“So whaddya think is gonna happen at this shindig the boss is puttin’ on, eh?” a tall gangly man with lean muscles hidden under his long coat asked while he leaned in to light Amy’s cigarette as she held it in her lips with a smirk.

Amy took a few short pulls on the cigarette once it was lit and blew the resulting smoke in the man’s face before leaning back in her seat opposite his in the truck. Despite being full, the back of this improvised troop transport was mostly full, but at present, only Amy and the man with spindly limbs were awake. He didn’t look like much, but to his credit in Amy’s estimation, he didn’t flinch when she blew the smoke in his face.

“I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter much, hon,” Amy said, her expression shifting from teasing to bored in less time than it took her to take another drag from her hybrid cigarette. “Boss wants us all in one spot, and I don’t really care what we’re doing there as long as its a fun ride.”

The gangly man grinned at her, the surgically altered teeth and lips of his making him look rather like the Cheshire cat or a certain Japanese god of death as he took a moment to take in the sharp and harsh angles of her face, follow the course her long red hair traced along her curvy yet slender body before snapping his attention back to her eyes. Which despite the grin returning to her face, held no mirth or arousal, but neither did they show any irritation or hostility.

“Right. Fair enough, babe,” he said, crossing his arms, “Still… aren’t ye a wee bit curious?”

“Perhaps, but I find baseless guessing games rather dull affairs,” she said before leaning forward, her face and eyes fixing the man with such an intensity, her eyes reflecting a deep hunger, “I prefer to deal with what’s right in front of me, Ripper.”

The man blinked, surprised.

“Didn’t know I was famous,” he said, trying and failing to act nonchalant about it even as he leaned closer, until their faces were mere inches apart.

“Not really, but friend of a friend has mentioned you… lucky for you, it wasn’t all bad.” She said, her own smile widening as she uncrossed her legs. Ripper took the hint and closed the distance to kiss her. She didn’t hesitate in returning the kiss, bringing her own hand behind his head to pull him closer before she hopped onto his lap without breaking the kiss, grinning right before she deepened it, her tongue invading his mouth for a few moments before retreating, drawing him further in… and just as he was about to attack her mouth back in kind… she broke the kiss and began kissing down his neck. Her fangs grazed his skin for a moment. And here she hesitated.

“Its cool, babe,” he said, “I’m clean, and I don’t mind. Take what you need, just… leave me breathing okay? Not ready for that kind of commitment ya know?”

Amy chuckled, and then undid the zipper on his pants, fished his member out, slid her own lower garments aside and fully straddled him… and as she took her first bite on his neck, she began to establish a rhythm between their bodies… one that matched his heartbeat… and eventually her own, as her undead heart began to absorb the mortal’s blood.

The light of that lazy day slowly fading, Candy’s tall frame traced impossibly long shapes against the brittle concrete. Dust mites flickered around her wavering silhouette, twirled around by the last heat rising off the asphalt. The silhouette squared its shoulders, stepping briskly forward and onto the back of a running truck.
“Move it Jake !” she bellowed, hitting the wall of the vehicle with the flat of her hand. As it lurched into motion she stiffly sat down and let her legs dangle off the edge, small debris bouncing off her steel calves with soft metal clangs like the mockery of a wind chime.
“What the fuck does this kid want now?” she muttered to herself, wiping a trickle of motor oil from under her nose with the back of her hand.
“Well that’s for him to know and for us to find out, isn’t it?“ Jake’s rough voice replied unbidden, interrupted her musings.
“Ha. Ha. Whatever. Back off.” she snapped without looking up. She rested her elbows on her knees and slouched forward, hoping to be left alone. Her eyes drifted over the desolate landscape, columns of smoke rising in the distance and flickering lights coming to life as the sun disappeared behind the marred skyline. The truck rumbled on, oblivious to her discomfort as it bounced over potholes and stretches of gravel.
“Chillax sugartitts.“ he smiled rouguishly, the scar on his chin twisting as he did. Jake dropped down next to her with a dull metallic thunk “Ain’t no one dead yet.“ he chuckled.
…and how long will that last? Candy thought to herself, a concern she didn’t think she’d have to voice. The air hung thick with trepidation, and from what she’d heard about this Blaze guy things didn’t bode well. A whimsical kid with no direction, willing to kill for the thrill. It was gonna be a bloodbath. Or maybe not. She’d learned to only trust her own two eyes and ears, she’d defer judgement. She just hoped they were wrong.
“Just give the kid a chance.“ Jake’s smoker’s voice whispered close to her ear, seeming to mirror her own thought. His coarse stubble softly scraped the back of her neck, making her shudder as he shifted closer, sliding his calloused hand up her shirt, kneading her breast and flicking her nipple rhythmically.
She raised her elbow off her knee, her breast slipping out of his strong grasp painfully, and lifted her outstretched arm to eye level. It followed its prey for just a split second before she flicked her wrist and a thin spear-tipped cable shot out of it, skewering a fat rodent in mid stride. The squealing animal zoomed back, landing in her palm, and she slapped it into Jake’s still outstretched hand, blood and guts spilling over his fingers as the spear snapped back into her wrist.
Before he had time to react she’d already jumped up and disappeared into the front of the truck.

