Post by Max Florez on Apr 9, 2009 4:36:42 GMT -5
August 4th, 2008, 1:15 p.m.
Max and Joey are in the Vigero driving northbound across the East Borough bridge. Joey is looking at the map and Max is driving.
"There's an off-ramp ahead and once we get off it we'll need to make a sharp left turn. That'll put us on Rocket street. From there, we need to take the first street on the right, and that'll be Joliet avenue. The apartment complex is on that street, that block, on the left side of the street from where we'll enter, and it's a one way street, so we can park on the other side of the street. You got all that?"
"I got it."
"You sure?"
"I'm sure."
Max continues to drive the car across the bridge. They come to the off-ramp and make the sharp left onto Rocket street. Then the right onto Joliet avenue. Joey sees a building with a "room for rent" sign on it.
"That must be the place, man. Pull over."
Max pulls the Vigero over to the left side of the street in front of the door to the apartment complex and parks it. Max turns the car off and then he and Joey get out of the car and go inside the apartment complex.
"There's no office or anything. So, where do we find the land lord?"
Joey is reading the ad in the paper about the apartment.
"It says here, he lives on the second floor, room one-oh-one."
They walk up the stairs to the second floor and find room 101. Then Max knocks on the door. A balding, middle-aged white man in a white wife-beater and black athletic shorts opens the door.
"Who are you two?"
"We're here about the apartment you're trying to rent out."
"Oh. Would you like to see it, then?"
"Yes, we would."
"Alright. Follow me up to the sixth floor. That's where it is."
They follow the land lord up to the sixth floor and over to the apartment, number 602. It has a dark grey door whereas the other apartments all have brown doors, except 601 which has a white door. All the brown doors also had little windows in them. But the grey door for 602 just has a small peep-hole, but so does the white door for 601. The land lord pulls out a key ring and finds the one for 602 and unlocks the door with it. Then he opens the door and leads Max and Joey inside the apartment. He flips the light-switch by the door to turn on the ceiling lights in the main living room.
"Okay. Here it is. It's not much, I know. But you guys could furnish it anyway you like."
Max and Joey take a look around. There's an old looking grey couch sitting against the back wall facing the front wall and a TV stand with no TV.
"Well, there's no TV..."
"Yeah, uh, the guy that lived here before took it with him when he left, even though it wasn't his. And I don't know where he went so I can't get it back. But you guys can get one yourself and you can take it with you when and if you ever move out."
"Yeah, I guess that wouldn't be hard."
"Is there anything else you'd like to know?"
"How many bedrooms are there?"
"Two small ones. Both fully furnished with beds, dressers, and nightstands. There's one bathroom over here by the kitchen area which has a stove and a fridge along with cupboards, obviously, and a small dining table. It is pretty small, but there's enough room to walk around in, so, you should be alright. Anything else?"
"No, I think that covers the apartment itself. How about utilities?"
"All covered with your rent."
"How much is the rent?"
"Two-hundred a month."
"That sounds fair. Do you mind if I talk it over with my friend?"
Sure, sure. Go ahead."
Max and Joey step into one of the bedrooms and talk.
"This place ain't bad, man."
You're right. And it's cheap, too. Two-hundred bucks a month? We can make that easy, and then some."
"Plus, we gotta think of it this way: all we need is a place to live. We don't need anything big or fancy."
"Right. So, is this the place, then? Have we found our new home?"
"It works for me, man. If it works for you, then we're ready to roll."
"Let's do it, then."
They come out of the bedroom and talk to the land lord.
"There's one other thing I forgot to mention. Since you're on the top floor, you have quick access to the roof. There's two staircases that lead up to it, one on each side, so you can get up there and get to the fire escape in case of an emergency."
"Alright, cool. I think we got a deal, then."
"You boys want to do it, then?"
"Yes, we'll take it."
"Alright. Let me go get the papers you need to sign and we'll make this official."
"Alright."
The land lord leaves and the boys sit down on the couch.
"You know, this place ain't bad, and all we need is a TV."
"Yup. And it shouldn't be hard to find a TV for cheap. I just wonder how much the down payment will be on this apartment."
"Yeah. He didn't say anything about that, did he?"
"Nope. But if the rent is only two-hundred, then the down payment shouldn't be that high."
"Right."
The land lord comes back in with the papers.
"Alright, boys. I got the papers here. I just need you both to sign."
"Before we do, how much is the down payment?"
