Escape

As I walked through the faceless crowds of the nightclub, the strobe lights flickered in my eyes, blinding me as I ventured forth to find Danny and Alex. Stumbling through the drunk masses, not only was my vision obscured but the bellowing and beating music made my ears near enough bleed.

Scanning the club for the two of them, I caught the gaze of a mysterious figure, dark-haired and bright-eyed. She sipped what seemed like a pink gin, placing her thick, red lips around the straw as she stared deep into my soul. The crowd and the music silenced and the dancing, drunk masses froze. Through the herd, her green eyes looked me up and down as she smiled at me. To seem unphased, I smiled back and nodded at her, sipping my own glass of whiskey and continuing on the hunt for Danny and Alex.

That was, until, still staring at this newfound beauty of the night, the two of them bumped into me.

“Shit,” I muttered. “There you two are, I’ve been looking for you both for ages now.”

“Searching hard it seems,” Danny remarked, gesturing over to the mysterious woman with a raised eyebrow and a nod.

“You seemed distracted enough,” Alex added. “I’m surprised you haven’t spoken to her yet,”

“I’ve only seen just her,” I replied.

“Might be nice to share some of the attention around for once,” Alex added with a smirk.

"You might get a chance for once," Danny said. I know I’d be talking to her by now, but our guy here seems to be off his game,”

“It’s not a game,” I assured. “It just happens.”

“His ego is almost as big as mine,” Danny replied.

“Stop making it a competition,” I said. “Then you two would actually be able to talk to a woman, for once.”

Ignoring their childish jokes, I walked off from the two of them, guzzling the rest of my whiskey and sauntering over to this mysterious woman.

“I wondered when you were coming over,” she said, still posed and unmoving from her lone chair at the end of the bar.

“I had to keep away the pests first,”

“I can see that,” she giggled. “I’m Melissa”

“Beautiful name, Mellisa. I’m Caleb. Can I get you another drink?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“You may,”

Walking down the bar, I gestured for the bartender. Despite the dark and sleek design of the club, the bartender seemed rugged, with discoloured clothes and a greying beard.

“What can I get you?”

“A pink gin and a whiskey, thanks,”

As he prepared the drinks, I looked around the bar to get more of a feel for the place. Above the bar, a neon sign shone in the dark with the club’s despotic name: “Dance & Drink Till It’s All Over”. It was now the twentieth club we had been to since moving in after the regulations set in a few months back.

“Would you like ice with your drinks?” the bartender asked.

I nodded.

Under the club’s name, another sign shone in bright, neon red: “The End Of The End Of The World Is Near”. By the side of the sign, the TV continued on with its usual reporting. Riots breaking out in Washington, Paris, London, Madrid - all over the world, it was nothing new. If you were lucky, you’d hear about an exciting rebellion or revolution, like last week when Germany’s President was executed by the Volks-Anarchie-Partei. But even that has become commonplace recently. A bit of a bore.

I gripped onto the locket around my neck. Looking down from the visual hysteria, I could see that even in the dark of the club the gold of the heart-shaped necklace still shone brighter than ever. Staring at it, I wondered if what I was doing was worth it. She had given me this before the crash, before the regulations and rations, before the end of the world. She told me it would help me remember her and to keep me on the right track in life. I scoffed.

“Here are your drinks, sir.”

Walking back through the lines of drunkards waiting for their drinks, I could see that Danny and Alex had introduced themselves to Melissa.

“I’m glad to see you’ve met Alex and Danny,” I remarked, staring into their souls with piercing pupils as if there were swords in my eyes.

“I have, they’re characters aren’t they?”

“We told her that story about you when you were in the Academy,” Danny smirked. “Ya know, the failed love poem one?”

With a smack on the back of the head, his grin was soon gone.

“Shut it,” I said.

“Could you not have gotten us some more drinks?” Alex asked.

“Get them yourselves,” I gestured over to the bar.

“Don’t be a pussy,” Danny said as he walked off, pulling Alex along with him.

“Here’s your drink”

“Thank you,” she smiled, sipping her gin with those luscious lips.

“I’m sorry for those two; it’s like taking children to the club.”

“No, no, it’s fine. Danny is funny, at least. And Alex is sweet.”

“I suppose you could say that,”

“And anyway, Danny seems to be the adventurous type. A risk-taker, if you may say so,”

“How’d you mean?”

From her bra beneath her dazzling, red dress, Melissa pulled out a small, square, grey tab of some sort.

“This,” she said, her long, red nails holding the tab out in front of me.

“What is it?”

“‘Escape’ they call it. It's psychedelic, extra-strong,” she said, placing it back beneath her bra and continuing to sip her drink.

A few drinks later, we found ourselves stumbling onto the dance floor through the drunk herd. With my hand on her waist, her eyes invited me inwards. They pulled and pulled, calling me in.

