25th May, 2007

Strathfield

I decided to take the train tracks as it was open to all things hidden. The only places for an avatar to hide were the abandoned train carriages stretched out here and there, those which I avoided even if the scent of blood, flesh, and anything related to food was weak in that area.  Walking the tracks proved to be a quieter and safer trek. It was the first moment, since escaping the library, I felt I had some time to reflect.

“I really did do that didn’t I?”  I glanced over my shoulder towards the orange tint in the sky. “If it wasn’t me it’d be someone else.”  For sure.  I was surprised it didn’t happen sooner.

“Goh blimey!” I felt the sensation of tripping to the ground and saw my avatar wobbling to its feet and its talon feet trying to find a firm footing along the splintery sleepers.  “Do you want to fly?” We had been flying most of the day and it had taken a lot out of us. It was too early to go hunting for breakfast. “Nah- come on. We’ll get the hang of it.” We did, although we basically had to heel walk, taking long strides and pushing my chest out so my back wouldn’t be over loaded. It felt quite comic. “Ere, what’s up doc?” I made a click-click noise with my tongue as it slapped the roof of my mouth and chuckled. ” I say – I say, I do be seein’ a wabbit. Whatcha doin’ there mister wabbit?”

“Iza going hunting.”

The thought of Martin entered my mind. Darkness fell over my eyes like a wet blanket. It was so easy to give up and let the world burn for your conscience. I glanced back hoping to see that orange tint in the sky but was met with a calming dark and the amorphic outlines of stationary things still locked in the moment of movement, time and myth.

A sheet of paper brushed my avatars face and tumbled off towards the wing. An edge of the paper got stuck to the wing. I thought nothing off it and continued along the tracks, reaching Strathfield Station and its lighted platforms acting as beacons. I paused in the darkness and scanned the area for others. There was a deep silence and a stillness, a feeling the place had been void of life for a while. I sniffed the air and smelt the acrid scent of melting plastic and hardly any of the usual musky pheromones.

I sighed and climbed up to the nearest platform. The piece of paper flew off and on to the ground underneath a spotlight so I was able to read its words. Its print was small with notation numbers all over the one passage I could read. The rest had been torn away.

“And¹ there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword….” That was the only passage visible. I knew straight away it belonged to page out of the bible. I had never read the good book but had seen it some where, in a place and time, I could no longer remember.

I studied the piece longer and felt the desire to pocket it for later but couldn’t see how. I looked at the earth and blood stained jeans of my avatar, which was surprisingly in near to good condition. Of course the bottom hem had been shredded and was fraying heavily so that it created a collection of stringy bits. There were a few tears and rips along the legs. I peered closer at the pockets and noticed all had been ripped useless except for the left one. It still looked intact.

I bent down and gripped the paper with my finger tips. Carefully I placed the paper in the pocket and hoped it didn’t rip on the way in.

My body tensed. I heard crackling noises towards the bushes skirting the railway fence opposite the platform and stared intently, waiting for something leap out. Nothing revealed itself. I decided it was my cue to take off but not before taking one look behind me. The fire had burnt a red hole in the sky; unrelenting mouth consuming everything in its path.

I made my way quickly down the platform and into the underground passage way.

“Shit,” I cursed as I heard the click of gun and saw two semi automatic weapons and a shotgun pointed at my face.

“It talks Reese,” said the boy on my left holding one of the semi automatic weapons that were really too big for his hand to wrap around. His cheeks were still padded with baby fat, his skin supple and almost flawless except for the grime streaks across one of his cheeks and dirt splotches all over his polo shirt and stained jeans. His red mop of hair resembled a bird’s nest.

“I see that Pete but looks can fool, you should know that better than anyone.” The woman next to him said. She held the shotgun with more balance and her body with better control. She was adorned with a black uniform of authority: badge still pinned to her right breast but lacking the lustre it probably once had, a utility belt decked with survival gear was set firmly to her waist. Her boots hugged her ankles, they were scuffed around the sides and had scratches on the steel caps covering the toe and back of the heel. The toe had also an indent as if it had kicked something really hard. I’m sure she had to kick a lot of hard things a lot of the time.

