The Last Seasons (Chapter 4 Continuation)

Incognito

Andrew looked up at the sky where the stars shined like frozen fire flies. Things had sure changed since the day he had killed his mom. No longer was he the training wheel in the family, but he was now the pedal that moved things forward, and the one who steered. His dad was so easy to manipulate that it was actually boring. He would ask Andrew if he wanted anything and Andrew would pretend that he didn’t, only to pull his strings to get him something far more expensive. And tonight he had gotten his dad to take a much needed overnight vacation with his friends. His dad didn’t like to go out much after the passing of Andrew’s mom, but Andrew made sure that he took this night off. Meanwhile his father would think that he was out studying somewhere like Andrew had told him.

Andrew heard a honk and saw Sam waving to him from his truck. He jogged over the moon lit grass toward it, pulling his gas mask on.

“Nice costume. Ready to own the night?” Sam said as Andrew buckled himself in.

“I am. But I won’t get high out go my mind tonight.” Actually, Andrew never got high at all. It was much more fun to watch everyone else lose their minds.

“More chemicals for me then," Sam said, navigating off.

“Where are you going to park?” Andrew said.

Sam thought for a moment, scraping the long talons on his gloved hands. “Well, considering that this party is going down in the sewers I thought we could park at one of the nearby partier designated houses and then just walk about two miles to get to the abandoned subway during our time slot at 7:45pm.”

“Works for me,” Andrew said, his mind forming a plan. His first steps of getting his dad out of the house, and having the house’s security cameras timed to swap over his exit and entering the house from midnight to 9:30pm, and leaving his cellphone at home had already been completed. He also had a canister of compressed engine cleaner in his pocket. A few whiffs directed straight into the nostrils could make anybody high within moments, but a spray of it could render any human unconscious within seconds, any more would result in death without medical intervention as the chemicals ate away at the brain, because humans weren’t able to regenerate brain tissue on their own. That’s why it was primarily robots who did vehicle cleaning, but Andrew wasn’t going to be around any robots tonight. His plan was just about perfect. It’s going to be a great night, he thought as he turned on the holographic window on his side and on the side window. He didn’t want any drones, cameras or person to notice him as he made his way downtown.

When the two arrived at the costume party they each found a random girl who didn’t seem to have a boyfriend or one who just hadn’t come along, and danced with them.

“Dancing with the stars,” Sam said as he gazed up at the ceiling that was lit with spectacular projections of space, and among the dazzling stars and planets flowed swirls of chemicals that were being pumped from the DJ’s cement dome, which was almost completely shrouded in a gray cloud of chemical vapors. Andrew smiled beneath his gas mask, which was actually real. While everyone else would gradually lose their motor-skills his cortex would be functioning at its highest. Andrew reached up to his earpiece and lowered the volume while Sam noticeably increased the volume on his. The music that was playing through their earpieces was rather lame, but Andrew didn’t care, and Sam was long gone after all the cleaning sprays and chemicals that he had inhaled. It was a good thing the party was in the sewers. The police were vicious, and went berserk when it came to breaking up underage parties. That’s why parties were so rare, and so impossible to resist going to. And at this party Matthew the DJ was playing the last of his terrible music selection.

Once they were through dancing they walked over to a ledge where a river of odorless sewage sloshed down a canal. Sam bent down, scooped up some powdered soap and took a huge whiff of it, and hunched over to wheeze. Andrew took the opportunity to reach into Sam’s pocket and took out his cellphone, tossing it into the water. He got rid of it to prevent it from registering with anybody phone whenever Sam and he were together. Andrew wanted there to be no trace of himself to be left at the party after tonight.

“So now what do we do?” Sam’s voice said, coming through Andrew’s earpiece. Andrew ignored him and watched as Sam wobbled around, bumping into a large guy who was also high out of his mind, and sent him toppling forward on his face.

Another typical Sam moment, Andrew thought. By the time the guy had picked himself off the ground he had already tugged Sam into a tight group of dancing kids and blended in.

“My quick thinking saved your life there,” Andrew said, tapping into Sam’s earpiece. He disguised his voice, making it sound higher than his normal.

“Nah, I could have taken him,” Sam said, brushing away from Andrew’s hold.

Andrew waved a finger in the air, broadcasting to the dancing kids. “Make way, high friend in tow.” Andrew scanned his surroundings, looking for either someone to occupy Sam or for somewhere to prop him up against for a few minutes. And then his mind pieced his plan together as he saw a group of three girls dressed as street cats, dancing like maniacs.

They had been at the party for quite a while and Andrew needed to know what time it was and to make Sam think that he had lost his phone in order for the rest of the plan to play out. He put a hand in each of his pockets, pretending to look for his cell phone.

“Sam, can you check the time?”

