(SXWC) Eternal Asylum

Be gentle.


SXWC – Eternal Asylum

Jerry wakes up to the sudden shaking and loud crashing noises that seem to come from deep within the earth.
“What is happening?” He shouts out.
No one answers because he lives alone in his studio apartment in downtown Manhattan.
He gets to his feet as it suddenly dawns on him that this is an earthquake and a bad one at that. Doing the first thing that comes to his mind he staggers to the doorframe of his bathroom. Bracing himself in the doorframe he stares wild eyed in the mirror. His face is deathly white and his eyes are bloodshot as if he had been drinking all night.
The shaking and crashing noises lasts another few seconds though it seems like another ten minutes before it slowly subsides. He lets go of the doorframe and collapses to his knees as his body is wracked with convulsions. Crawling to the toilet he barely gets his chin over the edge before everything he has ever eaten seems to come up.
After what seems like another five minutes he finally gets to his feet and leans over the sink. He rinses his mouth out with some cold water and wonders out loud, “did I go out drinking last night?”
He thinks back to the night before. December 20th, 2012 was a Thursday night so there is not a chance in hell that he went out drinking.
“Maybe it’s the flu or something. I better give Jack a call and let him know I’m not going to make it in this morning.”
He rinses his face off with the cooling water and dries off with his hand towel. He looks at his face one more time and starts back at the site of his eyes. They have never been this bloodshot in his entire life. Leaving the towel on the sink he walks slowly to his phone and dials his work.
Nothing. Not even a dial tone.
“That’s weird.” He says as he puts his phone down. “Maybe Sharon’s phone is working.” He looks around for a clean shirt and pants and slips out into the hallway.
As he walks down to Sharon’s apartment he notices that some of the doors are open. This is yet another weird thing that he ignores. He cannot afford to lose his job right now. Not during this depression.
He arrives at Sharon’s apartment and notices that her door is open as well. He knocks tentatively.
“Hello. Sharon?” He says into the apartment. “Anyone home?”
He doesn’t want to enter in without consent. Sharon, although she is one of the nicest people he knows, is one of those crazy ‘conspiracy theorist’ types. She has all sorts of funny notions as to why things are happening and why we are in the current depression. Simply put, she is a good looking woman with a ton of baggage that he doesn’t want to carry around.
Knocking again he raises his voice. “Sharon? Are you home?”
Again, no answer. He decides that he should check with Mike, his only other friend in the building. At least Mike is easier to approach. The only problem is that Mike is ten floors down. Jerry resigns himself to make the trek. He really cannot afford to lose his job.
As he heads towards the elevators he begins to take notice more and more of all the doors that are open. Then it dawns on him that maybe they all exited the building because of the earthquake.
“What an idiot! Of course everyone left the building. I should have left the damn building.” Chuckling to himself, a tiny flash of relief coming over him at this obvious realization, he makes it to the elevator.
Depressing the button he notices that the lights don’t come on.
“Great. They are out of service.” He sighs to himself.
Heading for the stairs he realizes that the elevator in this hundred year old building is probably the last place he would want to be at this time. He opens the door to the stairwell and begins to jog down two and three stairs at a time.
Reaching the bottom floor he exits the stairwell into the main lobby of the building expecting to find a milling mass of residents. Nothing. No one. Frowning to himself he considers heading up to the second floor to Mike’s apartment when something bizarre catches his attention. With a slow creeping feeling of dread coming over him he makes his way to the building entrance.
Opening the lobby doors he looks out onto what appears to be a ghost town. He can’t even remember the last time he saw 34th Street without a car on it.
“What the hell is going on?” He asks out loud.
“Jerry? Is that you? Oh thank God!” A voice from his right exclaims.
Jerry turns to see Mike jogging towards him looking as bedraggled as he must look and definitely as he feels.
“Mike! Do you have any idea what is going on?” Jerry walks toward his friend as he gestures out towards downtown Manhattan.
Mike looks around with a hunted look, a strange site to see on one of the most grounded men that Jerry has ever known.
“Jerry, I have no f’ing idea what is going on. All I know is that it isn’t safe out here. Let’s get inside.” He tugs on Jerry’s shirt sleeve and leads him back inside the building. Once there he continues. “To be honest with you my friend I don’t know what to think. There are strange things happening out there…”
He goes on to explain how he woke up to the same shaking and noise. How he went outside to what he hoped was safety. There was not a soul on the streets so he decided to walk around to see what was up. That is when he saw IT happen.
Jerry’s jaw begins to drop as he listens to his friends story. Is he seriously hearing this from this man? The man that was absolutely skeptical of everything? The man that would not believe anything until he held the most absolute solid proof in his hand and not always then?
“Hold on man. What are you saying? I don’t understand what you are implying here Mike,” he says.
“That’s what I’m trying to get at. I don’t understand it myself. I mean, I heard this woman crying out. I went over to see if I could help her out in some way. She was just sitting there in the middle of the street crying out that she understands now. Then out of the blue some…thing, comes flying along and hovers above her. One second she was there, the next she was like, sucked up into this thing and then it just zipped off!” He runs a shaky hand through his hair.
Hair that Jerry notices is drenched in sweat. Again he is taken aback by this outward display of obvious fear from this stolid man. What could do that to Mike?
“Okay. What did this thing look like?” He asks quietly.
Mike looks off into the distance as he tries to gather the words to describe it. “It looked like a silver ball of light. About the size of a small car. It didn’t make a sound man. I mean, it just zipped up to her and sucked her in!” A nervous chuckle escapes his lips.
“What? Do you think it is aliens?” Jerry can’t believe what he is asking.
Mike looks at him directly in the eyes. Jerry notices for the first time that his eyes are as bloodshot red as his own are. Mike starts to say something but then his eyes go wide and he grips hold of Jerry’s arms in a painful grasp.
“What is that?” He nearly cries out.
Jerry whips his head around looking for a silver craft but sees nothing. “I don’t see anything Mike.”
“No. What is that voice? It keeps asking for me to wake up. That everything is okay. That I should come to the light.” He looks around like a caged animal and begins to pull Jerry frantically for the stairs. “We have to get out of here.”
Panic begins to set hold on Jerry as he allows Mike to lead him up the stairs. He is really scared now and is wondering truly what the hell is going on. This is the strangest thing that has ever happened to him before in his entire life. Before he realizes it they both crash through the rooftop door onto a gray winter’s day.
“Mike, why are we up here?” Jerry asks nervously.
Mike looks around with darting eyes that are verging on panic when he says, “I have to get away Jerry. The voice wants me to believe. That all I have to do is believe. I can’t do that Jerry. I just can’t.”
At that moment a silver orb zips up to just above them. It is pulsing slightly. Mike looks up and let’s out a scream of terror. Before he can do anything Jerry watches as his friend races for the edge of the building and launches himself over it. With his stomach in his throat Jerry runs to the edge to look over. Afraid of what he is about to see he is surprised to see nothing. He stares down at the street looking everywhere that his friend could possibly be. He has forgotten about the orb until all of a sudden a voice booms in his head.
“Jerry Bloomfield. Everything is okay. We are here to help you. It is time for you to wake up.”
Without a thought for what he was going to do Jerry began to run. He does not know how long he ran. All he knows is that whenever he feels that he finally has found a place of safety the voice starts up again. He races throughout the city that is now a ghost town running in and out of buildings. After what seems like half the day he finds himself at the top of the Empire State Building. Knowing that there is no way out he waits for the voice and the orb to show up.
His fears are realized when the voice begins to tell him to remain calm and to wake up. Without thought he breaks through the observatory window and perches upon the ledge.
“You can’t have me! God damn you, you can’t have me!” With that last statement of defiance he jumps. Rushing air whips his hair back for what seems like long minutes until blackness overtakes him…..

