::Dying ain't much of a living:: {FWTDS} Day 1
Feb 27, 2019 22:11:08 GMT -5
Post by charade on Feb 27, 2019 22:11:08 GMT -5
[presto][/presto]
COVER
STANLEY SCHUSTER: THE RAWHIDE KID
ISSUE #10
Feb '81
Joel
SCHUSTER
Gail
SCHUSTER
Robert
ROSS
THIS ISSUE, WILD WESTERN TALESDIRECT SALES
$2.99
It was hot. Not unbearably so with the light breeze that working its way across him, but with the chaos of the fight he’d just escaped, it was hot enough that his palms were sweaty; his knees were weak and his arms were heavy.
He thought he might vomit up last night’s spaghetti. He was nervous, but doing his best to stay calm and ready. He didn’t want to lose himself.
Not yet.
The bloodbath had been chaotic; a bloody press of twenty-four bodies in one building that wasn’t big enough for all of them. A loose rock got caught on his shoe and he staggered for a second, his arms hanging loosely at his side.
He was hunched over, the branding iron in his hand scraping the ground behind him. Shallow cuts screamed at him from his arm, his shoulder, his stomach and his back. There was dried blood all over his hands and soaking his shirt.
The career girl from two had shot him in the goddam neck and he had screamed when he pulled the shaft out, tossing it aside holding a hand to his neck. He’d done what he could to staunch the blood flow, ripping off his sleeves and tying the strips of cloth around where all the wounds were.
It wasn’t as good as bandages, but it would suffice as first aid for the moment.
The moment. He chuckled bitterly as he tried to keep his eyes on Finley’s backside ahead of him.
The moment he’d waited for. The bloodbath had felt like he’d been searching in the dark, his sweat soaking through the floor. Buried in his bones was an ache he couldn’t ignore. It was taking his breath, stealing his mind; it felt like all that was real was left behind.
He couldn’t fight it, it was coming for him, running at him. In that moment he didn’t care what came after. He wondered if a fever dream was getting closer and part of him just wanted to surrender as he felt the feeling taking over.
There was fire in his veins, and a pounding in his head breaking at the brick of every wall that was holding all that he knew. He just wanted to go.
If he had enough left in him, he’d put on the greatest show. Like he told the Gamemakers he would.
He’d spied several limbs scattered around the floor as he’d fled, though only the girl from district one lay dead in the Sherriff’s Office. As Stanley staggered after Finley, he considered that he’d been relatively lucky. For most of the bloodbath he’d gone largely unnoticed.
Many of the tributes had grabbed only a handful of items before scampering away, and once the number of bodies had lessened, he’d had enough of an opening to enter the jail cells and get into the thick of things.
Once in however, he quickly realized just how awful the smell of blood was. He’d barely done anything to anyone other than the girl from two. When he’d tried to smack the bow out of her hands, he was pretty sure he’d heard the crunch of bone.
Maybe if her wrist was fucked up she’d think twice before shooting him again. He’d been ready to smack her again, but then that sharp eye-browed brunette from three had brained the terrifying girl from one with a goddam horseshoe while her allies informed the boy from twelve that getting in their way would in fact cost him an arm and a leg.
That had been the last straw for most of the remaining tributes, and they’d fled, Savvy among them, dragging a screaming Exover with her.
He didn’t blame everyone for running; seeing the career that scored an eleven get taken out by a nerd from the tech district was pretty damn unnerving. In the end, it had been just him and Finley against the pair from three, the girl from five and the boy from six.
He’d tried to fight, honest, but they were outnumbered two to one and he was bleeding from all over his body. Finley had had blood streaming down the side of her head from where an ear should have been.
“Reckon we should leave this joint?” Finley had murmured as she backed away from the fight. Stanley had agreed and run after her, hoping she knew where she was going.
Stanley ran his tongue over cracked and bloody lips and straightened up a little. When they’d been in the training center they’d agreed to meet at whatever the largest visible monument was in case they got separated. Didn’t get much bigger than the mountain.
As he had anticipated, Savvy and Ex hadn’t gotten very far, which was a relief. He strolled up to them, hefting his mail bag and offering the pair a half-hearted tip of the black cowboy hat he was wearing in salute.
“Glad to see you made it out in one— “
Stanley started coughing to cover up his horrifying realization that the other boy was missing a foot, and one of Savior’s arms ended at the elbow. And lord, there was just so much blood.
“Well, we all made it.” he finished hastily. For now, he thought darkly. Bloodless bloodbaths usually resulted in the game makers unleashing hell within a day or two. Not to mention that the more bloodthirsty tributes might be roaming about looking to clean up the wounded. While the four of them were beat to fuck, he hoped they didn’t rate very high on the radar.
Stanley sighed and glanced at the weapon he’d obtained. The branding iron was large and unwieldy, and he cursed himself for not grabbing something better. The capitol seal on the end of it seemed to mock him, as did the tag dangling from his ear.
Yeah, I get. The herds of sheep get tagged and branded in district eight after all. We’re the sheep, and the arena is full of wolves. Whoop de fuckin doo. The game-makers are going to cut themselves on all this edge.
With a groan, he leaned on a sheer rock wall near them and closed his eyes for a second. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, he could really feel the abuse that he’d taken. And not a med-kit in sight. At least Finley had a pitchfork, it looked mightily more useful than what he had, or the hammer that Savvy had picked up. If Exover had something, he hadn’t seen it.
Stanley opened his eyes and hefted the branding iron, clearing his throat nervously. He thought he’d heard the words sick fucks echoing off of the rocks. Maybe someone else was nearby?
“If we can get a fire going, I’m pretty sure I can use this to cauterize those ah, stumps.” He looked at the seal again. “Well, if you don’t mind being marked by the Capitol, that is.”
He looked away, back towards the rock wall and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. Then paused; there was something glinting in a crevice that he hadn't seen the first time. He reached in to pull it out, finding it to be a small golden lipstick tube marked with a skull and crossbones.
Odd.
The implication of the symbol tugged at him; this was something that needed further investigation. It was probably poisoned. But would it hurt the wearer? Or the one that they kissed? He could find out later. For now, he had allies to attend to. Stanley dropped the tube into his bag and turned back to them.
Editor’s note:
The makers of Stanley Schuster are happy to announce that the series is being made into a light novel! Though the format is different, it’s still the same Stanley you know and love.
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Stanley uses F/A for -3
Acquires poison lipstick