Launfal / my_fiction (public) (License: Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0) (since 2018-06-24) (hash sha1)
Repository of my stories and books.
Clone URLs: https://rocketgit.com/user/Launfal/my_fiction ssh://rocketgit@ssh.rocketgit.com/user/Launfal/my_fiction git://git.rocketgit.com/user/Launfal/my_fiction
master
List of commits:
Subject Hash Author Date (UTC)
Add files via upload 5015d95f599e5171ead56b8280b42a402f66e32b Launfal 2017-12-24 17:50:49
Delete temp 82834f220afe570c82e8ba80659a8ba65648de9d Launfal 2017-12-24 17:48:35
Add files via upload c166ec5cdc35b19ee06c51cfe665332bc4fd70f9 Launfal 2017-12-24 17:48:22
Create temp 486c3704e2242ed951b4bad5b3af9613a74c4558 Launfal 2017-12-24 17:47:38
Add files via upload e78c032a2daaa4d06262f28bbeed4fd6f7733a03 Launfal 2017-12-24 17:18:18
Create temp 5aab79dd31d19737c1bfb8269b63968e1d496fff Launfal 2017-12-24 17:17:16
Delete temp d0af5207e1a9793eb70e26c39dd763c9ae9ffc07 Launfal 2017-12-24 17:16:39
Add files via upload 9aa22a6cccaaebe4b2207f06669b78ca363c0d0c Launfal 2017-12-24 17:16:17
Create temp e5952b7ef9fe2d076aae3c5cc4e00eadeb5fd67c Launfal 2017-12-24 17:15:33
Rename hump_day.pdf to hump_day/hump_day.pdf e5b84a2c2bdcaa65718a270ffff49712bed7d62a Launfal 2017-12-24 17:14:51
Delete .gitkeep 9833cadafeb14fcd2256103ef57faee4930c26c0 Launfal 2017-12-24 17:13:58
Rename hump_day.fold to hump_day/hump_day.fold e4ffdf2c840814fb6dd26177d28deb9e6a4bd2cd Launfal 2017-12-24 17:13:40
Create .gitkeep dd59f17dc83ef1c5114b21bdb376d6f9665dd9ef Launfal 2017-12-24 17:10:22
Update LICENSE.md 09d6a65cecf12cd5b951294cbfbae1ac3de33080 Launfal 2017-12-24 17:07:49
Add files via upload 2da03ecfbb8b721069d535aefe2528f2d5926416 Launfal 2017-12-24 17:06:15
Create README.md 9aa8500894192f8c3b766375dab094857eb34ade Launfal 2017-12-24 17:03:59
Commit 5015d95f599e5171ead56b8280b42a402f66e32b - Add files via upload
Author: Launfal
Author date (UTC): 2017-12-24 17:50
Committer name: GitHub
Committer date (UTC): 2017-12-24 17:50
Parent(s): 82834f220afe570c82e8ba80659a8ba65648de9d
Signing key: 4AEE18F83AFDEB23
Tree: bc0a0ee0e08e03c70514ee507b5b9662577d7ab4
File Lines added Lines deleted
WIP/01.chapter_one.fold 257 0
File WIP/01.chapter_one.fold added (mode: 100644) (index 0000000..57a237a)
1 Chapter One
2
3 "Shouldn't this shit be on the inside of the house?" Claude asked as he
4 approached the nearest of the patrolmen, skirting broken pieces of furniture,
5 the odd small appliance, shattered glass and an ankle-deep sea of torn and
6 muddied clothing.
7
8 "As a general rule, that's where you'd find it," the cop, whose name was Gene
9 or Jim or something like that. It was getting harder to keep track of the
10 youngsters who were replacing the veterans. His badge said Hutchins, so he
11 would stick with that.
12
13 "Then how did it all end up out here, and why did I get the call anyway? I'm
14 the night guy, and that big yellow thing in the sky over there means that my
15 shift ended hours ago."
16
17 The cop shrugged. "The call came in a few hours ago, and when the lieutenant
18 showed up and scoped the scene, he said to call you."
19
20 "And where is his esteemed personage?"
21
22 "Around back, across the street. Him and Sarge blocked off the cul-de-sac and
23 set up a command post there. LT said to send you over as soon as you got here."
24
25 "They better have made some coffee," Claude said as he stepped carefully over
26 the debris on his way back to the sidewalk.
27
28 Turning the corner, he looked back at the building, a ramshackle A-frame with
29 peeling paint and a roof barely deserving of the name. Most of the windows had
30 been broken out, probably by the first of the belongings to hit the yard. Like
31 so much in the city in recent times, decay and apathy had taken their turns to
32 slowly wear down what had once been a house built to last. Shaking his head, he
33 found the sidewalk and turned the corner. Reaching the end of the cross-street,
34 he stopped just short of a group of men doing their best to look industrious
35 without actually doing anything.
36
37 At the center of the circle stood the two men who were allegedly in charge.
38 Claude waited until one of them, a stout man with bushy eyebrows and a red nose
39 glanced in his direction and waved him over.
