Chapter 8 – Saturday Morning Cartoons
On weekends, the morning fare was do-it-yourself meals of cereal, toast and fruit. The trade off was that it was available all morning, until lunch was served around noon. The kids drifted in and out of the cafeteria. Ash sat, dejected, alone. She ate dry, toaster-oven French toast. The syrup dispensers were empty.
Dante approached the table and sat down across from her. She didn't like the way he looked at her. He was tall and athletic, his t-shirt bearing an image of a tattoo gun, the handle artfully merged into that of a revolver. His goatee made her instantly dislike him.
He pulled out a cigarette. "You mind?" he asked her.
She stared at him blankly.
Dante lit the cigarette and stared back.
Ash looked at the guard across the room. He showed no interest in reprimanding the smoking gang leader.
Ash let him sit there, staring at her, as long as she could stand it.
"What do you want?" she finally asked.
"Me, nothing. What do you want?" Dante countered.
"To eat in peace and privacy."
"I never eat in front of other people, it's a disgusting habit. And that," he gestured to Ashley's breakfast with his cigarette. "It looks no better now, than how it will when it comes out the other end. I don't eat that shit. No, thank you." In his enthusiasm, Dante tapped his cigarette over her tray.
Ash stared at him in disbelief.
"Oh, I'm sorry, excuse me. But really, it's no good for you anyhow."
Ash pushed the tray away, but retained the metal fork in her hand.
Dante smoked his cigarette and looked up at the ceiling.
"Hey, don't you have a brother named Geoffrey?" he asked.
Ash, unwilling to confront Dante and his bodyguards until she calculated her options, looked down and subtly glanced at his friends. Yama was the tallest of the three, and Frost was stocky and strong. Ash didn’t want to fight any of them.
A table full of girls across the room had distracted Yama and Frost.
Dante attempted to recapture her attention. "I met him last night, your brother."
Ash openly looked over at the table full of girls, ignoring Dante and consciously looking scared of confrontation. She had to draw him in, make him feel secure.
Dante jumped in with both feet, "I saw him take a nasty tumble down some stairs."
Ashley dropped her gaze to the floor and pulled a foot up onto the bench, her knee coming between herself and Dante. She let her shoulders fall, looking beaten.
Ash heard Dante give a victorious breath, it was clear, he considered her beaten. He glanced over at the girls across the room, the distraction.
Yama and Frost grinned and waved to the girls. They were cute and smiling, a couple waved back. Ashley watched everything from her peripheral vision, her head lowered, submissive.
Dante, Yama, and Frost lived on the Bolt. They didn't know these girls, but everyone knew them. They were famous. The Devils ran District Thirteen. Dante, Yama and Frost, were the most senior members the other gangs could bargain with, be friendly with. If Dante paid you a visit, you might survive, he was the good cop. If Big Mo or Kid Lethal had to come see you, it was a different story entirely.
Ashley was perhaps the single-most person in the district to have absolutely no idea who these three Devils were but she did know that young men always have something to prove. She could see that these three particular individuals believed Hell was a hierarchy, just like every other faction of society, and they were eager to earn their place.
Dante was now blatantly ogling the girls across the room. The girls, impressed with their legendary status, and naturally competitive, were eager to distract the Devils from whatever business they had with Ashley. They openly flirted, smiled and giggled.
Only a moment had passed, but her opportunity had come. With two smooth upward steps, Ash climbed onto the table, crouched low and grabbed Dante by the back of his head, her left fist balling up in his hair. Her right hand pressed the tines of the fork into his throat.
Ashley smiled at him, only inches from his face, ready and willing to open the carotid artery with the blunt utensil.
Dante remained perfectly still, not allowing the slightest look of surprise or concern to cross his features. He did, however, have a hard time repressing a smile in admiration for Ashley’s graceful attack.
Ashley drove the point home silently, just with her eyes. Not only had she taken him by surprise physically, but she had suckered him too, with the cowering-puppy act. Her expression said it all; you are outclassed.