“I’d say, shoot to kill.” A deep, beefy voice pulled my stare towards a mid-thirty Arnold Schwarzenegger clone; bulging neck veins, taunt muscles peeking through a blood stained sports jacket and 80’s style jeans ripped at the knees.

“Then shoot to kill but you know there are things like me up there sniffing around for a meal,” I said levelly and ended with a sigh for emphasis.

“How can it talk!” The boy’s voice shook along with the hand that held his gun.

“‘Cause I can.”

The boy started stepping backwards, giving me the cue to step forward.

I glanced at the man and woman, they both stared at my avatar like a deer in front of head lights and I then realised they couldn’t see me – just my avatar. How odd.

I shook my head and was about to reassure them I meant no harm when five slobbering dogmen came up from behind us, clearly with the opposite intention.

“I really think you should be pointing your guns behind you.”

The dogmen made obvious snarls and deep breathing noises before jumping into the air to pounce on the humans. Guns went off like strobe lights, jabbing the dogmen but not pushing them back. They advanced on the humans, giving me the perfect opportunity to make my escape.

Listen Mary – yah go out there and save others that need savin’… Damn that lieutenant.

I sighed and glanced at my avatar and the calm tease of the outside world. I glanced at the action and saw a dogman swiping at the boy. The boy managed an impressive duck and roll, evading the attack.

I picked the left dogmen and one seeing the least action, knocked it with a wing. It stumbled backwards, before it could recover its footing, I leapt onto its chest and sliced its throat sending it’s head rolling towards the exit and its body squirming senselessly on the ground. That did it. The dogmens’ attention was on me now and the fresh pool of life slowly wasted on the floor.

They ran for my avatar, one sunk its teeth into one of my avatar’s arms, another attempted to rip a wing and the other scratched at its chest; ripping open wounds that were instantly healed but the vigilant banding of veins.

I managed to shake off the dogmen and sink my teeth into the neck of one. With one quick wriggle and I was able to pull out a vital vein. The dogman stumbled backwards, howling with defeat. It didn’t take long for the other two to forget about me and the humans and gnaw on their comrades instead.

I hurried back to the humans who huddled behind turnstiles and smelt fresh pheromones and musk moving towards them. “Hurry – if you want to live to fight another day you must come with me now!” The woman was about to ask why when a hoard of ratmen bounded towards them.

We ran towards the narrow lanes before us, dodging avatars that leapt off the walls to pounce on us and ended up colliding with each other. I scanned the area; the narrow lanes towards the right tapered off towards a row of apartments and one story houses.

“WHERE IS YOUR BASE?” I screamed. The woman raced a head and led the way. Gun fire smashed our way through a car that blocked the road in front of us. We raced down a lane still beautified with terrace oaks but not for long. I looked up and saw a flicker of red in the sky. It was the fire reaching out for us and along with the hoard intent on making us a feast.

“Parramatta – the Inner West Suburbs are burnt away.” My voice had been just whisper between puffs but it had been loud enough to stop the man in his tracks and pull me, my avatar, around to him.

“You say what?” He looked towards the sky; they all realised I wasn’t joking. Since when did I joke anyway?

“Shit Regan, it’s bad enough we are running from them!”

“We head underground.” The man had the final say. I watched them run off down the street. They can go underground but I wasn’t prepared for a suicide just yet, if it was the underground I knew of.

The boy was the first to notice I hadn’t been running with them and stopped to turn around. He screamed when he saw me standing in a vulnerable position before the approaching crowd of nasties. Of course I had seen, smelt and heard them.  I turned and faced them. They filed out of homes: ratmen, dogmen, catmen and a few bird avatars that chose to hang back – a wise choice.

I focused on my avatar’s body and decided to try something daring, and in the most inappropriate time too. Since walking the tracks, I had been feeling a need to release some frustration, the swell of ‘wanting out’ and suspected the black veins had now more going on than just forming ugly patterns. Evolution. I faced the humans and was glad they were a distance and their way was not blocked for an escape, they needed it. “You have a grenade?” I bellowed out.

The woman answered by sprinting towards me and approaching my side.

“When I tell you, pull the pin, hand it to me then take your people as far from here.”

“Why – you?”

I faced the woman and noted a different expression to that of the station, finding this strange and fascinating at the same time. “I know your scent now. I can pick your trail but if your clever you will spray your tracks with Mr Sheen.”

