Ashley POV
I was allowed to go home today. Finally.
After laying in a hospital bed for 2 weeks, conversing with a therapist and having strange encounters with my friends, I was ready to go home.
Every time one of them visited, they would barely move. They just stood there, cold as stone, with blank, dull eyes.
What's wrong with them? I wondered.
Yesterday, I pulled Melanie into a kiss but she jerked away with the strength of a bull and refused to let me touch her again.
Had something changed while I was in a coma? Did she move on and find someone new but is too guilty to tell me?
I was still seriously confused as to what was happening.
I told my therapist everything that happened, and how real it felt, and she just nodded and smiled sympathetically. Telling me it was just my mind creating stories.
Everything was wrong though.
My friends are cold and unaffectionate to one another, usually Tyler and Josh are all over eachother, feeling the other one up and having make out sessions every 5 minutes. My girlfriend is hard and still, refusing to touch me and barely speaking to me. When any of them do speak, it's brief sentences in an unemotional monotone voice. The doctors and my therapist are just too overly happy and smiling like plastic barbies, every time they waddle past me.
Everything was just so, so wrong.
•••
I was driving home, trying to bring my mind off the situation by turning on the radio.
Channel 1: static
Channel 2: static
Channel 3: static
Channel 4: static
And so on and so on.
This is so fucking strange.
I spun the knob all the way to the highest channel, 20.
Alas there was something other than the crackling sizzling static.
A man was speaking. It sounded like a news broadcast, except his voice was switching in lut, do to bad connection I suppose. More static replaced him when his voice faded, but after a moment I could hear him again.
"Top secret organization Immune132 is ___static___ replacing a vast majority___static__with___static___strange, artificial intelligence by the second. Attention to all the humans that are still ___static___remain hidden and safe until further notice."
Bullshit.
"Immune132 is supposedly attempting to replace________static________and they sure are working fast! Please be careful, the artificial intelligence are very dangerous, and they are collecting as much informa____________static_____________."
I pressed the audio button again and it turned the radio off.
God I hate small town radio news channels. They just over exaggerate and tell lies to make things sound interesting, but nothing really is.
If I think about it though, it is pretty weird. And it would make sense if it was true.....
Nah.
•••
I arrived home.
I took my keys out my pocket and unlocked the door.
I stepped inside, seeing that my mom was standing perfectly still in the kitchen ahead. Her back was turned and she was facing the cabinet. She was doing nothing, just standing there.
"Hey mom! I'm back!!" I exclaimed.
She spun around.
A HUGE, fake smile was plastered on her face and her hands were clasped on her breasts.
"Mom?" I cocked my head and examined her posture.
She stood straight up and had the MOST unatural expression. And her hands... she just stood there..... squeezing her tits.
"Mom, what the fuck." I tried to get some words out of her.
She just... stood there.
God, what is happening??
~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N
Again, sorry if this is confusing. It will work out in the end. If you have any questions, just ask.
