“…the world is a vampire…”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Darvok’s place, GITMO<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From NOV 2019 — NOV 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
..<\/p>\n\n\n\n
.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Mornin’ Beautiful”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cassandro vaguely hears a man’s voice behind him as he phases into his new reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He tries to look around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Can make out he’s in some kind of large, open square, air-conditioned surveillance room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His 8 fingers feel like lead weights as he rubs booger crusts out of his eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lights eventually stop blinding and the objects around him take a sharper form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are countless screens aligned against the walls on mute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A small kitchen and a bunk bed appear to be afterthought additions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A corner has an open air toilet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another corner has a small closet sized cage with some sophisticated medical looking machine mounted inside of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There’s a familiar chessboard on a small table in front of him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An initial move has been already played.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The stereotypical white king’s pawn was aggressively thrown into the center of the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cassandro looks down at his legs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Feels a wave of dread and new found rage rush through him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They’ve been removed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He’s strapped to a back rest, and a fused waste management system is integrated into his lower torso with tubes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He can feel it inside of him. Sharp stabbing pain to his internals if he shifts or breathes the wrong way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He’s never felt gravity over himself be so wet and heavy, and doesn’t know how to immediately process this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His existence is now tethered to a wheelchair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His dry throat swallows a whimper that tried to escape his bare chest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He controls his breathing before his breathing starts to control him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Waking up to horror is a staple of his life that has gone from bad to worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another sacrifice more to the list of whatever it takes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The man paws a cat bell above Cassandro’s chair, creating a cute chime as he starts a monologue on how he had so many assholes as foster parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At one point he came across the kind of characters that loved pets more than people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He saw them apply the whole concept of taking in, feeding, and caring for an alive thing to justify calling themselves proud owners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They went through all this effort in removing it from its mom, controlling the environment around it to make it comfortable and dependent, and what does it do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It begs, licks your hands, protects you from strangers, and does tricks on command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What we call loyalty is pathetic, you know?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No! Even worse, they called that sht love, brohan. Can you even believe that? They looked those animals square in the eyes and said I love you…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
…Anyways, Can we be friends? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’m Darvok, and this is my humble little home away from home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like a clubhouse, pretty cool eh? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here! I’ll show you around.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Darvok leans Cassandro’s chair on its larger rear wheels and wheelies him around the screens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cassandro feels pain from any movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He uses his hands to shift and hold his own body however he can to minimize the internal stabbing pains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Darvok moves around, proudly showing off his area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Over here we’ve got our entertainment…”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Darvok gestures at a wall overwhelmed with flatscreen tvs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It has channels of all types and from different countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
News channels. Cartoons. Music videos. Documentaries. Pornography. Ads and commercials. Viral social media clips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the other side there’s two long tables with 6 sets of screens with more focused, particular channels being contrasted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2 large screen TVs side by side, with two smaller ones stacked one on top of the other on the far left and right sides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“…as a fellow intellectual and doom-scroller like you, I find it important to keep up with the times.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Darvok wheelies him around the middle-ish of the room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Aaaaaand over here-a we have our eating space. Help yourself anytime, <\/p>\n\n\n\n
my chow is your chow homie.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There’s a bare minimum kitchen setup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A sink island with space for chopping includes two cooler sized refrigerators underneath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of the foods are canned goods on a pantry sized stainless steel cart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Drinks are water bottles and fruit flavoring packets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There’s a live crab tank. A cactus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A bag of some left-over iguana jerky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cassandro reaches out a weak hand and secures an almost empty and lukewarm bottle of water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“That’s the spirit. It pounds water and stays hydrated or else it gets the silver bullet again.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Darvok wheelies him outside, using a makeshift ramp from some wooden planks placed over the steps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s a sunny day. Some clouds. You can hear the ocean and some seagulls in the distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This is the yard. Unfortunately I had a few parties recently, had some unpleasant guests, made a mess, you know how it is. How embarrassing that you’re seeing this like this” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The outside from the backyard door is an open deserted space enclosed with triple chain link fences and razor wire at the top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the razor wires indicated a failed escape attempt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are empty cells lined to the left and right sides with scatters of leftover buckets, trays, towels, utensils, and bloodstain circles on the dirt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the cages has his belongings from his old cell thrown in there. His plants, dried food, and towels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the end of the yard is an unfenced cliff edge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s a long way to the crashing waves and jagged rocks below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Darvok wheels him to the ledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We got quite the view, whatcha think?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Darvok leans the wheelchair forward while holding it menacingly over empty air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cassandro knows that if Darvok so much as sneezed, he’d fall. Headfirst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s a picturesque scene for a violent death down there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Darvok brings him back in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Relaxes his grip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“So we have a running bet on that fighter’s spirit of yours. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Malachite gives you a few days, but, fk that guy ammiright? He doesn’t know you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Patina says you’ll off yourself within 2 yrs, something about the effects of political zoochosis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Between you and me, she’s always trying to sound smarter than thou art, right?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Digs into his pockets, looking for a small metal case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I just wanna let you know that I’m on your side in all of this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Call me crazy, but I think you’re going to stick with me till the nitty gritty end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And hell, I mean, if you can commit, then I can commit, ‘rah?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Darvok lights himself a bidi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“But of course, if you’re ever feeling froggy, just jump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You’re the only thing tying me to this sht-hole base, you’d be doing me a favor.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cassandro stays quiet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Angry. Thinking of ways he could kill him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Puts his right hand out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Darvok hands him his bidi and lights another one for himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cassandro knows who it is. His right hand is mechanical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The all seeing pyramid eye etched onto it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They smoke in silence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A couple of mega shipping containers can be seen far out floating the line where the troposphere and the epipelagic zone meet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Darvok explains as he wheels Cassandro back to the shack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Patina’s on her way to Hong Kong… You kind of forced our hand with that domino bullsht you kicked off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You’ll be seeing a globe pausing pandemic roll out in just a few months so we can all catch our breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don’t know what to tell ya, we haven’t flexed our nuts on everyone’s chins like this before, I’m excited about it myself.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Darvok brings Cassandro to the chess table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Looks like it’s gonna be just me and you from here on out. So go ahead, kick your socks off, get settled in…”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Darvok notes an incident on the big screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He puts the volume up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
–Children amongst dead in latest strike–<\/p>\n\n\n\n
–Enemy forces are hostile to takeover, forcing another carpet raid–<\/p>\n\n\n\n
–Humanitarian food and medical aid is denied as the enemy is now exporting its offenses from caves and suicide bombers —<\/p>\n\n\n\n
–They are not human, they are fanatical animals, heathens and idolaters. A cancer! a biological threat. We must eradicate —<\/p>\n\n\n\n
— It is the illegal aliens fault for not following the right procedures. The foreign fruits are okay, but the foreigners themselves are dirty and rotten — <\/p>\n\n\n\n
— New wave of income taxes to combat new wave of terrorism — <\/p>\n\n\n\n
— we’ll be allocating funding accordingly —<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cassandro recognizes the board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It belonged to an old Lt. Colonel mentor he outgrew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taught him chess. And what little he knew of war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cassandro plays the black queens pawn two steps forward, offering to meet the white pawn for conflict in the middle of the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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