The woman shook her head. Our conversation was stopped as a nail biting cry disrupted the air between us.

Aaroo – eeek -scheeemeeek! The calamity stormed towards us, making the ground and houses quake and windows explode into particles around us. A shattering sting, repugnant stink and clinging heat invigorating my senses. My vision blurred, zoomed in and out and targeted the evil-red of their eyes, swollen bramble of black veins overwhelming every part of their skin and being – totally consumed by primal greed and nothing more.

“NOW!”

The woman gripped a grenade from her belt, her sweaty fingers pulled the pin. She almost dropped the device as she handed it to my avatar but my talons was able to cup it in time. Focusing on the middle, I jumped into the air and flew towards the avatars that leapt off walls towards me, landing just short of a talon and slipping into one nice bundle. I snowballed down, dropped the grenade, bounced right up and flew back towards the running humans.

An ear splitting kaboom blew out ripples of shrapnel, avatars and everything else in the way hurling through the air and colliding into each other to create rumble and a mangled mess just shy from catching our escape.

1Nb: Revelations 6:4 kings james version

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25th May,2007 12:10 am

The monumental thermometer, which acted as a sentry guard before a cluster of art nouveau offices and small factories, guaranteed passers by the date and time was 25/05/07 00:10 and 40 degrees in neon red.

I peered at the numbers for a moment, trying to come to terms that almost a month had gone by then brushed it of with a sigh and carried on.

It was obvious the night would be as sweltering as a summer day because there was a raging fire moving towards us, sending along an intense heatwave and a concoction of rotting corpse stenches, the repugnant musk-ammonia scent of newly formed avatars and a muck-up of compost and pollution, the unmistakable dry brittle smell of charcoal and the heady effects of melting plastic.  Although we had managed to fly a few thirty odd kilometres from the onslaught, the fire was hot on our heels.  If we didn’t find a shelter soon we’d sure to end up as charcoal ourselves. I had hoped walking along side the creek that ran adjacent to Silverwater Road would provide protection should we need it.  It had just enough water from what I could see.

I turned around to check the fire’s progress.  “What have I done?”  The question tugged at my guilt and despair.  The fire’s red-orange tinges were highly visible in the dark sky. Showers of deep grey ash slowly blanketed the roads. Individual sounds from panicky creatures were instantly suffocated within the fire’s explosions, crackling and high pitched squeals that sounded as if air itself was screaming to its death over and over again. The onslaught was picking up speed and branching out – fast.

If we were still human, people would be fighting to stop the fire.  It would be broadcast over the news… We weren’t human any more. I turned around and stared at the flickering shadows dancing along my avatar’s smooth cheek and peered at the fine traces of black lines creating kaleidoscope patterns underneath the epidermis. Can I stop it? The fire was strong and rampant – virtually impossible for one being to put out.

“If only it would rain.” If God felt sympathy for us, he’d open up the skies and give us a down pour. But YOU caused this mess – not God.  God is not going to fix your problems, the thought entered my mind, its tone as abrupt as my conscientiousness. I huffed it off.  That’s all good and well but all I could do right now is find a safe place to wait out the fury so that I could live to fight another day.

I glanced at the chaos again and was unable to tune out the vague screams from other avatars and ignore the stirrings of guilt tugging at my heart.

“Damn it. ” I sucked in a deep breath. Waited. When nothing happened, I released my breath and started to retrace my steps back to the scene of the crime. We got as far as Clyde and a third of the Great Western Highway when the city erupted with simultaneous explosions and tremors and my way was blocked by a mob of avatars rushing towards me.

Flee – flee – flee… The word flew through my mind on the back of many voices. I didn’t hang about to be sure  if it was coming from them. I turned tail and flew as fast as I could up the road.

Clip-clip-clop-clop, the noises moved nearer and I knew it would over run me if I kept at the same pace in the open.  I needed to find a place to ditch the hoard.

I saw a furniture store across the road, noting it was empty of movements, flew to the roof and went over,  landing near an open loading dock: a forklift frozen in motion with its arm holding a crate in mid-air, boxes stacked in small piles near it and a row of crates against a high wall at the opposite end.  I saw a shadow slide across the ground towards the high wall and stepped towards it,  disturbing a cat devouring it’s rotten packet of chicken bones. It regarded me with large luminous eyes, after a brief moment of scrutiny arched it’s back and hissed a warning at me.

