Chapter 10: R&R

October 19, 2023 8:03PM

For the first time in a long time, Sanders found himself waking after 10am. Yesterday had left him exhausted in every way imaginable and even his alarm couldn't wake him. Despite his oversleeping, a large part of him wanted to just roll over and go back to sleep. At least in his dreams he didn't have to see Manchent's face... Have to remember he had failed and it had cost someone their life.

He rolled off his bed and slowly got himself bathed and dressed. He really had no plans, nor wanted any, for today. All he really wanted to do was just get his mind off his failure yesterday. TV, games, porn, whatever it took. He did all the above and then some as the day dragged on, but they were only temporary retreats. Ironic that he would have his first day off in weeks and he could not enjoy it in the least.

It didn't help that all the news stations were reporting about Manchent's death. Not a single one had anything else other than his death, their lose for losing him, and the public's panic at the Resistance managing to pull off such a kidnapping. Resistance hysteria and fear was going to go through the roof...again. He might have been angry at the News channels cashing in on his death and the fear if he wasn't feeling it was all his fault.

Finally, the sun began to vanish past the titanic old skyscrapers and night slowly moved to take its place. Sanders was about to just settle in for the night when his phone buzzed for his attention.  He unlocked it and found a message from Aviel waiting for him.

"Other Ranger patrols want to celebrate your promotion and welcome you to the big leagues. Come to the Giga Stomp at 8.

PS. Don't try to weasel out of it, it will only be worse if you do."

Sanders groaned inwardly at the thought of having to go out, much less going out to celebrate. This promotion was nothing but a reminder of how he had failed to save a man and he just wanted to forget about it. But he knew there was no getting out of it. He had little doubt the other Rangers would show up at his door and drag him there if they had to. He grumbled and cursed as he got himself dressed in some of his nicer clothes before heading out.

Despite the crowded tramlines, Sanders managed to arrive at the Giga Stomp a little after 8:00. The place was one of the biggest clubs in Atlanta known for its loud music, giant-sized dance floor, and having more types of beer on tap than could be contained in their five page drink book. In fact, rumors said there were some types that you could only get by knowing secret phrases and contained all kinds of illegal stuff. Sanders had only been here once before, with Aviel when he had first joined the Rangers, and had no real wish to go in again. But, he knew he would regret it if he blew off his fellow Rangers.

The line to get into the Giga Stomp was, as always, far too long to be worth it. He was about to simply leave and take whatever hell the others dished out at him when a voice yelled out at him. He looked over and saw one of the Rangers of Patrol 2 waving him over from the door. Like Sanders, he was dressed in nice clothing, but nothing really formal. His brown hair hung from his head like a shaggy mope and his green eyes already had the signs of alcohol in them. Sanders sighed as he realized there was no getting out of it now and headed for the door. A few jeers and curses came from the line, but the bouncer's angry scowl got most of them to be silent as he let Sanders in.

"Sanders, good to see you, man. Was starting to think you were not going to show and we would have to go fetch you," the Ranger said as he clamped his lanky arm around Sanders. "Name's Trent, by the way, Trent Leon. I'm on Patrol 2 in case you were wondering," he continued barely giving Sanders a chance to get out a word.

"Now, we need to hurry along. Don't want to keep the girls waiting now do we?" he said practically pushing Sanders along.

"Girls? What do you mean girls?!" Sanders managed to stammer out as he tried to stop himself. He sure as hell didn't agree to this and he couldn't believe Aviel had...actually he could believe it.

"What? What ar- Oh OHHHH No nonononono, not that kind of girls," Trent said catching on to what Sanders was thinking. "The Ranger girls. You see," he hooked his arm around Sanders again and began to lead him deeper into the club entrance, "it just so happens that most of the Ranger patrols with more guys than girls in them are out on patrol, where as the ones with more females, are off duty. Which means there are five girls waiting for just us three guys, me, you, and Bland, but he doesn't really count because he is...well bland. Hence the nickname."

Suddenly Sanders realized why Trent was making sure he didn't go anywhere but toward the party. He was not in the mood for this, but the only other place he had to go was back home to wallow in his depression. He supposed this was a better option and, though he would never admit it, the allure of five to three ratio was too good to pass on. He let himself be lead into the main area of the club without protest.

