“Don’t look back!”

Gideon would never let them turn back. Forward was the only way. But following such a route—even for him—wasn’t light work.

Light exploded above them, diving away from their overhead as a crash and roar shook them.

There’s the ligh—

A fiery spark flickered into his view. Then it blew up near his face.

“Ack!” His eardrums rocked furiously, his body flying along with the smoked concrete and smog. His world spun, rolling to a stop in a bloody streak, his uniform and skin scraping against the rough floor.

He couldn’t hear himself breathe, nor could he feel it. Everything became blind to him. Even at a standstill, his view shook—all that lingered in his vision was the aurora.

Stand up!

He shivered, struggling to do what he instructed.

What’s happening to the others? I need to—

His hearing cleared, another explosion shattering his ears.

That’s the fire ability… I have to—

Hilario yanked him to his feet with one blunt hand.

“Gid! Stay close!”

The lieutenant shook. The grip was flimsy, and his other hand was at its sharpest, the blades jittering and clacking against one another.

“Off… Offi-Officer Warner is getting—”

“What? Finish, Hil—”

The man’s breath hitched as a scream riddled the air, a bloodcurdling one that broke his dizziness and forced him upright.

And then he looked forward and suffocated.

A lump of thumping crocodile skin encroached around the stocky officer, the scales crunching into his hairy body and chewing him into stock.

“Help!”

Gideon couldn’t move.

“Please! Please!”

M-Move! Come on, legs!

“Plea—”

The skin ensnared him in one fell swoop, leaving droplets of juice as if the beast had just bitten into a fruit. Before the bulging skin retreated into its host, it vomited the seeds, tatters of the officer’s uniform spitting onto the ashen sidewalk in wet bursts.

The beast tutted its red maw, planting its sights through their very being. The carnivorous intent ploughed through their disbelief, the beast’s soiled feet glaring at them as if to warn them of something.

A storm.

And that was enough to sow the seeds of dread into their minds.

Without a word, the two officers started into an uncalculated escape, faces pale and damp as they stumbled on charred litter.

They took a step.

Thunderclap.

A crash boomed, stopping them in their hurry. Their heads shot backwards instinctively at the crumbling of rubble.

The crocodile lay behind them, attempting to regain its bearings from the crash into a weathered building. Its roar was too close, and it banged its head against the air as if it were fighting itself.

The two shrieked. Gideon thrusted his foot out in a trip, Hilario’s palm following milliseconds after. An immense force erupted from the duo, sweeping the monster off its feet and casting it across the street.

They didn’t know where it landed; they took off without a thought, the graze on Gideon’s shoulder from Hilario’s retracting nails being nothing more than an afterthought.

“Damn”—Hilario cursed in Spanish in a wavering voice—”sorry about—”

“Forget it—it’s fine—just focus on escaping—agh, ‘effing hell!”

With each step, his body cried out. It wanted to stop.

“You ok?”

It wanted to heal.

“Don’t worry—just keep going forward!”

It wanted to brake.

“Ugh!” Gideon’s voice strained, plummeting into a ghastly groan.

It wanted to break.

“What is—”

“Where did the other officer go?”

He couldn’t break now.

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“Offi—Wilder escaped while he could! I don’t know where, though!”

Hilario took a wide breath after his hasty sentence. Gideon did as well.

“That’s… good.”

No, it isn’t. We lost ‘effin Warner!

He grimaced as they both heard another crash and roar. “We should turn a corner and lose ‘im!”

He tripped but steadied himself.

“It can be as fast as it likes but—ugh!” He clutched his empty sleeve, trying to calm the burning in his stub. “It realistically can’t control its speed all too well!”

“True… yeah—true!”

They dipped into a small alley, sticking to the walls as the ground trembled below them. A scuttle from deep within the darkness made them cringe—a simple shock that quickened their breathing.

The chaotic noises droned on and on. They wouldn’t stop. It didn’t help—not a single bit.

Block the sounds out… Calm down…

He breathed in, then out.

Block them out.

In. Out.

Block…

His eyes widened and blinked, trying to block out the haziness in his sight. This job wasn’t an in-and-out. It was a long-haul job that weighed on him and other officers for countless days.

So why was he trying to block everything out? They could only go forward.

Why am I stopping? Wait—

He sniffed, rubbing his snout in a fast swoop.

“What the hell are we stopping for? We forgot to report to the—”

“D—Damn it”—Hilario caught his breath and clicked on the radio strapped to him—”I got it—”

“And let’s be on the move while doing so!”

His body hated his words. But he acted on them, jogging to the alley’s entrance, looking left and right as if looking out for an oncoming vehicle.

Static startled him. He clenched his fist at the noise.

“It’s just auroral disruption—calm the ‘eff down—”

A connection formed.

“Beware of the Berserker—please!” Hilario staggered to Gideon’s heaving side. “Please take caution—it turned into a freaking crocodile at high speed—have your rifles on the ready! Me and the captain… will try to meet back with the main group… if we can make—”

“We should move.” Gideon stared back at Hilario, who finished the message. “ASAP.”

