Sparky (shocking_touch) wrote in humanity_lost, @ 2008-04-08 23:45:00 |
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Early morning found Liz bundle up in her bed inside the mall. She shivered in her sleep and when she finally wake up she found the tears on her cheeks weren't so much dried up as they were frozen. It may have been March but it was March in Chicago. Days were chilly and nights could get down right cold sometimes. Neither one should have been a problem since the mall has heating but Liz was freezing. A quick check showed that the power was still on. Then why wasn't there heat? Her best guess was the furnace was acting up; which was just great cause she didn't know the first thing about them. Wrapping herself in blankets, she got up and wandered out of the store she was sleeping in to go see if she could figure out where the furnace was and how to fix it. A quick check of the mall layout told Liz that the furnace was in a basement below the mall. A shiver that had nothing to do with the cold went through Liz. After everything that had happened it just seemed creepy to go down into a dark basement. If she was lucky the filters would just be clogged. How they could have gotten so dirty so fast was a mystery at first. Then Liz remembered all the dust she had sucked up with a shop vac when she first decided to stay and realized that if the filters were clogged, they were clogged with remains. A shudder went through her and without knowing she was doing it, or even realizing it was still there after all this time since she had closed it off in her mind, Liz gave a tug on the link between her and Sparky. A sudden cacophony of noise erupted only a few stores down from where Liz was standing as though multiple shelves of products had suddenly been knocked over. When Sparky came stumbling out of the store it was apparent that he had done the knocking. “Will you stop doing that,” Sparky said in an irritated voice as he spotted Liz. Under each of his arms he was carrying a fully dressed mannequin, one being male and the other female. He hadn’t changed his clothes from the day before and frankly he probably wouldn’t for another few. Not like he had anyplace to wash his clothes at the moment anyway. "Doing what," Liz asked as she turned around and see that Sparky hadn't left yet. "What are you doing with those. Wait. I probably don't wanna know." Wrapping the blankets tighter around her she knew she should probably go find a flashlight so she could check the furnace or at least go put on some really warm clothers. "Hey, do you know how to fix a furnace?" “Oh of course I do. All I need is a sledgehammer and a blowtorch and I can fix it good as new.” Of course Sparky had trouble simply changing a light bulb. “And if case you’re wondering I’m making new friends,” Sparky explained as he indicated the mannequins. “Ones that don’t yell at me or try to do funky things to my brain.” "I've heard of having fake friends before but I don't think I've ever seen them that fake. And it's you're own fault I yell at you," Liz pointed out, firm in the belief that she was right. His just being around rubbed her the wrong way. Reaching up she ran a finger under an eye to make sure that there were no tears, dry or frozen. “Yeah well I’m not choosy about my friends. Well good luck with the furnace thing but I figure a couple of space heaters would work just as well,” Sparky pointed out while using the hands of one of the mannequins to scratch his head. Right about then more crashes came from the store Sparky had been in and several puppies and cats of varying breeds floundered out the door, with several bumping into Sparky’s legs. “Hey now behave you guys, I’m not going to come running every time you get into trouble,” he scolded. Liz jumped when the dogs and cats came pouring out a store. Her hold on the blankets were lost as she stared in shock as her mall was invaded by yapping puppies. The sudden chill she got from standing there in her underwear and the lacy top she had swiped from Victoria's Secret didn't register. "What the hell!? What is all this!?" “Uhhhh, a wonder bra,” Sparky asked as he openly ogled Liz in her skimpy outfit. “Oh right, the brats. Found them in a pet store a couple blocks away early this morning. Well most of the animals inside were already dead but these fellas managed to hang on until I rescued them. I fed them and now they won’t leave me alone,” he complained as he gently pushed one curious puppy away from his boot. "Right, that don't explain why they are in my mall. Or you for that matter. Why are you," Liz asked while pulling her blankets back up around her shoulders. One puppy was about to pee on what was dragging on the floor. "Don't even think about it." Her eyes shoot daggers at the puppy and it decided it wanted to continue living and backed away. “Well I figured you didn’t need mannequins so I decided to pick up a few since you probably