Chapter 2: Ocean Man

It/Alex had came to shore somewhere off the coast of San Francisco, it had been down in the depths for almost 50 years, and the world had changed immensely, thankfully however, not much had changed in ways to transport itself, so it arrived in New York a few days later with some careful hitchhiking, and one or two consumptions on people who had tried to take advantage of a transient person they thought nobody would miss, it also helped refine Its consumption abilites so it wouldn't have these people rolling about it's head for a while as well as build up a stock of strength that it would probably need in the times to come.

At last it was home, New York, but New York had changed, for one saddening fact, after the last attack by it's copy, Manhattan Island was closed off, the bridges now derelict wrecks hunched over the rivers. It had seemed that having a Viral outbreak twice in only a few short years, had damped the survivors want to return to what most had considered a hostile and risky enviroment.

It had chosen to assume a form of a man getting on in years, about 60 years old, nobody really bothered with an older person it figured, and had given some thought on a new name, as Alex Mercer probably wouldn't be a welcome name to most people, so it thought, and decided to keep it's code name, BLACKLIGHT, but hid it carefully, it wanted to amuses itself by clearly stating what it was, but only to itself would it know the true meaning of it's name, so it named itself, or at least it's human guise, Blake Lichtmann, it had a chuckle at that, perhaps its time in solitude had made it abit weird, well as weird as a living "viral" biomass could be.

It sat on a bench facing the ruined island, a massive wall had been constructed around Manhattan island, you could only just see the ruins of the buildings within over the top of the wall. For some reason, It felt it needed to get in there, it just had no idea how. As to the why, perhaps because it was, as it put earlier in the box, a stable place to get started on it's plans, which it felt it needed to work on, and a deserted city was the perfect place to work it out, more legroom than a box at the bottom of the ocean, for one thing.

It was jolted out of it's thoughs by a man sitting down beside it, lighting up a cigarette and gesturing to the island.

"Crying shame, that wall really spoils the nice skyline it used to have" The man pontificated to It.

It looked up at the man, he was about close to the age of the form It was currently wearing, well dressed, but moderately so, It blinked and nodded slowly unsure of what to say at the sudden attempt at conversation, being several decades unused to anyone conversing with it, and even then its last few conversations were rather more... aggressive.

The man nodded back gesturing with the cigarette "sorry, I come down here every now and then to think, I used to live there, when I was a kid, you looked like you needed someone to talk to , so I figured, might as well kill two birds with one stone, eh?" he held out his free hand to shake "David Rostler, Dave for short, everyone calls me Dave"

The abrupt openess and friendly air this man gave towards a stranger gave It ait of a startle, but nonetheless it welcomed some conversation, help shake the cobwebs loose so to say, and practice Its cover story, and so it shook the hand lightly, being careful not to shake to hard and give the friendly stranger a sudden amputation.

"I'm... Blake, Blake Lichtmann, but Just Blake will do" it stammered, while the name was a fun idea, it had yet to put it into practice, and it still sounded odd.

Dave grinned at "Blake" giving a deep chuckle, Daves voice seemed to just be laughing as a ground state of being "You don't sound so sure, you been hitting the bars early? or hitting them late and still not slept it off?" he laughed out with the wink of the "if you get me?" variety.

"Blake" give weak chuckle of its own, laughter and Its own voice still foreign to it "you caught me, past while I feel like I have spent a while at the bottom of the ocean" daring to take a refuge in audacity to break the ice, after all, it was true, but sounded stupid, and humour worked well to keep people form being too nosey.

Dave slapped his knee giving another nod in "Blakes" direction "I've had a few night's like that myself, well not as much these days, but when the occasion calls, I can hold my own"

"Blake" again nodded, cursing internally at the weak replies it was giving, interaction was the cornerstone of humans, and if he couldn't get that right, it wasn't going to get very far until the army was sending missles down its throat. It motioned towards the Island, hoping not only to steer the conversation a little, but also maybe gain some intel.

"You lived there before?" It asked.

Dave turned slightly solemn, nodding sadly towards the Island "damn right, My family weathered both attacks, not a single infected in our family, after all that, we were told it was being abandoned, my mother fought tooth and nail to stay, as did many of us, after all civic pride, never say die, all that stuff, nobody really wanted to go, but the big guys, the government decided it was a risk of recurrance, to keep people on the Island, pissed off a lot of folk, I mean, seriously, they shut it down 45 years ago, I doubt anything from the viruses still exists, though you do hear rumours and hearsay"

"Blake" perked up, "a chance" It thought "What sorts of rumours?" It asked in what it hoped to be a curious tone.

Dave nodded towards a Newsstand nearby "The usual tabloid bullshit, 'Man claims to have sailed past on a boat and heard howls and screams', 'Aerial photo show gangs of human shaped biengs wandering in dead city' 'fisherman hooked a mutant dog from a Manhattan Drain outflow' you know, people just don't want to let the past go, every other month some crackpot wants to open the city and send a team in to see if we can go back, it never gets past the argument stage, thankfully, last idiots who tried got shot, the whole island wall is covered in those motion turrets." Dave blew out the last puff of his cigarette, expertly flicking it into the nearby trash ashtray, clearly he was a regular, or he just had excellent aim "Don't get me wrong, I would love to go in there, and go back to my childhood home, I was only 14 when they kicked us out, but, alas, I don't think it would be the same, hell, I would be surprised if the old building still stands." He looked at his watch "Christ on a crutch, it's been 20 minutes already" he exclaimed.

Dave leaned back in wistfullness and then slapped his knee, a clear character tic, and stood up, offering his hand again, which "Blake" took firmly.

Dave nodded "Well, I best be off, My wife will have my neck if I miss picking up the grandkids, Maybe I'll see you again round these parts, unless you're just visiting"

"Blake" shook its head "No, I just moved here, so chances are good we will meet up again, this is a good spot" It smiled. This man, no, Dave, had been fun, informative and easy to talk to.

Dave nodded "until next time, Ocean Man, try to stay dry" he laughed and waved as he walked off.

"Blake" no, just Blake, waved at the retreating Dave, and sat looking at the walled off Island, the wheels turning in Its head.

One thing he had learned about "tabloid bullshit" is every once in a while there is a grain of truth, buried amongst braindead stories about Elvis' ghost and aliens stealing skin. maybe that's why It felt it needed to get to the Island, there may still be some infected forms left, maybe they have mutated and evolved, and It can study them...