Part 6 of 6
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Tonight, Ruby completes the tale of her final escape from the leather-clad people-eater.
The Skinner Co. Network
063 - Ruby Departed: Utopia, Part 6 of 6
[Music] Welcome to FlashPulp Episode 63. Tonight we present Ruby Departed, Utopia, Part 6 of 6. [Music] This week's episodes are brought to you by Mr. Blog's Tepid Ride. What do you get the man who has everything? bmj2k.wordpress.com [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. Ruby completes the tale of her final escape from the leather-clad people leader. Ruby Departed, Utopia, Part 6 of 6. Written by J.R.D. Skinner, Art and Narration Biopoponax, and Audio Produced by Jessica May. [Music] Afternoon. I didn't spend a lot of time looking around. I kept my feet moving through the freezer room and into the next area. The hallway, with openings to a lot of side rooms that I didn't really care about. More interestingly, there was another door, very much like the one I'd entered the basement from, and it led back to the upper level. Leather had grabbed me as I made my way out of the southern stairwell. I guess he'd expected me. I'd kind of expected him too. I had my knife out when it happened. I slashed the blade through his stupid leather coat, and he was off of me as soon as I felt flesh splitting beneath. "Cannibal!" I shouted. "Not really the best insult, but it was on my mind." "Oh, you'll learn to love my meat," he replied. I punched him. The knife still in my hand gave me some extra weight, and his nose made a popping sound. "You look like the fawns as portrayed by an anorexic leather fetishist," I said. I started running. And he said something like, "I'll give my goob." I couldn't make out the exact words, but it didn't take a genius to translate it out to something like, "I'm going to get my gun." He started one way, so I went the other. Again, maybe I should have put Bethany through him, but violating the brain case of a live person is different than doing the same to a dead one. Grabbing a chair from the cafeteria area on my way by, I started slapping the thing against the entrance to the garage. It took two hits to prove to me that I wasn't going to accomplish anything, so I brought the chair back down hard against the handle. It popped off, a quick kick, and the guts of the lock dribbled out the new hole. I picked out the buggy's door key on the run and hopped inside after only the briefest of pauses. As I slammed it shut, there was a loud crack and a thud. Andy had just shot at my ride. Now, I know I've done stupid things, but I think anyone would panic in that situation. I didn't use the remote door openers. I went through both doors at top speed, then peeled out onto the street, trying to remember which direction I'd originally come from. I could hear a grinding in the undercarriage. I drove a few blocks in the wrong direction, totally lost. Then, in the distance, I spotted a column of smoke. I recognized it as the same one I'd spent a few days pondering while hanging out on top of the farmer's pick. I turned around and made a straight run along the road, passing by the garage I'd burst from, and finally recognizing the bridges we'd passed over on our way to Cryos HQ. After a few minutes, I came to the familiar parking lot, the grocery store I'd emptied, the coffee shop I'd originally met Linda and Andy at. My head was filled with stupid thoughts. Mostly that I could collect the supplies I'd left on the roof, then simply turn south and run the buggy until the gas ran down. Little did I know that a shred of metal from the garage door had wrapped itself around one of the axles. I jumped one of the cement barriers you see at the end of parking spaces pretty hard, and there was a snapping sound from behind me. The interior began to fill with smoke. The fire started small, but the world is in short supply of free water at the moment, and there was the matter of the gathering, hungry crowd. Still, I was in the parking lot, so I made a run for it. The buggy burned for a long while. Under the crackle of the flames, I could hear gunfire. A lot of it. Oh, it isn't the first time I've heard shooting in the distance, but usually you hear a couple of shots than silence. This wasn't like that. It was more like "pop, pop, pop, pause. Pop, pop, pop, pause." Slowly marching closer. It wasn't that far a drive, but it must have been a terrible jog. As the noise grew closer, the locals slowly shambled towards it. It's hard to say how he made it as far as he did, but while the buggy still burned, Andy stepped into the parking lot. He was walking fast to keep the majority of the crowd behind him, but he was being slowed a lot by the double bag he was lugging. He must have been sweating up a storm under those leather pants. He hadn't arrived unscathed either. He'd obviously been bitten a few times along the way. His cheek was hanging loose from the side of his face, and blood was disappearing into his jacket's collar. As he walked the parking lot, I hugged the roof, occasionally peeking over the lip. I wasn't sure if he knew where I was. He passed the guttering wreckage of his former vehicle and started shouting. "You've left me no choice!" he screamed in my general direction. I wasn't sure if he meant that in the movie style villain kind of way, or literally, because I had ripped open all the doors between his freezer meal colony and the dead folk. There'd been a few times when I thought that Leatherhead wouldn't be able to make it on the outside, and his stopping the chat was the final proof. A young guy in a t-shirt, whose logo was too gunked up to identify, grabbed at Andy's hair. Leatherhead turned, breaking free and firing his rifle right into the dead guy's mouth. It was a little late, though. The debtor had lunged forward, and when he took the bullet, a backsplash of goo caught Andy in the face. The cannibal didn't like the taste of the rotting stuff, and he reflexively started retching. That's when the rest of the crowd caught up. They were done eating before the fire went out. Tomorrow, I'm going to track down that column of smoke. Tonight, I'm going to sleep under the stars, and try not to think about the freezers in the store below. 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. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