S p a r e P a r t s || Gage and Noah
- --All in all, it hadn't been a bad night of scavenging. He'd found an old Ford truck which was mostly stripped down to the bare bones. But the guts of the radio, with the front smashed off, was still in the slot -- an old style cassette player, but not in too bad condition, at least, nothing a little cleaning and soldering wouldn't sort out.
The engine bay itself just had the wreck of mostly dismantled pieces - but there were still a few good lengths of wiring that were carefully extracted and bundled up into his overcoat, the bulk of the radio nestled under one arm...
...Eyes tipped up to the sky, squinting a little against the fine drizzle of rain, the perma-gloom of the Purgatory sky, looking marginally less gloomy, which meant he'd probably been out all night and it was early morning now... Easy to lose track of time when he was fixated on a task. And barring incident with power supplies, the pre-set broadcast should be wrapping up in maybe an hour or two, just enough time to get back, get the next one ready to go and maybe nap for a while.
Which was, all in all, a great plan - and would have made for a good night... Had it not been for the footsteps that seemed to solidly follow him as he passed from one dark street into the next -- no main roads, just a maze of winding narrow passes and alleyways back through to the centre of the city, then north to his bus.
So long legs took faster strides, and he could run -- was pretty quick when he needed to be. Plan-B sounded good too... At least until a couple of shadows detached themselves from the wall up ahead and blocked the way forward. No side streets, just bordered left and right by solid wall, and those footsteps persisted from behind. So... Three of them. Crap.
'What you got there? Hand it over.'
A bark of an order as Gage shook his head ever so slightly.
'You hear me you stupid fuck? I said hand it over!'
'Nnnh? What the hell? You some kind of retard? If it was nothin' then you'd have no problem giving it up, would you?'
The flick of eyes from the loudmouth in front of him was noticed a moment too late -- something heavy landing on the back of his knee -- a foot? A plank of wood? He didn't know, but it hit with enough force to have one leg giving way and his knee hit the ground with a 'crack', filthy water felt ice cold as it soaked into the leg of his jeans. Quick enough to get his bearings and raise an arm to block the fist that was heading towards his face, the radio sacrificed and dropped. But not faster than the thug, who grabbed the arm and twisted it painfully, just as there was another hit from behind...
...Squarely to the back of the head and enough to have the ground rushing up to meet his face.
Seeing stars would have been nice, but there was nothing but a lancing pain. He might have been bleeding, didn't know, wasn't quite aware enough to tell with the rain soaking through everything, hands pressed against the rough concrete to push back up -- just in time to receive a foot to the ribs -- and maybe... maybe felt something give as the world spun on it's axis and he was flat on his back looking up at the sky.
Maybe the foot that had just hit, maybe another, but the same voice as it slammed into his chest, driving any remaining air from his lungs and leaving him gasping-- -
'What the fuck is this crap? You make me waste my time for some junk?'
No answer, just trying to breathe.
'For a big guy you don't put up much of a fight do you? Pathetic piece of scum. Should just put you out of your misery, huh?'
Not something he wanted to hear, and the cold amusement in those words would have sent a shiver along his spine if he wasn't still dazed.
"Fff-fffuckyou." Spat out viciously in reply, a quick grab, a twist and a shove which might have been enough force to snap something in his assailant's ankle. He hoped so. Was rewarded with a sharp howl for the effort... Maybe buying himself enough time to make a run for it -- almost to his feet when whoever had the weapon -- pretty sure it was a baseball bat now... Took another swing and--
--There they were... Seeing stars... what little light there was was fading quickly and sounds echoed, bouncing back into his ears like standing at the far end of an empty tunnel...
'Gonna fuck your shit up for that, man. Adios motherfucker.'
