The moment I locked eyes with the thing, I stilled. My rifle was still lying on the ground, abandoned when I had to crawl under the shutters. As for the pistol, it was stuck under my jacket, all but useless. If this thing was half as fast as it looked, I'd be dead before I could even think about running. The creature decided to end the stalemate by moving towards me, one of its tails raised menacingly over its head.

I glanced at the corpse I found last night, even covered in snow the hole in her chest was obvious. If I did nothing, I would wind up just like her, one corpse in a city of millions.

The creature was now halfway across the street, and it tensed its hind legs and let out an inhuman screech, preparing to pounce. It jumped. I dropped. I was reaching for the rifle just as it landed on me.

Its first tail shot over me, piercing the space I had occupied just moments ago. It shot through the steel shutters like butter, almost like they didn't even exist. The other tail shot down, right next to my calf, easily sinking over half a foot through the snow and into the concrete below.

In the meantime, I had managed to get the rifle pointing in the right direction. At this range, I didn't even need to aim, just depress the trigger and shoot. As I riddled it with bullets, black gunk shot out of any holes I made.

It didn't take long for the half magazine of ammo empty, and by that time I had been blinded by the viscera spilling out of the creature's belly. Unfortunately, if its angry screeches were anything to go by, all I had done was succeed in pissing it off.

When I wiped the gunk off my face, I saw that the creature had backed off, recoiling from the violent injection of lead into its stomach. I threw the rifle to the side, without ammo it was just a fancy club. I reached over my head and grabbed the bottom of the shutter, pulling myself back into the building I had left less than a minute ago.

Even inside and partially deafened from the rifle I could hear its screams. Like a chorus made filled to the brim with the souls damned it screamed. And as quickly as it started it stopped. Once again the world was filled with the eerie quiet I had become familiar with over the last day.

As I was lying there, I could feel my heart hammering in my chest, even hear it in my ears. My watch buzzed. Three messages flashed on its screen. Elevated heart rate warning, no shit I thought. The other two, however, were slightly worrying. Blood pressure Warning. Trace amounts of Paralytic Venom Detected.

I checked myself, looking for the cause of the warnings. When the thing pounced, one of its tails had knicked my leg, about halfway between my knee and my ankle. My entire lower leg was numb, I couldn't even feel the pain should have come with the cut.

I tried standing up, finding the task hard, but not impossible. My leg was fine above the knee, but anything below that and it might as well have been nonexistent. The best way I can describe it is as a kind of peg leg. Sure it'll carry your weight, but there's no feedback from it, no sense of movement.

I backed away from the door now, limping as I moved. My watch informed me that the venom was going to last for at least the next hour. I cursed. Even if the injury was only a temporary, minor annoyance, it was still quite the wakeup call. If that tail had been just a few more inches closer to its target, I would have easily been amputated. A wound like that could kill me, either from blood loss or starvation when I couldn't leave to search for more food.

I pushed those thoughts away; they were useless to me now. Things had been silent outside for almost a minute by this point, and I felt the need to steal a look outside, see if the thing had decided I wasn't worth the effort.

I peeked through the newly made hole, curious as to the fate of the creature. For a split second, everything was clear, but it seemed the creature had the same idea as me. For it was then that I saw its bright purple eye peer back at me.

I jumped back in surprise, an action that likely saved my life. Its tail shot through the hole again, only now it was different. No longer was it a spike meant to impale and paralyze me. No, now it was far worse. A serrated claw had shot through that fist-sized hole; it had no intention of trying to kill me, instead, it started sawing through the shutter I had once hoped would save me.

I started limping backward, and it wasn't long before my back was up against the wall. I was out of options and quickly running out of time. I pulled the pistol from where I had holstered and held it in front of me. My hands were surprisingly calm despite how fast my heart was racing. I glanced around, trying to get one more good look at the world before my return to the void.

That was when I saw it. The door! I scrambled over to it and fumbled with the ID. As I stepped inside I took one more glance at the beast behind me. It was almost through the shutter now and it wouldn't be long before it entered the building. I opened the door as the beast opened the shutters.

I started hobbling towards the center of the room, keeping my gun trained on the beast as my eyes searched the environment. The creature lumbered forward slowly; it knew I was trapped. It seemed to enjoy this, playing with its prey.

The creature had entered the lab now, just as my back hit the glass enclosure at the center of the lab. The creature tensed, and I swear I saw its mouth form into a wicked grin. It had me cornered, it knew it, I knew it.

I steeled myself. If I was going to die fighting this bastard I sure as hell didn't intend to make it easy for him. Right as he jumped, I shot aiming right for the bright purple bullseye at the center of his face. I didn't even bother looking for the results of my shot as I rolled to the side. As I did I heard the creature shatter the glass enclosure. None of that surprised me, what did, however, were the klaxons.

I ignored them as I rushed for the door, hoping to trap the creature in here while I escaped down the street. My watch buzzed angrily at me, and I managed to spare a quick glance while I ran. Poisonous gas detected. Suddenly, my plans changed.

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I made it to the door while breathing as sparingly as possible. When I reached the door I closed and locked it. Then I studied the interior of the lab.

The center of the lab was an absolute mess. Instead of chasing me, the creature was spinning and stabbing in all directions, sending glass and machinery flying everywhere. When it turned to me I figured out why. Where its eye had once been a mess of purple and black ichor was all that remained. It seemed that my desperate shot had hit its target.

As I watched, its movements grew slower and slower, before eventually collapsing, succumbing to whatever poison it had released. It seemed that the most effective way to eliminate the insects was to get them to kill themselves. Go figure.

