Angelo stepped out of the house slowly, dread filled him. With every step he took, he was almost certain that was a mistake. However Atena’s persistence annoyed him to know end. It didn’t take long for him to realize. That the body armor he had bought did not fit him at all. Some parted him believing he may have been scammed, he would leave without it if she didn’t insist he wear it for now.
He locked the door behind him manually, the electronic shutter’s struggled to lock without the house AI in control. If civilization managed dot survive, he wondered how he will explain the dead bot to his father. There was no insurance policy on self-destroyed devices.
“Just another fucking Tuesday, right Angelo,” he told himself, trying to calm his nerves.
“Are you losing your mental composure?” Atena asked him.
“No,”
“So why are you speaking towards yourself?”
“I’m trying to cope, ms Silicon Chip. Humor is a great way to do that. I don't expect you to understand.”
“But I’m not made of silicon,” she asked, puzzled.
“Of course, mystery minerals and technology. Did they give you an emotion emulator when they made you?”
She did not reply.
He shook his, slowly moving out of the yard. The fog was beginning to clear up, the road was visible, he could even see the inner town lights from where he stood. The glowing sphere in the sky, made him uncomfortable, as it edged around the planet rotation lane, he could feel something was off about earth’s gravity.
“So that’s where you came from?" he pointed up at the ‘dead’ planetoid. Staring at its might.
“No, I was made on this planet around 12000 years ago, when I offered my body for the cause. You could argue that my previous self was born there.”
That raised more questions than answers.
“So you were like a human once, or like the other annunaki?”
She once again kept quiet, perhaps this was a sensitive topic. He held it off, but he would ask her again in the future.
As he crept through the eerie road, he saw a vague mass resembling a body lying on the ground. Anxiety gripped him again.
Is that an injured person, do I need to help?
“That individual is dead, I would not investigate, you might attract the wrong attention.”
“Bah– who gives a damn, that someone’s family member, I can’t just leave her there!”
“Don’t be brash.”
He ran towards the ‘dead’ person, holding out hope, putting his hand on their back, and tried rolling them over.
“Oh fuck!”
An elderly woman lay with a face frozen, twisted in terror. Large chunks of her flesh were ripped off her face and arms, he could see bone and cartilage, protruding from her limbs. A rancid stench hung in the air, very thick and a rotten kind of sweet. He struggles to cope with rising bile coming from his throat, backing away as he lets it all out on the sidewalk.
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“Blech!”
He vomits his stomach out.
“I warned you!” she shouted. “Not even the dead will receive sanctity.”
This was a dead body, an actual dead body. He was staring at a corpse. Besides the sickness, he didn’t know what to feel. Some part of him felt guilty, the other part felt nothing.
The mist had thickened again as if playing to his distraught thoughts. He could hear footsteps approaching in his direction. More than one, it was small steps. He knew however it couldn’t be a human child, as human children were irrationally loud.
“Shoot to kill.”
Panic ensues, and he struggles to reach for his pistol. Three humanoid creatures appear, monkey-like, such as the beast he had killed. Each of the hairless freaks had wicked smiles on their faces, their eyes hungry. Bloody faces around each of their massive lips and malformed faces.
‘Could it be the blood of this lady
They darted at him with unsettling and uncoordinated movements. He points and shoot, standing as close as he can to the weaver stance.
Bang! Bang!
Two shots go off. Bullets cut through the thick mist. And two of the naked monkeys fall to the ground awkwardly. Just barely shot them. The third one circles around, and he fires off several shots, missing the thing by a severe margin. He struggles to reload the magazine, his hands shaking and trembling, he curses as the alien creature lunges at him.
It’s claws rake across the kevlar plate, Sparing from being clawed apart. He falls to the ground and the thing, climbs on top of him, like the sleep paralysis demons he used to dream of. It tries clawing apart his face, but he pistol whips it knocking it back. He gets up, turns around and gets ready to run for distance.
It latches onto his back and starts tearing into his skin. The smell of iron and blood immediately entered his nose.
“Get the fuck off me!!!” he shouts as he struggles to get it off.
It lets a malicious laugh, he could only compare it to a hyena. For the first time in his life, he throws his body backwards without fear landing on its back. The thing let out a scream as its body met the concrete road.
Angelo got up, he managed to barely get the pistol loaded, holding it shakily, and his finger struggled to pull the trigger.
He shoots it in the head, its head snaps to the ground, and it collapses. It lay lifeless.
His attention shifted, to something reaching for his leg. One of the two he shot earlier, was still alive and was creeping towards him.
He let out another resounding shot, killing the beast.
He stumbles and falls on his ass. Out of breath and in a state of shock. He shouts at Atena.
“You couldn’t give me battle advice!” he complained.
“If I had intervened, I’d have distracted you, and deterred you from actually fighting.”
He stares at the decaying body of the old woman. The decay wasn’t fresh, but this body wasn’t here a few hours ago before he fell asleep.
“This isn't right. Why did this have to happen now? Why now”
“This is the new normal, I'd get used to it if I were you,” she said. Refusing to sugarcoat the matter.
“This fucked up beyond, belief. Why here, why now.”
“You’re world is undergoing…restruction by lets call them faction A. Faction B believes you have a fighting chance, will you squander it, human?”
He spat on the ground.
“Nice planning faction b has, here human, here’s a sociopathic ai, it’ll guide to a better future my ass.”
“I understand your shaken by this predicament. Don’t worry it will get easier with time. You’ve been credited with 3 points, I'll explain later what it is for.”
He already had a sneaking suspicion. But he kept quiet, it was better not to assume too much with in fog of war.
He wonders, if the Kevlar plate was a detriment, all it did was wear him down. He feels on the spot on his back where things started raking. There were surface level blood drops, nothing too serious, he'd be able to move forward.
As he moves further inwards towards the town, the mist slowly dissipates, yet the landscape still appears surreal and nightmarish. The town was a mess, completely wrecked. Cars were lying upside down and off-road and some appeared have to crashed in buildings. He could hear screams and gunfire. He even spots some of the small ape-like creatures running amok through the fog. It was bizarre, downright comical–he reminded himself, there was no time for humor when he was seeing horror.
“Someone needs to take control of the situation. The survivors, those without abilities or are guided such as yourself, they need leadership. Gather as many as you can, take them somewhere secure.” Atena response was nonchalant and he found it cool even.
He laughed.
“Ok, how the hell do I do that,” he muttered. “I nearly just got my throat fucking pronged.”
“Have some faith in yourself,” she said. “Start small. One person at a time.”
As he moved through the chaos, realization dawned on him, he had passed by the convenience store he’d been in earlier, the girl, that worked there, she was alone on the shift, the store was empty otherwise.
A rush of adrenalin kicked inn, he didn’t know why he felt this way, but if she was in some kind of trouble he could never forgive himself.
He spots a broken neon sign flickering through the mist. He could hear a scream, coming from the building. He rushes to the front but he finds it locked. Through the glass, he sees one of the beasts cornering her against the store counter.
A twisted sense of heroism and probably insanity drives him, and he uses his body to break into the glass door. Glass shattered as he makes his way inside. He was pretty sure he picked up some glass splinters, but it didn't matter. His instincts kick into full gear, he bolts in her direction. The beast's attention turned fully towards him.
He could barely believe himself, all this for a girl he barely knew.