Freelance Fridays – A Fresh Start

Consider this a complement to ‘Ye’s GOOD Fridays. Read a little, check out a new single by the GOOD music dream team, maybe even become an artist yourself. Who knows, you could be the next Hemingway or Andre (Doc Dre or 3000). That’s very unlikely, but still.

“A Fresh Start”

Travis woke up rather abruptly that day. Before he could think, he was in the streets and ready to go. He lived in Miami, and the weather looked amazing, but he didn’t care. In fact, he didn’t care about anything. Literally. He couldn’t recall where the last 40 years of his life went. Anyway, all that mattered was today, right now. He felt like he was being controlled by the whims of some greater force. But not to do good, but rather to do everything that is wrong. He felt no regard for consequence on this sunny Miami day. Since he had no past, he wasn’t concerned with his future either. Time to seize the day. He looked to his left and noticed an orange Chevy Nova stopped at a light. The driver looked like an asshole. So Travis ran over to the car, opened the door, and muscled the asshole out of his seat and to the ground.

“What the hell is your problem?” screamed the asshole.

Travis looked at him with a cold smile that would soon make sense. He began to drive away, switched the gear to reverse, and jolted down the accelerator, running the asshole over. His schedule today would consist of death and destruction amidst the Miami traffic.

Travis began speeding away with no restraint. He swerved through traffic, but didn’t completely dodge other cars. In fact, he purposely rammed the Nova into every car he passed. At one point, Travis swerved over the grass divider against oncoming traffic. A red Corvette crashed into the front passenger side of Travis’s stolen Nova. He limped out, and dragged the driver of the Corvette onto the street. Travis pulled out his handgun and shot the man. Bystanders began to scream and flee from the scene. Travis ran furiously towards a couple that was still close by. But he didn’t shoot them; he was purely chasing for amusement.

Now he heard sirens in the distance, so he pointed a gun at the driver of the closest vehicle, which happened to be a yellow Lamborghini. This was Miami after all. The cops were closing in, but Travis escaped the first set of police cars. They were still on his tail, and they had seen the car he was driving. The cops continued to chase him for nearly five minutes, and by then, there were at least 15 cars he was running from. He was really screwed as he looked overhead and saw a helicopter hovering hundreds of feet above him. Travis knew there was only one way to escape this situation. He drove with a sense of urgency towards the car shop he often went to. The cops couldn’t keep up with his new Lamborghini, and so he avoided being spotted as he went into the shop.

And then he left the shop, in the same Lamborghini. But it was painted blue now, and all of the scratches and dents from his reckless driving were fixed. The plates were also changed. It seemed like barely a minute passed and he was back on the road. But the cops weren’t after him anymore. He couldn’t hear any sirens.

A fresh start.

You would think that Travis would avoid the same type of situation after such a close call, but he was looking for trouble. These kinds of actions became an abnormal normality for him. I guess you could say he had nothing to lose.

So he drove the blue Lamborghini back out to a main road along the water, and began accelerating to maximum speeds. Death and destruction were still on his mind. He noticed so many people walking on the sidewalk. So he decided, for no apparent reason, to drive on the sidewalk. One quick turn of the steering wheel, and he was crushing bodies under the blue Lamborghini. He killed 12 innocents before he steered back onto the main road.

“What now,” he thought.

He still had his gun. So he parked the car in the middle of a four-way intersection, and whipped out the gun. He felt the need for target practice. So he began to aim and fire. Five bullets fired, three more dead. He got back in the Lamborghini and rammed into a pick-up truck that was in his way. Travis sped away from the intersection because he actually had a mission which he was delaying. He worked for one of Miami’s local crime syndicates, and had to deliver a package at one of the seaports to an undisclosed individual. The package was in his back pocket still, so he raced to the dock, which was on the other side of town.

He drove furiously for nearly a minute, at 120mph, until he saw temptation which could not be resisted. Along the right side of the court, he saw a game of basketball which he felt the need to interrupt. One last distraction before delivering the package. Travis turned sharply off of the road and towards the game of basketball. He came to a stop just before the court, got out and ran towards the game. The players noticed his antics, and threatened him to get off the court. He punched one of the players several times , and pulled out his gun before any of the others could make a move on him. Travis shot, and they scattered for their lives. Sirens could be heard, but Travis couldn’t hear them because he was having too much fun. Several cops arrived and parked right behind his Lamborghini. He had no escape, unless he killed the officers. So he began shooting, and they shot back. But Travis was standing in the middle of the basketball court, and since he had no place to run, that’s where he fell.

The game was over. But that’s okay because Billy’s mom was calling him downstairs to eat dinner anyway. He put his laptop to sleep, and decided he would restart his mission after dinner. It was only his first time playing GTA.