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I heard the loud metal clang reverberate through the empty hallway. Finally, another living being within a square mile. My mouth watered until it stung. Maybe I’d be fed today.

The footsteps paced slowly, too slowly for my malnourished body. I blinked back the tears quickly. I couldn’t afford to lose any water from my body.

I crawled towards the invisible barrier, not sure where it actually was, but hoping I’d get close enough to peer down the hallway and see my visitor. I stuck my hand out ahead of me, feeling for the light shock, before I’d step forward. Before I knew it, I had singed the fingerprint off of my middle finger. But the pain only registered for a moment. My guest had arrived.

A small woman stood on the opposite side of the electric current. Her face was young but she carried an air of wisdom about her that radiated intensely from her eyes.

“Victor,” she exclaimed, “my long lost brother.” Her voice was alive and exuberant, but her face remained emotionless, blank. The disconnect startled me even more than her claim.

“It’s been far too long,” she continued, “Guards, please allow me hold his hands once more. I miss him so much.”
She never took her eyes off of me.

I heard the alarm sound through the hallway and the generator wind down. There was no visible way to tell if the shield had come down, but she didn’t seem to worry. She picked up her skirts and walked right into my cell, embracing me without a moment’s hesitation.

“How many years has it been?” she continued, loudly, “I have so much to tell you!”

It became clear to me that her words were not for me.

She sat on the stacked newspapers I used as a bed and patted the space beside her, her gaze never once leaving mine. It was almost as though she were trying to connect through telepathy or speak to my mind directly, if that sort of thing existed.

She pulled out a pastry from her purse and handed it to me, which I nearly inhaled.

“Thank you,” I managed to say through mouthfuls, “Thank you.”

She leaned over and wrapped her small arms around me.

“You poor child,” she said, “They don’t feed you here!”

Her embrace was awkward; she leaned over a little too far. Her right arm seemed to be reaching for the opposing wall. When she withdrew I saw a small remote in her hands.

I heard a small beep. Then another, and then a series of rapid beeps coming from every which way. I looked every where for the source of that sound.

The small woman grabbed my hand and pulled me with extraordinary strength. We were outside before the building exploded. I couldn’t explain how we had gotten outside so quickly and completely unharmed, seeing as how my cell was in the center of the building and we’d have had to go through rooms upon rooms as well as a maze of hallways to exit.

I’d conceded to the fact that I was dreaming and sprinted along with a new enthusiasm. This should be fun. I loved these kinds of dreams.

It was near sunset. We stopped in the middle of the woods to a black rounded hovercraft. She forced me into the passenger seat and hopped in, not waiting for us to settle before she sped off.

“We don’t have a lot of light left,” she explained, “hopefully we’ll get to DC before the Winged Rats come out. They’re especially vicious around these parts.”

“So who are you?” I dared ask.

“My name is Eliana. The World Bank has something they stole from me and want it back. It’s guarded by an unique alarm and I know that you’re a good techy, so I need your help.”

So, it seemed my reputation precedes me. Not a lot of people knew about the Windham Chip Project. The few who did, didn’t like it at all. I myself hated doing it. Not because it betrayed my government or because of morals.. But because it killed the entirety of my family.

“What if I don’t want to help?” I asked quietly.

“That’s not up to you,” She said simply. For a moment I had I thought I was free. But once again, I’d gone from prison to prison. I’d been transferred between prisons my entire life. Be it school, church, employment, or actual incarceration.
Nightfall was settling quickly. The first of the Winged Rats began to poke their heads out. The shrill chirps resonating from their guts was mind numbing. Eliana grabbed a set of sound-canceling headphones and tossed them at me. Then grabbed a pair for herself.

“Brace yourself,” she said through the microphone, and charged through the sky at full speed.

All I could see was streaks of light all around the craft. Something smashed against the windshield and splattered a mess of black. Eliana turned on the Wash n’ Wipe without even a blink. A long cord of intestines began to tangle with the wipers. The single pastry I ate was threatening to free itself.

The craft spiraled upside down and downside up, dodging the 5 ft long rats. There was an exhilarated glimmer in her eyes. It was the first bit of emotion I saw on her face since I’d met her.

“Holy crap!” she exclaimed.

I turned to see the flashing red and blue lights of police crafts a good 10 miles away, but they were cutting close. I reminded myself that this was a dream. I’d wake up to my prison guard’s abuse, be forced into lewd sexual acts, taunted with food, kicked around, and then put to labor. No, this was a much better reality. If only I could stay in it.

Eliana flew upwards, quickly flipped upside down and drove into the opposite direction, towards the cops. Before they could react she roller-coastered into a valley overridden with Winged Rats and shut down, turning off the lights. They immediately flocked to the bloodstain of their splattered brother in our windshield. They began eating at the remaining mangled flesh and licking the glass.

“How are you not afraid of them?” I asked.

She blinked at me, “They’re out there. I’m in here. Why should I worry?”

A sudden realization hit me.

“Where are all the people?” I asked. I hadn’t seen residential neighborhoods in our entire flight.

“You’ve been in prison what, 10 years?”

“12.”

“Everyone lives in pods underground now.”

“Why?”

“Why not? Everyone lives from home.”

“They don’t socialize? They don’t work?”

“Sure. That’s what the Internet is for.”

“What about food? And shopping?”

“The airforce makes monthly deliveries for whatever people order off the web, from underground city to underground city. The rise of rabid animals growing to these monstrous sizes couldn’t be controlled.”

I held my head with my hands. “What the hell happened?” I muttered.

“Human Growth Hormone. It was in everything we ate. It was in everything we excreted. It was in the water, and it was never treated out. You should see the size of the roaches in New York.”

A fight broke between several of the winged rats sitting on op of our craft. Eliana started the vehicle, startling them off, and began to elevate.

“Those cops should be gone by now. We’re only two hours away. In the mean time, read up on this alarm system.”

She tossed a manila envelop at me.

“It shouldn’t be too hard to figure out.”