My vision blurred, it refocused on the cat which still had it’s back arched but the fear in its eyes was obvious. Taste it -taste it… The words drummed through my mind, shutting out the calamity and immediate chaos and refocusing my full attention to my own breathing. Hot, salty, savoury… tasty…taste it… taste it – TASTE IT!

“Meerow!” The screech broke through my mind. A stack of work crates, a mangled chicken carcass and a cat swiping shots at me swam into focus. I snapped upright and stepped back,  pulling away my arm that had been raised and ready to grab the animal and “taste” it to death.  The cat turned tail and fled. I hoped it went to a place no being would ever look to find it.

“Lets start this right now.  Rule number one – we do not and will never ever consume any real animal.” Did I think to expect an answer? Still, I paused for one then nodded my head accepting silence to be an unwavering yes.

We had a rule now and it made me wonder if we’d be the only ones.   Howls, scratches, ripping, biting, clawing and scrapings on concrete brought my attention towards the street. I nodded my head with an affirmative.  This is where it mattered now.

I flew to the factory’s roof top and laid flat on the tiles to hide my presence from the crowd packing the street below.  I peered over the edge to see what was going on; it was an all out shit fight – mutant eating mutant either their own kind or another variation and their poor ghosts languishing behind them as nothing more than wisps of air. They gorged with no thought to their surrounds, having forgotten the approaching fire they were fleeing.  Watching them made me feel desolate. I pushed myself up, turned and fled in the same direction as that of the cat.

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24th May, 2007 Night

Parramatta Public Library – Civic Centre
Parramatta City

I found my way back to the room. I had taken a guess and was glad it was the right one. Not only was an uncomfortable and tedious journey, it turned out to be a real shit fight with a few desperate ratmen braving the daylight for a meal. At first, I thought I’d be able to blow their brains all over the pavement but they were stronger than the ones back at the apartment and I had to turn tail and flee,  eventually shaking them off down civic lane when a group of dogmen stepped into their path.

Then there were the infected in the library. Fortunately there weren’t many and they were weaker. The rifle was effective in securing the area as a soldier would say. I dragged the corpses out into the middle of the car park to rot then sealed off the doors and searched the building for the way into the room. I found it in the connecting building just off the main library. I had to take an elevator to a basement level. I recognised the wheel handle on the door at the end of a corridor. It took a bit of fiddling to get the door open, once it opened, I dumped the lieutenant inside and went back out to find my avatar some food.

It didn’t take us long to pick the bones of a stupid dogman down a back alley and we were secured in the room before the night really kicked in.

Two things bothered me about the feeding experience: my avatar was nibbling on its food like it was snack and nothing more and the whole time it fed I felt detached from the experience. I could see it happening with my own eyes, yet I wasn’t feeling it as I usually did. It was as if I was watching a movie in first person point of view; experiencing the moment but as an outsider still in control of my own mind and actions. It didn’t feel real and it made me wonder about the adaptation process the man at the inn had been talking about. I shook off the thought – it was hurting my brain. One step at a time.

I stared at the lieutenant’s body. Despite the blood, he still looked human but I suspected he’d start to decompose in a day or two and made a decision to find a place to bury him at dawn. I shuffled against the shelf of books and closed my eyes.

Why bother? He’s dead. You did what he wanted by shooting him. He didn’t ask for anything else.

“It’s respectful.”

What’s respectful? He tried to kill you.

“He was only doing it to survive. I would kill him for food.”

But he’d kill you for a test. He’s not fit for respect. You should dump him in the street and let the others clean up.

“Why am I debating over this with myself?”

You know why…

I woke up with a sour feeling in my stomach and an ill conscience. The body of Cole Marshell lay on the ground against the table leg as one big heap. It had been a slight hinderance in bringing  him back along with the gun. But, we got him back regardless and now that he was here I started to wonder why. Was it really important to make my avatar extremely weak and vulnerable just to pay respects to a dead body? His ghost had moved on, I had given him that privileged. He wouldn’t suffer this world any more so was it really necessary?

It’s just a dead thing. It’s life that’s important. Life that we need.

“Life.”

