Timeline: Present
Point of View: Ralph
Location: Earth (outside Ralph’s apartment)
Ralph fell to the ground, the buzzsaw on top of him. Its weight was immense, and as he tried to fight it off of him, it felt as if it had an unlimited number of hands. Ralph could its grinding teeth spinning in the creatures mouth as it fought to hold him on the ground. Ralph could sense that death was close and felt powerless to stop the creature from biting off his head.
Claudia had incredible powers for fighting (he’d seen her abilities briefly once he’d become aware of his own power), but he had nothing that could help him here. His only ability was Astral Projection, which apparently allowed him to see the Red Planet. But now that ability was completely useless. Even worse, the ability apparently had allowed him to bring the creature back to the Red Planet with him still in it clutches. Could he return and bring Claudia back to assist in the fight?
You’re not strong enough to go back. You’ve used all of your essence.
That’s right. He’d forgotten about that. He’d need to kill a creature and steal its essence before going back there. The ability required a build up of essence.
Claudia would be stuck back there until he could return. Out of her long list of abilities, he'd seen she didn't have the power for travel. The only reason she’d made it back to Earth the first time was because of Ralph and happenstance. Why did things keep colliding with him over there?
The grinding teeth continued from above him, but he realized then that the creature wasn't moving. The creature was holding him to the ground, but wasn’t making any fatal moves. He listened, and then understood why. There were girls screaming, some chatter from others, people running both toward and away from them. Cars were screeching to a stop to see what was happening.
I brought one of the creatures to Earth.
And there’s no one here to kill it.
This is good, said the voice in his head, a voice he was still acclimating to. They will distract the creature. You may get away yet. Stay still. Wait for the right moment.
Ralph listened. From his peripheral, he saw a teenager standing by the apartment building pull out her phone and hold it up in the recording orientation. He remembered the Tik Tok videos of the the giants coming out of Colorado. This would add a new flavor. A new monster. She'd be getting some followers.
There was a crack in the air, a large buck shot sound, and the creature squealed. It leapt off of Ralph and was gone, running at an impossible speed like a spider in the shadows.
Ralph sat up, seeing that some of its blood had spilled across his chest. It was warm, sticky and black. It smelled of rot.
Ralph had seen a dog skinned in a car accident when he was young. He’d ran up to the dying animal, hoping to save it, but found that it was beyond saving. It had been a small dog, but he couldn't remember the breed. One of those mutt types with curly, dirty blond hair. It was yipping and yapping, trying to drag itself across the ground to safety, its skin and insides spread out behind it like a bloody sack. It was an image he’d never unsee. It was a smell he’d never forget. The smell was of the rot inside of everyone finally being exposed to the air. It was an unnatural smell.
“Kid, are you alright?” A voice asked.
“Kid, you kidding me? I’m in my thirties,” Ralph responded.
The man knelt beside him, examining him. He laid his shotgun on the ground. He looked a little older than Ralph, his skin beginning to show signs of wrinkling. His buzz cut black hair indicated to Ralph that there was a chance the man was military.
“None of it is mine. I’m fine. Thank God you were here or that thing would have ripped me to shreds.”
“After seeing what’s going on in Colorado, you’d be an idiot to be out and around without a gun.”
Ralph considering taking the man's words as a slight, but said nothing.
“We have to kill that thing,” Ralph said, “I think you wounded it.”
You need to kill the creature and take its essence. You need to return to Claudia.
Yes, I know. That was the plan.
“Yeah, but man, where the hell did you come from? You seemed to just appear there from out of no where with that creature attacking you. I saw the whole thing from across the street.”
There were more screams from around the corner of the apartment building. Ralph realized he’d returned to the same spot that he and Claudia had left, but that made sense. He didn’t physically travel to the Red Planet like Claudia did. His visions had always been only a projection of himself to the other side.
“Later,” Ralph said, “We have to kill that thing.”
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
The man helped Ralph to his feet, and they ran around the brick building, the gun held firm in the man's hands.
If he dies, take his gun. You have abilities that will assist in combat, but you won’t get them until you reach the next tier.
How can you be so insensitive? This is another human being, and he just saved my life.
You can hang onto the aspect of ourselves that is still our humanity, but while you do, I’m going to make sure you make the right choices to guarantee your survival.
As they rounded a bend, Ralph’s stomach dropped. There were three dead bodies here, and he remembered them as the kids that were standing outside on their phones watching videos. That was the painful trick technology played on you. You could watch the suffering from hundreds of miles away and never feel in danger of anything happening close to home. Then, when death finds you, you’re never ready.
“This is why everyone should own a gun,” the man said as they approached the bodies.
An argument from another time, thought Ralph. When you’re safe there’s no need for a gun, because guns bring inherent risk for danger. But now they, now everyone, was in a new world, a world where guns became a necessity. He thought again about how unprepared everyone was for what was to come. The creatures, even now, were pouring through that portal in Colorado. It was only a matter of time before they were here, too.