"I don't do that down payment stuff. You pay monthly for however long you're here. I have enough insurance on this place to cover anything that gets broken, except your stuff. But if you do break anything, you have to spend the night in jail. It's in the contract so..., just letting you know."
"Oh, well, we'll be sure to not break anything, then."
Do we still got a deal? Or did that part change your mind?"
"No, no. We still have a deal."
"Alright, then. I'll just need both of you to sign here, here, and here."
Max and Joey sign on all three papers. Then the land lord takes them and looks them over.
"Looks good, boys. Alright. All I need is the first month's rent and you can settle in to your new apartment."
"Here ya go."
Max hands the land lord 200 dollars.
"Thank you. I'll let you guys settle in, then."
The land lord leaves and the boys start to look over the apartment again. The two bedrooms are right next to each other and they are on the right side from the front door. The living room area is on the left and the kitchen is even more to the left, past the living room area. The bathroom is immediately left from the front door.
"Which bedroom do you want, dude?"
"I don't really care. They're both basically the same."
"Alright then. I'll take the back one in the corner. You can have the one that's closer to the front door."
"Works for me, man."
The guys sit back down on the couch and start to go over a few things.
"Well, that's another two-hundred and fifty seven bucks we won't see again."
"Yeah. I can't believe they charged us fifty seven bucks at the DMV for two drivers licenses and a set of plates for the car."
"Well, transferring that shit over does cost, so..."
"Shit, though. I feel bad about that."
"About what?"
"About us havin' to spend money on a new license for me when you're gonna be doin' all the drivin'. You are the better driver, anyways."
"Yeah, I always was good at handling cars. But don't feel bad about that. We'll get another car after we start makin' some money, that way we'll both have a car to get to work with. If we can even find real jobs, that is."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I mean, we already gotta do this favor for Lola. What the hell do ya think it's gonna be? Probably nothin' that's legal. Probably not a regular day-job type thing. I told you earlier. We're gonna hafta clean up a lot of shit to get this monkey off our backs."
"I'm sorry, man. But we needed that car."
"Yeah, we did. And that Lola is so damn hot. I would do damn near anything to help that babe out."
"Same here, man. Although, I don't think I'd bang 'er."
"Why not?"
"I dunno. She just looks like one of those girls that's just... dirty, you know? Like she might have somethin'."
"What? You mean, like a hooker? With an STD?"
"She could be a hooker. She could have an STD. I don't know. But I don't want it if she has one."
"Good point."
There's an awkward silence for a few moments.
"Anyways. I saw a grocery store right next to the apartment complex when we came in. You wanna go down there and get us some food 'n stuff?"
"Sure. Money?"
"A hundred oughta be enough. There ya go."
Max hands Joey a hundred dollars and Joey leaves with it and goes to the grocery store. Meanwhile, Max gets up off the couch and goes into his room. He looks around for a little bit. He looks in between the mattress and box-spring of the bed and finds a piece of paper with something written on it. But it appears to be in another language, one that Max isn't familiar with. Since Max and Joey were SEALs, they were taught to be fluent in several languages. So, being unfamiliar with the language in the note puzzles Max.
He decides to put the note away so he goes over to the nightstand and opens the drawer in it. Inside, he finds a black Colt model 1911 pistol. It's unloaded, not even one in the chamber, but it does have an empty clip with it, although, not in the magazine hole. After checking the pistol, Max puts the note down in the drawer and puts the pistol, now with the clip in the magazine hole, on top of the note. He closes the drawer and then goes over to the dresser and checks all four drawers of it. He finds nothing.
He decides to search Joey's room. He looks in the dresser, nothing. He checks under the mattress, another note. This one appears to have some sort of code on it. He holds on to it as he checks the nightstand. In it he finds another Colt model 1911 pistol, this one has a chrome finish, with another empty clip. He puts the clip in the gun, and takes the gun and note back to the nightstand in his room and stashes them there, as well.
Max then goes out to the kitchen area over to the sink. He looks in the cupboards above it and finds dishes, cups, bowls, all that stuff. He takes a cup and fills it with cold water from the sink. He takes a drink and then looks in the drawers and finds plenty of silverware.
After finishing the water, and rinsing out the cup and putting it back in the cupboard, he goes back to his room and lays down on the bed. He starts to think back to his time as a SEAL. About that last mission that caused all of this.
There he was, in a foreign land, moving ever closer to his objective. The mission was simple: infiltrate a small village and kill everyone in it. Max was told that the village was for enemy soldiers and that there would be no innocent people there. Max and his squad, Joey and four other SEALs, went in quickly and quietly. They planted a few explosive charges on a few small houses and then moved to the rendezvous point to detonate the charges.
