Every muscle in my body tightened as he spoke those three words. A cold shiver shot down my spine and goose pimples covered my skin. Was this rigor mortis I was feeling? No, it couldn’t be. I was not yet dead.
“Listen Man, you got to get me out of here.” The man’s trembling hands clinched at my wrist, pleading with me as he dug his black nails into my skin. His brown sunken eyes were full of tears and he fell to his knees. “I’ll do anything, just get me the fuck out of here!”
Boosh! Boosh! The front door bellowed like thunder. Boosh! Boosh!
Downstairs the floor was being littered with flakes of wood, as the front door was repeatedly smashed with an iron ram. The door swelled like a bloated belly, ready to burst but two thick beams of wood lay across its center, defending the attack.
Bodies whizzed past us on the second floor, slamming into my shoulders and knocking the frightened man over. The young men rushed through us like a torrent of water spilling out of a broken damn. All I could see were their black cotton shirts gushing past my feet but I could hear the man’s screams beneath the flood. I reached in and pulled him out of the flesh filled stream before his guts were spilled along the floor. He scuttled towards me and clung to my legs for safety, “Ah…thank you. Thank you.”
My head began to spin as I watched my brothers panicking. They ran around the building like blind men, desperately searching for a way out, but there was none.
“Why are they here?” I asked.
“I don’t know. The girl, she said something about a kid and that cops were coming. We didn’t believe her, but they came and…”
The witch, I could almost smell her hair burning as it did in my vision “Where is she?” I demanded.
Bang! Crack!
“uh…I don’t know. She uh..”
Outside the megaphone continued to roar, this time I understood the words. “Come out, we have you surrounded. There is no hope for you.”
“Fuck! We’re all fucked!” A young hessian cried out amongst the screams. He placed the back of his hand to his forehead and collapsed to the floor. Several brothers rushed over, dragging him to a corner and huddled about him.
‘No hope’, was there ever any hope for us? I stood before the stairs, streaked in shadows, when a wave of images came flooding to my mind. I saw visions of churches and schools, standing hundreds of feet high, haloed in clouds. I saw images of parents and teachers, herding children like cattle and then I saw the flames.
Boosh! Smash!
The flames rose higher and higher, a great blaze of yellow-orange glow, but it wasn’t the witch this time, it was I who burned. Burning below me were skulls, skulls I once knew, looking at me with empty eyes.
Crack!
The door was breaking, and soon it would it would be nothing more than bits of scattered wood. It was my burden, my curse to save us all or let us burn.
Evil Slime came rushing up the stairs, ascending like great beasts. I turned towards them, looking for an answer, looking for a way out. “Evil” I shouted. The drummer glanced at me, catching his toe on the last step and went sailing across the floor. T-shirts spewed from the cardboard box he carried and he came crashing down belly first.
Smash! The door sounded.
The other members of the band rushed over to their fallen drummer and began filling the box with their spilled t-shirts. They could not help me; I needed someone who could. I looked to my right and found a small group cluttered together. They hoisted a man into the air and he climbed up into the ceiling tile, only to come crashing down several feet over.
Fear began to brew in my gut, a feeling I was not accustomed to. It burned inside me, paralyzing my body. I could taste its bitterness on my lips; anxiety, fear, and failure all brewing inside me like poison. I needed to act, I needed to…Chun…Chun…Chun….Chun.
I lifted my head towards the ceiling at the sound of cold steel cutting through the sky. The sound got louder and louder until a great rumble roared from above. The entire building shook and for a moment Vie Future stood still. I stared overhead and listened to the giant metal bird.
Woosh…Woosh...Woosh...Woosh
There was not so much as a whisper on the second floor. A hundred bodies standing like gravestones, until a single voice cried out, “They’re landing on the Roof!”
“Oh God! Oh God!” The man cried at my knees, his head shaking in disbelief. “Its all over. We’re done for!”
I watched the tears trickle from his eyes, and I wanted to tell him that he was wrong. I wanted to tell him that we could escape and that I would save everyone in the building.
Kaboosh!
The sound of wood shattering was unmistakable. The blast echoed through the club followed by the soft ringing of wood flakes falling to the floor. It seemed like forever, that I stood there, waiting for them. Waiting to surrender. Waiting to be enslaved. Waiting, but they did not come. What came instead was a tide of water, a quarter inch deep. It rushed to my feet, carrying bits of rotten wood. I pulled a flake from the dirty water, examining the timber closely and realized that the sound I heard had not come from the front door.
