We sat on the white steps of the school in our black and white school uniforms. I was slouched over with my head in my hands. Sarah had just broke the news to me that she was leaving to Australia with her grandma since her father had died and full custody was given to her grandmother. Sarah didn't like her grandmother. She was always strict and everything in her house had to be clean. She also had a big German Shepherd named Scrap and he had large sharp fangs that made you bleed when he bit. Sarah has physical scars from going there for a weekend.
"I'm sorry I have to leave Alex, but I don't have a choice." Sarah said.
"But I don't want you to leave."
"I know you don't Alex, and I'm sorry about that."
I turned away and wiped a tear from my cheek. I was only in the 4th grade and she was in the 7th.
"Alex please don't cry-"
A black car pulled up to the driveway and a elderly woman stepped out of it. She had long grey hair that went down to her shoulders. She wore a frown on her face and her jaw was clenched. Her eyes were angry and I got a feeling this was Sarah's grandmother.
Sarah stood up and started toward the bottom of the stairs. She turned back and said.
"Goodbye Alex."
Those words were stabbed into my heart and I felt it collapse. I watched my best friend walk out of my life. She stepped into that black car and it drove away.
I woke up screaming. I couldn't see but I felt a gloved hand stick a fabric in my mouth. My screams and pleads were muffled by the cloth. I felt my vision appear again as a woman in a white lab coat pulled a strip of linen from my eyes.
My hands instinctively reached up to grab the woman but I couldn't raise them anymore above my stomach. They were tied down to a steel panel standing upright and my legs were barred down as well.
"I would stop struggling Mr. Rose."
A man with another lab coat, slicked back grey and jet black hair, with rectangular glasses stepped out from the darkness. I was in a dark room with a bright light over my head. I screamed through my gag as the woman craned my head up to face the light. It pained my head and I had to close my eyes. My eyes dimmed a little and I opened them as the man became focused again.
"You don't like that do you. Well there's plenty more where that came from my friend. You suffer a mild concussion and were very close to death. You're lucky you weren't killed by that hit to the head. Just a little more strength and you would be worm food."
The gag was pulled from my mouth. "Where am I?" I said.
"I'll ask the questions here." The doctor said. "I have a lot to do today so I'll get right to the point. Who was that woman you were with during The Fall?"
"The Fall?"
He craned my head back to the light and turned a knob. It brightened and my eyes burned to insanity. I was pulled back down and my head settled a tiny bit. The lights were dimmed again and he asked me more questions. "Who was she?"
"I don't know!" I lied.
He had grown impatient with me and tilted my head back again and turned the knob. More pain resulted and he kept asking me. My answer was the same and his face was red with anger. The bonds around my hands and legs opened and I fell to my knees. I coughed at the ground and turned to face the man.
He held a gun in his hand and the barrel was focused on me.
"I'll ask again." The doctor said. "Who is she."
I need to at least lie, I realized. "Jenny." I said. "Her name was Jenny." He held a wild grin on his face and motioned toward the blackness. Two men in their black uniforms approached me and took me by the arms. I struggled against them but they didn't move a muscle. I was dragged into a long hall with doors on each side. Each door was black steel and screams and cries echoed from some. I struggled against their arms but it was pointless. They marched forward staring at nothing but the direction in front of them.
They stopped at a door and tugged at the steel. It opened into a dark, damp cell with a torn pad as the bed and a bucket in the corner.
They tossed me into the small cell and slammed the door shut. I bolted to the door and crashed into it with my shoulder. Pain shot through my body and I fell back on the stone floor. I got back up and ran back to the door.
I pounded on it with my fists and screamed. I backed away from the door. I had given up. I backed away to my bed and layed down on it. I sighed up at the ceiling and closed my eyes, hoping I would wake up from this horrible nightmare.
"Not happy with your suite, I presume?" A voice said. "Maybe you should bring it up with the front desk." I heard a quiet giggle from the wall next to me.
I rolled over to face the wall. "Who are you?
"The name's Larry." The voice said. "No, It's Phil, or is it Cooper? Maybe it's-"
"Who are you."
"My name's Andrew but my friends call me Andrew." Andrew burst out laughing and I heard a THUMP signaling he probably fell off his bed from laughing so much.
"How can you have such a sense of humor in a time like this?" I said.
"Ah, I don't know." He said. "Maybe I'm just a loon alone in looneyville with my looney friends, and looney dog, and looney cat."
