SANCTION

“…there will be casualties…up to each of you to save the remaining human race… SANCTION will grant you immunity...continue initiating demands of economic order…self-suppression to preserve the last of the revolutionary gifts as humanity…far-reaching dimensions of our failures have manifested…SANCTION is your final choice…reinvention lies within your cooperation and your active participation is required for inclusion into the New World…Seek the LIFE STAR…”

Mira…

It’s been 8 days since the Apocalypse started. Mum and dad went out to search for food last night and never came back. All I have left of my mum is her heart-shaped locket. I woke up this morning and Kyisha is gone too. I’m too scared to go out alone. I see people sometimes, but I’m too scared to move or call out to them. I don’t want to die. I just want to go home.

Andrea…

Day 19. The SANCTION circle overhead in helicopters, watching us like prey. It has been two days since we found anything worth hunting. Everything has been partially devoured by what we once assumed were wild animals, its meat filled with maggots. Our own flesh and lungs burn as the fallout lingers, decaying the air. Most of us have developed some form of lesions, bloody and raw, oozing pus and insatiable discomfort. Taste has been reduced to grit and burning carcasses. Retched noises scream from loudspeakers perched high in militant towers that practically appeared overnight, animals and people alike, screaming, crying, laughing demonically, all piercing our ears for eternity even if we find solace from this god-forsaken place.

I had been less than a block from the school when I heard the helicopter hurdling towards the ground, its engine screaming as it failed, the heaviness of its body unable to withstand gravity forcing it downward into the ground, towards the school. I ran harder and faster until I was knocked backwards by the crash and an unbelievably heavy object pressed against me. An elderly man, who I came to know as Nick, stood, helping me to my feet as I screamed, running again, towards the school, towards Jayce. This fragile man, covered in soot, leaned into me as he passed, croaking “Go, go back, they’re gone, not here…”. I tried to pull away and make my way into that burning building, but this man’s hand wrapped around my wrist and for his age and state of wellness, he held on with a relentless, steel grip. I scratched and clawed at him, my eyes almost bursting from their sockets, begging to go find my boy until he pulled his face to mine, his grey eyes gleaming in the blaze surrounding us, his voice pleading and sweet. “Your boy is safe dear. Come with me, I will take you to him!” His words pierced the chaos, and I studied his eyes as the ground began to shake beneath our feet. Earthquake! “Run!” Disoriented and panicked, people pushed through one another, running aimlessly. We rounded the street corner and came to a movie theatre. Around the back side we pushed through the door and a woman crouching down behind a desk, named Annia, stood, carrying two children, one, my Jayce.

An explosion erupted knocking us against one another as the ceiling began crumbling, threatening to crush us. Nick moved quickly, grabbing the boys from Annia, and dashing for the door. Annia and I intended to follow until a luminous dark shadow poured into the room, halting us in our tracks. Smoke surrounded the figure, its presence ominous and unsettling. An abnormally tall figure, probably 8 feet or more, loomed in the doorway, his face disfigured, flesh dangling from his corpse like shredded lunch meat. But his eyes… deep set black sockets surrounding bulging dirty red iris’s around elongated black pupils. Pieces of metal protruded from under his dangling flesh like under armor. It leaned intently, hovering over us, his terrifying figure staring into our very souls. His breathing labored and heavy, pushed against us. I suddenly felt weaker, exhausted as I felt my will to fight his insistent pull, slip away. I watched Kyisha’s eyes roll back into her head, glossing over a bright white as her mouth gaped open. My own eyes began to pull backwards, and I lost consciousness. Jayce!

27 Years Later…

Mira...

I think about Kyisha all the time as if I can still feel her spirit, her energy. I’ve looked for her but never had any luck. I don’t remember much about my childhood, just that Kyisha was there. My parents and I were in an accident when I was young. The doctor told me they were killed, and I was sent to a home. The only thing I have left is my mum’s locket. A picture of her and my dad is in it, arms around each other, grinning. It’s a rather beautiful photo, one that I cherish. My husband, Jayce, he’s the only other person I have in the world. We met a few years ago and it was like proper magnetism. We’re soulmates, no doubt about it.

…

“Just a small coffee to go, please. Thanks.”

[Doorbell chimes]

“Excuse me…Mira?”

My blood ran cold.

“Kyisha?”

…

“Well, are you going to say anything or are you just going to stare at me?”

“I’ve thought about you every day! Oh, I’ve missed you so much, Kyisha. How did you find me?”

“It took some work, but nothing that you weren’t worth. Look, I can’t stay but a moment, but I had to see you. Let’s talk over dinner, yeah?”

“Yes, please! Dinner at my flat tonight? You can meet my husband, Jayce. I’m picking him up from the airport in about a few hours.”

“Wonderful, I’ll see you there.”

Kyisha began to gather her things and head for the door.

“Kyisha, don’t be silly! You can’t possibly be so good as to know where my flat is. Here, take my address. I’d hate to miss any more time with you.”

Kyisha turned on her heel, a silly smirk across her face, taking the napkin from Mira.

