Fractured Reality

The world felt to Billy like the surreal nightmare of a deranged painter, someone like Hieronymus Bosch or H.R. Giger. He stood in front of X-3-19's door and hesitated before pressing the buzzer. He was low on patience, so he pressed it again. And again. And again. He only stopped when he heard unfamiliar voices behind the door.

Am I too late?!

He couldn’t make out the words, couldn’t decipher the conversation, but one thing was crystal clear: X-3-19 (or Emilia) was screaming for help.

"No! Shit!"

Billy Jones threw his shoulder against the door. Slammed it with his fists, tried kicking it in. He felt certain this was it, his final act on Earth. That he was about to walk straight into the arms of an overwhelming enemy. But he didn’t care. He had to protect Emilia, the girl of his dreams, at any cost.

A loud bang echoed, and for a moment, he wasn’t sure if it came from inside the apartment or if it was the door giving way under his blows.

Nope, the door's still intact.

He stopped for a moment, out of breath. He had almost nothing left in the tank. Then, suddenly, he remembered what she had written to him.

The key’s under the mat, you idiot!

Billy snatched up the key, jammed it into the lock, and twisted it open. He rushed through the hallway, following the sound of voices. A strange smell, like machine oil, hit his nose. The voices came from the bedroom, where just last night, he had been with Emilia...

But when he burst into the room, the arguing stopped.

What he saw was something entirely different.

Something so horrifying that no words could describe it

Only one feeling.

Pure terror.

The walls were splattered with blackened blood, a thick, pulpy mass oozing down the wallpaper in streaks. Pieces of hair lay scattered across the floor, shiny and slick like metal. And there she was, his dream girl, lying on the ground.

Her head was missing.

He could only look at her out of the corner of his eye, unable to face the full horror.

What he saw was already too much.

This time, it wasn’t the pills or sickness that triggered his nausea. It was the sheer cruelty of the scene before him. And no tablet on Earth could have stopped what came next: he vomited violently onto the floor.

Even though Billy’s glance at her had lasted less than a second before he had to turn away in horror, he’d still recognized the young solar technician by her beautiful figure. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. His heart raced. His chest heaved as he made a wide circle around the body.

She’s… X-3… No, Emilia, she's dead.

What cruel twist of fate had led Billy to find the very man he’d been desperately searching for in the harbor district, now lying in the threshold of a secret room, just off the bedroom where the lifeless body of the love of his life lay?

Right next to the murder weapon.

"You goddamn bastard. Hey… hey, stop!"

The loudmouth guy picked himself up, his lip bloody and a gash on his forehead, and smacked Billy a few times, left, right, left, right, until he snapped out of it, blinking, turning halfway to the side, and gagging again.

"Calm down, man. Do you really think I could have done it?!" He placed his hands on Billy’s shoulders.

"X-3-19 is dead," Billy said.

"And up until now, I thought you were too," Isaac muttered.

"What? What the hell are you talking about?"

"I thought you were the one lying in the bathtub, dammit. With a bullet hole in your chest."

"What in the world…"

"The scientist," Isaac whispered, "the one lying here now… without a head… on the floor. Damn. How did you know her?"

"What the fuck are you talking about? Who’s in the shower?"

As Isaac moved into the dim light, Billy could finally make out the details of his haggard face: bloodshot eyes, dark circles sunk deep beneath them, bruises on his forehead, a swollen, busted lip, messy, tangled hair, and a patchy, scruffy beard. The marks of the last few days made Isaac look several years older than when Billy had last seen him. Before Christmas, about a week ago.

"At least you recognize me," Billy whispered. "That’s," he continued, "the first good news I’ve had in what feels like forever."

"You don’t look like you did last time," Isaac said, "but yeah, I recognize you. You saved my ass back at the solar cell factory…"

"Billy! My name is Billy!"

"Calm down, you asshole. I know who you are. You’re not a number, you’re Billy. Billyboy. God, the scientist…"

When Billy Jones glanced around, his gaze nearly fell on the headless solar technician. "What scientist?" he asked.

Billy, who had bizarrely never really doubted that Isaac was involved in X-3-19’s death, shook his head frantically, as if rejecting a thought or some truth, though he wasn’t even sure what. Maybe life. Or the path it was dragging him down. Then he asked, "What the hell happened here? X-157… isn’t that the guy who tried to strangle you in the factory?"

"We both ended up in the Lincoln Tunnel after we got fired. I was here with X-157," Isaac continued, still sounding dazed, "to steal secret research documents for the PROMISED LAND Pope."

Billy pressed his lips together.

"The Promised Land Pope?" His gaze almost drifted back to the horribly disfigured body, but he forced himself to focus on Isaac. "Oh, my God," he muttered.

Secret research documents? Was that why X-3-19 wanted me to get to her as fast as possible?

"Supposedly sensitive information, compromising material that could bring down the corporation," Isaac said.

Billy froze. "Which corporation?"

"Our old employer."

"The Thandros Corporation?" Billy’s mind raced. Who was X-3-19, really? Or Emilia? It seemed like identities in his life were shattering into pieces. Not just his own. Vivian’s, too. And now even Number X-3-19’s.

"Where are the documents?"

Isaac sighed. "X-157 took off with them. They were on a USB flash drive. He snatched it from me before knocking me out with that thing."

Billy followed Isaac’s pointing finger to the strange futuristic weapon lying on the floor. The murder weapon. "This just keeps getting crazier."

"But unfortunately, not any less real."

"No," Billy whispered. Then he looked back at Isaac. "So, the data’s gone?"

"Yeah," Isaac said, then after a pause, "Or maybe not."

"What do you mean?"

Isaac sighed again, avoiding the sight of the solar technician’s body sprawled out on the floor. "She said people would be coming soon. From the corporation. With one goal: to take us out. She was prepared. We weren’t the ones she wanted to give the documents to. It was you."

"Me?"

Was he really that surprised?

He watched as Isaac walked into the secret room. The air was barely bearable, even with the open window. The fresh air couldn’t push out the sour stench of vomit or the heavy smell of ...

"How much time do we have?"

The secret room was small, just enough space to push the chair back from the desk and sit down. Isaac cleared his throat and started up the old computer.

"We need to find whatever she left for you," he said, as Billy leaned over his shoulder and stared at the screen. Why was Isaac so eager for the data? What was he even doing here?

The computer was ancient. No fancy laser keyboard, just an old sticky one, with a wired mouse plugged into the machine. Billy moved in closer, and that’s when he noticed something sticking out from under the keyboard.

"What’s this?" he asked, pulling it out and looking at the small card in his hand.

"An ID."

"Yeah, but what kind? I’ve never seen one like this."

On the front of the card was a photo of Number X-3-19. When he tilted it slightly, the Thandros Corporation logo (the impossible cube) appeared as a hologram over her face. Above it, in bold letters, were the words Order of the Enlightened.

"Flip it over," Isaac said.

On the back, it read:

Thandros Corporation Research Complex

Agent ID: X-3-19

"Billy?"

"Huh?"

"Why do I get the feeling Thandros is hiding something from the world?"

Billy shook his head. "A secret research lab." He laughed bitterly. "It's probably not much of a secret where it’s located."

Isaac licked his lips. "Of course... It’s obvious. In the heavily guarded area beyond the walls around Central Park."

"Yeah. The Paradise Walls," Billy said, swallowing hard.