One Last Job

It didn’t take long for Merlin to notice the heart-shaped locket filling the space between his next victim’s breasts. Lousy Larry’s was the final resting place of what their grandparents called “pop culture” and would have been a flourishing pub at that time. He was barely noticeable amidst the pulsing neon lights and poorly-tuned guitars keeping the guests “entertained”. Merlin couldn’t recall the first time he took life away from another human being although he wouldn’t have to suppress these thoughts for much longer, this was his last night on the job. After the devastating flooding of the West Coast in 2033, the bulk of the population sought refuge through the Midwest and stretching into the East Coast. The influx in crime shook the remainder of the country to its core, day after day mountains of bodies were left in the streets as a testimony to something more sinister brewing. By all accords, a government of America’s magnitude should have been able to handle a catastrophe (such as the historical event known as population cleansings of 2033-2035) in its earliest days. It didn’t take long for other countries to identify that a shift in global power was finally starting to materialize, America’s pseudo-superiority had come to an abrupt end.

Lousy Larry’s was a den for some of the most vicious fugitives of the state. The small shack of a pub was plastered with partially working equipment and insects of all sorts. The sound of animatronic waiters echoed throughout the building. Merlin took another swig of the drink placed in front of him before making his way through the crowd towards the young brunette woman leaning against the bar. He fiddled his hand around in the pocket of his navy blue trench coat, reassuring himself that the shiv was exactly where it needed to be. Whispers of rank odors crossed his nose - a mixture of asbestos, bus oil, and a hint of mildewed fabric. The bartender Larry was under a similar contract to his own, although they never spoke about the fine print. The look on Larry’s face eased Merlin, and that was okay, but there still hadn’t been an answer to his question.

Thank yo-you. We’re here all week” the front-man of the tone-deaf ensemble stated before seemingly disappearing into thin air.

I hate those damn holograms.

Merlin thought to himself before finally arriving on the heels of the woman no taller than five feet and two inches. He waved his arm in the air, signaling Larry over for a drink.

“Make it two if the young lady doesn’t mind” a sense of charisma fused itself onto Merlin’s personality (or lack of). He hadn’t made eye contact with her at the time but was sure he had her attention. After a swift inspection of her own, she turned in his direction and asked

“Do you plan on actually looking my way tonight?”

“Absolutely.” He looked at her, then through her at the wall behind her.

The question darted across his mind again. The question led to answers, answers led to the knowledge of self. In the midst of their conversation the woman, Ymir astonished him with a sense of joy and humor. How could a citizen of sector seven be so happy?

Am I engaging the wrong target?

Just another feeling to shake off. Larry interrupted the conversation periodically to refill the shot glasses in front of the pair. Merlin started to lose track of the time before Larry just so happened to break a glass in the least graceful way possible, snapping him back to reality. A group of young men dressed in matching biker jackets crossed the two. The suspected leader stopped and inspected Merlin from head to toe, and back up. He started to laugh uncontrollably before reaching into his pockets and producing a copious amount of yellow bus-shaped pills and shoving them into the mouths of his subordinates. They continued their stride towards the door.

“I’m sure it’s just phem” she said without ever having to make eye contact with the men.

“Phem?” he questioned before asking “Have you ever been to sector one?”

Merlin found himself intentionally slurring his words not to alarm Ymir. While she had actually been ingesting Gin the entire time, his drinks were a combination of water and a few droplets of gin (if Larry was feeling generous, no drinking on the job). A hideous stumble decorated their walk back to Merlin’s car, another piece of the job he unconsciously mastered. Merlin started to think about all the men and women that sat in the passenger seat of his vehicle, he never met Ymir prior to that night but the sense of familiarity was at an all-time high. He was sure plenty of men offered her a plethora of things but never a way out of sector seven. She closed her eyes and could smell the contrast in air quality as they traveled through checkpoint after checkpoint. He could see the feeling of rebirth on her face and had been sure she was thinking “this is the best thing to ever happen to me”. Larry had never misdirected him in the ten years of their indentured partnership.

After the floods of 2033, the rich only became richer and the same vice versa. The majority of the elite would continue to control the masses as they were instructed: media manipulation, alliances and double-crosses, or war. However, a select few in the group of multi-billionaires decided to press human evolution forward on their own terms. On a summer day so hot that the submerged skyscrapers to the west winced under its scorch, a group of archeologists working in Egypt unearthed what they believed was “the fountain of youth”. As the men and women stood before an other-worldly power they suspected to find a devilish warning or collapsing walls. Instead what they discovered was no reason not to extract the secret to everlasting life. While the scholars and intellectuals summoned to the site seemed confident, once the samples were analyzed, these beliefs were quickly altered.

Six-year-long testing of the liquid samples concretely communicated one thing to the men and women in lab coats - the folktales weren’t indicating an everlasting era of flesh but one’s spirit. The elixir could provide infinite life but just like any other mortal, the body would decompose. Year after year billionaires engineered experiments and observations to test the frontiers of the new human experience. Eventually, the secret was exposed. Without damaging the vessel itself the soul of a human would be relinquished in an instantaneous manner, a practice that was perfected by the Ancient Egyptians.

“The more additions to your flesh suit collection, the longer your time on this earth.”

Merlin often repeated to himself while scoping Lousy Larry’s for new candidates.

Unfortunate women like Ymir were the easiest targets. People like her wouldn’t be remembered nor mourned over. Most of all she had no idea what she truly wanted out of life, only the desire to uncover a way out of her current predicament. Little did she know the man opening the door to the grandest building in all of sector one would offer her a way out. As the night slowed to an abrupt end, Merlin watched as Ymir made herself more comfortable and sat on the edge of his bed. She invited him closer. He thought to himself a final time:

She seems more alive than anybody I’ve ever met. Larry had to be wrong.

She inched closer to him, the feeling of goosebumps invaded the space between the two. “Thank you for this, I’m glad to inform you that you are a suitable candidate.” Her lips grazed Merlin’s ear lobes and immediately he understood one thing. His hesitance would be his demise. Ymir reached her hand under the slummy-looking white blouse and gripped the same weapon he was so reluctant to use. She raised the shiv to her ear. Merlin could feel her hand tighten down on his shoulder in anticipation of the killing blow. For Merlin, his entire existence became clear momentarily, all of his memories returned with a sense of stunning vividness. At last, he remembered her face. His first victim. Ymir reached around and used her right hand to press the shiv into the corner of his left eye, creating a pressure that was excruciating, nauseating, and finally relieving. Merlin’s lifeless body slumped across the bed. She bent over and fought the sensation of vomit churning up her throat. Her hands started to shake violently as she sat next to a dead man and then she received a call, the locket between her breasts started to emit a vibration.

How was it? Did he put up a fight?”

Ymir froze, glanced over, and noticed the slightest of smiles on the dead man’s face. It took every ounce of will she had not to start crying hysterically. No time for pity now, this was her ticket out of sector seven.

“No Larry, he was the perfect candidate”