Immersion 16 Shabra and the Bar

Shabra leads the group into the bar after parking the vehicle outside.


'OK, doggy, you stay guard of Miss Shabra's sexy wheels. Let no one touch it OK.'
The dog wags its tail and sits importantly on the roof.


It is busy around the doorway and visitors and guests have to be approved to enter.


A large fat man with a long beard frisks them before they go in.
Renyke, not used to any sort of frisking in his past life, already feels uncomfortable.


'Welcome brother.' the bouncer said to Flex, 'how thee go?'


'Fine, just fine, my friend,' Flex answered, 'All is good. We continue unabated. We live another day, brother, *vilarev.'


They enter the bar. Renyke is uncertain about what to do. He has never been in a bar before. It is thick with smoke, the smell of nibs, sweat, and the streets. Never has the scent of raw humanity been so prevalent in his nasal cavity.






the bar owner talks in rhymes like many Urchs

A woman approaches chanting poetry with her arms outstretched.
'The sun shines bright when you let in the light, welcome my sister of the night.'


She embraces Shabra and they exchange warm greetings. Excited to make new acquaintances the woman beckons the group to sit at a table.


'Ah, Come, come my friends. I have a perfect place for you to sit. And you know this one is on the house for you my dear sister. Because, my Shabra, I have not seen her for so long. And this feels good for she is a mighty fine warrior.


The woman beckons a member of staff 'let's have liquor.' she says, 'bring my best for my new friends.'


'Rennick asks the POS for details about the venue, the location and the owner.


The POS struggles to stay connected.


.......data unavailable..... scrambled information




'How come these places aren't mapped?' Renyke asked Shabra.


'Mr Renick, you ask too many questions. 'We hide. We survive best when we hide.'


'Yes,' interjected Flex, 'and we move, we move often. The key is to keep moving. This bar pops up all over the place. You never know where it's going to be. You've got to move on your feet in the zones. Nothing is permanent. Only your lungs and your heart. Only your breath and when that's not permanent, you're dead and you're ready for the •metamorph.




And we know not where that will take us for sure.


Renyke checks the POS.....


.....Urchs believe in various spiritual concepts, nothing is written down, oral tradition and faith are passed from parents to children.


....Urchs believe that unhappy entities (ghosts) from the future can affect the present and so they take care to create a better path for their descendants.


.....Urchs believe that death is the start of something else, neither better nor worse, just different, referred to as the third life.


....Urchs are highly protective of the third life and understand that hate manifested in individuals from the second life can be passed through to the third. They believe that hate is so powerful that it can cause great evolutionary pain even when it is an unknown or unrecognised force. They believe that hate and anger are such powerful energies that they can control what people do in the future and that the present is thus also affected by it. Hate becomes circular energy that rotates between past present and future, forging an eternal link.


....Urchs seek fulfillment, enlightenment, and enrichment in the second life. They believe that these things, ideals of contentment, will be taken to the third life and that without these things there will be suffering. The dead are responsible for the living, the living are responsible for the future born.


.....Urchs believe that taking drugs will help them understand what is 'real real' and that the stresses of daily existence mask these realities and render them misunderstood. Urchs believe that getting high enables them a greater understanding of reality and even an ability to meet the entities of the future and to realise their path to enlightenment.





'We shouldn't stay here too long, and you shouldn't get high,' says Renyke, looking at Shabra who is drinking the free liquor.


'You are so uptight Mr Renyke.' Shabra winks.


There is a brief conversation between a man and Shabra that Renyke cannot understand.


The POS has lost signal so Renyke turns to Flex.


'What is this dialect?' he asks.


'Ah, that is zonespeak, with some colour changes for the Urchs. We have our own code see.'


Shabra rises, 'Let's Go! I think there is some trouble around tonight.'






Outside a small urch child sits on the bonnet of the car.


'Can I come too?' the child asks excitedly.


'No man, This is grown-up stuff, Come see me tomorrow, now *fucksyoff.'




The child jumps off the bonnet, hugs Flex and runs away


Various people try to offer them drugs. Another offers a selection of weapons. Finally they are all in the car and they drive to the underpass through a thinning crowd. The child appears again on the bonnet, facing forwards and singing with a fist raised.




'No sweat,' says Flex, 'we will get him off the other side. He does no harm, annoying little wretch.'


Suddenly there is an almighty bang and the child on the bonnet is shot. Its guts are all over the windscreen, blood drips down the glass and the crowd scarpers.
Everyone screams.


The OS engages


.....99% likelihood of robbery, ambush, death alert!


There is a man in front of the car pointing an AK 47 and two other men flank the vehicle banging on the windows


'Bastardos gang aint getting my *vicular.', screams Shabra.


Then..........