Steal My Stuff: January 2011

The eye of a security camera watches over a dark and decrepit street.

Suprgrl5, half lit by a strong side light, walks steadily and assuredly below the camera, high heels clip-clopping on the hard surface. She stops at once; the faint echo of her shoes fade quickly away. But with something else mixed in. Another sound. She touches the side of her neck reflexively, pressing her hand against the large and thick collar of her jacket.

She continues on, walking steadily past some graffiti. She reads a spray-painted sign: “Power --Orwell”. She looks a little closer and can see the faded remnants of the original message, “Power to the people -–Lennon”. Next to the attribution sits a painted flower, its colours faded and mute. She breaths in and, just for a split-second, thinks she can smell its scent, filling her nostrils and reminding her of a field near her house when she was seven. Her mind races with images of thick, green grass and tall, strong eucalyptus trees, shading her on hot summer afternoons. A smile curls her lips.

She was happy then. Before all the changes.

She frowns. This is the real world. A new world. If you want your dreams to come true, you must first endure your nightmares.

A siren ee-yore's far away, loud in the quiet air.

Ee-yore, ee-yore, ee-yore.

'Can we turn the damn siren off, Randhir?' says Gary.

'What's wrong?' says Randhir. 'You used to love that sound.'

'I used to love what it meant: action, chases, nabbing the bad guys. Now it just gives me a headache. Everything gives me a headache.'

'Catching the bad guy,' repeats Randhir. 'That's what we're doing now!'

'No, we're on our way to harass someone. Used to be a person could go out whenever they wanted, wherever they wanted.'

Blue and red lights flash against the bonnet as the car speeds down an empty highway.

'Pfft,' says Rhandir. 'The past was a bad place. Things are safer now.'

'Sure, bad stuff happened,' says Gary. 'But bad stuff still happens. We barely scratch the surface of all the crime in this place – its just more hidden now.'

Rhandir looks incredulously at his partner before screeching around a corner. 'So we just need more security: more scanners, cameras. If that freedom bill passes we'll get complete authority to catch bad gu-'

'You mean break into innocent people's homes,' interrupts Gary.

They catch up to a lone car, travelling along the highway, and keep their distance.

'No one's innocent, Gary.' Rhandir shoots his partner a serious look. 'Things are safer. We know what everyone's doing! Of course things are safer.'

The car ahead indicates, pulling over to the side of the road. Rhandir follows, parking behind the car.

Gary looks down at the central console screen, watching the automatic registration recognition system send a query off to the primary server.

'It's all fake,' says Gary. 'All for show. It might make us feel safer, but we're not. And at what price?'

'I think you're losing it, Gary. We're out here risking our lives, making the world a better place. We're the goodies, they're the baddies. Simple.'

'So this car we're pulling over: they're the baddies?'

'Come on, Gary. He's asking for it. Being out at night and all.'

'There's all sorts of reasons to be out at night,' says Gary.

'Hmm?' Randhir is focussed on the screen, reading the response. 'They aren't on the work list. Only bad guys come out to play at night. Time to get busy.'

Rhandir jumps out of the car, gun holster opened. Gary sighs and follows suit with much less enthusiasm.

By the time he gets to the car his partner is already standing by the drivers side door, gun pointed through the window. Gary comes up along the other side of the car and peers inside the back seat, where he picks out a woman lying back with legs spread.

'Get out of the car, get out of the car,' shouts Randhir.

'Rhandi, they're having a baby. Take it easy.'

'I said get out of the car now, creep!' yells Randhir.

The driver has his arms in the air in a panic, looking back and forth between Gary and Rhandir.

'Go on your way, sir,' says Gary. 'Rhandi, gun down!'

The driver waits for Rhandir to lower his weapon before driving off quickly.

'What the hell, man?!' says Rhandir. 'You've gone soft. We could have got them for plenty. Could have at least kept the bum in lock-up over night.

'And what, deliver the baby ourselves?'

'If you let one go, they all do the same shit. They're smarter than you think, Gary. They talk, learn. You know how tough this job is. It only works because they don't realise how much they outnumber is. Ten-to-one, twenty-to-one; those aren't good odds, Gary. Sure, a cop is worth one and a half, maybe two normal people, but still...'

Gary starts to respond then stops. Where to start? Where to end, for that matter? It's all one big headache and it isn't getting better.

Gary rubs his temple and heads back to the car. 'Come on, let's go,' he says.

The distant sirens have faded. Silence once more, as Suprgrl5 makes her way down some smaller streets.

The sound of a can getting kicked hits her soul. She turns her head quickly, heart racing. Only darkness. She walks away from the sound, pacing faster, her clip-clops becoming cli-ops.

She turns a corner and looks up into a security camera. She walks under it, its dark eye following her, watching her from above.

Suprgrl5 glances at her watch, pausing for long enough to read the time, and then continuing on briskly.

A flash, as a figure brushes by a security camera, its movement blurred.

Suprgrl5 begins a trot. She looks behind her but can see only darkness, getting darker with every step. She breathes heavily. Tries to focus on a street sign, but her eyes are blurry. Notices a dark alley. Thinks for a moment. Then darts within its confines. Hiding, she looks up and around.

At the end of the alleyway is a large, black, spherical ball, almost hanging in the air. Encased in the ball is a security camera, its light blinking: green, off, green, off. She closes her eyes and hopes that it's looking her way.