wouldn’t miss them. And they followed me,” Sparky explained indicating the furry critters exploring the area. “What? I couldn’t just leave ‘em in there could I? I mean they attacked me with their sad puppy and kitten eyes. There’s no defense against that!” "Oh rrrreally," Liz purred out while forming a plan, well more like a con, in her head. "Then will you go down in the basement with me to check the furnace?" Looking up at him she gave him her best puppy dog eyes with those blue eyes of hers. Sparky started to make all kinds of grunting and groaning sounds as he tried to avert his eyes before his shoulder finally slumped in defeat. “Fine! I’ll do it,” he conceded before suddenly raising his head and smiling evilly. “But only if you walk around in that snazzy little outfit when we do. And no blankets,” he added. "If you haven't noticed it's rather cold in here so I think not. Wait right here while I go get some clothes on." Walk into a basement with just her underwear on, yeah she didn't think so. She'd shiver to death before they even got to the furnace. “Well, it was worth a shot,” Sparky said to himself. He set down the mannequins and made sure they weren’t about to fall over before turning his attention to the furballs all around him and adopting a stern expression. “Okay here’s the deal. Larry, Curly, Moe and Shemp,” he barked out at the puppies, “you’re mission is to guard George and Lulu here. And no using them to mark your territory. Got it? As for you Lolcats, it’ll be your job to generally look cute and get into all kinds of funny situations. Everybody got that? Good.” A few minutes later Liz came back in a pair of jeans and really thick sweater. Neither of which belong to her to start with. She had the world's biggest closet and didn't have to pay for a thing. Not that she ever bought anything with what most would call honest money. "Did you leave any flashlights in the hardware store when you raided it," she asked upon returning. “As a matter of fact I took them all to construct my death ray, but all I managed to produce was an overblown heat lamp. Of course I didn’t take them all,” Sparky snorted and crossed his arms. “The batteries on the other hand.” "Please tell me you haven't sucked them all dry yet," Liz said, referring to Sparky's habit of sucking on batteries like some would a cigarette. "I'm gonna turn you into a flashlight." “Of course I haven’t sucked them all dry yet,” Sparky said then popped a double A battering that had been in his pocket into his mouth. “Besides, with me around there’s no need for batteries.” Holding up his index fingers a little arc of electricity jumped between them. "The key phases being 'with you around'," Liz pointed out. Whether he ended up being the last guy in the world or not, she wasn't going to count on him being around. She wasn't even sure she wanted him around not with being torn between wanting to strangle him and kissing him. "So the basement is this way." She turned and pointed south of them. “Then lead on, I shall bring up the rear.” Where I’ll be able to run away faster if you try to hit me Sparky thought to himself. He didn’t know why he was hanging around this place instead of tracking down a better place to stay. It certainly wasn’t the company making him stick around. Well maybe. "Just make sure you don't give me a reason to and you'll be safe," Liz pointed out to Sparky in his mind. Once they reached the stairs to the basement, she gave Sparky a nudge with her elbow. "Okay you go first and be a human flashlight." “Yeah, that’s me, the human flashlight,” Sparky grumbled while brushing past Liz. He created a baseball sized ball of electricity in his upraised palm and slowly made his way down the steps. The light from the ball wasn’t consistent as they descended, bluish-white light cast random shadows on the walls around them. “Now all we need is some monster to jump out at us from the darkness. Preferably zombies.” Okay, Liz had to smack Sparky on the arm for that one. "You and your zombies. If one pops up I'm gonna let it eat what is left of your brain. Especially since shocking it to death will not kill a zombie. You gotta shoot 'em in the head." There had to be a light switch down in this basement somewhere. Of course her luck the might was burnt or something. “Of course you have to shoot them in the head, it’s common knowledge. And I think if I shoot a bolt of lightning into a zombie’s face there won’t be much left above it’s neck,” Sparky explained as he kept walking. “Now if I blasted one and it kept walking with only half a face with the bones and stuff hanging out, that would be kinda cool. And just where is this furnace anyway? Stupid long concrete corridors with seemingly random pipes and vents running along the ceiling with little hiding places all over that could hold all kinds of scary things.” It was hard to hold back a smile as he continued to try and scare Liz. "Oh yeah, so leaving