The cigarette smoke alone dared move.
Dante curled his hand, as if to flick the cigarette at Ashley's face.
She planted a knee in his chest, leaning into him, putting her face in the same general area as his own, and pressing forward with the fork, daring him to flick the cigarette.
Dante did, but over and past them, at Yama and Frost. They suddenly caught on and rushed toward the girl and their hostage leader.
Ash kicked Frost, the closer of the two, in the chin. He crashed backwards into Yama.
When she savagely pressed the fork against Dante's throat. He held up his hands in surrender.
Yama and Frost held back and waited for the right moment.
"Where's my brother?" Ash demanded.
"Medical." Dante coughed.
"Why?" she asked.
"Fell down some stairs.” Dante abruptly twisted out of Ashley's grip and away from the fork. He coughed several times. "Fucking Psycho!"
Ash remained on Dante's side of the table.
With their leader out of the way, Frost and Yama charged her.
Ash grabbed Frost and backed over the table, pulling him with her. He slammed his shins into the bench, and she bounced his face off her tray of unfinished breakfast.
Yama stepped up and over the table, chasing Ashley down onto the other side. In a large central aisle, they stood perfectly still, regarding each other warily.
The kids at the nearby tables vacated. A couple guards approached, but veered away when Dante waved them off.
Yama and Ash stood, hands by their sides, but ready. Neither blinked, patiently waiting for the right moment.
Someone coughed and it began.
Yama opened with a whip hand strike, but missed, and smoothly transitioned into Cloud Hands, his palms rushing up at her in quick succession, as if they were metal barbs at the end of a flail.
He was moving far to quickly to try and block, so she evaded and countered with two sharp kicks to his knees, but he sidestepped her.
Ash continued with strikes of her own, a jab, a hook and another jab. Yama drifted toward her weak side, but she matched him step for step.
He pivoted, delivering a blindingly fast sidekick. She moved to flank him, but he stayed with her, chasing her with two jabs and a cross. Movement after movement, they swung at each other, each perfectly timed, balanced, countered and reacted to. They seemed to be dancing rather than fighting.
Then Yama caught Ashley's elbow and the dance collapsed.
Ash struck with her free hand. She had taken a calculated risk and Yama had fallen for it. The leopard strike slipped in, beneath his chin. A pointed jab, just enough to loosen his grip. She spun out of his grasp and smashed the bridge of his nose with her elbow, scoring two consecutive hits and drawing first blood.
Yama held up a hand, pausing the fight. He pinched his nose to stop the blood. He felt the break, took a deep breath pulled it out and reset the bone with an audible snap. He took a moment to breathe, blinked the involuntary tears away and raised his eyes to hers.
Suddenly he struck her.
Yama slapped Ashley across the face so hard she literally saw stars, but somehow she managed not to fall. A blisteringly fast backhand split her eyebrow and he calmly stepped out of reach.
He had hit her twice while holding his nose pinched shut with his left hand. Ashley had never seen anyone move so quickly. She wa
s one of the fastest kids at the Flying Dragons Academy, but that was because Yama hadn’t been there.
"Do you want to see your brother or not?" he asked.
Ash looked over to the angry-calm Dante and the scowling, breakfast-stained Frost. She said nothing, but turned back to Yama and nodded.
The blood ran into her eye and she wiped it away.
Dante turned and walked from the cafeteria, followed by Frost, Yama and Ashley.
They walked in silence for some time. Dante's presence turned nearly every single head, even guards gave them a wide berth.
After ten minutes of silence, Ash looked over to Yama and Frost. "So, you're his bitches?" she asked.
They didn’t reply.
"He doesn't seem so tough."
Ash looked at Yama. "I bet you could take him," she taunted.
Yama ignored her.
"But he's someone else's bitch too, isn't he?" she continued.
After a moment, Dante said, "His name is Moses Modred Mohammed. You are his newest slave."
