On that day, I was oblivious to
the war we were about to be pulled into.
We all were.
I was happy, jamming along to a new drum and bass cd I picked up a few nights before while piecing my Subaru STI back together. I'd shredded 3rd gear the night before while at an... "unsanctioned" race. A pastime my girlfriend disapproved of but not for the reason you might think. She thought that the main reason I went out to race was to cheat on her; which is why she was in the car last night, which is also why my transmission is currently in pieces in this Manhattan warehouse.
To be honest, doing things like this... I was at my happiest. No one around, music playing and getting completely pulled into working on something; forgetting about everything else...
Out of the corner of my eye I caught my phone flashing just as it vibrated off the engine and into a pan of oil underneath. "Balls!" I raced over to the pan, fished around, ripped my phone out and wiped at the screen just in time to see my friend's name, Jaison, disappear. Then I notice the time, 2 hours past the time I told Cindy I'd be back. A silent rage simmered. I kicked some exhaust tubing off the coffee table and pushed the anger back down. "Cindy's gonna kill me. I can't..." At that moment the cd finishes and and I chuckle half-heartedly to myself. "Perfect timing." I grab a few shop towels and wipe my phone off before slipping out of my mechanic's gear and tossing it on top of the transmission housing. I wash up a bit, grab the keys to my RX7 and make my way home.
The key slides effortlessly into the apartment door and I turn it after taking a deep breath, hoping she doesn't flip out on me. It's an empty hope. "Where the fuck were you?!" Is the first thing I hear, something dropping to the floor in the kitchen as I shut the door was the second..
"Cindy, can we not right now? I just want to change my clothes and hangout with my family tonight." I slip my keys into my pocket as I look at the mail on the table.
"Why couldn't you meet up with them when you were with your real family Mannie?! I'll tell you why, it's cuz you were too busy having sex with some slut you met at one of those 'races' you go to!"
"That's preposterous o- " A vase collides with the wall next to me. One of the pieces from the explosion of ceramic meeting brick slashes my cheek as I lunge into the living room. "SHIT! Jesus Christ! I thought we tal..."
I'm cut off as something else hurtles toward me. This time I don't just dodge, I run to the balcony and jump down to the sidewalk. While rolling out of the landing, something crashes into the ground behind me as I run back into the RX7. I fire up the still warm engine and it screams as I crush the gas pedal, tires protesting the sudden acceleration. If I had been paying attention I could've seen her, holding a knife while clutching at the balcony railing, in my side-view mirror. I tap on the in-dash-screen and a picture of my best friend pops up. I spoke at it, "Call" and my speakers start to ring.
"What's up biddie, you comin over now?" He sounds like he was just laughing.
"Yeah, um - Cindy... Cindy said she'll stay home..."
"Of course she did."
Neither of us say a word as I shift up a gear while fighting back tears. I turn to get on the Horace Harding Expressway and after a few more seconds of silence he speaks. "Listen, I..." I cut him off before he can talk some kind of sense into me. "I'll be there in about 30, kay?" He exhales in defeat before answering. "See you when you get here, then." I tap the red phone on the screen and drive for a few moments in silence until I punch the steering wheel. I fight back the urge to just explode and glance at the touchscreen.
"Play Drum and Bass."
A chime sounds and Calyx erupts from the speakers. I hold my finger on the up-volume button in the steering wheel until I can't hear myself think anymore. For the next 30 minutes I drove in relative silence; occasionally dabbing the blood from my cheek with a fast food napkin.
When I got to Jaison's, who was essentially like my brother. I paused just before the front gate and unconsciously shifted into neutral. Not sure why but I just sat there with muted the music for a few minutes. I closed my eyes and hoped for something to happen. When I opened them and saw that the world just kept on going without me I felt an odd peace.
I rolled up to the gate and the security system I installed for them picked up the tag in my car and I rolled up the driveway that was too long. I thought I'd be the last one to show up for the reunion but there was a car missing. I turned the music down before shutting off the engine and tossed the napkin into a garbage can next to the garage. I tap in the door code, the heavy lock unbolts and I walk in, announcing my arrival "Yo!" I hear someone call back from the living room and see almost everyone there watching T.V.
Angelica looks to me, notices the cut on my cheek immediately and looks away awkwardly before speaking. "The pair are in the kitchen, but the third of you nerds isn't here yet." I wave hi to everyone with a big smile and nod before I make my way to the kitchen. I hear them laughing before I see them. The perfect couple really... Then I hear a serious tone cut the laughter, "He should leave that girl, she is not good for him in the least."