Once the charges were detonated, people started to flee from other buildings in the village. Max sent the four other SEALs to deal with them while he and Joey searched all the interiors. The two went from building to building and searched them room by room until only one building remained, one of the ones that they had planted a charge on.
The building was partially destroyed from the blast, but Max and Joey searched every room they could get in to. In the last room they found a man's body. It looked like he was killed by the blast from the explosion. There were a few small pieces of debris laying on top of the body and it was laying face down. Max and Joey moved the debris off and rolled the body over only to find the man was still breathing.
Joey immediately readied his pistol, but Max told him to wait. Max gets down on his knees and speaks to the man in his native language and asks him who he was working for. The man replied in his native language and said "We are only civilians. We want the terrorists gone just as badly as you do. We only want peace." Max can hear gunshots going off in the distance and screams, as well as explosions.
Again, Max speaks in the man's language "You're not soldiers?" The man replies "No. We are merely poor farmers. All we want is peace." After this, the man breathes his last breath and dies from his injuries. Max gets up and leaves the room. Joey follows behind him. Both now understood what had happened.
"Yo! Wake up, man."
Max snaps back to reality and sees Joey standing over him.
"What the fuck? Are you sleeping already? It's only, like, three o'clock."
Max sits up, and then stands up.
"No, not sleepin'. Just thinkin' bout some stuff."
"Well, think about helpin' me get this shit put away. I got plenty of supplies."
They go out to the kitchen and Max sees a bunch of bags sitting on the table. Together they put everything where it should go and put the empty bags in the trashcan by the fridge. Then they sit down on the couch.
"All that stuff and I only spent seventy-five bucks. So, here's the other twenty-five back.
Joey gives Max the 25 dollars and Max puts it in his wallet.
"So, what do we do now?"
"I dunno bout you, but I'm fuckin' hungry."
"Yeah, dude. Me, too. Let's eat."
They go back to the kitchen and start fixing up some food for themselves.
August 4th, 2008, 3:05 p.m.
Money on hand:
$3,640.00
Weapons on hand:
None
Weapons in cache:
1 Black 1911 Colt .45 - No ammo
1 Chrome 1911 Colt .45 - No ammo
Max and Joey are in the Vigero driving northbound across the East Borough bridge. Joey is looking at the map and Max is driving.
"There's an off-ramp ahead and once we get off it we'll need to make a sharp left turn. That'll put us on Rocket street. From there, we need to take the first street on the right, and that'll be Joliet avenue. The apartment complex is on that street, that block, on the left side of the street from where we'll enter, and it's a one way street, so we can park on the other side of the street. You got all that?"
"I got it."
"You sure?"
"I'm sure."
Max continues to drive the car across the bridge. They come to the off-ramp and make the sharp left onto Rocket street. Then the right onto Joliet avenue. Joey sees a building with a "room for rent" sign on it.
"That must be the place, man. Pull over."
Max pulls the Vigero over to the left side of the street in front of the door to the apartment complex and parks it. Max turns the car off and then he and Joey get out of the car and go inside the apartment complex.
"There's no office or anything. So, where do we find the land lord?"
Joey is reading the ad in the paper about the apartment.
"It says here, he lives on the second floor, room one-oh-one."
They walk up the stairs to the second floor and find room 101. Then Max knocks on the door. A balding, middle-aged white man in a white wife-beater and black athletic shorts opens the door.
"Who are you two?"
"We're here about the apartment you're trying to rent out."
"Oh. Would you like to see it, then?"
"Yes, we would."
"Alright. Follow me up to the sixth floor. That's where it is."
They follow the land lord up to the sixth floor and over to the apartment, number 602. It has a dark grey door whereas the other apartments all have brown doors, except 601 which has a white door. All the brown doors also had little windows in them. But the grey door for 602 just has a small peep-hole, but so does the white door for 601. The land lord pulls out a key ring and finds the one for 602 and unlocks the door with it. Then he opens the door and leads Max and Joey inside the apartment. He flips the light-switch by the door to turn on the ceiling lights in the main living room.
"Okay. Here it is. It's not much, I know. But you guys could furnish it anyway you like."
Max and Joey take a look around. There's an old looking grey couch sitting against the back wall facing the front wall and a TV stand with no TV.
"Well, there's no TV..."
