Michael Robertson - New Reality - Truth

Then he saw a shape. A flash of skin, as white as chalk. Black hair, matted with grease. Eyes …

Oh, my god.

Jake shook.

The eyes were red as if covered with a film of blood.

They stared into the makeshift mirror.

They stared straight at him.

Frozen, Jake’s breath quickened.

Then, as quickly as it had appeared, it was gone. All that was left was the reflection if its dark domain.

Turning to Tom, his teeth chattering, Jake couldn’t find the words.

Tom’s eyebrows pinched in the middle. “Have you seen enough?”

All Jake managed was a febrile nod.

Walking over to the chimney, Tom grunted as he lifted a large rock and dropped it down. It hit the ground with a loud thud and the clattering of metal.

A hissing scream responded.

Putting his arm around Jake’s shoulders, Tom said, “Come on, mate, let’s get moving.”

Pulling away, she sat in the darkness and scratched her face with her long nails. If they thought a rock dropped down a chimney was enough to stop her, they were seriously mistaken.

Now that Jake had seen her, surely this would be the unraveling she’d been waiting for?

The whir of the Bot’s mini blade snapped Jake’s shoulders tight, and his eyes widened. Backing away, Jake looked at his immobile friend. “Tom, we’ve got to leave. Now!”

But Tom wasn’t moving. Frozen to the spot, he stared down at the wide eyes of his dead wife.

Anxious energy buzzed in Jake’s legs as the whir got louder. It was moving fast, but he couldn’t see it yet because of the dust on the wind. Looking up the hill at his exit, he stamped his foot on the floor. “Come on! This isn’t the time to hang around.”

The tall man seemed to have no awareness of the Bot. The rock his wife had hit her head against was slick with blood. The headset they’d just removed sat discarded on the floor, rocking in the gales.

Biting down on his bottom lip, Jake bounced on the spot and looked in the direction of the whir.

Then it burst through the murky sky. The black Bot was huge, its torso as big as Tom’s. Shouting burned Jake’s grit-damaged throat. “We need to go! Hurry up, man!”

When Tom still didn’t move, Jake gritted his teeth. “Argh!” Running back down the slope towards his friend, Jake rode the shifting ground.

With one eye on the Bot, he grabbed Tom’s skinny arm and yanked hard.

Misjudging the tall man’s resistance, Jake pulled with such force that he fell backwards, dragging Tom down on top of him.

Landing over a large lump of concrete sent a nauseating crack through Jake’s back, and white light flashed through his vision. Battling his wheezing lungs, Jake watched Tom get to his feet.

A deep frown crushed Tom’s face. “What the hell are you doing? What’s wrong with you?”

Still fighting for breath, Jake pointed in the direction of the Bot. It was only about thirty meters away now.

Tom’s eyes widened as he looked between Jake and their attacker. “Fuck!” Then he took off.

Temporarily paralyzed from the fall, Jake watched his friend disappear in the opposite direction. If he’d had the lung capacity, he’d have called after him. What was he doing?

Tom ran at the Bot.

What the fuck?

When the tall man grabbed the headset lying on the floor, Jake suddenly understood.

Running away again, Tom waved it at the Bot. “Oi, you. Over here.” As he scrabbled up a small hill, Jake winced. The Bot was gaining on him.

Forcing himself up, his breathing ragged, Jake began his hobbled ascent to safety. When he looked back over to where Tom was, he saw the headset had been left on the floor, and his friend had vanished.

Speeding up, he got close to the top of the hill, the whir of the Bot’s mini helicopter blade spurring him on. Looking around, he saw a claw extend from the bottom of the Bot and hook around the headset. It then faced Jake.

“Fuck!”

Hearing the whine of the Bot’s Gatling guns starting up, Jake turned and ran.

Chips of bricks, concrete and glass sprayed his back as the ground received a peppering of bullets. Each piece stung like an ant bite. Once he reached the summit of the hill, an explosion of searing pain smashed into the triceps on his left arm. Spinning like a top, he saw a splash of blood punched into the air. Then he saw the Bot. The ends of the Gatling gun’s barrels were red-hot circles.

Maintaining his momentum, he fell backwards over the brow of the hill.

When Jake’s eyes flashed open, he saw darkness above him. With his heart pounding and his hand stinging, he groaned. How many times would he have to dream about killing Tom’s wife?

Staying still, his hair whipping his forehead, Jake listened to see if he could hear anything over the loud wind.

As Jake’s eyes adjusted to the night, he could just make out the hazy red glow coming from the letters on the Rixon Tower. It was never truly dark anymore. The illuminated phallus reminded him exactly who was running this world. Sitting up slowly, his hand feeling like it was leaking poison into his veins, he looked over at his friend.

Sat there, cradling his knees, Tom had his head bowed and was rocking on the spot. Tom had promised him one week. A day had passed, and all they’d found was more problems. When the memory of the bleeding eyes came to Jake’s mind, he shuddered. All thought of sleep vanished.

Once he was upright, his legs aching, his hand still throbbing, Jake walked over to his friend.

Sat hunched like an old vulture, Tom looked up and Jake nodded at him.

Squinting against the grit, Tom nodded back. “Are you okay?”

Shrugging, Jake sat down so close to his friend that their shoulders were touching. Staring into the night, he said, “Have you slept at all?”

Tom shivered and shook his head. “No.”

Not knowing what to say, Jake just remained silent.

“Bad dream?” Tom asked.

Nodding, Jake stared at the faint glow of the Rixon Tower.

“About the things following us?”

Jake shook his head.

“Thalia?”

Looking across at Tom’s grey eyes, Jake nodded again. “Yep.”

“Me too,” Tom sighed. “I dream about her every night. It’s like life’s playing a cruel trick on me. Every time I go to sleep, I’m plagued with the memory of killing my wife. Whenever I’m awake, it’s the memory of those things.”

Not knowing if he wanted an answer, Jake swallowed a dusty gulp of air and looked up at the tower again. “Have you heard anything tonight?”

With a half-smile on his face, Tom raised an eyebrow. “Other than you whimpering like a bitch in your sleep?”

Lifting his middle finger at him, Jake scoffed, “Fuck you!”

Tom’s smile fell from his face and he stared into the distance.

Tom eventually broke the silence. “I bet the arseholes in the tower are having a good laugh at our expense. It must be entertaining for them if nothing else.”

Before Jake could respond, Tom sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I can’t believe we left them in the first place. What kind of a husband and father was I to leave my wife and son alone in this world?”

“Don’t you dare say that, Tom. You were trying to find a way to get their headsets off.”

Grinding his Jaw, Tom’s voice cracked. “I left them on their own for over a year. What kind of a man leaves his wife and kid lying in shit for a year?”

“You left them when the city was fine, when it’d been destroyed, it was impossible to find anything anymore. There were no landmarks left. It was like trying to find an ant in the Sahara.”