you for zombie food," Liz muttered. Finally they reached the furnace. The way it rumbled wasn't helping after Sparky going on and on. Her luck it would explode or something. "Can you see a filter anywhere? Or at least a light switch to see if we can see a filter?" “I see a whole lotta nothing,” Sparky informed Liz as he walked around the furnace with his dim light. Seeing several switches on the wall he went over to them and started to flick them on at random. “I think I found the light switch.” Liz waited for something to blow up. Nothing did and she had to wonder if everything would still be working once they got back upstairs. Finally an overhead light turned on and she could actually see. "See, no zombies," she pointed out before turning her attention to the furnace. Somewhere on this thing had to be filters. It was running but the mall wasn't getting heat. “Dammit,” was Sparky’s disappointed reply to the lack of zombies. Letting his little lightning ball vanish he walked over to the malfunctioning furnace pulled back his foot and gave it a kick. “Well, that’s the limit of my mechanical knowledge. Y’know this place is eventually going to be unlivable right? I’m amazed the toilets are still working.” "It's livable for now," Liz snapped without meaning to or thinking about it. "The houses a few blocks away aren't going to be anymore livable. You want me to build a teepee out front to live in." The whole time she rant she looked for where a filter might hide. Once she found it she wasn't about to touch it. It was clogged with the same dust that had been in the mall. “Of course they won’t be livable if you don’t put any work into them,” Sparky shot back. He walked over to the filter Liz was hesitating in touching and grabbed hold of it. He kept talking as he attempted to remove the filter. “At least you could modify a house to work off of a generator and it’ll provide you with the basics. It’ll also give you a place to maybe grow a garden for vegetables. Where can you do that here? Maybe chip a hole in the parking lot? Not to mention this place is going to become a haven for all kinds of vermin.” With a sudden jolt the filter came out which sent Sparky tumbling back onto his butt as a cloud of dust exploded everywhere causing him to sneeze loudly. “Gah! It’s in my nose. Now it’s in my mouth! This is so wrong,” he complained as he tried to use his fingers to clean off his tongue. Liz shudder. If it had been regular old dust she probably would have laughed. Given that it was human remains, yeah, that was just really gross. Instead of dwelling on it she acted like Sparky wasn't currently trying to scrub off his tongue. "Even a generator is only going to last so long. They're just for backup. They're not built to last forever." Finding a spare filter, she held it out for Sparky. “Tha why you ge more han one,” Sparky mumbled while still cleaning his tongue. Finally he cleared his throat noisily and spit out what he could. “Or you could go hi-tech and track down some solar panels, or even go low tech and use a small wind turbine. See, when you plan for a zombie Armageddon you think of these things,” he proudly commented as he took the spare filter and inserted it into the furnace. "Or when you're hiding out in a hole somewhere and apparently have nothing better to do with your time." At this rate she was hoping that there were zombies and that one would come out and bite Sparky in the ass. As long as there weren't like Dawn of the Dead zombies with the whole the bites kill ya, the bites bring ya back. Sparky gave Liz a long expressionless gaze before turning his back on her and walking away. “Next time you need help with something don’t ask me,” he simply stated as he kept walking. Maybe it really was time to leave and find that place for himself. It was obvious that him being around people brought out the worst in people. She couldn't take it anymore. She couldn't stand feeling like she was the bad guy in all this when she was only lashing out because she was hurt. "Stop," Liz almost yelled out while the door to the furnace room snapped shut before Sparky could go through it. "You just don't yet it. But then you were always rather clueless when it came to seeing what's in front of you. You bring out the worst in me because being around you hurts! Five years and I still can't let go. I still remember what it was like to be in your arms in the morning while you woke up and you'd look down at me you'd think how beautiful I was and there'd be a sense of amazement in your thoughts. Men think I'm beautiful all the time but when you'd think it, I actually felt beautiful." Liz took a deep breath and stared at Sparky. "I still love you god damn it. You may have moved on but I still love you." Oh great. Now she was going to cry again. She tried to keep her tears in check while waiting for Sparky to stomp on her heart again. All the while Liz had been shouting at him he had