Ash didn’t reply.
Dante continued, "You will be chained to a bed and gang raped until your spirit is broken. You'll be given drugs for the pain and mental anguish. Once hooked on these drugs, you will beg… Fucking Beg for the chance to participate in the most vulgar disgusting… Well, you’ll see.
”You are going to fuck, every miserable day of the rest of your miserable, short, worthless existence. It will be recorded and sold and perhaps some small amount of your debt to your betters will be paid.”
Ashley stopped walking and waited for Dante do likewise.
He did.
"Where's my brother?" she asked.
"I told you, Medical.” He pointed to an escalator in the distance.
The escalator was one of the sporadic access points where the Athletic Complex connected with the ex-prison section, the Bolt.
Dante smiled. "You go up those stairs, over to the elevator bank and hit the Red Cross button.” He turned and continued walking. Yama and Frost drifted after him.
Reluctantly Ash followed toward the towering but unmoving escalator, slowly growing closer in the distance.
Alongside, the massive connecting bracers and wire-frame scaffolding tied the hovering structures together.
In silence, they reached the bottom of the motionless stairs.
Dante turned toward Ash. "You're nobody," he said. "By tomorrow, everyone will have forgotten you. By next week, you're ancient history.”
She silently continued past him, reaching and ascending the broken escalator first.
At the top of the sharp metal stairwell, a huge sign read simply, ZOO. Ashley stood at the entrance and surveyed the area. It was a prison rooftop doubling as a swap meet.
Four large squares of cyclone fencing formed the foundation of the Zoo. Outside the fence, child-merchants managed market stalls, their goods piled high on tables, carts and hung from the fencing. Crude awnings and tented canvas offered some defense against the midday sun.
Despite the fact that the fences were lined with heavy duty green plastic, Ash could hear that at least two were reserved for basketball, a third sported the distinct sound of free-weights, and she suspected it was from the furthest that she picked up the scent of a grill, laughter, the clink of poker chips and the occasional twirl of a roulette wheel and its ball, bouncing and clicking to an eventual stop.
It was what she saw that intrigued her most. Hanging before her was a hologram shirt, in one of the main shops. It looked like her brother's shirt, the one he'd been wearing yesterday. Ash walked toward it.
The shopkeeper, Ron, noticed her interest and approached.
"Hey, sweetheart. We got all kinds of goodies here. I'm Ronnie. Anything you want or need; just let me know. If it's not here, I can get it for you.”
"That shirt," she said, pointing to it.
"Don't you think that's maybe a little small for you, sweet cheeks?” Anxiety already nibbled the edges of his otherwise brash approach.
"Where'd you get it?” she asked.
"Hey now, a man's got to protect his resources. I can't be going and giving away my secrets now, can I? Shit.”
Dante, Yama and Frost crested the stairs. Frost and Yama fanned out, but stayed out of Ashley’s immediate area.
Dante stepped toward her, "You'll have time for that later, if at all.”
Ash turned on him. "I have time for it now.”
Ash and Dante stared each other down.
People noticed. No one spoke back to Dante, not ever, and certainly not here. Everyone stopped whatever they were doing to watch.
The zoo went silent.
Kid Lethal, Big Mo and a couple other devils sat on the other side of a fabric-covered fence playing dominoes.
Once the silence began, their ears perked up, the game forgotten.
Out on the main floor, Dante relented. He raised his hands, unwilling to get physical over something so trivial as a misappropriated t-shirt.
Ash turned from Dante, ignored Ron, and stepped over to the shirt, hanging on the fence.
Caught in the middle, Ron held his hands out to Dante. "Yo, D, what is up?”
Ashley pulled the shirt from the hangar and checked the tag. She read the initials GF in big black marker. "This is my brother's shirt.”
"What's that?" Ron asked, full of disbelief.
Ash held it up, letting him inspect the initials.
Ron looked over to Dante again, whose expression said that Ron was on his own.
