John woke up choking on dust.
Everything hurts.
Concrete pinned his legs. Metal pressed into his back. Iris flickered, random up and down motion across his vision before stabilizing. Focus frame lines struggled to lock. Left arm missing, His remaining arm burnt, badly. But it moves.
He tried to move. Pain exploded.
His legs didn't respond properly. Nerves fried. His legs were just traumatised.
Iris began giving error messages like it had a virus.
John laughed weakly. Then, coughed blood.
"So… that's new."
Above him, the building groaned. The club was gone, reduced to a tilted skeleton of steel and fire. Bodies lay everywhere. Some didn't move. Some twitched.
Dulcan was nowhere to be seen.
Now, the floor of the Club was so doomed that he could see the underground sewer.
John dragged himself, every push had a scream attached. He made his way to the sewer. He threw himself in, bounced and flushed by the running water. It wasn't clean water.
Sirens!
Not the regular ones.
Deep. Layered with Helicopter blades. .
Searchlights cut through smoke. Drones descended, scanning, red beams slicing the ruins. Heavy boots hit the ground in unison.
THE BUREAU.
They always came late. Just like the day of the 202 Disaster.
.
.
.
.
"Where am I ?" John blinked his eyes
"Heaven" a voice answered
John reacted fast.
"Ahhh" ….."Ahhhhh" Both him and the creature reacted.
A talking bird, a raven. The raven sat on the fractured burnt arm, feathers blacker than oil, eyes sharp and knowing. It moved back a little.
"Oh my god, you're alive" the bird said in shock.
John looks at the scene with intensity.
"So good, I was wondering to ask you….. how regularly do you eat eggs? The bird questioned with its head tilted, staring eyes locked on John
"Not regularly" John answered with a confused look
"Oh…good.. good. Ok Meat?"
"Same"
"hmm. Fish"
"Rarely"
"Nice nice… well that concludes it" the bird flapping to the boulder at the edge.
"Concludes what"
"Why your flesh taste shit… god. It's horrible." He said while faking a vomit "Do you Humans..not like…actually eat and stuff?" he continued,
"Beats me to ask, I fed on one dude the other day and dude's muscles tasted like powder" while pointing his feathers to the air.
John, still in shock.
"Iris , Identify!"
[ERROR]
[INITIALIZING CORE MODULES...NON-VIABLE]
[MEMORY CHECK .... OK]
[I/O CHANNELS .... OK]
[NEURAL LATTICE ..... SYNCED]
[OPTIC ASSISTANCE.... LOADING]
[ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ... OFFLINE]
[BOOT SEQUENCE: 3.1%]
John exhaled slowly. "Three percent."
The Bird laughed above him."Wow," it said. "Talking to yourself? That's funny."
John frowns
"....my A.I" he said while attempting to raise his fingers to his eye.
The bird clicked its beak. "My goodness, a fake eye! I could swear there was something odd with it."
"You lil brain couldn't grasp huh!" John teases.
"Says the dummy that needs an A.I to tell him what a bird is", it snapped back.
"You're a Crow"
"Jezzz. You are even more helpless than I thought" shaking its head in disappointment.
"Look half-meat…."
John immediately interrupted "what did you call me"
The bird tilted his head to John's missing left arm. John rolled eyes.
"As, I was saying…I'm a raven! Ra…Ve….N"
"Crow"
The raven got agitated, he flew, landing on John's chest while John laid lifelessly on a tree stump.
"First off, that's racist. Ravens are different from crows"
"What's the difference"
"Well, ravens...ravens... you know what, forget it." It flew back "why bother explaining to a dead man"
"I'm not dead"
"Yet" the raven gave John a predatory stare.
"Get out of here! chuu!"
"You better hurry up and die, I'm starving"
"I thought you didn't like my meat"
"No…. I said it tastes like shit" the bird paced around little circles "But it's either that or I eat actually shit"
He pointed his feathers to the background.
John was in the forest. He had been flushed out of the city's sewer system to the disposal point outside the city.
"Urrh. I remember now….. Dahm. Terrible decisions" John regains full memories of his struggle into the sewer.
"Oh good …. you remember.." sarcastically speaking
"Yes I do…..what about you? what are you doing here?"
The raven mutter "I really prefer being a lone to be honest"
John mocks him "outcast"
"No! Not like that. I used to hang out with this one guy but…. " It exhaled "noone really gets me. you understand?"
"No"
"Dahm you! Drybones!"
John's curiosity led him to ask "Do the other birds talk too?"
"No, No, Just me... so far"
"How?"
"Well….it's…it's kind of a long story. I was on a battlefield, post-raid stuff, feeding on some dead dudes…in a dungeon or something….I don't quite remember" It began to dramatically cock its head as it tried remembering. "Oh yea..yea..I was feeding..blah, blah,....yea so, I kinda ate something I was supposed to. Some kind of a demon or some sort. Well whatever it was it was different, like ominous different, but I was kinda hungry so… yum"
John hovered between confusion and shock.