“No time for that,” Sam blabbered.

Andrew sighed and tugged Sam along to the group of three girls sitting atop a concrete block, chemicals bottles next to two of them. Two of them, he noticed were similar in appearance with their distinguished reddish brown hair and a similar facial structure.

Andrew tapped his temple, indicating them to synch their earpieces with him. “Excuse me, kitty cats, but would any of you be so kind as to tell me what time it is?” Andrew said, flashing a smile at them.

“Meow?” they said smiling back.

“Meah, wouldn’t you like to dance first?” another girl said.

“Neow,” Andrew said, mimicking their cat sounds.

“Weow, okay,” a girl said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a fancy pink cell phone. With a wink she said, “It’s 9:35.”

It's almost ten! “Thank you,” he said, turning and heading back to Sam.

“Excuse me,” the third girl said.

“Yeah?” Andrew said, turning halfway to face her.

“Can I talk to you for a minute?” she said, her voice hinting that something was bothering her.

Andrew hesitated, he had to get home before midnight or he would miss his time to walk in the house when the camera would rewind and record over his arrival back home. He noted that the girl, like him wasn’t high, and her tone told him that for whatever reason, she really needed to talk to someone.

“Please?” she said.

He looked over the girls shoulder, wondering how to answer without being hurtful. The other girls winked at him and raised their paw gloved hands, hissing like cats.

“Sorry, but I promised my dad I wouldn't be gone so late,” Andrew lied.

“Okay,” the girl said, twirling a stray clump of hair between her fingers, looking away. She looked more than disappointed. Devastated.

One of her friends pointed at her and giggled.

“Wait. I suppose I can spare a few moments. You stay and chat with these ladies, Sam,” Andrew should, motioning him toward them.

“Your friends cute,” one of the girls said.

“He’s alright,” Andrew said.

“Thank you,” the girl who wanted to talk to him said. “Follow me,” she said, gesturing for him to follow. He did, staring at her back, admiring her bone structure all the way. Hm. What would it be like to stab her, he wondered.

She stopped at an empty area around a guardrail at the edge of the river of sewage, away from the high partiers. The girl plopped down on the floor and stared down at the rushing sewage. Andrew took a seat next to her.

“What's the matter?” he asked.

“Synch out of everyone else’s earpiece first,” she said.

“Done,” Andrew said, tapping his temple.

She sighed. “I really don't want to be here,” she said, covering the lower half of her face with her hands.

“What do you mean?” he said, noticing a bracelet made from a vine and polished stones around her hand with some weirdly random symbols. The first was a plus sign, followed by the number three and an infinity sign.

“I mean that I don't want to have anything to do with these... kids. It's so vile what they're doing. I'm only here because my sister made me. Besides, it's no different than being at home with my family. They’re insane.”

“That’s not true,” he said, resting his arms at his sides. “You could camp out in your room at home. Or your sister could have left you at some public place or something. But out here you’re fair game.”

“What?” she said.

“It’s-I mean… Never mind.”

She nodded. “I think I know what you were getting at.”

“Wasn’t hard to guess was it?”

The girl pulled her hands away from her face and turned to him, her light brown eyes meeting his. It was like land meeting the forest. A connection had been made.

“It's sad,” the girl said.

“What is?”

“That these kids don't know what the world really is. Sure they know that it's round and orbits the sun. But they don't know that if they look around them with humble eyes there is a world full of people that need hope. Life blooms all around them in nature, but even as their life flourishes it produces no fruit. So they’re empty.”

“I'm sorry,” Andrew said. “I never produced much fruit either. But I'll start now.” He looked up at the sewer’s ceiling, where mesmerizing images of stars pulsed with the music and comets collided with planets with every drum beat, exploding into dazzling displays of color. He frowned, realizing that the girl probably had no idea that the smoke that flowed around the stars was actually a combination of many of the chemicals that the others kids at the party were getting high off of. Pretty soon she would be consumed by it too if she stayed at the scene any longer.

“If only the mirror could be inverted. Then the emptiness and sadness would fade.”

He put an arm on her shoulder, but retracted them when he noticed her fidget at his touch. “You have such a way with words. Trust me, in your future you can be the cure to all this.”

She smiled, looking away. “I knew I could trust you,” she said. “You aren't like the others. The disgusting chemicals haven't polluted your mind.” She looked away before speaking again. “Funny how those things clean stuff, but rot our minds. But you’re wrong about me being the cure,” she said, wrapping her fingers around her bracelet.

Andrew froze, stopping himself from wincing. She thought he was a good guy. Too bad for her he wasn’t.

“I’m curious. Just what exactly gave you the idea to go out of your way to talk to me?” Andrew asked, truly baffled.

