Last Edited: 11/21/2010
Word count: 1739
John Doe
ran down the alley, worriedly throwing glances over his shoulder. The men were still following him, the shadows
masking their faces. He stopped short,
realizing that he had run into a dead end.
He was surrounded.
Perfect, he thought.
“List’n,
bud,” the leader of his three assailants said in a thick Brooklyn accent,
brandishing his knife threateningly, “we don’t want no trouble. Now, just hand us y’ wallet, an’ no one has
t’—”
John chose
that time to strike. He lashed out at
the man’s hand with a roundhouse kick, sending the knife flying free. With one swift motion, he caught it and threw
it into the right arm of the next armed attacker. After a quick kick to the chest to fell the
stunned first man, he turned to the second.
The man clutched his arm, trying to stifle the bleeding. “I’ll kill you, you bastard!” he
growled. John simply sidestepped as he
lunged past. He then turned to the third
attacker, who had used his friend’s attack as a distraction. John ducked down as the mugger approached,
tossing the man over his shoulder and hard onto his back. After he dispatched the second man with a
quick uppercut, he turned back to the third man, still gasping for air on the
ground.
“Don’t mess
with me again,” he told the man, bringing his foot down on his face. He heard a crunch, felt the man’s nose break
beneath his shoe. Then, all three men
confined to the ground, he simply left the alley.
He pulled
out his cell phone as he left, speed-dialing a number. “Hello, Mr. Doe.” A faint British accent could be heard within
the synthesized voice.
“I’m not
satisfied, Storm,” John said. “Really,
three guys with knives? At least give
them guns next time.”
“I’m sorry,
Mr. Doe,” Storm said. “I’ll try harder
next time.”
“Yeah, you
better. I’m really starting to get
bored. There’s no challenge
anymore. I want to be put in a situation
where I can’t handle it on my own. I
want to have to call you.”
“I
understand, Mr. Doe. Do you want that
now?”
“Nah, I’m
not up to that right now. I think I’m
gonna head home. Let my girl know that
I’m on my way.”
“Which one,
Mr. Doe?”
John
paused, thinking. “I’m feeling redhead
today. Let’s go with Clarissa.”
“As you
wish, Mr. Doe.” Storm responded, disconnecting.
John
snapped the phone shut, already wondering if he should have gone with Allison
instead. Or maybe a new girl
altogether. It was getting so hard to
choose.
He stared
down at the numbers on his phone’s screen.
Two hours left. Two hours
until…until what? He couldn’t, for the
life of him, remember. But Storm would
remind him when the time came. Storm was
always reliable like that.
He scanned
the streets for his Cadillac. He knew it
was around somewhere. Storm would have
sent it. He found it quickly, of
course. He set his phone into its holder
as he slipped behind the familiar wheel.
“I assume you’ve got a good course for me,” he said.
“Of course, Mr. Doe,” Storm said. “I’m sure you’ll find it quite to your liking.”
John nodded. “Good, good. Oh, one more thing—make sure Allison is there when I get back, too.
“Both of them, Mr. Doe?”
He shrugged. “Why not?”
“As you wish."
He checked the route. It was a long one that would take him about an hour out of his way. There were quite a few sharp turns, and he was sure to be spotted by the cops at some point. “Good job, Storm,” he said. Storm always picked a great route for him that made sure that driving was never boring.
“Thank you, Mr. Doe. Shall we begin?”
John
stomped down on the gas. The Cadillac
shot off, roaring down the streets.
“Let’s go, Storm,” he grinned. It
was simple to handle the course. It had
gotten easy a long time ago. The
challenge now came from the car chases.
He checked the speedometer, and then the GPS system. He was a good thirty miles over the speed
limit at this point, and there was a police cruiser not too far ahead. The fun was about to start.
He checked
his rearview mirror a few seconds after he passed. Sure enough, the lights had started up. The siren started blaring. He felt the familiar surge of adrenaline that
had been so long absent as he accelerated to an even faster speed. Soon, he had half a dozen squad cars on his
tail. He led them around for a while,
skillfully dodging cars, always staying just one step ahead of them. “Storm,” he said after a while, “you’ve got
the weapons installed, right?”
“Affirmative,”
the phone replied.
“All right,
good. Let’s take care of this
nuisance.” He punched a button, glancing
back to watch the trunk open slightly.
Tendrils of smoke looped around as a rocket fired, spiraling into the
lead cruiser. The other cruisers made a
valiant effort to avoid the carnage of the lead car’s wreck, but were
ultimately unsuccessful.
John
grinned. “Well, that was fun, wasn’t it,
Storm?”
“Mr. Doe,”
Storm said, “sometimes I worry about your behavior.”
“Since when
are you allowed to talk back to me?” he growled.
“I’m sorry,
Mr. Doe. I’m merely observing.”
