A red flare exploded into the sky in a burst of red sparks and smoke. A scream echoed through snow covered woods. Cold snow had dripped down his neck. Campfire smoke had drifted up towards the grey sky, the smell of it lingering on his clothes. The metallic taste of blood had made him feel sick. Planes fell from the sky and boats sank. Guns had fired and bombs had dropped. Every sense was a fragment, a memory flashing his mind that he couldn't grasp before it slipped away again. They were the broken pieces of a mirror that wouldn't let him see his full reflection.
All of these different pieces of a brutal, bloody puzzle lay in front of Jonathan, the eyes of the past staring up at him. He could do nothing but stare back. The portrait of the two soldiers in front of him made no sense to him. He was supposed to be one of them but all of those memories had been stripped away, leaving him a new person. The other soldier was a mystery. Jonathan wanted to shake his head. Ryan was just trying to mess with his head even more. He could accept what had happened to him but not what happened to Evan. There was no such thing.
"N-No such thing…" The soldier laughed as he stepped out from behind Jonathan. He felt blood drip onto his shoulder, staining the blue fabric like wine. "N-No s-such thing." He said again as he reached for his picture, a small smile appearing on the ghost's face. Jonathan watched him as he stared at the picture, tears welling up in his eyes. "I-I m-miss s-summer. I'm a-always c-cold." He set the picture back down and met Jonathan's sad gaze. "T-This w-world needs y-you." Jonathan wanted to shake his head. No one needed him. Even his Evan didn't want to see him anymore.
The soldier sat down across from him, the gold owl on his lapel glinting in the light. He let out a sigh as he lowered his gaze to the papers on the table, pushing a few aside to look at them. "I-I though no o-one n-needed me too...I-I was always pushed around...B-But you." Evan smiled. "Y-You n-never did." He reached into his pocket inside his jacket and pulled out a picture. Jonathan, Evan and Brock smiled up at him. "W-When the w-war came...I-I didn't have to join...I-I c-could have g-gone to s-school...B-But I joined...F-For you. A-And it k-killed me. T-The very people w-who created y-you, t-this you...shot me. I-In the back. D-Don't l-listen to R-Ryan. T-This world n-needs you."
Jonathan had spent hours in that chair, staring at the folder but was unable to move. He couldn't move, couldn't get away. All he could do was listen to the ghost of a murdered soldier mourn the loss of everything he held close. When Ryan finally returned, Jonathan didn't say a word to him. He let him guide him back to the room he had woken up in.
"For you. If you want to read them." Ryan had stopped before he closed the door, holding the folder out to him.
"Aren't you worried I'll remember everything?"
"Humans can't be controlled...But machines can be. Remember what you are." Ryan had said as he handed him the folder and left the room.
Now, Jonathan sat on the bed, surrounded by documents and pieces of the past. There was a military document with Evan's name, telling Jonathan that he had only been eighteen when he enlisted, just out of high school. There was a photo of Jonathan with his regiment, the group of pilots looking lively and excited. There was a face among that group that Jonathan recognised. It was Tyler.
"H-How…" Jonathan whispered, his hands shaking as he stared down at the picture. He didn't know what to make of it. He wanted to be scared, wanted to disbelieve that that young man looked exactly like Tyler. "He's messing with me...I decide what is real." Jonathan said, putting the photo under some papers. "I decide…" He leant against the cold white wall, letting out a sigh. "He's just trying to get in my head...That's all. That's it. I am a machine, but this story isn't real. There's no possible way that anyone like that could have survived in the Wasteland like that for so long. There is no way that Evan was a soldier then...and was alive now. It's not real." Jonathan shook his head, his eyes closing tightly to fight back tears. "Stop crying...I shouldn't be able to...I can't feel like this." He wiped his eyes with his blue sleeve, looking down at the papers in front of him. His eyes drifted to a pile of crumpled papers partially hidden under Evan's military document. He reached for them, holding the delicate water-damaged papers carefully. "Dear Jonathan. Sorry for taking so long to write back. Wish we still had internet, you'd be one skype call away...I hope you are doing okay. I've seen so many soldiers come into the camp recently so the fighting must be getting pretty bad. A lot of them are hurt bad and we're doing the best we can. When this war is over, I don't think I'll ever be able to look at blood the same, in a video game or real life. It makes me sick seeing what people can do to each other…" Jonathan's voice broke as he read the letter, his fingers pressing against the splatters of blood on the paper. Evan had never wrote to him; only Tyler. This letter in his hand was mean to get in his head, make him think for a moment that it real. "Fuck you!" Jonathan suddenly yelled, throwing the folders off his bed to the floor around him. "Fuck you, Ryan! Get out of my head!" Jonathan screamed, throwing the documents at the door. "It's not real! Nothing is real" Jonathan screamed, ripping one of Evan's document. "You put those dreams in my head! You want me to believe this but I won't! Go to hell!" Jonathan yelled at the empty white room. "Get out of my head!"