Jerry wakes up to the sudden shaking and loud crashing noises that seem to come from deep within the earth.
“What is happening?” He shouts out.
No one answers because he is alone in downtown Manhattan.

cont...
Edit: got the names mixed up! LOL

[edit on 15-4-2009 by dariousg]

[edit on 15-4-2009 by dariousg]

[edit on 15-4-2009 by dariousg]

The ending....

“Doctor, how is our patient?” The nurse asks with a smile that could light up a room.
Doctor Danielson stands over Jerry Bloomfield and removes a small device from his temple. “Well, he is a tough one to get through to. He simply cannot accept the world as it has become. It is human nature to hold onto the material realm.” He sighs and looks down at the sleeping man. “I’m sure we will get through to him eventually. We have enlightened fifteen more today. Surprisingly enough Michael Blackwell was one of them.”
A squeak of surprise escapes the nurse, “Really? That is wonderful news. I just can’t understand why so many hold onto a reality that is so far below themselves.” She shakes her head as she looks up at the enormous room that is packed full of thousands of sleeping people.
“I don’t know,” the doctor says. “Maybe they are scared.”



I could explain what I meant with this story but I hope that the meaning can be discovered simply from the story. I hope you all enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it and writing in general.

reply to post by dariousg


Just glanced through your post and thought of defining asylum.
Asylum - In this crazy world, if one is not crazy, one definitely is.

Awesome story man, awesome story!

s&f, do you mind if i show this to my friends and family??? that would be an awesome movie

S&F my friend, an excellent story. I hope you do well in the contest.

wupy

Go ahead. I enjoy writing and what good is writing if people can't read it?

Now, as for a movie, well, I get first rights! LOL

reply to post by ctjctjctj


I like that take on it. I almost feel that many of us are already in our own asylum. We don't seem to want to wake up to what is so obvious now.

Not saying that in regards to 2012. Who knows what that year or day will bring. The odds are it is just another day and will pass like the millions of other days in the life of this planet. Then again, who am I to say?

I just wanted to try and give a little more hope to what I feel would happen than what I have been reading in the other stories so far.

reply to post by dariousg


Sadly, the sheeple have been so dumbed down that I suppose they will only wake up when they have nothing else to lose, when it's life or death.

I still have faith that we will wake up. Yes, a lot of people are simply asleep at the wheel but eventually there will be that 'ahah' moment. I just hope that, as you say, it doesn't come when it is simply a life or death situation.

I have hope for mankind unlike many others. I seriously believe that we will evolve into something much better than what we are today.

I don't buy for a minute some of the idiotic 'scientific' statements that we have reached our evolutionary peak. I forget the scientists name but he seriously thinks we are as good as we get right now. Idiotic. LOL

It's so nice to read a detailed account of what I might call 'an elevation to a higher reality'.

Mike and Jerry were a couple of hard cases that just couldn't let go.

Nicely done with the dialogue, dariusg.

Nifty ending too.