A New Type of Realism

(26) Unfortunate

  "None of it was. The infected, the deaths, that magical cure for all cancers... Martin, none of it was real." 

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Jade Summerton crossed her legs as she made herself comfortable in the high-backed, leather chair. Her upper body was leaning forwards in interest, as she held her little notebook out of view from the camera. The notebook had all of her questions written inside it, and she knew if she forgot what to say, all she had to do was tap her foot, and Spike would angle the camera towards the interviewee so that she could check on her list.

She took a deep breath and looked for reassurance from Reuben, who gave her a smile that stayed in place, even though she had looked away. She moved her hand to brush her dark, wavy hair behind her ear, and smiled at the interviewee. This had been one chance in a life time, and she was going to give it the best she had.

"Are you ready?" She smiled, and received a nod in response. Reuben slowly made a show of counting down from five on his fingers, and pointed at Jade as the camera began to roll.

Jade introduced herself and her 'special' guest, making sure to highlight what a grand opportunity it had been that The Devyn Thomas, the star of 'A New Type of Realism: Zombies' had agreed to let her, of all people, interview him.

"Well, the first question I've got to ask is, what was going through your mind when you selflessly gave yourself up to those infected?" Her voice dappled honey into a lake of liquid gold.

"I wasn't thinking, not really. I just cared about Martin getting to safety. Of course I was scared, and I was thinking about that, but really, it was all about the kid." Jade nodded, it had been a reply she'd been expecting.

"And have you maintained any of the relationships you made during the show? You and Kyle sure made a great team." Jade's laugh sent sprites and fairies out over fields of silver, to dazzle the skies with quilts of rainbows.

"Slade and I stayed in touch. I think it was out of shared trauma or something, I don't know." Dile laughed. He had to make sure it was seen as a joke. He'd signed a document promising legally that he wouldn't talk about the negative side-effects of his experience.

"Wow, you and Slade? That's quite unexpected, I must say. He was quite a colourful character, and that brawl!" She elongated the vowels so that they nearly matched the height of her legs.

"Yeah, I guess, once we got our differences out of the way, we were really quite similar." Dile laughed again. He moved to brush at an itch on his nose, and felt the bump that had been left after Kyle's magnificent right hook. "Cooper's a great friend too, we've got a good dynamic going on between us three."

"I was sad to see Cooper eliminated so soon. I was sure he was going to be the public's favourite! I'm sure if he'd been in there for longer, he would've gotten a lot more votes to stay." Both Jade and Dile nodded, although Dile was glad that Cooper hadn't endured the hell any longer than he had. "Alright, so another burning question, did you know?"

"Did I know what?

"About the show, that it was all fake?"

"No. I had a theory about the infected not being real, I think they showed that bit on the television, but honestly, I think that I'd just created that fantasy out of grief. Kyle had just been eliminated after all."

I screamed. I couldn't understand it. What kind of a monster would do something like this? What had I done to deserve this? I hadn't hurt anyone! I spent my life inside, most people didn't even know I existed! Why me? Why play this cruel, cruel joke on me?!