Explosive Personnel

Eddie: Is it a bomb?

Dani: In the bag?

Eddie: It’s a bomb in the bag.

Dani: A bomb.

Eddie: A fucking bomb.

Dani: In the bag.

Eddie: There’s a bomb in the bag.

Dani: It’s an antiviral disinfectant.

Eddie: You’ve got bleach in the bag.

Dani: Sort of.

Eddie: A bleach that needs electricity.

Dani: Now you’re getting it.

Eddie: What’s the virus?

Dani: People.

Eddie: So, you’re one of those “humanity is a virus killing the planet” types.

Dani: There’s a type?

Eddie: Yeah, an old and overdone type.

Dani: Okay.

Eddie: So, is it a bomb?

Dani: In the bag?

Eddie: We’ve been through this.

Dani: It’s a bag bomb, a bomb of a bag, a big bad bag bomb.

Eddie: (looking off) Did you hear that?

Sounds of distant explosions grow closer as the two sit leaning against the wall of an old bunker. Between the explosions there are screams or war cries; it’s hard to distinguish at this point.  The light around them is shifting, broken by flying shadows of unseen things from above. Eddie looks to Dani for an explanation, but she has changed. She’s the same person, he knows that, but she is also not the same. Her face is a different face. He thinks it must be fear. Loud and close explosions draw his attention away from the new Dani. That vibration is returning. This time it seems to come from the ground. He presses his back hard against the bunker wall and focuses on the forest edge. A giant snake emerges and towers above them. He thinks of Jimmy Swaggart and his blubbering confession. The snake made him do it. Eddie is captured in an arresting moment. “So, this is sublime” he thinks to himself just before he hears a terrible scream come out of his own mouth. The snake lowers to the level of their heads and licks Dani first but then comes for Eddie. Dani is frozen, Eddie too. He feels a feather light touch as the serpent flickers his cheek. The explosions are so close now they seem to be surrounding all three, Eddie, Dani and the snake. The ground is shaking like it wants to be liquid. Mixed with the explosions, there are voices, screeching voices selling junk and ideas and identities. So many bright colors pass by in a clipped pastiche signifying nothing. And then everything is white, like fluffy-cloud-side-lit-by-a-harsh-summer-sun white. Eddie is alone in a space undefined by physical law. Dead silence. Eddie begins to crawl. He can’t tell the direction, nor can he determine why he is crawling instead of walking. He sees no surfaces but feels confined and while there seems to be no limit to this white space, he feels trapped. But does he feel? He tests this. No sensation at all. His mind is processing normally but he has no physical sensation whatsoever. This is what it’s like to have a mind without a body. All the space you can imagine but no way to feel it. Trapped in a void of eternal unreal. Nothing to touch. No one to reach out to and no one to hold your hand.