A pang hits me in the chest as I walk through the doorway and try to act oblivious. My brother, Jaison, is sitting on the counter and his other half is nursing a drink while sitting at the island. "How's it going you two, whatcha talkn' about?" He looks at me like a concerned parent. "You know damn well who we're talking about, Mannie." My eyes dashed to the ground. "Yeah..." and almost immediately he gasps audibly. "She did that to you?" You can hear the anger in his voice as he practically stares another cut into my cheek. I trip over my words trying to head off his next, but it's no use. "Nope. Ahuh Mannie. Did she do it?" I nod my head and he jumps off the counter and turns around to the drawer in the blink of an eye. "Calm down Jaison, you're not going to assault anyone." He scoffs at the words. "Like hell I'm not Kristoff! Every-time I see Mannie he's got a new bruise, cut or broken bone! Here we go. I'm go cut her ass, see how she likes it." I feel a misplaced fear and I rush over to him and put a hand on the knife. "No, please!" Jaison's eyes go wide in surprise as a tear forms but doesn't drop. He nods his head and puts a hand up in submission. "Ok, ok – you know this is an abusive relationship right?"
I look at him then at Kristoff, then back at him, trying to keep from thinking the thought I've kept myself from for 3 years. "It's... she isn't..." It finally crossed my mind. "Either you break up with her or I do go over there and beat her the fuck up." Kristoff sounds his disapproval. "Babe that's a little abrupt, to say the least." "Mannie needs abrupt Krissy! And I ain't about to sit here and find out she's actually killed him one day. Shit like this happens too damn often."
My mind freezes and a flurry of emotions swirl around in my head. I essentially check out mentally for a few seconds before I can speak again. "... you promise to leave her alone?" He scoffs, "Leave...? Mannie, you're lucky I haven't found some dirt on her to blackmail her ass into obscurity! The way I see it, it's your life later on for a momentary sadness now. I don't know what I'ma do the next time I find out she's hurt you! We're all lucky I haven't done anything already."
There was an awkward silence as Kristoff sipped his bourbon. Our other friend, Joel, threw a door on the opposite side of the kitchen open, shattering the silence when he saw me. "Oh, hey Mannie! You're here! I bet my brother isn't yet." He looked over to Jaison just as he hopped back onto the counter and pulled out his phone. "Nah, he's probably asleep in front of his computer again." He says shooting me a stealth glare. Kristoff looks worried as he takes a big gulp of bourbon. "Well since my brother and his girlfriend are the only ones left, how about we go motivate their asses?"
Jaison looks up from his phone and makes a sound at Krisstoff. He looks up in thought and inhales the rest of his drink and nods back. Joel smiles wide and yells to the rest of the family. "Ey! Pack it up! We're going to the trainer's house!"
When we got there no one answered the door for at least 5 minutes. Jaison said it was 30 but that's just how he is. "He might be taking a dump." I joked as Joel walked to the side of the house. "There's a window open, one of us could get in through there." I immediately made my way to it before any deliberation could be made about how it would look. In a few seconds I'm peering inside and pushing the window open so I can fit. I put my foot onto something that felt solid but as soon as I shift my weight I fall in in the most ungraceful way. "Did you die?" Jaison yells from outside. I wave my hand out the window as proof of life and put back the pile of boxes and broken computer parts I knocked over. Joel's brother a.k.a. the third nerd between Jaison and I, had a problem with throwing out old tech he either broke or upgraded from.
I get to the hallway and listen carefully but there's nothing. Their room is just down the hall but I know better than that. His office and home gym are downstairs. I make my way downstairs sloppily because there's no real reason to be quiet. I turn left to open the door for everyone else and see his girlfriend sleeping on the couch in her workout gear and a garbage bag next to her. "They're perfect for each other." I chuckle to myself as I make my way over. As I reach for the garbage bag hand shot out from underneath the blanket and before I knew it she had me in an arm bar.
"Who are you and what did you take!"
"Nice to see you too but could you not dislocate my arm please?" I force out the words as she was simultaneously crushing my windpipe with the back of her knee.
"Mannie? Oh! How are you?!" She instantly lets go of my arm and pulls me off the floor. I massage my shoulder and elbow as she grabs the garbage bag, making her way to the door.
"Everyone else is here too..." She opens the door and receives the barrage of greetings we're known to wash on each other. I spy a whiffle ball bat on the floor and pick it up on my way to his office. I push the door open and see one of his monitors has a game with red words across it, "You have been disconnected due to inactivity. Please Relog to Continue." The other 5 monitors had myriad windows with pieces of code and programs cut up into workable chunks. I sneak across the floor littered with plates, wrappers, instant noodle cups and protein containers. I almost step on Molly the Chinchilla just before I get behind his chair.
