Short_Story

Humans vs. Machines An explosion that shocked the ground beneath him silenced his voice. Screaming and the high pitched screech of missiles overhead scoured into his skull. Owen cuffed his hands over his ears; eyes shut, and fell to his knees to the ground. A bullet whizzed past his head creating a path on his hair. Flames roared up into the sky; a cloud of scorching hot air slammed into him, launching him backwards. He yelped and rolled as a swarm of bullets sprayed the ground. Now he was looking up, away from the battle, the chatter of machine guns and screams as they found their targets all around him. He glanced to the left only to see glittering metal body with red glowing eyes staring straight into his. He felt his mind fall, his eyes darkening over the terrifying events that raged on everywhere, all around, the sounds of battle fading away. A dark figure covered over his face, a deep croaky voice shouting at him to ‘get up!’ ‘Get the hell up!’ He jumped to his feet, groping at his face, found only leather and Perspex goggles. Another mask looking at him, a solid grip on his arm, pulling him low and away from the gunfire. A burst of light and flames from the right; fanning out across the goggles then gone. There were no more men in that direction. ‘Get down!’ He dragged to his stomach, hands flying over his head as tiny glints of metal come over him. He looked right: a uniform line of machines were spraying the battle field with bullets, killing and ripping apart anything and everything that was in the way. ‘Move!’ yelled the man with a croaky voice; he gripped Owen’s arm even harder. Running again, keeping low, the world seeming like some bad dream through the goggles as something struck the ground nearby with a dreary thunk, exploding seconds later, throwing shrapnel right around and hurling the men forward. Rushed up on their feet, they ran again, ducking under the bullets, stumbling and feeling the zip of shrapnel against his skin and the spray of blood as men looked like they were having a fit while the bullets penetrated deeply, killing them in one shot, one at a time, falling backwards like a row of dominoes. Fire, blood, gore, guns, rockets and pistons in the machines, he felt his legs turn to jelly but kept running with the stranger, the Man with the Gas Mask, not knowing how he was alive but not thinking just running and running. The Man with the Gas Mask ripped his mask off and pulled off Owen's, throwing them aside. His face was tense, scarred across his nose, right cheekbone and parts of his eyebrow missing and a small chunk of his right ear was missing. But his eyes shone with some battle-crazed hunger that made Owen shrivel back in terror. The man grinned with an insane look on his face. "You scared, boy'" Owen gave a quick nod. "Good. Better scared than dead, right'" Owen nodded again. "What is wrong with you boy, can’t you speak' Say something!" Owen fixed himself and said in a profound, dramatic voice, "My name is Owen Johns. I don't know where I am from or where I am, all i know is that I blacked out and woke up here." His voice came out as a scared little peep, and he only managed to say his name. "And where do you come from, Owen Johns'" "I can't remember." He said looking at the ground. The Mysterious man burst into an unforgiving laughter. It sounded odd, it sounded like a forced sound from a throat that had nothing funny to laugh about. ”You can’t remember'” he scoffed, “Good luck to you boy! Because it looks like you’re stuck here for the next few weeks.” “Come with me I’ll take you to the safe zone,” He yelled with a croaky voice. The man gripped onto Owen’s arm again pulling him low and away from the sight of the machines and from the bullets. Owen could hear the machines pistons and hydraulics pumping away as they were still spraying bullets all over the place; he felt some of the bullets whiz by his head just nicking his hair. They had reached the safe zone, it was full of ammunition and medics trying to revive and repair the damaged soldiers. There was this awful stench like something or someone has been dead for months and to his surprise there was a pile of dead bodies. “Hey boy, boy, Owen, cm’on we have to get going!” He roared. “What, where are we going'” asked Owen. “We have to go to battle boy,” “To battle' No way, I’m staying here where it is safe!” alleged Owen. “There is no where that is safe in this country or the world, so you just have to man up and help destroy what man has created, the ultimate human vs. machine war.” the man Said, in a calm and subtle way. Owen lunged towards the guns and ammunition, grabbed what he could and the two of them went straight towards the battlefield. “Let’s finish what we started.” Owen Whispered to himself as he disappeared into the blinding cloud of dust.