Stray Cat Strut

Chapter Four - Where the Fuck is Burlington?

"It's unfortunate that, in times of crisis, the common man cannot trust his government and his co-citizen. Now we need to trust in these samurai. Some of them are true, red-blooded Americans, sure. But just as many of them are foreigners, strangers here to lord over god's chosen people!

I say it's about time we do something about it."

--Pastor Loud, during his last televised broadcast, 2026

***

Very, very early in the morning, two days into my semi-mandatory break, Lucy and I were sitting in our dining room (which was still weird to think about) contemplating life, love, and fast-food fries.

"Why," I asked as I dabbed a sad, pitiful fry into some ketchup, "Do these things always taste like shit the day after?"

Lucy pressed three fries of her own into a plastic container of some sort of mustard-ish stuff. It was yellow and tasted strange, but she liked it. "I don't know," she complained before chewing down.

These were the leftovers from two days ago. The choice stuff was all gone already. Picked over by the kittens and Rac as if they were a flock of starving scavenger birds. The burgers were the first to go, then the pastas and the chicken and rice and all the other food slowly disappeared over the course of the day.

Now all that was left were six big family-sized boxes of fries and a mixed assortment of dipping sauces and packets of ketchup.

"We need to buy better food," Lucy said as she grabbed a few more fries.

"Mm," I agreed. I could have ordered something, but the effort was just too much. Honestly, it was a wonder that I was out of bed at all. Last night, Gomorrah had sent me a message, asking me if I wanted to head out today, and I'd said yes.

We were supposed to meet at her church in the morning, so I had diligently set an alarm and woken up early.

I regretted it. Not that I didn't love spending time with Gomorrah, it was just the obligation that weighed on me.

Then I got a ping from Gomorrah between one fry and the next. "Huh," I said.

"What's up?" Lucy asked.

"Gomorrah's here." I sent her a quick reply, telling her to come in. If the door was locked then... well, she could figure that out, I was sure. "We're here!" I shouted back.

The clonk-clonk of my favourite pyromancer's boots echoed through the halls until she stepped into the dinning room. She was in her full regalia, all shiny black not-leather and full face expressionless mask. "I thought we were going to meet this morning," she said.

"Hi Delilah," I said before gesturing to the fries on the table. "Have you had breakfast yet?"

Gomorrah stared me down, hands on hips. I could just imagine the frown she was wearing at that moment. "Cat, it's eleven."

"AM?" I asked, just to be sure.

"Yes, AM," she said.

"So... I'm not late?"

Gomorrah stared some more, then she reached up and undid her mask to reveal her unamused face. She was still as pretty as ever... though there was something weird about her that I couldn't quite place. Maybe when it wasn't so early I'd figure it out. "Hello, Lucy," she said, much more sweetly than she'd addressed me.

"Hi, Delilah," Lucy said. "How are you doing? Oh, how's Franny?"

Delilah's cheeks flushed, not brightly, but enough that I noticed. And If I noticed, then it might as well have been a siren for Lucy. "She's well. We're well. I think."

"Oh?" Lucy asked. There was a weight of implication on that single syllable that had Delilah standing a bit taller. "Well is good. I can't wait to meet Franny again. I'm sure we have a whole bunch of things to talk about."

"I'm sure the opportunity will come up," Delilah replied.

"So, what are we doing today anyway?" I asked.

"Well, you might start by putting some pants on," she said.

Lucy giggled, then poked me in the shoulder. "Your undersuit thing's in the bedroom. It's a bit melted though."

"Yeah, I'm just going to buy a new one, I think. Hey, do I have time to shower?" I asked Gomorrah.

The look she gave me was priceless, especially when I started laughing. "What's so funny?"

"No, I'm kidding, I showered already," I said.

"But you're not wearing any clothes," Delilah said. "Did you just... shower then change back into sleepwear?"

I pinched the front of my shirt. It was one of those Lucy had made. It said If you can read this you are in range. "Okay, first, this isn't sleepwear, it's an oversized t-shirt for sleeping. It's different. Second, I didn't change into fresh clothes, I just put this back on."

