The Unknown - Awakening - Part 1

The Unknown: Awakening
Part 1

    A raging fire razed the coast. The heat from a setting sun violently collided with the disturbed water, colliding to bend orange light in spontaneous directions. Retreating, the sun's powerful heat blended with the cool breeze, melting into a blanket of comfort for anyone standing on the Deinsport docks that night. Such natural beauty was an extreme rarity in the bleak city. Yet this rare light breaking the void seemed to display itself like eloquent speech following an abrasive appearance. 

    For David and April, they stood on the damp wooden boards, completely enveloped by nature's dance and embrace. They too, held each other in the walk. Gentle presence and conjoined appreciation for each other in much more loving words than either of them could clumsily conjure.
    "I've always loved how the water moves like that."

    "What do you mean?" David used the broken silence to shift. He had to track down the ring in one of his pockets.

    "Well, the little points and waves, they crash together, but they separate so neatly too. It causes the light to scatter on the surface of the water. Its beautiful, don't you think?"

    "That's not the only thing I think is beautiful." David smirked to himself with his corny humor. Yet, he quickly lost the smirk as he patted his back pocket.

    "You're such a charmer." April replied with a sarcastic eyebrow, but she quickly giggled and leaned into his arm again.

    "I know." He turned around to stretch with his free arm. Checking side pockets, he again found nothing.

    "Hey, are you okay? You're a little fidgety".

    "Yeah, I'm fine. What time is it?"

    "Nine twenty-four." She responded after checking her watch.

    "Good golly! I need to feed the cat!" David's voice was overly convincing.

    "M-hm. I know you have to work tomorrow. Its been a good night though."

    "No, the cat- well wait, yes! It has been, but I mean, its not that-" April silenced him with a quick kiss, followed by a smile.

    "Call me when you get home. You haven't been feeling well for a while."

    "The doctors have cleared me and given me some meds to be safe. They said I'm healthier than most people, and I didn't even do anything extraordinary to get to that point."

    "You're such an over-achiever" she said, smirking. She turned and started walking down the boardwalk again. "Call me."
    "Do you need me to call a cab right now?"

    "No, you need to get home to 'feed your cat'".

    "Right. Ha, okay. Thanks for the date! It was... it was great." April just returned a smile to his last words. She walked back to the street and flagged down a taxi in seconds.

    David returned his gaze to the restless water mixing with pouring sun. His stomach slowly churned and moaned. "Maybe I am getting sick." he said to himself, denying the nervous tension also in his head.

                                                                             ---

    A cab returned him to a middle class subdivision just outside of the city. David threw the cab driver a five dollar bill and stumbled out of the car. As the taxi sped away, he felt his head spinning and aching. His stomach also felt dizzy and rather upset. After blinking a few times, David thought to pull some keys from his pocket. After a thorough search, he managed to find the key ring in his right leg pocket.

    Fumbling with the keys, he identified what looked like his house key. The jagged edges of each key carefully blended together in his pale palm. His drooping eyes did not help the situation. "I don't remember... having any dr-drinkss" he stuttered to himself, forcing his eyes open and closed to regain focus. The world began spinning in circles again, and he had to get through the door of his home.

    One step at a time, each two-square foot block of concrete seemed like miles of runway. That, and the world seemed to be going through a silent earthquake. After a few minutes of stumbling, David managed to slump against the door to steady himself. Taking the key, he slowly inserted it into the lock and forced his hand to turn. The door jolted to signify it unlocking. With a sturdy twist, he turned the doorknob and forced the door open. The door hit the wall, and David fell on the floor.

    Opening his eyes, he lifted his head again. The room was blurring and spinning more quickly now. "The pills" he thought to himself, thinking of the medication the doctor had prescribed for his recent headache attacks. He raised his body to a crawl and began to shuffle towards the kitchen. Upon arrival, he tossed an arm onto the counter and grabbed the pills. After momentarily struggling with the cap, he tossed two pills down his throat and forced himself to swallow them dry.

    Sitting on the floor, pills in hand, David kept mental focus in order to keep himself awake. He counted up to and back down from one-hundred.  A few minutes of this passed by, and he began to look around. The pills had worked exponentially quicker than he could have imagined, though the world still seemed off rocker. Carefully pulling himself up to the counter, he grabbed a glass and poured some water. Drinking slowly, he felt the coolness of the liquid drain the tightness of his muscles. David normally did not get sick, but something was definitely wrong. He hated doctors though.

    The picture on the counter of his girlfriend, and the small black box holding the ring inside caught his attention. They had been together for about two years, and he felt that it was time to get settled down. He made good money; enough to own a small home at least. He always wanted a wife and a few kids too, and April was perfect. She was strong woman - a cop even- yet she deeply loved David's strength. He had to go to the doctor again for them, not just for himself. Not if he would marry this woman.

    A rumble ran through his legs. David looked down and grabbed his stomach. He still felt sick, but the pain was unusual. It was slowly building, but much more rapidly than what he had felt before. He prepared himself for the upcoming assault from his stomach. "Blaaugh!" David felt like he was firing his insides into the sink. The smell was putrid, and his stomach kept lurching. Again and again, he felt his stomach cleansing itself of the sickness residing inside him.