He screamed with laughter once more. "You're going to have a great time here my friend." He giggled again. "The treatment. Oh, the torture. The dreams, the terror, the horror." He giggled. "They haven't killed me yet though." He laughed once more.
I got up from the bed and moved to three steel bars. I looked out to the open air and gasped. Flying machines were moving above with the soldiers inside them. Chaos occurred on the street. Cars were set ablaze, windows broken, glass was everywhere and red liquid filled the street.
Below I could see people hiding in buildings and behind cars. Soldiers appeared moving through the street. Five of them, stomping through the street with weapons. Seven citizens crouched low. They glanced at each other and nodded. Two citizens a man and woman grabbed two rifles from under the car, two men in buildings pulled out rifles too, as did the rest. It was snowing out and the citizens wore fur coats and hats. The footprints were visible in the snow, leaving small and large black spots in the white ground. The soldier in front of the rest, possibly the leader stopped for a moment and looked around. He noticed the footprints and turned back to his squadrant. He didn't say anything or move his hands at all. They immediately turned in separate directions and fanned out. Looking for any other citizens. The leader moved different than the others, he looked down and in front of him. The others faced forward and didn't look down at all. Their legs were thinner than they should be as well.
The leader reached the car that the man and woman were hiding behind. I could see the fear on their faces and they looked at each other. They shook hands and nodded at each other. The man got up from the car and yelled a battle-cry. He raised his gun and collided the leaders jaw with the stock of his gun. A loud crack occurred and the leader fell to the snowy ground. The man stood above the leader's body and stared. His face had grown pale as he glimpsed upon the broken face of a caucasian male. He brought his hand to his mouth and backed away to the front of the car.
Another soldier fired at the man. The man was pierced in the cheek and he rushed his hand to the bullet mark. He fell forward and rolled on the ground. The woman got up from her crouch and fired her rifle at the soldier. Soon the soldier's legs disappeared and his arm, but he still fired a handgun that formed from his wrist. The woman grabbed the man and carried him out of the area, leaving the chaos behind. The other men and women popped out and fired on the soldiers but to no prevail. The soldiers gunned them down and moved on to continue their search.
I backed away from the bars and sat down. "W-What was that." I said.
"The aftermath of The Fall."
"What is The Fall?"
"That was the day your were minding your own bee's wax when a bunch of steel soldiers attacked and captured you and froze you like a damn popsicle."
More laughing occurred from the stone wall.
"What?" I said.
"They froze you. It's been 50 years since the fall."
"That's not possible, I don't remember being put in an ice box."
"Of course you don't man, that's how they brainwash you. When you were knocked cold, they took you on one of their fighters and shipped you here. That's what happened to me. I woke up five years ago. You're an experiment. Like me. Good thing I was already insane. Heh, heh."
"What happened to you?"
"Ah, let's just say I was dealt a bad deck of cards." Andrew giggled.
"Go on."
"Well, it all starts when I was a young boy, and one morning my mom gently nudged me awake. She always told me that the early bird gets the worm." He laughed.
"So as a very sophisticated young lad, I took a shower and brushed my teeth. Just so my good mom could pat me on the back and give me a cookie at the end of the day, like she always did. My father was a heavy, heavy gambler. He owed more debts than I could count on my fingers. Probably more than I could count to, being the young boy I was."
More laughter occurred.
"So as I walked downstairs I heard a loud bang that would echo in my ears forever. In the living room stood my dad and men in suits standing over a body. It was the body of my mother. The men threw a few good hits at my father and left. I sat next to my mother with tears in my eyes. But suddenly, I started to things a different way. I said, 'Well, I guess this time the early bird gets the death.' I laughed and laughed until those tears turned to tears of laughter."
"My father couldn't believe his eyes. He put me in a mental institution, he just gave up on his family. He also gave up on himself when he shot himself in the back of the head." He laughed good and long.
"The people there tried to make me better. They tried. One day they brought in a cat to cheer me up on my birthday. The nurse went to get me a cake and people to share it with. Obviously other nurses because I had no friends."
He laughed once more.
"The cat was afraid of me, it stood at the door waiting for the woman to come in. It stood in front of the door stopper and the woman came in holding a giant cake. The door swung open fast and-"
He stopped for a moment.
"I'm sure you can think of what happened next.
"You're sick." I said.
"Learn to take a joke."
This man was crazy. He laughed at his own parents death. And laughed atop his dead mother.
Footsteps clapped down the hall, outside my door. They got louder and louder and then they stopped. It opened up to the scientist and two guards. I knew what was about to happen now.
And they better kill me this time.