SHU JI
Stanley Maximum Security Prison, Stanley, Hong Kong
The Invasion
Can you get my gun in the water, Daddy?
Of course, baby.
[Her mom is smiling, and I smiled back at her.]
Idiot stupid smile. Never know what comes next?
I dove into the cold water. Then I heard muffled screams in the dark.
Deafening explosions.
Wake. Wake up. Now.
I’ve been dreaming again. My hands are trembling as I sit up, brushing aside hair on my face wet with sweat. I’ve been staying in this prison cell for God knows how long. My elbow’s itching badly. And it’s been months since that scrappy old fella stuck a needle on my arm. Since then I felt my senses got enhanced. I can see clearly in the dark. In the light of day I cover my eyes with cloth. The light often stings my eyes and I often broke into tears. Can distinguish a smell hundreds of yards away. I can even feel every grain of sand on the floor of my cell as I stand on my bare feet. And the sounds of whispers in the nights made my head ache over and over.
Then the explosions came. Again. Screams of agony I heard. The alarm rang. The wall on the other side of my cell burst and exploded. Huge and smaller chunks of concrete flew from the explosion in all directions. I raised my arms for cover as the debris pierced my flesh. The wounds almost instantly healed and closed but I still can feel the agony. Even the pain of the slightest scratch is magnified a hundred times. I writhed as my bloodied arms trembled. All the wounds completely closed now.
I scrambled out of the cell and made a rush onto the hallway. Bodies littered the floor. Other prisoners fumbled and stumbled, bloody puddles making the floor wet and slippery. Another blast, and the beams beyond crashed along with the rest of the building it has long supported. On my left is a stairway, cramped with prisoners fleeing certain death on the dungeons below, hoping to find salvation above. Dust made breathing difficult, and it has caked on sweat and blood on my half naked body.
I pushed aside the waves of people and rushed up the stairs. Above, the lights were out. I can still see clearly in the dark due to my enhanced senses. Guards were all over the place, panicked, oblivious of the fleeing prisoners. The federal prison was a wreck. Flames were licking all over the place and the smoke was thick as if belched from the mouth of a volcano.
I heard gunshots outside. Familiar ones. And not so familiar. They were more like thuds from a tank’s main gun. Only automatic. The prison guards were shooting at the source of those unfamiliar thuds. And when they returned fire, the guards were like melted into oblivion. Orange beams the size of cola cans destroyed completely the hapless jail guards of the HKPD, even searing and piercing their carbon steel armors.
I ran outside fearing the conflagration in the building as well as the beam bullets from the unknown invaders.
Then I bumped into him. Or rather it. He’s one of them. Fully armored and fully armed. I think he’s human. He was. His limbs are made of metal. Strapped on his waist were two pistols. And he carries a big ugly gun I’ve never seen before. Or I’ve seen before, rather.
And then I recognized him. He’s one of them. Bastards who killed my family. That night by the pool. The source of my nightmares. The night my life was ruined. Suddenly rage rushed up and around and heated my whole body.
The thing’s lips parted as if he was grinning. He raised the gun. Ready to obliterate me. Out of instinct I rolled onto him, spun, jumped and somersaulted meters behind him, pistols already in both of my hands. Before I land fire burst out of the barrels of the twin guns out my hand. The thing dropped. Lifeless.
Then the walkers came. Huge robotic monsters. Too late for me as an orange blast tore through my body and everything was dark.
Last thing I remember were the screams I heard in the dark. And deafening explosions.
And the feeling I’m being carried by some big strong, tattoed arm. I had the feeling that arm was burning, except the flames act like a pet travelling up and down his arm.
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