The bird continued "so like, before I knew it, most of my thoughts just started popping out…."
"puff!....." It demonstrated with its feathers "There you have it…. quite unbelievable huh?"
John released a soft laugh.
"What about you?... How did you end up in this ridiculous state?" the bird asked causally.
John attempts to stand up. He collapsed. Groans
He looks around, seeing just trees and dirty water. No help.
He exhaled.
"It all started in a dahm alley…." He began to explain while he wearing a cold, shameful expression.
.
.
.
"Jezz man, you've had a hell of a day….. like look at me thinking my life is fucked up" The bird began mocking John.
"Like….. what kind of a Dealer goes to the Club without a weapon…. you don't watch movies or something…. Or you can't afford that too?"
John snapped, "I'm not a drug dealer."
"Yes, yes of course…. So what did you go to the club to do then?" It asked rhetorically, its head tilted.
John threw his face away.
Silence.
"Exactly…."
The birds began to squawk derisively. "So, you're telling me this dude took some rainbow juice….and went bonkers? Dahm!" It shook its head with disapproval. "You see, you see why I don't support that kinda stuff….. rainbow juice….. white powders….."
John cuts him off "Powder?"
The bird tried to explain. John paused, holding an intense stare..
"You are a Junkie!"
The bird screamed out fast "No….No,No!"
John let out a loud laugh "A Junkie Parrot"
The bird said, "You're not a good person, Johnny…..you know that?"
John was still laughing.
"You don't get to shame me, Johnny! I'm a bird… a talking bird… and I'm trying to express my feelings here! It's a brutal world out there! Some… some fat idiot actually tried to stuff me in a bag… Who even does that?! I've been through hell. I was at the lowest point of my life… and I had to face it… alone… as a bird… a talking bird!"
John eased, then proceeded to mock him softly "Alone.."
"Yes, Johnny, alone! …Ever tried making friends out there?" The bird jabbed a wing toward the sky.
"It's wild. I walked up to this raven dude—I was like, 'Hi!' Guess what he told me… guess."
Silence.
"He said—KRRRKKAAAAWKK! You know what that means? Eh, Johnny?"
Silence.
"MODAFORKER!!!"
John erupted into laughter, almost falling over. The bird recoiled, feathers ruffled in shame.
"You're not a good person, Johnny."
John's jaw tightened. "Don't call me that."
"Oh? So you don't like it when someone calls you that… but you call me a crow?"
John smirked, unbothered.
"Guess what—your name's Johnny. Nothing you can do about it."
He lunged, hand reaching for the raven's neck—but collapsed with a groan. The bird flapped to a higher branch, settling with an air of triumph.
"Dahm, Johnny… you really need to work on your anger issues."
"Chuu… get away. I'd like to be alone," John muttered, glaring up.
"Come on, we're bonding." The bird swooped back down, landing squarely on John's arm.
"John… John, you've got to take me in. It's a crazy world out here, and it's only getting scarier." Fear actually crept into its voice.
John tilted his head away, unimpressed.
"Come on, John. People have all sorts of magical creatures as pets."
John arched an eyebrow. "Beast tamers. They're not pets. They fight. You…" He gestured at the bird. "…fly."
"Oh, don't be like that, Johnny. What were you expecting? That I spit fire or something? Easy, Targaryen."
John grunted, coughed, then groaned.
"Woah, take it easy! I'm just a regular bird. Random, in fact. And you… you can't get a better deal than this. You ain't no webnovel main character. You won't get any mountain-sized direwolf. No sexy-girl-turning-dragon. I'm it. Just a bird. I don't transform. I don't fight. I. Don't."
"You want to come with me?" John asked, his tone sharp.
"Yes, Johnny. I've been pitching myself for about an hour."
John's expression darkened, unsettling. "One rule."
"You do whatever I tell you to do. And that's an order."
The bird hid its face behind its wing. "Our contract comes with freedom of speech, right?"
"I don't give a fuck about your little side comments," John snapped.
The bird hopped. "Yes… sir!"
"Oh yeah, you still haven't given me a name yet. I was thinking something salvic, like—"
"Crow," John cut in.
"No, no, Johnny. I've told you, I'm a raven. It's weird calling me crow. Imagine me calling you; reptile."
"Crow." John dismissed him.
The bird sighed. "Yeah… you know what? Sure."
John groaned again, discomfort wracking his body.
"What are you doing? Chu… chu…"
"I'm staying by your side. I'm keeping you company. That's what sidekicks do."
"I don't need your company."
Crow rolled his eyes. "Yes, Johnny. I know...Of course you don't."
"Go… get me drugs."
"Johnny, there isn't a single counter in this country that would sell painkillers to a talking bird. There isn't. Trust me, I've tried."
John exhaled slowly, staring into the empty forest. No one was there. No one came looking. No one really knew him.
Just him.
Johnny,
And the bird.
John lay there for three days before he could feel his legs again.
Crow came at intervals with food; stolen food.
Crow kept him company.
…Yes.
And drugs.
Crow also got drugs.