Trembling With Fear 09/27/20

A Personal Heaven and Hell by JR Sloan

Jax strode through the lush paradise, as naked as when he was born, though he felt no self-consciousness at his nudity. He relished the feeling of the patches of cool sand amongst the soft green grass under his bare feet. White trees stood in twisted but beautiful forms, their branches extending out and covered in lavish green leaves. Bushes of berries were spread intermittently, and Jax knelt beside one and plucked a berry from the bush, plopping it into his mouth and smiling at the sweet but sour taste. He believed it to be a raspberry. 

“What the hell is it doing?” asked a male voice. Jax continued moving as though nothing had been said, though he was suddenly aware of a burning pain in his chest. 

A creek babbled nearby, the water slickly moving over the smooth and picturesque rocks, creating a glossy surface on the normally matte rocks. Walking up to the creek bed, Jax felt the pebbles sticking to the underside of his feet as he surveyed the watery indentation in the ground, searching for a pool deep enough he could soak in the water. Not seeing one, he moved further down, following the water as it tingled at his feet. Finally seeing a pool, he eased his body into it, feeling the refreshing cool on his skin.

“If you’d shut up, I could tell you,” came a female voice; his hand reflexively moved up to two holes in his chest, unsure of their origin. 

Once again relatively unbothered, Jax closed his eyes and let his body relax, floating in the water. His limbs were sprawled out as though he were Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man. The cool and crisp water felt foreign on his flesh; it rippled his thin hair, which was clinging to his scalp. Tilting his head backward, he opened his mouth and felt the water rush in, bringing his head back above the surface and swallowing. It was like how he had heard the legendary creek water in New England was like. Smiling, he brought himself to a standing position, mud forming around his toes.

“You done yet?” asked the male voice. Once again, it did not bother Jax, though a headache began to form, encompassing the entirety of his head but starting in the base of his skull in the back. 

Jax climbed out of the water, dripping dry as he walked across the grass, feeling the warmth of the sun as he walked, laying down on a patch of ground in the grass. Once more he sprawled out, except instead of feeling the refreshingly cold water he felt the heat of the sun drying the moisture from his body. He lay contently, moving his head to the side to avert his eyes from the brightness above him. It was what humans did to sunbathe. 

“Now I’m done,” said the female voice. “See what a little patience can do?”

Jax’s private Heaven turned to a private Hell instantaneously. Without notice, he was standing in the parking lot of a police station, two men and a woman beside him; one of the men wore the bars of a Captain. They were talking, but Jax was not sure what about as he focused in on something moving towards them. 

A figure strode out of the dark on the other side of the fence, a white mask covering his face, the hood to his black sweatshirt pulled up, jeans torn and ripped and dirtied. His hand moved to his back pocket and he drew something, raising it and pointing it at the assembled officers. As he realized what the figure had pulled out, Jax shouted but it was too late, the first gunshot blasting out into the night. The female officer cried out in pain as the bullet flew through her chest plate, killing her as the Captain and the other officer drew their weapons. Both men fired back as the gunman turned his weapon on the Captain, firing three more shots. All three bullets hit the Captain and he collapsed to the ground. The remaining officer pulled the trigger of his firearm as the gunman turned away to make a run for it, the bullet grazing the mask and taking off part of the left side. Turning, the gunman looked at Jax before raising his gun one last time, firing two shots in Jax’s chest. 

Jax awoke on a bed, naked as when he had been born, albeit this time he was self-conscious of his nudity. A woman and a man stood over him, and wires connected to the back of his head, light being emitted from his right eye onto a board. The gunman stood there, frozen in time, lines moving over his eye as the system struggled to recognize it. 

“The wonderful thing with AI, Officer,” started the woman, “Is that we can playback what happened. Using this tech, we should be able to identify the man that killed the fellow officers talking with you last night in the parking lot. And as far as I can tell, Jax here had created his own Heaven. Everything we saw play out in its mind are things AIs can’t normally do.”

“Too bad we can’t bring back Captain Conner from the dead,” said the Officer, running his fingers across the holes in Jax’s chest where the two bullets had entered its body.