Earth's army has swamped the streets, collecting the few survivors while exterminating the rest. Quarantine camps have been built, hidden in the far reaches of the outer city.

  Their borders are heavily guarded, the lands outside the walls are surveyed by Marines who play sentinel at the apex of the quarantine zones defence towers. Watchers stalk the regions, their hunt is eternal and their prey is mindless.

  I stand before the centre of my city, observing the shield spires with awe while Mckenzie rummages through the debris in search of loot.

  “Got some” He says, I face him and catch a full magazine that he has thrown my way.

  Blood drips from my hand and I reload my empty rifle. Mckenzie stands, clicks a magazine into his gun and nods.

  “Three down the left, One near the spires, five at the exit” I whisper.

  He stares down at the centre, it is a circular stretch of land that has been abused by battle. In the centre and peaking through the heights of the centre’s once beautiful glass dome are the spires, and at their base are the targets.

  We descend from the centre’s third level by throwing ourselves down to the floor below, I roll as I hit the floor and jagged pieces of rock stab my back.

  Mckenzie slams into the ground on one knee and immediately our guns come up.

  “Take it” Mckenzie says, a split second later I pull the trigger, unleashing a single bullet from the barrel of my rifle.

  The round cuts the air, hits the marine in the shoulder and blows his arm clean off.

  He is dead before he hits the ground.

  Our enemy is brutal, efficient and they return fire before the roaring echo of my gunshot has dissipated.

  Rounds explode into the pillar covering me and I dart to the next half standing one I can see. Their attention is on me, Mckenzie takes advantage of this and fires twice more.

  Two more bodies hit the ground.

  We descend again and I reposition behind a collapsed chunk of rock, my rifle peaks through a gap in the debris and my sights fall onto another marine.

  I pull the trigger and this time the bullet slams dead into the centre of his chest.

  “We are making too much noise” Mckenzie says.

  “I know that” I snap “What do you want me to do? Ask them politely to die?”

  A laugh slips from his mouth “No. But we need to hold our fire, we cannot draw anymore attention” His words are riddled with fear as is the look on his face.

  I nod and we move to drop down to the ground level.

  We evade the sight of the marines and they think we are still on the first level, their guns are aimed high and they are firing at the walls, ensuring we cannot return fire.

  My steps are silent, I come near the first of the remaining five, swipe his legs and dive on him.

  My arms have only one added enhancement, a hidden dagger. The blade materialises in my palm and I stab deep into his throat, pushing downwards and slicing through the back of his neck. He dies, gurgling his last breath and staring deep into my eyes.

  To my left another marine emerges, yet his sights are still aimed high, as I sneak towards him I am caught and a flurry of gunfire comes my way.

  I move without thought, as if something else has thrown me out of the way and the beam of bullets cuts through one of their own.

  Three left.

  I dart out of cover and fire my rifle, the marine takes the hit and explodes into a shower of pink remains.

  Two left.

  Mckenzie pounces, stabbing at the marines chest over a dozen times.

  One left.

  I stand, facing him, covered in the blood of his friends.

  A quick scan indicates that he has succumbed to rage and without thought he runs toward me with two primed grenades in his hands.

  I throw my dagger, hitting him dead between the eyes and I throw myself away from the blast.

  “Clear” Mckenzie says before I can stand.

  “We made too much noise, the grenades would have caught their attention” I say, my words slipping from my mouth with a hiss.

  “We cannot bring down the spires, whatever this is cannot leave this city. They must stay standing”

  I shake my head “What? I thought that was why we came here?”

  Mckenzie is staring at the control panel of the prime spire “No, this route is the fastest way through the city. Come, we need to leave”

  Time is our enemy, it is something we are running out of, and while we stand here before the city’s chains we can do nothing to free it. Like he said, whatever this is, must be contained.

  We move, marching as one unit in complete synchronicity.

  My boot hits the floor at the exact same time as his to the point that the thuds become one, then the further we get from the spires, I feel a sensation like I have never felt before. I feel like an addict before my addiction, reaching out towards it. Numbers call my name in a language like binary, a forgotten dialect known only to the damned of our universe floods my brain and I am infested by a being, too dangerous to be kept alive.