“How drunk are you?” she slurred.

“Just as much as you,” I slurred back.

At that moment, time seemed to freeze once more. She looked at my lips in anticipation, looking back up at me with a fierce look. Closing my eyes, I leaned in.

“Wait,” she said, placing her hand on my chest and holding me back. “Here,”

She pulled out the little, grey tab once more.

“I don’t know if I should,” I said, more so reassuring myself.

I looked back on the last time I had taken a drug, back when the crash happened and I had lost the only thing important to me.

“Your friend seems to be enjoying it,” she glanced over at Danny a few metres away from us, guzzling away at more beer with wide eyes. “He likes playing with the psychedelic fire, don’t you?”

I knew I needed to say no. I could not let myself slip, not like last time. I did not want to find myself in those drug lines that scatter the streets. I looked over to Danny and Alex. Alex had a stern look on his face, still somewhat sober with a face of reason. Danny raised his eyebrows and nodded at me, a wide grin of euphoria on his face.

“It’s the end of the world, after all,” she added.

“Fine,” I gave in, opening my mouth and letting her place the tab on my tongue.

She placed one on her own tongue and smiled at me.

“Come here,” she giggled, grabbing my hair and pulling me in to kiss her.

Pulling back from the kiss, I noticed her bright green eyes turn serpentine. Her dress dazzled and danced in the flashing lights which seemed to flicker more and more. The crowds around me began to breathe and flow; every face blurred and their sounds echoed in my ears. In my gut, I felt the beat of the music bombard my soul as my hairs stood up and electricity danced on my skin. Staring at her as her face began to warp like liquid, she smirked. The colours of the club shone off her soft skin and everything brightened in my vision. As my eyes took in more and more absurd and meaningless perceptions, reality turned to all but colours.

Then I awoke. Sirens rang in the streets. The murmurs of life echoed: chants, gun-shots, fires and screams. I looked around and found myself in an alley-way ditch, laying on the floor next to rows and rows of overflowing bins. My head banged and my vision blurred. Life yet again had no colour. The grey, muted tones of depravity and depression took back over.

Sitting up against the bins, I checked my pockets. Nothing. No phone, no wallet.

“Fuck.” I muttered. “That bloody bitch.”

Leaning back and looking up at the dark, gloomy, cloudy sky, I wondered where I was and how I got here. I clasped the golden heart around my neck, relieved it was still there. Breathing in with a laboured breath, I searched for a ray of light in the grey, cold clouds. Nothing. Looking down at the heart locket in my palm, I studied it to feel the same stab in my heart once more to remind me that I was still unfortunately alive. I read the inscription as if it was the first time I had seen it: Elaine, it read.

Opening it, I looked longingly at her soft, sweet eyes. She still smiled at me as if nothing had ever happened. As if the great crash had never happened, as if the crackdowns never came, as if society had kept running and rations and regulations were all but fiction, and as if she had never sacrificed herself for me.

“Why?” I sobbed. “Why me?”

Holding the locket to my head and hiding from the world, I cried and heard her last words haunt my very being: “Be strong and be brave without me, Cal. We cannot let them win. I love you, my beloved rebel.”

In the corner of my teary eyes, I could see a camera peering over at me. I heard a mechanical buzz, zooming in on me. I knew I needed to move.

Stumbling out of the alley, I found myself in the middle of the concrete jungle, watched over by towering, cold blocks. At one end of the street, crowds gathered and chanted as if their rallying calls could do anything. Riot officers surrounded them and overwhelmed them with water guns, tear gas and smoke bombs.

“Down with the order!” the crowd chanted. “No more control! No more cameras! No more camps! No more corruption!”

I pulled my hood up and walked in the other direction, gripping onto my necklace. On the blinding billboards up above, the hysteria continued. This time: “ANARCHIST RIOTS CALL FOR AN END TO SOCIETY’S LAST HOPE OF THE SOCIAL CREDIT SCORE SYSTEM”. Another board reported: “Five years since the first bombs went off: rations continue and camp populations increase”. On the last board of hysteria: “The anarchist effects of Caleb and Elaine Roberts continue: the state is still blamed for the end of the world.”

I chuckled. Who knew only a couple of well-placed nukes could end the world? By the side of the billboard, a counter read: 3,793,349,846. The nukes only killed about ten million people. The other four billion came from the global hysteria and multi-state mandated rations and crackdowns.

At the end of the street, two lines stretched along the littered and cracked concrete. Above the line on the left read: “STATE FOOD RATIONS”. Above the other line, miles longer, read: “ESCAPE THE CRASH, CHERISH THE HIGH.”

My stomach groaned. I waited for a second and then I joined the long line on the right. Clutching onto the locket of my Elaine and holding it close to my heart, I stood there waiting, waiting, waiting for an escape from the end of the world.