Previous afternoon
All was still.
All was quiet except for the regular small drip that fell into the water in the far corner from where Halari stood motionless, staring at the pit before her where a web of black tendrils all coordinated.
She barely breathed. She barely thought.
I have to go, Halari demanded of herself while cold sweat collected on her forehead and trickled down her face in streams. Thankfully, her legs refused to obey because they knew better than her brain did that the moment she did anything other stand completely still, whatever lived in those depths was going to attack. Already one of its tendrils was slithering along the wall near the dripping water, fading into different colors as it glided over them. All four walls were painted with some kind of picture, each a depiction of animals she didn’t recognize.
Move, Halari, do something. She slid her feet along the floor, not even daring to lift them an inch.
Immediately, the sliding tendril across the room went still and the one closest to her, the one she’d just tripped over, shifted. It crawled up the wall, then lifted clean off to swing through the air like a serpent tasting the wind for a prey’s body heat. It moved right for her face and Halari forced herself not to gasp in fear or even gulp from nerves. She trembled- that couldn’t be helped at this point- but kept her feet planted as she leaned back as far as her upper body allowed. The tip of the tendril barely missed her nose before retreating back to its original location and reapplying its almost-flawless camouflage.
That’s when her sweat, which had been ribboning towards her chin, fell free of her face.
And plopped into the water below.
Halari dove without a second thought, avoiding the barrage of tentacles that exploded from the depths of the pit and rushed her. She barely dodged the first few, splashing desperately in a mad dash for the huge hole that led outside.
Then one got her around the left ankle and yanked.
Halari cried out as she was wrenched backwards by her foot, then lifted into the air upside down. She awkwardly batted other tendrils away with her rifle and slashed at the one holding her leg.
Both endeavors failed. Despite her core strength allowing her to basically sit up while inverted, Halari couldn’t get an angle to sever the one restraining her, and in a dark flash, another smacked her rifle away and out of the big hole in the wall, then constricted around her left forearm like a tight, painful sleeve before biting her.
She screamed, feeling dozens of points of searing pain pierce her skin as a third tentacle grabbed her other knee. She was spun her right-side up with only her knife hand unbound; the tendrils seemed to be wary of her blade, but not enough to stop them from trying now that they had her almost totally incarcerated. Through teary eyes, she saw a fourth spring for her arm, but she was swung at it.
Her knife, which she cleaned and sharpened frequently, rewarded her for such loyalty to its maintenance by shearing clean through the flesh and muscle of the tentacle, sending a spray of crimson blood through the air to cloud the murky water below.
A bellowing shriek emanated from below, so forceful that the water shivered and the air buzzed. From the depths of the flooded pit, a darker shape emerged. The monster’s head broke the surface with an angry splash and its eight bloody eyes, each the size of her own face, glared at her in pain and fury. The massive head was disc shaped, black, and chitinous in texture. A wide ridge of small horns separated the two columns of eyes set into each side of its face. It rotated its head upwards, revealing a lipless array of shin-length fangs and mandibles at each corner of its mouth, then roared at her with a sound that would make a Cragbeast shiver in horror.
Keep swinging, get free! Halari lashed out again and cut the tentacle wrapped around her right knee. The beast bellowed again, spraying crimson from two wounds, but it still didn’t let her go. She couldn’t reach across her body to get a good angle to sever the remaining binds, so she flipped her knife to hold by the blade, prayed to whatever was listening, and flung it. The weapon flew end-over-end in seemingly slow motion, then dug point first deep into its left, bottom-most eye. The monster screamed, spittle flinging from its maw, and, apparently deciding the pain wasn’t worth it for the moment, launched her towards the hole in the wall.
“Oomph!” Halari hit its rim hard and was flipped around the edge to land painfully on the concrete outside. Dazed, seeing double, and bleeding a bit from her head, she grabbed the discarded rifle in her right hand and stumbled up a nearby set of stairs that led to the road. Her left arm was numb, limp, and unresponsive, a feeling that was quickly creeping down her side to her leg, which grew heavier by the second.