  Data, a stream of information that the human mind is incapable of comprehending, assaults me.

  The spire's previously red colour grows a new yellow taint, on the consoles above the interface panel a symbol appears.

  It is the ATLAS symbol.

  While Mckenzie is witnessing this take place, I am seeing something completely different.

  Slipstreams of archived data hit me, the solitude of the dead fills my system and I connect with a million minds.

  It is agonising, euphoric, wrong and yet perfect all at the same time.

  There is a bridge and a world waiting for me at its end, a million people are at my back, all of whom are desperate to cross, but they cannot.

  I turn and just west from where I am standing I see a beacon of yellow light reaching up into the sky. My mind is hit with two words -FIND THEM-

  The vision is sucked from my brain as if it were banished, my eyes open, returning my mind to the centre and there stands Mckenzie, with nothing but horror on his face.

  “No” The word bursts out of his mouth “How?” He whispers to himself.

  “How what?”

  “Your neuro implant, its back”

  My neuro implant, the thing that I had surgery to get permanently removed, has reformed in my neck.

  “How?” I ask, demanding to know. But Mckenzie’s focus is not on this conversation, he is staring through me, looking at me like I am a ghost.

  “Mckenzie what the fuck is going on?”

  His mouth moves as if attempting to form some sort of words, but they do not come.

  “Kenzie!” I roar and he is hit by the anger in my voice.

  “You asked me what it was? I knew the whole time. I just didn’t care”

  “What?” I shake my head, trying to free it of the aching pain that is numbing my thoughts.

  “I knew what it was. The matrix” He sounds like he is disappointed, but it is not directed at me.

  “The Matrix, it was a consciousness, an intelligence” He draws a sharp breath of air and finally realises what he has done.

  “The AI”

  “AI? What fucking AI?”

  Mckenzie can no longer speak, his mouth is wide open and he cannot come to terms with what he has done.

  “Are you telling me that by taking the Matrix we accidentally free’d an Artificial Intelligence?”

  Mckenzie shakes his head “We didn't free it” And he looks me up and down like I am some sort of monster “We gave it a host”

  “What the fuck are you talking about? I don't get it. I don't understand”

  He wants to explain it further, but we now have company.

  Both of us forget the conversation and take aim at the centre’s entry way.

  A thousand racing steps boom from the darkened entry, crashing into our ears like a band of distant drums.

  The screams of the Cybers cut our ears, even though we know they are there we can't see them and we both have ammunition to conserve.

  “Go. Through the other side” Mckenzie whispers. I nod once and move, he covers my back and then a moment later runs after me.

  “I told you we made too much noise!” Mckenzie roars.

  “Then stop fucking shouting” I return. Both of us flee the centre’s open area and make for the exit.

  The stretched rectangular shape tunnel is pitch black, neither of us can see a thing, we can however hear everything.

  More are coming, they are on the floor above us, tracking us through a variety of different ways. For a horde of mindless creatures they are deathly smart.

  Light illuminating from the tunnel's edge peaks through the half open doors “Come on!” We are almost there!”

  As he speaks, the ceiling collapses just a foot behind us and a dozen Cybers fall with it.

  They waste no time in chasing us, they are barely a foot away from tearing us apart and we are both running for our lives.

  The walkway's doors pass over our heads and we are a dozen metres from its outcove before either of us turn.

  Both of us have around twenty three bullets left in our guns and we let each and every one sing.

  Cybernetic bodies burst, scattering organ engrossed metal all over the place, blood spews and bodies are mangled.

  I hear the crunch of bones as the explosive darts of my rifle crash into them, the sound is potent and I can hear each and every bone fracture before being crushed.

  They collapse, dying a brutal death and then our guns click empty as the last of them crumbles to the ground, its body too broken to keep it standing.

  “What the fuck” Mckenzie says disgusted as the things body crawls towards us.

  Dragging intestines leave trails of flayed fluids behind as it nears, the thing is fast, it is clawing at the floor like an animal to get at us.

  My focus slips from the half person ahead of us and I notice a smell like gasoline, Mckenzie has not noticed it, he is unable to focus on anything else. With each traumatising inch that it crawls across he is growing more and more horrified, all he can think about is stopping this. He has a pistol on his leg, it comes to aim and before I can warn him of the extremely flammable gas oozing from the tunnel, he fires.