"Yeah, uh, the guy that lived here before took it with him when he left, even though it wasn't his. And I don't know where he went so I can't get it back. But you guys can get one yourself and you can take it with you when and if you ever move out."
"Yeah, I guess that wouldn't be hard."
"Is there anything else you'd like to know?"
"How many bedrooms are there?"
"Two small ones. Both fully furnished with beds, dressers, and nightstands. There's one bathroom over here by the kitchen area which has a stove and a fridge along with cupboards, obviously, and a small dining table. It is pretty small, but there's enough room to walk around in, so, you should be alright. Anything else?"
"No, I think that covers the apartment itself. How about utilities?"
"All covered with your rent."
"How much is the rent?"
"Two-hundred a month."
"That sounds fair. Do you mind if I talk it over with my friend?"
Sure, sure. Go ahead."
Max and Joey step into one of the bedrooms and talk.
"This place ain't bad, man."
You're right. And it's cheap, too. Two-hundred bucks a month? We can make that easy, and then some."
"Plus, we gotta think of it this way: all we need is a place to live. We don't need anything big or fancy."
"Right. So, is this the place, then? Have we found our new home?"
"It works for me, man. If it works for you, then we're ready to roll."
"Let's do it, then."
They come out of the bedroom and talk to the land lord.
"There's one other thing I forgot to mention. Since you're on the top floor, you have quick access to the roof. There's two staircases that lead up to it, one on each side, so you can get up there and get to the fire escape in case of an emergency."
"Alright, cool. I think we got a deal, then."
"You boys want to do it, then?"
"Yes, we'll take it."
"Alright. Let me go get the papers you need to sign and we'll make this official."
"Alright."
The land lord leaves and the boys sit down on the couch.
"You know, this place ain't bad, and all we need is a TV."
"Yup. And it shouldn't be hard to find a TV for cheap. I just wonder how much the down payment will be on this apartment."
"Yeah. He didn't say anything about that, did he?"
"Nope. But if the rent is only two-hundred, then the down payment shouldn't be that high."
"Right."
The land lord comes back in with the papers.
"Alright, boys. I got the papers here. I just need you both to sign."
"Before we do, how much is the down payment?"
"I don't do that down payment stuff. You pay monthly for however long you're here. I have enough insurance on this place to cover anything that gets broken, except your stuff. But if you do break anything, you have to spend the night in jail. It's in the contract so..., just letting you know."
"Oh, well, we'll be sure to not break anything, then."
Do we still got a deal? Or did that part change your mind?"
"No, no. We still have a deal."
"Alright, then. I'll just need both of you to sign here, here, and here."
Max and Joey sign on all three papers. Then the land lord takes them and looks them over.
"Looks good, boys. Alright. All I need is the first month's rent and you can settle in to your new apartment."
"Here ya go."
Max hands the land lord 200 dollars.
"Thank you. I'll let you guys settle in, then."
The land lord leaves and the boys start to look over the apartment again. The two bedrooms are right next to each other and they are on the right side from the front door. The living room area is on the left and the kitchen is even more to the left, past the living room area. The bathroom is immediately left from the front door.
"Which bedroom do you want, dude?"
"I don't really care. They're both basically the same."
"Alright then. I'll take the back one in the corner. You can have the one that's closer to the front door."
"Works for me, man."
The guys sit back down on the couch and start to go over a few things.
"Well, that's another two-hundred and fifty seven bucks we won't see again."
"Yeah. I can't believe they charged us fifty seven bucks at the DMV for two drivers licenses and a set of plates for the car."
"Well, transferring that shit over does cost, so..."
"Shit, though. I feel bad about that."
"About what?"
"About us havin' to spend money on a new license for me when you're gonna be doin' all the drivin'. You are the better driver, anyways."
"Yeah, I always was good at handling cars. But don't feel bad about that. We'll get another car after we start makin' some money, that way we'll both have a car to get to work with. If we can even find real jobs, that is."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I mean, we already gotta do this favor for Lola. What the hell do ya think it's gonna be? Probably nothin' that's legal. Probably not a regular day-job type thing. I told you earlier. We're gonna hafta clean up a lot of shit to get this monkey off our backs."
"I'm sorry, man. But we needed that car."
"Yeah, we did. And that Lola is so damn hot. I would do damn near anything to help that babe out."
"Same here, man. Although, I don't think I'd bang 'er."
"Why not?"
"I dunno. She just looks like one of those girls that's just... dirty, you know? Like she might have somethin'."
"What? You mean, like a hooker? With an STD?"
