A World Long Since Dead

Chapter 6: Adventure

The gentle sunlight of mid-morning slowly roused the exhausted Mason. His second night out on his own was more comfortable than the first, but not by a whole lot.

“Do you think it was him?” A husky male voice spoke in low tones.

Mason recognised his voice as belonging to the longcoat-wearing man from yesterday.

“Yes. It must have been.” Jade answered.

“So, he has the watch? Why can’t we just take it now?” the man replied.

“Tyran, I told you, it won’t work like that. We need him as well. He trusts me, just give me a little more time. He’s waking up, you better get out of here, he shouldn’t see you!”

“Hey!” Jade greeted Mason with an overly cheery grin.

“Hey!” he mumbled in reply, still groggy from his much-needed rest. “Were you saying something just now?”

“Hmm? No? Must have been someone out in the hall?”

“Anyway, what say we go down to techarcana and play some vid con? I bet you 20 credits I can beat your score in any game you can pick!”

“Even KobraKommandos? No way! You might as well give me the 20 credits now!” Mason replied.

“Let’s go then!” Jade chirped.

“Uh, yeah, just, give me a few minutes, I’m not, uh… fully dressed…”

“Oh what, don’t tell me you’re shy? Fine, I’ll meet you outside in five minutes. Maybe grab a shower and some new clothes too, you still smell like a hobo.”

“Uh, yeah, a shower, right!” Upon hearing the word, he couldn’t help but glance at Jade’s firm, muscled body, but he averted his gaze before she noticed. Or so he thought.

Mason sat pensively as they rode the maglev car into the city.

The new clothes he was issued were simple khaki slacks and a white cotton shirt, but they felt like a thousand dollar suit after being stuck in his old threads for so long.

His hands caressed the watch in his pocket gently.

What was it that granted him this power?

Did his grandfather know about it? Is that why he gave him the watch on his 18th birthday? Why didn’t he use it himself? Or maybe he had?

Mason had so many questions, so few answers.

He thought of telling Jade what had happened, but reconsidered. She wouldn’t believe him, she couldn’t. She would think he was insane, and she was the only friend he had left now, he couldn’t lose her too…

The maglev train screeched to a halt, metal squealing against metal until finally there was silence.

The doors opened, and Mace and Jade stepped out into the deserted back streets of District 4.

Mace wondered why she hadn’t said anything on the trip over.

Maybe she was just respecting his silence? He wondered.

The sound of chattering people and thundering bass music filled Mason’s ears.

He couldn’t wait to play some vid-con games, and take his mind off of all this craziness.

“Red-Headed Bitch!” A gruff voice rang out.

“Where is my fucking money?”

“Oh hell” Jade muttered under her breath, as three of the biggest thugs Mason had ever seen emerged from a side street.

These guys made Bryce look like a choir boy, and not only that, they were armed.

The eloquent gentleman that had called out to Jade was a hulking behemoth, heavyset, with a paunch that strained his filthy yellow-streaked cotton wife-beater shirt. He was carrying a length of steel rebar, with duct tape wrapped around the handle, not that he needed a weapon with his bulk. His friend next to him was a heavily tattooed muscular man with a mohawk, and in his hands, glinted a shiv with a similarly taped handle.

The last thug, a tall, gaunt skeleton of a man, seemed less threatening, and simply stood clutching a bottle of vino. It wasn’t clear if he was intending to use it as a weapon or drink it, but Mason imagined he was equally likely to do both.

“Mason! Run!” Jade shouted and Mace panicked and took off.

As he rounded the corner, he realised, to his horror, that Jade wasn’t with him.

Had she been caught? Had she stayed behind?

Mace was no hero, but he was still a man, he had to do something!

Then a flash of realisation hit him: The Watch!

He fished through his pocket in desperation, finding the metal device after a few moments of frantic searching, and pressing the protruding button.

Once again, Mason’s world shattered and was made whole again.

This time, however, Mason felt like he had more control of the experience.