As my bat hits him on the head, I feel another one hit me in the stomach. "Ko-ni-chi-wa..." I wheeze out the greeting as he spins around in his chair rubbing the back of his head. "We missed you bro! Why you gotta be in Japan all the time?" I smirk and lean on the whiffle bat, my gaze drifting to his monitors. "Future cars won't invent themselves." He jumps up from his seat and points at me like we're in an anime court case. "I knew you were working on flying cars for that company!" His astute guess steals my words. "What'd... I don't..." Then on one of his monitors I see a bunch of code that looks very familiar and point to it accusingly. "This is my code dude! What the hell?" He smiles sheepishly. "I was gonna share my improvements when I felt good about them. I don't know what it's purpose is but there was an inconsistency between these lines so..." I glare at him, more because he didn't tell me rather than him breaking into the servers. "So, how's the girlfriend?" The sentence wipes my mind and my face goes blank. "C'mon, we came by to get you two moving for dinner." I turn away and leave him a cold shoulder. I pass Jaison in the hall as he walks out of the bathroom. I hear them talk as I walk to the living room. "Frantz, you asked him about Cindy didn't you?"
"Why's that a problem dude?"
"If you'd answer your phone you'd know, Sleeping Ugly."
"Why you always gotta call me names?"
"Cuz you don't pay attention."
I'm already sitting on a bar stool in the kitchen as they walk into the living room. Alexis pops her head out from behind the fridge door when she hears me exhale.
"Want me to make you something?"
"Nah we're goin out remember?"
"Yeah, I know this. That doesn't mean we can't have a pre-dinner, dinner." I contemplate her offer for a few seconds but decline. Since I started work on this hush hush prototype I haven't been able to workout as much so there wasn't much of a need to keep my intake up. However, since These two are personal trainers they're both always burning tonnes of energy, hence 'pre-dinner'.I hear Jaison yell "Oh my lord!" as the television turns itself on. "The goddamn house is haunted Frantz! Time to move." Frantz chuckles a bit before answering. "Nah dude I just programmed the house to auto play relevant breaking news. He said while watching the screen. "What counts as relevant?" Jaison asks, partially aware of the answer. "Apocalypse stuff. It's usually just comets passing by though. "Mhmm." Jaison replies, his suspicions met.
"Astrologist's have confirmed that there seems to be a comet headed our way today. No need to worry though folks, it's not an earth killer. But, it should pass by close enough so that we can see it streak across the sky in a brilliant display, akin to the Aurora Borealis. Experts say, based on its trajectory, it seems to have come from the direction of the Andromeda galaxy, which was clearly visible in the night sky 3 weeks ago. From satellite analysis, astrophysicists say starting 3 days from now we could have a streak in our night sky for weeks to come. A rather heavenly view."
Jaison chuckles, "Never thought I'd hear "streak" and "heavenly view" used in the same sentence."
"Hey man, don't knock it till you've tried it."
Frantz said in reply which only drew a look of disgust from Jaison but laughter from everyone else. Jaison looked at his phone and cleared his throat to get our attention. "Aight, are we going to leave now or miss our reservations?" He spoke primarily to Frantz and Alexis who looked like they had worked out earlier but hadn't showered yet. They glanced at each other and nodded before getting up. "We'll wash-up up real quick, be ready in 30.
As they got to the hallway my head started to spin. "Hey, my engine was sounding a little funny so I'ma go check that out while they get ready. I got the various "go ahead's" from everyone and made my way to my car as quick as possible. The world kept moving around me and white started to come in on the edges of my vision. I wrenched the door open, fell into my seat and started the engine. My head started to pound harder and harder as I tried to focus on the idling engine. I grabbed at my head with both hands, trying to relieve some of what felt like pressure, building up. I revved it a few times, more in anger than anything else but it didn't help. The world outside started to fade out, my eyes weren't focused on anything and all I could hear was this high pitched frequency.
"...I don't love her anymore..."
A tapping on my window dissipated the chaos in my head and I looked up like nothing was wrong. Frantz's brother however looked concerned as I spoke through the closed window. "We good to go?" He nodded, unsure of how to respond but he went with the safe bet. "Yeah dude, we're good to go..." He paused a second before turning to his car and climbing into the drivers seat. I pulled up behind everyone at the light, honked twice and flashed my high-beams which were pretty bright at this time of day; the sun started to set a few hours ago. They honked in response and a smile shot across my face.
The light turns green and our tires leave black strips around the corner as we turn onto the service road. M3, RS4, Challenger and my RX7 sounded their cacophony off the cement and plaster walls of the service road as we approached a crest in the hill. The M3 and the Challenger slowed but RS4 and I kept speed. We catch a little air and land on the other side, already prepared for the immediate corner that would put us onto the Horace Harding Expressway. I flick the steering wheel, right behind the RS4, and my back end drifts out as I counter steer to maintain the drift. I inch by the RS4 at the end of the corner, just close enough to scrape the smallest edge of my wing on the divider. My engine screams at 8000+ rpm's and a cloud of smoke erupts from my tires, whiting out the expressway behind me.
