The Future Ain't So Bulletproof

It all happened at once. The explosion from the end of my ancient weapon lit up the entire room and the force threw my shaking hands up towards my face. The bullet missed by miles.

The fact that their leader was still standing didn’t stop the group of people in front of me from shooting. The room was lit up for a second time when beams of white light shot past either side of me. I was a hopeless aim; I had no way of defending myself and I was being shot at by five people, all much better acquainted with a gun than I was. I was dead for sure.

As the fight or flight instinct couldn’t apply in this situation, I did the next best thing – screamed, dropped to the floor and curled into a ball.

Expecting death, I didn’t understand what I heard next.

“STOP!” the voice of the man I had been conversing with moments before rang out over the sounds of laser beams piercing the air The flashing lights ceased and the sound of heavy boots on the dust covered wooden floor could be heard, moving closer.

“Poison, what are you-“

“Hey,” his voice filled my left ear, his breath disturbing the hair around my face. I remained silent, tightening the arms wrapped around my tiny frame and encasing myself in a shell.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” I kept my lips pursed and my eyes squeezed shut. I felt the weight of a hand on my back and cringed away from it.

“You want to get out of this city, right?” Silence, “I can help you.”

He must have felt my body loosen because he found the confidence to wrap his gloved hand around my wrist and pull, trying to undo my carapace. I allowed him, but didn’t uncurl from my ball.

“You’re the one they’re looking for,” It wasn’t a question. I nodded slowly. “Come with us, we can get you out of here.”

I lifted my head slightly and looked into his masked face. He didn’t look like he was trying to trick me. His expression was sincere with a slight hint of a comforting smile. He stooped his head slightly so he could look at me. My face was also covered by a mask as I didn’t dare take it off from earlier just yet.

“Poison,” another man said, his voice full of importance. Poison looked up towards the window. “Dracs.”

That created another kind of chaos. The people stood by the doorway bolted and Poison ripped me up off the floor. My injuries protested loudly and I limped behind the man who was trying to save my life, slowing him down. Before we reached the stairs he spun around quickly, picking me up and flinging me over his shoulder without warning. My injuries didn’t like that either, and pain shot through every part of my body.

I blinked back tears of pain as I was carried out of the building in a fireman’s lift. The other men were waiting by an old graffitied car.

“Poison, they’ll be on us in seconds!” An irritated voice said. Poison ignored him, threw me into the passenger seat of the open-top car and hurried around to the driver’s seat. The other men seemed displeased that I had been given shotgun, but at that moment they knew there was no time to argue. Party Poison had barely sat down in his seat before his foot was slammed onto the accelerator. The car instantly jumped forward, surprisingly smoothly.

And for a second time that night, laser beams flew past me, missing me by inches. I let out an involuntary whimper, but the man to the left of me merely laughed excitedly, weaving the car this way and that. A beam of light hit the wing mirror to the right of me, blackening the reflective surface. I stared at it, my eyes bleary from still being full of tears from the pain I had experienced a few moments ago. I dabbed the moisture from the exposed flesh in the eye holes of my mask with my long auburn hair, not wanting to show these strange men my tear-filled eyes.

I was too late, however. Party Poison turned to look at me at the exact moment I was wiping a droplet of moisture from under my eyelashes. He didn’t say anything (for which I was glad), but he’d noticed and that was more embarrassment than I wished to endure. He probably though I was crying with fear. I was absolutely terrified, but I was so used to being shot at whilst I ran away that it certainly didn’t upset me like it used to.

After a few minutes of driving erratically in random directions, the black car that was pursuing us was shaken off. A few more minutes of enduring Party Poison’s driving skills and we arrived at, I guessed, our destination.

He pulled into an alley so narrow I didn’t think that car would fit. In all honesty, it didn’t. The wing mirrors were touching the grey concrete walls on either side of us, scraping the colourful graffiti away from the metal.

I didn’t even try to open the door – it clearly wasn’t going to work. Instead, I sat up onto my knees as the man next to me began clambering over his seat and into the back. He turned around once he’d reached the parcel shelf and offered me his hand. I took it nervously and he helped me climb out of the car.

The rest of the group were all stood in the mouth of the alley, complaining audibly about how slow I was. I’m sure I even heard someone say I was doing it on purpose. I sighed and jumped down, instantly regretting the jolt as my body screamed at me angrily. I staggered into the wall, whimpering again.

I was led out of the alley and past the group of people staring at me viciously. They stayed behind to cover the car (and no doubt bitch about me) whilst I was steered towards yet another dilapidated building. Peeking inside the doorless doorframe, I saw a staircase that had a huge rotten hole in it, but I was turned away from it and (thankfully) led down a set of sturdy concrete steps and through a metal doorframe.

Inside was just like every other basement I had camped in - damp, cold and pitch-black. Party Poison had left my side, I noticed, so I moved further into the room, feeling about with my hands in the dark.

My leg hit something solid and large. I felt something soft and velvet under my hand, at the same time as a small light appeared next to me. Party Poison was holding a candle and a match that was quickly burning up to his fingertips. He was sitting on the large velvety thing, which I saw to be a couch.

He shook the match out and flung it away, patting the cushion next to him. I sat as I was told and fiddled with the fraying hem of my cotton shorts.

We said no words to each other, and we still sat in silence as the rest of the men walked in. Rustling could be heard and then more candle flames illuminated the almost-blackness.

The man with the helmet (or one of, as I noticed there were two) broke the silence first, and not in a pleasant way.

“So, P, what are we going to do with her?” His soft voice didn’t suit the hateful words his mouth was throwing at me.

“Nothing,” Party Poison replied simply, still sitting next to me. I could see in the candle light that his pale lips held a small smile.

“And get us killed?” The angry man continued, “I’m not sticking ’round for that.”

“Be my guest and leave then.”

The room fell into another silence. I broke it this time, with my small, fearful words.

“Should I leave?”

I was met with two answers, spoken at the same time. Party Poison said, “Don’t be stupid, they’ll kill you” whilst the angry man spat out, “so you can tell them where we are.”

“Jet, will you just shut the fuck up?” The voice from next to me spat, showing anger for the first time.

“Why are you defending her?!”

“Because she’s scared; can’t you see that?”

“Yeah, right. Were you an actor before you joined them?” The question was directed at me, but I didn’t answer. Instead I looked down in the direction of my toes.

The truth was I was nothing in my former life. I worked at a cinema and kept telling my parents I was trying to save money for college. They knew I was never going to actually go, and I knew that they were secretly disappointed in me. They died feeling that disappointment.

“Can’t you just back of, Jet?” Party Poison said fiercely.

“What, and accept her like I did the other one?”

“Don’t mention her.”

“And why not, P? What about Bob? Can I mention him?”

“Shut the fuck up,” The man beside me muttered for a second time.

“How whilst she was charming the pants off you…” Jet continued, “She was secretly feeding them information that would eventually end in the death of one of your best fr-“

The room was lit up by a laser beam zooming across the width of it, before dissipating on the wall opposite and plunging us all into darkness again.

The antagonising man laughed humourlessly. “Oh look,” he spat out viciously, “she’s still got a hold on you; turning you against your friends, making you pick us off. Or are you just trying to impress your newest whore?”

“Get out!” Party Poison jumped to his feet, his candle blowing out.

“Make me,” A childish retort, but effective nonetheless.

I heard quick footsteps moving away from me and the sound of scuffling across the concrete floor. The candle opposite me had also gone out.

Finally the other members of the group began using their voices, but at a very unfortunate time. Their arguments were so loud they didn’t hear the unmistakable sound of roaring, Draculoid engines.