Flash Fiction Fridays: Fish Out of Water

I don’t think second person is used enough in fiction. So this week’s story is second person. This is the first tale that was over the 500-word count when I finished the first draft. 600, to be exact. So I had to do some heavy editing, but I think it’s all for the best. This is an action story, after all, and the edits kept the sentences short like punches.

FISH OUT OF WATER

The sky gleams like steel.

Feel the briefcase in your hand. Enter the mouth of the subway. Swipe your card and enter the humid, crowded platform. Know you are an easier target down here. Push the thought from your mind.

She enters behind you. You catch only a peripheral glimpse, but it’s not the visual that gives her away. Track her by her absence of sound as she sneaks up on you.

Ignore her. Find her companion. Visualize your Rubik’s Cube. Turn it to match three yellows. Salmon now active. The scent-scape around you blossoms in almost overwhelming detail. You smell him immediately. His implants are very macho. Grizzly, tiger, crocodile. Slow. The girl smells of cat, monkey, lizard. Fast.

Rubik’s Cube. Three greens. Swordfish. Begin to heat the muscles behind your eyes, increasing your flicker fusion frequency. You see faster now. You move faster. See Grizzly’s swing. Deflect while breaking his knee with your foot.

Feel her first punch coming. Dodge. Right where she wants you and she breaks your forearm. Your hand spasms open. She has the case and is gone, dropping onto the tracks as Grizzly swipes at you again. Crush his windpipe before he realizes it.

Six whites. Shrimp. Your brain stops processing pain. Run back up into the metallic daylight. Check your mental map. Know where she must be going. Enter the building’s lobby and run toward the rear service stairs. She pushes through the door from the basement levels just as you round the corner. She sees you and is back in the stairwell immediately.

Five blues. Blue-ringed octopus.

Charge up the stairs. Close the gap. Catch her. Strike. She jumps out of your way with no effort. So fast she clips you even though you saw it coming. She notices the bright blue rings around your eyes and mouth, but clips you again. She might be a better fighter than you.

Absorb the next blow. Everything’s painless anyway. It gets her close. Spit in her mouth as it half-opens with her fight breathing. She’s caught completely off-guard. Break her elbow in the opening it gives you.

Her lower arm snaps off cleanly and falls to the floor, twitching. She’s gone up the stairs in the opening it gives her. Resume pursuit.

She bursts onto the roof, throws the case down to free her good hand and turns to fight. But you can tell from the way her mouth’s set that it’s already numb. Her blinking has increased. Her vision is blurring. The octopus venom is fast.

Three reds. Electric eel.

The paralysis is reaching her legs. Brush past her defense and plant a solid blow. The electrical charge is enough to kill a horse.

She lands on her back, twitching. But still breathing. Eyes still locked on you. A fighter. Drag her to the edge of the roof. Open the briefcase where she can see it. Empty.

Tell her. “I was just the decoy.” Drop her over the edge.

Walk away.

9 Comments

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI