Posts
CHAPTER ONE
The door was flung open. The air was still. A sense of calm floated about in the room. Nothing ever could have felt the same again in the crux of the moment. Because what had happened to him pointed in the direction of absolute revolution of his conceptions. His desire had spewed out, like a tempestuous whim of the mind, an offshoot of what he was worried about, sending the world into a different dimension.
The creatures of his fears murmured sardonically that once he attempted to get through to the other side, there was no return. He could hear his heart jumping in his chest, his right palm held tightly his wrist, gauging what was real.
Aaron stood spread-eagled on his bed, half-conscious, half-paralysed. Suddenly time came to a halt, and the worldly time of his existence felt oppressing – almost unnerving.
The destruction of the world had happened through the metastatic decease of human beings – the greed and mercenariness of it all. The sun outside was shining and the temperature warm for an autumnal day. A sense of dread was hanging over in the air. London had become a mere hamlet and its vacant streets, mostly covered in water conveyed emptiness and desolation. The population had been reduced to the size of a large family and the exodus of people who had fled away died within hours. Earthquakes and tsunamis had wreaked havoc everywhere. There was no way out. A small community had formed. They had become like the denizen of an unknown island where their primal needs become survival. Social classes were broken down. Hierarchy was no more and the natural instinct of looking for food and water was the status quo of every single inhabitant.
A mass of Titian curls dressed his freckled-countenance; piercing blue eyes and a tall physique gave him the look of a young scientist and to some extent it was a give away. Aaron was a nuclear engineer, but a researcher at heart. He had worked for the last seven years at the Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, but during his spare time his personal research has lead him to experiment with electrical spurts injected to the brain that enabled out-of-body travels. Aaron believed he could extend the limits of human intelligence through brain activities.
Out there, an urban jungle of ransacked stores, looted supermarkets had become the appropriation of anyone. People were beetling off to shops in order to hoard as much food as they could and they were turning to water bottles for sustenance as tap water had been contaminated.
Much had been talked about in the last twenty years but although governments tried to tackle the issue, little had been done. Global warming had become real and the demise of the Earth was truly on its way. The community had gathered that day for an emergency meeting. Priorities had to be set and food rationed. Too preoccupied with his project, Aaron was experimenting at home with the stimulation of acoustic sounds into his subconscious. Deeply focused on penetrating this invisible wall that he was convinced enclosed the planet, progressively he was adjusting the binaural sound in his headsets when suddenly, he felt the atmosphere very dense. A palpable sense of loss struck him and he collapsed into his bed, losing control of his body. He was barely able to move.
Footsteps were heard, and the front door slammed shut. A svelte middle-aged woman shouted out: “Aaron, Listen… I have come back from the meeting. We believe the water is about to drown the rest of the city and we should try to leave town before…” Interrupted by the sight of her boyfriend, stock-still on the bed, Lucy rushed over to him. A feeling of panic invaded the room.
Tangled up with wires and headsets in his ears, alarming ideas flitting through Lucy’s mind. She knelt over him and tried to shake him up but there was no immediate reaction from Aaron. He was unable to get off the trance state he was in. Slowly his right arm shifted jerkily. Lucy switched the machine off and unplugged all cables. His muscles were tense and his jaw ajar. The room was fairly small and out the window, the landscape looked desolate. Birds were gone and the sound of the wind could be heard rustling through the jamb of the old window. A photograph of Aaron hung above the bed depicting his graduation ceremony seven years ago at Oxford. “Come on, what’s happened to you” shouted Lucy. She gave him a couple of slaps across the face and gave him some water. Slowly, Aaron came to himself and an instant shiver washed over him. He looked disorientated and in awe of what had just happened to him….
