Drifting millions of miles
Another fucking day standing in this line-up behind one lunatic and in front of another. Both are chattering about nothing — apparently some rock star has decided to perform a concert. Here. For the inmates. Bad idea if you ask me. He’ll probably end up getting stabbed full of needles and being raped by at least a dozen patients.
Jesus, what is this shit? I don’t know how they expect this unidentifiable substance to be treated like food. But Trigger’s right. If it looked like food, the crazies wouldn’t eat at all. They tried that once. Cooked up steak for a national holiday or something. Damn good. Then some fucker with wires instead of a brain thought his looked a bit like his old girlfriend. Next thing everybody was running around screaming, afraid that we were all eating love.
Love. There’s a notion. State-sponsored emotional addiction if you ask me. Taking meatheads with money and loading their bodies with hormones only to sell them the animated body of some dead porn star they can have sex with. Suddenly these poor bastards are no longer productive, can’t keep their jobs, and end up penniless on the streets or in here.
They’ve discovered that I’ve been giving my medications to Trigger, so now I’ve got to take them before they’ll feed me. Out of fear that I’ll save them and spit them up, they’re now doing it administered. God, I hate needles — it’s not the sharp prick or the sudden rush as the drugs enter my blood, it’s just that it seems so unnatural. Nowhere near as stylish as shoving a fistful of powder into your mouth or nose. Trigger’s furious. His main source of extras is no more. He’s just sitting there, a bomb waiting to go off at the slightest push.
Some android just bumped into him. No harm really, but it’s excuse enough. So Trigger rips his arm off. The droid just stands there, laughing. I can barely even see what’s happening through the drugs — it’s been a long time — but I think that the robot just took his arm back and pounded a security guard. More are running this way, but I can tell by the way Trigger’s head is cocked that he’s about to have some fun.
Kernel’s looking at me as if to ask me if I’m alright. I don’t think I am. There are all these voices inside my head, screaming. I see the face of that girl again. God, I wish I knew who she was. Beautiful. It’s shifting and I’ve fallen into the nightmare again. As I see Switch jumping up to help out Trigger and the droid pummel a few security guards, Kernel’s mouth opens up and I’m falling into it. I think he’s holding me because I’ve fallen to the floor.
There is a flash of bright light and an explosion. I see a strange face looking over me and suddenly a moment of clarity. I stand to my feet and grab Kernel’s arm. I yell at Trigger to follow me, that we’re going to get the fuck out. His deranged and bleeding face smiles back at me. He’ll follow.
Somehow I know where the explosion came from because I can hear a familiar voice screaming for help. It’s my doctor. The asshole who wants to replace my brain with something a bit more efficient. It seems the rebels are shelling the building and the first good one went right through his wall and took his leg with it. With Kernel and Trigger behind me, I know my chance to escape has come. I look down on his pathetic tear-streaked face before kicking his jaw off. I run through the portal toward freedom before finally collapsing under the weight of the drugs in my system.
Washes the heart empty...
I wake up to hear Trigger arguing with someone, Switch I think. They’re calling each other various names. It seems that the cyborg and the android followed us but Trigger doesn’t trust them. I don’t blame him. Most hardwires are spies for the government one way or another. But somehow I think these two are different. I try to stand up. God, everything hurts: my head, my heart, even my toes. It’s a good thing Kernel’s helping me or I’d never make it.
I really don’t think Trigger wants to listen to me but I haven’t got much choice but to convince him. We need all the help we can get if we’re going to make it to the Holy City alive. Now he’s angry at me. Wants to know why the fuck we’d go to right into the government’s pissing-ground. I smile inwardly as I give him the most truthful answer possible that he’ll agree with: revenge. That calms him down a bit. He’s always wanted to take out some anger on those assholes directly and might as well come, to save me from myself. The android comments that he’s always wanted to destroy the entire City. Trigger looks at him in a new light, an instantaneous bond I never thought possible.
As the two begin to discuss their plans, I pull Switch aside and ask him who the android is. Apparently he’s the fifth in the 92A series, but he prefers to just be called 5. Switch tells me that the two met in a brawl just before I arrived. I carefully examine 5 and notice something strange about his appearance. The cyborg notices my glances and explains in carefully chosen words.
It seems that 5, like most androids was destined for government service from the day of his programming, probably in the military. But some idiot accidentally set his brain in the civil service rack and he ended up with a female body completely unsuited for combat. So, they sent him down to rehab to reprogram his brain. Since he arrived though, he’s discovered that the doctors are more interested in fucking his completely functional body than replacing his brain. His repairs were supposed to be finished inside of a month. That was nearly two years ago.
Switch asks me why I really want to go to the City. I tell him the same thing I told Trigger a moment ago. He asks again, not believing me. So I tell him about my dreams, of the girl who comes to me every night begging me to come rescue her from X and the Holy Family. I don’t bother telling him of the burning angel. If I tell him that, he’ll think I’m just crazy. A girl’s cry for help is one thing but a nightmare is completely different. I explain to him why I think the dream is real, that I’ve been having the same hallucination since I was first allowed consciousness and nothing the doctors have done have changed that. He seems to believe me and agrees to come along.
It is getting dark and the rebels have started to retreat. Their technology isn’t as effective as the government’s. If they continue their assault, they will likely be wiped out. As for ourselves, we wait until the rebels have moved back far enough before beginning our journey. We must avoid being seen by anyone until reaching the City. If the rebels catch us, we may be forced into helping their cause.
