Skip The Budgie

My dreams flow into each other across periods of waking. At the beginning there is a town like in Half Life 2 - all wooden buildings, broken and deserted. There is an underlying fear of the machines that think and their destruction of the world we live in. Huge insect-like metal creatures roam the land and we live underground, creeping, hidden. As I enter the story, I am in a barn which has been turned into a makeshift bar. My friend at the door nods towards a lone girl, given a wide berth by the other drinkers, long leather coat, big boots and short black hair. Go and talk to her, he says. She needs you. I recognise her from the films.

I am confused. I hadn't realised I was important, still best play along.

• - Hi, I...

She looks at me, eyes wide. I blurt out a foolish anecdote, desperately trying to ease into the conversation, to let her know I am on her side and not just another sleazy guy trying to get under her coat.

• - Shh! They're watching.
• - Who?
• - Ssh!

She takes my hand and we leave, to a safer place, a more private place where I learn...

Later on we are running across rooftops, dodging bullets, surrounded. She is taken and I am unconscious. When I wake I have to rally the gang and launch a massive assault on the base where she is held. While the rest of the guys battle the evil robots in the street I am sliding down the roof, jumping, falling. Breaking the window and I am inside, see her there curled up and bound in the corner.

Of course there is a showdown, the details are vague but there is an evil man who mocks me. Less so when he is falling out of the window after our epic struggle.

When I set her down, safe at last, she clings to me fearfully. We share a moment.

Get the book, she says, you forgot the book!

...

The next night I am back there again, only this time we are negotiating a maze of dark corridors. When the inevitable splitting up happens I find myself alone and in a small room with a vortex that looks not unlike a toilet.

I flashback to our conversations about this place. This is where we end. When you enter the vortex you die and are reborn somewhere else. A baby with a new life, a different life. Is it still you? Will you still have your memories? Can you remember your past lives now? We are young, not even thirty and it is time already? I mourn the adventure of the night before. If we are to die now, what was the point?

I spend an eternity staring into the swirling nothingness. I don't want to do this. Everybody else has, I can feel it. I will never see them again. I will never even know that any of this existed. I don't even know if I WILL be reborn. It might all be lies.

All I can do is hope. I take a deep breath, and jump in.