I breathed a long sigh of relief, before realizing that whatever gas was inside the lab could very well be spreading into the reception area. I ran outside before inhaling again.

I didn't take too long to revel in my success. The commotion would likely draw more of the creatures, and I doubted I would survive another encounter. Instead, I got ready to leave. There was nothing left to loot here, and my rifle was in lying in pieces on the ground. So I double-checked all my gear and looked through the various menus on my watch.

When I was playing with my watch earlier I found a map. The GPS function was broken, but it would be a simple matter to orient myself. Once I did I would head east, that was the quickest way out of the city. After that, I would play it by ear. With that done I set out, more than ready to leave this city behind.

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It was only once I had put a few hours between me and the lab that I felt safe. More than once I had to dive into an alley or open building when I heard something big moving in the opposite direction. The pouncers, as I had started referring to them, were all moving in the direction I had left, probably attracted to the gunshots.

The storm was gone today and the temperature, in general, was lower. But as I walked I noticed that the sun was acting weird. Or as weird as an inanimate object can, I suppose. It looked almost like it was underwater or like I was looking at it through a slightly tinted glass. The anomaly didn't worry me too much, the insects were a much bigger concern.

But it had been at least an hour since I had last noticed one, so I assumed I was in the clear. My leg was back normal now, but that still left me with a hole in my jeans. To make matters worse, the black guts I had been covered in had dried, staining both my jeans and jacket. There was probably some still left on my face and hair, but it was hard to tell.

As if answering my prayers, it wasn't long before I spotted a clothing shop. The door was locked, the window had a pouncer sized hole in it. If the accumulated snow was anything to go by, the hole was at least a few days old.

I moved through the building slowly, making sure that whatever had decided to leave. Most of the clothing racks were knocked over, and there were discarded clothes everywhere. I crept to the back of the shop ready to shoot anything that decided to pop out.

What I wasn't ready for was the trail of blood that moved down the length of the back hallway, before ending in a sharp turn to the bathroom. I approached the door slowly. As I did, I heard soft skittering behind the door. It sounded like a few of the small creatures had made their home behind the door, and if it were anything like the station, the trail of blood ended at a wall of flesh.

I reached for the door slowly and pulled it shut. Hopefully, the little guys didn't know how to use a doorknob. With that done with, the building was clear. Now I turned back to the main room, eager to finally get some new clothes.

In the end, I ended up leaving everything behind except the leather jacket which I kept because it looked cool. Do I really need a better reason? My overcoat was replaced with a navy blue parka, and the jeans were ditched in favor of green cargo pants. Not the best looking things I could have worn, but they came with plenty of pockets. I also grabbed a new pair of black lace-up boots in addition to a few pairs of panties, bras, gloves, and shirts. The extras I put with my food supplies in my brand new backpack.

Geared up, I hopped back out through the window and continued moving east.

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Walking through a hostile city was surprisingly boring. Every once and awhile I would see or hear something that caused me to scamper over to the nearest piece of cover. But I often found myself letting my mind relax. My mind could only stay hyper-aware for so long, after that it would just kinda say screw this, and start wandering.

As I walked I noticed that the buildings became less and less destroyed. Now there was only the occasional hole or break-in, instead of every single building. I assumed that meant I was heading in the right direction, anywhere that had fewer creatures was better than here.

The street I was on had diverged from its eastward direction for a bit, but once it turned back I would have a straight shot out of the city. It was getting late, however, so I didn't plan on leaving today. At best I would be outside city limits by midday tomorrow.

I turned the corner and paused for a moment to look down the street. The street dropped into a massive decline which should have given me a view of the surrounding urban area. Instead, about ten to fifteen miles in the distance was a giant wall.

It was dark grey at the bottom and reached as high as hundreds of feet in the air. As it rose it curved inward, and the wall lost more and more of its color until it became crystal clear. I glanced over my shoulder at the setting sun, almost completely hidden by a nearby building. That was no wall, I realized, but an entire dome, spanning the length of the city.

What was its purpose? Who built it? Why? I shook my head, there was no point in thinking about that now. Besides my plan remained the same. I would keep traveling to the edge of the city, and then I would look for a way out. Surely there were holes or doors or something. I wouldn't be reaching the dome tonight anyways.

I started descending down the hill, and soon the dome was once again lost from sight.

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Unlike last night, it wasn't hard to find a safe place to sleep, but it certainly wasn't nearly as interesting. Instead of a lab, I found myself in a small little pizza shop on the corner of the street. It wasn't even hard to get into, I just grabbed a rock and threw it through the doorway window, then I reached inside and unlocked the door.

I made my bed in a booth outside of the view of the door. Dinner was a small affair, consisting of the same protein bars I had eaten for the last day. I briefly considered having a gander at the kitchen to see if there was anything better, but the smell of rancid meat emanating from inside chased me off.

I was tired, but sleep refused to come. My mind kept returning to the dome and what it might mean for my future. No matter how hard I tried sleep remained elusive. Of course, that meant that I was awake when the ground started shaking.

I shot up, hand reaching for my pistol on the table. I moved over to the window, wondering if an earthquake had decided to pierce the silence. Instead of the backness of night, The ground was lit up with varying hues of red. I ran outside still confused as to what was going on.

My jaw dropped. The top of the dome was glowing a deadly red. As I watched a beam shot out from the top, landing right on a skyscraper. And just like that, the tallest building in the city was gone. It didn't collapse or anything spectacular, one moment it existed, the next a giant red beam took its place.

As I watched I realized that the beam was expanding. Its width was growing, and at this rate, it would only be a few hours before it hit me. I turned in the opposite direction and started running.