  The ignition blows me a dozen feet backwards, I crash through concrete and tumble down the stairwell leading into the east sector of the city.

  My eyes open and my vision is blurred, the darkness above is thicker than before, the only lights that I can see have hazed the corners of my eyes. Moving is agonising, my skin burns, my joints are on fire.

  My coat is tattered, chewed at by hungry flame, standing is a task, by raising myself I am fighting every fibre of my being in order to stand.

  Mckenzie is unconscious to my right, before I am able to come to his aid thorns dance up my spine, I shudder and stare at the tunnel’s maw.

  Through the fires a shadow looms, there it stands with flame licking the curves of its armour.

  A blank visor, draining the soul from its wearer, peaks through the burning light. And all it does is stand there, staring at me.

  “Kenzie” I harshly whisper “Kenzie, get up” He isn't moving.

  “Kenzie. Get. Up” Still he won't answer.

  Heavy, dense armour, crunches cybernetic remains with each painfully slow step. Just by looking at it I am frozen with fear, a feeling I have never felt before. I have no curiosity when it comes to observing the actions of this thing, I know exactly what it wants. Just from the blank stare that it holds I can tell it wants to rip me apart.

  I dart to my right, grabbing Mckenzie and pulling him to his feet, he wakes as if he has just been activated and is ready the moment his eyes open.

  His gaze falls upon me and the fierce look he has on his face is wiped clean when he sees the terror draining the colour from my face. The sound hits him, he follows it and he too is frozen.

  -RUN-

  It hits me like a command, surging into the few cybernetic augmentations that I have.

  My legs move and contort.

  I, with Mckenzie at my back, run for my life yet again.

  I am fast, Mckenzie is fast, both us are racing with unbelievable speed, even still the creature is catching up to us. I can feel the hammering of its boots hit the ground like a coming of death.

  The centre is held up by a spire, it is the tallest in all of Grids grand architecture, it stands like a beacon of the city’s power that looms over a memory of what this place used to be.

  Walkways hang like bridges from its hide, connecting us to the rest of the east sector. Both of us are charging down the path, fleeing from death.

  The hammering charge of the being has since avoided the reach of my hearing, and another sound has come in its place.

  Rain.

  Not water that falls from the sky, but the hoarding march of an endless undead army thats’ charge is so fierce it masquerades its sound with another.

  The weight is far too much and we have no ammunition, all we can do is run.

  As the walkway hangs from its steel pipes it sways as the horde destabilises it, the pipes groan painfully and some begin to fray. It cannot hold the weight.

  I can see the end, it is a hundred feet away.

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  My boots crash into the flats of a staircase, launching me with each powerful stride further up the path.

  Fifty feet left.

  The pipes are snapping, the wires are fraying, unable to withhold us all.

  Twenty feet left.

  The end is near.

  Six of the twelve pipes, held together by thousands of metal fibre wires, snap.

  They tear away from themselves in beats parted by split second intervals, their sounds reverberate, twanging metallic whines sing in my ears and gravity pulls me down.

  My arms shoot out and my hands clamp around the first thing they near.

  Mckenzie does the same and both of us hang thousands of feet above the ground.

  Dozens of Cybers plummet into the thick clouds beneath, enveloped by the blanket of mind numbing white.

  “Hold on!” I shout

  “The fuck do you think I am doing?”

  The bridge's ground is decorated with sections of synthetic plant life that live in habitat chambers, the glass has shattered and I am able to hang on to their edges with a firmer grip. Mckenzie has no such luck, he is slipping, slowly dragged from a continued existence by the relentless pull of gravity. He groans, straining with the pains of multiple cybernetic activations. Claws spring out of his forearms, digging into the bridge, splicing the hard concrete and drilling into place.

  Mckenzie sighs with exasperated relief and he laughs “And they said they were a waste!” He howls.

  I look around but there is nothing for me to grab onto “I think we have to climb” I shout.

  “Climb up what?” Mckenzie retorts “The ground is flat”

  His cybernetics can assist him with his efforts to make it to the bridge's side which is now facing up, I will have to find another way to make it there.

