The Lost Exit

'left, left the next left!' yelled Marianne as the Vauxhall sped across 2 lanes and onto the slip road.

'I've been down this damn road for the last 20 odd years and have never noticed this exit!' Exclaimed Mike, his rugged face reddened by the sudden exertion.

Marianne clutched the child close to her chest. She could hear a TV somewhere in the distance and images of celebrity couples drift by.

'I'll have to wait 2 hours before I tell him about erm...'

'Where the fuck are we Marianne?'

There was a luminous red sky which lit up the the metallic telegraph structures as the headed down into the metropolis.

Marianne looked at the rusty chain on her lap and smiled briefly.

'What have you done to me Mike?'

'why this exit Marianne, I'm bloody shittin' it here!?'

The ominous sound of twisted metal filled the room as mike pressed the pause button. TV screen red. Mike sat and stared shivering naked an the stone cold floor.

TV screen grey, clocks ticking in unison, Mike sat on the floor laughing and mumbling about the government.

'The cops are coming, the one's in green uniforms, those bastards, those cops again.'

He looked up at the grey box and closed his eyes for a moment.

The Wood

'I think we should stop for a drink.' Suggested Suzie resigned to the fact that they were lost.

Steve rested himself against a tree stump rubbing the perspiration from his forehead.

'I think we're finished Stevie.'

'Look, I know how this plays out, ok, go on, dump me in the middle of a Sunday walk, you'll be holdin' hands with your phillylosopher tutor tomorrow.'

You're such a selfish little boy Steve, I put off university for you and you're spendin' the time we have together...oh fuck you man...'

Suzie looked down at her red doc martins.

'I'm so sorry Suze, it's just...what the...'

He looked across, her body was pixellated.

Flashing codes raced in front of Steve's eyes coupled with high pitched noises screaming through his brain...darkness.

'Thank you for using Qualcom Eternity...please call again.'

Steve took off his headset and proceeded to amble through the mall clutching his stick and carrier bag through the crowds. He stopped and looked in a mirror, a withered face pickled with bitterness looked back.

He coughed up a ball of red phlegm.

'Fuck it,' and continued to stagger past the swell of the beautiful young things.

Goldfisch.

'Hey you, over there, Mr human person thing. Hey, hey, you, you.' Sploosh.

Toby put a second teaspoon of the white stuff in his coffee and looked out the kitchen window.

'Hey you, bastard, motherflipper.' Sploosh.

The funeral was over, vol-au-vents consumed, now Toby was alone with his thoughts. He felt a tear roll down his cheek for the first time since that phone call from the hossie exactly 3 weeks to the day.

'Hey come ere you, get ya arse erm, hey, hey...over here.' Sploosh!

Toby walked over to the bowl and scattered a handful of arsenic across the surface of the water.

'Idiot.'

Chomp.

'Sucker'.

'Chomp.'