Every building of the city was outlined in neon lights to distinguish its own solid form than that of the overwhelming red fog that permeated everything. But Henarie didn’t have to worry about the painful death of breathing the filth of the outside, not when she was atop the tallest tower safely behind glass. She popped another round ‘fruit’ into her mouth, savoring the sound its shell made as its liquified interior spilled into her mouth. It was meant to imitate something called a ‘grape,’ a delicacy in a past and even more so in the present, costing limbs and organs to obtain. Henarie ate another; it was amazing what people did with money and time.
“Henarie.” A lean, muscular man in his forties acknowledged her as he strode through the doors to the lobby cascaded in pink light. “I thought you promised to visit on a frequent basis?”
“I’m here aren’t I? I never said how frequent.” She said, turning to him. “You haven't aged well.”
“And you have not aged at all. The last I saw you, you had decided to set off on your own across the ocean to hunt for your treasure. I take it the search has not been fruitful?” The man crossed the room to the wall of liquor, snatching a bottle more expensive than several buildings, and pored its dark contents into two glasses.
“As a matter of fact, it has,” Henarie stated, snatching one of the glasses and sitting down on a lounge chair. “Which is why I’ve come to you. You’ve done well for yourself considering I did most of the work.”
“And yet I’m the one with all the power.”
Henarie’s fist turned white as she clenched her glass.
“The way I see it, you’re the one who owes me for leaving thirteen years ago without so much as a goodbye.”
“I left a note.”
“A NOTE IS NOT A GOODBYE!”
The man slammed his drink down on the island between him and Henarie, his drink spilling onto its clean surface. His eyes were wild and his body was shaking as if he was struggling to restrain himself.
“You left me! I almost lost everything when you disappeared! What happened to partners for life?”
“If I recall correctly, you were the one that always said that, not me. I never promised anything. You knew my only reason for helping you was so that I could use you in the future, and you still accepted my help, so that’s on you. Don’t put any of this blame on me.” Henarie summarized, leaning back in her chair and taking a long sip.
The man went silent for a few minutes, not so much a shuffle of clothing or the clink of his glass.
“So what’s the word on my favor?” she pushed, thinking of ways to kill him if he refused. Perhaps decapitation, but that was typically very messy, and she’d just traded in her motorcycle for a new set of tight, clean, armored clothing. Strangulation? Boring. She settled on throwing him out the window. She heard him let out a long breath, her cue to get up.
“I sent out the request a week ago.” He confessed, finally taking a drink.
Henarie stopped in her tracks. “And?”
He paused and stared at his drink intently. “Was she the reason you left?”
A slow grin crept onto Henarie’s face as she strolled to his side. She placed her hand on his cheek and gently moved his face to her.
“You already know the answer to that. Once we finish our business, I’ll come right back to your side and stay with you for the rest of your life. Now, how’s about you tell me about that favor.”
A small spark lit in his eyes as he lost himself in hers. “That girl you want will be here within the week.”
“There, that wasn’t so bad.” She patted his cheek and went back to her chair.
Henarie wouldn’t kill him just yet. He had connections she wanted, and until he ran out his usefulness, she’d keep him alive. For now, all she had to do was wait until Terra came to her. Her Terra was in there somewhere, and Henarie was going to do everything to bring her out.
This was going to be fun.
____________________________________________________________________________
It was only by chance that Eimose had been walking down the hallway in the hopes of getting something additional to eat when the screaming started. The initial yell caught him off guard, breaking him out of his daily daze, making his imagination run wild with possibilities. A fall? A fight? An accident with a knife? It was when he heard a cumulative rise of volume originating from the cafeteria that his own fear set in.
The lights in the hallway changed from fluorescent white to red, which in no way helped the condition. A siren erupted from the loudspeakers above, scaring the shit out of him. How were red lights and loud noises supposed to help in this situation? He pushed himself to the side of the wall as a flood of people even more panicked than he rushed out to get away from whatever was happening in the communal area. As curious as he was, self-preservation was more important, so he joined the masses in their dash toward safety.
A roar erupted from behind him, sending shivers through his system. That was a noise he’d never get out of his nightmares. Against his better judgment, he turned around to see the cause of the noise burst through the wall of the dining area and into the hallway. He could only describe the image as devastation in slow motion, like when a bomb is dropped and all you could do was just stand there and watch as the city crumbles.
