I live in a hab-block on a residential planet on the bad side of the core. It is mainly housing commission and squatters. Everyone is on drugs and welfare. My father is Frank Gallagher from the tv series Shameless. I have some brothers and sisters who are also from that show and a younger brother from primary school who got a job on a mining colony and moved off planet some time ago.
My family is having a party because there is not much else to do. There are cheap streamers hanging around the 63rd floor apartment. Most of the people from our floor are there, a lot of them from the tv show. My older sister, who is not from the tv show but has the same haircut as one of them, runs into the room. She is in hysterics, alternately bawling and screaming. She tells us that she owes money to some dealers. That they took her baby and are going to inject it with heroin to teach her a lesson.
Frank Gallagher and I find ourselves in an abandoned warehouse on the other side of the city. There is a deafening roar from a nearby spaceport. This is where the dealer is. We will know him when we see him because he wears an Easter Bunny costume as a disguise. The warehouse is filled with soot and weed plants. Most of the windows are broken. We both have kitchen knives. Mine is slightly smaller than Frank’s but Frank is slightly taller than I am.
The dealer in the bunny suit is standing near some other criminals. One of them has an AK47. Frank grabs the dealer in the bunny suit. I grab the guy with the AK47. I stick my knife into his back, near his spine. Frank tries to stab the dealer in the throat but the bunny suit gets in the way. The dealer grabs the knife off Frank. I grab the AK47 and shoot the dealer several times in the chest. The front of his costume goes red and his mask falls off. It is not the right guy. Some cops run in and rush to where he is propped up against the wall. The guy in the bunny suit was an undercover cop. The cops shoot Frank with a laser and he burns. I run away.
I find myself on a grassy hill looking down at the megacity. It is sunny and I find shade under a tree. The grass feels nice, like it has gotten a good amount of rain recently. I can see blue and white cop speeders flying around. Some of them are looking for me. I light a cigarette and think that there are two types of people on this planet; cops and drug addicts. I walk up a dirt road. My rich uncle has a house in the country.
At my uncle’s house I video call my younger brother. His face comes up on the holo-screen and he is that kid from primary school who’s house burned down. I never really talked to him until the morning that his house burned down. He didn’t cry but I could tell he wanted to. He tells me that he can get me off planet. That I can stay at his house on the colony. That I have to pay 9000 credits a month to stay there. I get pissed off but he reminds me that technically he pays my wages because I am on welfare and I feel bad about that. I feel bad that I am a parasite.
Not everyone on this planet can be useful. Some people cannot get along without someone dragging them. Some people start poor and never stop. Some kids start addicted to drugs. Races are much harder to run when there are 7 billion people clogging up the track. People will tell you what you should be but they are not you. Fuck them for not being you. Fuck them for thinking you should to be them. Shame is a thing but it is not a necessary thing and you do not have to be a necessary thing either.
Skydekkerix 