Update | A flash fiction story
17 of 💯
"Shit! Stay away from me!" Drawde swung the gun around wildly, his cheeks covered in tears and dirt. The flickering light of the fire cast dancing shadows on his face, his eyes two black holes. "Shit! I want out," he screamed.
The night was cold and the outside walls of Argon were dotted with small fire pits. There were no neon lights in here. No ads, no tall buildings. Only hopelessness — a turn-on for some.
People gathered around the fires for warmth — that's what they did a second ago. Now, the people around Drawde were not people at all. Their faces looked like the creation of a badly-trained AI trying to reproduce what a human should look like, their voices a choir of tortured souls.
He aimed at one of them. It had a misplaced eye that turned into a mouth, and the nose curved impossibly in a trick of perspective, connecting to the side of the head and becoming an ear. He shot, his eyes closed.
"Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!"
Their hellish singing drowned the sound of his voice.
He pointed the gun at another face. This one had no mouth, eyes connected in one, its nose a black vulture's beak. Drawde shot once more, but they kept coming toward him. He pointed the gun at his own head and the world faded to black.
Then, it faded to white.
"Drawde," a voice called. "Are you okay?"
The simulation pod opened and the face outside was as disturbed as he was.
"What the fuck was that?" he asked. "I said 'shit' a million times!"
"I saw that," Minda said, his forehead covered in sweat. "Sorry, I was updating the simulator and the Fringe went out of control."
"Don't update the thing while I'm in there!" Drawde closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to slow down his racing heart.
"I'm sorry," Minda said again.
Drawde looked at him. "And by the way, 'shit' is a terrible safe word."
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