Electrofetish Zombies (pt 1)

The entire concrete floor of the warehouse was soaked, days of rain had leaked in through the many holes in the roof and splashed in beneath the doors. Everything was damp, even in the relatively sealed offices and storerooms. Rain or not, the party would still be a blast, they always were. The warehouse would fill with upwards of a hundred or more, maybe three hundred revellers. The crowds generally were a mix of neo-goths, tekjunkies and streetbeaters. Some brought the cloths on their back and a few dollars for the door, some brought booze, others brought designer drugs and neon digital toys. The music was the draw, some of the Tarant’s best and most innovative underground artists would be up there. 1

Ryan shut the blow torch off, lifted his visor, inspecting his patched brace. There would be a lot of gear and people up on their stage tonight. It would be a fucking disaster to have it all come crashing down, if only because they would have to call it a night. Ryan was excited that his band, Cyborg Underground would be up there rubbing shoulders with the “big fish” - KombatFront and Quantum Signature. Though Warehouse Tektronics was their territory, Cyborg Underground was the warm up band. That was fine by Ryan, he would even be playing with QS. In this case, playing meant taking an angle grinder to a metal drum and screaming his lungs out. 2

Ryan looked up to the command centre, a small booth that housed the interfaces for lighting, sound and a host of other goodies. Waste and Damon were up there arguing about something. Damon pointed angrily at the monitor, Waste shrugged and shook his head. 3

‘Damon you fiery bitch,’ Ryan bellowed up at the booth.4

Damon continued to tirade while Waste kept shaking his head. 5

‘Da-’ Ryan began but had a better idea. He hoisted himself up on the stage and took his indicator from on top of an amplifier. Pointing it up at the booth he pressed the button, a red spot appeared on the side of Waste’s shaking head. Damon went quiet, looking around. 6

She spotted Ryan, turned front on, glaring down on him. ‘What?’7

‘Like I was saying, are you guys ready to check the fucking lights?’ There were plenty of other things he had to get to.8

Damon jabbed at the control board. ‘Blue, one - two.’ Ryan gave her the thumbs up.9

About halfway through the check, testing the new lasers, the right unit emitted a blinding white light and an audible pop, spraying orange-white sparks arching out into the air and to the floor five meters below.10

Ryan did his best to repress a smile as he heard Waste suck in a surprised Damon fearing breath. 11

Damon spun on Waste. ’Did you wire that thing?’ 12

He shook his head. ‘Lilith.’13

Damon didn’t care who it was, she was pissed as hell - not like it was her money. She seemed to consider herself some sort of group leader and for the most everyone was pretty happy to carry on as if she were. When the group need a collective arse-kicking to get a job done, Damon was there, and willing. There were a lot of people out there that were afraid of her, with her spiked combat boots, commanding voice and animalistic teeth filed to points. Waste was one of those scared shitless by her - what kept them together was a mystery to Ryan.14

She rubbed her temples - held her hands there a moment, possibly quieting demonic voices that demander bloody slaughter. ‘Go out there and bring it in. We might be able to fix it.’ 15

Unfortunately dealers of “found items” don’t offer warranty. 16

Damon and Ryan ran through the rest of the light check while Waste climbed out on the scaffold and grappled with the laser. ‘Still fuck‘n burning,’ he muttered.17

Waste cursed as he chipped away with a screw driver, apparently the fitting had fused in the explosion. 18

‘Strobe.’ 19

Despite the fact Damon could see the result in the booth quite clearly in the overcast dimness of the warehouse, Ryan still gave her the thumbs up.20

‘Got it,’ Waste was pulling the laser off the mount but slipped. There was a moment where all three of them watched thousands of dollars of cutting edge trippy lighting plummet through the air. The brief moment of perplexed silence was broken by the metal rending, lens shattering crash. 21

Ryan couldn’t keep the laughter back this time. It was the stupid shocked look on Waste’s face and the murderous one on Damon’s that pushed him over.22

Damon didn’t find it funny at all, hardly surprising, nothing was ever funny when she was in work mode. Waste, poor kid he was, didn’t know what to do. Ryan’s laughter had taken some of the shock out of his expression, an anxious smile wavered on his lips. 23

‘A cigarette please my dear,’ this was Ryan’s attempt at defusing the situation. 24

Damon reached inside her tasty retro leather jacket and drew out a dull metal case. She took one for herself, lit it and tossed the container down. Ryan caught it easily but almost dropped it as a corner dug into the palm of his hands. He withdrew one but didn’t return the case, his throw would likely go astray and damage something in the control room. 25

‘Good thing it was already fucked,’ he said puffing out a blue grey cloud, cigarette held loosely in the corner of his lips.