Breathing heavily, Edward tried to push the obstacle away, but the piece of metal appeared too heavy for his strength, only slightly trembling, despite all his efforts. If only a sincere wish could add strength… Dropping down to the floor, the man felt exhaustion, but the needle of worry was still there, piercing his mind with anxiety and fear. Therefore, the man-made another exhale before rising up and looking around once again in an attempt to find the gap he could use. The flashlight on his helmet evaporated the darkness in the wide area, giving enough light to see the details.
Unfortunately, nothing had changed. The corridor in front of him had collapsed, blocking the shortest way to his Jenny. Even the main frame of the section couldn’t hold the enormous weight of the upper levels that crushed from above under the weaponry of the fleet. At least Edward couldn’t see any other reason why it had happened. Only orbital bombardment could cause such an effect, basically wiping out the top of the whole city, and capturing the survivors under the metal rubbles.
At the moment of the strike, Edward was on his shift, checking the cooling pipes on the lower levels. That saved his life when the lights went off and the whole gigantic station started to tremble under the multiple powerful strikes from the orbit. No one lived under the rock, having enough means to observe the fleet through the cameras, but until the last minute, everyone was sure nothing would happen. Edward even remembered how he was trying to convince his nervous colleague at the start of the shift, speaking aloud his thoughts after multiple inner dialogues.
“You see, Ben, the world is ruled by money. Who would kill such a golden goose as our place? No, I am sure it’s an attempt to show strength before trying to get better deals for future trading. In the worst-case scenario, they would make the admins get the supplies only from the Coalition, dictating the buying prices. It would decrease the profits of higher-ups, but it wouldn’t change anything for ordinary folks like us. Or do you think they would destroy the whole station that has tens of thousands of civilians? Don’t be ridiculous!”
If he knew how wrong he was, Edward would simply take Jenny and leave the station through the humanitarian corridor while such a possibility was still there. Unfortunately, the technician didn’t have any time machine to change his fate, so he had to play with dealt cards. Luckily for him, Edward was more than ready for such a situation in comparison to most citizens of Fantasy City. Dressed in an engineer suit that had limited oxygen supply, with few basic tools, and with better knowledge of the hidden pathways, he had a lot of chances to survive. The problem was that his goal wasn’t only that as his Jenny was still somewhere there, on the upper levels, and he had to get her. That meant to find a way through the collapsed rubbles.
“Wait, there is another way around… Yes, section U44-B. That newbie messed up with the repair, resulting in the flow of the cooling liquid into the tunnel from a ruptured pipe. I was late to see the whole ordeal when the chief shouted at him, but today’s brief mentioned a planned repair in several days. So, I can try to use it...”
Nodding to himself, Edward quickly got up and returned his tools to the box before placing them on the special fixers on his back. The battery of his suit still showed more than 90% of charge, but the oxygen might be a problem as he simply forgot to change the second tube after using it last time. That halved his time during a possible emergency, and only hopeful belief in the reserve energy system kept his worries in check. The life-support system had to be the priority, cutting any other sources of consumption to power it.
“But Jenny doesn’t have any protective suit in her restaurant… I need to hurry!”
The next half hour was spent in constant movement. Edward regularly used his tools, cutting through some small obstacles, manually overdriving the broken door panels, or redirecting the flow from the pipes in that damaged tunnel to open the way for himself. It obviously led to flooding the lower levels, but at this point, he had no worries about the consequences of his actions. There were too many tasks to do just to get out. Moreover, everything was done in complete darkness, where his helmet flashlight was the single source of illumination. He had no connection to the main office or anyone at all, instead turning the inbuilt microphones to bigger volumes.
However, in most cases, Edward heard nothing. Only silence that was periodically broken by the sound of damaged surroundings. The drops of water. The bending metal barely held under the pressure. Distant screams of help from the tiny gaps in rubbles of collapsed corridors that were changed by powerful hits to attract the attention of the potential saviors. However, just from the look, it was obvious that Edward had no means to help as the blockage was too big. That still pressed on his conscience, making him turn the volume down in an attempt to hide from others. It didn’t help.
The disappearance of the most outer sounds led his imagination to run wild, creating something that wasn’t there in the first place – like footsteps, or a child’s laugh, or unintelligible whispers. At some point, Edward paused on his spot, while nervously looking around. The light from his helmet was in constant motion only to show the same empty and dark corridor. Even the rise of the volume showed nothing. Unfortunately, just after a few steps, there was another sound of a loud moan, sending his already stressed mind into disarray. That almost killed him, when the section behind his back started to collapse, while he was stuck on the spot fighting against his fears.
The injection of the adrenaline partly cleared Edward’s mind, simultaneously returning the strength to continue. Still, the memories of his run from being turned into a meat paste were hazy, as if his body moved on its own, pushing his life as the main priority. The flashed image of an elder couple, who emerged from the side corridor, felt like an unreal apparition. They appeared only for a mere moment before he left them behind, not even pausing. Still, he somehow managed to catch their faces that wore the appearance of his parents. This fact only made it harder to understand whether they were real or not.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
In the end, Edward found himself in the main hall, where a lot of entertainment facilities were located, including the restaurant of his wife – Jenny. The central part of the hall fell down, burying an unknown number of people, who were unlucky to meet their fate on the lower levels of Fantasy City. At least quite a few broken bodies were seen in the debris, often showing only a tiny part of the limb or head, but always covered with dust. Unmoving, they inflicted even more horror on the technician’s mind. Especially when he noticed bloodied remnants of the man, who had clear signs of death from violence and not from the collapse.
