Ducks By The Lake [Part Six: Reality Shatters]

A retreat to post-modernism...

I sat there in my chair in the living room. It must have been midnight or thereabouts but I just couldn't stop my head going round in circles. It'd been hours since I saw Callum but still my mind was racing like crazy. My life would never be the same again, nor would my perception of the world. How could they do this? How could they do that to someone like him? I just couldn't...

It's hard to write down even now. It's too hard to pick up this stupid pen and just write it down and tell you what was said but, for the purposes of history, I suppose must. So here goes.

"The young man was a friend. My brother. My partner in crime so to speak. And he was beaten up for the most...human...of reasons. He was a victim of his own nature. But his own nature was something that was out of his control. My friend...this is why he was attacked...and this is why YOU need to know..."

"Ok. I'm ready".

"You can never be ready for this. This will tear your cosy little world apart..."

"Just tell me already!"

Callum looked at me and took a deep breath.

"He was attacked because...because...he's not...human...not anymore".

I stood there and looked at him for a few moments before laughing sarcastically.

"Oh. Good one. You had me going for a second there!"

"It's true".

"Not human?! He wasn't human? You're kidding me right? How the hell do you expect me to believe that?"

"Anymore".

"What?"

"He wasn't human anymore".

"I know that! He was dead! Of course he's not human anymore because he's gone onto bloody pastures new now! What the hell do you take me for? Wasn't human? So what was he? Alien? Have we had visitations from little green from the planet Octavio or something?!"

"Don't be absurd. We've had visitations for years..."

"Don't test my patience, Callum!"

"I always knew it was going to be hard for you to believe but I was hoping you'd be rather more open-minded than this..."

"Open minded? Open...right. Yup".

"That boy you saw and I. We belong to a group called 'The Inside'. And we keep an eye on people of interest with regards to the pursuit of truth. We pick on people who have an underlying urge to pursue knowledge in its purest form and confront them with the truth of their reality. We are the ultimate truth-seekers".

"You sound more like Illuminati. You're basically just a bunch of sordid...post-modernists aren't you!"

Callum thought for a moment.

"I hadn't thought of it like that. But yes. We are the ultimate post-modernist think tank".

"Damn it my head's starting to hurt..."

"This is normal. most people react this way. As you've already witnessed".

"You told that mob guy?"

"That was...unfortunate. He found out and...well...eliminated the threat".

My head was spinning with all this information. I wasn't sure what to believe at that moment. And it was only going to get weirder...

"Brother Jackson was a good young man. He had so much potential..."

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

"You don't believe me do you".

"OH WHATEVER GAVE YOU THAT IMPRESSION?! WHEN YOU WROTE ME THAT LETTER I DIDN'T THINK I'D BE CAVORTING WITH A FREAKING COMMUNIST!"

"I am not a Communist. Communists have been extinct for 50 years".

"Look...I can't deal with this right now. I have no job, I've been in prison and I have a family to try and looks after. I can't be involved with whatever you're trying to get me into..."

"We need you".

"Well I don't need you. I don't want you to ever contact me again. You understand? I don't want you near me or my family. Got it?"

"I can't guarantee that. I can only guarantee that I'll keep trying. Then one day you will concede".

"Oh you wanna bet?"

"Yes. You will concede. Or will you remain the coward you were as a young man?"

I saw red. I looked at him, raised my fist and threw a punch at him. I hit his face, but it was me who let out the agonizing scream. Callum just stood there as if nothing happened. I nursed my fist which was throbbing. It was like I'd hit a brick wall. But it hadn't.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"

I looked up at him and I saw what was wrong. His face looked perfectly still, but I could see silver running across his face. It wasn't like blood or anything, it was just kind of sitting there. Static. I studied him carefully as my fist started to adjust to the pain. Callum watched me as I scrutinized every inch of his face. The silver catching my eye as it glimmered in the street lights. It was like...he was a robot. But he couldn't be...

"What are you?"

