A Mad Mad World

Sam sat on the couch, stuffing his face with popcorn. Thin wisps of smoke rose from his bong, floating between him and the flickering images on the screen.

"What you watching?" Tina sat next to him, balancing her perfectly proportioned backside in the side of the couch. She ran her fingers through his hair and he nuzzled over towards her.

"You should see this.." he gestured towards the tv, "New reality shit from the Hive. This guy here..Orlock I think his name is. He is making a home for himself in an old sewage plant."

"Is it some sort of charity appeal?" Tina asked.

"No... no its fucked up. The guys just chopped his own finger off for no good reason and now he is filling his home with traps like some sort of martian Macaulay Culkin."

"Macaulay who?"

"Old movie, kid left home alone at Christmas."

"Didn't your mother leave you home alone at Christmas?"

"Huh? Yeah but different premise, my mother was whoring over at Drinker Avenue and the guys that got in to our house broke three of my ribs and my right arm."

"Poor baby." Tina soothed as she settled in to watch the show, "So whats he doing now?"

"Looks like a local gang is moving in on his hideout." Sam observed.

"Hmm lots of them, this should be a short show. Perhaps he'll throw his finger at them. That would gross me out."

"Na he's got booby traps set up watch."

Tina snorted, "You said booby!"

Sam shook his head, "When Boris gets back I'll get him to take a look at your humour subroutines."

"You dare!" Tina gasped and slapped his shoulder playfully.

"What the.. wow! He blew the fuckers up. Did not see that coming."

"Is this legal?" Tina asked suddenly concerned. Sam only shrugged and carried on watching. The gaped in horror as the Orlock guy started spelling out words with the limbs and then satisfied his work was complete proceeded to electrocute himself on a nearby cable. What was more he seemed happy about it!

"Shit where did they find this guy?" Sam chuckled.

"It's not funny Sam, if this is real he just killed a load of people and oh gods now he's messing with one of the bodies... Sam turn it off."

"No I want to see what he's going to do."

"Sam..." Tina blinked and he TV switched off.

The Blue Rooms : The Hive

Rowan upped the speed on her treadmill as she enjoyed the feeling of sweat running freely down her naked body. Before her the view screens gave her the latest from the flesh pits and various other broadcasts and enterprises. She snatched up the remote to turn the volume down on the Orlock Show. So far so good.

To her right she observed the raw footage coming in from the Sewage Plant. The delicious fellow was currently deep in conversation with a corpse. One of the bodies he'd dragged from that little inferno he had created to greet her goons. Impressive that and the amusing little thing with the limbs he had done later had been fun.

When he took the angle grinder to the dead woman's face she hit the stop button on the treadmill and reached for a towel. They would probably need to edit that...

Several hours later Red entered the office with a tray of... refreshments. Rowan was dressed now and sitting watching Orlocks progress.

"What's he doing now?" Red asked, "Samuel is having kittens in the studio with some of the footage we are bringing in. Murder and corpse mutilation wasn't what we had in mind."

"He's out of the sewers and trying to make his way to an OSEC checkpoint." Rowan chuckled.

"What the..."

"It's all good. I have left orders for them to...humour him. Looks like he wants to send a message to the Spire."

"Can he do that?"

"Gods no... but it might be amusing to pass it on."

"What's the thing with the body all about?" Red asked.

"You know I actually think he's trying to bring it to life. He's jammed a load of pieces together and squirted it with what looks like engine grease" Rowan mused.

"What the fuck? He's deranged." Red exclaimed.

"I know. Tell Samuel to get the next batch of footage ready for broadcast tonight the ratings are pleasing. Oh and make a few discrete enquiries about who we have available for wet work. If things go too far we might need to quietly put him down and bury the show."