Gotta find a place to hole up, she planned, head swimming. The trawler was too far on the other side of the building, but she aimed for a nearby four-story structure with a broken-down front door, shivering from being wet and cold all the while. The paralytic overtaking her was almost done with her left leg and started to spread to her right, forcing a limp to her panicky shambles that slowed her down.
A liquid sound of movement behind drew her attention back to the aquarium.
“Betrayer’s damnation…” Halari gasped through numbing lips. She’d expected a couple of tentacles to chase her, but the whole monster glided out of its home on a whirling mass of ceaseless tendrils, some grabbing onto nearby walls, standing poles, or other objects so it could pull itself out and up. Its entire bulky, oblong body was capable of that perfect camouflage and she watched, somewhat amazed, blend into the city in real time as it moved, some patches recoloring to match the buildings, others the street.
Halari felt a little relieved that its eight eyes were turned the other way for the moment, but she didn’t slow down even when she made it into the building. On leaden legs, she lugged herself up two flights of stairs before finding a room which was open, then flung her body inside as her lower limbs shut off completely. Her eyelids were heavy and drooping, but she pulled herself to a nearby closet on her last good arm and slid its door shut before allowing her eyes to lock closed; she didn’t have much choice in that matter.
Halari did not pass out.
Please don’t let it find me, she begged, perfectly conscious and awake in her own mind, almost like normal. It was only her body that failed to respond or move at her commands. She laid there, breaths forced out on automatic, and helplessly listened to the unnerving aquatic sounds of the monster searching nearby. Please don’t look here, please don’t look here, please don’t look here. The thing made a wet trumpeting sound right outside the building.
Dread built in her heart when she heard a tentacle scraping in the walls nearby, most likely using an air vent to get around for its search. It moved into floor below her, slithering right under where her shoulders were, then into the main room.
Oh gods it found an opening. She heard it approach then thump against the bottom of the door to the closet before continuing onwards for a while until, failing to find anything, it retreated back into the vent and left.
Everything went silent after that. Halari remained flat on her back, breathing evenly thanks to the paralytic, on the hard, metal floor. Blood trickled down her temple for a while before drying, but she felt the tiny pricks on her arm continue to leak ever-so-lightly over the course of the next couple of hours.
Feeling returned to her fingers first. Halari twitched her left hand as soon as warmth seeped back into the muscles, sighing gratefully as it quickly spread all over, allowing her control again.
That was…awful. Halari sat up and shivered, unable to stop imaging what it would’ve been like to be eaten alive while paralyzed but perfectly conscious. She gained her feet and cracked the closet door quietly to peer into the main room. It looked barren, empty except for some broken screens on the wall and rubble tossed about. I have to figure out how to see those tentacles. Sure, that one had slithered out, but who was she to assume that the beast didn’t send another one more quietly.
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Halari took stock of what she did know. It was fast, a master of camouflage, and seemingly intelligent.
Camo’d… but not invisible. She knelt and clicked on her shoulder light and panned it over the floors nearby. Since it wasn’t invisible, it would definitely cast a shadow.
Seeing none, Halari took a tentative step out into the main room and braced herself to run.
Nothing happened.
Let’s just get to the trawler and go, Halari told herself. She kept her light on as she descended through the building to check for any tendrils lying in wait, but as soon she left the structure, she took a deep breath and flicked it to a lower setting, choosing to risk the illumination to get back to her trawler.
Night had fallen, so the city was completely dark and terrifyingly silent. She crept down the streets with her rifle cocked, aimed up, and finger on the trigger. The trek took way longer to weave around the giant building than necessary; she even stopped every once in a while to listen when she swore that the whispers of tendrils moving about hissed in her terrified ears.
Her trawler appeared in the violet of her shoulder light after fifteen minutes of slow, clumsy movement. “Hey, baby,” she whispered, patting it softly. “Let’s get out of here.”