“Easy. The way you were presented yourself without stumbling around, and your voice. It was clearly sober. And to find anyone else sober here, well. That just had to be a sign.”

A sign? Andrew thought, allowing his posture to relax as he leaned his torso further back against the guardrail, away from the girl. A sign for what?

“Do you know who you should credit for putting the lights in the sky?” the girl asked.

“Uh? Not really.”

She nodded. “Fair enough.”

“Cool.” There was a peaceful silence, which Andrew broke with a question. “Could I walk you home?” he asked. “I mean, I'm sure your dad would be asleep by the time we got home.” His mind was raging right now. If she said yes he wouldn’t do what he was about to do. But if she rejected him? Well, he would do it and he may just have to get rid of her too, because no matter how much he admired her he didn’t like being rejected. It just didn’t feel right.

She shook her head. “He doesn't sleep.”

“He's an insomniac,” he said, raising an eyebrow, surprised. Insomnia while rare did affect some people, sometimes allowing people to subconsciously unlock some awesome mind powers.

“Yes,” she said. “Isn't it awful? Having a tormentor that never sleeps?”

“I'm sorry,” Andrew said. He felt so powerless, unable to find any words to comfort the girl before he killed her. Eh, maybe I’ll just knock her out like everybody else. She’ll just think she got high, regret it and probably figure I was just in her mind. Yeah. That’s it.

“No, don't be,” she said. “You've done so much for me by just listening.”

“Please, if there is something else that I can do to help, just tell me.”

“No. You've done so much already. More than anybody else has.”

“But- I really want to help,” he said as he took a hold of her hand. “In any way I can.”

“Go,” she said. “By leaving this place and never attending any more of these you'll help me stick with my belief that gentlemen aren't just urban myths.” The girl got up and vanished back into the crowd.

“Okay?” Andrew said as he synched off and went back to get Sam who was still talking to the girls. The one he had talked to was stretched out on the floor, gazing at the galaxies projected on the ceiling.

“Come on, Sam. It’s time for us to go,” Andrew said synching with him as he patted his friend on the back.

“Sorry, cats,” Sam said as he was guided away from them by Andrew.

“Dude, I saw you and that girl go off somewhere. Must have been a quickie, though” Sam said.

Andrew ignored the comment and waved for Sam to follow him back to the truck. Sam shrugged and walked beside him. As they ascended the stairs Andrew took of his earpiece, turn it off and put in his pocket. Knowing that Sam was too high to bother doing the same with his earpiece Andrew did it for him. And when they had reached the metal door that separated the sewers from an abandoned subway station Andrew stopped Sam, plopped him on the ground and pressed him against a wall.

“Wait here. I’ll be right back,” he said, running back downstairs.

“Okay,” came Sam’s garbled voice.

Andrew flexed his fingers as he made his way back down the steps to the party, allowing his breath to grow shallow with every step. He slowed his steps when the rusted door that lead to the party materialized through the hazy lighting of the tunnel. He reached for the door and held his breath. He could walk away, but then Matthew would still be around to annoy him at school. Taking his glory when it came to winning over girls, taking the laughs of others from him and the worst was that he had brought up his dead mother! That was what marked him for deletion. No one but his dad or some other random family member could mention her to him. The worst was that he humored Andrew about it, reminding him of how close they were, as if he were perpetually trapped in infancy. While it was true that his mom showed an unusual amount of affection toward him, and he often did likewise, it was no one’s right to ever mock Andrew. Especially not when it came to his mother. That was one reason why he killed her. No one could have her. Not even his father. And this Matthew guy especially couldn’t taint her image with his mouth.

He opened the door and leaned his head down, making his way discreetly through the crowd, avoiding eye contact with anybody. Within seconds he was outside of the DJ’s dome, which was spewing serpents of gray vapors. Let’s do this, Andrew thought as he cut through the smoke into the dome. He came to a halt as he found Matthew with his back to him, nodding to the beat of his own music. An enormous rusty machine rumbled next to him, spewing gray smoke. Matthew was wearing a gas mask too. No big deal. He would just have to take it off of him. After he was knocked out of course.