Callum chuckled. He put both his hands on his head and paused.

"See for yourself..."

I then watched with horror as he slowly peeled back his skin. It was like watching an autopsy when the coroner opens up the brain, seeing the hair and scalp come off him like some old wallpaper. He continued to until he revealed a metallic structure where his head should be. I couldn't see his face, that was obscured by his scalp, but I looked inside. The metallic structure opened like the doors in Star Trek to reveal something organic beneath it. I looked carefully as it dawned on me that it was a human brain. It just sat there. Pulsating, beating, working inside a metallic shell. It made me sick to my stomach. I stepped back in horror as the metallic structure closed and he repaired his appearance. The squelching of the skin as he did so is a sound I'll never forget. It was disgusting. I'd never seen anything like it before. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Callum smiled when his form, including his face, was completely repaired. The silver streaks that were there before had disappeared as if they were never there. Not even a small mark on his now perfect skin...

"Do you understand now?"

I shook me head slowly. I wasn't going to pretend when I was in shock.

"Not. At. All. You're a...a...robot!"

"Not exactly. I'm an amalgamation of robotics and organic material".

"Who...who the hell did this to you?!"

"I don't know. I can't remember".

"You don't...How can you forget something like that?"

"Great gaps in memory are nothing new. I've suffered with them for as long as I can remember. Which, as it happens, is not very long when you look at it in perspective".

"But you used to be...completely...human?"

"I can only assume so. I have a human brain, human emotions and human memories. Therefore I must have been, at some stage, human. Yes".

"How long have you been like this?"

"I can't tell you. As I have no time frame to compare it to".

I stared him up and down, trying to process what I was seeing. I kept shaking my head just in case I was dreaming. As far as I knew, that letter was laced with something. Some kind of...hallucinogenic or something and I was just on some kind of weird trip. Any second then, a leprechaun was going to start jumping around the streets riding a golden retriever who had the voice of the big guy out of the A-Team from centuries ago. This can't have been real. I kept pinching myself and kicking myself hoping I'd wake up in a hospital bed. But no such look.

"And that boy..."

"He was like me too. There are a few of us. 6 in total".

It was at this moment that something hit me...

"Let's see how many times we can kick you until you can't feel anymore? Call it 'scientific curiosity'"

"Of course. 'Scientific curiosity' meant...damn..."

"Now you understand?"

"Still no...how could someone do this? Take human brains..."

"And other organs..."

"And...what?"

"I'm also equipped with two human kidneys, a liver and a heart".

I stood there in shock.

"Ok...who could take all of those from a human and put them into a robot?! Who would do such a thing? And why?!"

"I don't know. That's why we need you".

"Why me?"

"You're not like the others. You don't believe in the divides that dictate your society and you are fair in nature. You don't like violence and hate others using it..."

"I'll have you know that I destroyed an NS-2 droid with a cricket bat".

Callum looked confused.

"Why?"

"Because...because...the fucker had it coming. That's why".

"That's irrelevant".

"That's what the NS-2 kept saying..."

"You are more inquisitive than your peers. And we need people like you in The Inside. We need a sharp and inquisitive mind like yours to work out what happened to us. Because, how do we know that others are not becoming like me? It might be for the best of reasons, but we still need to know. And the public deserve to know if their friends, their families, their peers, are being changed. Don't you think?"

He had a point.

"Wouldn't you want to know if your children had suffered the same fate as me?"

I knew then I had no choice. I accepted his offer of joining The Inside, whatever that was, on the condition that my family be left alone. Callum accepted. And that was it. The deal was made. I was now part of what could possibly be a revolutionary movement. The search for the truth of what had happened to them and whether it was happening to others.

Before I left, Callum would tell me that he would send me details of my first meeting with the rest of his kind in due course. But for the moment, I was to rest and try to process everything I'd seen. Could I process it? I had to eventually but, I mean come on, that doesn't happen does it?

Still, even that wouldn't prepare me for what was yet to come...