they were living. Fiona chose to take time off from working, having been a pretty successful chef, and instead stayed close to her mother until the end.
After her mothers death, Fiona decide it would be better to get away for Huntington Oaks, the memories of her family haunting her. With the added income of William's raise, after landing the Cheetah account, a big time car company, they were able to afford a nice apartment in the Royal Rounds.
The apartment was nice to say the least, it was freaking awesome to say the most. The floor was wood, cedar to be exact, with marble tiles when entering the kitchen or the bathrooms. The room had been updated since they were first converted back in the nineties, now having built in WiFi, a smart TV, and up to date kitchen and bathroom fixtures. The shower had a built in audio system with Bluetooth capabilities. It was a dream home to most adults and many kids who had ever stepped foot with in its walls. Yet to Cory MacMillan it was often like an empty reminder that he was alone.
Cory sat on the leather couch and watched as his character on the TV screen was blowing away the horde of zombies that shambled after him. His ammo was running low and he was stuck in the corner of an old and broken down barn that had little cover and more holes than a golf course. He pumped his shotgun and took aim, making the screen flash red with digital zombie brains as he shot another one between the eyes. One came up from the side, drooling and snarling as it clawed at him. He turned, aimed, and boom. More zombie mess oozed of the screen. Cory admired the detail the developer had taken in having the gore actually cling to the screen as if his character had been cover in blood and guts.
"Awright mate I kin use a wee bit o' help." Cory said, waiting for a response for his virtual teammate in the game. "Ye thare mate?"
"Got your six good buddy." A voice came into Cory's headset.
Suddenly the horde of mangled and rotten flesh that were descending upon Cory began to thin out as he heard the popping sound of a semiautomatic rifle. Near the back of the advancing mass of zombies, Cory could make out the bobbing helmet of his teammate as he fired off more shots into the back of the zombies heads. Bits of blood and brains flew into the air, and the once great horde soon became little more than a handful of flesh eaters. As they finished off the remains zombies, Cory's teammate handed him a med pack and some extra ammo to help him get ready for the next wave.
"We need to get to he higher ground." The voice said. "Pick them of from up top."
"Kin we make it?" Cory asked.
"Dunno, they keep regenerating too fast to keep them down." The voice said. "And the barn isn't providing enough cover."
"Ah told ye we should've gone fer the croft hoose." Cory told him.
"And I told you we should have picked a different level." The voice snapped back. "This map is too small and doesn't have enough places to make them funnel in."
Cory's teammate, a kid with the handle SnowAce, had made it clear that this map was not his favorite. Cory was still kind of new to the game, having picked up a used copy at a Game's 'n' Go. Some kids as school would not shut up about how they thought the game was awesome, spending close to twelve hours killing zombies. Cory was in the market for something that could help him unwind after practice and school, and fill the empty void of an often empty apartment. Call of Duty seemed like a good way to kill a few hours a day.
The duo made a break for a ladder near the back of the barn. Cory decided to go with SnowAce's plan and try for higher ground. As they made it to the ladder, SnowAce's character began to work his way up just as a zombie broke through a window near the ladder. The gray and mangled arm grabbed at the leg of SnowAce, draining his energy. Cory pumped his shotgun and blew the zombie arm off at the elbow. SnowAce continued his ascent up the ladder with Cory following close behind. As they did, a mass of zombies began to enter the barn again, all of them slowly making their way towards the ladder.
"Gotta hurry." SnowAce said.
"Whin ye git up thare, toss a grenade intae the middle o' them." Cory told him.
"But we only have a few left." SnowAce said.
"Look, were gonna ta die eventually, at this point it's just a matter o' seeing how long we kin last, 'n' how many we kin take with us." Cory said.
"Good point."
SnowAce made it to the top and reached for a grenade, pulling the pin. Suddenly a zombie had emerged from a dark corner of the loft, it came up from behind him, swiping and snarling. It hit SnowAce, causing him to drop the grenade to the floor. SnowAce turned and pulled a knife, hitting the wrong button as he blindly tried to find his pistol. He frantically jabbed his dagger into the zombie, fighting against time in the hope of killing the undead creature and also finding the grenade before it went off.
"Dude I'm getting eaten." SnowAce called out in panic.
"What happened ta the grenade?" Cory asked, shortly before he would find out the answer.
