ZigZag

The story of Rose is one of many directions, life hitting her hard at an early age when she was saved by tragedy from a beloved dog named ZigZag. Never quite finding the right path, never fully recovering from the sacrifice ZigZag made for her, Rose found herself pregnant at a young age, but pulled her life off the zigzagging path and dedicated everything to making sure there were no zigzags and only a straight path to happiness for her daughter, Amy.

This is the tale of how that plan nearly went wrong, on the day when Rose and her college bound Amy found themselves in a downtown federal bank as masked gunmen entered.

However this is not the tale of bank robbers, and not the tale you might be expecting. One thing is quite obvious from the moment the masked men enter and their leader orders everyone to the floor. They aren't there for money, and the guns they carry are definitely not normal.

Each of the guns are ultra-modern and silver with clear cylinders on top holding a strange glowing green liquid. As the leader, a shorter man Rose came to calling 'Shorty' explained, they are there for recruiting purposes, and they have quite the specialized means of gaining their recruits.

The guns when fired don't physically damage anyone, but they definitely hurt whoever they hit, in extreme cases leaving the individual an empty shell of their former selves, mindless and drooling. Two settings choose the fate of whoever is hit, one setting called Mindwipe leaving them empty and forever vacant of any thought or personality. The less extreme setting called Mindwarp isn't much better with a whole host of customized choices Shorty and his kind can use to warp the minds of whoever they shoot.

Demonstrating the settings seems little more than enjoyment for the masked men and soon bank tellers are turning bimbos and faithful wives of bank patrons have become money hungry whores. It's a day of chaos Rose hasn't seen since the tragedy of her youth but today she will find that a lesson she learned from a loving dog named ZigZag is about to give her a choice and an opportunity... one to sacrifice everything for the future of her daughter.