Below the camera a shadow moves, then stops. It seems to disappear, its shape welcomed and melded into the existing darkness.

Suprgrl5 catches the glint of an eye, watching her. She touches the side of her neck, feeling a small lump.

The sound of a switch-blade opening echoes along the walls, once then twice. Feeling a surge of adrenalin, she stands up and moves out into the middle of the alley, her arms outstretched slightly.

The figure leaps forward, forcing Suprgrl5 to the ground.

The surveillance camera watches a woman getting attacked by a dark assailant, movement fast and rigid. In a flash the figure is gone. The woman clutches her neck, dripping red; bright and prominent on the newly installed colour cameras. She seems to slowly fade into the blackness.

'There's nothing here,' says Gary.

'What do you mean nothing? Four and a half minutes ago a woman was attacked, killed. It was seen through that...' He points to the large black ball, '...camera.'

'What can I say, Rhandi? There's no one here.' Gary smiles, his expression hidden in the shadows of the alley.

'OK, what about the blood?' says Rhandir. 'Dispatch specifically mentioned a bloody neck. In fact, I'll call for a lab team right now.'

'Hold on, Rhandi,' says Gary. He presses something to his lips, tasting it. 'Not unless they can get DNA out of syrup, corn flour and some red colouring.'

'Shit!' says Rhandir. 'Unbelievable. Maybe you're right, Gary. Maybe things really are going down the gurgler.'

'I don't know about that,' says Gary, taking another taste of the viscous liquid. 'I think there might be hope yet.'

Suprgrl5 wipes fake blood from her neck as she walks back to her car.

'Argh!' shouts a figure, jumping in front of her.

She takes a step back and holds her breath for a moment.

'It's me!' it shouts. 'CaptnMrvl. From back there.'

CaptnMrvl points in the vague direction of the alleyway.

'OK,' says Suprgrl5. She looks briefly at the man – no, boy - in front of her. He is fifteen or sixteen, with pimples and long hair. Who else would do this kind of thing? Anyone older would either be too busy working and bringing up a family, or too scared to lose the meagre items they've accumulated.

She puts her head down and continues walking.

'Man, I'm still buzzing' says CaptnMrvl, coming up beside her. 'That was legit, man, le-jiiiit.'

'Yeah,' says Suprgrl5 quietly.

'Maybe I shouldn't say it and stuff but that was, like, my first time. I've never done that shit before. Glad it really was you – would have been hell funny if you weren't the right chick, hey?'

'Sure would have,' says Suprgrl5.

'Hey, what's your real name?' says CaptnMrvl. 'I know your handle but-'

'We aren't supposed to use our real names.'

CaptnMrvl circles Suprgrl5 as he speaks, flailing his arms wildly.

'I know, I know. But we could do it. We've just given one to the pigs. We should be celebrating. Hey, let's go have a drink or something. Do you do that after? How many times have you done this?'

'No,' says Suprlgrl5, answering one of the questions. She pulls some cloth away from her neck and inspects it, satisfied that all the blood is gone.

'I saw what you did with that fake blood thing on your neck. Went straight for it. Pretty good, hey? And the knife thing – I clicked it twice, like you said in your post. You must've done this a lot. How many times you done this?'

'A few,' says Suprgrl5.

'Cool, cool. Where do you live? Maybe we could have drinks there?'

'Look, I don't mean to be rude,' says Suprgrl5, 'but I like that all this is anonymous. I don't want anything else to do with you.'

CaptnMrvl looks back with a doleful expression.

Suprgrl5 relents. 'I just mean I want my privacy. It's why I'm doing this in the first place.'

She looks towards CaptnMrvl earnestly.

'If we can make them waste their resources,' she says, 'force them out to places where no crime was even committed; if we can make them second-guess the cams, the screeners, all that security bullshit, all that, that, theatre, then maybe we can start to look at things in a more mature manner. Maybe, instead of mentioning terrorists and fundamentalists, we can instead have a real debate about what it means to be safe and what we can risk for the sake of our dignity and our personal freedoms. The more of our liberty we lose, the more our lives become that which we're trying to stop.'

CaptnMrvl looks back, eyes wide, almost in shock.

'We have to stand up for what we believe in,' Suprgrl5 continues. 'If we aren't happy with the state of the world, we have to make our voices heard. Loud and clear. So everyone can hear them. And back up our words with actions.' Suprgrl5's voice trails off, her face becoming a little redder, as she looks down. 'That sort of thing.'

They reach Suprgrl5's car. CaptnMrvl looks down sheepishly, much less animated than before. The air is silent.

Suprgrl5 watches his face. Her thoughts are filled with him: his brain must be going like crazy. He isn't speaking. I don't think he's used to that.

'Look, can I give you a ride home or something?' she says.

'Nah, mum's picking me up.'

'Oh,' says Suprgrl5. 'Well, if you need to talk about anything, just send me a pee-em on the forum.'

'OK,' says CaptnMrvl, still looking down.

'We've done a good thing tonight,' says Suprgrl5 reassuringly. 'It's the first step on a journey. That's always the hardest.'

CaptnMrvl looks up at Suprgrl5. 'Yeah. We have done a good thing. We can change things, can't we? There's hope?'

'Yes,' says Suprgrl5, smiling. 'There's hope.'