Urban Fallout (hold)

(2.2) Bad Trip

 (2.2)Bad Trip

Jamie, Snow, Yamir, and Lance stood facing the most powerful genetic mutation they had ever seen. And that included on TV. Jamie was unsure whether the lights that danced around the hanging boy were really there, or effects of the drugs on his mind. Because he was so far gone. Voices echoed down the basement halls, every hair on his skin stood on end, and he clutched Snow's arm just to make sure she was still there.

“I need to show you something.” The boy opened his eyes, endless pits of blue. “Regrettably, I must ask for your help.”

Gravity shifted and the four of them plummet towards the boy, and through him, through empty space. Then they were standing on the side of the road. Sirens blared, lights flashed, and something whizzed through the air above them.

A building was on fire, a towering skyscraper.

“That's the Inposterum science building,” Jamie whispered, gesturing to the logo, half detached from the side, and dangling dangerously over the heads of scrambling emergency personal.

No one responded and Jamie looked over in annoyance. Both Yamir and Lance were huddled around Snow. She was shaking, eyes wide. Red and blue were reflected there. They touched her back, comforting her, assuring her that they were still there. Jamie began to wonder if maybe they were lying.

A group of black-clad men launched rocket propelled ropes through a window. Then they began to climb.

“Mistake.”

Jamie spun back to face his friends. “What?”

None of them were looking at him, or talking to him. The voices had sounded wrong too, not like the hushed whispers they produced now.

A dark skinned woman in a security guard's uniform shoved through the crowd. She bumped him, and static electricity shot up his arm. He was suddenly strongly aware of the fact that he wasn't here. None of them were. Of course they weren't. They were in the basement of an apartment building, high out of their minds.

“Oh my god, Jamie!” Lance screamed, grabbing onto him with a vice like grip.

Snow was looking at the ground now, ignoring their very existence.

His friend did not let go, strong fingers digging into his bone. Jamie shook him off with annoyance.

“You saw that right?” Lance asked Yamir. “Please say you saw that. He was fading away. Oh shit.”

“I saw it.”

“Oh fuck.”

“Guys, we're not supposed to be here,” said Jamie, though for the life of him he could not understand what had compelled him to say it.

Then he felt the presence of the blue eyed boy, and he felt the pull of where they had been meant to go, and he did not want to go there. Everything decayed around him. The mulling crowd died, and his friends crumbled to dust, just like the asphalt below his feet. He tried to beg them to come with him, to not make him do this alone, but he had no voice. The buildings: gone. The city: gone. Any trace of life: as if it has never flared into existence on this spinning sphere.

Jamie stood shaking, alone in a wasteland of what could only have been nuclear destruction. Then like a rubber band snapping back into place, his friends were beside him. He could not empathize with their terror, so relieved was he to have them with him.

“Five days,” said the hanging boy, as he pulled them back across dimensions.

And Jamie understood what he meant, and he did not want to understand. As he made eye contact with Yamir, in this place that was not a place, he watched as chilling realization crashed over him as well.

Then, the blue eyed boy said something he did not. “I'm sorry.”

“You want our help right?” Snow asked, adrenaline pushing some of the drugs from her system. “You said you wanted our help.”

The boy nodded. “I did not plan to need your assistance, but things do not always go to plan.”

They were firmly back in the basement hallway, all of a sudden, and the boy was standing with both feet on the ground, looking at them mournfully. “Yours, I'm afraid, is the most difficult of tasks, because I do not know the solution. All I know is that your world teeters on the edge of destruction and you.” He pointed an accusatory finger at Jamie. “Must provide the first piece. It was blind luck that you were in that building tonight, and I do not believe in such things.”

“Me?” Jamie asked. “What can I possibly do?”

He searched for help, but there was only fear on the faces of his friends as they stared at him.

“You can know,” said the boy. “I have never seen one like you before.”

“Know what?” It made perfect sense, and none at all.

“Let me help.” The boy took a step forwards, extending a hand.

Jamie took half a step backwards, but the boy grabbed his wrist, and power surged through him like an electric current. Jamie knew that in the future, the him that had not yet come to be, would know what to do.

“Edge zone, Starr boulevard...”

“What are you saying?” Jamie tried to focus in on the words, but the boy did not elaborate, simply staring at him with those piercing eyes.

“Edge zone.” It began to repeat, like a skipping record, or an echo. Maybe there was a TV on somewhere in the background. “Starr boulevard, 235, apartment 2134.”

“2134,” Jamie blurted. “Did you here that?” He addressed the boy with accusation, then his friends.

Empty gazes were his only response.

“Apartment 2134.” He said it this time less like a question and more as if he was relaying a message. “235.”

In a state like this Jamie would have normally worried that numbers like these would simply slide through his loose subconscious without leaving a mark. But for some reason, this time, he did not.

“Good.” There was genuine relief in the voice of the mysterious boy. “Very good.”

The lights in the hallway flickered again, and so did the boy. Beside him, Lance jumped.

“Please,” Jamie begged. “We need more time. We need your help. You can't just leave us with this.”

“I don't even understand,” Snow blurted, grasping the boy's arm desperately.

He shook his head. “If I could...” He gently removed Snow's hand from him. “You must trust your intuition, Jamie. It's all we have now.”

He vanished like an old style television turning off, flickering out of existence like the florescent lights which had stopped fluctuating.

“What do we do?” Snow asked.

“What are you going to do?” Yamir asked Jamie.

“I'm...” It felt so much like a dream now, he was having difficulties holding onto reality. “I'm going to go over to Lance's and sleep.”

There was silence for a long time, and Jamie began to lead them towards the stairs. He had been correct. They were right around the corner.

“Alright,” Yamir said. “But can you guys stop with me and pick up some food. I'm starved.”

The group let out a breath Jamie had not realized they'd been holding. And he knew, that if they hadn't been so high, none of them would have been able to get to sleep that night.