kept his back to her, knowing he’d never have been able to keep his emotions in check. When he turned around and looked at her though those emotions started to show on his face. “You’ve been in my head enough times the past two days that you should already know that I haven’t moved on,” he started calmly. “Each day I woke up wondering if you were still free, or been caught or killed. Hell the first thing I did after signing up for that stupid army was check the ranks to see if you got rounded up. And I kept checking them right up until I ran. So now I’m a meta on the run, branded a traitor and a possible meta terrorist by the powers that be. So, what, I should stick an ad in the paper? ‘Wanted: One meta powered, ass kicking beautiful thief for romantic rendezvous with AWOL meta soldier’? I did try to sniff around the underground but that went nowhere. Hard to talk to people who think you’re a sellout. And dammit I still love you too so don’t go throwing that in my face to make me feel guilty!” Sparky’s last statement was given the added punch when his skin suddenly went pitch black while little arcs of electricity could be barely seen under the surface of his skin. Not worrying about getting shocked, Liz closed the distance between them and hopped up on him like she had the other day, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist before putting her lips on his. She got a zap when she did but it didn't stop her. The tears she had been fighting to keep back broke lose and rolled down her face while she kissed him. The touch of Liz’s lips also brought tears to Sparky’s eyes as he wrapped his arms around her body and pulled her closer. Unfortunately a few moments later he had to push her back and break the kiss. “Sorry, for your own good,” he apologized then reached out and touched a metal pipe causing a large discharge of electricity. A few seconds later his skin returned to normal. “Would have been bad if during our first real kiss in years that’d I electrocuted you.” He gave her a little grin before continuing. “As much as having all this out in the open maybe we can do it someplace else rather than in a human ash filled room.” "Right. Kinda forgot about that. Don't know how I forgot about being in this creepy ass basement." Looking around it again she shuddered. Getting back upstairs sounded like a very good idea. Having came this way, she was able to take the lead without a light, remembering each turn and when to duct. They were half way back when Liz paused and looked towards a hall that lead to the underground parking garage. "Did you hear that? And don't say it's just a ROUS." Sparky stopped and gave Liz a puzzled look. “Rats of unusual size? I think they don’t exist.” Then without warning something large slammed into Sparky in the darkness, knocking him to the floor. Instinctively Sparky lashed out with a bolt of electricity before bouncing back to his feet in the darkness. Summoning a large ball of electricity which suddenly bathed the area in bluish light and revealing a gaunt, long limbed and rather ugly looking bald man wearing shreds of clothing. “Zombie! YES,” Sparky shouted excitedly and threw his hands up then quickly brought them back down and looked at Liz. “I mean bad.” "If it eats you it's your own fault," Liz pointed out as she tried to find something in the dark to use as a weapon. Damn it, why hadn't she brought the gun with her. Oh yeah, she had been afraid she'd be tempted to shoot Sparky in the foot with it. You couldn't very well melt the brain of a zombie. "Come on, there's gotta be something here I can use." Sparky raised a hand again. “Uh, hi. I’d hate to point out the obvious but,” he pointed his raised hand at the ball of electricity that was currently floating above his head. Looking back at the zombie he noted that it didn’t seem like the classic stumbling zombie that could be easily avoided except in large numbers. When it hunched over then suddenly leapt at Sparky again he swore and concluded it was one of the fast zombie type. Why the movies had to change them mystified Sparky. Thankfully he was a hair faster and dodged out of the way while bringing the ball of electricity down onto the leaping Zombie. The light in the hall flashed out and was accompanied by a blood curdling squeal. Creating another light source Sparky say the unmoving body of the zombie on the ground, smoke raising from it’s charged skin. It’s head was still attached so he kept his distance in case it suddenly sat up again. “So then, who’s the idiot now huh? Looks like that survival plan is going to come in handy.” "Speaking of the obvious, you didn't have to take out the head to kill him. Doesn't that go against the zombie rules," Liz asked while giving the body a telekinetic poke. "Your survival plan cover zombies who don't go by the normal rules?" When she gave it another poke and it didn't move, she looked around and found a mental pipe. Not about