Even though Sanders had seen it before, he still had to gawk at the sheer scope of the Giga Stomp. What had once been an overly pampered and done-up entrance to some business was now a truly massive dance club on a scale full-sized clubs could only imagine. The club was three scale floors high and each floor had its own theme, DJ, and decoration to set them all apart. The first level was the typical club vibe with booming music, flashing lights, and more people than anyone could hope to count. Above them the second and third level dance floors were visible thanks to their glass flooring allowing the higher levels to look down on the lower ones and vice verse. Around the dance floor were a number of bars set to provide anyone with drinks and snacks. Further out from there were set the small tables and booths for those who had tired of dancing and wanted to recharge. The music was nearly deafening and Trent had to lean down to Sanders ear to be heard.

"WE'RE UP ON THE SECOND LEVEL. DON'T WORRY, ITS A LOT QUIETER!" he yelled into Sanders' ear, still only just loud enough to be heard. Sanders nodded and the two headed for the stairs leading up to the second level. They arrived at the second level and opened the sound-proof door leading inside. Sanders let out a sigh of relief as the door closed and the booming music was left behind.

The second floor of the Giga Stomp was almost like a completely different building from the first. Rather than booming music that seemed to pound into ones head, it had soft, background music playing. It was still dance music, but much slower and more delicate than the thumping techno downstairs. A single bar provided the dance floor with drinks with the rest of the floor being taken up with booths and server areas. Most people forget that Giga Stomp actually had a restaurant in it, including Sanders. Trent led the way through the many dining parties before making a beeline for a table near the edge of the seating area. Seven people were seating at the round table with two empty seats for Trent and Sanders. The group was idly chatting with each other as the two of them approached.

"Hey, hey, guess who I found? Man of the hour himself," Trent said before pushing Sanders forward to lead the way. Sanders suddenly found seven pair of eyes all staring at him and only knowing one of them, Aviel's.

"Hi, I'm...Sanders Cutter. Nice to meet all of you," Sanders said with a small hint of nervousness. Aviel smirked at his nerves showing but, thankfully, didn't say anything. The others all said their "hi"s and "nice to see you" and such. Sanders took his seat next to Aviel as Trent came up beside him.

"Alright, time for introductions," he said before pointing Sanders' head to Aviel, "This is Aviel, she works in Patrol 5, has lovely red-hair, is single, has an OK rack, and is about to hit me." About became did as Aviel punched Trent in the arm getting a chuckle from those at the table.

"Oww! Not so hard!" Trent said as he rubbed his arm.

"Pussy, take it like a woman, Trent," a colored woman with long black hair said from across the table.

"Screw you, Lizette. Which reminds me, that is Lizette Wembley. She is in my patrol and a real pain in the ass," Trent said getting a bird from Lizette and more laughter. Sanders was started to chuckle himself, despite himself.

"Moving on from that thing," double birds flew out now, "next to her is Blanch Devine or Bland. He is in my squad too." "Bland" looked anything but with his dyed red hair and obviously contact colored yellow eyes. And yet at the same time his clothing was just...well bland and seemed completely at odds with the look he was going for...whatever that was.

"I told you to stop calling me that. Come on, its not funny," Blanch said with a sad look. Everyone seemed to ignore him, though.

"Those two are in Patrol 4 and are Laci Trengove and Rena Gonzalez," Trent continued pointing out two new girls. Laci had average black hair and green eyes, but seemed a good head taller than most people at the table, even sitting down. She smiled warmly at Sanders before nodding. Rena was hispanic in origin and had a mess of brown hair. She gave him a half-hearted wave before going back to her drink.

"And last, but not least is Patrol 6, Madeleine Frank and Jadyn Hope," Trent finished as he pointed to the two girls closest to him. Madeleine had her long black hair up in some braids and her blue eyes regarded him in a way that was eerily similiar to Aviel's. The colored Jadyn, however, keep her brown eyes downcast and only looked up for a moment to wave before looking away.

"Sadly, Patrols 1, 3, 7, and 8 all had to be on patrol so they are going to miss the party, but we can more than make up for their lost fun with our own, right?" Trent said elbowing Sanders.

"Uhh..sure," Sanders said feeling very much out of his element here. Trent didn't seem to notice as he went and took his seat.

"Excuse me, sir?," a waitress asked at Sanders' shoulder, "What would you like to drink?"

"Huh? Oh," Sanders paused as he noticed everyone else was drinking some form of alcoholic drink, "Rum and coke please."

"Oh come on, new guy. You got to get something better than that!" Lizette said with a huff.