  “You climb, get to the top and walk the rest of the way”

  I see him nod and he tears his claws out from the bridge only to again bury them deep inside a few feet higher. He passes me and I move up the block that I am holding onto.

  “I’ll near the top, you jump and I'll pull you up” Kenzie smiles and climbs higher and all I can do is imagine myself failing the jump and falling into the sheets of white underneath.

  “You ready?” He calls out with the biggest smile on his face.

  The stunt has brought him some pleasure, at least someone is enjoying it, I'm on the verge of shitting myself.

  My face is dead straight and I squat, then launch myself straight upwards, the blood bumpers in my legs increase my thrust by about twice the average and I throw out my hand.

  My forearm claps with the flat of his palm and he hoists me up to the top.

  “You crazy fucker! I never would have thought that you had it in ya! God damn that is the best thing I have seen you do”

  I smile, faking it to hide how uncomfortable I am and I just walk down the tipped bridge.

  The side is around ten feet in width, I have plenty of room, and yet I can hear the edges taunting me with their abrupt fall. I breathe, forgetting that if I stumble I die, and I take my time.

  “We ain't far now” Mckenzie says “Any Idea where this leads?”

  Mckenzie’s words are no longer dry nor are they hoarse with stress, instead they are fluid with the expressions of his humour and they bounce from his mouth, happily gracing my ears.

  I have to admit, it is comforting to hear him like this.

  “The east sector is known as the Factor. It's the manufacturing sector. We’ll come across monastery-like factories that dress their creations in an almost ceremonial way as they are forged. This entire region will feel unbreathable, the sun will not reach us nor will the sounds of anything other than an engines hiss”

  Mckenzie chuckles “Damn. And you know all of this, how?”

  Memories flash before my very eyes, disabling my ability to walk in a straight line, I shake my head and lie “Odd jobs” I say quickly.

  We step from the tipped bridge's edge and connect with the main route leading to the heart of the east sector, around us lays a thickened smog that we can not only taste, but also feel tainting our skin. “Do you think the sun will rise soon?” Mckenzie asks as he looks upward.

  “We are still a hundred feet above the ground level, which means we are seven thousand feet above the earth's ground level-

  The sun would rise across from the horizon” I point straight ahead “And would settle off in the west. We, throughout today, will not be able to see the light. For as long as we are in the east sector it is night”

  Mckenzie hums thoughtfully and nods “So what you’re saying is we need to kick back for the night”

  I smile “I couldn’t think of anything better”

  We have no gear, our weapons fell when the bridge tipped and whatever items we considered important were left in the truck. All we have is our wit and each other, honestly, we’re fucked.

  Visibility is low and we throw ourselves up against the observation deck of the east sector's grand entrance. We are situated just off the main road and sit, resting up against the broken railings overlooking the factories.

  “Oh…Oh!” Mckenzie begins to laugh and his voice fills with delight “Guess. What”

  I turn, more intrigued than I care to admit and see him reveal a half empty pack of smokes.

  I stare at them as if they are the last ones I will ever see “Oh my god, we lose the guns but we keep the smokes”

  Mckenzie smiles “Yeah, I got priorities” And he winks before lighting a cigarette.

  I take the pack, light up and take the biggest, slowest, most amazing drag of my life.

  The smoke hits my lungs, all the tension in my upper body evaporates and I exhale and sigh at the same time, releasing the stress.

  I see the east sector, we will not be travelling through it tonight.

  McKenzie is hit by the comfort of his smoking companion and I figure that this is the moment. “You said you knew what it was”

  His face drops, I see it out of the corner of my eye and so I blankly stare at him “Why did you lie?”

  He opens his mouth and tries to speak, instead he chokes on what would have been a lie.

  A sigh breaks free and he shakes his head “Because I knew what it was capable of, and I didnt want anyone to know that I knew. Cop may have taken the matrix, but the package is with us”

  “What do you mean?”

  Mckenzie motions to the city ahead “Look around you, how do you think the Cybers became what they are. Neural control. The exact method of transference in which an AI can interface with a human brain” He sighs again and takes another long drag of his smoke.

  “You’re saying that this? This was because of us” I stare at him, waiting for a response.