My avatar and I rose and stood before the body. It grabbed an arm and started tugging at it, pulling so hard until it ripped out of its socket. It did the same for the arm and all other limbs, ripped through to the chest and punctured holes in its skin. Its talons shredded its face until it was a pulp of flesh. When it was done, it ripped through all the boxes of ammunition turning the room into a rubbish tip. And then we left.

The ground vibrated and grumbled as we stepped out of the elevator. When we reached the edge of the farthest street, the library exploded into clouds of fire and burning shrapnel attacking passing avatars.

“Hump,” I blew out and rolled my eyes. Cole Marshell was respected after all and it wasn’t intentional. As I watched the flames flicker and swell into a sort of night dance, memories of New Years Eve, champagne, canapés and cracking fireworks flashed through my mind. “Is it worth holding on to something already dead?”

I’m old and tired. You can’t save me – my leg’s gone and my body will died of infection. Cole Marshall’s voice broke through my thoughts. Sure he was old but his body didn’t die of infection.

“Okay. I’ll give you some hope.” I turned away from the fire and hurried towards the streets away from the city. Parramatta was done. I was almost certain the fire would destroy most of the streets by dawn and continue until some miracle brings rain.

I was back on my quest of finding answers again.

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24th May, 2007

Dawn
Parramatta

We… clever… RUN! The voice and words swam in and out of my mind as a vague muffle. I was given a kick into a run.

“Get going!” Men chuckled behind me. I heard their guns cock, ready for action.

“Where the hell am I?” I cursed and attempted to pull the blind fold off my head. It came off too easily. I spun around and saw the two men in army uniforms racing after me. Bang – bang! A bullet sailed past my ear – I saw the gun barrel of the younger man’s smoking. “Shit!” I cursed and did a sprint for my life.

I was in a large park of sorts and made a race for the clump of trees in the distance ahead. The night sky was giving way to daylight with thin streaks of blue breaking over the horizon. Cowards. Of course they’d make it easy for themselves and hunt me in broad daylight, out in the open.

“Derek you take it on the left – I’ll be right.”

I kept going towards the trees and bent low trying to pick up speed so we could fly. I jumped into the air and went to stretch my arms wide but I couldn’t move them far from my sides. They were restricted. I glimpsed at my avatar next to me and saw its wings tied down with rope. “Damn it,” I hissed and hoped I’d be able to loose them, some how, through the trees.

“Hah! Can’t fly now can you beast!”

Beast? I was hunting game to them? I felt my anger boil. A senseless rage burst through my body and want to take control.

“STOP!”

My avatar and I skidded to halt before an old oak and turned around. Silver edged bullets darted towards our faces. They weren’t fast enough and I was able to step aside and allow the bullets to splinter the tree trunks and branches. Birds screeched out their curses and fear before fluttering off to safety.

I watched two military men advance towards us with sniper rifles. One of the men I felt certain was the Army Reserve guy back on Macarthur street. Suddenly, my anger eased and I found myself just wanting to kill them and move on. A shower of bullets broke my train of thought. I turned and ran into the protection of the trees and found myself face to face with one of my own.

Halfsen. It whispered into my mind along with the taste of blood and rush of a kill still fresh in its mind.

“You don’t want me,” I rushed out. “Humans chase me. Fresh humans.”

“Humans?” A batman stepped from the shadows and revealed smooth black webbed wings with clawed edges. It’s arms were skinny but the black veins roped around its muscles so tight it made them swell with strength like muscles. He wore a tattered t-shirt and jeans. His taloned feet were bare, its skin heavily cracked around its heels. He flexed his talons and wings. Shouting and gunfire sounded behind us. A bullet sailed into view and clipped its wing. The batman-avatar cursed with rage and stormed through the trees towards the soldiers.

I stood in shock at seeing its ghost. It was fighting along side its avatar and even seemed to be calling the shots. The younger soldier didn’t stand a chance and was stabbed to the ground by one of the batman’s talon. The Army Reserve guy used it as an opportunity to escape. He raced towards an adjacent clump of trees and disappeared from sight. The batman was too involved in gorging on the young soldier to take notice. It was of no consequence to him but it was to me. I made my way carefully towards the trees the man took and looked about for his trail.

