AUTHOR'S NOTE: This flash fiction piece about Danny and Danica, otherwise known as the twins, is not part of the novel. This is also a Sunday Scribblings post. It contains no spoilers, and it contains links to relevant supplemental information, where appropriate. Please to go the Sunday Scribblings for more fun!
Danica inhaled deeply and sighed.
"They're even using barbeque sauce," Danny whispered. "Damn them."
The twins peered cautiously over the ledge, but the ragged group below was too entranced by their find to look up. Their attention was fixed on the grill where shanks of goat were roasting over the flames.
"I wish we'd seen it before they did," Danica said.
Danny nodded. "I thought the Zoo Tribe was doing a better job of watching their animals. We'll have to monitor them. Maybe another one will get loose."
"And in the meantime..." Danica looked at the roasting meat below. Since the pandemic, fresh meat had consisted mostly of stray pets, rats and pigeons, causing the badly hacked-off limbs of the petting zoo goat to take on the aura of divine culinary art.
"They're a bunch of nobodies," Danny said, in reference to the group of hungry children waiting for a meal. "We just need a plan."
Silently, they moved away from the ledge to check their weapons and equipment. The hooks and ropes of their rappelling gear might stand them in good stead, if their aim was good, but...
"We'll need a distraction," Danny said. "Otherwise they aren't taking their eyes off that meat until it goes into their stomachs."
"We can't do anything too chaotic. Someone else might come and steal it before we get our share."
Danny drew a lighter from his pocket. "I've got just the thing."
Danica trusted his judgment on these matters and began unwinding a rope. "Where should I meet you? Home?"
"That looted bank on Fourteenth. If I'm not there, keep going."
Danny moved to go, but she called him back. "Hey." She met his eyes, then glanced away. "They don't look like much, but sometimes the ones who don't seem dangerous--"
"Are the worst," he finished for her. "I know." He kissed her hard on the mouth, then slipped into the shadows of the building.
Danica finished getting her hooks and ropes ready. She wouldn't have much time, but she and Danny were used to working fast. All those years of martial arts, sharpshooting, and survival classes had been good fun when they were children, but as orphans of the pandemic, it was the difference between life and death, between preserving their special bond and independence, versus being forced by hunger to join a gang.
She moved to the ledge, picked out a promising piece of meat on the grill below, and waited. She and Danny would eat well tonight.
Steal Tomorrow Extra: Stealing Dinner
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10 comments:
I really disliked these two when they first appeared but they grew on me. I hope they got their goat :)
The twins are weird, bratty, and irredeemably selfish, but...yeah. They follow no one's rules, which gives them a certain exasperating charm.
Yup, I find the twins oddly charming, too. And fascinating. I like their devotion to each other and their determination to be, as a unit, self-reliant -- I see it as their way of protecting themselves not just physically but coping emotionally with their difficult world.
I was always kinda fond of them just 'cause they ARE so different, and so in your face about it.
And I knew they couldn't go more than a few minutes without touching or kissing!
You're a good story weaver, left me wanting more.
The twins are interesting and thier survival techniques keen trying to make it in a difficult place. One is drawn to follow them and quietly rooting them on and hoping that their circumstances turn for the better.
Put yourself in their situation and you too would be doing your level best to survive like them.
Let's hope they succeed this time. Mind you they need some veggies too!
@oldegg: They try to get fruits and vegetables, but it's pretty much all canned stuff at this point. Danny and Danica aren't exactly big on gardening.
I like the "twins", though I don't trust them at all.
Danny's comment in Chapter Twelve pretty much sums it up: they don't mean anyone any harm, but they only look out for each other. Usually. Sometimes they forget and do someone a favor, but it's usually a favor that accrues to their benefit, anyway.
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