  “I am”

  He goes silent, I am not prepared to let him hide everything from me just yet.

  “You said we gave it a host. What did you mean?”

  I scan him, searching for any indication that what he is about to say may be a lie.

  He does not respond.

  I wait and smoke, hoping that he will continue to speak. The silence is long, my cigarette’s burn fills my ears “What do you think is going on here?” He asks.

  I inhale, reflecting as the black smog hits my face “ATLAS launched a brand new range of cybernetic augmentations five hours ago. Two hours later we see the first group of Cybers in this city. Now look at it. Whole place is mashed”

  “Just like it was before” Mckeznie says.

  “Yeah” I laugh “Just another day I guess”

  He turns with a curious look “Is that how you feel?”

  I do not look, I avoid the question and launch my first subtle attack in order to gain some information.

  “How do you feel?” I see his face drop and his stare grow blank.

  “I dont know what you’re trying to ask”

  “Yes you do” I say, still staring into the view “You became something else today, fractured, disconnected”

  He scoffs, knowing I'm right “Why?”.

  “I feel responsible…” The range of factories catch his eye “I see them, the Cybers, their infinite agony and it reminds me that if I had not grabbed that fucking Matrix, then all of this would be different”

  He sighs, drifting into the view, losing himself in the void that lays ahead.

  “I could say the same thing”

  His head snaps to me “What do you mean?”

  I inhale, drawing a deep breath and holding it there for a second. “I did not want to join your crew, I chose to, only because I thought that I may as well. And If I had not joined you then you would not have been able to infiltrate the facility”

  Mckenzie nods, understanding my point “You know I have been thinking about that. I wonder if someone knew we were coming and just let us in”

  His mind is lost in the dwelling depths of his thoughts, I can see that in his eyes he is rummaging around the darkest recesses of his mind, venturing to the place where the bad memories are kept.

  “I still think this is my fault”

  I nod “Well. All I can do is say that it's not. It’s up to you know to decide whether you can bare that burden, or be dragged down by it”

  Curious, even though he is my best friend, my only friend in fact, I have never felt so comfortable to speak so openly before.

  Maybe it's because the world is ending.

  Regardless, it intrigues me.

  The crumple of damp debris under a heavy boot rubs through the silence, we both jump to our feet and turn.

  She stands there like a statue carved from marble, while her hair is a fray and her expression is that of seething rage. I look at her as if she is the light at the end of the tunnel.

  “Where. Is it?” She growls.

  “Cop, what are you talking about”

  She unleashes in roaring anger, screaming at the both of us “You know exactly what I mean, The package. Where is it?”

  Cop does not scare me, the anger in her voice does not raise any concern “Cop. We don't have it” I say calmly.

  “Who the fuck are you?” Her hand comes up and she points “Who the fuck do you think you are? That was my package, my reward. And I want my money”

  I turn my pockets, pull open all the pouches across my combat vest, I even tear off my coat and toss it to the side “We don't have it”

  She scans me, looking me up and down and back up again, I can tell by the look on her face that she is not satisfied.

  “Then where is it?” She throws out her hands and shouts at us like we are misbehaving children.

  I raise my hands “You wanna know where it is?”

  She nods sarcastically and I step aside, beckoning her to look over the east sector's heart.

  “What am I looking at here?”

  I follow her gaze and point out the clusters of the shambling dead that we can barely make out.

  “It is all down there”

  She pulls back, confusion apparent in her brow “I…”

  Mckenzie interrupts “It was an Artificial Intelligence. It got free, or at least we think it did”

  “How?” She barks.

  I simply shrug my shoulders.

  “We don't know” Mckenzie sighs and sits. His face contorts into a look of pure shock “Wait! How did you get in here?!”

  Cop looks around, her eyes playfully avoiding Mckenzie “Well…You know. Quarantine ain't so hard to break” And she laughs, but it is not loud or obnoxious, it is subtle, soft, sweet.

  Mckenzie turns back to the east sector, turning his back on the conversation.

  Cop stands there “So. I guess i'll just go”

  “Wait!” The word jumps out of my mouth before I can stop it. I feel anxious now that I have drawn some direct attention, she stares at me and I stumble over my words.