to go near the body she floated the pipe over to the zombie's head. A moment later the pipe was sticking out of the forehead of the zombie. "Just to be on the safe side." “Yeah, that’s not disgusting at all,” Sparky commented then swallowed loudly. “Okay then, first action of the zombie survival plan, find a secure location. Or run away really, really fast. Or was it find weapons to defend yourself with? Damn, where’d I leave that piece of paper.” He started to pat at his pockets then remembered he left it in his trailer. Which wouldn’t be the safest place to sleep if there really were zombies roaming about. "How about we settle for going back upstairs and locking all the doors? I've disabled enough security systems. I'm sure I can figure out how to make them turn back on," Liz said, more than ready to get away from the body that was starting to ooze blood. "Then you can try and remeber the rest of your plan." “Right. Uh, so should we just leave it here or dump it someplace? I don’t think it’ll turn to ash like everyone else so that means it’s gonna go bad out here when things get hot and if we have to go back to that furnace it will be all kinds of nasty. That’s if we’re staying here for the long haul.” He had no idea when you became us. "Right. Smelling corpses bad. Exploding ones even worse." Not about to actually touch the thing, Liz lifted it up with her mind and floated him out towards the door going to the parking garage. They wouldn't need to go there right? And maybe some animal would find it's way down and eat it. Seemed like the best place to her. The body paused in mid air while the door seemed to open on it's own and then the zombie was on it's way out of the basement and out into the parking garage. “I suppose that’ll have to do. Maybe we should somehow block off any exits we’re not going to need,” Sparky suggested. No doubt there were probably two dozen or more. Boy would that be fun. Liz nodded. "So, who wants breakfast," she asked, trying to change the mood. Not that she was sure either one of them would want to eat after seeing her drive that pipe through the zombie's head. “Yeah, breakfast sounds good. And after that we can get to work turning this place into a fortress.” That was going to be lots of hard work. Which is probably something they could do with in order to help get their minds off of all the death. And possible zombies. “Hey, maybe we should set up some kind of radio transmission. See if there’s any other survivors out there. We can’t be the only ones left right?” "And if that doesn't work we can always try smoke signals on top of the building." She was kind of worried that there wasn't anyone else left out there. At least not around here. Still even if she was being a smartass about it maybe they should put someone on the roof in case of any flyers going over head. "So cinnamon rolls from Starbucks or you want me to fry up some zombie?" “Are you trying to make me hurl? ‘Cause I’m not going to clean it up,” Sparky warned. “We might as well clean up as much of the perishable food as we can. After that it’ll be things liked canned goods and powdered eggs and we’ll definitely need to find a place for a vegetable garden. How about I just make up a list after breakfast,” he suggested. "Okay. The one hardware store had gardening supplies. I'm sure there's some seeds also. It's too cold to plant them now but we could always start them instead." Liz didn't point out that she was pretty sure that eggs didn't come in powdered form. Milk might but she was pretty sure eggs didn't. "Wait, you mean this wasn't on your zombie survival plan," she teased as they reached the main floor. “Using an abandoned mall as fortress? Haven’t you seen any zombie movies,” Sparky asked in surprise. “That never works.” Well at least in their case they didn’t have thousands of zombies wandering around looking for brains. At least as far as they knew. “Maybe I should take a look around the area later, check to see if our visitor was alone.” "Sounds like an idea because until we know we don't have thousands of zombies around, I'm not leaving this mall! It's got enough that we can survive in it for a few months." Yes for some reason Liz didn't fancy having her brain ate. Starbucks was about the only place with some breakfast like food. Well there and the T.J Cinnamons place. Hey, at least they'd have more choices for lunch and dinner. “Until the meat starts turning green. Yeah, okay not something to be thinking about right now. Just tell me there’s still coffee, I need a caffeine fix.” They’d finally made it back into the mall and sparking motioned to Liz. “Well this is your place, lead on.” "Well, I thought it over and decided that I may be willing to share it. For a price," Liz said, a smile slipping on to her face before leading the way towards Starbucks. They wouldn't be running out of coffee anytime soon. If Sparky wanted one of those fancy ones though he was