"Yeah, the new guy always has to drink the heaviest drink, that is the rule for these things," Rena said as she leaned forward to give a nice few of her low cut shirt. Sanders stammered a bit before looking over to Aviel for help only to find her talking with Laci and facing the complete other-way. How convenient... He had no wish to get wasted tonight, but just flat out refusing would not earn him any friends. Damn he hated being the ne-...

"Well, I guess its a good thing I am not the new guy anymore. That's what this party is about, isn't it? That I'm no longer the rookie?" Sanders said with some very forced confidence. Rena and Lizette looked about to say something, but stopped as they thought about that.

"He does bring up a good point. We are celebrating him NOT being a new guy anymore," Madeliene said with a smirk in his direction.

"Hahaha, looks like he got you two," Trent said with a big smile before flinching at the raised fist of Lizette. It seemed he had found a way out of having to get trashed tonight.

"Rum and coke it is then," Sanders said to the waitress who went off to fetch his drink.

"Well, once the lightweight gets his drink, anyone care if we begin the real night festivities? Typical rules, loser and bluffs tell, folds help pay the tab, everyone fine with that?" Rena asked as she took out a well worn deck of cards. Everyone else nodded in agreement leaving Sander completely lost. He felt a tap on his shoulder as Aviel leaned over toward him, apparently finished with her conversation.

"The game is Straight Poker. We don't play with money though. Instead, if you fold you throw in a dollar for everyone's tab at the end of the night. If you lose, or fold to a bluff, though, you have to tell an embarrassing story of some kind. Doesn't have to be about you, though. We ran out of those a while back," Aviel explained. Sanders was about to nod when Trent spoke up.

"You, though, have to tell embarrassing stories about yourself. We haven't heard all of yours yet, after all," he said with a smile Sanders wanted to punch off. That son of a bitch... Unfortunately, everyone all nodded in agreement and Sanders' drink arrived just in time to stop him from debating the point. He had a feeling he was going to be doing a lot of folding...

Rena dealt the cards and Sanders feeling proved true. His hands were all terrible for the first couple of games and he was not alone in that. The first three games only had a winner as most people just folded.

"Oh come ON! Rena you are done dealing, you suck at this!" Levette said as she snatched up the cards and gave them to Blanch. "Here, Bland, you deal them." Rena grumbled and said a few untoward words under her breath as Blanch expertly shuffled and then dealt out the cards.

This time Sanders found himself with one hell of a hand, three jacks, a queen, and a four. He called it and watched as everyone else folded. No drink money was coming from him this time. Then it came around to Aviel, who called it too. He looked over at her and saw her calmly regarding him with her usual emotionless face. Dammit, he couldn't read anything off her face. He had some good cards, but... no it wasn't worth it.

"Fold," he said before tossing his cards away. Aviel smiled as she revealed her cards to be...nothing. All she had was a high 7. Oh crap, if he lost to a bluff then...

"Well, it seems someone got bluffed," Madeleine said holding his cards and showing his great hand. The table erupted in ohhs and laughter as they all turned to look at Sanders. He gulped as he tried to think of the least embarrassing thing he could think of, but would still appease them. Before he could, though, Aviel spoke up.

"How about what happened when you first got picked up by Isabella?" Aviel asked with a dagger like smile. Sanders gave her his best death glare he could as the table began to beg for the story. There was nothing for it, he was going to have to tell it.

"Fine...fine...The first time I got picked up by Isabella, I made the mistake of sitting near the edge of her hand. She picked us up a bit too fast and seeing the ground just fall out like that was...pants wetting terrifying. Which I did. But it only got worse thanks to my motion sickness and vertigo. I tried to stumble away from the edge, still pissing myself, but I only managed to turn around before I barfed too. Right onto Isabella's hand..." Sanders said trying to be as quiet as possible. It didn't help as everyone had leaned in to hear. The table erupted in laughter as Sanders felt his face turn tomato red. He was going to get Aviel back for this...

"And the look on Isabella's face was priceless. I have never seen her more disgusted, but trying desperately not to show it, in my life," Aviel added.

"Oh man, pissing AND barfing on your giantess? How did you even get into the Rangers? Even Laci was able to hold it her first time," Rena said between laughter.

"R-Rena! Don't be an asshole!" Laci scolded Rena to which Rena made a blah blah motion with her hand.

