[headquarters]

EUREKA SEPT.26th + 7 C*

Padraigh sat on the side of the bed and pulled on his wollen socks .His big toe stuck out from a hole.He cursed in his sing-song Irish lilt and looked around for another .His big ,shaggy dog growled softly at him -as if to tell him that he better not take his frustrations out on him or he would be the worse for it .Unable to find any better socks,Padraigh settled for the pair he had on and walked across the cold floors to the cupboard .It was filled with two burlap sacks holding his stockpiles.One held around 60 PacGov military issue rations made by WillisCorp. What was left of his advance .The other held a few pounds of pig fed he had traded for at the market .The dog wouldnt eat the rations.He got out some ration packs and the sack of grey and dusty pellets .He poured the pellets in the plastic dish for the dog and paused to meet the canines gaze.The animals yellow -brown eyes were sad and contemptous.

"OI! Look here !So you hold me for a stingy bestard you filthy loyalist mutt!" he sneered at the dog .The dog stared back with a lazy unflinching stare ."Ye think I wouldnt spot ye a drop o`beer fer yer meal ey? What do you take me for?" He opened one of the bottles of beer that stood in the cupboard .He poured some in the dish and slushed it around a few times .Another PainTek product.He drank the rest in three long drags himself as the dog contentedly pushed the dish around on the floor and goobled up its beer and fodder.

"Pitiful " he exclaimed as the aftertaste filled his mouth ."What a sorry excuse for a lager ".Even the end of the world as we knew it couldnt be an excuse for making a ber so flat and tasteless he thought to himself.

The champ had sent someone in to check on him again yesterday.This time the usual muscle hadnt been there.Just a smallish ,bookish fellow who tipped his tattered baseball cap and squinted through the one lens left in his sunglasses.He had left a sheet of paper detailing the location of the fight and the time schedule .He was to present himself at an abandoned factory no later than 20 00 hrs tonight .He was to be fit for fight and was adviced not to eat during the hours leading up to the match .Sod the ridiculous bastards they had sent to check on him and all their f***ing advice.He had a good mind to drag one of them in to the alley behind the mall where he lived, and stab him until he was annoying no more .

He stretched .Nothing wrong anywhere .Kind of amazing when you considered the amount of punishment he had taken on the last job.The burn scars where still a violent red against his otherwise pale and dirty skin .He did a few moves,gently running a few left hook-right elbow swing -left knee kick and some footwork just to feel it out .He had been well pissed when the doctors had taken his bandages of and his tattooes had been destroyed by the scarring .Those ink jobs had cost him money back in Belfast.He took a few bites from the biscuts in the ration pack .They tasted like flour .A few sips of water made them go down .

He looked at the old alarm clock he had on the ammo-crate night stand .It was time to go .It was going to be an hours walk to get to the pit fight .
He had contracted for 2 matches at 100 rations each .
100 rations meant 3 months worth of food .If he could get another job as well ,that paid a meal a day he would be set for lodgings and supplies for winter .He looked into the plastic wrapper of his ration pack .A small bag of powdered soup .A bar of granola like stuff.
A small tube of "M.67 /B protein supplement Sweet&Sour flavour" .Unbeliveable.he trid to get his dog to eat some but it turned its head and started of back to its blanket in the corner.
"Your loss ye bestard" he mumbled and sucked on the tube of protein paste .It tasted faintly of sugar and had the consistency of crisco.

At 100 rations pr match the fights were to the death.

Padraigh locked the door using a sereis of locks and a thick chain and pad lock .He scowled menacingly at the other inhabitants in the semi-ruinous mall as he walked past their cook fires and filthy dwellings .He cradled his AR-180B in the crook of his arm as he trudged steadily on toward the factory .Some kids followed him a few meters but ran away when his dog bared its teeth at them with its soft,hissing growl.Padraigh had to let slip a little smile .That was one truly mean dog he had .To think he never really mistreated it to get it that way either.Just lucky I guess he thought to himself .

He turned the corner and approched the parking lot .A pick up with a M60 mount cruised slowly past ,scoping him out with their flashlights.As he approched the building the faint cheers of the crowds rose to a pitch.Some druken men were having a heated discusiion outside the steel entrance doors .Seconds later the side door flew open and two filty and bloody men half dragged and half supported a beat up,bloody carcass of a man onto a waiting cart parked alongside the wall.The two grim and bloodstained porters lowered the horrible figure onto the wooden planks and threw a blood stained blanket over him .A dour looking driver looked up from his pornographic magazine and sized his load up .Then he turned to the porters ,who had commenced in lighting their roll up hemp and tobacco cigarettes.

"Aw,come on !Youse cant expect me to go all the way over to the hospital with this?! The man is almost dead already.A motherf***ing waste of all our times ."

The porters looked back uncommitedly .One of them exhaled in a long gush of smoke and said:
"You suit yourself P.B .But remember the Champ is big on that whole keeping to agreements thing .And this body here -it done paid for a cas-evac to hospital after his match already .You want to break a deal with the champ - its your thing.Aint nuttin to me .I just get paid to haul em out of the ring."

"Yeah-yeah ..fine " the driver interrupted and sat up .His scarred and dirty mules shifted irritably in their harnesses.Even in this cold a few flies had managed to gather in the soars and gashes on the back of the animals.

The porters watched the driver roll of slowly and get on the road from the lot .
"Sheeet" one of them said . "can you imagine being laid up on that motherf***ers cart all beat up like that ? "

The cheers of the crowd sounded a lot closer now that the side door was open .

Padraigh could hear a shrill female voices inbetween the droning roar of all the men hollering.

He still had half of his advance left .

"Fu**ing dog food " he thought .

The cheers of the crowd washed over him .