Brigits_Flame AugustWeek Two
Title: Evolution, the Last Frontier
Prompt: Great Britain 2067
Word Count: 780
Rating: PG/G
A/N: This needed a whole lot more work. Ah well....
Ani smacked her French Fries in her mouth and licked the salt from her lips, her eyes never leaving the monitor. The air groaned in the water pipes as someone downstairs flushed the toilet and the wind hissed through the duct tape that formed a jagged pattern on the broken in the window, but Ani’s attention was fixed on the HD image of exploding vehicles. Little x’s in the upper right corner of the screen told her how many her score was.
“My turn,” said Dav. “C’mon. Gimme.” Dav was Ani’s little brother. They shared the cold water flat with five other people and there was always an argument over who got to play the video games during the three hours that the power was on. The lease being in Ani’s name, she always won.
Since Ani supported her brother she didn’t think she needed to share with him. She shifted her heavy body away from him with a grunt.
“Hey, gimme the controller,” whined Dav.
“Shuttup.”
“C’mon.”
“You c’n use it when I go to work.”
Ani was also one of the two people in the flat who had a job, and she had the better of the two kinds of jobs she knew of that consumers could have. She worked in de-manufacturing, that is, dissembling electronics. Bran, her flatmate, worked at McDonald’s, the food-getting place. He heated up the packages of food that consumers bought with their pay cards.
Ani was about thirty years old, and Dav around twenty-eight, though no one was really sure how old they were since you had to be able to read numbers to use a calendar. They had one hanging in the flat. It had pictures on the pages of mountains and beaches. Ani’s mother had told her about mountains. She thought she had had seen a beach once, but it might have just been something on the telly.
“This place sucks.”
“Shuttup. It’s just like everywhere else. It’s fine.”
“We should go to London.”
“Shuttup. Consumers don’t live in London, idjit.”
“Sez you.”
“Shuttup. London’s where the Ministry of Gov-Corp lives.”
“People used to live there,” put in Helin from the back of the room where she sat on a bean bag chair. She was old and thought she knew more stuff than everyone else. She would probably get caught for not having a job and be called out to the Farms where people went when they couldn’t support themselves. No one ever came back from the Farms.
“Corp’rations is people, idjit. They’re just bigger an’ more important.” Ani wiped her mouth with the back of her sleeve.
“How you know that?” asked Dav
“I watch the MurdochNewsCorp on the telly.”
“No, you don’t. As soon’s the power’s on you play WarDeathSeven.”
“Shuttup.”
“You shuttup.”
The front door opened with the squeak of protesting hinges and a cold wind blew in along with Adm, hunched over and holding something.
“Watcha got?” asked Helin.
“Nothin’,” said Adm.
“C’mon,” said Dav. “Let’s have a look.”
“No.”
From his seat on the floor Dav lunged awkwardly at Adm and wrested the thing out of his arms. Since Dav was Ani’s sister and Adm not related to anyone but only living there because Helin liked him, he was forced to relent.
“Don’t wreck it!” Adm whined.
“I won’t wreck it, you dumbass,” said Dav. He turned the object over in his hands. It was made of moldy fabric over cardboard and it opened up with pages inside. "Whut is dis?"
“It’s a book,” explained Adm.
“I know it’s a book, dumbass,” said Dav. “I mean whut book is it?”
“Whaddaya mean what book? It’s just a book.”
Dav sat cross-legged back down on the floor and opened the book. The pages had once been shiny but now they were stained and spotted with mildew. “It’s a bushes book,” announced Dave after turning a few pages. “It’s got lotsa pictures.”
“Lemme see,” said Helin.
Dav held up the opened pages for Helin to look at . “It’s a gardening book,” she said.
“What th' hellza ‘gardening book’?” asked Adm, leaning closer to Dav. Dav moved the book away so Adm couldn’t grab it from him.
“It tells you how to grow plants,” said Helin.
“Why?” said Adm. “Plants just grow.”
“People used to grow plants for food. From seeds,” said Helin.
“What’s seeds?”
“It’s like little rock things. You put them in the ground and plants come up and you eat the plants.”
“That’s stupid,” said Dav, losing interest in the book. “Food is at McDonald’s.”
“Waitaminute!” said Ani, momentarily pausing her game. “That’s paper, huh?”
Dav nodded.
“You know whatchu ‘opposed to do wi’ dat.”
“In th' loo?”
“Yeh.” Ani returned to her game and Dav took the book to the room where it would do some good.