    After a few minutes, the throwing up stopped. David's eyes were forced shut by the force of each heave. He didn't want to see the mess he had made of the meals of the past day's food. He had to clean it up sometime though, so he opened his eyes.

    Seeing the sink, he would have taken just the digested food.

    "Blood?"

     Staining the sink, coating the counter, and dripping onto the floor, his own insides had coughed up what seemed like a couple of liters of blood. His vision tunneled on the scene as the room began to spin again. Grabbing the glass to attain more water, David's wobbly hands simply knocked it over, mixing the clean liquid with the chunky, thick blood. David felt himself lowering to the ground, gasping for air. "I need to be strong, I need to... I need..." his cell phone screamed at him, turning the gentle ringtone into a horrid nightmare that attacked his ears. "April!" Gasping, and losing full control.

Initiating start-up protocols "Awakening".

                                                                      ---

    Sight restored. Senses tingling. Full control. Somehow, everything seemed calm, quiet, and at peace in the night.  David took a quick glance at the clock in the kitchen from the floor. With sharp accuracy, he noted that it was now twelve forty-nine. Another scan displayed the bloody mess he had created. Chunky blood now began to harden on the surface, and it would be a pain to clean it.

    "David?" A voice came from the front door, now creaking open. "David? Are you alright?" Footsteps entered the house. A bright light began swinging around the dark in hopes of finding him. It was April. He stood, surprisingly, and spoke "Here, I'm okay..."

    April turned and froze. She pointed the flashlight in his face, and he was temporarily blinded. "Ugh! Stop, it hurts! St-"

    Bang! Bang! David grabbed his right shoulder and fell back to the ground. Pain riveted through his body. "Gah, what the HELL are you doing?" 

    "Stay down, bastard! One more move and you're as good as gone!" April's voice boomed. David felt pain from her bullet, and confusion as to why he had shot him. April rounded the corner slowly and kept her pistol pointed at his face.

    "He-OW! Put-put that thing down! Please!" David begged.

    "Not until you tell me where David is! Tell me right now or I"ll blow your plastered face off!"

    Assessing situation.

    David's vision suddenly lit up with neon green numbers, lines, and symbols. Circles darted all over, centering on April's face, her gun, and two bullet holes in the wall that had black blood surrounding the punctures. Words on the bottom left of his vision stated "Reconstructing right shoulder: 76%".

    "What are you doing? Stop, its me! David!" He spat out.

    "Did I tell you to talk? Stand up and put your hands up, NOW!"

    David shook his head in disbelief, but then complied. As he stood, the circles followed the different points of interest flawlessly. Weapon Evaluation was stated by the computer voice inside his head. Numbers pulled up beside April's gun. Beretta 8045, .45 ACP, 6 rounds left in the magazine, and an graph showing bullet velocity, the weight of the trigger along with the current weight being applied to the trigger, and current distance from the weapon were all statistics provided. He had no clue of what all this information was doing in his vision, but he did not fear it. Yet it still caused him some confusion. 

    "April, I don't know what's going-"

    POP! April fired a shot at him, but he had dodged it. "Dodging bullets?" he instinctively thought to himself. A small red flashing icon indicated instinctive countermeasures being used against April. All of the green lights around April turned dark red. The words eliminate target appeared next to April's face.

    "Don't say my name! Hands behind your head asshole, and tell me why there's so much blood here. Who's blood?"

    "April, its me! David!" he plead.

    "Who are you psycho?"

    "I don't know what's happening to me, but you have to believe me!"

    "Well I don't believe you, freak! What did you do with him?"

    A red circle highlighted the ring box surrounded by blood on the counter. Pacify. "The black box! Its a circular diamond engagement ring for you." She did not respond. She did not see his point. "Uhh... We started dating two years ago. You're a cop, I work stocks. We both played golf, but I was never good at it. Your dog Marty died eight months ago and you grieved for two weeks. We went on a date today and watched as the water collided and scattered light. I said I had to feed my cat as an excuse to come get the ring, and you left in a cab before I got off the boardwalk... April..." The words rocketed out of his mouth like machine gun fire. In response, April continued to stand still with her gun pointed at his face. All of the lights in David's vision turned a cautious yellow with a yellow circle analyzing April's face by identifying eye movements and facial gestures.

    All was quiet for a minute while April considered David's plea. David did not know his appearance, but he hoped their love would win out. After a sigh, April took a step foreward and jammed the muzzle of her pistol up into his jaw, and warning lights and sounds erupted into a blaze of neon light and terrifying sounds. Circles drew lines to display angles of attacks. April saw none of this as she glared at him, almost puzzled by him.
    She sighed, and then returned to David's eye with a grave gaze. "I would love to believe you. Tell me right now where he is, or I'll blow your brains out." At that moment, a box opened up in David's vision that displayed different replies and survival probabilities beside them. Some had notes that stated appeals to intelligence or appeals to emotion and other labels. None of them had survival percentages over 20%. David noted the lines that aligned his hands to vital disabling points on April's body, but he was revolted at the idea of harming her. After a gulp, David gave his answer.

    "I love you, and I'm sorry."

    A single shot rang out across the neighborhood, echoing between houses in the cold night.