At first she thought it was a scream. But the bright light and the explosion that followed verified that it was one of those ultra-hypersonic missiles that flew all over her head all the time the last few hours. Perhaps days. She wasn’t sure.
“Have you ever seen a film called ‘Terminator’ or something like that?” He asked her while they were hiding in the shadows of a destroyed supermarket that oddly had its sign still standing and the neon flashing.
“The one with the murderous humanoid robots?” he asked again browsing the little of sky they could still see with all the smoke and fires.
Of course she had seen it. At least she had seen the so popular “Hasta la vista, baby” scene with Schwarzenegger. She answered warily ‘yes’ and tried to avoid his look. He wasn’t looking at her when he spoke but suddenly he turned his face her way, lowered his body to level her eyes and said, “Well, now you live it, girl.” And that was it.
Next thing he was dead on the ground with a big black hole where his neck used to be and she was running like hell to save her own neck.
Another shriek over her head and another explosion to follow. “Hey!” She heard it but she wasn’t sure if that was a human voice calling her or a different sound from a different missile. “Over here,” she heard again and this time she was sure it wasn’t a missile but… But what if it was a terminator-style murderous neuralinks? Would it be her… ‘hasta la vista’ moment?
“Over here,” she heard again and this time she saw a gloved hand moving on her right, behind some big metal boxes.
“Are you human?” she asked mechanically.
“Are you an idiot?” Came the answer.
‘Probably’, she thought and moved towards the moving glove behind the boxes.
“You are hurt.” That was the next thing she said when she turned around the boxes and saw the rest of the laying body behind the extended gloved hand. A constantly expanding red mark on his jacket, growing even while she was looking at him, had betrayed him. “At least this must be a sign that I’m human.” He laughed in a very ugly tone.
She didn’t answer, frozen and overwhelmed with the sight of his blood. And the smell. Blood smells strong and by now, she knows it. One more way these last few days had been so educational. Not that she had ever wanted to know. And the smell was overwhelmingly strong here. Wherever and whatever this here might be.
“I’m sorry for your partner, I was here trying to attract your attention and I saw everything.” She was still looking the blood mark on his jacket getting bigger and bigger frozen and silent.
“If you keep doing this no talking thing, I will think that you are not a human,” he said trying to humour somehow the moment.
“You are hit,” she said.
“You are observant.” He snapped back.
“What…what…” she short of whispered-cried.
“Nothing you can do here girl,” he said sadly.
“Then what?” She found the power to say. “Then, you are going to be Sara Connor,” he said with a twisted smile on his face.
“What’s wrong with all of you and this film?” She suddenly cried, frustrated and angry. He looked at her not really sharing her sudden anger. “So, I presume you have seen the film.” He said after a few seconds with the same twisted smile.
She looked at him not sure if the smile, the smirk or whatever else it was, was really pain or some idiotic mucho mockery she couldn’t get. She decided it was the pain and she moved closer to check the wound when another scream and another explosion forced them both to cover their heads with their arms. The metal boxes seemed to handle both the explosion and the shake of the ground.
“They are getting closer,” he said.
“We must move,” she whispered still covering her head with her arms.
“What’s your name?” She hesitated,
“Sara!” He laughed out loud.
“OK Sara, I’m going to be quick because time is running supersonic fast.” She moved closer not to hear better but scared that part of her body was not covered by the boxes. It was an intuition. The closer to him the better for her, or at least that’s what a voice in her brain was telling her.
“Listen, I’m going to make it simple,” he continued turning full face towards her. “You are fucked! Big time.” He didn’t smile this time and she felt insulted.
“No, no, you misunderstood me,” the twisted smile was back and there was also a small red pool under his leg getting bigger and bigger. He ignored it. “I’m carrying a virus and now you carry it.” She looked at him shocked and not understanding a world. A virus? When did it turn biological? Her mind could not process all the information coming. She was terrified.
She had been terrified for the beginning of all this mess and she had been running from the beginning not knowing from whom and where. She was just running avoiding death and now she learned that she also had a virus? She was a fucking unemployed graphic designer making damn internet sites and applications, how the hell did she found herself in this nightmare? Good thing she was unemployed, no income, no boyfriend and no fast internet connection lately. Nothing to lose, right? Self-pity and self-sarcasm hit her intemperately together and at once. She was crying quietly, she didn’t want him to die.
“He wasn’t my partner,” she said out of the blue and while he was trying to change the position of his legs.
“Who?” he asked.
“The man you saw getting killed.”
“Good, less mourning then.” Damn his smile or it was a smirk? She didn’t know but it was always there the most inappropriate moments. “Sara, is not a virus …virus, it is a virus …virus.” Right and these are not missiles-missiles; they were screaming mermaids from space. Fuck Elon Musk and his artificial erotic dreams. She hated the bastard. Not that she really knew what he did or had done but in a robo-apocalypse …he was definitely involved. “Fuck Elon Musk!”
“You are right,” he whispered. She hadn’t realize that she had said it loud but somebody telling her that she’s right after so long and even under these circumstances …well, it was a nice thing to hear.
“Sara, I’m talking about a computer virus.” Now you speak my language, she thought. She had never made one even though she had seen different virus-codes and she could short of have understand them or at least mimic them. Never tried but if she wanted…
“And you have to take it to the labs.” And saying that he gave her a tiny small usb; a tiny serial bus gadget shaped the head of Bart Simpson; complete with the yellow skin and the big googly eyes looking straight in her soul. I bet they had foreseen all this shit in one of their decades episodes, she thought.
However, two things happened stimulatingly after; an explosion right next to her and the man’s head left his body for places unknown covering her front, face and jacket, with blood and other sticky stuff. The only thought that crossed her mind that moment was …”what’s your name?”
Thanos' Pulp Fiction 