My car straightens out and I slam into the next gear, waiting impatiently for the shift light to activate. Pedestrian cars are zooming by my windows as I weave in and out of the essentially still straffic. My speedo hits and passes 90 in a fraction of a second as the shift light ignites. I grab the next gear and the speedo climbs still. Up ahead I see some cars close off the road in front of me but the shoulder widens a little off to the left. I shift again and fly by them in excess of 150mph, my side view mirror smashing into one of theirs and slapping into my right-hand-drive door window; not like I need it. It's all behind me now... I can only look forward. I spend most of my time on the shoulders, leaving tiny bits of paint and plastic on the dividers.
Tears start forming in my eyes and in the time it takes me to wipe them I see a police car too late. "He's gonna have to catch me first." I scream by him and it doesn't take long for his lights to fire up but I can't hear his siren over the sound of my engine. I slow down as traffic tightens up and he manages to close the gap. I make use of the shoulder again but he stays on my ass. Up ahead I see an off ramp and decide to make my escape there. I feint left and exit at the last second. I look at my rear-view just in time to see an explosion of water erupt from the crash barrels and at the same time I notice I'm moving way to fast towards the wall at the end of the ramp. I shift down trying to regain traction and stop the RX7 from fish-tailing. I spin out at the bottom of the ramp and end up pointing the wrong way in traffic. Now there's no thought in my head, just instinct. The world slows and I see a line through the cars leading to an underpass.
Clutch, steering input; left, right, hard left, brake, gas, hard right, tap gas , tap gas, tap gas, brake, gas, steering input.
I come to a stop, unscathed, at my destination and shift into neutral. Unnerved, eyes empty, and breathing inhumanly calm, as I look at the traffic light. Then it all hits me like whiplash. A rage builds instantaneously and 3 years of an abusive relationship punch me in the gut. I start punching at the steering wheel and screaming at the top of my lungs at everyone. The cop, my friends, my family, Cindy... myself... The RX7 echoes my rage as it randomly revs into it's redline from my legs kicking around. A metallic tap at my passenger window breaks me out of it and it's Frantz. He looks terrified as he leans out of his car, eyes looking into mine but mine looking right through him. I calm down in an instant and lower the window, embarrassed and ashamed he just saw such a rare and raw display of emotion from me. No one's supposed to see that. I scare everyone away who does... how could they not be scared.
"Hey." The word comes out cold and indifferent from my voice-box and he hesitates before answering and then I hear Jaison's voice over the in car comm system I made for us. "Hey...? HEY?! What the fuck was that Mannie! That cop flew into the goddamn barrels!" He probably already tagged your license plate!" My voice is still cold and distant, as if I'd left my body. "I hid them." The retort does nothing to calm Jaison down. "Oh right, Of course you did! Because before the hand of god came down and made you head of R&D you were used to illegally racing and running from the cops you fucking delinquent!" I started to feel something but at that moment I couldn't figure out what it was. "Mannie, you gotta change..." Frantz started to speak but was cut off by a news update. "Astronomers have an update on the asteroid set to pass by Earth in a few hours." Angelica berates Frantz and his ridiculous apocalypse system. "Turn that shit down Frantz we can't..." But then the next words from the broadcast throw us all into silence.
"...not an asteroid. It seems to be um, well... It's targeting our planet."
"Dr. Ferdinand what are you saying?"
"I'm saying, what I'm saying. We've witnessed a multitude of course
corrections in the last 3 hours and it's also been speeding up."
"But Dr. Your colleagues have stated it would be arriving in three days."
"Yes, and it would have if it had stayed at its previous speed. But
now... it should make contact within m – minutes."
The reporters silence filled the dead air more than the rumble of any engine ever could. The broadcast continued but we sat there trying to parse what we'd just heard. I broke the silence. "My warehouse... the storage space I bought it for - it's an old world bunker. We should head there now." Everyone sounded their uneasy agreement and after a few seconds we started moving. "They're just , I mean scientists get shit wrong all the time right?" "Mhmm." Jaison's voice quivered as he tried to agree. However, if you looked around on the street random cars were stopped in the middle of the road as others drove by uncharacteristically slowly. You could hear a few crunches of metal in the distance but even those couldn't break the anxious silence that had taken hold of, seemingly, the entire city. I turned onto 3rd avenue and a new sound broke the terrified silence.
It was small at first but as it screamed through the sky it got larger and larger... as it inched closer to what seemed like the financial district. "I love you guy..." My voice was drowned out by a series of sonicbooms racing through the city, shattering windows everywhere. The ground shook as what seemed like explosions started going off around us but my eyes were stuck on whatever it was, as it got faster and faster just before slamming into lower Manhattan. I saw the shock-wave as it flipped and destroyed everything in it's path between it and me. Something crashed into my windshield just before the shock-wave hit, flipping my car into the air. I brace myself against the roof as the ground gets closer and closer, then everything turns black.