Chapter 2: Under Solid Earth.

I gaped at the screen.

Keeping my eyes locked to it as time seemed to slow and other senses became blurred.

My throat felt as dry as a desert.

My veins as hot as any volcano.

My heart was a thunderstorm of activity.

Repeated rounds of explosive power going off inside my chest. My hearing failed, as all the surrounding sounds of dripping water and buzzing insect wings disappeared into a continuous hum.

“What the (Exam)?” I stopped, startled by my own words. “What the (Exam)? Why can’t I say (Exam)?”

My eyes went back to the screens. Reading them again and focusing on the lowest one.

Chuckles escaped my mouth as I read it over, turning into hysterical sobs. Panic soon robbed me of all cohesive speech. I felt tears well up in my eyes as they stared at the one crucial detail that had just struck me like a hammer.

Telepath.

Least common out of the ESP types recognized by the United Militaries. The one all governments agencies kept a watchful eye for. The one that conjured images of enslaved cultists being forced to toil under some deranged overlord far from prying eyes.

“Ah, I get it. It’s the same nightmare. Ha! I should’ve known!”

It was the only explanation that made sense.

It’d been years since my mind had taken me back there. With the screaming throngs of people all around me. With the monsters breaking into the community center. With the tall man hurting everyone. Making them do things they didn’t want to do. This was a new scene I hadn’t been taken to before, but it must have been the same kind of torment.

The creepy cave, the mushrooms, the cold floor, not to mention that giant centipede looking thing in the cavern ceiling.

Yep. This was A-grade horror material. Props to my mind for being so creative.

Serves me right after all the sleepless nights I spent studying.

I started to get up after swearing up a storm that would have a bar full of sailors blushing. Or, I tried to, at least. Cursing some more at my senseless censorship.

No sense in dragging things out after all. The scene was set and the script was obvious.

The creature now skittering towards me was about a meter long and thick as my legs. Its brown-yellow carapace was covered in scratches and discolored scars, indicating an existence filled with struggle.

‘You and me both pal.’ I thought grimly. ‘Just the kind of stuff I’d dream up after a stressful week of finals.’

‘Yep.’

‘Time for me to get eaten by Mr. Many Legs and wake up late. Just in time for Henry to hog the bathroom for a few hours.’

‘I just hope it doesn’t hurt too muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!’

Fire clouds my thoughts, searing pain spreading from my right hand where insect jaws met soft human flesh.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!”

Instincts drove me backwards and unto my rear end as the monster let go of my hand. It darted backwards and to my right, positioning itself just behind my ear and preparing for another strike.

In response, a cool stream flowed from just behind my eyes.

It coalesced into a small orb of purple energy that floated before me and collapsed into itself. Half a heartbeat later, the monster’s head exploded.

I sat there, panting for what felt like hours.

Tears ran down my cheeks as I caressed the wound, stemming the flow of blood. The pain had lessened soon after the head explosion, but I could not bring myself to stop crying.

Even as delirious as I was, one fact could not be denied.

I had done that. I had blown that thing’s head clean off.

Me. The Telepath.

Level Gained: +5 Maximum Psy. +3 Ability Points.

Current Objective: Survive 1 cycle.

Survivor Count: 987/1000

I sobbed and sobbed. Beleaguered by terror and the thrumming in my head the beer had left.

Laying there like an imbecile.

Part of me was screaming at the rest of me. Berating me for my weakness and alarming stupidity. It was a harsh voice trapped helplessly within my thick skull. It screamed at me to get up and cry later. That there was a dead monster right beside me.

All at once, I was back among the crowd that night, unwanted memories forcing their way out. I was watching the crab-thing ripping through grown men like tissues paper. I was hearing my parents sob, realizing they were trying to push me back, to put themselves between me and death.

Breathing became painful.

Shivers lanced through my bones and up my back. I needed to do something…

Anything.

Green ichor oozed out of its shell through the gap I’d made just minutes before.

It spread all around the floor and gathered into a puddle of green goo, staining the bottom of my pajamas. For all I knew, these things bled acid or poison or nuclear waste. Worse, it could have all kinds of monster friends that would hear my stupid, stupid, stupid sobbing.