The black beast emerged from the remains of the wall, shrugging off the dust and rubble that lingered on its head and shoulders. Its back legs were long and skinny, so long that the creature had to remain in a constant crouch as to not his its head on the ceiling. Its tail whipped around sporadically, tearing down even more of the already destroyed wall, flinging chunks of rock onto the heads of those still fleeing. Its front arms were built for destruction--oversized claws clicking against the ground, spikes on its forearms that only grew larger as they traveled up, and taut skin stretched tight against muscular biceps. Its head was small in comparison with the rest of its body, though it was no less horrifying; its eyes looked like they had been roughly carved from its crystalized skull and its mouth was full of teeth too large for its jaw. It had two large pointed horned above each eye, contrasting against its domed head that disappeared seamlessly into its back as if it had a non-existing neck.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
It stumbled forward as if unused to its four limbs, bashing loudly against the steel wall ahead of it. The creature recoiled sharply, running into a part of the concrete wall its tail hadn’t destroyed yet. It continued to sporadically ram into its surroundings, roaring in pain as its clawed hands gripped its small head, allowing time for those seeking safety to cram onto the elevator and escape.
Eimose felt hands push him towards the small enclosed space and he was squished against strangers, doing his best to keep his crystalized arm above his head to make more room for others. The doors dinged shut as he watched entranced by the creature that was doing more harm to itself than to the people less than a hundred feet away from it. Although it looked like the monsters he’d seen in the arena before, it certainly wasn’t acting like them.
The elevator doors dinged shut and the creature was cut from his vision, only the red lights and the rapid breathing of those surrounding him filling the air. As soon as they opened again, the masses flooded out of the small box and into the crowded hallway of the training sector and med bay, jumping into the arms of those waiting anxiously for them. No one was injured, but Eimose suspected a lot would be needing therapy after this ordeal.
Standing aside from those celebrating their families’ safe return was the Colonel, barking out orders at those standing at the ready in front of him. Nearly all of the recruits were armed with a single weapon that best suited their skills, though most held onto guns. Eimose wondered if those would have any effect on the creature since the last time he’d face one of its kind he’d had Yismin and a spear that ate his arm.
“Eimose! Get over here!” The Colonel yelled, dragging Eimose by the collar. “Get in formation!”
“But…” Eimose scrambled, trying to come up with an excuse, “I just got away!”
“Shame on you! There are people with no training a level up and you took one of their spots on that elevator!”
Eimose hung his head and ran to the cage, where the person in charge literally threw him his weapon. Damn, he should have just ducked and followed the flow of people rather than get caught up where the Colonel could see him.
“Recruits, we have faced these monsters before! Remember your training and most of you will make it back alive! Squad one, you will distract the monster while squad two gets close enough to tag it with magnets. Squad three, you will place charges and magnets around the creature. Elites, you have the artifacts?”
A small group of soldiers nodded, lifting their weapons. Unlike all the other recruits, these four had black objects in their hands that shone in the light. Where those...black crystals in the shapes of spikes? Or maybe sharp horns? Or teeth? He couldn’t quite tell from his position behind the other recruits.
“There are only two more waves of civilians left, then we will board the elevator and begin. Squad one is up first, move it as far away as you can from the elevator as you can so squad two and three can move in. Understood?”
The recruits gave out a unanimous war cry, doing little to stop Eimose’s hands from sweating profusely.
“You wouldn’t happen to know what squad I’m in, would you?” He whispered to whoever was next to him.
“We’re all in squad one.” An unfamiliar man responded. “There’s only a few of the Colonel’s favorites that get put into the other squads. I’m Fray by the way. You’re that upper dweller I keep hearing about. A pleasure to finally meet you. If we survive, you’ll have to tell me about that arm of yours over some drinks.”
“I didn’t even realize you had drinks here.”
“We don’t, but if you add rubbing alcohol to a glass of water you can sure as hell feel the burn.”
Eimose choked out a laugh just as the Colonel commanded the first wave of distractions into the elevator. Even though he’d been in the very back, Eimose somehow ended up on the elevator, no doubt the work of karma. This time when the doors dinged shut, he was cutting off his safety and heading back into the belly of the beast. Well, maybe the monster was still thrashing around and wouldn’t pay the squad any attention.
