Part 1 of 1
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Tonight, Ruby departs from the home of Melody Hannikainen, although not entirely empty handed.
The Skinner Co. Network
084 - Ruby Departed: Shuffle, Part 1 of 1
[ Music ] Welcome to FlashPulp Episode 84. Tonight, we present Ruby Departed Shuffle, Part 1 of 1. [ Music ] This week's episodes are brought to you by FlashPulp on iTunes. Now with 20% more pulp than the next leading brand. Find a link to FlashPulp's iTunes feed at skinner.fm. Search for FlashPulp using the iTunes in-program search or point your browser at http-bit.ly/9z2-e-h0. [ Music ] [ Music ] [ Music ] FlashPulp is an experiment in broadcasting fresh pulp stories in the modern age, three to ten minutes of fiction brought to you Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings. Tonight, Ruby departs from the home of Melody Hannah Kanan, although not entirely empty-handed. Ruby Departed Shuffle, Part 1 of 1. Written by JRD Skinner, Art and Narration Biopoponax, and Audio produced by Jessica May. [ Music ] July 19th, #61 was a large man in tiny underpants. His face was black and swollen from asphyxiation, and he had a closet clothes rod tied to his neck via a short length of black electrical cord. #62 was an elderly lady in a white floral print dress with blue flowers. She had bony fingers. Her hair was still perfectly in place from whatever spray glue she'd used on it. I lingered for a day at melodies, but when I woke up this morning, there was a sense of dread on my skin. I don't really dream much anymore, but I must have had a nightmare that left nothing but wafting creepiness once it had popped. After a few moments of breathing in the stillness of the house, I calmed down. I had an idea, and getting all wound up wasn't going to help any, especially as I had to go back into Melody's room. Once I got going, though, the crowd on the road was pretty spotty, and it was easy enough to just use Bethany's blunt end to poke my path clear. I wasn't thinking much about the scene back at the house. I was more focused on not being surprised while I conducted by search. It was one of those moments where your attention is somewhere else and your brain figures it's about time to distract you, so it throws up an unexpected epiphany. Miss Melody Hannah Kanan hadn't risen again. There was nothing obviously wrong with her trauma-wise, so I assumed she'd OD'd on her pills, but she hadn't come stumbling after me when I'd entered the room. I nearly came to a stop when I realized. It took me another hour, including two rests on two different garages, to find what I was looking for. As the sun came out more, so too did the rotors. The big guy came up behind me while I was trying to get off a roof. I think he must have smashed through the bay window across the street. Glass was spread all over the lawn, and there were two long shards sticking out of his belly. He didn't seem to mind. Still, I found it. A charger. The problem was that I had to smash the focus's passenger side window to get it out, especially disappointing as there was a little blinking alarm light that told me the battery was still good. I was another 40 minutes trying to find an unlocked car that still had an operating battery, and that's when I had to take out the little old lady who got too grabby. I plugged in the iPod I'd pulled from Melody's fingers, and put on the headphones I'd pulled from her spoiling ears. The screen blinked on, displaying a battery charging logo. Still waiting, but there are a few stumblers looking at the car pretty funny. Later. To the best of my memory, both in descriptions and order. I'm so sorry. Number 63, I actually just meant to push, but I thrust too hard, and Bethany's hilt went right through his bald head. He had a jet black mustache, and a white short-sleeved dress shirt with a little grid of black thread. While I was pulling out Bethany, the slowdown gave number 64, a blonde woman with two broken ankles and a lot of wobble in her walk, a chance to grab me. She had a blue blouse on and a pair of grey slacks. When I brought my blade around on her, I over-leveraged and drove the tip right through her temple and into number 65, an old man with no teeth, who gummed at me violently as Bethany slaughtered herself into his forehead. He fell to his knees, and I noticed that he had the same watch with the stretchy chrome band the dad used to have. Number 66 looked like Dave Letterman. He even had a dark blue suit on, but no glasses. Number 67 was a tall lady in tan slacks and a white blouse. She looked like she died from a gunshot to the belly. Number 68 was a teenage guy, with a hairstyle that must have taken an hour daily to maintain. The rest of him looked like someone had assaulted him with a weed wacker. Number 69 sort of stumbled into my path after I had pulled myself clear of the cluster. He was a muscled dude with short hair and jeans on. His shirt was too covered in gore to make out any sort of identifying marks. He would have pummeled me back in the real world, but Bethany and I barely had to change course as we passed through. I probably could have avoided him, but I have to admit, I was frustrated. There may have been others, I hope not. I don't have the iPod anymore, it was so stupid, I got greedy. When the thing was about halfway charged, I started listening, and I lost track of things. I didn't realize how many had come around behind. With the headphones on, I couldn't really hear them. The last time I'd heard music was in Leatherhead's cannibal compound, and it just... Deathmetal isn't the same. When the opening bars of a tune I hadn't encountered since my first year of high school began, the old world seemed so close. Yeah, I was crying. I didn't get further than the first half of the second song. They smashed in the back window. When it happened, I jumped and banged my knee on the wheel. I'm just lucky it wasn't bad enough to prevent me from running. I needed tags of the car immediately. I pulled out the headphones, but the music kept playing out loud. I don't remember that happening on mine, and I didn't have the time to make it stop. The cardinal rule is not to let yourself get cornered by a group, but that's exactly what happened. I started swinging Bethany, but I realized pretty quickly that I wasn't going to make it out of there with my arms alone. So I threw it. Half of the crowd peeled away to chase the sound, and, like any good derby girl, I found the opening and moved fast. It's tough to leave it behind, when everything from back then carries so much weight. FlashPulp is presented by HTTP colon slash slash Skinner dot FM. The audio and text formats of FlashPulp are released under the Canadian Creative Commons attribution non-commercial 2.5 license. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC PLAYING]