The Haptic Warlords: Power of Touch

“I’m gonna get us out of this!” Eliza was terrified, her heart was racing and she was shivering with fear. Her hands were tied behind her back and she could barely hear anything above the muffled sounds of gunfire. She looked down at her feet to see a broken body lying there bleeding out on the floor. “We have to run!” Eliza yelled in panic over the roar of the crowd.

“It’s too late!” The panicked tone in his voice was evident. He knew that they were not going to make it out alive but he couldn’t bear to look at her face and tell her that they were going to die here tonight.

Eliza and Vic had been working together for a few months now on some research project that they had been given by one of their colleagues. They had done their best to stick together ever since they met in the cafeteria two weeks ago and now they were trapped in a dark alleyway with a gang of men pointing guns at them.

Vic took off his jacket and began wrapping it around Eliza’s head. He then wrapped it around his own face and pulled the sleeves tight over his hands. “This is what you do, when you don’t want anyone to know who you are!” He said, trying to lighten up the situation even though he knew that there was no way out of this for them. It was just a matter of time before either Eliza or him would be dead.

Eliza feebly put on his jacket as she sobbed uncontrollably; tears rolled down her cheeks as she looked up at Vic who simply shook his head in regret. He then took her hand into his own as they stood facing each other in silence, waiting for their inevitable fate.

After what felt like hours, a gunshot rang through the air as people began screaming at the top of their lungs. A man quickly rushed past them holding an unconscious woman by the hair while running away from two other men wielding guns of their own. Behind him, lay another dead body bleeding onto the ground next to them. They both gasped as they watched him rush past them into darkness lit only by street lights dimly shining through the dark skies above them.

Time seemed to stop for both of them as they stood still watching everything unfold before them, unable to believe what had just happened before their very eyes.*