He found himself observing how the periods of light and dark behind his closed eyelids coincided with the warming and cooling of his face. The sweet smell of the grass they lay on tickled his neck and earlobes as he timed his breathing to the beat of the day.
Hot-cold-hot. Maybe not cold he thought, but definitely not as warm. Yuri opened his eyes, blinking furiously to adjust to the bright light. He watched the clouds dance across the sky.
'Wait, clouds don't dance.'
"The clouds are dancing Lito, can you see?"
"What?"
The tone of his friend's reply made Yuri instantly regret his statement, but it was too late he was committed down that path now.
"I think the clouds are dancing. I was wondering what you see."
Yuri looked over at his friend, he too was lying on the grass looking up at the sky, but even to a casual observer his vibe was tense. His thick arms extended arrow straight by his sides, sausage fingers all pointed blade-like towards his toes. Legs rigid, feet pointing straight at the sky.
"I don't need your shit at the moment Yuri, I'm kinda going through it here."
'Fuck.'
They'd had a hit of Squirt™ about forty minutes previously, Lito, like most people always took too much, he abused when he should have used. Yuri was different, he took it in the same way the City Droppers and Thrust Runners took it. They used Squirt's time dilation effects to enhance their reaction times in dangerous situations. Lito and others took it to get high. Depending on the size of the dose a squirthead could experience multiple levels of hallucinations and reality distortions, compounded and exacerbated by the intriguing time dilation effect.
"Listen Lito - "
"My name is Carlos."
The way Lito had emphasised the word "name" unsettled Yuri enough to rise onto his elbows. Small beads of sweat were forming just below his hairline, he noticed the clouds had dissipated and it was just the heat of the midday sun beating down on him now. He chose his next words carefully.
"There's a story that fits this occasion."
"Yeah? What's that then?"
Yuri turned to look at his friend, his eyes closed slowly, the rapid flicking of the eyeballs behind shut lids betraying his true state. Yuri looked down at his friend's body, it seemed to relax somewhat. Yuri lay back and breathed out a long sigh.
"Okay, it starts in a rainforest - "
"What's that?"
"Huh; what's what?"
"A rainforest?"
"That was hours ago, the story is finished."
Lito was sitting in the memomesh chair in Yuri's living room. Yuri marvelled at how his friend's weight seemed to be even too much for the memomesh. Though his concern for his friend soon overrode the feeling.
"Are you okay Lito? Would you like to go for a walk?"
"Look!" Lito stood up with such force it caused Yuri to scoot back away from him, trying to sink into the sofa he sat in opposite his friend. "I'm not sure what I want." Lito declared loudly.
They walked along the main Skyway heading North back into the Megacity, soft lighting glowed to life as dark purple clouds turned midnight-blue. Pleasant smells of cooking food wafted about them as they walked. Yuri played the game he always did when he moved in crowds, trying to hear all conversations at once, seeing which ones caught his attention.
"...we're the good guys! Why should we have to go through this shit Yuri?"
How long had Lito been talking for? He had no idea, but he was agitated once more. Yuri had a flash-thought back to them taking the Squirt™ however many hours ago, or was it days? A quick blur of fingers on the tube meant that Yuri had not taken as much as his friend, yet still he could feel the effects. Lito must be flying.
"I'm not sure I know what you mean Lito." Yuri let his left hand casually slip into his trouser pocket, he felt the slightly dimpled casing of his borderline legal stunner. He looked up at Lito, in normal circumstances his friend wouldn't hurt a fly. However Yuri couldn't trust him when he was all squirted up.
"Fuck Yuri! It's like I'm talking to a wall sometimes. I was talking about how we're the good guys, we're upstanding tagged citizens of the Mega City, yet somehow..."
Yuri waited for his friend to finish the sentence but he remained frozen in the middle of the room, his half-open mouth twisted as if about to utter his next word. Yuri's grip on the stunner relaxed. He was glad not to have to use the device on Lito, he wasn't entirely sure it would be effective on his giant friend. Hopefully Lito would have lost his train of thought by the time they found themselves in the next scenario.
Yuri thought momentarily about taking some more Squirt, he felt his mind drifting back to a place of normality. Before he had time to formulate his next thought, Lito sprang at him from the middle of the room. Yuri had time to release a strangled half scream before Lito was on top of him. He struggled to get the stunner out of his pocket, but Lito had him pinned.
"Lito man! What are you doing? Get off me!"
"It's you isn't it? You're one of them!" Lito's eyes were wide and flashing, flecks of spittle were hitting Yuri's face.
"Please Lito, it's the Squirt."
That seemed to pause him and he relaxed his vice grip on Yuri's arms, long enough for Yuri to re-grip the stunner and pull it out of his pocket. Most of Lito's weight was still on him, so he could only pull out his arm far enough to drive the stunner into Lito's stomach rather than his neck.
Rather than put the big lump of a man out, it only served to enrage him. Lito roared as he jumped off the sofa bringing Yuri with him by the scruff of the neck.
Yuri woke up some time later with a ringing in his ears so loud for a moment he thought it was the building fire alarm. Lito was lying next to him, eyes closed, the cheek that was pressed to the floor wore a patch of dried blood, with a feint trail leading up to his nostril.
He winced as he tried to take his friend's pulse, a sharp pain emanating from his shoulder gave him notice his arm was, if not broken very badly damaged. He looked around his wrecked apartment, already worrying about the MediDoc bill for his arm. A soft groan told him that Lito was regaining consciousness.
"Hey Yuri man, what happened?"
He was back to his gentle giant self, big brown eyes staring innocently up at him. Lito rolled onto his back, readying himself to sit up.
"Wow! My head." Lito put his hands on either side of his head, he looked like he was trying to stop it falling off his shoulders.
"I don't think you should do squirt again." Yuri said.
"No shit."
Yuri got up slowly, trying to manage the pain he was feeling. He took one more look at the trashed room and headed towards his bedroom.
"I'm off to bed, let yourself out." Yuri didn't look back as he said this.
"Okay man, I'll head home soon. - Hey Yuri?"
Yuri paused in the doorway. "What?"
"Are you okay man?"
Yuri let out a long semi-muted sigh. "I'll see you later Lito."
Cryptogee
Next In The Series
Previously in Mega City Tales
