Herman weezed for breath, holding onto the sewer grate with his paws to stay upright. He was unhappy with the fast pace set by the two jogging kids.
“You ok there Kane? Everyone take another 5 min break. Well boys, we’re here, open up this sewer grate, cross the street to that shop, and do your business,” said Karen.
The neon sign of the rundown OutDi convenience store glowed like a beacon in the midnight heat of the surface world.
“What’s the holdup kids?” Asked Karen.
“This alleyway is owned by a gang of orphanage dropout delinquents, they call themselves the Graduates. I’ve been mugged by them a couple of times while making my trade runs. I am going to wait a few minutes to make sure the coast is clear,” answered Travis.
“We ain’t got time for that! We are hungry now, boy! Just go! Don’t worry, we got your backs.”
Travis looked at all the hungry rats behind him, then opened the sewer grate and dashed across the street. When he was about halfway to the store, 5 delinquents hiding behind a dumpster ambushed him. The Graduates had Travis surrounded.
“Drop the bag and empty your pockets blind boy. You know the drill. Don’t make us angry twerp,” said the largest thug.
“Shit! Rat Assassins, apply poison and do your thing!” Karen said to the mob.
*LEVEL UP* You have killed 30 Rat Assassins with drugs.
The other hundred or so remaining Assassin Rats stealthily moved up and surrounded the unaware gang. The Graduates were having fun bullying Travis, making a game out of pushing the twerp back and forth between the 5 of them.
“Everyone follow me! Charge! Protect our payload!” Screamed Karen.
Distracted by an angry rat swarm boiling out of the sewer grate, led by a white doge, the gang members did not notice the Rat Assassins biting into their ankles and crawling up their trouser legs until it was too late.
The opiates on the clawed gauntlets worked fast. The Assassin Rats had cut deep into the groin and femoral arteries of the Graduates, injecting the poison directly into the enemy’s blood stream. The bullies collapsed unconscious, even before the rest of the swarm could reach them.
“RUN into the Store NOW!” Karen yelled at a confused Travis. She knew that the hungry charging swarm were not going to hold back, friend and foe both looked like food to a hungry rat mob.
The prone and helpless gang members' probability of survival dropped to zero as the wave of rodents enveloped them. Clothes and flesh alike shredded and disappeared down the gullets of hundreds of rats, as a feeding frenzy made short work of the gangsters. Karen took a bite and savored the flavor; yum, poppy flavored teens.
Tyrone backed away from the sewer grate and watched in horror as hundreds of pounds of formerly human meat quickly disappeared under the pulsating and undulating carpet of rats, all painted red by the blood.
Karen had to Covfefe shout down a few rats that peeled off from the swarm to chase Travis. Raising her bloody red snout, she yelled after him, “and get me a pack of cigarettes.”
With a ring of the door chime, Travis disappeared into the convenience store without looking back.
Travis, blind to the carnage happening outside, went to the counter and said hello to the owner of the store; Jahx. The proprietor was kind and fair to Travis, despite his disability. Jahx was one of the few shop owners who never cheated nor short changed him.
“Hello to you too Travis, and I see your pet rat Geppetto is doing well,” said Jahx. Gheppetto squeaked in indignity.
“So what can I get for you this fine evening?” asked Jahx.
“We scored big tonight. I got coin and stuff to trade this time,” said Travis as he took off his backpack, unzipped it, and dumped the contents onto the counter. “How much store credit can I trade this stuff for?”
“Oh dear boy, what have you gotten yourself into? I don’t deal in drugs. This is a clean shop. I got enough trouble as it is, having to pay protection money to the gangs. They’ll want to raise their fees if they see any sign of this. Maybe turn this place into a drug den.”
Jahx picks up one of the red condoms. “Now hold on a minute, is this what I think it is? Health potions? Mind if I open one up to test?”
“Sure, go ahead,” answered Travis.
Jahx untied the condom and wafed the contents. Then poured a drop onto his index finger and rubbed the red liquid between his thumb and said finger. Satisfied with his findings, he reached under the counter and produced a wine glass and poured the contents of the condom into it. Jahx raised the glass to the neon lights above and swirled the contents around, looking for impurities before taking a sip and swishing it around in his mouth like mouthwash.
“Expired potions but still usable! If these were fresh, they would retail for around 10 bucks each. Expired, at maybe half potency, I think I can get around 5 bucks a piece. I’ll need to pay to have them rebottled though. Not going to sell many of these pots in used condoms.
Best I can do is 3 bucks each in store credit to see how they do as a trial run, I’ll take 10 baggies to make it worth your while. Together with the $3.50 in coins you brought in, you have $33.50 to spend.”
This was the most money Travis had ever had in his entire life! Would he even have enough room in his backpack to carry everything? He was going to need to use a shopping cart for the first time as well!
Pushing the cart ahead of him, Travis immediately loaded up with 10 bags of candy, 10 cartons of tubular crisps, and 10 1-liter bottles of soda. Dollar stores were amazing. With the last $3.50 in his budget, Trevor went to the dollar plus toy section of the store and added a doll sized cowboy hat to the top of his shopping cart. His cart full, he headed to the register to ring out his purchases with Jahx.
Picking up the doll cowboy hat, Jahx said, “I know who this is for!” Then popped the hat, made out of real leather, out of the packaging and put it on top of Geppetto’s head. “Look at you! A real rat Cowboy, your outfit is almost complete! Or should I call you a Boyboy since you are riding Travis here? One of the many mysteries of life I will never know.”
Geppeddo tipped his new hat in thanks.
Jahx was able to load 5 out of the 10 bottles of soda into Travis’s backpack before it became full.
“Do you want paper or plastic bags?” asked Jahx.
Travis thought for a moment, then said, “hey Jahx, can I take this shopping cart out of the store for 2 minutes? I’ll bring it right back, I promise.”
Jahx scratched his beard, “sure, but bring it right back you hear? Those hobos out there love to steal them to haul their recycling.”
“Thanks man,” said Travis as he wheeled the cart full of goodies and his backpack out the door.
Travis wheeled the loot across the street to the open sewer grate and upended the contents of the cart into the paws of the waiting swarm. Then he pushed the cart back into the store.
As Travis was leaving, Jahx said, “You be safe out there young man. These are dangerous streets”. After the boy left, Jahx noticed bloody footprints and 4 bloody lines coming into the store and ending at the cart Travis had just returned.
Following the blood trail out the front door, Jahx saw that half the alleyway was covered in what must be fresh blood.
Jahx sighed and mumbled to himself, “dam stupid gang wars are bad for business.” What was he paying them protection money for anyways? Not going to report this one to the pally PD, he thought to himself. One less gang prowling the streets, good riddance.
As he hosed down the street, Jahx was surprised by the amount of blood going down the gutters. Dam, must have been at least a carload of gangbangers. He was glad that Travis was inside at the time and not gotten involved in any of that.
