Lev.DN.....Index.....Identity Crisis, page 1 (c)1996 Lee Skidmore.....Lev.UP

Chapter Zero


The hex was back on the streets in a big way. That's why Johnny had spent the night perched on a rapidly decomposing d-grade crate above a putrid sludge in a freezing Drag Town dumpster. Waiting for a big deal that never went down. He had passed the time wondering what kind of new viruses he was breathing, and thinking that he had become much too stiff to do anything if something did go down.

Somewhere there was an informer dreaming warm E-dreams in a cozy VR bar. "An informer who is dead meat, he just doesn't know it yet," growled Johnny, as he rubbed at a sore throat he was sure wasn't his imagination.

Hex had become the ultimate cool-tool. The hex created an awake-dream state. And, then there was VR, the perfect thing to add to hex. A combination that had created legions of E-Zombies.

"They don't even have the decency to forget to eat and die," grumbled the weary detective. The smog was brightening as he wrote off his wasted hours of unpaid overtime. Carefully, Johnny climbed out of the slimy container. After a much needed forty-eight off he planned to be back ripping up the real root of the problem.

.

.

Lev.DN.....Index.....Identity Crisis, page 1 (c)1996 Lee Skidmore.....Lev.UP