I dream of machines

It was a Friday evening. I remember he wind, it was cutting it went right through me, the sky clear and bright lit a million stars. I stuffed my hands in my pockets to try and keep them out of the cold but it didn’t stop the tips of my fingers going numb.

I got in, after a fifteen minute walk turned into a 30 minute wander, having drunk way too much and doing the carlsberg two-step, the one foot forward, two steps left or right depending which way my body weight went then another foot forward,  all the way down the main road, and not coming back with much cash.

I got in, shut the door a bit too hard, swore even louder, my usual cat like touch had been replaced with an elephantine oafishness. Dammit. I thought. Straight up to bed, that way hopefully Ill reduce the collateral. So, kicking off my shoes, I make my up the stairs like a lethargic sloth. I turn the light with and curse again, as the light rushes into my pupils, causing me to squint. Its as if I was blinded by the dark then in turn, blinded by the light. Hmm. Strange thought that. Anyway, stumbling over to my bed side table I see my night-time reading book, about machines becoming so advanced they become sentient. A bit of half serious fiction, it may happen but who knows.

Like many, like night-time spliff. It settles me, my capacity for imagination and appreciation grows. So set about trying to roll one, squinting as I do. I pull open the draw, reach for the king-sizee rizla, 12.5 of golden virginia and of course the key ingredient, Weed. Going through the same routine I have hundreds of times before, I assemble the spliff, poking down the end and twisting. I grab a lighter and head out the room turning the light off and heading downstairs. On the way down grab my keys and put the shoes on I kicked off and head out into the cutting wind.

15 minutes later I come back, my fingers and everything are cold. I didn’t put a jacket on. As my fingers regain the feeling back in them they begin to hurt, like someone has stuck nails through them. Again, I lock the door with elegance of a baby lamb and crawl upstairs. I’m starting to spin out   at this point.

I get up to my room, still crawling and not switching the light on either, its was too harsh and somehow gather the co-ordination to turn my DVD player and T.V on. T.V helps me sleep at night. God knows why but there we go. Anyway, I see Arnold Schwarzenegger’s barren, emotionless countenance on the screen, I guess he’s looking for Sarah Connor. As I watch the screen, my focus begins to blur until all I can hear are his flat, monotone and her screaming kyle Reese’s name. The blur of colour is overtaken by my eyelids, getting heavier until the close whilst at the the same the voices fade away.

All of a sudden I’m aware of my surroundings. I think I’m in a city, Scorched earth, burnt trees, lots of fire everywhere. The air is filled with piercing, deathly screams and the sound of power hydraulics. The sky is grey with dense cloud. The smoke, from the fire is making me cough. As I turn around I see burnt out cars, gutted building, the inhabitants, I’m guessing, were burnt to death by the fire. This looks like a war zone, but even worse, like the nearest place to hell on earth there could be. Scorched bodies everywhere. Fear strikes me but I don’t know what I scared of, I cant see it directly, though its here, I sense it, I can see its wake. I hear screams from behind some buildings and I go to see what it is. Cautiously I go over but as I do the sound of robots and hydraulics get louder. At the same time a band of people, mainly women and children with a couple of men, hurtle towards me and then I see it. They run at me, knocking me down but I cant my eyes off of it. As big as a 10 storey building and looking like an mean skeleton, where tendons and ligaments would be, pistons and hydraulics are. Where the eyes would be, the window to the soul, there is nothing except two red lights. The machine is human looking, but lacks the soul and has one thing on its mind. It smashes its right fist into a building, completely demolishing it. I am petrified, yet I cant take my eyes of this monster. A strange feeling comes over me, a numb feeling, as if no thoughts in my head, just fear. The power of this machine combined with the thought of eradication of us is…frightening beyond belief. As the people run they shout to me to get up and run for my life and the human race. I hear them but don’t say anything. Too stunned. The screams of “come with us” don’t sink in as they alert the monster to my presence at its feet. It looks down at me in a robotic and as it looks at me, its bare teeth and glowing eyes look at me with an evil smile. To the background music of screams and destruction, It raises its left hand into a fist and as it slams down on me I close my eyes and pray…

I wake up with a sweat. Wow, never had a nightmare like that before. Fuck. That was…well…intense. My mouth is even more dry than usual when I get a hangover. Oh well, just a dream, just a terrifying, scary as fuck dream. I open my curtains and my draw drops. No, this cant be happening. Now is the time I really panic. Out into the distance I can see…houses, building, cars destroyed, reduced to rubble, smoke and screams filling the air, dead, charred bodies on barren land. And the scariest part of all, I see those giant, evil eradicators marauding for more victims. The nearest one, not too far away, looks over and sees me. I look onto my windowsill and see two red lights shining on me. Frozen to the spot, the hydraulics begins powering the monster in my direction. It was all supposed to a dream, I never thought, never ever thought it would happen. As it gets closer, its right hand moulds into a fist and with that evil hellish smile slams towards me…