But there it was. As Hilario nodded, Gideon noted the concerned look the man wore with all the sweat. It wasn’t as pronounced as it always was, but he prided himself in his two working eyes.

He wants to argue, huh?

Gideon didn’t know what he wanted to dispute, but the man was an easy read. And he appreciated that. At the moment, there was no time to put up fronts. It was life-or-death, all-or-nothing. It was reality.

So they began running, and he feigned liveliness. He ejected small bursts of force from the pores of his soles, boosting his stride while also keeping level with the slower Hilario. They had to keep moving; there was no time to disagree with duty.

No time for latency, either.

“What’s the plan?” Hilario asked through a huff.

A nearby explosion sounded. Screams arose. The ground rumbled again. Ash hovered in the air and their noses. Mauled corpses littered the streets. Bodies scuttled and fell within dark buildings.

“I…”

A plan, huh?

They turned a corner. No turnover.

More explosions. More bloody cloth on the ground. More corpses. More trembling. More rumbling. More hungriness. More sweat. More blood. More tears.

Yet, there was not more time to think.

Don’t buckle up. Just say something. Reassure him.

The sight of red and blue brought a sense of relief to his eyes.

“Let’s group up… then, uh—we track down the beast as soon as possible.”

Yeah… Something like that. We need more… gun power behind us. The monster will still die from several gunshots. Let’s not kid ourselves on that one.

“Stay back! This is considered obstruction!”

“This isn’t the place for normal citizens!”

But its speed… The firepower… It burnt Warner, didn’t it?

“Stay! Back!”

“Drive off for your safety!”

Who knows what else it has to fight… after fusing with so many things?

“Captain! Lieutenant! Are you ok?”

“Captain—”

“Are you ok?”

The cacophony of sounds forced him out of his thoughts, realizing he had reached the destination. Surrounded by police cars, three other officers, and blinking lights—he clasped his knee and surrendered himself to taking a breather. Rapid, heavy breaths poured out of his mouth, hearing the same from Hilario, who had recovered quicker than he had after a few seconds.

So he attempted to stand straight as well.

“Cap! You good?” One of the officers asked.

The wounds stung more soon after the question was asked, almost as if he wanted to deny it.

“I’m…” His mind raced as more nonsense and incoherent words poured into his ears. “I’m… fine.”

Get a grip. You can’t stay here for too—

“We just wanna see what’s going down!”

That isn’t an officer’s voice…

Murmuring a curse, he checked if his body camera was intact.

“We have some citizens trying to get onto the scene, sir!”

Perfect.

“We’re tryna get them away!”

Just perfect.

His body camera was fine. But these newcomers weren’t—not physically fine in the future but not mentally fine in the moment.

None of this was new; lunacy wasn’t new.

He’d pass it off usually. But now—with static in his head—he couldn’t ignore the flies buzzing around his head, the weight stacked against him.

Perhaps he was at his wits’ end—his limit.

“Right…” Hilario stepped in with a sigh. “Please evacuate from the scene, it’s dangerous—”

“And grass is ‘effin green—we’ll be fine! This is out of our own volition—”

“What? What—No, we got a—”

“We don’t have time for this!”

Gideon looked up reluctantly to meet all of their gazes that fell on him. He heaved a breath and took in the appearance of the crazy in question.

A burly man with too calm of a look. He stood near a car, where two passengers peeked out the window. He could vaguely make out a third one in the backseat as well.

“Oh shi—you’re Cap. Gideon—”

“Leave! This is a highly deadly matter! This shouldn’t concern you at all!”

“But—”

“I’m trying to save your life here!”

“We can help actually!”

Gideon fell back, face twisted as the other officers took the role of expressing audible confusion.

“Stop joking around—”

“Leave now—”

“But I’m pretty strong! I can help—”

Ugh…

“Leave!”

“My friends back there have some fire powers to lend!”

“We can’t bring in normal people!”

I can’t think…

“You need more people anyway—”

“No!”

“You all are practically useless against that thing—”

“We’re doing the best we can!”

I can’t… think. Shut up…

Explosions.

Screams.

Shouts.

Tyres.

Beeps.

Shut up…

Sirens.

Sirens.

Sirens.

Shut up…

Hilario tapped his wet shoulder.

“You good man?” He spoke just loud enough over the background bickering. “You’re tensing up.”

His eyes widened.

We don’t have much time…

Gideon raised his foot.

There’s no more time to slack like this…

Then—with a resounding boom—he put his foot down, silencing everyone around him, shivering them with the breeze and authority.

I call the shots here. So…

“Cap?”

“We don’t got much time…”

The wounds burnt against him with every move, but those seeds of despair incinerated in his stormy wake. With his face red and scrunched, he gestured to the stranger before him.

“Let’s go! If this is what you want, follow!”

All he saw was the man perk up like a toddler.

And at the corner of his eye, the officers wanted to argue. Hilario wanted to argue.

But once again, forward was the only way. That was their duty.

“Lesgo if you want to come so bad! Come on!”

He could never turn his back on duty.