  “You’ll die if you go out there” My words come with the softest tones I can form. For some reason I want her to be okay, for some reason I do not want her to leave.

  “So what, I just stay here with you guys?”

  I look at her, observing the beauty of her face, while she stares back, her eyes wide and glistening like stars.

  “Yeah” I say, nervously laughing as the word falls from my lips.

  She steps backwards, I assume that she is evaluating her options but I am unsure, I am not examining her for any signs, just looking and taking it all in.

  “Alright. I'll stay”

  A sensation travels into the centre of my chest and explodes into a growing ball of warmth.

  She nears, sits next to me crossed legged and she looks over the edge.

  “So what's the plan?”

  Mckenzie finally returns to the conversation “Don't have one. Just move and keep moving”

  “And what if one of us dies?” Cop asks.

  “Then we keep moving” I say

  She looks at me, staring with her head tilted and her eyes squinting. “I sure hope you don't die, what a waste that would be”

  She throws herself back without giving me a moment to process it and she stretches.

  Her eyes close and she lays there.

  “Is she like this with everyone?” I ask Mckenzie.

  “I've known this girl along time, seen her act in every way you can imagine”

  I nod, thinking this is just the way she is, but he continues “Never seen her like this though”

  Cops lips bat with a fleeing burst of air, her body relaxes “She’s asleep” Mckenze utters “Leave her to it”

  “We should rest”

  Mckenzie responds with a faint nod that concludes with his eyes falling shut, mine begin to feel dry, my vision weakens and as I stare at the void above, I drift off with the calming sensations of sleep.

  Swarming waves of Cybers wander aimlessly amongst the shadows, their shambling corpses covered by the thick black fog, making them effectively invisible.

  Whilst we sleep, I dream.

  I see through the eyes of another.

  Two minds, one of matter and one of code, connect. Through its eyes I see and what I interpret is a puzzle of which each piece is incomprehensible. The darting lines caressing my eyes fall like a storm's rain and disappear into the sphere that surrounds me. Numbers swirl in the face of the ball, contorting into commands before darting off to perform.

  I understand nothing that I can see, it is what I feel that triggers my senses.

  The warmth of a building, the sounds of a factory, the inner workings of pistons hissing and thudding against their components ring in my ears. They beat like a song, hammering a chorus of thunderous creation into the fabrics of what I now am.

  And the longer I am here the less I understand, the more unintelligible information that washes throughout what I am the less I remember what I was.

  Then, as the fires of a dawning war begin to rise, a stirring voice grows and its words hit me.

  “Where did you go?”

  As if opening like a lock my brain allows it access and whatever it is canvases my brain,

  searching through my memories.

  My entire life flashes before my eyes, memories I do not remember remerge.

  The panic forces me awake so I explode up from my spot, sweating like an animal, panting, begging for air.

  A spherical faint outline darkens as my sight focuses, fading into the fog until my brain comes to understand that what I was seeing was not real. The tainting darkness matts across my exposed forearms and face making me itch, but I do not focus on it.

  Gunfire is ripe in the heart of the factor, I turn and see the factories surrounded by pockets of pulsating light. The gun’s muzzle flash beats through the thick blackness, barely reaching my sight, I faintly hear the screams of dying men and women coupled with the batting rotations of troop carriers.

  I continue to stare unsure of what to do, I look, enhance my vision, fixate upon the marines warring with the undead.

  A moment or two of observation serves me no purpose, then as I grow intrigued I am blinded.

  Light.

  Pure, annihilating light, takes the form of a bubble before growing, consuming, enveloping all which surrounds.

  The cloud rises through dissipating light, blooming over the centre of the sector. The further it rises the more light which is absorbed by its physique, and I see the ground underneath its petals of raging fire.

  I see a scorched earth.

  The shockwave hits me, bursting my eardrums and tearing me from my feet, debris meets my back stabbing me like a bush of thorns as I crash and roll.

  I have no grace in understanding what has just happened, I can piece it together myself, I am in no need of an explanation, But again my attention is drawn and this time I find myself staring at the blank visor of death.

  I cannot move, my body will not respond to the commands sent down by my brain, my nervous system is fried, damaged by an unknown connection.

