Real Fiction

The vibration of his cell phone carried Evan from the dream world into reality. In a stupor, he rolled out of his double air mattress to gaze at the tiny LCD on his phone with almost no intention of answering it. It was Erica. She must of misinterpreted this day as a good day, for the sun was shining and there was no inkling of rain, no threat of nuclear holocaust.

The aftermath of sleep left Evan confused and cynical; he spent the next ten minutes reciting nonsensical dream conversations and sorting illogical dream sequences in his mind but to no avail. He got no answers from his rehash of random dream scenes. Evan proceeded to his chair, powered on his computer, and untangled his headphones which sat on top of his broken TV. He pulled the last cigarette out of his camel light pack and sparked it up. Evan moved the mouse and clicked it twice. The sounds of melodic, math-core music entered his ears. Evan was fully awake now.

But it wasn't the smooth, loud music or the smooth, light cigarette that brought reality to his full attention. In fact, Evan lowered the volume on his computer and put out his cigarette. He stripped off his headphones and listened intently to the loud and consistent knocks on the front door. Loud knocks interspersed with dings of the doorbell implied someone desperately wanted in. Evan opened the door to his room only to see his friend Anton in full military garb yelling, and his half-dressed roommate, Yuri, trying to console him.

"This world is screwed, I'm telling you guys," Anton shouted with a look of consternation.

"I've never seen so many fighter jets and military vehicles in one day!" he yelled as he waved his hands in the air.

Evan didn't need to listen to Anton, the seasoned veteran, for he felt the intense pressure in the room building beyond his worst fears. Images of nuclear bombs and bomber jets flashed into his mind as he stared at his friends who frantically powered on the living room TV. Evan felt as if he traveled back in time to 9/11 when two commercial airplanes flew into the world trade center. But today was no day for terrorism or pretense for war, like pearl harbor.

1

The headlines on the television read "Unknown Terror". A pretty news lady spoke in gibberish, she offered no answers. Just recaps of people going crazy and even mass suicides. Silence filled the living room as she spat out one sob story after another, with no mention of a terrorist sect or provoker.

"Change the channel, this woman is annoying," Yuri remarked, "we gotta find out what Bush has to say about all this."

Bush was in the middle of his address to the nation when Evan phoned home. He reached the answering machine for the first time in 2 years. Evan said four words and hung up. He stuffed his pockets with his wallet, cell phone, keys, and lighter. He gathered confused looks from Yuri and Anton as he zipped up his duffel bag filled with clothes and piled a mountain of hoodies and jackets on his air mattress.

"Where are you going?" asked Anton, "they got all the roads blocked off and the roads are clogged with cars bro, you can't even leave town.

Evan didn't want to die sitting down, he felt secure when his body was in motion. Yuri had left the living room and he followed suit by gathering up all his personal belongings.

"Our best bet is to take what we need and head for the mountains on foot", Anton thought aloud, "we'll hit Zimmerman's along the way and grab all the weapons we can."

"We're not going anywhere until we figure out what's going on," replied Yuri from his room.

"I'm telling you brother, no one knows what's up," Anton responded, "the only thing that matters is that people are dying and nobody is safe. I mean come on, Bush was telling us to stay inside and pray to God for survival."

"Wouldn't it make more sense to move away from the area?" Evan asked, "they're definitely gonna hit New York, we got no choice."

"He never said that we were under attack by terrorists," Yuri interrupted, "this could be an alien invasion for all we know. We gotta chill out until we know what's going on."

"I'm going outside," Evan said.

"Hey, don't wander too far," Anton warned.

2

It was three o' clock in the afternoon. Evan, Yuri, and Anton smoked cigarettes on the front porch, entertained by the people that passed by. Evan gazed across the street at a family that proceeded to pack as many useless objects as they possibly could into their hatchback civic. Evan wondered what his family was up to, when the sound of gunshots echoed throughout the air and off the houses down the street. the family across the street didn't flinch.

"Damn man," Anton said, as he looked down the street at the line of cars, "we should be at Zimmerman's right now. We're sitting ducks."

"No one's picking up their phones," Yuri said with disgust as he shut his cell phone, "the phone companies must have shut down too."

"Yeah I tried that," Anton replied, "I must of called my girl and my mom a million times already. I got no answer so I just left the house and started driving. I must of backtracked to the back roads a thousand times just to get here to New Brunswick. It took three hours. I had to past through the cops, just once, to get into this place. I'm pretty sure the reason he didn't shoot me when I drove by was because I'm a marine, and I was dressed like one."

"Lets watch some more TV, no ones going anywhere anyway," Evan said as he flicked his cigarette butt into the street.

