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Zoey Ryback · (07-20-2014)

Her heart pounds almost as fast as the sound of her feet as she charges down the narrow hallway. The gun in her right hand is almost empty, she hasnt had enough time to reload, and now even less time to think about her next decision. The window at the end of the hall looks just big enough, she shakes off the momentary doubt and raises her weapon, shooting the glass out as the three men chasing her round the corner behind her, bullet begin hitting the walls all around her, sending drywall flying all over her. She leaps through the shattering glass and over the alleyway, which is just a little bit too far to fall, its at this moment the screen freezes, and her voice comes over.

"My names Zoey Ryback, and the first thing you have to know about me is... my life spins in a way that I can't possibly explain."

Action, She reaches her arms out violently colliding with the scaffolding on the other side of the alley. She breaks through the first layer of wood and crashes down to the next, quickly rolling into cover as the three men begin raining down bullets. She reloads as the entire world seems to begin to come apart all around her. She rolls out of cover, emptying her mag back upwards; she buys herself enough time to roll into the alley.

"Great, that went well, now where the fuck did I park my car."

Bullets again, skipping off the pavement at her feet as she rounds the corner. She ducks behind the wall for a moment, catching her breath. Its moments like this that might make someone with a normal life think twice about the decisions they had made that got them up to this point. But Zoey is no stranger to this life; she shakes her head for a moment, cracking a smile before headlights tear around the corner at the end of the street. Her eyes widen, and her vision narrows, the adrenaline kicks in again, she can feel her heartbeat in her finger tips as she darts across the road, letting a few rounds cap off towards the oncoming threat. The car swerves from side to side as bullets fly through the windshield. She jumps left, and then back right just as the car flies passed her, so close that the breeze blows her hair back. She spins, popping the rest of her rounds through the back window, sending the car crashing against the wall down the street. Not much time now, no doubt the men from the hallway were making their way down the flights of stairs and would be on her in less than a minute. She had to get the hell out of this situation. She pulls the hood of her black sweater over her head as the sirens begin to wail in the distance.

“Great, police, better make it outta here quick.”

Her all black attire blends her into the shadows, she ducks into an alley across the street, virtually disappearing as the men throw the door of the hotel open on the other side of the road. Throwing their hands in the air as they notice the wreckage of the car in the distance. Zoey smiles to herself once again as she silently makes her way out of the area.

“Just another night I guess, I Swear these guys are getting smarter every time, how much longer am I working this contract for?”

As she brushes her hair to the side, the camera freezes again, her voice coming over the speakers.

“You already know my name, but I guess you deserve the full story.”

The scene changes as she describes her life up to this point.

“I Guess I was an average kid, was never anything special, so if your looking for the story of someone who has wanted to do this their entire life and are super excited by the opportunity, I guess you could say I fall a little short of that. I’ve always been a victim of cruel circumstance. My family for the most part was like most modern families, broken, unsure, my mother did her best I suppose, to raise me and my little sister. But the cancer took her when I was only 17, my sister was 12. I needed a way out, and fate forced my hand, I joined the 82nd Airborne when I was 18 years old. It wasn’t too bad of a gig. I saw some of the world, the third world as you might know it. It was a paycheck, but like I said, circumstance. My boyfriend at the time wasn’t the best person, and it seemed like everyone could see that but me, I guess what it finally took was the police finding drugs in our house to finally get it through my head. I did everything I Could, but I was chaptered out of the military when I was 20. And since then, Ive found myself having to do just about anything to make a buck. I didn’t come out empty handed I guess, they taught me how to survive, how to use a weapon, a set of skills that someone picked up on. Living in the triangle you have to deal with all sorts of people, They pay me money now, to do work like this, its hard, and sometimes not worth whatever little bit of money the bastards decide to pay me, but I like it, call me a bit of an adrenaline junky, I dont really give a damn. The last thing I ever wanted was to end up behind a desk, filing my nails and answering the phone for some slick haired douchebag with a little man complex. Just thinking about it makes me gag.”

A black trans am sits quietly in a parking lot a few blocks from the hotel, she lights a cigarette and unzips her hoody, throwing it into the backseat. Her phone is blinking in the center console, a text message is written across her lock screen, the name at the top of the message reads “McKayla”

“We need bread.”

Zoey chuckles to herself momentarily, taking in the ironic humor in the situation, here she was, dodging bullets, making a narrow escape, a throbbing pain in her side from the fall onto the scaffolding.

“And McKayla’s worried about food.” She thinks to herself.

The car rumbles to life, its almost a 45 minute drive back to Charlotte, she takes a moment to hook up her phone to the cars radio, the gentle opening of “Language” By Porter Robinson begins to play as she drops the car into first gear. As she makes her way out of town her adrenaline calms, she finds herself thinking.

“Its almost too late isn’t it, I guess I was a little late getting this message. I’m sorry McKayla, I’ll do better. I wish there was another way, another option. But right now I Can’t see it, and it hurts, I know it does, I wish I Could be there for you, like I should be. If our lives weren’t so fucked up. I hate that this is what it takes, that this is what it has to be. Shake it off Zoey, shake it off, its just the come-down.”

The car ride is long, Zoey finds herself zoned out in the music, losing much of the trip in a blur of thoughtful emotion. She makes it into Charlotte, its almost 3am, the apartment is on the lower end of town, near the Ampitheatre, unassuming enough. As she pulls up she can see the TV is still on, she shakes her head, McKayla should have been in bed, but she was getting older, couldn’t expect that of her anymore.

“Fuckin’ Kayla, what have I said about the bills.”

The door is unlocked, once again making Zoey shake her head, she pushes the door open to see her sister lying on the couch, the netflix “what to watch next” Screen lighting the room. Zoey locks the door and throws her gun onto the counter in the kitchen, reaching in the fridge for the last little bit of Orange Juice. She catches a glimpse of herself in the reflection of the dark window, a bruise lining her left eye.

“Guess he caught me better than I thought... Pussy.”

She throws the empty carton in the trash, still full from the week before. This too annoys her, but it can get handled in the morning. She pulls a Harry Potter blanket over her sisters shoulder and moves her hair behind her ear. She smiles softly before turning the television off. She steps back into her room, leaving her sister on the couch. The room is filled with posters, Of Mice and Men, Bring Me the Horizon, Deadmau5, Dimitri Vegas, Tomorrowworld, tickets from events, concerts, festivals, pictures of her friends, from her days in high school, to the military, to recent. A guitar sits in the corner, next to a skateboard and an old boombox. She sits down at the table on the far end of the room, flipping open her laptop and clicking her email open. A message is highlighted from a sender named NC303, she clicks the reply button.

“Delivered.”

She shuts the laptop and stands, stretching before dropping face first onto the bed with a deep sigh. She closes her eyes, and before she knows it, shes fast asleep.

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