Edward managed to make only several steps before hastily leaning to the ground and vomiting everything he had in his stomach. Luckily, his helmet was open, saving him from being drowned by his own disgusting puke. The following spasms led to painful feelings when his body continued its attempts to get rid of the food when there was none left. It took another minute for Edward to get together. Still, his mind seemed to imprint the image of the limbless man, whose eyes were gauged out, the lower jaw was torn away, and the thick metal spike was protruding from his chest, having the flayer of Progressive Art Museum located nearby as a waving flag. It was too terrifying, sending Edward into a run. Obviously, the scared mind immediately started to produce even more weird voices and sounds, causing a slight tremor across his body.
“No, for Jenny, I have to…”
Pushing himself inside the small gap that appeared under the fallen ceiling, Edward barely managed to squeeze himself through it. Claustrophobia tried to grip his heart, but the mutilated corpse was enough to show that there were more dangers on the station than just being blocked inside after the bombardment. As always, humans were the scariest creatures, finding opportunities to kill each other at most inappropriate times. This thought caused another wave of fear for his Jenny, increasing his speed to the point when the sudden disappearance of the tight surroundings went unnoticed for several seconds, while Edward looked at the floor. The following grip on the shoulder led to a panic attack. The pull made the technician close his eyes, while his arm was already trying to hit the enemy. Only after several more seconds did his mind finally register that he was pulled up by an armored figure of the mercenary, who blocked his wide swing with ease.
“Calm down, man, I don’t want to hurt you. Do you hear me? I said calm…”
“I am good, I am good… Thank you and sorry for my action,” focusing his sight, Edward finally spoke. Looking around, he found a dozen of armed soldiers-for-hire in a company of civilians having twice its number.
“Any injuries? Do you need medical help?” The mercenary calmly asked, attracting Edward’s attention.
“No, everything is fine… as it could be. I am searching for my wife – Jenny,” the technician started but was interrupted by a sad laugh.
“We are all in search of someone or something. The way out, for example.”
“Don’t you have one?” Edward immediately asked without thinking, “You are battle-ready as if you knew about the attack. Don’t you have a connection to the authorities? Guards? Admins? I bet with your equipment…”
“As if, man, as if. We are all in one boat,” the merc sighed, clearly showing tiredness even though the outer speaker, “We are Mr. Wright’s personal emergency team. We were heading to his location when the fleet stroke… It might have saved us from the initial attack, but now we are here, without any ideas how to….,” he tried to continue, but Edward wasn’t listening, rushing forward to the woman, who was sitting to the side from others, facing the floor and hugging her knees.
“Jenny! You are alive! I was so worried,” his shout attracted a lot of attention, but the technician didn’t care, barely keeping his emotions in check, “Thank the universe, you are alright…”
“Edward? Why are you here?” raising his head, the woman barely managed to focus her eyes on the anxious man in front of her.
“Why? Why are you even asking? Of course, I went to find you!” Another shout caused a commotion from the armed group, leading to the reaction from the nearest fighter, who demonstratively moved his rifle slightly upwards.
“Is he causing you troubles, ma’am?”
“No! I am her husband!” Edward’s cry was ignored by the mercenary, who was obviously waiting for the answer from the woman herself.
“He is an ex-husband. It’s been two years since we were divorced. But no, no problems, thank you for your help,” smiling weakly, Jenny answered, redirecting her attention to the technician, “So, what do you want, Edward?”
“I was just worried about you… I went to search for you before trying to get out of here. I have a plan, an idea of how to leave this place. To get the spaceship,” the technician only started to explain when the very same mercenary who was threatening him forcefully pulled him toward himself, not caring about the pain he was causing, “Ouch! What are you doing?”
“What did you say? You know the way out? Hey, Ryan, I found a man, who…,” The armed soldier-for-hire shouted, but if the universe decided to repeat the joke once again, another commotion followed, redirecting everyone’s attention to the opposite side of the group. Especially when two rifles started to shoot somewhere in the dark, causing a wave of panic in civilians and a burst of activity from the mercenaries.
The situation was already stressful, pushing the nerves of everyone present, but the potential need for the rifles inflicted even more fear. Edward couldn’t miss how scared most of the survivors were, barely holding in their calm state. Even his Jenny gripped his hand at the first sign of danger, trembling from the overwhelming emotions. Glancing one more time to the side, where now at least half of the armed soldiers-for-hire were located, Edward returned his look at his ex-wife and inwardly sighed. Suppressing his curiosity, he decided to stay with her. Inbuilt microphones still caught a few phrases, directing his memories onto the mutilated corpse.
“… something moved, and I shot…”
“… couldn’t see it properly, but it was like a beast…”
“No, I am fucking sure of what I saw!”
The last one was quite loud when one of the shooters couldn’t stand the mocks from his group. Turning to face them, he continued to shout at them, ignoring the fact that the darkness behind his back had moved. In just a moment it turned into a towering humanoid-like figure with pitch-black skin. Having multiple spikes all over its body that were constantly moving, it had an unproportionally huge right paw with long claws. Dropping down on the floor with a bang, it leaned to the side as if it was struggling to keep its balance. Still, it never slowed down this thing. Lunging forward, it grabbed the neck of the oblivious before squeezing it. The armor tried to defend its owner, but either the grip was too powerful, or it found a weak spot, it failed its task dramatically. The torn head in a helmet was sent flying a second later, finally waking up others.
“We need to run!”
Pulling his ex-wife upward, Edward yelled before sprinting away under the accompaniment of the gunshots and terrified screams of others. The image of the limbless dead seemed to be flashing in his mind with each heartbeat, overflowing his body with the desire to live.
“RUN!”