  My eyes work just fine, they stare ahead, piercing the pathway that separates the buildings.

  The fog clouds the wide body, covering its thick armour plating in unnumbered layers of fog, but its visor glints through and again all it does is stand there.

  I understand people by utilising my biological retinal scanners however they are incapable of reading its form, I have to rely on my experience in order to understand what this is.

  Hard steps drum and near, I see it, striding until it is a foot away. It kneels, tilting its head, staring at me.

  A large hand grips the back of my neck, I move with its pull, it lifts me.

  It stands straight allowing me to see the settling clouds reflection in its visor, dead is reflected in its hollow gaze but curiosity guides its other arm.

  I feel fingers touch the back of my neck, searching around for my neural implant.

  It has found what it wants, I cannot read its expression, metal hides it from me, but a split second hesitation indicates that its search is over.

  Lightning webs up its arm, it tries to pull away but it can't, it is stuck to me.

  The colours of my dream dress the edges of its visor, slowly creeping into the centre where they meet and breed. Artificial creations take control of its armour and I hear it groan in pain.

  It tears its hand away from me and slouches, clutching its arm. I fall now that it has let go, still I cannot move, the thing has retreated but turns to look at me.

  “I will find you”

  It comes like a glacier, then it vanishes from sight.

  “Eights!” Here comes Mckenzie “Eights!” Rushing to me after the beast has left.

  “Eights, get up, we need to move now!” He grabs me, shaking and yelling at the same time.

  My body responds and I can move.

  “What the fuck was that?” I say, slurring my words.

  “A warhead” He replied, keeping it short and sweet, yet it does not soften the blow, the realisation grips my chest and I cannot breathe.

  Cop rushes to my side and Mckenzie hands me off to her, she hoists me up, stabilising me. I meet her gaze, our faces are an inch away from one another, I can feel the warmth of her breath crawling down the collar of my shirt.

  Our eyes connect and I see straight through her.

  For a moment, only a moment, I become completely disconnected from anything but her.

  She is all I see, she holds my stare like it was meant for only her, again for a single moment I forget everything but her.

  “Fuck. Cop, drop him”

  We both follow Mckenzie’s words, he stands there, hands raised and his back facing us.

  Guns stare at us from all directions, the marines holding them carry no expression except determination.

  “Drop him!” A marine orders.

  Cop squeezes me a little tighter. “I can't, he can't walk” I hear the concern in her voice.

  “Why?” A marine calls out.

  “What's wrong with him!” Another shouts.

  “Drop him now!”

  “Do it!”

  “Drop the freak!”

  They all break out into a frenzy of barks, ordering Cop to let go of me.

  “Is he infected!” It comes, overpowering the rest, battering them into silence.

  “What? Infected with what?”

  Their leader comes closer, his gun low and his eyes narrowed.

  With a growl he asks “Is. He. Infected”

  “No” I shout “The blast. I got hit by the blast”

  He nods, thinking, then flicks his hand “Wrap this up”

  They rush us, ragging Mckenzie to the floor first, then doing the same to us.

  Mckenzie fights back, barking at the two marines restraining him “Fuck you. You better not set me free, I’ll kill you!”

  The marine unclips his sidearm, bringing it level with Mckenzie’s temple “One more word and I’ll blow your brains out”

  I see a smile across his face “Pussy” He snarls.

  We are one by one shoved into the belly of a night copter.

  The drawn doors slide shut, breaking the constant whine of charging propellers.

  The night copter lifts, pulling away from the ground.

  I choose to focus on the cloud in all of its destructive beauty, ruinous smoke flickers as the light of apocalypse beats within.

  My attention is however stolen. “What are we going to tell them? How do you expect us to explain this?”

  They argue in whispers.

  “I was not prepared to leave them”

  “That does not answer my question. Do we know if he is clear?”

  Their commander goes to speak and instead catches me staring, he stops himself and waves his subordinate away before moving through to the cockpit.

  My eyelids feel heavy, as they shut I still see the cloud, I still see annihilation.

  Apocalyptic fury has been permanently painted onto my retina’s, I lay there, lost in thought, yet there stands annihilation, burning through each imagined image that crosses my mind.