Channel after channel was filled with horror stories from around the world. impending doom seemed to be the relating factor in all of the news reports, but nobody knew exactly what was causing the worldwide panic. One scientist claimed a viral agent was being spread throughout the atmosphere causing intense paranoia. Another one spoke of a giant meteor that was set to hit earth in 300 hours. One man went as far to say that the gate to hell had opened up in Hoboken, New Jersey. This brought the first smile of the day to Evan's face.

Yuri lit up a blunt and passed it across the room. Evan figured he might as well get stoned if he could die at any minute, so he grabbed the blunt and took a pull. No one said a word until Anton put the roach of the burnt blunt on the table.

"Well at least we don't gotta worry about peeing clean for our probation officers," Anton joked.

"Yeah, now we gotta worry about getting shot up or robbed," Evan replied.

3

Apparently, Evan's sarcasm aligned with his ability to predict the future, for the front door cried out loud as it swung open. The stoners had forgotten to lock the front door. Yuri instinctively grabbed his lead knuckles that laid upon a shelf above his door. Evan retrieved a hollow steel bar that was designed to be a dumbbell. Anton whipped out his butterfly knife.

The living room was so messy that nobody had an advantage in a situation like an all-out brawl. "The international mob" may have stood a chance on their home ground, but they were just too confused. The living room door flew off the hinges the moment the pair of boots hit it. The police streamed in. Nobody ever remembers this part.

4

Greed exists because we are so dependent on others. We all bought into a system that worships the dollar bill as if it were holy. Money, the new and old measurement of power.

Evan was friends with Anton and Yuri because they were willing to live out in the woods and live off the land. do away with business and the inherent corruption.

"Why would I give a damn about business, if I could support myself?" Anton would say.

Evan thought off ways to become self-reliant. It's a question of what you run out of first, and second, etc. How much energy would it take to power a hydroponic garden built to supply yourself with food continuously? How much black powder would you need to supply yourself with enough bullets to protect yourself for a lifetime?

The lack of gun powder didn't matter in Evan's current situation, for the cops had the element of surprise. The sound of three pairs of handcuffs clicked in harmony.

5

Apparently, some entity had put anti-trust laws into effect, or it's probably more likely that the government had failed to notice its birth. They had seen his demise in fetal form. This legal precedent, like impotence, would inevitably cripple the government. If big businesses were no longer able to buy out the smaller, "mom and pop" stores, or force them out of business, corporate corruption would cease to exist.

Corruption would be seen on a local level, between the gangs and mobs that controlled the businesses. The government would no longer be in the picture. This almost seems worse than the current capitalist America, but to Evan, it was a matter of percentage. One percent rich stands no chance versus the ninety-nine percent poor. Over time it became evident to Evan that laws were borne out of greed, and the legal system was flawed.

"There should be laws created out of love," he would said.

6

Evan, Anton, and Yuri were lucky that the police were conditioned to arrest rather than to kill. The president gave the green light to the cops and military personnel to uphold the law to the fullest extent, and since they had the best weapons, they were more than capable. The government rarely used these weapons for more than intimidation, however, and mostly relied on a classified, injectable drug, called "limbo", which allowed the victim to become complacent in a dreamlike state and to remain there indefinitely.

Evan was stung in the back by a hypodermic needle. A proper definition for the word, limbo, would be "transient death".

7

When you abandon your own memories, your thoughts get recycled. Steve was aware of his predatorial instincts, he just chose to ignore them. What emotion will I suppress today? To whom or to what will I give in to? To Steve it was a bowl of popcorn. it was Jiffy Pop when it could of been a different girl for everyday of the week. Self-loathing has a knack for bottling love.

Society is an organization of pure energy and its translation to money; but what Steve lacked in money, he made up for with pure energy, in a bottle. Any person that obeyed physical law will speak of balance, but on this particular day there was no scale and no balance. No pressure gauge in Steve's brain was capable of measuring this implosion of unfathomable proportions, for Steve just crashed into a telephone pole, and more than his guts spilled out.

8

Blood for a man, oil for a machine. It can be fixed, unless it's totaled. Then, it just ain't worth the money. Steven's body was totaled. It seemed like a lost cause spread all over the road, but God picked up the check for this one. God was, and never was, Evan.

9

"It's like the Matrix!" Evan yelled, as he awoke from death. "I've seen it a over thousand times but now I feel it!"

What Evan sought to describe out loud, and to no one, was somewhat of a "sixth sense", or a perception of a perception. Yes. I just lived and died a life as a different person. Yes. I realize this other life was made possible from a drug intended to kill me. Steven was a "limbo" baby that grew into an adult, as according to plan, but somehow Kevin was able to remember his life through his chaotic suicide.

"I died before. It's nothing special," Evan cried to no one, and in complete darkness.

"Reach to me, in your loudest of ways, with love..."