There was a large explosion, the screen turning to a monochrome color as everything went into slow motion. Body parts, both human and zombie had exploded into the air, raining down in slow motion as a 'Mission Failed' message blinked across the screen, followed by their time. The duo had managed to last a total of thirty-four minutes before becoming over whelmed and eaten, or in this case blown up. It was a personal best for the young Scot and his virtual friend, who had never made it past the twenty-minute mark.
"Dang it." SnowAce said.
"Dinnae fash yirsel aboot it, ah gotta go anyways mate." Cory said. "Cheers fur the game SnowAce."
"Always a pleasure MacWolf."
Cory logged off the game and put the controller up. He enjoyed playing online with SnowAce, not just because he seemed to be an expert in most games, but because he seemed to have not problems with his accent. When Cory had first moved to the states he was made fun of a lot for his thick accent, he even had a number of teachers that made him uncomfortable because they made him repeat the things he said, since they had trouble understanding him. It was starting to become a hot button issue with him, often ending with a few black eyes after the kids would continue to tease him. His mother hated it when he got into fights, so Cory worked on toning his accent down, just enough so he did not have to repeat himself so often. Though there were still times when he would slip back into his thick accent.
He walked to the kitchen to get a snack, raiding the frig but finding little more than left overs, which he was not feeling. His stomach growled, letting him know that a little something in the tummy would be greatly appreciated. He tried the cupboard, finding some crackers, chips, and a few cans of soup. Nothing there that looked too good to him. For some reason he felt like fruit, a good ripe banana or a nice juicy red apple. Those things made his tasted buds perk up and his stomach snarl with approval. He looked to the kitchen table, a bowl of fresh fruit in the center. He snatched an apple, washed it off, and took a big snapping bite into the fruit. Juice dripped down his chin as he munched away and walked towards the living room to see what was on the TV.
It was nearly two thirty and he still had a good a two hours before his mom got home from work, if she did not have to work over again. She often worked late during the week, but could sometimes manage to get out on time, or if she were really lucky so could get off early. He knew it was a long shot as the holiday season was approaching soon, Thanksgiving a few weeks away, and that meant the hotel would be hosting a lot of parties.
Cory's mom worked at the Shoto hotel, the number one hot spot of companies, both local and national, to hold large scale parties. Fiona often pulled double duty, working as the of head catering and as the head chef for these events. She would plan the menu and help guide those under her in preparing the food for the parties. It was a lot of work and had her at the hotel from the early mornings to the late evenings. Cory did not like seeing his mom work so hard that she would sometimes come home dead on her feet. Though he knew how much she loved her job, so he never brought any of that up.
Cory knew there were already a number of company holiday parties that were being booked toward the end of November and right through to a good chunk of December. There was even a Thanksgiving banquet being planned by some company that wanted to show its employees that they were more than just workers, they were all family. Cory laughed at this idea, thinking it was a desperate attempt to make up for a recent scandal the company had recently faced where one of the their top executives had been busted skimming money from the employees retirement funds. Now they had been scrambling to make up for that one screw up, and wanted to show they were turning the corner towards a bright future. Cory wondered what the employees had all thought of it, using all that money to throw a party instead of maybe handing out apology bonuses.
In the end none of that really mattered to him. What did matter was his mom working late nights, and his father also working late nights. This meant he would be spending most of his time stuck in an apartment where loneliness loomed like a vulture ready to pick at the scraps of a broken heart. He missed his family. He missed the days when they would sit at the dinner table and talk about their days and laugh and make plans for the weekends. Cory could not remember the last time the whole family sat down to dinner together. Lately it was him and maybe his mom if she got off early enough, and they would save a plate for his dad, who would come home smelling of top shelf whiskey and cigar smoke. Cory assumed that was what a successful business meeting smelled like.
At first Cory hated the idea of moving from Scotland, loving his home and not liking the idea of leaving his friends. Once they got to Huntington Oaks he had excepted the move and tried to make the best of what he saw as a bad situation. A part of him had also dreaded being around his grandmother as she tried to fight off the cancer. He did not know much about the disease, only that it often left those who had it looking like a hollowed out husk of the person they used to be. That and the fact that most of the people seemed to die from it. Cory had not spent as much time with his grandmother and did not know her that well. He just remembered her always giving him god awful candies and cards filled with money. Still, she was family and he did not want to watch her die, though that is pretty much what happened. Hell of a hard thing for an eight-year old to have to deal with, and it made him miss his home that much more, wanting his friends there to help ease the pain.