Quick, get close to them, take their essence.
What? No. I’m not taking essence from human beings.
Now is not the time for morality.
Ralph approached the bodies behind the man. The closest had had their head ripped clean off, while another’s arms had been severed and her body punctured hundreds of times by razor sharp teeth. The third was still breathing, but the blood being coughed up from her throat was evidence that the end was near.
Oh my God, Ralph thought. This is all my fault. The inner voice didn’t argue the point. He wished he had Claudia’s ability for healing in that moment. He could maybe steal the essence from her dying friends and give it to her. Maybe it would be enough…
No, it wouldn’t. I see now how weak humans are. These little girls had almost nothing to begin with. Don’t bother taking their essence. Nothing on Earth will be worth taking. When we’re on the Red Planet, you will need to steal the essence from every dying thing you come across, but things native to Earth aren't worth the effort.
What a harsh way of life, Ralph thought, and again the voice didn’t argue the point. Ralph felt himself crossing a point within his life where humor, for once, could not solve the pain he felt inside. This is what life was to become now, and no jokes would stop it from happening.
There were screams from further on, and the man chased those screams, not bothering to wait for Ralph. Ralph approached the dying girl, then knelt beside her. Her eyes were vacant as she stared upward into the endless blue sky. She was likely already gone, mentally at least, but Ralph felt a responsibility to stay at her side, to make sure she wasn’t alone. More blood erupted from her throat in a cough, some of it landing on his arm.
Ralph reached out to touch her cold hand. “I’m so sorry,” he said. As he spoke, the girl’s eyes shifted away from the sky to look accusingly at him. They were a beautiful bright green with a gold rim around her pupils. A tear rolled down the corner of her eyes, and Ralph soon shed some of his own. The girl died this way, those eyes peering through his. They’d be peering through his eyes for the rest of his life.
Ralph wiped his eyes and stood, then chased the screaming.
----------------------------------------
He found the man with the buzz cut lying on the ground beside his gun. There was a trail of the dark blood and bodies that had led him to the man. Traffic had stopped as people stood around trying to figure out what had happened. Ralph could hear their conversations like a swirl of static in the air.
The man’s arm had been bitten clean off, the one not holding the shotgun. But that wasn’t how he’d died. His head was lying a short distance away from the body. Ralph thought “buzzsaw” was an apt term for the creatures, much better than his term of “minotaur” prior to meeting Claudia. "Minotaur" still had some semblance of humanity to it.
As people surrounded the man, Ralph picked up his weapon. He checked the cartridge, which held two more shells inside. At most, he’d gotten three shells into the beast before he met his fate.
Ralph hadn’t held a gun since his teenage years, when his father had taught him how to load, aim, and shoot. It felt heavy in his hands.
“Hey, this is a crime scene, you shouldn’t have that,” a man said.
Ralph ignored the man and took the weapon anyway. He found the black, tarry blood trail again and ran after it. No one stopped him, and no one followed.
----------------------------------------
He found the creature in a row of trees along a low traffic road. There were no people here, which Ralph found odd. He figured the creature had dispatched those in the area and took off before others coalesced around the chaos.
It was lying down, but still living. It tried to stand once it saw Ralph, but collapsed back to the Earth after a lazy attempt. Gore was dripping from its razor teeth, partly human, partly its own. Ralph approached it carefully and cautiously despite its apparent weakness.
Its teeth spun as it saw Ralph, its numerous eyes spinning as it neared unconsciousness. It had a large hole in its back end, and a leg lazily dangled back there from the shot. In what could have been described as its gut was a second shot. The third had glanced the side of the creature’s head, taking a few of it’s eyes but apparently missing its brain (if it’s brain was in its head). The man with a buzz cut was unlucky. It seemed if he’d been able to escape, he would have lived long enough to watch the creature die as it bled out.
Ralph raised the gun and blew a hole in the center of the creature's head, confetti spraying up in the air and caking the bark of the trees.
Quick. Its essence.
Ralph placed his hand upon the ruined body and took in all the remained. It felt as if his body were glowing as the power coursed through his blood. “Oh fuck that feels good,” he said.
Now, Astral Project. But as you do, send more of your essence than you did last time. This time you have enough power to fully travel. You’ll use most of it, but Claudia will help you get more.
Ralph did as he'd commanded, feeling the world turn in on itself as soon as he’d made the decision. He felt that hazy sensation at first, the feeling of not being fully in one place, but as he focused on his new essence, he found that he could hone in on the required action, and he sent all of himself to that place.
He landed on the Red Planet and collapsed, exhausted.
Essence Current: 5 | Max: 20 Learned Abilities • Astral Vision
• Astral Teleportation
Ralph didn’t take the time to fully appreciate his new ability. He stood and looked around, but found he was in a new area of the planet.
And Claudia was no where to be seen.