Division Zero: Lex De Mortuis (56 page)

Her collective of
friends
on the front stoop enjoyed a communal wince at the noise; a few whispers of ‘what the fuck are you doing’ made it through the paralytic pain. Fear of Traci being wrong, that someone
was
still here and was now awake, got her to her feet. Fear of the flashing light got her moving. She unlatched the door, pinching it through her sleeves. Kevin yanked it open and dragged her out onto the porch.

“For a little bitch, you make a shitload of noise.”

“Sorry.” She got snotty. “Who puts a fucking Oriental rug on hardwood without a pad? Shot right out from under me.”

Yeah, I sound like a street kid.

He hauled her down two steps. “You stay right here. You see anything weird, you come running in and warn us. We go out the back.”

Her urgent eyes grew wide. “Hey, there’s―”

Kevin shoved her out of the way, sending her over the porch railing. The stone to the gut knocked the words right out of her, and nauseous guilt kept them gone. Before she could breathe again, the lot of them had disappeared inside, pulling the door closed behind them. Trembling, she meandered onto the sidewalk, cupping sleeve-covered hands over her mouth to warm icy fingers. A lone taxi drove past; she turned her face away before the headlights hit her.

She tasted meatball Hot Pockets again.

What am I doing? Dad can’t make this go away. Even if Rosario is a drug dealer, this is still B&E.
From fear, she could resist the shakes. From cold, she could resist the shiver. From both, she succumbed.

Would he even bother to try?

A thud came from the second floor window. She drew a sharp breath, tasting the basement dust from her coat. At least she muffled the yelp. Natalie leaned against the stone railing, gazing at the shadows adrift in the windows. This sort of thing felt much more exciting on TV; being
in
it sucked.

Nat… They wanna give you drugs. They wanna get you fucked up so you drop your pants and they all take a turn. They
are
going to get you put in jail.
She managed a snarl, thinking about her mother. Her nerves came under control, and she stopped shaking.
Serves you right, Mom.

Glimmering red and blue lights invaded the dark one block down. Her legs went to jelly.
Silent alarm.
She took a step back, thankful the building they chose was right next to an alley. Before the police car nosed around the corner, she bolted into the night. Natalie did not think about where she was going―she had no idea.

Blind with panic, she ran from alley to alley and into a street. She ran past more apartments and one or two people out wandering at that hour. She ran until she collapsed in a wheezing heap on a bus stop bench.

Her lungs burned. Steam wafted from her hair. Fire rippled through her legs. She leaned forward, hugging her knees and coughing. After a few gagging breaths, she sat back and wiped her eyes. Natalie’s heart stopped when a policeman shone a flashlight on her face.

“You alright, kid?”

She slumped forward and hurled all over her boots.

He patted her on the back, noting the smudges of black lipstick on her face. “What happened? Did someone try to take advantage of you? What were you running from?”

Natalie just stared at him, petrified at the guilt that had to be radiating from her eyes.

“Calm down, kid. Take a few breaths. Tell me what happened.”

She shrank into herself. “N… Nothing, officer. I got into a fight with my boyfriend. He kicked me out of his car when I wouldn’t fuck him.” She cringed at throwing that word at a cop. “I… uh, don’t know where I am.”

“Did he assault you? Make you do anything you did not want to do?”

No, yes.
“He just kissed me.” She dabbed genuine tears with her sleeve. “I didn’t wanna go all the way, so I ran.”

The officer nodded. “Do you need a ride home?”

“A ride to my
Mom’s
…”

Born in a little town known as South Amboy NJ in 1973,
Matthew
has been creating science fiction and fantasy worlds for most of his reasoning life. Somewhere between fifteen to eighteen of them spent developing the world in which Division Zero, Virtual Immortality, and The Awakened Series take place. He has several other projects in the works as well as a collaborative science fiction endeavor with author Tony Healey.

Matthew is an avid gamer, a recovered WoW addict, Gamemaster for two custom systems (Chronicles of Eldrinaath [Fantasy] and Divergent Fates [Sci Fi], and a fan of anime, British humour (<- deliberate), and intellectual science fiction that questions the nature of reality, life, and what happens after it.

He is also fond of cats.

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