“Where would you go?” I looked at my avatar trying to think of what animal species it would fall under if it was an animal. From its wide eyes, bat like wings I figured a fruit bat. I knew squat about fruit bats except they had a keen sense of smell and feel for their surroundings. “Okay fruit bat it is, although you look nothing like one.”

I sniffed the ground and caught scent of someone familiar moving towards the south west. I followed the trail, pushing through bramble and came to the edge of a creek. A set of apartment blocks stood on the other side. I saw the Army Reserve guy disappear inside one of the buildings. I neared the creek then stopped when I heard more gunfire followed by that fateful silence. Suddenly, the world was significant at that moment. He was significant.

No! I glanced at my avatar’s wings, stretched back my arms and fumbled with the knots I saw. They were tied so tight it was impossible to free them. We had to cross that creek on foot.

The creek reeked like raw sewage, its waters were murky with rusted trolleys, coke cans and bits of metal protruding out of the waters. Stretched condoms, fast food packets and other man made junk floated indifferently along the current. The creek was shallow than first appeared, so I was able to step through to the other side and towards the apartment block.

Real cats and dogs barked their fury as I neared an entrance. I bared my teeth and was glad they fled with their tails between their legs and the complex was soon silent. My avatar shifted uncomfortable on the spot. I looked up and saw the sun glowing down on us, and sensed a hot day already. Had to get inside and cool down. The entrance, I faced, had it’s glass panels shot through so it left a man sized hole. I was able to step inside.

I faced a set of stairs that went up to the next level, next to them was a short corridor lined with doors to ground floor apartments. I noticed a trail of blood on the stairs and followed it. The first thing I saw, when stepping to the top landing, was a pile of ratmen carcases with their heads blown off and their ghosts no where insight. The trail of blood lead into the door at the end of the corridor. I stepped over the carcases and did something I hadn’t done for a long time – I knocked.

“Hello!” I shouted and received silence.  I was about to call out again when the door creaked open. The apartment was a modest size and a mess. Toys, books and clothes were scattered along the blood stained carpet. Pushed up against one wall was the Army Reserve man bleeding from a nasty gash to his left leg. He had his rifle pointed at me.

I approached him slowly and stood a metre away from him making sure my avatar was still.

“I – we won’t hurt you.”

I was expecting the gun pointed to my chest. His hands shook, he relaxed his grip and defence with a deep sigh. “I tried to kill you.”

“No, you were only doing what any endangered person would do to survive,” I said factually.

The man laughed. “So I’m an endanger species now? Well sorry mate but nothing’s going to save me now.” He released his grip around his gun and pressed his head against the wall showing a trail of sweat running down his neck.

I grabbed a shirt off the floor and went to the aid of his wounded leg. The gash was nasty, going deep to the bone. My avatar was able to shred the shirt into long strips and hand it to the man.

“Here – I dare not tie this around the wound myself. My avatar’s touch still lacks finesse.”

“Huh – don’t bother. I’m already dead.”

I sighed and decided it was up to me to secure the wound. “Keep still then and I’ll wrap it the best I can.”

The man studied my face as my avatar tied the strips around his wound. It wasn’t the best bandaging but it covered the area it needed to cover and stopped the bleeding.

“Why yah doing this?”

“I want to save you.”

“But you’re an infected? You’re one of them?”

“No – I’m not. I’m Mary. Mary Harlow.”

“H-Muther of Christ,” the man grimaced. I saw more sweat break out across his face. I checked his forehead and felt sweltering heat. The man’s eyes drooped with mild delirium. He wasn’t doing well.

“Listen, we’ll have to get you back to that room with the books before it gets too dark.”

“Bleed too much – I won’t make it.”

“No. If I could find a way to cut the ropes from my avatar’s wings. I could fly you back to that room.”

The man shook his head clear then flashed me a smile. He fumbled around his breast pocket and pulled out a Swiss Army knife. “Get yah ava-thing to turn around – I’ll cut those bonds.” I did as he instructed, stood up and turned around so he could have easy access to the rope around my avatar’s wings. He huffed and puffed the whole time he saw through the thick rope but was able to remove the bonds. It felt as if a ton of bricks had been lifted off my shoulders. I was energised.

“Now to take you back.”

“Nah,” the man said between puffs. “I’m old and tired. You can’t save me – my leg’s gone and my body will died of infection.”