"She could be a hooker. She could have an STD. I don't know. But I don't want it if she has one."
"Good point."
There's an awkward silence for a few moments.
"Anyways. I saw a grocery store right next to the apartment complex when we came in. You wanna go down there and get us some food 'n stuff?"
"Sure. Money?"
"A hundred oughta be enough. There ya go."
Max hands Joey a hundred dollars and Joey leaves with it and goes to the grocery store. Meanwhile, Max gets up off the couch and goes into his room. He looks around for a little bit. He looks in between the mattress and box-spring of the bed and finds a piece of paper with something written on it. But it appears to be in another language, one that Max isn't familiar with. Since Max and Joey were SEALs, they were taught to be fluent in several languages. So, being unfamiliar with the language in the note puzzles Max.
He decides to put the note away so he goes over to the nightstand and opens the drawer in it. Inside, he finds a black Colt model 1911 pistol. It's unloaded, not even one in the chamber, but it does have an empty clip with it, although, not in the magazine hole. After checking the pistol, Max puts the note down in the drawer and puts the pistol, now with the clip in the magazine hole, on top of the note. He closes the drawer and then goes over to the dresser and checks all four drawers of it. He finds nothing.
He decides to search Joey's room. He looks in the dresser, nothing. He checks under the mattress, another note. This one appears to have some sort of code on it. He holds on to it as he checks the nightstand. In it he finds another Colt model 1911 pistol, this one has a chrome finish, with another empty clip. He puts the clip in the gun, and takes the gun and note back to the nightstand in his room and stashes them there, as well.
Max then goes out to the kitchen area over to the sink. He looks in the cupboards above it and finds dishes, cups, bowls, all that stuff. He takes a cup and fills it with cold water from the sink. He takes a drink and then looks in the drawers and finds plenty of silverware.
After finishing the water, and rinsing out the cup and putting it back in the cupboard, he goes back to his room and lays down on the bed. He starts to think back to his time as a SEAL. About that last mission that caused all of this.
There he was, in a foreign land, moving ever closer to his objective. The mission was simple: infiltrate a small village and kill everyone in it. Max was told that the village was for enemy soldiers and that there would be no innocent people there. Max and his squad, Joey and four other SEALs, went in quickly and quietly. They planted a few explosive charges on a few small houses and then moved to the rendezvous point to detonate the charges.
Once the charges were detonated, people started to flee from other buildings in the village. Max sent the four other SEALs to deal with them while he and Joey searched all the interiors. The two went from building to building and searched them room by room until only one building remained, one of the ones that they had planted a charge on.
The building was partially destroyed from the blast, but Max and Joey searched every room they could get in to. In the last room they found a man's body. It looked like he was killed by the blast from the explosion. There were a few small pieces of debris laying on top of the body and it was laying face down. Max and Joey moved the debris off and rolled the body over only to find the man was still breathing.
Joey immediately readied his pistol, but Max told him to wait. Max gets down on his knees and speaks to the man in his native language and asks him who he was working for. The man replied in his native language and said "We are only civilians. We want the terrorists gone just as badly as you do. We only want peace." Max can hear gunshots going off in the distance and screams, as well as explosions.
Again, Max speaks in the man's language "You're not soldiers?" The man replies "No. We are merely poor farmers. All we want is peace." After this, the man breathes his last breath and dies from his injuries. Max gets up and leaves the room. Joey follows behind him. Both now understood what had happened.
"Yo! Wake up, man."
Max snaps back to reality and sees Joey standing over him.
"What the fuck? Are you sleeping already? It's only, like, three o'clock."
Max sits up, and then stands up.
"No, not sleepin'. Just thinkin' bout some stuff."
"Well, think about helpin' me get this shit put away. I got plenty of supplies."
They go out to the kitchen and Max sees a bunch of bags sitting on the table. Together they put everything where it should go and put the empty bags in the trashcan by the fridge. Then they sit down on the couch.
"All that stuff and I only spent seventy-five bucks. So, here's the other twenty-five back.
Joey gives Max the 25 dollars and Max puts it in his wallet.
"So, what do we do now?"
"I dunno bout you, but I'm fuckin' hungry."
"Yeah, dude. Me, too. Let's eat."
They go back to the kitchen and start fixing up some food for themselves.
August 4th, 2008, 3:05 p.m.
Money on hand:
$3,640.00
Weapons on hand:
None
Weapons in cache:
1 Black 1911 Colt .45 - No ammo
1 Chrome 1911 Colt .45 - No ammo