~~~
She stood looking out at the horizon, Papa’s hand on her shoulder.
“Everything’s so small!”
He laughed. “Yup, sure looks that way, doesn’t it? Look down. Can you see Mama?”
Kiki looked down. It was hard to tell between the trees and rocks. She saw a black thing that might be Mama, but it was too tiny to tell. “I dunno.”
“Well, she’s down there waiting.” As he spoke, Kiki wrapped her arms around herself. She was naked and the wind was really cold. “Are you ready to go see her?”
She edged backwards a bit. “Can we wait five minutes?”
Papa looked at her. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking. “I don’t wanna go now.”
“Well, you have to.”
“No.”
“Yes. Go now.”
“No!” She backed away a little more, and he turned and grabbed her, hoisting her up in the air.
“Let me go! Put me down, Papa! No! No!” She screamed, hitting his head. He tilted it back a bit, but didn’t let go, even when she started wailing and sobbing. He walked right up to the edge of the cliff, dangling her out over the edge.
“Please, Papa! I’ll be good, I’ll listen to you and Mama! Put me back!”
He looked at her, and maybe he looked sad, but she couldn’t see through her tears.
“No, Kiki. You have to do this now. Mama will be there, don’t worry.”
“AHHHHHHH!!!”
He let go, and she tried to grab his arms, but she was too slow and then she was falling.
The wind was rushing past her, the ground getting close closer closer
This isn’t what happened-
Close, too close, and Mama was looking at her and she was afraid and opening her mouth to scream and she looked down and the ground and sharp rocks was right there too close no time-
~~~
Kiki shook her head, walking behind Gaunt through the rubble.
This had been the third night in a row she’d had a nightmare about falling. She wasn’t even afraid of heights! This was so stupid! And yet, stupid as it was, she kept waking up sweaty and with a racing heart, and her sleep never seemed to refresh her.
Truth be told, she was really, really tired. A sort of bone-deep exhaustion that never seemed to go away no matter what she did. Some of her deeper wounds still hadn’t healed, which was a little surprising, and the infection had taken longer to clear than she had hoped. All in all, her body really wasn’t working with her.
Not like it had been cooperating before, but now it was a lot worse. Please say I don’t have internal bleeding or something.
“When are you planning to stop for a snack?”
“Do you need a break? We can take a break, we’ve made decent time.” Gaunt’s brows furrowed in concern.
“No, no, I’m good!” She lied, hoping she didn’t sound as out of breath as she was.
“No, let’s stop. I’m tired of walking too, I could use a break myself.”
Kiki let out a sigh. “Okay.” She looked around, found a chunk of concrete that would be okay to sit on, and plopped herself down on it. A bunch of baby hairs had come out of her braid, and she combed them back in with the little comb she’d found in a drawer. “Can we afford to drink some water now?”
“Go ahead.” Gaunt paused, like she was thinking of saying something, but stopped. Then she said it anyway. “I said I could use a break, but half of it is just… I don’t like it here, yeah?”
Kiki frowned a bit, looking around. Yeah, that was fair. Everything felt more run-down here, and maybe that was dumb to say about a literal ruin, but it was true. The road was broken up and rough to walk on, and she kept thinking she saw a coyote in her peripheral vision, but it was never actually anything. It had also smelled like old meat for at least a kilometer, faint, but always there.
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“Yeah, this place… If a ruined city can still have a bad neighbourhood, I think this is it.” She took a few sips of water and stood back up. “I don’t want to linger here, on second thought. Can you keep going for a bit longer?”
“Yeah, for sure. Reminds me of the train wreck a bit. Well, it’s kind of in the area, not quite… I dunno. Not nice.” Well, she hadn’t been there so she had no clue, but she’d take Gaunt’s word for it.
Everything was wrecked to the point she had a mostly clear view in all directions, but she still felt trapped and hemmed in. She didn’t want to be walking through here without any sort of escape route. There were piles of junk everywhere, some of which they had to climb over. Some had sharp rusty bits Kiki had to be careful not to cut herself on, others were… squishy. To be honest, she preferred the tetanus piles to the squishy bits.
Climbing was even more bullshit than walking was. Kiki tolerated walking, but she hated climbing.
“Shit.” Kiki was about to ask Gaunt what happened, but then the pile they were on… twitched, almost, and Kiki had to grab at a wooden beam to keep her balance. She winced as a splinter dug into her palm.
She was about to shout out to Gaunt, but then thought better of it, using as low a voice as she thought she could and still be heard. “What was that?”
“I don’t–” Just at that moment, a whiplike thing that reminded her of an exposed ligament lashed out, between two pieces of corrugated sheet metal, going right for Gaunt.
“Behind you!” Gaunt whipped around and smacked it away, but within half a second it was back up and heading for her again. Kiki grabbed at her waist, pulling off her makeshift spear, and scrambled to get closer and help Gaunt fend it off.
It took longer than she would have liked, with the ground trembling and bucking beneath her, but she made it. Gaunt blocked another hit, barely managed to keep her balance, but now she was in an awkward position.
Kiki reached out a hand, grabbing Gaunt’s arm and pulling her up. Once Gaunt regained her footing, Kiki turned, slashing at the tendril with her spear. The knife edge sunk close to halfway through, a bit of black fluid seeping out, and the thing jerked and flailed in response. Kiki barely managed to hold on, but suddenly the spear was a lot lighter than before, and she was looking at the bare end of the stick.
Shit.