She let herself fall into the passenger seat and snapped at the driver “If I tell Jake to fucking drive then Jake fucking drives. Grow a spine Chester!”. He just nodded, keeping his eyes on the road. She bent her elbow and started swiping across her lower arm, checking the stats of her biomechatronic parts, decent, for now. Feeling restless she spent the rest of the drive in silence frowning at the darkening scenery zooming past the window.

As they neared the warehouse metal music assaulted their ears. How tacky Candy thought as they made a skittering turn around the corner and were greeted by the sight of a punk kid sitting on giant speakers, she vibrations making little chips of plaster twitch around his feet.
Chester broke sharply, a few people jumping aside as the squealing truck kept moving forward a few feet and halted in a cloud of dust, it’s engine sputtering off. She wedged the rusting door open and jumped down with a soft huff and metal clang. Candy straightened and met the kid’s gaze levelly.
“What’s new boss?” she said in her cocky, nonchalant way, decisively striding towards Blaze. Jake and Chester hung back a few steps and some faces in the crowd turned to follow the exchange. The broken windows of the warehouse cast eerie shapes around them in the dimming light and the howling of sirens started up somewhere far away, just the start of another night in this godless world.

“Everything. Everything is new. Tonight we’re gonna change everything. I know who you are. And I like you. I like you a lot. So your coming with me tonight,” He leaned in close to her face, a mischievous glint in his stormy gray eyes he whispered, “We’re gonna have a lot of fun. Just wait. You’ll see. Everybody will see. They won’t have choice. Trust me.”
Smoke curled up into the air from his cigarette as he took another drag. He had been on a coke binge a couple minutes before, the effects just starting to kick in. He was all pent up inside, getting all twitchy and shit. He wanted to kick a puppy to a bloody pulp. Once everyone had filed in, he stood and kicked the pause button on the radio, not giving candy a chance to respond. He stood…slowly looking over the members of his gang he had called down to the warehouse, sizing them up one by one behind a pair of black sunglasses.
“I don’t know what brought any of you to this gang. Maybe your new, or maybe you’ve been here from the start. Maybe you like me, maybe you don’t, maybe you don’t know who the fuck I am, and maybe you don’t give a crap. But I called you all here for a reason. And I think we all have something in common. Besides the fact we all have a high chance of death tonight. We don’t wanna be a bunch of fucking statistics,” He smirked and paced in front of the group, “Control is an illusion. The only thing you have power over is yourself. Give that away and you truly become nothing. If you give it to society. To a job. To religion. To money. Then what do you have left? Now, let me tell you a little something…” He said cracking his neck. His eye twitched.
“Morals are so overrated…a side effect of evolution…But now we are all a slave to them…But you think they can save us? The moment shit hits the fan…” He shook his head and laughed. He took off his sunglasses so he could look everyone in the eyes. Cigarette between his fingers, he blew a cloud of smoke.
“When the gun is to your head, It’s Kill or be killed.” He pulled a Beretta M9 out of his pocket.
“So will you be the shooter,” He said slowly pointing the gun at each of the applicants, “Or the victim?” He put the gun to his own temple laughing.
“Cause we’re all going to hell…if there is a hell…But it’ll be. On. Our. Own. Terms.” His voice boomed across the warehouse.
“Tonight’s gonna be one crazy fucking ride, so if you have car sickness or your just a fucking pussy…get off now, cause once we hit the gas, those motherfuckers can bite our dust. No refunds. The only way out is to die….And so what if we crash,” He smiled lopsidedly taking a deep drag, exhaling thick smoke into the air. He held his arms out in a gesture of hit-me-with-your-best-shot, “We’ve got nothing to lose…” He tongued the scar on the inside of his cheek.
“There are twenty of you here. I want to get to know each and every one of you. Tonight, me and two of you are gonna get some info from a little vampire…maybe a little bit of ultra-violence by the side if we have the time…we’re gonna blow the headquarters of the richest corporation in this pathetic city to the ground…X Corps. Why? Cause we’re the rejects of society, and we’re angry and bored and it’s fun to blow shit up and kill people. So do we really need a reason? Rest of you stay behind. A drug deal goes down here tonight. I need you to see it through. And set up your bed and the shit I asked you to bring. We may be here for a while…” His grin widened into something akin to a hyenas.
“You wanna know why this gang is called Gang 13. Cause 13 is an unlucky number. We’re riding toward disaster,” He paused, “Allow me to correct myself. We ARE the disaster. We’re not crazy. We’re just bored. We’re addicts who need our fix. Oxygen we don’t have to fucking buy. Adrenaline. Excitement. Get in our way and you’ll end up being our fix.”
He paused in front of candy so they were only a few inches apart, and giving her a devious smile said, “I told you we’re gonna have fun.”