** ** ***
Prompt: Great Britain 2067
Word Count: 780
Rating: PG/G
A/N: This needed a whole lot more work. Ah well....
Ani smacked her French Fries in her mouth and licked the salt from her lips, her eyes never leaving the monitor. The air groaned in the water pipes as someone downstairs flushed the toilet and the wind hissed through the duct tape that formed a jagged pattern on the broken in the window, but Ani’s attention was fixed on the HD image of exploding vehicles. Little x’s in the upper right corner of the screen told her how many her score was.
“My turn,” said Dav. “C’mon. Gimme.” Dav was Ani’s little brother. They shared the cold water flat with five other people and there was always an argument over who got to play the video games during the three hours that the power was on. The lease being in Ani’s name, she always won.
Since Ani supported her brother she didn’t think she needed to share with him. She shifted her heavy body away from him with a grunt.
“Hey, gimme the controller,” whined Dav.
“Shuttup.”
“C’mon.”
“You c’n use it when I go to work.”
Ani was also one of the two people in the flat who had a job, and she had the better of the two kinds of jobs she knew of that consumers could have. She worked in de-manufacturing, that is, dissembling electronics. Bran, her flatmate, worked at McDonald’s, the food-getting place. He heated up the packages of food that consumers bought with their pay cards.
Ani was about thirty years old, and Dav around twenty-eight, though no one was really sure how old they were since you had to be able to read numbers to use a calendar. They had one hanging in the flat. It had pictures on the pages of mountains and beaches. Ani’s mother had told her about mountains. She thought she had had seen a beach once, but it might have just been something on the telly.
“This place sucks.”
“Shuttup. It’s just like everywhere else. It’s fine.”
“We should go to London.”
“Shuttup. Consumers don’t live in London, idjit.”
“Sez you.”
“Shuttup. London’s where the Ministry of Gov-Corp lives.”
“People used to live there,” put in Helin from the back of the room where she sat on a bean bag chair. She was old and thought she knew more stuff than everyone else. She would probably get caught for not having a job and be called out to the Farms where people went when they couldn’t support themselves. No one ever came back from the Farms.
“Corp’rations is people, idjit. They’re just bigger an’ more important.” Ani wiped her mouth with the back of her sleeve.
“How you know that?” asked Dav
“I watch the MurdochNewsCorp on the telly.”
“No, you don’t. As soon’s the power’s on you play WarDeathSeven.”
“Shuttup.”
“You shuttup.”
The front door opened with the squeak of protesting hinges and a cold wind blew in along with Adm, hunched over and holding something.
“Watcha got?” asked Helin.
“Nothin’,” said Adm.
“C’mon,” said Dav. “Let’s have a look.”
“No.”
From his seat on the floor Dav lunged awkwardly at Adm and wrested the thing out of his arms. Since Dav was Ani’s sister and Adm not related to anyone but only living there because Helin liked him, he was forced to relent.
“Don’t wreck it!” Adm whined.
“I won’t wreck it, you dumbass,” said Dav. He turned the object over in his hands. It was made of moldy fabric over cardboard and it opened up with pages inside. "Whut is dis?"
“It’s a book,” explained Adm.
“I know it’s a book, dumbass,” said Dav. “I mean whut book is it?”
“Whaddaya mean what book? It’s just a book.”
Dav sat cross-legged back down on the floor and opened the book. The pages had once been shiny but now they were stained and spotted with mildew. “It’s a bushes book,” announced Dave after turning a few pages. “It’s got lotsa pictures.”
“Lemme see,” said Helin.
Dav held up the opened pages for Helin to look at . “It’s a gardening book,” she said.
“What th' hellza ‘gardening book’?” asked Adm, leaning closer to Dav. Dav moved the book away so Adm couldn’t grab it from him.
“It tells you how to grow plants,” said Helin.
“Why?” said Adm. “Plants just grow.”
“People used to grow plants for food. From seeds,” said Helin.
“What’s seeds?”
“It’s like little rock things. You put them in the ground and plants come up and you eat the plants.”
“That’s stupid,” said Dav, losing interest in the book. “Food is at McDonald’s.”
“Waitaminute!” said Ani, momentarily pausing her game. “That’s paper, huh?”
Dav nodded.
“You know whatchu ‘opposed to do wi’ dat.”
“In th' loo?”
“Yeh.” Ani returned to her game and Dav took the book to the room where it would do some good.
** ** ***