5With a kick, I felt like my consciousness was been dragged somewhere.
And with loads of confusion my real memories started to return.
Like a movie fastened forward, I recalled every major event in my life.
From my shitty childhood towards my humble beginnings in the gang known as the Third Street Saints, to my rise to glory as The Boss, followed my downfall by betrayal. To my revival and escape, culminating with a complicated scam that landed me right on the White House.
But some memories, more than any, were meaningful to me. Dearest they were, it was like I replayed them in slow motion, as if I wanted to relive them for as long as I could.
Every moment I had with the man that I've always loved; but never cared to admit until that very moment.
I started to come to the conclusion that all the happened so far must've been some sort of dream… I understood that I was on my way back to reality.
After an unpleasant, short moment of reintegration I could feel, I could listen and I could smell; everything that I was used to do, except that now it all felt like it happened inside my real body, as weird as it can sound.
All that was missing was for me to open my eyes, but out of fear of having the bitter confirmation of what I suspected (that I wouldn't see him again), I kept them shut. I didn't want to let go and if I really knew what was going on I would've said to that beautiful illusion: 'Let's forget all this, the Saints, breaking free, the Earth. I don't care. I want to stay here with you. I would rather live as a slave and submit to Zinyak than to lose you again.'
But it was time to face the truth.
Not far from where The Boss was about to face back the real word, was a large space full of holographic screens.
It was the main chamber of a spaceship.
Everything there seemed other worldly and weird, belonging to some advanced but bizarre technology.
In the middle of the room, a half-humanoid/half-reptile was sitting in a gigantic chair. This creature's attention was fixed in a central screen. He looked every bit like his fellow aliens from the Simulation, if he wasn't quite taller and more muscular than them. This fact suggested that he was a leader amongst his kind.
The alien watched with interest the image displayed on it. Pictured from above, in a security camera angle, was a large pod made of transparent glass. Some red light illuminated this pod that was big enough to fit a human of any size. It's weird edges connected to an elevated niche, and something inside seemed to agitate and struggle to break free. Soon part of the glass shattered, draining the contents of the alien pod. A gooey substance flooded the niche and spilled heavily on the floor. On closer inspection one could then distinguish the naked body of a woman pulling out of it.
'Well, well.'
This defeated figure took a few moments of consideration, before crawling weakly to a wall and hugging her legs. Even by the screen, one could easily tell that this person was in heavy suffering.
'Out of the fishbowl, I see. Let's see how you find reality to be now, my dear.'
The gray-greenish, lizard hand tapped slightly with amusement at the rim of the gold cup he was drinking from.
He had always loved me, in silence.
There wasn't a day after we met where he wasn't always by my side, ready to risk his life for mine.
Now I realized I loved him too, all along. God, we could've been together if I knew it before! But I didn't.
No, I didn't.
My sorrow was such, it momentarily erased all instinct of self preservation and any idea of getting out of that fucked up environment I knew nothing about. Face down on my knees, the world turned black before my eyes and all that existed in that moment was his loss.
'Carlos!' I muttered.
For a moment I stayed there, sobbing with rage two steps from my former glass prison, my head reliving the last, tragic day of our real past together:
He died, in my arms. His final glance, full of trust as I pressed the trigger to end his pain. I'd never forgive myself for not finding a way to save h…!
'Ha! Ha! Ha!'
I was interrupted. Some distorted sound coming from what I presumed was a speaker.
Laughter. Someone was watching and presumably enjoying everything that was happening, out of sadistic pleasure.
Someone was responsible for all of this.
Whoever controlled it all… Whoever reunited me with an illusion that looked like Carlos, just so that I would have to lose him a second time around… So that I could realize how I really felt about my Lieutenant… This person wanted to destroy me, and granted, he did a great job! But… He was going to get it back. Oh, that was a sure thing! Just like all the others, dead motherfuckers whom've wronged me in the past.
Truth was that Zyniak, the alien lord who designed the Simulation, was having a hell of a time at that moment. After all, these human 'specimens', as he would call them, could provide infinite possibilities of amusement. He contemplated through the screen the defeated posture of The Leader of The Saints, his famous rival from planet Earth. The master of an empire, just like himself, but whose's emotions were the weakness he didn't have.
How easy it was! How he got them all broken, even legendary Johnny Gat! All it took was a little game with that funny feeling that even badass humans cherished so much: Love!
