Lee Kerr - Welcome to the Apocalypse

I see Tyrell’s right hand rise, as the other one pulls me tight into his body, bracing me for the impact. I feel his man grabbing my hair from behind, pulling my head back and putting me at the best angle for his boss to completely silence me.

‘You know I’m right!’ I shout. ‘This island will be worthless if the deal is lost, so let me help you talk through the options.’

‘There are no options that involve you any longer,’ Tyrell says, his approaching fist clenched.

I close my eyes, ready for what will inevitably be only the start of my torment, as I wonder how much I will be able to endure in the selfish aim of creating a better future for myself and the girl I love. But the pain never comes as I hear a muffled sound from behind me. I open my eyes to see blood splattered across the wall and Tyrell’s body lying on the floor in front of me. The guard releases his hold on me and I feel myself falling, my knees crunching against the floor. As I struggle to hold myself upright with my hands still cuffed, the only consolation is Tyrell’s dead face, as I try to figure out what is happening.

I hear another muffled sound as my frantic mind tries to piece everything together. I force myself to turn around, but stop when I see the guard’s leg, motionless and with a stream of blood covering the floor around him.

I look up, hoping to see my saviour, but instead I’m met with the barrel of another gun, this time longer, held more steadily, and undoubtedly more deadly. The man staring down at me looks Chinese but he is not a member of the negotiating delegation. He’s taller, bigger and even calmer – clear of the part he has to play and the purpose he serves for this organisation.

‘Where is the memory stick?’ he asks, his eyes darting around the room and then back to me, the gun not moving.

‘He has it,’ I say, indicating Tyrell with my head.

He nods and continues to survey the room, before resting his gaze on me. He sees the handcuffs, seeming to genuinely survey my situation, before our eyes properly meet. The gun doesn’t move as we both examine each other. I soon realise how I am worthless compared to the knowledge contained on that one small piece of plastic.

‘The memory stick doesn’t have all the data,’ I say, looking at him with pleading eyes that somehow hope to appeal to his sense of logic, if not his guilt. ‘I got disturbed before the transfer had finished.’

He doesn’t say anything and so I close my eyes, waiting for my inevitable muffled end. I figure at this close range it will be all I hear, and the pain will be far less than what Tyrell would have inflicted upon me over many hours or even days. In my final few moments I’m almost thankful, until thoughts of Destiny come flooding into my mind. I think of the future that could have been and of the path that was laid out in front of me, if only for a brief moment. I put my mind to rest, pleased in some way that she is a problem and solution I will never have to trouble myself over again.

‘Who had the keys for your handcuffs?’ he asks, still seeming no closer to finishing me off. I notice that he is using the past tense, as if each of these men is now gone and no longer relevant.

I open my eyes, looking up to see the gun has gone. He’s looking around, clicking his fingers. I nod towards his second killing and this is all he needs to start searching their pockets. He eventually finds a bunch of keys and I’m quickly set free and put to work on gathering all the files.

‘Which are the main servers?’ he asks, dragging both bodies into the middle of the room, a trail of blood following them from where they originally fell.

I nod to the main computers and turn around to see that the door is closed and both of us are sealed in this tomb. I know that once I give him the complete set of files I will be expendable, and so the same question runs through my mind as before: how do I get out of this room in one piece? I watch as the status bar fills completely and a countdown to my demise appears on the screen, flashing proudly that the end is near.

He’s standing behind me now and it makes me think that he will be kind enough to finish me without any real knowledge of what is going to happen next. I close my eyes again – anything to stop me from fainting, although I can’t see that being a bad thing if it does happen.

‘I’m not going to kill you,’ he says. ‘Your passage to Beijing is still guaranteed. You and that girl you’re with, and your parents are being located as we speak. You made a deal and my employer will honour it.’

I open my eyes and look at him, a smile forming across my face. We will make it out of here and I will be with Destiny. We will build a new world, one that is meant for us to be together, and one that knows nothing of the past. I realise what a price I am willing to pay for the freedom of those I care most about; nothing else matters.

As soon as the memory stick is full I pull it out and quickly hand it over to my new protector. I feel happy to be a passenger on whatever gets us out of here: happy not to be making decisions anymore, not to be taking responsibility for so much.

‘You keep it,’ he says, without turning around. He’s busy attaching small boxes to the various systems. It doesn’t take a genius to work out what he’s doing: each of them starts to flash as soon as they are in position. I realise now the true meaning of my decision, in that Lawrence will be left with nothing but a dream and perhaps some residual determination. I’m taking it all and I’m leaving him with very little but rubble and regrets.

He leads me out of the room and down the hallway, tapping something into his phone as he charges forward. We step over bodies and pools of blood: people I knew, people I talked to – decent people who simply bought into the best vision that came along, wanting to do what they could to survive. The world changed and they tried to change with it. They left their homes, moved their lives and lost loved ones, all because of hope, and now they’re dead – crushed by someone bigger than them, all in the name of something even bigger. The higher it goes the more nameless each act becomes.

‘She’s already in the helicopter,’ he says, pulling me down a different corridor. We move quicker now, fighting against time and fate. The two guards at the end of the corridor don’t even see us coming before they fall by the hiss of that gun. When the paths of this man and me separate, I realise that our individual skills will give us very different chances of survival in the coming years. As he stalks his way around the corner I contemplate the very obvious fact that he has adapted far better to what will be required.

Two more hisses and a reload of the gun find us outside and on the roof, both of us running towards the waiting helicopter. He covers me, constantly turning around and then running to catch up, pushing me forward towards my liberation. I see Destiny in one of the passenger seats, waving hysterically at me with both hands, her giant shades covering all but her smile. The other Chinese delegates are on board too, calmly waiting to leave.

I reach the door, shouting that I have completed my mission, ever thankful when they pull me in. Destiny unbuckles her seatbelt and wraps her arms around me, frantically kissing my neck. She scrambles around the small seating area, hysterically screaming my name and getting in everyone’s way.

‘Get your seatbelts on, both of you,’ Jin says. He looks straight at me, his face void of any emotion. ‘You have all of the data?’

I throw myself into a spare seat as the force of the helicopter lifting up pushes me downwards. When I can finally reach into my pocket I pull out the memory stick and present it to my new employer, proud of my work and wanting validation as much as safety.