40
41 "It took you long enough, Morrow," the taller man said, putting his hands on
42 his hips. "We called for you over an hour ago."
43
44 "Yeah, well," Claude said, taking in the papers scattered over the makeshift
45 table and the almost constant chatter over the several radios. "Since, one, I
46 don't work for you, and two, I work at night, I'd consider you lucky that I'm
47 here at all. Which does beg the question of how you pulled that off."
48
49 The call that had wakened him had come from the regional field office in
50 Washington. A neat trick for a piss-ant like this.
51
52 "You can thank him for that," the lieutenant said, jerking a thumb over his
53 shoulder. Following the gesture, Claude saw a man of average height in a suit
54 that cost more than his car standing with his hands in his pockets, gazing at
55 nothing in particular. As if he heard himself mentioned, he turned around, the
56 rising sun catching the gold rims of his glasses and diffracting into tiny
57 rainbows that danced around his face. Smiling, the man straightened his tie and
58 walked over.
59
60 "Ah, Mr. Morrow. It is my great pleasure to meet you at last. I have heard a
61 great deal about you."
62
63 "Advantage you, Mr..."
64
65 "Nashton. Byron Nashton," he replied, offering his hand.
66
67 Claude took it, exchanging a firm grip and direct eye contact. Refreshing for a
68 change.
69
70 "Let's pretend that I have no idea what's going on," he said, "and that someone
71 is willing to tell me why I'm here."
72
73 "Certainly, Mr. Morrow," Nashton said, flashing another smile and gesturing him
74 away from the bustle around them.
75
76 They left the command post and headed south, carefully navigating broken,
77 weed-riddled pavement until they reached an overgrown grass lot sprinkled with
78 wildflowers. Nashton continued until they reached the sidewalk before a narrow
79 cross-street before he stopped and waited for Claude to reach him.
80
81 "We can talk here," Nashton said. "There are indeed things you need to know
82 that those others will be unable to tell you."
83
84 "Story of my life," Claude said, surveying the row of houses in front of them.
85 They were in better shape, and their lawns were better tended. He turned to
86 look behind him, noticing the difference, as if someone had drawn a line, a
87 border between two distinct countries. Turning back, he saw Nashton watching
88 him, nodding.
89
90 "The blight is spreading, and men like those," he gestured behind them, "are,
91 in the end, powerless to stop it."
92
93 "If not them, then who? They're sworn to protect the people..."
94
95 "Oaths fail, Mr. Morrow," Nashton snapped, a faint blue aura surrounding him.
96 More softly, he added, "Even the best of us can fail, through no fault of our
97 own."
98
99 Claude blinked, and Nashton appeared as he had before. Tired eyes falling for a
100 trick of the light. "If not them, then who?"
101
102 "Good men, through strength of will and work of their hands can do much to
103 protect themselves, for a time. But that time is growing short, Mr. Morrow, and
104 before long, without intervention, they will be swamped under by the rising
105 tide that threatens them."
106
107 "You mean God? We're just supposed to sit around holding hands and singing
108 psalms, waiting for deliverance from evil? Is that your answer?"
109
110 Nashton shook his head. "Most emphatically not. Even when things seem darkest,
111 and the forces arrayed against us seem indomitable, there are cruxes, moments
112 in time when even the smallest action, a thing seeming most irrelevant, can
113 turn the tide in the favor of good."
114
115 "And this is one of those times? A hero rises up to save us from the monsters
116 under our beds? Then I guess he'd better punch his time-card, because he's got
117 work to do."
118
119 Nashton turned to him, saying nothing. The moment stretched, grew, gathered
120 weight.
121
122 "Wait a damned minute there, buddy. There ain't no stone with a sword sticking
123 out of it around here, and I wouldn't pull it out if there was. You've got the
124 wrong guy."
125
126 "Nothing so dramatic, Mr. Morrow. As I said, it is sometimes the insignificant
127 that truly holds the most portent. In the course of the ordinary, the
128 extraordinary manifests."
129
130 Claude paused, turning to face the command post. "I'm here because of you."
131
132 Nashton nodded. "You can succeed where they will fail. You must succeed."
133
134 "Why? Just another murder in a shitty part of town. Happens all day every day,
135 and no one can do anything about it. Why is this one different?"
136
137 "That will become apparent to you in due time. To start you on your way, I
138 offer you this: Take nothing at face value. Question everything, no matter how
139 obvious it may seem to you. Leave your mind open to interpretations that will
140 fly in the face of what you think you know. Keep this in mind, and you will
141 arrive at the truth."
142
143 Claude turned back to face Nashton. "And what is this truth that I'm supposed
144 to understand?"
145
146 Nashton smiled and shook his head, turning to retrace his steps to the command
147 center. With a grunt, Claude followed him.
148
149 Nothing much had changed, and when the sergeant saw him, he waved him over.
150 "The forensics guys are done with the primary scene. I figure you want to take
151 a look inside."
152
153 "Not really, but I'm not going to get much done until I do." Taking a pair of
154 surgical gloves, he crossed back into the yard and stood at the front door,
155 broken in and hanging at an angle from only the bottom hinge.
