The Climate Wars - Chapter 2

It's finally here, the moment you've all be waiting for. The start of the Climate Wars! Check back every week to read a new instalment!

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​In their room, Donkey barely noticed Lucas slip in the door, the roommate’s mind deeply engrossed in a video game, the smoking butt of a joint leaning precariously in a pizza box.  Lucas the 3rd staggered through piles of discarded clothes and trash spread over the room’s floor. The tendrils of smoke from the joint were catching his attention and causing him veer across the room in search of a roach clip.
 
The butt safely pinched in place, Lucas finished his friend’s forgotten smoke and crushed it out in the leftover pizza as he stood unsteadily gazing over Donkey’s shoulder at the violent video game.
 
“Hey! I was gonna finish that.” His friend cried. Lucas brushed away Donkey’s protest and plunked down on the couch.
 
“You got anything stronger?” Lucas asked. “After what dear old dad put me thru today I could use a pick me upper.”
 
“Yeah. Me too, this game is intense.” Donkey hit the pause button on his controller and swiveled in his chair facing the couch. “Ava,” he yelled toward a bedroom door.  “Bring us a bag of the good stuff. In the bottom of the closet,” he instructed.
 
Donkey’s dulled red eyes lit up with excitement as he told his roommate of his latest acquisition. “A new batch came in today…wait until you try it.”
 
Lucas studied his friend from behind half closed eyelids. Donkey’s name certainly was appropriate he smiled to himself. Besides the awful braying laugh his roommate often demonstrated the guy was the primary source of drugs doled out across the campus. Mule would have been a much better nickname but too obvious.
 
Donkey’s girlfriend Ava stuck her half naked body out of the bedroom, called a warning and sent the bag of white powder sailing through the air toward the boys before disappearing back into the room. The bag dropped beside Donkey; his already poor eye-hand coordination decreased with the mix of narcotics he previously enjoyed causing him to completely miss the flying bag. Almost falling out of his chair he scooped up the bag and straightening up he smiled at Lucas with the bag proudly displayed in his raised hand.
 
“Tell me about your day, bro,” he said as he used his arm to clear a spot on the coffee table making room to cut a few lines of the white powder.
 
*****
 
At the ungodly hour of nine a.m. Lucas was chased out of his stupor by a repeated banging on the dorm rooms door. A loud voice followed every knock.
 
“Lucas Pensworth. Open this door!” The angry voice called out. “I repeat. Open this door at once. This is Chancellor Dreyer.”
 
Lucas 3rd opened one eyelid, the pain in his head intense. The pounding at the door continued, growing louder. His head filled with explosions of pain as a blinding light filled his eyes.
“What,” he whimpered prying his bloodshot eyes open.
 
“OPEN THE DOOR!” The door rattled again. “LAST CHANCE.”
 
Lucas rolled off the couch where he had been sleeping. Placing his hand on the nearby coffee table he attempted to rise to his knees, his stomach protesting the movement.
 
“I’m coming in!” the Chancellor warned. A key turned in the door’s lock followed closely by the University Chancellor storming through the opening, a pair of university security guards entering close behind.
 
Lucas Pensworth gazed through a misty haze at the approaching men. Unsteadily he slowly rose then doubled over retching on the table and his feet.
 
The Chancellor stepped back. His angered red face wore a look of disgust.
 
“Grab your things Mr. Pensworth. These men will escort you to your car and off campus grounds,” the Chancellor nodded to the guards.
 
“FUCK OFF!” the young Pensworth shouted. “I have until Friday to leave. You told me that yesterday.”
 
“That was before your performance at the campus pub last night,” Chancellor Dreyer corrected. “There is a very distraught young lady sitting in the counselors office as we speak. The counselor told me that she had been crying all night after your unspectacular treatment of her.”
 
Lucas shook his head, “I can't remember last night. She’s probably full of shit,” he said wiping his hand across his mouth. “Bitch got what was coming to her I am sure.”
 
“Your things. Grab what you can carry. The rest I will call your father to pick up.”
 
“Fuck off, you can’t touch me…do you know who I am.”
 
The University Chancellor motioned to the guards, “Escort Mr. Pensworth off the campus please.” The guards closed in on the bent over student taking great care of where they stepped. The men each grabbed one of Lucas's arms.
 
“HEY!” Lucas yelled in surprise then realized the situation he faced. “Let me get my damn pants at least,” he conceded. The guards waited as the student turned to reach to the floor behind and lift a pair of slacks off the floor. Lucas 3rd hopped around putting his feet through the legs then dug through the garbage-strewn floor in search of his shoes. The Chancellor tapped his foot impatiently while he watched the unruly kid finish slipping into his footwear.
 
“Get him out of here,” he instructed.
 