“See you at 8?”

“Perfect.”

Kyisha swung open the café door and stalked back into the busy street.

…

“Jayce! Over here!” I shout, waving him over with a smile. He embraces me briefly before loading his things into the car.

“I certainly want to hear all about your trip, though I have some news and its rather wild. Let’s talk on the way home though, yeah? We’re having a guest this evening.”

Jayce looked back at me with a curious smirk across his lips.

“Alright, tell me more.”

…

Mira and Kyisha went back and forth, asking and answering questions.

“Now tell me when…”

Buzz! Buzz! The doorbell broke her concentration.

“I’ll get it,” Jayce spoke up.

“Oh, dear God!”

“Jayce, who is it dear?”

Mira and Kyisha, not far behind, reach the hallway to see Jayce embracing two strangers, his head buried between their shoulders.

“Jayce, is everything alright? Who is it?”

As Jayce lifted his head, Mira felt her blood run cold for the second time today.

“This is my mum and Nick. He’s pretty much my dad, but not.”

Mira looked at Jayce puzzled but smiled.

“Oh! Well, welcome! Come in, we were just about to sit down to dinner. Are you hungry?”

“How nice of you, yes, please!”

“Mum, so good to see you!”

Jayce told me his mother died when he was young, just like mine. Yet here she was, in my living room. Something was not right here. First Kyisha and now Jayce’s mum? And the dad, but not dad, Nick? Something very strange is happening here…

…

Kyisha lightly tapped her glass. “I’d like to call a toast to family, friends, and second chances!”

Dinner proceeds with laughter, wine, and plenty of food to go around. The television plays quietly in the background until an alarm sounds. At first it is almost inaudible, low-frequency and ominous but not so noticeable. Within moments there are grinding noises, as if the infrastructure of the very world was buckling.

Am I the only one hearing this, Mira thought?

Without warning the screeching and hair-raising decibels chimed in nearly deafening her. Her hands clawing at the side of her head as the sounds of Armageddon took over her inner subconscious.

I can’t breathe. The noise is so loud I can’t breathe.

She manages to lift her head, but she is alone.

Beyond the noises, which she now not only hears but sees, her vision becomes blurry. Certainly, her eyes will bleed as her nose is beginning to. She screams, though she can’t hear herself, as she is only able to feel her lungs burning as the exasperated gasps of air fill them and then burst, filling her throat with shards of glass.

Their shadows circle her, as she feels their presence close in. She finds Jayce’s shoes next to her chair. Mira reaches for him, but his skin is cold, armored, sleek. She yanks her hand away and lifts her head, but the disfigured metallic ghoul Mira sees before her is not her husband Jayce. Another burst of air rises from her lungs but is cut short as she is knocked to the floor.

…

“…will save you from this delusional self-proclaimed institution…initiating demands of economic order and self-suppression to preserve our revolutionary gifts… dimensions of our failures have manifested...reinvention lies within your cooperation…Seek the LIFE STAR”

Where have I heard this before?

My eyes felt as if they had been sewn shut as I tried to peel them open to the sound of the loudspeaker, yet unable to focus on anything but the persistent ringing in my ears. The floor beneath me was cold and hard. Jayce! Why had his own body been so cold? I slowly recalled how I initially lost consciousness. Jayce had knocked me to the floor. Where am I? What is happening? As if my own thoughts were a que, two tall steel doors opened across from me. The figures that emerged were neither human nor animal but some resemblance.

“Naïve Mira…I am Dr. Sancticii, and this is my wife Annia. You have something I need.”

“What could I possibly have that you want?”

His evil grin was discouraging. I could feel his eyes glaring at my chest as he slowly approached me.

“My necklace?”

“That precious heart-shaped locket of yours holds the key to evolution. A resource so valuable that if ever found in the wrong hand could lead to the destruction of humanity.”

He began to laugh with a potency that filled my stomach with angst. I grasped for the necklace.

“Be careful, you imbecile! You are unworthy to hold such a delicate source of nature…now, give it up!”

Those same steel doors opened, and my brain has never felt so unsure, my life never so threatened.

Jayce. His mother. Nick. And Kyisha.

Yet these weren’t the family and friend I knew… these were half metallic, half disfigured, mutated carcasses.

I felt a shock pass through my body and every memory of that horrid Armageddon flooded back to me.

The others proceeded to hold me down as Jayce removed my necklace.

“A LIFE STAR has five points and with the help of my wife and your four friends here, our latest generation of AI bots, the Reb0rn… you my dear will be the ultimate sacrifice for a New World. Your necklace holds the power of eternal life, you see. Combined with technology that will allow them to destroy anything in their path, along with the eternity serum, we, the SANCTION have taken the opportunity to use a rather decrepit resource, the dead… and turn it into quite an invaluable one. With the power of eternal life in your precious locket, the only reason you even survived as a child… he growled, angrily.

This locket was the only reason I was alive!

“Now Mira, you can also be given eternal life.”

His eyes turned black.

“Are you worth, REBIRTH?”