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I knew that part of me was right.

It was that persistent instinct from when people ran around hunting with spears. It knew when a situation had devolved into a matter of life or death. Spurring me to look after number 1 first and foremost.

Survival of the fittest meant getting my crying piehole shut and finding a safer spot to panic in.

Right now.

Still, I remained paralyzed. Agony surged within my entire arm every time I tried to move it.

It glued me to that spot, even as more and more centipedes made their way to me. I couldn’t actually see them yet, but I knew they were there.

There was a fog of sorts, in my head. It started from behind my eyes, just as the purple stream had done earlier.

However, it spread outwards instead of gathering. Billowing wisps of energy dancing away from me and forming a sphere. It passed through the walls and the creatures hiding behind them, as if solid matter were no impediment at all. As it went, I could hear new things, feel new things.

Though the feeling was alien, I understood it at once. As if this was a skill of mine. One I’d had all my life, simply forgotten and now crawling to the forefront. These were the thoughts and emotions of beings beside me. They were screaming in a cacophonous mesh of sounds and textures grating against my skin.

‘Food. Feed. Blood.’

‘Tasty. Prey.’

‘Together. Together. Bite. Bite. Together.’

‘No! Please! I don’t want to die! Help! Please! Please! Plea…’

New sensations pooled together alongside these signals.

A dull, persistent throbbing made itself known within my skull. It was soon joined by a muffled itch at the back of my head, where spine met skull. Discomfort acted as kindling to my horror, feeding the flames of inhuman impressions.

To my shame, I sobbed even louder. I understood then that I would be killed. Every single one of these things wanted blood. Mine and that of others sent here with me.

Their clumsy thoughts dripped with venom and malice and hunger, terrible as no other animal I’d ever encountered.

Human signals went out one by one all around me.

They begged for help, exuding an aura of all-consuming dread. No centipede relented. Closer. Closer. Closer…

They were moving closer by the second. Every instant carried them towards me, their hunger getting nearer. My brain betrayed me then. Shoving images into the forefront of my mind.

Images of the crabs at the community center.

Of the torn bodies that had been my neighbors.

Of Doris.

“NO! I! WILL! NOT! BE! EATEN!”

Fear was driven away by my surging desperation.

The old instincts finally kicked into gear as I focused and tried to replicate the earlier attack.

I succeeded.

With a sudden shiver, I stopped receiving the thoughts of the monster nearest to me.

I turned my head towards a corner where I knew another was about to emerge.

I focused once more. To my horror, I felt resistance from within me. There was suddenly a wall in my mind, a thin membrane of nothingness that strangled my newfound strength.

It kept the stream from surging forward at my command and I soon realized why.

There wasn’t enough of it yet. The wall was keeping it from seeping out before enough of the cool water had filled me.

The centipede had rounded the corner in those brief instants and it turned its mandibles in my direction as the words escaped my lips. It clicked them together, almost mockingly.

Feelings skittered from within its mind. The promise of violence nearly fulfilled. Vicious hunger about to be sated. A resonating jubilation at seeing my wound.

‘Easy Kill.’

My good hand reached for the wall behind me as my legs worked to bring me up.

Oddly enough, the pain in my wound stopped registering as much. It still stung, but the adrenaline overwrote that.

If there was ever a time to ignore a puncture wound, it was when facing giant bug monsters. As I staggered into a standing position, I began to shift my weight and get ready for a lunge. Deep down, I knew the wall would vanish soon.

All I'd have to do would be to dodge one attack, maybe two. Then I could let loose. The creature shifted its own weight in response.

Skittering legs bring it to one side, then another.

It seemed to hesitate for a moment, beady antennas swishing rapidly. I calmed my breath and focused on the signals from its mind.

‘Alert? Fight back? No. Spread the scent. Come help! Come help. Wounded here. Slow.’

It was trying to reach out to…. something. Someone.

The monster was getting a bit put off by a lack of response as well.

Its focus was split between me and another direction. The same direction where I’d struck down its kin. Right now, it was afraid.

“Ah. There we go.” I said, madness taking hold of me.