Andrew shoved a hand into his pocket and pulled out a canister of compressed engine cleaner, took in a deep breath and exhaled violently as he lunged forward, yanked the oxygen cartridge off of Matthew’s gas mask and forced the canister inside. Matthew struggled for a second, but his body quickly became limp as the chemicals began to overcome him inside his mask. Andrew continued to let the chemicals flood into the mask, and sneered as Matthew wobbled forward, but to Andrew’s shock he remained on his feet, trying to get his bearings. Filled with frustration and rage Andrew continued to empty the can’s contents into the mask. Matthew Finally collapsed, his chin catching on the edge of his DJ table, which displayed a video of the partiers just outside the dome. Andrew grinned to himself as he saw their smiling, laughing faces dance their feet off, oblivious to what was going to happen to their beloved DJ. And the best part was that Andrew was not a regular partier, so there was next to no reason for him to ever be considered as suspect. And that wasn’t even the best part. Oh no. After pulling off Matthew’s gas mask Andrew reached into his pockets and searched for his phone. He found it and accessed it using Matthew’s fingers, and opening a messenger application typed: It’s been great living, but it’s time for me to give my salutations. You are all awesome, but I’m just tired of all this. Tired of expectations. Tired of failing. Tired of living. I’ve succeed enough as it is, and failed too many times. Here on December 25, 2114 I give my resignation to you all. Thank you so much for being in my life. This is Matthew signing out of this world.

Still using Matthew’s hand Andrew selected: Send to all and sent the message. Satisfied, Andrew went over to the smoke machine, adjusted the settings to maximum output, and watched as the smoke clouds descended upon them. At first they raised their fists and hollered, thinking that it was all part of the show, but then they began to sway back and forth as the chemicals began to overcome them. Andrew laughed as he watched them collapse like a wave, too high to think about running to the tunnels, and getting out. But even as he laughed he couldn’t help but feel sorry for the girl that he had talked to earlier. He shrugged it off, knowing that she would be okay whenever she woke up.

As for now, he had to get back home. Andrew glanced one last time at Matthew’s unconscious form as he made his way out of the dome. It wasn’t a question of would he die, but a matter of when. And the best part was that while the nation could detect when a person died, they couldn’t pin-point when a person had lost consciousness. But really, if the Government knew when people were sleeping… That would be quite disturbing.

Outside of the dome Andrew walked around the slumbering forms of the partiers, his shoes leaving the outlines of a shoe size that was two inches larger than his own on the dusty floor as he marched over to the exit, wearing his home-made strap-on soles. The kids would wake up, thinking that they had partied the whole night away. Maybe a few would discover Matthew’s body. And if they did so what? Andrew’s cell phone was never at the scene, so his presence was never electronically registered by anybody else’s phone nor did anyone recognize him. Except for Sam of course, but his cellphone had been disposed of as well and he would just have Sam go home, sleep and wake up the next morning, and Andrew would pretend like he had never gone to the party at all. Sam would believe it knowing that he had indeed gotten exponentially high at the event.

Andrew found Sam in the same spot where he had left him, his head pressed against the wall.

“That was fast,” Sam said, picking himself clumsily off the floor.

Andrew just nodded and opened the door to the subway, holding it open for Sam to shuffle out of. Out in the dim subway station everything was silent. Amazingly no cameras were ever implemented in the abandoned subway station, so that was another reason why Andrew had chosen tonight to get rid of Matthew. But there were occasionally homeless people who wandered through as they looked for a place to sleep. Tonight, apart from the bones of discarded infants reproduced by the homeless population, there was no person in sight.

All Andrew had to now was secure Sam’s truck key, drive him home, sneak him into his bedroom, take off his costume and shove it into a flattened backpack that he was wearing underneath his clothes to dispose of it later, and finally walk to his house, which was thankfully merely a few blocks away, wait outside until any of the skyscrapers in the distance displayed midnight on their clocks and casually walk up to his house and enter.

“Fooood!” something behind Andrew and Sam howled.

“Awoah?” Same mumbled.

Andrew turned around and sighed under his gas mask as a large white and gray furred street dog plodded over to him, its blue eyes smiling up at him. “Foood?” the dog howled. It stopped in front of him and sat back on its hind legs, wagging its tail. “Foood?” it howled again.

“Hush, Puppy!” Andrew hissed, kicking it in the face.

The dog whimpered and ran off howling, “Noooo!” No matter how cute the dog was he wouldn’t have it beg to him. Even if he had food he wouldn’t have shared any with the creature anyway. Well, he may have ate it in front of the dog to show it its place, but that’s about it.

“Mean much?” Sam asked.

Andrew ignored his comment. “Just give me the keys. You’re too high to navigate anyway. Sam held out his truck’s key and Andrew took it with the hand that he had used to kill Matthew. The key to his escape was now in his hands.

Good News

A few days later Andrew learned on the news that dozens of teenage bodies had been found dead at the scene of the party by a homeless woman. At least all but the girl he had talked to, whose name was announced to be Jackie. She had slipped into a coma. But then to Andrew’s relief, she too died, her parents next to her hospital bed. Turned out they did care. But it still wasn't fair. She had so much to offer, and now she could never live it.

On that night Andrew had become the nation’s deadliest man, killing three hundred and thirteen people. The population of the nation was now: 4,458,762,436. What Andrew didn’t know was that Big Brother knew what he had done. And he was disappointed.