“We gotta get off this thing!” Sooner or later, someone was going to fall at this rate. Kiki tossed the now useless stick aside, pulling out her fire axe as more fleshy tendrils slithered up around them. She clutched Gaunt’s wrist and ran, heading for a gap between two tendrils.
They made it through the two tendrils blocking their way, but Kiki’s foot slipped on a plastic sheet, and she hit the side of the pile hard. She let go of Gaunt’s hand trying to get back on her feet again, and something brushed her ankle.
Turning, she sunk the fire axe into the tendril that had touched her, severing the tip. More of that black fluid smeared across the axe blade, and Kiki jumped to her feet.
Gaunt was trying to fend off two at once, and struggling. More were popping up all around them, and the ones where they had been standing before were retracting into the pile. Kiki whacked one away with the blunt end of the axe, Gaunt hit another with the crowbar, and then they were running. Kiki nearly lost her balance once or twice, but then they made it to a more compact region and the running was easier. Whipping her head around, Kiki’s vision traced across the ground and saw no hint of more tendrils.
“What the fuck are these things? Are you hurt?” She gasped.
“I’m okay. Keep moving.” Yeah, no shit.
When she looked back again a few seconds later, there still weren’t any tendrils, but the rubble was shifting in larger patches. Like something underneath wanted to come up to the surface. As she kept running, she realised it was getting closer, the spots fanning out to the sides.
“We’re being flanked! Faster!” They both put on a burst of speed, but then air was rushing beside her, and she looked back and Gaunt was on the ground.
Kiki dug her heels in, nearly toppling as she stopped, and ran back, ready to pull Gaunt up. Tendrils had looped around her ankles, she saw now, and she began hacking at them with her axe. They were squeezing her legs, hard enough that the cloth of her pants was wrinkling around them.
Before she could land a single blow, the tendrils had disappeared back into the ground. Probably not for long. She helped Gaunt to her feet, and as soon as she looked up, she saw why.
Tendrils had banded together in a fluid fence around them, clutching bits of rubble. One coiled around a piece of cement reared back a little, like it was winding up for a throw, and another with a long piece of wood was brandishing it like a club.
Fuck!
She held up the axe with both hands, hoping to block any hits-
A piece of debris hit the axe, and it slammed into her chest. She felt something give on her right side, a sharp pain that stabbed with each breath, and fell to her knees. Too small, too much force in one spot. She grabbed a wide sheet of metal off the ground, holding it to cover herself on her exposed side, and looked over at Gaunt.
Something wrapped around her waist, and she looked back hurriedly. A tentacle, a lot smaller than the others, had a hold of her, and was tugging her down towards the ground. She held onto her makeshift shield with one hand and grabbed her axe with the other. It took a few hits, but she managed to sever the baby tendril, the coil around her waist going limp.
Any others near her?
Nothing within her shield.
Gaunt was struggling, stumbled, and fell. Two tentacles were attacking her, one battered and twitchy but still landing its hits. A tiny one wrapped around her wrist and yanked, sending a spurt of blood into the air, before she slapped it away.
Kiki lurched forwards, sinking her axe blade into the base of the battered tendril. It jerked, tried to keep attacking, but each movement only made the axe sink in deeper, until something vital was caught and it flopped weakly to the ground. Unfortunately, she was also now on the ground thanks to her mad lunge to reach it, and her ribcage was telling her it wouldn’t be so easy to get back up again.
The wall was closing in.
“Hand it over!” Kiki looked up at Gaunt, she had her hand out, and handed her the axe. Gaunt was strong. She would be better with it than Kiki was, especially hurt like she was now.
No weapon.
Focus on staying alive.
Gaunt swung at a tendril, missed by a mile.
Maybe I should have kept the axe.
There was hardly any room to move now, and Kiki had to force herself into a sitting position to keep from touching the wall of debris. Trapped. Trapped and open sky above but she couldn’t reach it-
A bit of black fluid sprayed out as Gaunt cut through two tendrils at once, axe sticking in the wall of debris. There was so little ground now, and there wasn’t anything she could use as a shield or weapon, and damn it one had grabbed the axe and Gaunt was trying to wrestle it back.
They were all focused on Gaunt, actually. None of them were paying attention to Kiki, which would be a lot more helpful if she could actually do anything.
Gaunt abandoned the axe, hit one with her crowbar, and it did pretty much nothing.
Anything? Sharp metal, broken glass, anything at all-
The wall crumbled.
The tendrils were limp on the ground. Kiki grabbed a rock, tossing it at one. It twitched a little upon impact but didn’t do much of anything.
Gaunt was standing there. Unscathed as far as she could tell.
“Is.. is it dead? What did you do?”
“No clue, but I’m not sure we need to know. Can you walk?”
Kiki got her hands underneath her, slowly standing and trying not to scream while doing so.
“I’ve got you.” Before she could react, Gaunt was holding her, one arm around her shoulders and another under her knees. There was a faint wetness on her back from Gaunt’s forearm, but not enough to be so concerned. Still, though, should Gaunt be picking her up if her arm was hurt?
“What the- Gaunt, give me some warning at least! And be careful, I don’t want you to strain yourself… But yeah, I don’t think I can walk very fast. Might have a broken rib. Hopefully not, but,” she pulled a face, “I don’t think we’re that lucky.”
“I’ll be fine. Can’t say anything that’s happened the past week is remotely lucky. Dunno about you.”
“Yup, same for me. Shittiest week of my life.” Gaunt was walking now, a bit more slowly, carefully picking her way through the rubble. “Let’s get out of here before something else goes wrong.” Before she got another injury, before she was rendered unable to move or talk or think.
Before another part of her was stripped away.