The Change: Jacob

And excerpt from "The Change: Jacob", a short story that takes place directly before "The Change: Life", my first short story...

Chapter 1

- MIA -

I woke up screaming, completely drenched in sweat with the face of a large feline robot looked down at me with what I imagined was its version of concern and worry.

This waking up screaming thing had been happening more and more lately.

It had started when I was just a child, and neither my father nor mother had any idea why. I would never tell them of my dreams, of the things that haunted and terrified me so much that it was a fight every night to make myself go to sleep.

It was something that I couldn't talk about to anyone. I doubted that I could even if I wanted to anymore; I was pretty certain that I was the only non-monster alive in this world. Normal people seemed to have changed into mindless, vicious versions of their former selves several years ago. And then there were the strange new creatures that traveled the planet and looked vaguely human but definitely weren't. They scoured the planet like they were looking for anything that still might be alive �" and when they happened to come across something, even mindless, they exterminated them without a moment's hesitation. It was something I had witnessed more than once, and the images danced through my thoughts almost every minute of the day.

Part of me was glad that they were here; for once, the mindless humans that had hunted me since I was a child were being hunted themselves. There was a certain poetic justice in that, I suppose, but I wasn't a philosopher. I was a survivor.

Or at least I was so far.

The sky boomed at me in surround sound and seconds later I was being pelted by a light, refreshing rain. I turned on my back and faced the sky, enjoying the clean water lightly pelting against my skin. It rained so little it seemed, almost as if the planet itself was starting to give up, only letting loose its purifying liquids when it absolutely had to.

I could understand its angst.

I was grateful for the rain, however, because I badly needed a shower. Places that had conveniences like running water were hard to come across anymore, and they were growing fewer and fewer by the month. Maybe the water would help get rid of this angry pimple on the side of my left cheek. I looked over at my robotic cat-like companion, Soda, and smiled. She was, luckily, waterproof, something that I had found out the hard way when we first fought. I had jumped into a lake trying to avoid her, and, without missing a beat, she jumped right in after me.

That was not a fun fight.

I stood up, hearing all of my bones and muscles scream in protest, absentmindedly reaching down and scratching Soda behind the ears, even though there was no way she could have felt it. I walked to the edge of the rooftop I had slept on for �" however long I was out this time �" and looked over the building's edge.

There weren't as many mindless as I expected. Maybe they had gotten the memo and decided to hide out from the visitors out of sheer self-preservation. Maybe, but I doubted it. Soda jumped up on the roofs edge and glanced down too, as if she were evaluating the scene beneath us. Hell, maybe she was. For all I knew, she was smarter than I was.

I took another step, until I was just barely on the roof's edge.

One more step, one simple step forward, and all of this would be over. The loneliness, the angst, the pain.

The loneliness...

Yeah, I know I already said that, but I can't say it enough. Being constantly alone does things to a person. Saying it simply makes you crazy cheapens the feeling somehow, makes it seem less serious than it really is.

It was something that was next to impossible to explain, to make someone truly understand.

Alone.

The word alone was way more powerful than people used to think, maybe because no one had ever truly been alone before �" it was simply an abstract concept.

Now, however, it was life.

My life.

Just. One. More. Step.

And it would all be over.

The rain picked up its intensity, almost as if it were trying to make it easier on me.

"Go on, go ahead,” it seemed to say, “The roof is slippery now. I did this for you. A simple twist, a tiny movement of your foot is all it would take. Come. We will do this together. Life doesn't have to be this hard. It doesn't have to hurt this bad."

I yelped in surprise as a large tennis-ball sized metallic orb flew around my head and directly in front of my face. I instinctively swatted at it �" to absolutely no effect �" and jumped back, slipping on the slick roof and falling straight down on my a*s.

And then rolled backwards and slung my legs out and forward, landing back on my feet and in a defensive martial arts crouch.

Soda sprung towards the ball, barely missing it as it hovered out of the way. The orb seemed to shake briefly and then, in a blur of motion, came at her with startling speed, slamming her into the rooftop with more force than should have been possible. I gasped as sparks began to shoot out of Soda's body, and watched with my mouth open as she tried to get up, but couldn't seem to make herself.

That's when the rest of the orbs flew up into view. Six in total.

I gritted my teeth. We were not going down like this.

I ran towards Soda, slipping briefly on the wet roof, then snatched her large but slender body up and placed her over my back and shoulder as I made my way to the edge of the roof. Her claws reflexively dug into me, and it hurt like all hell, but it also ensured that she wasn't going to fall off, so I tolerated the pain for now.

I looked back �" those weird orbs were still following me.

Of course they were.

I picked up speed and finally reached the roof's edge.

And then jumped off.