Sarah
BANG!
It happened so fast. In the skip of a heartbeat. In the blink of an eye. Normal life one minute, and the next...
Screeching tires and shattered glass.
The seatbelt snaps. The world rolls over on itself.
Sky. Grass. Sky. Tires. Shattered glass. Sky. Time passes. Seconds tick in an endless stream, slowed to a crawl in my mind's eye by the sting of adrenaline in my veins. Sky. Grass. Tires. Shattered glass.
BANG-BANG-BANG! And then...
Residual chaos echoes in my ear: the hiss of a broken engine; the slow, needling grind of metal chewing at thick rubber; the angry growl of electricity under high voltage as it leaps from broken transmitters. The car's horns scream in perfect rhythm with its flashing lights. Straight ahead, beyond the reach of the car's flashing lights, lies the murky darkness beyond the empty space that used to be a windshield. Clumps of grass and muck cling to the ceiling inside my old Tesla like intrepid explorers defying the laws of gravity even in the face of the abyss looming ahead.
Breathe. I tell myself as the universe settles back into the rhythm of normal. My limbs slowly become aware of their awkward positions, of my left leg pinned and my arm twisted badly beneath the crush of metal. I dangle just above the steering wheel, held in place by sheer luck and that stubborn seatbelt.
Breathe. I tell myself over the high-pitched rattle in my ear. Adrenaline, pure and sweet, thrums through my veins and my heart hiccups from the flood of it. As the car slowly ticks and grinds its way back to normality, my brain tries to take stock of what the fuck just happened.
The last thing I remembered was rows of billboards and gaudy buildings zipping by, the occasional glare of headlights from oncoming traffic, and the sickly amber hues of the streetlights that molested the moonlit horizon stretching out before me. Every now and then, wisps of fog had rolled in from the Patom River as it slices its way alongside the main road; the fog had momentarily cut my field of vision, but my windshield's holographic display showed the way easily enough. Water-soaked streets had groaned under the weight of my tires, and the air had been pregnant with the smell of more winter rains to come. Even in mid-December, the temperature had stubbornly refused to drop low enough for a White Christmas. Instead, the waterlogged cold just hovered above us all, as looming as the darkness outside because the weather isn't the same anymore, not like how it used to be when I was a child. Summers are cold now, winters hot, and the oceans are on a valiant quest to greedily eat up more of the planet's landmass.
I remember...white-knuckling the steering wheel and screaming profanities at the lingering memory of Andrew. Can't believe that son-of-a-bitch hung up on me! After the underhanded shit he'd just pulled, did he really have the nerve to hang up on me?
"Call Andrew," I'd yelled at Komo.
"Navigation activated."
"CALL ANDREW!"
"Navigation activated."
Stupid AI. In this blessed year of 2083, the damn tech companies still can't make a NavSys that fucking works!
"CALL ANDREW, you bitch!"
"Would you like me to email that report?"
"No-no-no! Stupid...fucking...NO!"
I'd only taken my eyes off the road for a second. One... lousy...second.
Something popped up in the middle of the dark road.
Legs. Eyes.
Tires screeched. I counter steered...
Tick-tick-tick, grind-grind-grind. The car groans quietly as it settles into its new position, face-down and head-over-heels in what sounds like mud and burping water. Tick-tick-tick followed by a languid gulp-gulp-gulp and then a quick and an abrupt drop. Cold water rushes up my legs.
Suddenly, it all falls back into place, as if God had just flipped the switch and turned the universe back on. That's when I realize that the car is sinking. In one tick of a settling car, every nerve and cell in my body hums with a fresh helping of adrenaline.
"Call 911!"
"Navigation activated."
"911!"
Gulp-gulp-gulp.
"Playing 'Favorites' playlist."
Panic shoots through me as I fight against the seatbelt, heart in my throat, fingers bloodied from scratching at the seatbelt's latch. But the damn thing refuses to let me go. I've yanked and spat and prayed at it. I've pounded my fists and dug my nails into it. I've tried rummaging for something to cut the seatbelt off, and still...I'm trapped.
Gulp-gulp-gulp!
"HELP!"
"Would you like me to email that report?"
Waist-high in frigid water, my limbs start to struggle. Panic and early stage hypothermia. I start seeing things, shadows writhing within the dark, murky waters.
BANG!
My heart leaps as fists ricochet against my window. There's a face. A man with hollow, blue eyes and a mangled mess of matted blonde hair clotted with blood.
"HELP ME!" I scream at him as best as the blaring car horns will allow.
"Would you like me to email that report?"
He screams something back at me.
"HELP!" I try again. But my voice chips in and out as the horns pound against my head.
But the man...he...keeps on running. Back into the darkness. What an asshole?!
Gulp-gulp-gulp!
"HELP!"
"Navigation activated."
Oh God! Please don't let me die in here!
Gulp-gulp-gulp!
My fingers are numb now, from the cold water and the exhaustion.
Gulp-gulp-gulp! All I have left is enough space to keep my head just above the water. My life flashes before me, memories of times lived, of times wasted in Andrew's arms. I'm about to die and I'm still hung up on that bastard.
Gulp-gulp-gulp!
"Please, don't let me die like−"
A high-pitched buzz rings out into the winter's night. Horns blare as if Heaven's orchestra had just blasted the last final note of its existence. The river stirs around me, blown off-course by the sound and the gale-force winds that have suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Komo hiccups one last command before everything goes dead. And just like that, my seatbelt's lock comes undone as if opened by ghosts or angels.
Plop! I fall into the water, but I don't stay in there for very long. I claw and kick and scratch and fight my way through the empty space where my windshield used to be until my fingers touch muddy ground. And still, the buzz rings out, the river stirs, and my thoughts get lost inside my own head from the noise. The winds suck the air from my chest. I sink to the ground, weak, helpless, trying my best to shield myself from this mysterious tornado while things go flying by: trees, light posts, cars. And in the midst of the swirling chaos I hear the faint screams of people and wild animals fighting for their lives. Living beings, identifiable or otherwise, claw at whatever they can claw at, doing anything to keep themselves from being sucked up into the unseen darkness.
The air cracks with electricity. My body burns as if set on fire. Still, I cling desperately to the mud and grass of the riverbank.
Oh God! Please don't let me...
My fingers slip.
###
A computerized voice comes to life.
"Experiment log LH.SUS.453-210. Subject Beta-36."
There are colors hovering above me. Blue and violet. A face. So stoic. So peaceful.
I stare at it as words click in and out like an antique radio tuned to only pick up white noise. Synaptic misfiring. Anomalies. Protocol 9.
A veil of radiant light closes in around me, and for a moment, the pain in my body is too far for my brain to grasp. So, I stare at the poker face on the other side of the light and find comfort in its absolute perfection before the veil of light becomes blindingly bright.
And I become nothing again.