Lucas 3rd hobbled along in the clutches of the university guards out of the dorm building. The glaring sun was excruciating as it pierced his red eyes. Lucas glared at the passing groups of students as they passed. The university crowds stopping to watch the walk of shame across the campus grounds.
 
Lucas tried to stop and admonish the other students for staring but each time he opened his mouth the guards would tighten their grip and march him faster. In the school parking lot, they stopped beside Lucas’s sports car. The security men watched him fumble with the keys before he climbed into his vehicle. The guards waited then pointed to the entrance that led off the university grounds.
 
Lucas backed from the stall and in spite floored the gas, the car still in reverse making the guards leap out of the way. Slamming the car into drive he accelerated. The powerful engine kicked in forcing the back end of the Audi to fishtail as it shot onto the road barging into the mid morning traffic.
 
Lucas fingered the car he had just cut off, then in his fog addled condition weaved down the lanes away from the university toward the unknown, his brain unable to comprehend the start to his day. Driving the car aimlessly his few clear thoughts focused on his father.
 
His resentment was growing at the unreasonable treatment he had to endure. Lucas seethed at his old man and the problems his father caused. How could a parent be so cruel he wondered? What did the old bastard expect of him after all, totally unfair in his opinion.
 
Spotting a convenience store Lucas spun the wheel and cut left across traffic. Horns blared as his car shot in front of the oncoming traffic. The Audi vaulted and scraped as Lucas misjudged the entrance and drove the car over the curb.
 
His car jolted as it came to rest against the concrete barrier separating the store and parking lot. He sat behind the wheel, his stomach churning and his brain pounding. He fumed. If his old man had stayed out of his business, he wouldn’t be in this position. The old asshole, Lucas swore and dug in his pockets for his papers and stash. His hands came up empty. He leaned close to the cars ashtray and rummaged for an unfinished butt. Nothing.
 
In frustration, he slammed the steering wheel. He needed a buzz, and he needed it bad. With an effort, he mustered his sluggish mind. Donkey always had a supply but going back to the dorm room was out of the question. I’ll get him to bring me a bag; Lucas decided and reached for his phone. No phone. Must still be back at the room. Again Lucas banged the steering wheel and yelled. Without his phone, he didn’t have Donkey’s number.
 
Lucas leaned back against the seat. How had life become so shitty? The answer seeped into his brain; his father was to blame. Lucas backed the car out of the stall.  He knew where to score some drugs. He had gone on a run one time with Donkey. Lucas didn’t know the dealer personally but if he said Donkey had sent him that should be all right.
 
Twenty minutes later and a few more angry horns Lucas turned onto the same street he remembered driving with Donkey. The street was cracked, and pothole filled in a run down neighborhood of condemned shacks and boarded businesses. A dreary part of town a few blocks away from city hall.
 
Lucas was close to a park where he recalled driving Donkey when his friend met his dealer. Lucas spotted a group clustered around some park benches. He put the car in park and climbed out leaving the door open in his haste. Shading his eyes, he stepped over the sidewalk and ambled over the park’s brown dead grass. People rose from the benches staring at him as he approached.
 
Lucas stared past them. His eyes fixed on the person left sitting, Donkey’s dealer.
 
“I need some stuff,” Lucas called as he drew nearer. The man sitting at the bench looked at him and shrugged.
 
“What stuff?”
 
“Coke would do,” Lucas suggested.
 
Donkey’s dealer appraised his new client. His eyes swept over Lucas who was wearing his puke covered t-shirt and stained pants. Lucas’ hair pressed in all directions from his sleep on the couch.
 
“You sleep in the gutter last night man,” the dealer laughed a Lucas’ appearance. “I don’t think you can afford what I got. You better scram.”
 
Lucas panicked and his hand went to his back pocket pulling out his wallet. He flipped it open showing the dealer the hundred dollar bills inside, “How much?”
 
The dealer eyed the money then looked up, “All of it,” he said and slipped a small bag of white powder from under his coat. Lucas tried to do the math. His head churned slowly.
 
“I got no time for this,” the dealer said tucking his hand back under his coat.
 
“No, no I’ll take it,” Lucas rushed to get the bills out of his wallet before the drugs disappeared. The dealer grabbed the cash and set the bag in Lucas’s hand, “Nice doing business with you.” He smiled and walked away from the bench.
 
Lucas fumbled the bag open and with his finger laid out a thick line of powder. Bending close to the line on the table he covered a nostril and snorted. A burst of fireworks shot through his brain. He reached the top of the table to steady him and turned to sit. The park bench moved, and he plodded onto the grass, the bag of powder clutched in his hand.
 
From a distance, the dealer and his friends watched in amusement. When Lucas hit the ground, the spectators walked over to his running car. The dealer walked around checking the precision of the Audi. Nodding his approval, he climbed into the drivers seat closed the door and left the park, a fine car indeed the dealer thought, one befitting a man of his stature.

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Chapter 1

Chapter 3