“Don’t talk like that! Don’t. I’ll save you!”

“Listen Mary – yah go out there and save others that need savin’ then yah find a cure and yah stop them damn bastards. Our world can’t die like this.”

His breaths were short and fading fast; his eyes were fighting to stay awake.

“What is your name sir?”

“Lieutenant Cole Marshell.” His eyes went wide as he stared at my avatar, and he made a sound of disbelief. “And I thought I saw it all.”

“What?”

“Your bloody thing’s crying.”

The man let out a moan and focused his attention on me again. “Don’t interrupt. You must do something else for me.” His tone was clear and commanding. His eyes lowered to his gun, which he raised and offered to me. “Take it and end me quickly.”

I closed my eyes. Sounds of laughter, sorrow, anguish, joy flowed into my mind along with soothing music and reassuring lyrics, poetry, art, stories. I opened my eyes, pointed the gun at Lt. Marshell’s chest and pulled the trigger. He died with a smile on his face; no limbs pulled a part, no gorging. A human death.

Ratmen approached from the shadows. I glanced at my avatar. “Are you with me?” I didn’t need to hear its answer as I already knew. It grabbed the sniper rifle and blew rounds of bullets into damaging parts of the ratmen. They couldn’t stand the assault in the day time as they could at night so wasn’t able to regenerate. They died upon impact.

When the last ratman fell to pieces at my feet, I secured the sniper rifle across my avatar’s chest, grabbed the body of the lieutenant and smashed our way out of the apartment through a large bay window and entered a new day.

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23rd May, 2007

12:49 am
Parramatta

It’s just after midnight on a Wednesday, you’ve just listened to Natasha Bedingfield’s newie ‘I Wanna Have Your Babies’, and I’m sure some guys wanna give it to her. Coming up is Missy Higgins, some thing new from the Finger…

My mind woke to the sound of a DJ’s voice behind hissing and crackling sounds of a radio and wondered what the date was. I didn’t think it would’ve been a live broadcast as it seemed too dismissive of everything.

“It’s waking.” A young, raspy voice interrupted my train of thought. I was pulled back to my last conscious moment and the realisation that I might have been captured again. I opened my eyes but when I saw where I was I felt like closing them again. Sure enough, I was in another bloody glass tank, although this one had grimy windows so that everything behind it appeared as one big smudge and blur.

“Shall we stun it again?”

“Nah – I wanna see what it does,” said an older man.

“Bet yah it’ll try to break the glass and ‘ave a go at us,” the younger man huffed.

I sat up and continued listening, cross-legged and resting my chin on one hand. They were so involved of what I would supposedly be doing when I woke that they actually hadn’t seen me wake up. It gave me the opportunity to learn more of my cage.

The cage was a similar set up as that of the woman’s home laboratory, expect it lacked the mirrored sides and robotic arms. I noticed a straight groove cutting through the middle of the roof and a set of two hinges, one on each side that connected the left and right walls to the roof. It was a trap door. I found myself wondering how hard it was to push it open and pull myself out of the cage.

“I tell yah, it ain’t no good keepin’ the thing here!” the younger man hissed.

“Mate – just settle. In case yah forgot, there ain’t much human left.” The older man said with a knowing tone. “We can’t just keep shoot’n at them things random like. We need to make it count.”

Make it count. Those three words had told me all I need to know and that my situation wasn’t a pretty one. Huh – stupid girl, you think they were going to give you a parade?

I shuffled around the cage to move my legs and found the bottom half of my body embedded within my avatar’s, which was both creepy and surprising. Obviously, the cage was only big enough for my avatar accommodating for a tiny bit of extra space. I had forgotten I was a ghost. I shuffled my legs into a tight huddle and sighed when I saw my avatar do the same ensuring a bit of space between us.

“Hey, mate – it’s awake!”

“Quick – get the guns.”

I took in a deep breath and slowly exhaled, waiting for the commotion of shuffling feet, clicking and loud clangs to settle. Two shadows covered the cage window. There was a couple of sliding clicks and a release of air from the top. I looked up and saw the barrel of two semi-automatics pointed down on me and my avatar. I peered closer and saw the ends of the guns gripped by mechanical arms but before I could work more details, a searing spotlight came into view and forced me to drop my gaze. I saw my avatar squirming and whimpering with pain.

