Zone C -- Megacity One

[Strazio Rockwell]

By now the leaves in his mouth had dissolved completely and he reached the apex of his high. Strazio had found refuge in what had once been a mattress store. And while the beds had seen better days they proved themselves to be quite comfortable. Not that the boy was picky, he was too high to be picky and too sleepy. He created a pseudo-fort out of mattress pads and curled up to sleep in the center of his fortifications. Fireflies nipped at his skin and sent shivers down his spine. His collar beeped once again and he opened his mouth to mimic it, but made no sound.

For too long Strazio sat their floating between the waking world and dreamland. His mind trapped in a pink-flavored twilight that he was only vaguely aware of. He stretched out across his throne of discarded furniture. His hands worked on their own and found their way to his chest. There they played with the Darkshire crest that he always carried. Again his collar beeped, indicating only a few hours until fatal detonation. What had once been a death dirge was now nothing more than a strange chime.

“Beep, beep, beep,” he muttered to himself and closed his eyes.

Once again his errant hands found another object. A cool shaft of metal found itself between his palms. He moved his hands along the length of metal and found a number of strange mechanisms and baubles attached to it. He opened his eyes and smiled.

“Demetri,” he muttered.

A dagger pierced through the fog and he shot upright in bed. Memories of his fallen friend flooded his brain and washed away the wicked languor that plagued him.

“Goddamnit,” he groaned, and shot out of bed like a college student who woke up ten minutes before the final.

Moving C16 to C21