Graverobber walked quickly, ducking through shortcuts, trying to save time. He'd get there early, maybe shower again. He'd want to smell nice, for her sake. Even having showered the night before, he could feel the grit from the city starting to stick to his skin. He'd be there when she got home, he'd let her get cleaned up from work, listen to her stories, ease her into the bed, hold her, and when she was ready…
A halting thought stopped Graverobber in his tracks. He was forgetting something. Something he would probably need, and something he knew Shilo wouldn't have.
He patted his pockets, hoping to find one just by luck.
But he came up empty.
Cursing under his breath, Graverobber turned and headed down a side street towards a neon sign that read "One Stop Pharmaceutical". The 'P' on the sign was burnt out, making it read "harmaceutical". The truth of it made Graverobber crack a small smile. He pushed through the glass door, that was plastered with flyers for every drug released in the last twenty years. Inside, the tiny shop was lined wall to wall with bottles and boxes and jars, each one proudly bearing their well known GeneCo labels. Graverobber moved to the back corner, where the product he needed was stocked.
He decided on basic ones, Shilo wouldn't need any frills or fun shapes or flavors; not for her first time. Most of the Zaddicts he'd hooked up with in the past didn't even need these; they took pills upon pills to staunch what their bodies did naturally.
But Shilo wouldn't do anything like that. It was better if he came prepared.
Graverobber moved over to where the cashier sat on a stool, with a beat up scanner mounted to the wall beside him. He sucked at his filth-caked nails, making disgusting noises that Graverobber imagined he'd hear in some dense swamp.
Handing him the condoms, Graverobber quickly scanned through the units and waited for the cashier to put his purchases in a red, paper bag.
When he looked up to hand them over, Graverobber saw recognition flicker on his face.
"You're girl just blew through here." He said.
Graverobber blinked. He didn't have a girl. I mean, Shilo maybe...Shilo was at work.
"My girl?" He repeated, raising an eyebrow. The Cashier sneered.
"Had her two leather-wrapped goons in here, manhandling all my merchandise. Said they were looking for stolen merchandise, but everybody knows she's been tracking Z these past few months."
Graverobber's back went rigid. He was talking about Amber Sweet and her "Clean Up The Streets" Initiative.
Since She took over GeneCo, Amber had all the Zydrate she needed, no questions asked. But She was still having withdrawals, just a different kind.
Graverobber had been dodging her as much as he could, but sometimes she cornered him. Usually the only way out was to fuck her. If he refused, the other option was to get the living shit beat out of him by her two 'roid-packed bodyguards.
Each one was it's own form of self-loathing humiliation.
Not tonight, Graverobber thought to himself, she wasn't going to get him tonight.
He grabbed the bag from the cashier and took off down the direction he'd come, hugging the wall like it had just bought him dinner.
The cashier hadn't said which way Amber had gone, whether she was scoping out alleys or hitting the clubs; either way, he was on the wrong end of town.
If he got past the next block, towards the river, he could follow that all the way to Shilo's house. It'd be dark, and there were no connecting streets past the bridge.
Just a couple of blocks.
He crossed behind two bars and a pool hall, stopping to rest at an abandoned apartment complex. If he craned his neck, he could see the top of the bridge.
A crash sounded from somewhere behind him and he ducked behind a junked refrigerator.
Two female voices carried over.
"I told you, I got it from someone else." A sobbing voice pleaded.
"Listen up Babydoll, you're surfing the glow all over, I can see it. Now tell me which way he went, or I'll crack that pretty smile of yours in half." Amber Sweet's nasal hiss cut through the damp, night air. Graverobber covered his mouth to stifle the cursing.
"It wasn't G. It was some chick named Keyta I swear!" The girl sounded desperate, like Sweet had been riding her about this a while.
"Bullshit! If he's not selling, then he's hiding. Someone's gotta know where he is." Amber screeched. Graverobber heard a clatter, like she'd kicked something across the cobblestones.
"I don't know! I'd tell you if I did. Please let me go!" the girl begged. It got quiet. Uncomfortable quiet. Graverobber had to strain his ears to catch Amber's words.
"Fine sugar, I believe you don't know where he is." Her voice was dripping with arrogance, "But, you're still using unlicensed Zydrate in my city, and that's against the rules."
Graverobber could hear the girl becoming more panicked, her sobs echoing off the walls.
"Let's get her to a GeneClean house." Amber said to her goons. The girl's wails tore through the alley like gunfire. Her screams of protest stretching out into the city where no one was coming to help her.
GeneClean houses were another of Amber's wonderful initiatives. Places where people could go to get healthy and break their addictions.
Good in theory. What they turned out to be were buildings where patients were chained to the beds like animals and given only a saline drip for five days straight until every unnatural additive was out of their system.
Supposedly injuries and mental breakdowns were common and solved by extending treatment to "physical therapy". Meaning they were drilled in basic exercises for hours on end, sometimes till their bones broke.
When people got out, they were never the same.
Graverobber thought of the way the girl had sounded; desperate, sad, young. She didn't deserve to suffer for five days, maybe more.
He thought about it while he scurried along the riverside, the poor girl and Amber's twisted obsession with him. Graverobber had to shake her, eventually. She was full of hate. And if a random Zaddict got thrown in the GeneClean just on the possibility that she was lying, what would Amber do if she found out about Graverobber and Shilo?
Graverobber didn't want to think about it.
He wanted to be with Shilo, needed to.
But no one could know. If word got back to Amber, she'd go ballistic. She'd bomb the whole city just to make sure He was dead.
He had to protect Shilo.
If he wanted to keep her, he'd have to keep her secret.