"Run!" she screams, a primal cry,
     that echoes off the dead.
Her mouth nigh dislocated,
     in the wake of aforesaid.
I scramble to my feet,
     the tread from shoes not quite enough.
Slipping on uneven floor,
     and scuffing surface rough.

I run as fast as limbs allow,
     slow and inefficient.
Another skill I curse myself,
     for being unproficient.
The blood pumps faster now, my speed,
     I'm sure has to increase.
A piercing note in rising tone,
     is rifling through the peace.

A distance safe, I turn to left,
     Yolanda isn't there.
I check the other way, my right,
     then stop in stupor stare.
She's lying there atop the girl,
     pinning her to ground.
I swear my eyes vibrating,
     at that wretched whining sound.

She sees me stop then "Go" she screams,
     "I will not leave you here." The tears form as vessels tense,
     in a different kind of fears.
I start to walk towards her,
     "No", is her response.
She cannot change my mind on this,
     the thoughts that I ensconce.

And then in wicked motion slow,
     I see a gentle flash,
Accompanied by pressure great,
     and apocalyptic crash.
My body from the floor doth lift,
     a strange fire fills my eyes.
A general feel of floating,
     is the best I can surmise.

With senses overwhelmed at once,
     my brain in short reacts.
Ignoring all the data and,
     point blank refusing facts.
My eyes are blurry, ears rung,
     and the the pain arrives.
My body's nerves on fire,
     as the suffering survives.

In my head a pain so sharp,
     I cannot clearly think.
And all I see is coated,
     in a subtle shade on pink.
I take a time to realise,
     that I'm lying on my back.
Whilst feeling certain pressure,
     from arrhythmic cardiac.

The body hurts in waves that make,
     the roughest seas look calm.
It rises swift then peaks aloft,
     with undulating charm.
I blink away, or try at least,
     the colour fadeth not.
As if beseeched with tint of rose,
     that heaven did allot.

Debris and dust rain down from sky,
     I shield me face with arm.
I turn my head and curl in ball,
     reducing chance of harm.
Something larger falls from sky,
     and collides with upper thigh.
Something I don't want to see,
     a sight to horrify.

The black a black I've seen before,
     that traps and kills the light.
A black that haunts my vision,
     in the deadly creams of night.
The patent shoe lies on its side,
     discarded without care.
Attached to leg, to skin and bone,
     alone and unaware.

I pull myself to sitting stance,
     though pain makes me regret.
And stare at what I know is hers,
     afore the coldest sweat.
The icy dew on landscape grows,
     as quick as mountain snow.
A realisation dawning on,
     what lays at feet, below.

I see destruction dead ahead,
     where Pharma Queen had been.
The pieces of the bodies,
     cast from broken figurine.
But movement there I surely see,
     and drag my battered body.
In way overtly awkward,
     painful, slow and shoddy.

A searing moan, I hear her now,
     the sounds 'cross landscape drift.
The fact that she is still alive,
     the most amazing gift.
I pick up pace and use my legs,
     though nerves me so berate.
And pelt my brain with pleading,
     and a scorn that turns to hate.

I reach the girl Yolanda,
     with tears in my eyes.
The journey took forever,
     amid her harrowed cries.
But when the sights doth register,
     when my brain does comprehend.
The facade is duly shattered,
     and brings and end to world pretend.

From post to pillar, pillar post,
     and back and forth between.
My sanity is wavering,
     on block of guillotine.
For where there should be blood and gore,
     the very signs of life.
Are shiny metal shafts and springs,
     I'm stabbed in back by life.

"You lied to me", I scream at her.
     "You lied! You lied! You lied!"
At once I'm leaning over her,
     with anger justified.
"You're one of them. You're one of them!"
     I cry with voice of rasp.
And slowly on me dawns a thought.
     I'd prefer I didn't grasp.

I scratch at arms in rabid rage,
     determined to reveal.
"Stop!", she hollers. "Stop!"
     she screams. "Xavier, you're real"
The nail cuts I see the blood,
     a snake of ruby slithers.
My greatest fear, above them all,
     wanes and slowly withers.

I hang my head. "You lied to me",
     I say in voice defeated.
"I didn't Xav. I didn't lie",
     her statement twice repeated.
In blinding rage, I grab at ground,
     and find my hand a stake.
With which I now intend to use,
     to end my worst mistake.

I raise my hands with grips so tight,
     the metal cuts my palms.
The crimson snakes return again,
     and wind down outstretched arms.
"No!" she says, "No",
     again, "I do not want to die".
"You won't", I say, "It's just a shell,
     you strangely occupy."

Her eyes now shudder searching quick,
     for thoughts to help persuade.
Whilst fast I hold to death above,
     that sacred makeshift blade.
She sees intent, she knows I'm set,
     so fast and resolute.
I'll end the rouse, this fake facade,
     in movement absolute.

The welling starts in eyes so blue,
     the pools increase in size.
A prelude to their curtain call,
     the finale of demise.
"You can't," she speaks in broken voice,
     "I thought that we were friends?"
"Friends with a machine?" I ask,
     "No! here this friendship ends!"

The lively sun now permeates,
     and shadows cast are long.
Elongating figures, as it,
     paints perspective wrong.
From high above, the morbid scene,
     a slowly solved enigma.
As shade retreats and heals the Earth,
     of a dark and sullen stigma.

I don't believe her lies at all.
     This moment lasts an age.
It fills my mind with anger,
     like the ocean storms that rage.
A tiny boat slammed fore and aft,
     awaits calamity.
The tiny boat with name so apt,
     "The fall of sanity"

My breathing rasps, I fight each time,
     my lungs become my foe.
As if they sense a coup of sorts,
     intent to overthrow.
"Goodbye" I speak, my meaning lost;
     Good riddance, more the thought.
Time for all the lies to end,
     no more will she distort.

The stake begins its quick descent,
     a dagger cuts through ether.
With force to pierce metallic skull,
     and into what's beneath her.
Reactions quick, her arms arise,
     to brave defence position.
Against my actions now she fights,
     in abject opposition.

We clash, our limbs, I feel it now,
     that hers don't strike the same.
As if my own are feeble, weak,
     my strength is put to shame.
"No" she sobs, "I have a heart"
     "Then tell it to the judge."
And down I push with all my might,
     to end this evil grudge.

"Don't make me do it," flees her lips,
     a threat in words I feel.
Her strength is waning, fading fast.
     Machine's Achilles' heel?
I push until the blade is but,
     a whisker from her face.
Prepared to see the crimson snake,
     slither through the lace.

A fool I was, entirely fooled.
     This world unlike my own.
Betrays the values I hold dear.
     and strips me of my home.
The fear I see, so real and yet,
     a forgery created.
With purpose to deceive me,
     and my heart once captivated.

She struggles now! Well is it she?
     A simulated sex.
A maze of logic patterns,
     that prescribe a charm complex.
"Just a machine," I murmur,
     while entranced in daze confused.
And then again my world is paused,
     she hollers our, "bemused".