156
157 A strange odor came from inside, but that could have been from the chemicals
158 the investigators had used to raise fingerprints and extract physical evidence.
159 Could have been. Running his eyes over the door-frame, he saw nothing unusual
160 about a door that had been kicked in, although the footprint in the middle of
161 the door was larger than normal. A lot larger. The guy attached to that foot
162 had to be a monster. Adjusting his gloves, he stepped inside.
163
164 The front room was dingy, and even without glass, the windows let in almost
165 none of the light from the rising sun. The cheap carpeting was threadbare and
166 worn through in places, and overlaying its numerous stains was a green film
167 that ran from a spot in the center of the room, spreading and thinning in an
168 irregular pool. In the dim light, it looked like the pool had eaten through the
169 carpet and the thin floor underneath. Careful to avoid stepping in it, he
170 slowly circled the room to a tech packing her equipment into a large, plastic
171 box.
172
173 "What's the green stuff?" he asked.
174
175 "You won't believe me when I tell you. Still wanna know?"
176
177 "Try me."
178
179 "The prelims all say its blood."
180
181 "You guys smoke crack on the way over?"
182
183 "See? You don't believe me. I don't believe me. But short of the whole workup,
184 that's what we've got to start from."
185
186 "Why does it look like it ate through the floor?"
187
188 "Because it did. Jackson got some on his finger and it burned him almost to the
189 bone. He's on his way to the hospital now. Understandably, we've steered clear
190 of it since then."
191
192 "Anything unusual about the body?"
193
194 "Other than it being gigantic? Not really, at least at first glance. The ME
195 will have more on that once he gets his hands on it."
196
197 Just then, a couple of men in cheap, rumpled suits came in from the back
198 doorway and stopped when they saw Claude. Thanking the tech, he walked over to
199 them.
200
201 "What do you know?"
202
203 "Not a damn thing," the taller of the two said, a Detective-Two named Thomas.
204 They had worked a few cases together before, and were reasonably comfortable
205 with each other. Claude was unfamiliar with the other one, who seemed in no
206 mood to talk.
207
208 "Nothing? At all?"
209
210 "What we got is a report of a home-invasion about two hours ago. Door breaks
211 in, and a bunch of screaming and thumping and shit flying out of the windows.
212 Shortly after, two people leave the house with nothing but the clothes on their
213 backs, running like the devil himself is after them. When the first unis got
214 here, they found the body and the scene you saw outside."
215
216 "The people live here?"
217
218 "That's what we're told. Lisa and Gordon Evans, married, no kids or pets. Nice
219 couple from all accounts, kept to themselves, seemed friendly enough. A quick
220 check came up clean. No wants or warrants."
221
222 "So some guy breaks in, the couple takes him out, throws all their shit into
223 the yard and scrams, taking the time to dump green acid all over the place.
224 That works for you?"
225
226 "Hell no it doesn't work. I figure that's why you're here, to make it work. I
227 don't envy you this one. So, with that, I leave this to you so I can back to
228 crime-scenes that actually make sense."
229
230 "Thanks. You're too kind."
231
232 "You bet. Take 'er easy, and good luck. You're gonna need it." With that, the
233 pair tip-toed to the front door and outside.
234
235 Alone inside the house, he stood quietly and let his eyes roam where they
236 would, taking in the missing windows, the shattered drywall, the green lake on
237 the floor. Seeing everything and nothing, he slowed his breathing and cleared
238 his mind, narrowed his focus, excluded everything not of the here and now. The
239 shouts outside quieted, the early-morning birds silenced, and the smells inside
240 the house intensified. Several heartbeats, then several more. He looked around
241 the room again.
242
243 He saw the room again as it must have been just a few hours ago. He saw the
244 door burst open, but no one stood on the other side of it. He saw a man come
245 into the room from behind where he stood, look out the door and start
246 screaming. Windows shattered as debris flew through them, and through it all
247 the man ducked and weaved to avoid getting hit. A minute, maybe two later, a
248 smoking, green pool spread across the floor, and shortly after that, the man
249 sprinted through the front door, his right arm held straight back. Another
250 heartbeat, and the scene vanished.
251
252 Claude shook his head and took a last look around. Without the reports from the
253 tech guys, there was little more he could do, so with a last look around, he
254 made his careful way through the door and back into the world he thought he
255 understood.
256
257
Hints:
Before first commit, do not forget to setup your git environment:
git config --global user.name "your_name_here"
git config --global user.email "your@email_here"

Clone this repository using HTTP(S):
git clone https://rocketgit.com/user/Launfal/my_fiction

Clone this repository using ssh (do not forget to upload a key first):
git clone ssh://rocketgit@ssh.rocketgit.com/user/Launfal/my_fiction

Clone this repository using git:
git clone git://git.rocketgit.com/user/Launfal/my_fiction

You are allowed to anonymously push to this repository.
This means that your pushed commits will automatically be transformed into a merge request:
... clone the repository ...
... make some changes and some commits ...
git push origin main