She didn’t dare stow her rifle, instead bracing it like a forward turret between the vehicle’s steering handles, then with a held breath, she hit the ignition. The trawler rumbled to life, headlights clicking on automatically to reveal a perfectly normal, debris-strewn, empty street leading into the city.
“I’m never coming back here again,” Halari huffed, starting the trawler to roll forward.
The street ten feet in front of her opened two blood red eyes about three feet in the middle of the air and fixed them on her with malicious intent. Then it opened five more and inky darkness spread out from them to fill out the mass of the monster’s body. It had tentacles creeping up nearby walls and curled around random objects in the street.
It gurgled at her and made its wet trumpeting sound that vibrated her bones.
“No fucking way!” Halari shot it immediately, not even bothering to aim. Her bullet shattered part of the ridge of wide horns, splashing blood up like a pebble tossed into a lake. The beast screeched and swung a tendril as thick as her leg at her. She barely ducked the incoming appendage, then tucked and rolled off her trawler with her rifle to fire again when she came to rest in a crouch.
One of its crimson eyes popped like an ashbud, but rather than back off in pain, it roared and launched its oblong body at her, using a couple of tentacles as a slingshot. Halari threw herself backwards, just avoiding being bit in half, but the monster’s fangs snagged her vest and ripped it off in tatters.
Three more bullets into its shell, mouth, and mandible forced it into a retreat, but the beast put itself between her and the idling trawler to block her escape, spitting and groaning.
Keeping an eye out for questing tentacles, Halari looked for weaknesses. Real vulnerabilities. The thing didn’t seem to care that it was losing eyes, and it was clearly smart enough to hang back to study her, shifting and moving through too many tendrils for another good shot.
Her mind raced with possibilities.
Light armor up top, she analyzed, sighting iron sights on its head. Underbelly? Brain? The monster gurgled and shrieked at her in agitation. Halari feigned a lunge, but was immediately rebuffed by a couple of whipping tentacles. In the opening those made, she saw something promising. A thicker tendril dropped down from its center mass towards the real road. It wasn’t moving at all and it became camouflaged after the first couple feet of length.
Something different. It was a reach and she knew it, but at that point she didn’t care. Halari lunged again, baiting another opening from attack, snapped up and aimed at it, then fired. The bullet tore through the tendril cleanly and blood started pouring from the wound, leaking like a broken faucet. It also lost its camo, so Halari saw that once it hit the ground, the inky length ran like an unbelievably long power cable all the way back in the direction of the thing’s lair.
The monster screamed and shook, each tentacle writhed, whipping in agony. Halari didn’t let her guard down as she crept forward, plugging her last rounds into its soft shell and spraying blood on the road. When it’s third eye exploded in a red burst, the creature wrapped itself in tendrils and started pulling itself away through an alley, covering its retreat with a wild lashes behind it.
Go go go! Halari didn’t waste time, sprinting for her trawler and slamming the accelerator before the beast changed its mind. She left its screams behind her and didn’t look back. At some point in the battle, her arm bites had reopened; they stung and bled down her wrist, scarlet life trickling all the way to the handles.
She drove as fast as the trawler allowed, which was still dishearteningly slow, but she didn’t stop for anything and kept her eyes peeled for another ambush. Did that building wriggle? Was that a shadow or another reaching appendage of the beast? Did she drive over a puddle or was that splash the sound of it chasing her down having healed quickly in its watery pit?
Halari’s heart pounded in her chest, thudding loudly in her ears every time the trawler jolted or ran over something in the road. It only slowed once the city gave way to the secure stone of the wasteland. She found the bravery to toss a look over her shoulder, then sighed. There wasn’t any sign of blood or pursuit behind her, so she dared to hope that it was finally gone.
I think I got away this time, she thought, slowing the trawler to a less desperate and panicked speed. She made for the departure point, remembering the first aid supplies that were in the storage boxes there.
Once she got close, the comforting vision of lights in the dark guided her. Their sources were a phalanx of ATVs circling around a single familiar figure, who faced them with hand on his hips.