“Ssh, it’s okay,” I whispered motherly but the avatar was howling and knocking the glass so hard it sound like it was going to break it. I sucked in a deep breath and slowly exhaled again, counting to three. All the fear I felt eased into a sense of calm. My avatar stopped and mirrored my huddle. We both looked up towards the light and almost chuckled at the sounds of disbelief and fear from the men.

“Jesus Christ Bobby! You see that? Shit – we have to kill it!”

Flashes, bangs and ripping pain entered my mind. I screamed out with intense agony and started banging cracks into the wall until one was vulnerable to break. I felt a series of bullets puncher through my flesh and shatter my bones. I fought against the pain, extended my elbow and used it to shatter the cage glass.

“DIE MUTHER!” The younger man screamed as he fired his semi, but his aim was off and his bullets flew past my ears. I grabbed his gun, my avatar pulled it from his fingers and scrunched it into bits. I grabbed the gun of the old man, next to the younger man, before he had a chance to fire and mangled his into one big misshaped lump.

“NO ONE’S GOING TO DIE IF THEY DON’T PANIC!” I don’t know why I shouted. I suppose it was the only way to get their attention. My vision blurred, I felt tiny heavy weights pull my body to the ground. My avatar dropped to the floor. We fell unconscious.

I regained consciousness before the faces of the older and younger man, and started to back away from them.

“It’s alright. We ain’t going to harm yah, although we’re ready,” said the older man.

I pushed myself up into sitting position and saw my avatar do the same. Our umbilical connection seemed to glow stronger under rays of uv light that swung about from fluorescent ceiling lamps connected to chains. I was in a square area made into some sort of refuge. High book cases, filled with journals, large tomes and hard copies, made up the walls. A table crowded with ammunition boxes, tins and cases was pushed against the opposite wall, a few sealed boxes and crates sat against the nearest wall with grey army blankets stacked neatly on them. The light did a sweep over a set of sniper rifles along the adjacent wall. I did a quick 180° glance and couldn’t see a window insight even with my night sight, and got the impression I was underground somewhere.

“Give me one reason why I shouldn’t put bullets in yah.” It wasn’t a threat or a curse but a question.

“Because I haven’t hurt you. I’m talking to you and I know you’re human and not food.” I directed my stare to the silhouettes of the men, from my night sight I could make out a round face and rough stubble of the older man – lean face and pointed nose of the other. A feeling came upon me that I had seen the older man before.”Where have I see you before?”

I was answered with click – clicks of two guns and barrels pointed at my nose.

I sighed and lowered my gaze. “Ah shit, if you’re going to kill me – kill me and be done with it.”

“Nah – I figure we do some testing on yah and see how what can really kill yah. We pumped a good round of lead in your buddy over there and it’s still sitting up and staring at us.”

I glanced at my avatar and studied it’s wings and chest; all free from holes. My eyes widen when a ray of light did a pass over its arm; its skin was bone white and almost flawless. Apart from its face, the veins were barely visible; something I hadn’t noticed before.

“So, what you going to do?” I gulped, suddenly frightened at what the men had planned as I sensed, either way, it was going to be ugly.

“Maybe start with cutting that cord of yah’s,” the younger man blurted.

The older man sighed, “Derek we did that and it did nothing but kill the ghost. It didn’t even disconnect ‘em. It made them stronger.”

My mind thought of Martin and all the other comatose ghosts dragged behind by their avatars who assumed full control over their life. Oh god – I couldn’t end up like that, I just couldn’t. I suddenly wanted to beg for death no matter how disgraceful that made me look.

They did it you know. They’re the ones responsible for Martin’s death. I shook off the thought. I had seen others like Martin in different areas before I came across him and felt it was more to the virus effecting the host in a more progressive way. These two men couldn’t be responsible for them; their location, knowledge and resources, it was illogical.

One of the silhouettes moved bringing more light into my view and a great vision of the room I was in. Towards the left of the table I spied the corner of an iron door with a wheel handle and an expensive looking keypad lock. Was I in a vault? Something was slapped around my avatar’s wrists and a leather sack covered our eyes. A heavy jab to the head knocked us out to darkness.

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