2023. War Time. Few stand against many. Darkness surrounds
the rebels. The war is past any meaning, if a war can ever have meaning, it is
only about survival now. It is a hard place to live, and death means next to
nothing. But some still stand and fight. Not for any real victory, not even the
insane still hope for that. Yet they still stand, and in that there is meaning.
A young man of 25, Alex, is standing alone in an
abandoned college dormitory that once served as a rebel base. Old
buildings
which were once filled with life stand empty. Dark clouds fill the sky.
Alex
walks forward, an expression of emptiness that is only matched by his
environment. He hears something in the bushes and stops for a moment. He
then
takes half a step away before turning back and stabbing a wryly-looking
old man
with long hair directly through the heart. The man
screams and lets go off his knife. He lets out a strange gurgling sound
as he slowly falls to his knees. Alex face does not change
as he lets the man fall to the ground on his back. He then pulls the
knife out
and wipes it on a cloth from his pocket before putting his knife away in
it’s
concealed holster near his belt. He listens as
the man takes his last few breaths, looking into his lifeless-black eyes
which
were just as dead before he attacked as they are as he leaves this
world. Alex
does a silent prayer bent on his knees over the man, shutting the man’s
eyes
and crossing himself before he stands up. He then looks around,
wondering if he
is still being hunted. Seeing that he is not, he continues to walk away.
Alex enters his sleeping quarters. He turns on the light and
turns on his computer. His room is clean and neat. He takes a moment to sit in
silence before turning on Mozart and listening to it peacefully with his eyes
closed. He then switches the song to the upbeat 80’s rock song “She’s gotta be
somebody’s babe” and starts to bob his head playfully. He begins to subtly lip
synch the song and sway openly when the door creaks and he immediately jerks
his head to it and turns off the music. He then grabs his knife and walks
cautiously out the door. The hall is empty. After a moment he is convinced it
was nothing and begins to turn away when he hears his name whispered by a familiar voice: “Alex.”
He stops his dead and turns around. As he walks forward in a dream like state he hears his name called again
and begins running. He hears it again and begins sprinting and looking around
desperately. After frantically searching the hallway he opens the door to the
stairs and looks into the darkness. He then calls out in a voice that is both
serious and desperate: “hello.” His voice is quiet and raspy from a lack of
use. He calls out again, this time with more guster “hello! Is anyone there? If
your there? Please answer! I won’t hurt you!” For a moment he hears nothing and
begins to notice how fast his heart is beating. He takes a deep breath and
closes his eyes. He then quietly says to himself “I’m just hearing things…get
a grip”
He then turns around and begins to leave through the door when, very
quickly, he hears “help me” and begins sprinting down the stairs. He almost
knocks the door to the next floor off its hinges as he bursts through it,
searching for any sign of life. He calls again “I’m here, please come out! I
won’t hurt you, just tell me where you are!” He is met with silence, his heart
is pumping very quickly. He then starts running through the hall leading to the
door, searching frantically everywhere. “Please… please don’t let me be going
crazy…”
He then reaches the door and spins around in every direction… seeing
nothing. “Over here” he hears and he sees the front door closing and hears the
sound of feet running. He bolts out the door immediately. The door has a sign
which reads “Never go out at night, unless death is your goal.” Alex runs
through the abandoned rebel base seeing nothing but feeling as though he is
going the right way. He stops in an intersection of paths before he notices
something sparkling on the ground: a necklace. He runs to it and picks it up.
He looks into it and remembers the girl who wore the
necklace. Amy. His light. His partner. His lover. His friend. He
remembers the nights they laid awake together in each others arms as they heard the
screams and fires. He remembers holding her and surviving with her through the
late stages of rebellion, he remembers hoping with her. He remembers her being there for him
when he found out his mother was dead. He remembers crying in her arms, holding
her so tightly as he realized that she was the last person he knew who was
alive. He remembers telling her that he would never let anything happen to her.
He remembers her making him promise that he would never let anything take his
smile away. He remembers finding out they were having a child. Then… he
remembers the night they were ambushed.
They had planned their escape so well, even fixed
up an old Subaru, but they had been tracked and were surrounded at
gunpoint. They went for her but he stood in front
of them with nothing but a knife and killed them one by one. She stood
by his
side, shooting their gun. Then they overpowered him and took her.
Despite having been shot, he summoned his rage and ran
after them, killing everyone that got in his path in ways that he never
knew he
could before. He didn’t care, their deaths were nothing. But they kept
coming. So many of them...why would they send so many?
He didn’t care if he was killed anymore, but he knew that if he died he
couldn’t save her. He fought his way through them all but...he couldn't
hear her anymore. The silence and wind around him was so empty. There
was no
one left to fight. And she was gone. Then he heard the scream, the
horrible
scream. His life was taken from him. Everything was gone. And then…a
noise
behind him. Maybe a twig snapping, maybe something else, he didn’t know.
He
turned around, picked up a few spare guns, his eyes ready for anything.
More men. Lots of them. “One more” one
hissed. A blood-churtling scream filled the night. His. The soldiers
stepped
back, despite having guns, but they were already dead.
Then, he hears a sound. Two feet drop from a tree. He turns
towards to it, his face does not change. Then he hears two more…and two more. A
moment later he is surrounded by a circle of soldiers. The realization that it
had all been a trap washes over him. He looks at the necklace, and holds it
tightly in his face before facing the lead soldier who takes a few steps
towards him. “Where did you get this?” he asks. The soldier answers
casually; “from the dead.”
It’s like losing her all over again. “We found your
name on the internet. Your college wasn’t the best place to hide,” says the
soldier. “There’s no point in fighting, why don’t you just give in?” asks the
soldier contemptuously. Alex takes out his lover’s necklace and puts it around
his neck, and then stares at the soldier before speaking: “because, I
promised.” The confident smiles on the soldier’s faces do not last long. He
defeats each one of them handily. He is finally left with the lead soldier he
had been talking to, who looks bewildered. “Why do you keep fighting? You’ll
never win this war?” Alex just smiles: “Be at peace.” The soldier dies, Alex
shuts his eyes, and says a silent prayer. He then crosses himself, and walks
away.
He visits his lover’s grave the next day, and buries the
necklace. Flowers are in full bloom now, and the wind is in Alex’s hair. He
takes it in, and then walks into the warmth of the sun. He starts to whistle
the tune “she’s gotta be somebody’s babe.” The sun is shining, life’s not so
bad.