"Jonathan! Jonathan!" Ryan's voice sang. The door opened onto the white room, the light spilling into the room. Torn paper was thrown all over the floor, ripped and thrown in a rage. Ryan looked down at the ripped documents then looked up at Jonathan was curled up in a ball on his white bed, his back to him. Jonathan didn't move when he heard Ryan's voice and his footsteps coming into the room. "Looks like someone had a temper tantrum." He sighed, kicking aside some of the pieces of paper to side down beside him on the bed. "Look, I know you are mad. So much has happened, you can't handle it right now and I understand that. However, I can't keep you around if you are going to be violent like this. I will not let you destroy my project. So are you going to calm down and cooperate?"
"Go to hell." Jonathan said into his pillow, his words muffled.
"What was that?"
"Go to hell." Jonathan snapped as he sat up and shoved Ryan off the bed. His eyes were wide and red from tears. Jonathan suddenly jumped over Ryan and ran towards the door, stumbling into the hallway. The bright lights blinded him as he ran, glancing nervously over his shoulder before he reached the far door, pushing it open onto a darker, grey hallway. The ohm symbols painted in black on the walls dared him to keep running. He accepted their challenge and sprinted down the hall, his socks making him slip on the polished floor.
"Jonathan!" A voice suddenly called out, stopping him. Through a small window in one of the doors, a hand reached towards him. The memory of his dream that had felt so long ago of Evan in a cell just like this in New Town flashed through his mind. "Jonathan!" He grabbed the hand and peered through the window, meeting Tyler's wide-eyed stare. "Y-You have to get us out of here!"
"What happened to you?"
"T-They attacked us and I can't remember what happened except waking up in here! That Ohm guy...He's trying to mess with us. He's saying that our lives aren't our first? What does that mean, Jonathan? And he's going to scan our brains like they did to Evan! He's going to kill his, Jon! You have to get us out of here!"
"He's hacked me...He knows everything I do and he can make me stop, just shut me off! I don't know what to do!" Jonathan cried, tears welling up in his eyes.
"Then you have to do something he won't expect you to do. Be human." Tyler gripped Jonathan's hand tightly. "You haven't changed. Nothing has changed about you except now you know you are a machine. But nothing else is different from when you didn't know."
"There you are! Oh, you found a friend too!" Ryan called from down the hallway. Jonathan's eyes widened, panic coming over him. He moved away from the door only to be pulled back by Tyler.
"Be human." Tyler shoved him away, retreating into the back corner of his cell as Jonathan faced Ryan. He wasn't sure of what exactly Tyler meant. His whole concept of what it meant to be alive had flipped on its head and nothing made sense to him anymore the way it used to.
"You can't leave, Jon!" Ryan said as he turned the corner, his grey suit seeming to blend into the walls around him. "Even if you tried." He held up a tablet, pressing a few buttons. Jonathan felt exhaustion crash over him, his knees going weak.
"No...No… You don't control me…" Jonathan stuttered, falling against the wall. "I won't… let you."
"Jon!" Tyler called out as Jonathan collapsed to the floor, unable to stop himself from closing his eyes.
"You're tired, Jonathan. You aren't thinking. Just sleep and everything will be fine." Ryan said as he came to a stop in front of Jonathan. With the press of one more button, Jonathan fell into a deep sleep.
"One...Two...Three…"
The makeshift camp that had replaced New Town burned. Cabin windows spewed flames that reached into the sky the same way that the skyscrapers seemed to reach for the stars. Jonathan shivered, the wind pulling at his blue suit jacket as he made his way through the burning camp, unable to do anything about it.
"Four...Five...Six…" A war machine stomped through the melting snow past him, firing at a group of people running from the machine. A few fell to the snow with sprays of blood.
"Stop!" Jonathan yelled at the machine. It didn't hear him.
"Seven...Eight...Nine…"
"You have to save them." Evan said from where he stood by a burning cabin. It had been Jonathan's. The curtains billowed and burned, the bunk beds left a burning pile of wood.
"Evan...I can't...He controls me!"
"Everyone will die!" Evan yelled, the fire suddenly surging behind him. "New Town will return! Is that what you want?"
"No!"
"Be human!" Evan yelled. Blood dripped down his face from a wound on his forehead. "You were human once. No one can control that! If you can't be, then we're all going to die!"
"You're already dead! And so am I!" Jonathan yelled back. "I'm sick of you, Evan! Get out of my head"
"You didn't listen to me! You should have stayed! This wouldn't have happened if you stayed and fought from home!" Evan yelled back. "I'm here to help you!"
"You aren't helping me! You're torturing me!" Jonathan screamed. He suddenly ran at Evan, tackling him to the snow where he hit him hard. Evan rolled to his side, throwing Jonathan off.
"I...I am here...to help you…"
"No, you aren't! I can't dream! You are sent by Ryan, meant to torture me! Get out of my head!" Jonathan yelled, trying to grab Evan and hit him again. He managed to get away, crawling away from Jonathan on the wet snow. "Get out!"