"Look. Hey, now. I'm just a salesman, right? I sell stuff. That's what I do. Where it comes from, that's none of my business.” He clapped his hands together and then opened them. "My name's Paul, that's 'tween ya'll.”
Ashley smiled. "I thought you said your name was Ron?”
She noticed a piece of heavy wire stitching together a section of overlapping fence. The end was bent and sticking out dangerously. She stepped over to it.
"It's a saying sweets. My name is Ron," he explained to her back. "But I got no reason to get caught up between you and the man here.”
Ash grabbed the metal sliver and bent it back and forth. "He's not a man,” she said over her shoulder. “He's someone's bitch."
The wire gave under her continued abuse and six inches of it broke off in her hand, sharp and dangerous.
"Hey, now! Why you want to be breaking up my store?" Ron took a step toward her.
She stepped forward to meet him. "Where'd you get the shirt?" she shouted into his face.
Ron cowered, looking over at Dante.
Ashley slapped him across the face, regaining his attention. "I asked you a question.”
Ron stumbled backward. "What is the matter with you?”
Ash swept his feet from under him, slamming him to his back. She knelt on his chest. With the piece of metal folded in half, clutched tightly in her fist, she held the two sharp points an inch from Ron's eyes. He squirmed in her grip; she put more weight on him, crushing his chest.
"What the fuck, Bitch?!" he coughed.
"I asked you a question?”
"Have you lost your fucking mind?" he croaked.
She pressed harder on his chest and moved the metal barbs closer to his pupils. "Where did you get the shirt?!”
Ron yelled to Dante. "Yo man, get this bitch offa me!”
Ashley leaned forward, filling his field of vision with her face and the sharp wire. "He can’t help you! This was my brother's shirt! Tell me how you got it or I'll stab your goddamn eyes out!”
"Fuck you! They'll kill me!”
"This is your last chance!”
"I can buy new eyes, you fucking cunt! Goddamn it! Do you know where you are?! Are you out of your mind?!”
"Who did it?! Who gave you this shirt?!”
"Fuck you, bitch! You're thirty seconds from dead, so go nuts! Blind me! Two days, I'm good as new, but no matter what, you ain't seeing tomorrow! I'm not telling you shit! I'm not dying for you!" Ron spit in Ashley's face. No
t just a little, but a great wet mouthful of panic and fear.
Ashley drove the twin metal prongs deep into Ron's vision. He screamed as blood and viscous fluid burst from his penetrated eyeballs. Ron struggled and flopped around, increasing the damage.
Ashley jerked the prongs out and stepped away.
Dante gestured for Yama and Frost to step in. "Take him down to the docs.”
They nodded and stepped forward to help Ron, ignoring Ashley. Together, they got him to his feet and lead him toward the elevator bank.
The entire Zoo watched, captivated.
Once Ron's screams faded, things got quiet again, but no one went back to business as usual. Everyone remained rooted to their places, watching.
Ashley stood in front of Ron's shop, at the mouth of the center aisle.
Kid Lethal stood in the shadow of an entrance to the game room. "He got the shirt from me," Lethal called out.
Everyone looked down to the Kid.
Ash stared at him. "Are you Big Mo?”
"No, honey pot, I'm Lethal. I stole that shirt off your brother's back right before I kicked him down the escalators." Lethal gestured to the jagged-toothed stairwell behind her.
He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He packed the case against the back of his other hand before drawing one and lighting it.
Lethal didn't look especially intimidating. Then Ashley recognized him as the red hood that’d murdered Vic the Ass-Grabber yesterday at breakfast. He was a normal-sized teenage boy, fifteen maybe sixteen, tall and slender.
"I'm guessing he's in pretty bad shape," Lethal said. "He told me his sister was gonna come up here and kick my ass, and abracadabra; here you are.”
"Dante, this the bitch who did Marco?" Mo's voice thundered across the rooftop.
No one spoke in its wake.