'Pathetic.' A small grin of task accomplished raised the corners of the reptile's lips. But immediately after, his eyes veiled up. His hands slid from the cup as the grin dissolved into a frown: He, Zyniak; was foreign to that feeling.
A high pitched sound of alert interrupted his unpleasant musing: On the screen, he could see that The Boss had recovered and broken out of the spaceship's confinement area.
A trooper alien soon came in, concerned:
'Specimen 32 is escaping and there is a ship in approach! It can only be her friend Kinzie to the rescue, my Lord Zyniak. Should we prepare an offensive?'
To the minions' surprise, his master didn't seem worried in the slightest and hardly moved the head in his direction:
'No we shall not. Let her go. But take all the necessary measures so that the humans think we're trying to halt them.'
'Yes, my Lord Zyniak.'
'And… One more thing…'
'Yes Lord?'
'I wish for full security on Specimen 31's pod.'
'Do we allow him to escape as well?
'No. He won't be going anywhere. He's still asleep in the Simulation for now.'
It's never pleasant to have an army on your naked ass, while you're about to reach a dead end. Through a curtain of tears I distinguished a door opening and a hoard of weird enemies coming my way.
There they were. Those aliens Shaundi was telling me about.
'Damn it!' Blasts of energy were shot and zapped the wall behind, missing my skull for centimeters. I ducked and rolled to dodge them, every inch of my body pumping with adrenaline but every feeling intact.
Shooting back, I killed my way towards the door and dashed out. I was only half conscious about I was doing though. Some self preservation device had put me on auto-pilot, while the real me was still lost in mourn.
Soon I found myself on the deck of what I could only assume was a spaceship, shooting my last rounds to keep the closing troop at bay. But in front of me was the abyss of a whole galaxy, the ship ended there and I had nowhere to go and nothing on sight apart from some weird creates.
The laser bullets were still about to explode my brains out, so I jumped for cover behind one of them. Hopefully, there would be ammo inside?
After kicking one of them open saw that wasn't the case.
Starting to run out of choices I cursed and tossed the sort of alien rifle I've snatched from a guard away. I had used all the ammo on that shit.
Looking around without a plan in sight, my head was starting to turn.
It seemed like I've reached a point of no return, and gazed one more time in front of me: Only a sea of nothingness and stars.
There was no place to run.
'Fuck!'
Sweat was running freely down my forehead along with some creepy goo from the pod.
Just then a blast of wind almost knocked me to the ground. It felt intensely chilling against my bare skin, but soon I understood it meant hope:
Right in front of me, there was another spaceship, almost blinding me with its light. But a well known voice of a friend of mine was screaming my real 'name':
'Boss, hurry!'
'Kinzie!' I screamed back at her, still possessed. 'I saw Carlos.'
My expression must've been translating well how devastated I was. But she kept staring at my eyes without a blink, not letting me sink and urged me to shake it up and save myself. 'No time, Boss! Just jump!'
Her spaceship approached all it could from the gap, but it still required some distance.
'Come on, Boss! Jump! Just fucking jump.'
The Zyn troop never stopped shooting at me but Kinzie's voice was like a saving hand that dragged me out to the surface of whatever hell I was sinking into.
I swallowed back all the macabre impulses that begged me to stay there and let the enemy troop finish me on the spot and ran towards the spaceship with all strength left. No, I wasn't giving the fuck up! Getting revenge would help me find back the will to live.
After the Leader of The Saints escaped, the spaceship was still a hot mess.
The fact that the prisoner was definitely gone, however, meant the end of their duty.
Same for the Zyn Commander who was faithfully following his master's orders concerning Specimen 31.
He and other subordinates surrounded an identical pod as the one we saw before, but lowered their weapons and started to leave the room.
But before following behind his troops, The Commander hesitated and turned on his heels.
Out of curiosity, the alien soldier approached the specimen jar. It was made of that same sheer material as The Boss', but the steam on the surface didn't allow much to be seen apart from an human form.
The Zyn posed his weapon on the floor, leaning against it.
He took a piece of cloth from his uniform and rubbed it on the surface, the small and blur free square allowing the minion to peak behind the glass.
A pale skinned male with handsome hispanic features was fully visible for nothing more than a second, before being covered immediately by a buff of steam coming from the pod's thermic regulators.
Hope you enjoyed the finale and reading this story! 3 Thanks for reading.
I will ask, as usual, for everyone to forgive me for the eventual grammar mistakes as english is not my native language.
There might be a sequel someday, though it will probably focus on another Simulation.
See you soon in another story and review plz!