The rest of the night Sanders made sure to fold no matter what. Most of the stories were not nearly as personal as his, being more about other people doing stupid stuff. Most of them were funny, save for one told by Blanch which fell completely flat. Sanders enjoyed himself immensely, having forgotten about Manchent, the mystery, and everything for a night and, instead, just enjoying some alcohol and good laughs. As the night dragged on the others, including Aviel, grew increasingly drunk and the card game feel aside forgotten.

Eventually, the party moved to the dance floor and the group displayed some...interesting dance moves. Their drunk "dancing" was more like just people flaying about and it wasn't long before they were all shooed back to their table. As the group began to head back, Sanders noticed Aviel was off standing near the edge of the dance floor, nursing a drink. He headed over to her.

"Tired of the drunken antics?" Sanders asked as he came up to stand beside him. Aviel looked over and shook her head.

"No just...thinking," she said before looking down through the dance floor to the still rocking lower level.

"About not getting the promotion?" Sanders asked.

"No...and yes in part. I...I just realized that if I had gotten that promotion I would have missed this," she said gesturing back to the table that was currently being used like a mini battlefield with forks as catapults. Sanders wasn't sure he wanted to know what the ammo was.

"In fact, I would miss all of them. Once I got back my size I could never come back here. Never be able to take part of these nights again or get these kinds of drinks again," Aviel said finishing off her drink. Sanders stared at her in confusion wondering where the hell this was coming from. She looked up at him and he got his answer. Her face was completely flushed and the smell of booze came off her like mighty waves. It was all Sanders could do not to turn away from her face as she keep going. She wasn't completely smashed, but she was well on her way.

"I know Isabella is scared I will wind up like her. That I will make some horrid mistake in my need for vengeance. A mistake that will plague me forever... And I am not so stupid or arrogant that I believe it can't happen... but I can't just stop. I HAVE to get revenge, its all I have, its all that has keep me going. You understand, right Sanders?" she said moving closer to Sanders. Sanders didn't move away, despite her breath and stood his ground as he looked down at the slightly shorter Aviel. He felt a bit of anger rise up in him at her words.

"No, I don't. Is the fact Isabella treats you like her own daughter not good enough? Is all your Ranger comrades not good enough? Am I not good enough?" Sanders said as he glowered down at Aviel. Aviel looked down and mumbled something out.

"What?" Sanders asked getting her to look up. To his surprise, her eyes had the beginnings of tears in them. His frown vanished to be replaced with a look of shook and confusion.

"For how long?! How long until you or them or Isabella wind up like my parents, or Caroline, or my other partners, Kimberly, Tom, and Colin? All dead...and left me here... How long before..." she stopped before brushing past him and heading for the bathroom. Sanders tried to say something, but she was gone before he got out a word. He just stood there for a few minutes until Trent came and dragged him back to the table.

Sanders didn't join in the merriment at the table, his eyes constantly going back to the bathroom. Aviel did not come out of it even as the party winded down. Finally, everyone had had enough and began to file out. The girls went into the bathroom to check on Aviel and brought her out looking even more drunk than before. She was a mess and had, somehow, gotten two more shots in her system. She was completely wasted and was not going to be getting home in her condition. Considering everyone else was on the verge of that same level of drunkenness, Sanders volunteered to take her home. He bid the others farewell as he and the still barely conscious Aviel headed for the tram going to her stop.

A few people gave them so odd looks as Sanders had to practically drag the wasted Aviel on board. He set her in the window seat before sitting down next to her. She mumbled out some random words before slumping up against the window and passing out. Sanders looked over at her, still hearing her drunken admission. He sighed to himself as he looked out the window. He wished he could do or say something that would help her, but he really had no idea what to do. But maybe...maybe someone he knew would.

    Excerpt of guest column in New Atlanta Journal website written by anonymous. Received over 500,000 positive reviews, less than a hundred  down votes.

Doctor Manchent's death just further proves how far those damn terrorist outside our city will go! The man never hurt anyone and even spoke out against the war with the Resistance on multiple occasions! Hell, some of the very structures and infrastructure they probably relay on was built BY Doctor Manchent to help them!

We have let this war go on too long without taking matters into our hands! How much longer will we let the Society do all the fighting for us?! We need to stop relaying on these heroic women, who give their lives everyday, and fight ourselves! It is time WE stand up to these terrorists who continue to try and steal our way of life! It is time New Atlanta formed its own army and did its part to assist the Society in defending our homes!