Del Rio, Episode 2

Marco Rubio is one who believes he lives the life. He is not the sort of person who looks at things from a negative perspective, but rather a positive one – I guess you could call him an optimistic guy. So when he found himself with his close friend and partner Diego, who was knocking furiously on the door of some poor college student in something far worse than school debt, and while Marco Rubio himself held a massive machete in his hand, he took it was simply a business call.

“I swear to god, you lousy waste of life,” Diego yelled at the door, “if you don't come out here I'm going to set the whole fucking place on fire.”

With this, the voice from behind the door spoke. “I swear man! Just give me a few days, I promise!”

Diego, clearly unsatisfied with the answer, looked to Marco for suggestion. Marco nodded, which lead Diego to take the opportunity to kick the door out so hard it fell off half its hinges.

The scene before them was disappointing, at the least. A mid-20s white kid, packing up his things, quickly turned around and stepped back.

“I swear, I swear... Just please, just please don't kill me.”

Diego wasn't paying attention to the kid, however. Instead, he eyed a guitar laying on the bed, prepared to be packed and shipped away.

“A guitar? Is that what you spent Caszo's money on? Trying to further your music career?”

The kid babbled to himself, with a tear slowly running down one eye. It disgusted the loansharks.

“Listen, chico – no one makes it in the entertainment industry, especially here in fucking Florida. You should have spent your money wiser.”

“No, no, NO!” The kid tried to fight, but by the time he even realized what was going to happen Marco had handed Diego the machete and pinned the kid down so he had little chance to do anything else.

“I'm going to give you this one more chance, chico,” Diego looked straight into the kids eyes and it set a shock of fear through him, “Tell us where the rest of your money is, and we'll let you off. It doesn't even matter if its the same amount Caszo loaned you – it just needs to be every last penny, comprendes?”

Despite Diego's best attempts to get the kid not to throw his life away, he still insisted he had no money left. Diego gave a long sigh, and then proceeded to hack at the kids right leg five times until eventually it came off. In the light of the kid's bloodcurdling scream, Diego simply looked at the leg and smiled.

“Well, this is interesting. Maybe I should make this leg my new lamp, just like that one Christmas movie. Home Alone, right?” Diego looked at Marco for confirmation, but Marco shook his head.

“No, its A Christmas Story.”

“Oh, yes, yes. Right. A classic.” While trying to have a conversation about heartwarming christmas movies with his pal, however, Diego was angered by the fact that the kid continued to scream and cry.

“Alright, listen you stupid mother fucker. Unless you want me to chop off your other leg, stop crying and tell-”

This time Diego didn't even have to finish.

“It's i-i-in the c-c-loset. M-my room – over there, please don't-”

Diego nodded to Marco, as he got up and went to check the room. Sure enough in the corner of the empty closet there was a safe, but the safe had a keycode. Marco considered going back to interrogate the kid for the code, but he decided to try at least one thing before he did.

In a flurry, he went straight down the keypad from 2 to 0. Without a moments hesitation the safe showed up green and the safe opened to reveal the cash inside of it. Marco sighed and whispered to himself “White people,” as he got out the money and returned to Diego.

Diego smiled upon looking at it, seeing that it was all the money and a little more. The kid however was pale, near fainting, and mumbling something to himself. Diego put the money in his pocket and looked at the kid.

“I would leave you, but we don't tend to leave witnesses, especially after we give them a chance that they refused to take.”

With one sweep of the machete, it was a permanent lights out for the kid.


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Routine

Lieutenant Chris Sanders of Dalton, California had gotten used to his life at his new permanent home in Moonbase Alpha. After every expeditionary unit left, he would clean after them, shoot all of their trash and other bodily fluids out into space, and reset the computers for the next operation. After he does that, he checks in with his supervisor (the head of the NASA moon operation), checks the oxygen levels, gets in his suit and checks the outside area for any damage, checks inside for any internal damage, and checks the different long term experiments on the base. From a personal standpoint, every morning he gets up, makes some coffee and other breakfast essentials via the food given to him via shipments (Moonbase Alpha is in a simulated gravity environment, so some foods that would otherwise not be possible to eat in zero gravity environments now are), puts his stuff away, brushes his teeth, takes a shower, checks his laptop for the latest earth news, and exercises, before starting with his daily work schedule.

That being said, it's pretty easy to say Sanders routine is about the same as any of us on Earth.

The only difference being that Sander broke into a cold sweat when he heard a knock on the entry door.


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