“Clarissa
and Allison are waiting, right?”
“Yes, Mr.
Doe.”
John
nodded. “Good. Hurry back.
We don’t want to keep them waiting, do we?”
“Mr. Doe, I
should inform you that you only have half an hour left. Your insistence on fancy car chases has
seriously cut your time back.”
“Remind me
Storm, half an hour until what?”
“Until your
time is up, of course,” Storm replied.
“Time for
what?” he asked. “I can’t remember these
things, Storm. That’s why I’ve got you.”
“Can you
honestly not remember, Mr. Doe?” the phone asked.
“No
clue. Should I?”
Storm was
silent for a while. “This is more
serious than I realized,” he said quietly.
“Mr. Doe, I’m really starting to worry about you.”
“Well,
don’t,” he growled at the phone. “I’m
really starting to consider turning you off.”
“I am not
sure that would be a bad idea,” Storm replied.
John shook
his head, his idle threat falling through.
“Just…just shut up, Storm. Take
me home.”
After an
awkward, silent drive, they pulled up to John’s mansion. It was everything John could have hoped for:
great location, ornate, full of all sorts of fun little toys—he really couldn’t
do much better. He had tried.
Clarissa
emerged from the front door. “Welcome
home, Baby,” she said, welcoming him with a kiss. Something, though, felt just a little bit off
to John. Acting solely on intuition, he
shoved her away. In her hand was the
dagger she had been about to plunge into his back. Of course, he was both stronger and faster
than her. He sprang forward, disarmed
her, and used the dagger to slit her throat.
“Nice one, Storm,” he said, grinning.
“Really clever. I’m really
regretting choosing Clarissa now. I’ll
miss her.” He held the dagger at ready,
expertly throwing it into Allison’s heart as she emerged from the house. “Allison, too.”
“Do you
really feel no regret?” Storm asked.
“For
what? For Clarissa and Allison? Sure, I’ll really miss them. But do you think you could get me another
girl instead, now?”
“I’m afraid
not, Mr. Doe. Your time has run
out. It’s time for you to wake up.”
John tilted
his head. “Wake up? What do you mean, Storm?”
“Exactly
what I said. You need to wake up.”
He
chuckled. “Well, Storm, as you can
clearly see, I’m not sleeping. I have no
clue what you’re talking about.”
“Mr. Doe,”
Storm responded, “if you are unable to wake up on your own, I’m afraid that
I’ll have to jolt you awake myself.”
“W—what are
you talking about?” John demanded.
“What’s going on?” Huge, rhythmic
gusts of wind started echoing through the streets. John turned to see a giant beast landing on
the roof of his house. It folded its
leather wings back, snorting smoke out its nostrils as it glared at him.
“A
dragon? Storm, what the hell are you
doing?”
“I’m sorry,
Mr. Doe,” Storm said. “But it’s for your
own good.”
*
Dr. Kyle
Strohm gave a heavy sigh as he pushed his chair back from the desk. “How’d it go?” Dr. Ford asked him as he
flipped his headset up.
“He should
be awake any second now. I created a
dragon, and there’s no way he’s creative enough to beat something like
that.” He sighed. “He’s not a very imaginative person.”
“And what
about his behavior? I heard you say
something about it worrying you.”
Dr. Strohm
nodded. “His lifestyle when he’s in the
Grid is, at best, reckless. He doesn’t
seem to realize that actions have consequences anymore. And now that we’ve had problems awakening
him….”
“That’s the
third one just in this month,” Dr. Ford sighed.
“All right, what do you suggest?”
“Well,
halving his time inside the grid, for one thing. But before that, a full suspension for a
month. He needs time to readjust to
reality.”
A man lying
on a cot nearby stirred. “Get ready to
restrain him,” Dr. Ford said. Strohm
nodded, grabbing the man’s legs seconds before he started thrashing. The illusion of death wasn’t exactly
something that would bring you out of the grid calmly.
The man’s
eyes snapped open. “Welcome back to
reality, Mr. Doe,” Dr. Strohm said
John Doe
glanced around. “Where…where am I? What did you do to me?” he demanded. A light finally came to his eyes as he
realized what had happened. “No! No, I’m not ready yet! Send me back, you bastards! Send me back!”
“Mr. Doe,
I’m afraid you won’t be going back for a while.
Your behavior has been judged to be too unstable. You’ve received a one-month suspension and a
permanent halving of your time.”
“No!” John
Doe wailed. “Please! Please, just send me back!” He swung out at Dr. Ford. “Send me back, damn you! I’m not done yet!”
Dr. Ford
nodded and pressed a button at his waist.
In moments, security guards had entered the room, restraining John Doe
as he thrashed about. “Send me back!” he
continued to wail as they dragged him from the room. “Send me back!”
