The Girl And The Blue Fire

In chaos theory, the butterfly effect indicates how a variation of a small event, can subsequently change the course of larger and more important events, through a series of chain reactions.

And it's precisely on this principle that the "Butterfly Effect" mode is based.

The Big Government had created a knife capable of transmitting on command, a virus, which by reproducing very rapidly in the victim's body, raised the body temperature to such a level that make the blood boil.

This inevitably caused death.

The virus infects only by direct contact, which is why it's only necessary to touch a corpse to become infected and boil alive.

K-111 opened his eyes.

His aching body was immersed in a bathtub filled with ice, placed in the center of his apartment.

His head was bobbing loudly, and his memories were blurred, he could only see blurred images, and the sense of anger he had felt earlier still had not faded.

He tried to get up, but found himself completely unable to do so because of the very strong cramps he felt.

As he looked at his hands he noticed uneasily that they had turned completely grey, and so had all the rest of his skin, as if from one moment to the next he had become heavily anemic.

He was very thirsty and very hungry; it must have been days since he had been put in there.

Finally he made up his mind, and with all the strength left in his body, he crawled out of the bathtub.

Clinging to the edges of it, he managed with extreme effort to get to his knees, and then with just as much effort, he stood up his legs shaking like leaves.

He took only one step before passing out again, on the floor.

Now he finally felt better, felt a comforting warmth, and the pain was gone.

His eyes had deflated and he felt that the blood had begun to flow again as usual.

Then he saw a light, a blue fire that gradually became more and more intense.

That flame reminded him of the intense fire he had felt that day in the center.

He opened his eyes wide in terror, waking up startled to find himself in front of a figure, looking at the flame in profile.

"Oh, you finally woke up!"

"Wait... But this voice... Sophie!"

"How are you feeling? Have you recovered?"

"What the fuck are you doing here?"

"I'm cooking lunch, can't you see?"

K-111 was quite confused, probably hallucinating from several days of sleep.

"How did you get in? And how did you know I was here?"

"You hadn't shown up for days, and because I was worried I tracked down the music player I had given you, then when I arrived I found the door open."

"You tracked me down? Are you some kind of stalker or what?"

The girl turned to him and in an angry tone said: "Listen carefully, i've been taking care of you for days, found you slumped beside that filthy bathtub full of ice, put you to bed, fed you, and even administered painkillers!

Oh by the way, the effect should have almost worn off."

K-111 screamed in pain.

"As I imagined you are suffering a lot.

But can you tell what happened to you?"

"It's none of your business, and why do you care so much about me anyway? You should have let me die."

"I could never do that… Besides, you saved me, if it wasn't for you I would never have freed myself from the tyranny of that evil man, I owed you a favor."

"All right, I understand, if you really care so much I'll explain everything, but I don't think you'll be happy about it."

The girl took a chair, turning it backwards, and sat down on it, resting her head on her crossed arms over the backrest, looking intently at the boy."

"My full name is KILLER-111 and I am the Machine Man assigned by the government to eliminate individuals who pose a risk to society.

My gift is to be able to use the butterfly knife in an unparalleled manner.

At the age of 18 I was drafted and trained, and at the age of 20, I took part in my first mission which consisted of killing the pedophile who bore the name "John", that is your old pimp, only the mission took a turn for the worse and I was forced to kill the rest of the criminals present that night as well.

Big Government after the "Human Lake" news had noticed my ruthlessness and I was summoned by the head of the secret department to the center."

"Did you really go to the center? And tell me, what is it like?

Is it really a paradise as they describe it?"

"You're more surprised by that than by anything else... Anyway, it's a wonderful place, where people smile and technology is state-of-the-art!

Just think, they have really long cars, movie theaters, supermarkets, a huge tower, lots of clothing stores and restaurants where you can eat delicacies, they even have huge houses where every family lives on their own."

"Family? And what is it?"

"What do you mean what is it? A family is a group of people, almost all related by blood, who love each other and would fight to defend each other."

"And how do you know that?"

"Well it's obvious, because-"

"Because I killed them all."

"Who the fuck talked?!"

"Huh? Nobody talked, be calm."

"Right, no one talked, after all, it's just the two of us here....

Anyway, once I got to the government, while I was conferring with the leader, a group of rebels approached the building, and I took them all out with the new knife they gave me."

The girl's gaze became more serious.

"A group of rebels you said?"

"Exactly, a group of dirty rebels."

"What exactly were they doing?"

"They were talking about freedom, forbidden words and shit like that."

Sophie was silent for a moment.

Then in a trembling voice she said: "Did some of them happen to have a coat of arms somewhere?"

K-111 pondered for a moment.

"Now that you mention it, yes, they had T-shirts with some kind of gray heart printed on them."

"Then it was you...

You exterminated the group fighting for the rights of the Machine Men."