They were coming to get me. Halari spotted Callan, Viria, and her team preparing for a trip into the city. Her sister nodded at something Callan was saying, but then she glanced over in her direction and her eyes went wide.
“HALA!” Viria’s shout was both relieved and worried; Halari didn’t even have time to wave before she was slammed into and wrapped in a hug. Callan was close behind.
After the chill of the night, the water, and the blood loss, the warmth he generated as he embraced her was very, very welcome.
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“…so nobody goes past the south marker,” Halari murmured, finishing up her story. “Viri, make sure they all know. Hell, bring the line in a couple blocks for safety. That thing might not be dead.” She laid now on her bed and was buried under a couple warm blankets. After cleaning off her face, Callan had personally wrapped a bandage to her head and applied a tight dressing to her arm. A black pill bottle, which Callan said was full of painkillers, sat on her bedside table with its lid off in case she needed one easily.
“You got it, Hala,” Viria said, tucking a green lock of Halari’s hair behind the bandage. The blonde looked so concerned, like Halari was going to shatter into a million pieces if she took too deep a breath. Halari would’ve looked to Callan for an escape from the pity, but he looked worse: a mix of angry and ashamed for some reason. “Can I get you something? Anything? Another water bottle or some food? Or maybe an—”
“I’m alright, Viri. Mada already got me all set up.” Halari squeezed her sister’s hand weakly. Her parents, especially Glorida, had fussed over for a while as soon she stumbled inside. “It was just one hell of a night. I might sleep for a week.” She tried a chuckle, but it came out more of a coughing wheeze.
“We’ll go so you can rest,” Viria said, leaning down to kiss Halari on the forehead. “Come on, Callan, let’s let her sleep. She needs it.”
“Actually, Callan, hang back a sec?” Halari asked. She really didn’t like that look on his face.
Viria shot her an annoyed, but amusedly knowing look, then waved bye and drifted out, sensing that she was no longer needed.
“What are you thinking?” Halari murmured as he sat back down on her desk chair.
Callan scoffed grimly, frowning. His draconic eyes were narrowed and bright with negativity. “I’m thinking I should’ve known something was wrong sooner.”
“Oh, I didn’t know the Blessed Flames were omnipotent,” Halari said with an exhausted, sly smirk. Her eyelids were pleasantly heavy this time, but she fought to keep them open. A losing battle. “That’s new.”
“Funny,” Callan said, still looking displeased. “You had me very worried. No more solo escapades into unknown parts of the ruins, alright?”
“Is that an order?” Halari asked, turning her head to raise her brows at him pointedly despite her eyes being mostly closed. The expression must have unwound the tension in him because she heard him chuckle.
“It’s a request,” he said, leaning forward. Then he spoke softer. “For my sake, please. Just take somebody, anybody with you from now on. I’ll codify the buddy system if I have to.”
“Fine,” Halari yawned. “But I get to pick. Because they better be able to keep up with me.”
“Certainly,” Callan said. He leaned back and through the crack of her fading vision, she saw him relax with a deep sigh. Had she really worried him so much?
“Talk to me about something nice, please,” she said, rolling to lay on her side facing towards him. “So I don’t fall asleep thinking you’re still in a bad mood.”
Callan went quiet for a moment. “Well, I did approve something called the Night of Burning Stars today. Seems like I found the one thing Captain Dalvo will push against me for.”
Halari laughed through drowsiness, imaging the officer standing up to him. It was for a good reason though; she always went to the jubilee, even it if was usually only with her family. The ember of an idea, brought up by her mother, stoked itself back into existence in her rapidly-fleeing consciousness.
“Remember the reward I was supposed to get for all my hard work today?” she asked.
“I do,” Callan said. “Are you hungry?”
“I’ve changed my mind, actually,” she whispered, sinking into that warm darkness that beckoned to her, wrapping her tightly. “Now, I think... I want a dance at the jubil…ee...”
Halari slipped away into slumber, finally surrendering to the trials of the day.