When they moved to Royal Woods things seemed to get worse. His father worked later and his mother went back to work, also working later into the night. Cory was ten, going on eleven, and was already smart enough to know what his parents were doing. His father got consumed by work, trying to make sure his family was well taken care of and making sure his son had better chances than he did when growing up. His mother lost herself in work, hoping it would help to block out the pain of losing her mother, and maybe scrub away the images of watching her get eaten away by that nasty damn disease. At ten years old Cory understood, he didn't like it, but he understood it. Cory had a few things to lose himself in as well, his martial arts, school, and his video games. Though he was at least wise enough to have figured out that he was going to have to deal with the sadness on some level. He could not run away forever.
So with all of that it was pretty much Cory's apartment from the time he got out of school until the time his mother managed to get off work, when ever that was. And though it did get lonely and did bug him that his family was not around as much as he would have liked, he stayed strong and did his best with it. He figured a lot of kids would have loved to be in the situation he was in, having the place to himself, not all the pain and loss stuff. Those kids would loved to be able to do what they wanted in those free hours. So he looked for ways to enjoy his time and tried to enjoy what little time he did get to spend with his family. Like the karate tournament. He loved having his mother there to cheer him on. He only wished his father could have torn himself away from business for a little while, just long enough to see his fight.
Cory pushed the thoughts from his mind and flipped channels until he found something good to watch. He passed by a lot of the usual mid day crap that littered TV as of late. A few judge shows where a bitter old hag yelled at people who needed to be yelled at. There was some cartoons on, though all things aimed for kids far younger than him. The usual soap opera with overly written plots and card board acting. News. Cooking shows, which he actually kind of liked, though the better shows were on early in the mornings or later at night. He finally stopped when he came across an old kung fu flick, something from the seventies where they talked out of sync and made a whooshing noise when ever they did a move, walked, or even blinked.
The movie on the screen made him think about the karate tournament a few days earlier. His body still ached with a dull reminder of the fight he had been through, though it had all been well worth it. At least he hoped it had. Ever since he had moved to Royal Woods, finishing up sixth grade at Royal Woods elementary school, he had taken notice of the sporty brunette with the large family. He started to compete in the local karate tournament and actually faced her in the finals his first year. He beat her, though it was a close one in the end, and wanted to congratulate her on a good fight. Though the girl did not take the loss well, kicking chairs and punching walls. Cory decided to wait a few days before approaching her. This plan did not go over as well either, as each time he saw her he could not help but smile, getting only glare of disgust in return. By the time they entered middle school together, he had figured out that the girl was extremely competitive, perhaps to a fault. He put two and two together and soon realized that she was looking at him as a bitter rival who had stolen a victory from her. This shot down his hopes of gaining attention from the girl other than hateful looks.
So he had only two options, let it go and move on, or doing something to get the girl over her issue with him and see that he was crushing on her pretty hard. If he were honest with himself there was really only one option. Cory assumed that taking a dive would do no good, thinking she would actually lose respect for him and maybe hate him even more. Aside for that, he could never bring himself to give less than a hundred percent with anything he did. Even if he failed, he had to give it his all. So the only idea left was to try to aggravate her into pushing herself to the limits, hopefully getting her good enough to finally beat him. He had not planned on it taking two years, but he was glad that if finally happened. Now he was just going to have to wait and see if his plan had actually worked, or did three years of competitive frustration and jealousy actually blossom into full on hatred. Only time was going to be able to give him his answer.
Alright gang, that was a little look into Cory. I hope this helped make the character a little more likable and sympathetic. Also, I think this is the chapter where I started to decide to just give up on trying to do clever names for real world things. I'm a not a big player of CoD myself, but the few times that I do play it I do enjoy it. I picked the game more because a buddy of mine was like hardcore into playing zombies, and that seemed like a cool thing to put in here.
I know you all are thinking that SnowAce is Lincoln. I can honestly say that I'm not sure if it is or not. I left it open to the possibility, but also kept it where it could be someone new if I want to toy with it later on.
See you all on Friday.
Peace.
