Little Pieces of Mind

Written by Alif Widitiya Naufal - J1A019036

A night on 23rd of December 2015, in the most populous and busiest city of Los Angeles. My wife, Maria, and 7-year-old Shawn were preparing to decorate our living room for Christmas Eve. At that time, Maria was tired,  so I made her a glass of warm milk and cereal, a gesture to repay my wife. Home feels very warm and cozy with the lights on and the decorations on our Christmas tree. While we were resting, there was breaking news that a murderer was on the loose. I quickly turned off the TV and move on.

In the middle of the dark that night, my phone rang loudly, waking my wife and me from our peaceful sleep. While I was still half awake, a call from the Department of Defense made my heart skip a beat. My wife Maria asked me if I was okay, for I was silent like a stone, thinking about the fate of our household that I love. Shortly thereafter, a cold gust of wind blew along with the roar of several helicopters and fighter jets flying low over our house heading south. Birds chirping, dogs barking, and the silent gaze of Maria enlivened the darkness of the night. I told my wife that it was the same thing that I described 10 years ago. 

"Hurry up! We don’t have much time left!” I screamed. 

“You’re dreaming right now! ” Maria shouted at me but I didn’t respond.

The roads are getting chaotic, people going mad, while I drive very carefully. “Dad, are we all right?” said Shawn with his innocent gaze. I was speechless and stunned, for I didn't know what would happen. We saw the chaotic streets as if on a riot, emergency sirens blaring over the panic-stricken city of Los Angeles. The police intervened to calm the residents down, but I don't think there is any result. We have arrived at our destination, in the middle of an abandoned cornfield, beneath the dark, foggy hills. Minutes passed and at that time, I was still silent while calming my wife and Shawn. Listening to the chaos and sirens wailing made me panic a little, but I was good at hiding what I felt in front of my family. 

A limousine, a jeep, and people dressed all in black came up to us.

“We meet again, Jackie. Stand still here and try to wake up. You don't have to worry," said a mysterious person that I thought it sounded a lot like my old friend. 

In the blink of an eye, an extremely bright blinding light appeared on the horizon. While this cornfield descends underground it shows that this is a government facility doomsday bunker. As we arrived, the mysterious people told Maria and me to enter a tube-shaped device, one by one we entered. But it turned out that the tube was a cryogenic device. It makes us fall asleep and be preserved in artificial ice. Shawn got separated from us because he ran away. I can’t defend myself and my last sight is my beautiful wife.

The bunker was huge as big as 2 football fields if I remember correctly. There are several rooms such as a lab, a garden, and an arsenal. We were not the only ones there at the time. I finally woke up from my sleep. Confused and paralyzed, I could only crawl out of the cold steel tube. My instincts told me to check on my wife. But fate said otherwise. Maria’s tube is damaged by several others. My beautiful wife is now half a skeleton and flesh. Blood marks everywhere. The body parts covered in artificial ice were scattered throughout the room. There is no sign of life other than me. 

Out here the world feels very different. The roads were destroyed, the buildings turned to ashes, the trees that were once shady are now turning into dead trunks. “War, war never changes,” I said in my mind. 

"Wake up, Jackie" A voice that I heard from afar. 

Dark and empty, there’s nothing in here but the cold air. The next day, I planned to look for animals to eat and survive in the area and try not to be killed by the hunters. I found a piece of paper on the rocks that said “This is not real”.  Either the person who wrote it was very optimistic or he just wanted to run away from this reality. Both are very scary to me.

“Maybe this is a sign it’s going to rain,” I thought when I  was looking at the gloomy sky. 

Every drop of rainwater in this new world contains the harmful and poisonous substances leftover from the Great War, so I took the initiative to run towards the boulder that was not too far in my sight, looking for cover. The faces of my wife Maria and son Shawn were in my mind all the time. 

And again I heard the phrase, “Wake up, Jackie!” but this time it was Shawn’s voice who said it to me.

I ran the suburbs of Los Angeles that was turned into ruins. On the way, I saw hunters watching the main road not far from me. I hid in the weeds, praying to God that I wouldn’t be hunted. The hunters were armed. I counted 6 hunters who were scavenging the grass and abandoned cars. I think they’re looking for electronics left over from the war. If I’m not mistaken, 1 hunter saw me. 

“Shit, I won’t die here for nothing.” I  panicked and rushed to run towards the rocks before. 

I tripped and fell while running. The hunters finally caught me. They injected a strange liquid that made me hallucinate. I blacked out immediately. 

“Patient number 045, Jacques Jackie Roberts, you have finally awakened,” a man with white robe said.

“Where am I?” I asked. 

“Oh, you’re at Shady Grove Hospital,” he calmly replied with his smirks on his face. 

I opened my eyes only to find that I was in bed, in a hospital room accompanied by a doctor who looked like he was in his 60s. The medical equipment, the heart rate device and the tube that was plugged into my nose were all in my body.  

“Where is my wife? Where is my son? What happened to me? I remember that the hunters caught me and then I woke up in the hospital?”  I asked while shouting at the doctor.

Dr. Callahan calmly replied, “It is all not real. You don’t even have a son.” I deny all that because I do have a wife and a child, at least that’s what I remember. 

"Jackie, this is 1970 in Los Angeles. You are a murderer. You killed your wife, Cassie. You raped her before you decided to mutilate it into 12 pieces. You are a cold-blooded murderer and rapist. I shouldn’t have let you live,” said Dr. Callahan. 

My instinct told me to strangle Dr. Callahan. Seeing him lying on the floor, gasping for breath made my adrenaline rush. I seem to have felt this ecstatic in the past. I ran out of this hospital and saw the glittering city of Los Angeles. Neither the buildings were destroyed nor the bodies of people on the streets.

There was no sign of my identity. Whether it’s relatives, my parents, or my name. I was like a ghost. The last 10 years after I ran away from the hospital, I was looking for Maria and my son Shawn. But there was no result at all and there are only bits and pieces of my mind.

In the middle of the night on Christmas Eve, I decided to take a walk in the city park to lighten my mind.  I saw a priest in a black robe.  He talked about the greatest sin of man.  Killing and raping women.  Guess that's the bottom line from what I understand. But then he looked at me. 

 "...and may God have mercy on your soul, Jackie"