“An ambush predator, are we? Not so tough without your little pal? No, sir. Not when your snack is all alert and there’s a fresh corpse next to it.”

‘Bless you, adrenaline! Bless you and all your neurochemical goodness! I’ll never take you for granted again!’

This wasn't over. My life wasn't over. I could survive this. I would survive this!

A maniacal grin had spread all over my face before I knew it. It got even wider when I felt the wall dissipate. Without a second’s hesitation, I pulled the trigger. There was a crunch and a splatter as green giblets flew from the fresh corpse.

It collapsed gracelessly, like a puppet whose strings had been cut. For an instant, the throbbing lessened. That irking itch receded like the tide.

I laughed. Oh boy did I laugh.

Then I took stock of my surroundings and all the other centipedes approaching. They rushed along the walls towards me, but not directly. With a start, I realized the walls twisted and turned several times and it would be some time before the nearest reaches my position.

My current position that is.

In response to this realization, I turned around and bravely ran away. The pain slowed me down, but not as much as before. My headache became a distant afterthought, something that almost registered in my mind, yet stayed out of reach. Pebbles stabbed my feet as I moved, eliciting grunts and winces that failed to slow me down.

An errant puddle made me slip as I rounded a corner and the fall gifted me a bruise.

Further in, vegetation started to thicken.

Pink circular leaves spiraled downwards from the ceiling, forming clusters that reached the floor. None were thick enough to impede my movement and I swatted a few away with my left arm. The first strike caused tiny, near invisible fangs to rip open sections of my clothes, leaving the appendage exposed and vulnerable.

My brain didn't notice in time to stop.

Fire kissed my skin as needles penetrated into muscle.

My bicep started to numb.

I didn't allow myself the privilege of respite. Instead, I ran along the tunnels for what felt like an eternity, encountering centipedes every now and then. I didn't actually see them with my eyes though.

I felt them through my fog and clamped down with force as soon as I was able.

There were those that escaped me, of course, but the burning in my lungs and the worsening pain kept me from caring.

Brand new terrors were carved into my soul with every intersection I passed.

All the tunnels looked similar enough to make me believe I was going in circles. Shadows and mushroom vines formed murals that confused my sense of direction. Pink tubes blockaded entire trails and their fronds opened further every time I got near.

I had no idea which direction I came from, or which direction I was running towards. In my haste, I almost crashed into another person, or thing, at some point. Dodging to the side in time to realize that it wasn’t a human being at all, but rather, a human-shaped mantis.

It had stood on two thick legs, rather than the usual four. To compensate, it waved four scythe-like appendages in my direction, whistling as they cut the wind.

I screamed at it. It screamed back. I ran from it and it ran from me in turn.

Eventually, the tunnels gave way to a somewhat open chamber. A small stream rushed from the stones in the wall and divided the room in half, with the other end disappearing down a metal grate.

Better yet, there was an open door marking the entrance, made up of solid metal bars.

A door that conveniently lacked any gaps big enough to allow centipedes through.

Naturally, I slammed it shut behind me, using bolts on the floor and handle to lock it firmly in place.

I laughed as I failed to sense any other immediate threats. I laughed until my lungs were raw and the exhaustion finally struck. I laughed until I remembered how I managed to escape with my life.

Then I thought of the screen. It appeared in front of me, just like that.

Name:

Solomon Carter

Psy:

43/65

Type:

Telepath Level 3

Abilities:

[Sense Thoughts] 1 / [Message] 1 / [Mental Bolt] 1

Ability Points:

6

Survivor Count: 917/1000

I stopped laughing.

83 people dead.

Dead and devoured.

Alone.

In a deep, dark maze. Begging for their lives. Hoping against hope that all of this wasn’t real. Their friends will never find them. Their families will never know where they went. Their neighbours won’t even know why they vanished.

I thought of my own family. I thought of what they would say if they found out what happened to me. Would they be glad I survived? Would they be horrified to see what I’ve become? What would happen when the government found out? What would they think of the fact I’m not registered to fight the rifts? Would they think I’m a villain, like Amputator or Blackjack?

After that, the tears returned.

As did the wrath.

Someone had done this to me. Somehow.

And they would pay.