His question was swiftly answered when a clawed hand ripped through the elevator doors, disemboweling three men in a single strike. The doors were ripped clean off as the monster retracted its bloodied limb and the smell of iron and urine suffocated him. The sound of gunfire went off, harming everyone but the monster as eardrums burst.
Eimose saw that no matter how many bullets went flying through the air, none could penetrate the creature’s crystalized skin. Squad one was as much of a distraction as a drop of water to an ocean. He managed to get his crystalized arm up in time to block a strike from a claw, though the impact threw him against several other people. There was no time to celebrate the fact his arm could withstand the force of a monster; he needed to get away before his soft interior became an even softer exterior.
He charged past the monster, jumping clear from its arms and legs. Unfortunately, he forgot to take its tail into account and was flung clear across the hallway, landing painfully on his right shoulder. Pain blossomed and tears stung his eyes as he righted himself on his feet, staying as silent as possible while the monster distracted itself on the easy targets. His conscience was screaming at him to jump back in there and protect the others with his impervious arm, but he wanted to live more than anything, so it would have to be ignored.
Turning away so he wouldn’t watch the massacre, he bolted into the cafeteria to find a place to hide. The muffled sounds of gunfire and screaming faded as he ran into the back area. To his dismay, there was a path of destruction from the walk-in cooler, not the main dining area as he’d suspected. Had the monster suddenly appeared in the main area, come here and destroyed the walk-in cooler, and then gone out to wreak havoc? No, from what he could see it came from the walk-in, but how had this happened? Did they refrigerate monsters? Preposterous. It didn’t make sense this creature would even be here, and yet it was killing men off by the dozen.
His ears slowly cleared up as he huddled behind the water purification system, enough that he could hear the clicking of the creature’s claws as it strolled away from the elevator. Had it just murdered everyone there? Even more shocking to him, he could hear the elevator ding again. How was that thing still functioning without its doors? Was that ding for going down or coming up? Soon after another ding followed and this time he heard the frantic clicking as the monster ran back toward the elevator.
“S2, run past it, S3, detonate charges!”
The sound of gunfire and explosions filled the air and it became hard to distinguish between human and monster cries. One large explosion blasted the cafeteria wall away and Eimose heard the demolition of chairs and tables happening behind him but he had no inclination to peek out from behind his shelter. The monster roared again, sending shivers down his spine when he realized how close it was to him.
A body suddenly flew from above the purifier, landing a few feet away from Eimose. He covered his mouth to mute his scream when he saw the body had no head and the contents of its guts were open to the world. Bile rose in his throat as he stifled a sob; he didn’t want to be here. He wanted to go home. Maybe Greenhouse would take him back. Eimose tried to shut his brain off so that his thoughts would stop, but the inhuman sounds that surrounded him only greatened their volume.
An unforeseen rattling caught his attention, as did the monsters. It was coming from the walk-in cooler, which was directly ahead of Eimose, which meant that if the monster was coming for it, it would no doubt spot him. Suspecting by the fact the rattling was the only sound in the air, it would definitely investigate. Was there enough time to get to the other side of the kitchen? Or run into the freezer?
No, there wasn’t. The monster’s large form entered his vision and he held his breath, hoping that it would somehow ignore him. The monster’s eyes flitted to him, and for a moment it looked like it wouldn’t attack, but that moment was short-lived. Eimose didn’t even have time to stand before the monster’s claw raked across his body, shoving him through the purifier and into the main dining area.
Eimose couldn’t breathe. He laid flat on his back struggling to fill his lungs but the only thing he could feel was the rattling in his chest and his shirt getting slick with blood. Was he still alive? Did he even want to be alive right now? The pain was unbearable and he couldn’t tell if he was screaming or if that was the blood rushing in his ears. His limbs wouldn’t respond to his commands, leaving him spread-eagle on the cafeteria floor. Perhaps if he pretended he was dead he would have a chance? Considering how quickly his vision was fading and how slow his heartbeat had gotten, he may not even have to pretend for long.
Through the haze, he heard the elevator ding for the last time, sending its final tributes to face the monster.