Monday, July 23, 2012

Driving Lesson Chapter 1 Page 1

Life for most of the citizens within the Tower City Covenant was pretty much monotonous. Each day of the week followed a regular schedule with little variation. There was time to work, time to rest, time to sleep and time to relax.

One possible variation to a regular citizen's routine could be a new menu at the local diner. Which was rarely of interest since almost all the time, the new menu item had been some rearrangement of the usual processed food. Oh, maybe the usual food cube had been cut into a new shape like a pyramid or, gasp, a cylinder!

A cylinder would be a scandal! There was the amount of waste material that would be left when that shape was cut out of a block. What if it were to be a sphere? Oh, the horror of waste!

That was unless the food paste was molded into a sphere. Or the waste material was recycled. Then all the shock and indignation were out the window.

Anyway, if a citizen of Covenant really wanted food that went beyond the fulfillment of one's nutritional needs, food that had taste, that person would go to a specialty store. Like a sweets store that would have cakes that could actually stimulate the senses on one's tongue.

One could also visit a dining establishment that had more emphasis on entertainment, such as a high-class restaurant. Or a bar where one could socialize.

A bar known as Sandy's Last Hand had been where that little wannabe wasteland-adventurer, George Getriebe, had met the Scarlet Vixens. He had not been there for the past week, though. It was not because of work - he still had the usual amount of free time, thanks to being a regular citizen of Covenant with a regular daily schedule. It was more of uncertainty, of shyness, of the desire to avoid the situation where he would be recognized.

After all, the last time he had been there, he had been in the center of a bar fight. In addition to that, he was not sure how he should act if people associated him with the Scarlet Vixens.

Thus he had spent his free time on another readily available entertainment in Covenant: network television.

His first adventure out to the wastelands surrounding the city had been a visit to Madboy Keith's Tower of Trials. Apparently, Madboy Keith recorded the attempts made by challengers in the tower and edited them into shows for network television.

George had been surfing the television portals on Covenant's communications network for the show. Once he had found a portal that had past episodes of the show, he had waited for updates. He had wanted to watch the show where the Scarlet Vixens challenged the Tower of Trials.

That show had appeared on the portal two days before. George had downloaded and watched that show then. He had been horrified right from the start when the show had identified him as 'Squirt', a new girl with the Scarlet Vixens. Girl!? How could they have mistaken him for a girl!?

And why had they called him 'Squirt' of all things!?

By the third time he had watched the entirety of the show, he had been certain how the producers had made the assumption. It had been his armor. It had been a female armor. It had been that Vixen named Mabel's fault for slapping that on him just because she had only female armor available! The fact that he had kept his mask on the whole time had not helped indicate that he was a man.

On second thought, maybe keeping his mask on the whole time had been good.

However, in his three times of viewing the show, George had failed to notice the other facts that supported the assumption. First had been his height - he was only as tall as the shortest Vixen, Iona. The second had been that high-pitch squeal he had made when excited, like the time during which he had a nice exchange of tiny rapidly-moving objects with a few wasteland inhabitants.

Lastly, though it was not evident in the show, the Scarlet Vixens were reputedly an all-girl team. However, during his time with them, George had never heard any Vixen claiming that their team was 'for girls only'.

It had been so embarrassing that George had not dared to let Papa know about the show. In the days following his return, he had somehow managed to thrill his father about a ride in the wasteland and a fight with a gang. He had left out the details about Madboy Keith's Tower of Trials until he had seen the show.

It had been fortunate that he had.

George had watched himself in the fight against the waster gang. He had seen where the bullets had hit his mounted machinegun and his body armor. He had been very lucky to have avoided injury then. It had been a dangerous time. Would he still dare return to the wasteland? More encounters such as that awaited him if he did.

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