I turned my head to the hallway, where the Stalls of Hell stood and saw a horde of young men. Their black jeans were soaked to their knees and they ran like madmen before a cloud of ash colored smoke. They blasted through the bodies of the second floor, knocking them over and trampling the fallen souls beneath them. Horrible, ungodly sounds, akin to tortured swine, screeched from the throats. Their dark hair, tangled and knotted, flowed above their shoulders catching and twisting within each other. One by one they fell as the stampede pushed forward and as they did a new figure emerged from the crumbling mass. It was Miller, hurdling body after body, as the smoke nipped at his heels. His pale face was stricken with terror, his eyes bulging from his head. Faster and faster he ran, and closer and closer he came to the western wall.
It is the next few moments that remain etched in my memory like colors stained upon panes of glass. A black sea of young heathens parted above the swampy carpet, clearing the way as Miller rushed towards the wall. “Burns! Burns”, he screamed, ever increasing his speed. The tangled mess of hair and bodies continued to collapse beside him and he let out one last word, “Out!”
“No Miller, No!” I screamed
Miller placed one foot on the back of a crouching teenager and sprung himself high into the air. He sailed above the crowd, using the heads of his heathen brothers like a bridge of skulls. He kicked at their shoulders, propelling himself forward and took one final leap, his escape to the outside world.
Shards of glass tumbled to the street below, as Miller crashed through the second story window. His blood red body soared against the gloomy sky and he reached out with both hands, grabbing hold of an oak branch hanging above the street. Pigeons and other fouls flew from the shaking leaves as Miller’s hands scraped against the bark. Tightly he held on to the branch, swinging higher and higher, until his toes pointed directly up to the cloudy sky.
Turn away, I told myself; he’s no more than a skeleton in that sky. I looked to the ground, unable to watch, ashamed that I did nothing.
“He’s going to make it”, a boy yelled from the crowd. I lifted my somber head and watched Miller’s hair dangle towards the Earth. His body swung downwards like a great Olympian cutting through the air. He screamed in pain as his hands were flayed by the tree’s bark but he held on tightly completing his swing.
Applause erupted from the second story, as my brethren hugged and cheered for the first time in their lives. “He made it! He made it!” they chanted, dancing about like children on a pagan holiday. They rushed to the western wall, crowding around the glassless window and yelled words of encouragement to Miller’s dangling body.
“What? What happened?” The man asked, kneeling at my knees. “Did he escape?”
I stood in disbelief, unsure of what to think. “Uh, I don’t know, but yes, I think.”
He jumped to his feet bursting with enthusiasm, wiping the tears from his cheek. “Yes! Yes! Fuck yes! He shouted joining in the applause and celebration. “Let’s go man, let’s jump.” He stared at me for a few moments and then ran towards the crowded window.
The smoke continued to spill across the floor, bringing with it the smell of rotting fruit. Several teenagers began coughing but the crowd paid no attention to them and began to hoist a lanky boy on the windowsill.
Outside, Miller picked up his legs and wrapped it around the branch and began to pull his body up the tree. “Come on down, kid!” The megaphone demanded. A group of police officers rushed below the tree and stretched out a beige nylon net. “Jump in the net or climb down. I don’t care which way you do it but I’m not asking again.”
At the windowsill the boy stood shaking nervously. He leaned forward with both hands planted firmly to the inner edge of the walls. A line had formed behind him, all waiting their turn to jump, while a cluster of people crowded near the window.
“Come on man, you can do it, just jump”, a voice said from the cluster.
“Yeah, jump dude!” said another. A chant of “Jump! Jump! Jump!” started and the boy slowly released one of his hands from the wall.
Scores of leaves fell into the nylon net as Miller proceeded to climb high up into the tree. “I warned you. You all heard me.” The megaphone blasted before turning off with a crackle. The police officers below screamed at Miller to jump into their net, blending their voices with the chant from inside.
“Jump! Jump! Jump!”
The boy placed one foot into the sky like he was testing the water and nervously returned it to the sill. He turned his head and looked at the line behind him, and for a moment it seemed like he would step down, but the chants grew louder.
“Jump! Jump! Jump!”