"Cat, that's disgusting," Delilah said.

I sniffed. "Look me in the eyes and tell me you never did it," I said.

She didn't. "You can literally just buy something. It's like, a single point."

"Uh-huh," I said. It didn't matter what she said, I'd won the argument and we both knew it.

Gomorrah sighed and shook her head. "Just, go get dressed. We have things to do."

I laughed as I got up. "Yeah, alright. You still haven't told me what you're planning though." I ran off to our bedroom and got changed. Most of my gear really had melted, so I had to get new stuff. Fortunately, what I had last time was pretty decent. "Hey, Gomorrah!" I shouted, head sticking out of the bedroom.

"What?" she called back.

"What are the chances we'll be shot at or something will try to eat us in the not-fun way?"

"Low?"

"Thanks!"

I shut the door. So I didn't need to buy that new power armour yet. I settled on asking Myalis for a new set of form-fitting suit. Something worth a fair bit more than what I'd been wearing so far.

What I got from that was an outfit that wouldn't fit me if I gained any weight at all. It was all black, with pads covering every surface. "Does this have temperature control stuff?"

Of course. As well as being hypoallergenic and airtight from the neck and wrists down, it has a heating and cooling function, can instantly harden to resist blunt blows, and is obviously tear and puncture proof. It has its limits, but it should provide a level of comfort that will leave you safe and comfortable against most low-risk threats.

That seemed decent enough. I took off my shirt and underthings then slid into the suit which was pleasantly cool to the touch.

Then I ordered a long coat that could turn invisible on command.

I didn't bother bringing a gun other than my trusty Trenchmaker. It had been with me through a lot, and I kind of trusted it to carry me through some more shit.

"Alright," I said as I bounced down the stairs. "I'm ready for... well, not whatever, but maybe some light fighting and such."

Gomorrah nodded. "I think we'll mostly be meeting people at first," she said.

"Is this the part where you tell me what's up?" I asked.

"Maybe on the way over. I said I would arrive by one, and at this rate we'll be cutting it close." Gomorrah refit her mask, then nodded to Lucy. "It was nice seeing you again, Lucy. I... I'll let Franny know that you asked about her. I'm sure she'd love a call though."

"Ah, we're both in a similar situation," she said. "Oh, we should start a club exclusively for the girlfriends of samurai."

Gomorrah stumbled, but caught herself quickly enough. "That... that might be nice. See you later."

I ran over to Lucy, pulled my new helmet off, then gave her a quick smooch. "See you later," I said.

"Be safe," she said.

I nodded, then ran off to catch up with Gomorrah. "Alright, so what's up?

"Things have been developing while we were sitting back and relaxing," she said. "Not all of it good."

"The news seems pretty positive, which is usually a pretty bad sign, yeah," I agreed.

Gomorrah nodded. "We had a few more experienced samurai going around and clearing out bigger hives around most cities. And I think something like seventy percent of all cities are now in orange-green zones. It'll take a while to properly clear the surroundings, but it'll get done. The big issues are the coastal cities and a few holdouts."

"Are we heading all the way to the coast?" I asked.

"No. There's a problem in Burlington. Laserjack asked if we could go over and see what we could do to help."

I paused. "Where the fuck is Burlington?" I asked.

"It's a small city to the south. What used to be Vermont, now it's a corpo-state for like, retirees and such. The city barely had any walls and it got overrun pretty hard. They lost a few samurai already, and now the population is holed up in half the city while they wait for help to arrive or for the antithesis to give up."

"So we're their only hope?" I asked.

"No, the Family's asking other samurai to pitch in too. It's just that we might be the first volunteers to arrive. Everyone's busy, and most places didn't get out of things as easily as we did here."

"Well, that's encouraging. And why, exactly, did you tell me I didn't need to come loaded for bear?"

"Because we're just going to meet the locals, not fight," she said. "Not unless something goes terribly wrong."

***