He could see not just shapes and colours, but the outline of buildings, and smaller details that it had taken him several minutes to make out the last time he had used the watch.

Shaking his head to try to clear the lingering brain fog, Mason ran back to where he had left Jade.

She was backed into a corner, her face bloodied and bleeding.

The knife-wielding tattooed man advanced on her, but with a mighty roundhouse kick, she sent him to the floor.

He twitched, once, twice, then stopped moving entirely.

Behind him, the heavyset thug swung his rebar. Jade blocked it, but it struck her arm, hard. Mace heard the crack of steel against bone and winced vicariously as Jade roared.

The redheaded girl, despite her injured arm, followed up her block with her other hand and launched a jab to the thugs face.

The thug chortled, blood spilling from his mouth as he laughed without a care.

Despite being invisible, Mace was afraid.

This wasn’t KobraKommandos, this was real! He could… he could die here!

He pushed his fear to the back of his mind. Casting around for anything to use as a weapon, he spied a masonry brick lying idle upon the ground.

He grabbed the hefty brick and rushed forward, slamming it into the back of the heavy set thugs head.

“Ugh! Fuuuckk” He roared and collapsed to his knees.

“What the fuck was that?” He slurred his words, clutching the back of his head.

“I don’t know, someone must have thrown something from up there?” The third man said, clutching his bottle as a weapon now and peering into the upper floors of the surrounding buildings.

Now fired up with righteous anger, Mason charged the smaller man and rammed his knee into his groin with all the force he could muster.

“Aieeee!” He screamed, collapsing to the floor like a house of cards.

Mace was no Bruce Li, but a shot like that will floor any man.

The heavyset thug rose to his feet again and turned toward Mason, shouting and swinging his rebar blindly.

“What the hell is going on? Who’s out there? You fucking coward, come out and fight me!”

Jade jumped on top of him, grabbing him around the neck and trying to throttle him.

“Ugh! Bitch!” He roared, dropping his weapon in an attempt to drag the redhead free.

Seeing his opportunity, Mason grabbed the rebar and raised it high, before bringing it down in a crashing blow to the thugs head.

“Unnngh!” He groaned and went down again, this time for good.

Jade climbed off of him as he fell, unconscious to the ground.

Mace dropped the rebar in shock. He had never hurt anyone like this before. The weapon skittered to the concrete floor and rolled toward the thug, still coated in thin rivulets of his blood.

“Mason??” Jade said, with trepidation in her voice.

“Jade?” He replied, wondering if she could hear him, even if she couldn’t see him.

She didn’t answer, but looked around furtively, searching.

Mace pressed the silver button on the watch once again, hoping that a second press would return him to normal.

Unlike the last time in Elysium, where panic had overcome him, this time the moment he pressed the button Mason’s vision began to melt like a Salvador Dali painting.

The world became blurred, indistinct, and then, with a start, Mason saw it.

The figure of a man, or… was it a man?

It was standing in the direction Mace had just walked from, watching.

The figure was tall, thin, and wearing a matt black robe.

As Mason continued to stare, he noticed that the figures proportions were all off.

The figure was human like, but couldn’t be human.

The waist was too thin, the arms too long.

Then Mason noticed it’s face.

Or rather, what should have been a face.

As Mason’s vision struggled to focus on the figure, he could see only an oval shaped darkness, a void, where a face should have been.

Mason felt a primal fear grow in the pit of his stomach, a dread, a foreboding, something inside him knew that this thing, whatever it was… was evil.

Then it was gone.

The colours returned to normal, and despite a headache and some fatigue, Mason felt fine.

“Mace!” Jade shouted.

“What the fuck??”

“Jade, I…”

Their conversation was interrupted by one of the comatose bodies on the ground moaning loudly.

“Not here.” Jade whispered.

“I know a place, come with me”.

Jade and Mason ran, driven by fear and adrenaline, through back streets and dark alleys, their thoughts of playing holoCon games long gone.

Life had now become their adventure.

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