Almost Human

I hate shopping

     I hate shopping, I hate shopping centres, crass commercial wrapping paper around sweatshop goods. I hate it all.
      St. David's Centre is still half empty, even now, but special offers on the units mean small shops open briefly, before the rent goes up again. And that massive cheap ceramic pot is going in my back yard for the herbs. I weave thru the crowds of happy drones with their bags of crap at a fast walk, muzak and chemical smells splattering on my senses, I don't notice at first when the hum of humanity turns into shouting, and then abruptly into screaming and crashing, and frightened people are running towards me, a shop front explodes to my left, and the air fills with dust, strange high singing noises ring out, getting closer, I hear shouting garbled into incomprehensibility, and then I'm alone, I can only see one group of people running towards me now, hear shouts of "Out! Get out! Everybody run!" Then one of them screams and falls, and a group of dark, squat, dome-headed, armoured figures run into sight, shooting at us, I turn and run. The singing sound is their guns, something explodes right over my head, my ears throb and everything starts to sound dull, something grabs me from behind, pushes me round a corner and spins me round, a man in a big coat yells in my face but the words drown in a rushing sound, people push by, then there's a boom that slaps me back and down.....

     My head really hurts, and it's hard to move, I can taste blood, dust is caked in my nose, on my eyelashes, on my skin, I smell burnt plastic, burnt meat, raw meat and shit, really close by. There's something heavy on my chest and legs and it's hard to breathe, and I'm wet. I cough, and blink, and focus on someone lying next to me, their eyes are open, and blood has drained from their nose and ears, pooled beneath them in the dust. I am absolutely sure they are dead. There is a body lying on me, they aren't moving and my chest is soaked, my left arm is free, haltingly I move to feel their throat, it's cold and still, the jaw slack. On the other side someone is sprawled with their back to me, unmoving. I'm pretty sure they're all dead, tears slide from my eyes. Then I can hear sharp retorts, guns? footsteps? At the end of the arm of the body on me is a gun? I have to pull the trigger guard off their forefinger, I try and free my right arm, the sharp noises are getting closer, but the sound of my own blood in my ears is so loud, my right arm pulls free, the noises change to harsh garbled words, and then a reply. Abruptly I realise the body on me is breathing shallowly, then it jerks, hard, and takes a great deep and noisy breath, I wrap my right arm around them and mouth "Quiet. Still." softly, deep in my throat, then a fat brown face on a squat armoured body walks into my sight and I shoot it, a pulse of light goes thru it, lunging forward I shoot the one behind it, and the one behind that. The body on me rolls off and reaches for his gun, I shoot the last potato-headed murderer I can see and then the man in the big coat tears the gun from my hand, he says something but I can't make it out. He points behind us, mouths "Go!" I crane my head around and scan for movement, but there isn't any, he drags me to my feet, and pushes me that way, I stumble a few steps, but he's heading the other way, he shouts "Go!" and points again. Then he strides off, coat flapping, he's alone, but I have no gun, so I walk unsteadily the way he pointed, behind me the sound of the strange gun reaches me thru my aural storm. There's more dust as I walk, and shattered bits of building, I can feel stuff crunching under my boots, I see a body on the ground, it hurts to bend down, but I feel her throat, cold, still, like his, I realise I've walked thru her blood. I walk unsteadily on.
     People with guns and helmets run up the stalled escalators, they grab me, but I can't hear them, they pass me back, there are police at the entrance, and ambulances behind them, and other injured. One of them medics makes me sit down, tries to talk to me, undoes my soaking shirt, on the inside I can see it's completely red, and the shirt beneath, he's talking to me, "It's not mine." I say. He peers in my eyes, dabs at my ears, I cough, he gives me a mask to breath thru. They touch my arm, they want me to get on a stretcher, I sit on it, they want me to lie down, but that hurts my back and my head, I manage to lie on my side, they close the ambulance doors, and the vehicle moves off.