going to have to figure out how to fix it himself. Returning to the food court brought the attention of the little furred critters as they bounded over to Sparky and Liz and did their best to get underfoot. “Hey! A fine lot of guard puppies and kitties you guys turned out to be. Just let a zombie stroll on in off the street and try to turn me into breakfast. Should be ashamed of yourselves,” Sparky scolded as he wagged a finger in front of them. Which of course resulted it in being bit. “Ow! That’s it, no dessert for you tonight, Curly.” There was nothing like a bunch of furballs to get hair all over her stores full of clothing. "Just so you know, if you start running out of food, I'm eating one of them," Liz informed Sparky as she hopped over the Starbucks counter and leaned forward on it. Behind her machines were starting to turn on and little bags of coffee were pouring themselves into them. Or at least that's what it seemed like. "So, you didn't ask me what my price is." “Well I could probably go find a few banks to take money from,” Sparky commented as he watched Liz’s little show of power. It was doubtful Liz would be accepting cash as it was basically useless now so she had something else in mind and it was making him a bit nervous. “Can I get a large venti java chip frappuccino with extra foam,” he asked with a wide grin. Liz raised an eyebrow but didn't comment. Making coffee for a living was not something Liz did and she had no idea what it was he was rattling on about. She didn't say anything though. He'd get whatever she gave him. "What good is money now. My own money is sitting around worthless now. No, I have something much, much better in mind." He wasn’t going to ask. He didn’t need to know yet. He probably wasn’t going to like what she wanted. Crap, he was going to ask. “Okay, what do you want.” Way to be a tough negotiator Mr. Willpower. He just needed some caffeine is all, after some hot joe he’d be able to handle whatever she demanded. As if reading his mind, okay so they both knew that she was in fact doing so, a cup of coffee floated over and sat down on the counter in front of Sparky. Liz was good enough that not a single drop got spilt. "Well after you left the other night I decided to come up with my own zombie apocalypse plan. Only mine is much better. The pink highlighted part of mine is find a sex slave. So in exchange for staying in the mall you have to be my sex slave." The coffee had barely passed Sparky’s lips before he was spitting it back out in shock at Liz’s demand. He looked down in grief at the wasted bit of the elixir of jitters and finally after a long moment took another slow drink. After allowing the coffee to warm his stomach he put the coffee cup down on the counter and slowly looked up at Liz. “You want what!?! How could you treat me like nothing more than a sex object!?! Why am I upset over the getting sex!?! And why am I shouting!?!” "That last one is a very good question." Liz hopped up on the counter and sat on it while watching Sparky. "Would you prefer if I didn't treat you as a sex object and instead had you dress one of your plastic friends up as a priest and demand you marry me so then the sex doesn't seem as evil," she asked. "Which is actually an idea now that I think of it." “No that’s okay, I can handle the sinful sex.” Sparky’s head was nodding enthusiastically as he answered. “Besides, George is an atheist and probably won’t agree to being dressed up like a priest. Mmmm, delicious, yummy nummy coffee,” Sparky cooed as he slowly drained his cup. "Do you think George would mind then if I dressed up as Eve and just slapped a couple leaves on and nothing else," Liz asked innocently while Sparky swallowed his coffee. She wasn't trying to be evil. Okay, maybe she was trying to be a little evil. “HOT coffee,” Sparky squealed as some missed his mouth and landed on his shirt. “Maybe I should go on that patrol before I injure myself too badly.” Or before his imagination ran totally wild on him. "Maybe you should. I could see about some breakfast while you do that. Hey, I've never cooked nude in a mall before," Liz said, grinning at Sparky as she hopped down off the counter. "Now go on, off with you." “Yes, off with me to search for zombies with my head filled with images of naked cooking,” Sparky muttered as he walked off with the pack of furballs trailing after him. He decided he’d better feed them before he went out on his patrol or they’d never leave him alone. With that task completed Sparky exited the mall and made a quick circuit of the building on foot but didn’t see another zombie unfortunately. After his foot patrol he launched himself into the sky and hovered above the mall. The empty streets and especially the lack of noise still unsettled him. Giving himself a little shake to clear his thoughts Sparky decided that a making a slow circle of the area and gradually increasing it’s size would work best. |