"I-I...I-I'm…" There was now a soldier in front of him, grabbing at the snow in an attempt to get away from his attacker. Jonathan felt sick, disgusted by what he had done. "I'm here...to h-help y-you…T-This w-world needs y-you." Around them, the world burned.
Jonathan's eyes fluttered open. He sat at a white table in a white room, an ohm symbol painted in black on the far wall. Ryan sat in front of him, his expression eerily calm.
"So we've had our differences, I understand. I should never have expected you to cooperate right off the bat." Ryan sighed when he saw that Jonathan was awake. "Do you have anything to say for yourself?"
"Get out of my head." Jonathan snarled.
"What do you mean by that, Jon? You are a machine. You don't have a consciousness so how can I be messing with you? Everything you are thinking, you have been programmed to do. My only problem is figuring out how to work with that programming." Ryan explained.
"You make me dream about messed up fucking shit. You put that soldier, that dead version of Evan in my head and you used that to make me come out here. There was never a soldier like Evan. You just made that up so you could make me come out here. You know how my programming works. Everything you have told me is a lie! A complete lie! And now you are trying to get that same lie into my friend's heads! Fuck you!" Jonathan yelled. He had never felt so angry before. He wanted to lunge across the table and strangle the man across from him but he found that he couldn't move. "Go to hell!"
"We're already there." Ryan said quietly, looking down at the tablet. He seemed to scroll through something but Jonathan found that he could now move. "We have to start over, Jon. You're too violent to want to cooperate, I see that now. I can't make you my experiment and I can't get you to work with me. So we will just have to find another way to make this work...To subdue yo-" Jonathan pressed his hands onto the table and pushed himself across it, lunging for Ryan. He grabbed his throat, throwing him down to the hard cement floor.
"You don't control me." Jonathan snarled, his grip tightening on Ryan's throat as he struggled and kicked at Jonathan, trying to push the machine off but he wouldn't let go. Ryan slowly went limp, his empty gaze on the ceiling above him. Jonathan stared at him, unsure if it had really worked for a few moments. He decided that he didn't care and quickly got up, pulling open the door below the ohm symbol and staggered into the darkened hallway.
"Hey! Where do you think you're going?" He turned, looking over his shoulder to see the other machine, Four Zero Seven. Jonathan sprinted down the hallway towards the far door, only to find it locked. Four Zero was suddenly there, throwing a strong punch at his jaw. Jonathan ducked and tackled him to the floor, the two machines trying desperately to pin the other down. Four Zero managed to roll on top of him, hitting Jonathan hard enough to daze him, the world spinning around him for a moment. Suddenly, the other machine was pulled off him, a figure in red suddenly kicking the other.
"Come on." Evan pulled Jonathan to his feet, reaching for the now open door. Jonathan nodded, staring at Evan with wide eyes. Why would he want to help him after what he had done and said to him? His dream came back to him with a heavy wave of regret. "Come on!" Evan repeated when Jonathan didn't move. He pulled him through the door as they ran down the next hallway.
"What about the others?" Jonathan cried.
"What?" Evan seemed confused, as if not understanding what he meant.
"What do you mean, what?" Jonathan stopped, forcing Evan to stop with him. "Tyler, Lui and Craig! We have to get them out too!"
"I can't." Evan started down the hall, only stopping again when Jonathan roughly grabbed his arm.
"You can't?"
"I'm not supposed to...to do that." He said quietly. Jonathan's eyes widened as realisation dawned on him.
"Oh...Fuck no…" Jonathan whispered. Ryan had planned this and Evan was just another piece in his game.
"Jon?" Evan's eyes watered as he looked down the hallway. "I'm sorry...You have to run. Don't stop running! Please!"
"Come with me." Jonathan said, gripping Evan's arm tighter. "We can make it." Evan nodded and they broke into a run towards the large double doors at the end of the hallway. They burst through them into what looked like a lobby. On the other side of the large room was a large metal door, a cold draft from the outside world slipping underneath.
They ran towards the door, Evan reaching it first. His hand curled around the cold metal handle, his arm starting to pull it open. A gunshot rang through the room, the sound deafening Jonathan. Evan's eyes went wide, meeting Jonathan's as he reached around to touch his back. His hand came away bloody, his own blood dripping to the snow white floor. "Evan!" Jonathan screamed as another gunshot echoed through the room. Evan's eyes closed tightly as he fell to the floor, his hand slipping from the handle. "Evan!" Jonathan fell to his knees beside him, pulling him into his arms. Blood soaked his red jacket from two wounds on his back. "Evan no…" Jonathan cried, pressing his face against Evan's black hair. Footsteps echoed through the room. He looked up at Ryan whose face was blank but there was a glint of victory in his eyes. Jonathan's grip tightened on Evan as if to protect him.
"I told you, Jonathan. You can't leave this place." Ryan sighed, shaking his head. He looked down at the puddle of blood on the floor, and Evan's body in Jonathan's arms with a look of disappointment and disgust. "Fix him."