Mo stood in the shade of the enclosure, leaning against the entrance post, just behind Lethal. He was huge, three times the size of any normal teenager, well over six feet, three hundred pounds of ripped muscle.
Dante nodded.
"Come over here, bitch," Mo commanded.
Ashley stood, Geoff's shirt in her left hand and the bloody metal prong in her right. "Make me," she replied.
Mo stepped out of the shade, walking out into the sunlight where Ashley could see him.
"Girl, you hurt my clients. They're insured against injury. You owe me big time. You gotta make it right.”
Ash remained where she was. "I don't owe you shit.”
Mo nodded to Lethal, who pulled a knife from his belt and started toward her.
Ashley laughed, undaunted. "What the fuck? You're right there and you still send a bitch. You fucking coward.”
The Zoo remained silent, even Lethal stopped, looking back to his giant leader.
Ash changed her focus and gestured to Lethal, "Fine, whatever, bitch. Come get some."
Mo raised a hand, Lethal waited. "You want to fight me?" Mo asked. "Lee here is the one hurt your brother.”
"I'll get to him, but he works for you, doesn't he? And Dante, he works for you? Marco, and Carver, and Otai, they all work for you, don't they?" she asked.
"That means that all this happened because I didn't let Carver rape my friend, Sky. Dante says that I'm your property now. So… What? You want me? Then you come and tell me what your problem is and let's see if we can settle it. But why should I come to you, you big lame-dick motherfucker?”
"That's a filthy mouth you got on you girl. You must be uptown trash, because downtown got more class than that.” Mo walked forward, stopping only once he reached reasonable conversing distance. "Your wish is granted, I'll fight you, but there's a place and a time. You see, if I fight you now, and I just fuck you right here, we lose something special. An event like this, what we need is an audience. Besides, I think you'd probably like to see your brother one last time, before the final curtain. I understand he's down in ICU. The fights start at three. Gives you a few hours. Dante will see you to your brother and then collect you for our grudge match.”
Mo turned to walk from the Zoo.
Ash hurled the metal prong at him. The point found his scalp and imbedded itself in his skin. Mo brushed the bent wire from his head, without otherwise acknowledging it.
He paused and spoke over his shoulder, "Dante, take her to see her brother."
Dante nodded, and with a glare that could melt glaciers, he led Ash toward the elevators.
Inside the elevator, Dante hit the button for the medical ward.
The doors closed.
For a moment he and Ashley were quiet.
Then Dante spoke slowly, calmly and with genuine curiosity, "What the fuck is your problem, anyhow? Ronnie didn't do nothing to you.”
Ashley stood in front of him, closer to the doors. She could see his hazy reflection in the brushed steel before her. She glanced to the ground, letting his sincerity soften her reply. "I guess I'm really just mad about my parents being killed.”
Dante let that sink in.
Ash raised her head, waiting for his response. In the reflection she could see he was baffled.
He snorted. "Your parents? You miss your parents? And you think that makes you special? In an orphanage? You Dizzy Bitch.”
Without turning, Ash savagely elbowed Dante in the face. His nose exploded with blood.
The elevator stopped and the doors opened.
Across the emergency room, the recently blinded Ronnie screamed. Three nurses struggled with him, trying to strap him to a wheeled bed. A fourth administered a shot.
Yama and Frost glared at Ash as she stepped out of the elevator.
Dante lurched out from behind her, his nose gushing blood.
A nurse saw him and hurried over.
Ashley smiled at Yama and Frost as she walked across the room.
They were stunned, shocked.
Ash walked over to the abandoned reception desk. She thumbed through the admissions log and bed assignments. The staff, occupied with the trouble Ash already caused, exhibited little interest in arresting her exploration. She looked around the station, located a hospital directory and headed for the ICU, looking for her little brother.
She soon found him, his face and head covered with short parallel slashes, places where the lip of the escalator bit into him as he fell.
She cried into his blankets for a while and then she slept.