Beyond Man and Machines, Chapter 10
                                   
                                                          

Inside occupied America, 23rd January 2011, 2023hrs.

The room is big enough to stand in, but little else. Chemicals in bottles fill the shelves, a thick layer of dust covers everything except a bottle of bleach and a mop in a bucket that rests against the side.Towards the back of the room an old, filthy sink.

Breathing heavily in the dark, below a broken bulb that hangs from the ceiling, Joy, an average but not unattractive looking woman in her late twenties, with brown, straight, shoulder length hair, crouches down against a thin wooden door.

Behind her, dull but determined thuds vibrate through the wood, making her head rock forward with each strike. Sweat makes its way down her face which is contorted with fear. Whatever is behind that door, to her, is an evil worse than her most feared nightmare.

For the last 6 minutes, Joy's natural instinct for survival has pumped her body full of adrenalin, but now her body is going into shock. A heavy thud makes her lose her footing. Her foot knocks over the mop bucket, the handle crashing down into the bottles making them scatter across the floor.

She can not control her fear now. She starts to whimper with each thump and the cracking of wood. Urine starts to trickle down the inside of her leg which is trembling uncontrollably.

The door disintegrates, pushing Joy away. Her body bounces off the sink and down onto the ground. Something grabs her from the darkness outside of the door. Lifting her up from the floor, it tightens around her legs and torso, cutting into her flesh as an eagle holds its pray. As Joy shrieks, something tightens around her throat and mouth, her shrieks turn into gasps for air. She tries to fill lungs that are fully compressed. She makes the motions of breathing, but with nothing to breath with she gapes like a fish out of water, her eyes wide starring into the darkness. Eventually with a spasm of her body, her bloodshot eyes roll back into her head. Her shoulders fall limp.

slowly, Joy's body lifts into the air as if levitating. Moving up and out of the room delicately, smoothly and slowly, without a sound. The room is silent again.

The Montana Safe zone, 23rd January 2011, 2026hrs.

In the safe zone, refugees are housed in makeshift tents; twenty people per tent. Guards keep an ever watchful eye over the ranks of tents that stretch out into the distance. Lights illuminating the armed guards that walk amongst them.

Joy's brother wakes up with a start. Looking around he sees the other beds around him, everyone else asleep, everyone calm, he is safe. He breaths out in relief, looking around to make sure before he puts his head back on the pellow. He just had the worse nightmare of his life...