There was no turning back now, his peers had spoken and they wanted him to jump. He faced the open sky and pointed a finger towards the tree. “See you in Hell, pig mother fuckers!” He squatted down, shaking his rear like a duck and loaded his legs for a great leap.
“Jump! Jump! Jump!”
He did, launching himself through the dreary sky, flailing his arms like spinning wheels. The chants grew deaf while he flew as Miller had before him, reaching for the same oak branch. He grabbed on, both hands tearing against the bark, and then, bang!
A ripping sound cut through the sky followed by a meaty thud. Branches cracked and twigs fell and Miller’s body came crashing through the tree. A police beanbag fell along side Miller, spiraling to the street below. The cops stretched their net out wide and danced upon the pavement. Left and then right, back and then forward they stepped all the time with eyes on the fleshy mass in the sky. A body clad in black came plummeting down, landing flush in the center of the net and then bouncing high back into the air. It flopped wildly, flipping backwards and then tumbling back into the net but it was not Miller.
Like a dying bird, Miller came spilling through the air. Twisting and turning, he scrambled to land on his feet, while a group of gnats encircled his body. He somersaulted forward creating a huge crash as his back collided against the black hood of a police car.
The car’s siren sounded, and several officers rushed over. “Ahhh…Fuck me!” Miller groaned. He lay on the hood like a cracked egg, wiggling his fingers and toes and slowly raised his head. Each officer grabbed a limb and with a heave and ho tossed Miller onto a gurney and whisked him away.
It felt as if they had ripped our collective heart out and ate the cold thing only to shit it back out on us. “Those assholes. They’re total fucking assholes”, sobbed a weary voice. Moans, grunts and a coughs made up most of the conversation within the dilapidated club, and although the ramming of the front door had seemed to stop the strange smoke had taken over most of room.
Outside, the mood was much different, resembling more of a street celebration than a police operation. “Two down. Booya!” An officer shouted, high fiving his partners. He turned around, wearing dark shades and stuck his large black finger at the heads peering out the window, “Gonna get you, gonna get you all, every single one of you, baby!” Laughing, he tilted his head back and slammed both of his fists against his pelvis, in a expression of dominance.
The coughing spread among the horde becoming more and more persistent as the heavy smoke filled the room. A dense patch of the grey smoke settled above my head and enveloped my body. I felt a small tickle in the back of my throat and let out a gasp. Trails of tears dribbled past my cheeks and a fire began to brew within in my chest. My lungs seemed to rise high up into my throat, choking me until I let out a most freakish cough.
The entire room went grey with the pollution and I fell to the ground. Water, I needed water. I pressed my cheek to the floor and began to suck on the flooded carpet, like a babe on its mother’s breast. Coughing echoed through the room drowning out the helicopter above and a voice close to the ground croaked. “It burns, it burns.”
It had finally come to an end. Vie Future had been found, beaten and conquered. We would be bound together in a coffle and taken back to our so-called homes. Maybe, I could do it. Give it one last shot and try to fit in. I would have to smile more, get involved, and wear more cheerful clothes but maybe they would let me keep my hair long. That wouldn’t be so bad, if I could just keep my hair.
As I lay, imagining my new life, my lungs burning from within, a long skinny hand about as lively as corpse reached for me. It fell short and clutched the carpet, pulling the rest of its body into view. It was the same man who had begged at my feet before. He raised his head from the floor, his eyes struggling to see me, and whispered, “Its over, we’ve lost.”
He coughed a little before lowering his head to the floor and lay limp with one hand stretched out towards me. He had begged me to help him but now like myself had given up. Miller tried to escape and they got him, just like they would get all of us, there was no way out. I stared at his gaunt face as it lay on the damp carpet. There was no hope left in that man and it made me feel ashamed. He had chosen me to save him and I failed. At least Miller tried. Miller went for it, the man who was too ashamed to shit face to face with his own brothers and now it was I who lay sucking on toilet water.
I slammed my fist against the ground and tried to rise from the floor. My upper torso rose as stiffly as the undead, spewing saliva from my lips. I reached for the man next to me, grabbing the back of his collar, and dragged his limp body over. The green stage light cut through the smoke enfolding me with luminance while I listened to the hacking and suffering around us. I pulled the young man toward me and cradled his head in my pit. His long lashes opened slowly and he looked to me like a dying pet. I wiped away some blood that trickled from my nose and spoke with little more than a whisper, “No, this is not over. This is war.”
