12:40 a.m. April 24, 2015
All around me, my dorm mates were fighting for their lives and although the goblins weren’t much of a problem, the bulky hybrid was tearing through a couple people every few seconds. It was simply too strong and my dorm mates hadn’t thought to switch out their blunt weapons for all the swords and daggers that the dead goblins had strewn about the floor of the hallway.
I laid on the ground in shock.
‘She protected me and I wasn’t fast enough to save her…She thought she was safe around me and dropped her guard…This is all my fault.’
Upon realizing my guard was down, I scrambled back to my feet and looked towards the bulky hybrid still cutting through people. It seemed to be moving more slowly compared to earlier so I guess the large number of weapons landing blows against its body had somewhat injured it. Looking down towards the ground, I noticed the sword from earlier that had hit a nearby goblin in the head. Sweeping it up in my left hand, I ran towards the bigger hybrid. My dorm mates and it seemed to have stopped fighting. As they caught their breath and kept a small distance from one another, my mind was entering a frenzied state.
‘They killed her! If I don’t kill it, then it’s going to kill me!’
I reached the line of people in front of the hybrid and burst through with my swords hanging low. The suddenness of the attack surprised the monster, but it quickly regained its senses.
‘Kill! Kill! KILL!’ The word resounded over and over in my head.
It began swinging its claws down at me aiming to sweep my head clean off. I hit the ground and slid on my knees while swinging my swords as hard as possible in a horizontal arc towards its left leg. As I passed under the arm of the hybrid, there was a sickening crunching noise and I knew I had hit my mark. Completing my slide, I quickly stood up and turned towards the hybrid.
Its left knee hit the ground and blood pumped out from where its left foot was hanging off of its calf by a little skin and muscle.
“DIE!” I yelled at the hybrid. Running towards its back I swung my swords at its exposed neck, but before I could connect, the hybrid used its remaining foot to jump backwards and crash into me. I could’ve swore a truck had hit me as I went careening backwards at high speed a couple feet into the nearest wall with a loud smack. I slumped down to the ground and my vision became blurry. The hybrid in front of me slowly got into a kneeling position and turned its body towards me. Eyes glowering with savageness and hatred. Roaring at the ceiling, the hybrid tore its left foot off with one of its clawed hands.
‘Holy shit!’
As if this was a cue, the people around us burst into action and, moving in towards the creature, swung wildly at it with their weapons. The hybrid must’ve anticipated it though because it responded in kind by spinning like a top on its remaining foot with claws outstretched. Peoples’ throats were ripped out, arms were lost, and weapons began flying throughout the room.
‘I don’t understand…why any of this happening…Sarah…’ I looked to where I last saw her and only saw more bloodied people getting slaughtered by the hybrid.
The remaining people who were standing began turning away and running towards the stairwell that we had all entered from. I couldn’t be sure, but when they opened the door, I think I saw more of the hybrid looking creatures standing there. These ones looked a lot different than the one currently chasing down my fleeing dorm mates on all fours.
My vision began to get darker and my strength was fading from every inch of my body. Unable to lift even my eyelids anymore, I closed them as my head drooped down towards my chest. Blood freely flowed from the sword wound on my left arm and I knew I was losing a lot of blood.
‘I can’t…feel anything…anymore.’
At this stage, all the hybrids were coming down the hallway having struck the remaining standing people down into the ground. Sniffing the humans on the floor, they moved down the hall killing any they found alive. My breathing became more and more ragged. Hearing a monster draw near, I completely stopped my breathing hoping for the best.
One second passed…two…and then a sharp pain flared from my chest. Screaming in agony, my eyes shot open and I could see all the hybrids surrounding me.
Shutting my eyes closed once more, my thoughts became frantic…then slower…and eventually everything went black.
………………..
A loud beeping noise was ringing throughout my head. It sounded almost like my roommate’s alarm clock going off.
‘I’ll give him five seconds to turn that shit off.’ As a couple seconds passed I was restless. ‘It’s so annoying. I’m trying to sleep here please turn off. Please turn it off before I get up swinging.’
Once the beeping noise persisted for longer than ten seconds, my patience snapped.
My eyes snapped open and I sat up. Without registering anything else, I yelled out, “God…Fuck! Bro, turn that damn thing off! I’m trying to sleep!”
A hot pain tingled across my chest and I looked down to find bandages wrapped around my whole upper body and left arm. ‘What the fuck happened to-…’ Memories flooded back into my brain. Meeting Sarah, fighting off the two goblins, racing through the dorm to the fourth floor, explaining things to my dorm mates, the big fight, Sarah’s death…
Tears began to form at the corners of my eyes and my vision got blurry. A couple tears fell before I wiped them off.
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Continuing to mentally sift through my memories, more scenes flashed through my mind. In my rage I charged the bulky hybrid only to get knocked into a wall and then laid there helplessly watching all those people get slaughtered. Then the final feeling of pain shooting across my chest which led to my blackout.
‘How am I alive right now?’
“Oh, nurse he’s awake! My son is awake!” This was followed by the sound of frantic button pushing. Wincing slightly, I turned my body towards the voice and see my mother. She’s an African-American standing at about 5’ 2”, looking younger and smaller than most forty year old mothers around.
She rushed over towards me and pulled me into a hug and began crying all over me.
“Ow, ow…mom please. Space please. Can’t…breathe.” She reluctantly let go and continued her crying as she covered her face with her hands. I took a deep breath after that near strangulation and finally took notice of my surroundings.
I was lying in a hospital bed with a big machine next to me that continuously beeped at me.
‘Must’ve been what brought me back, huh?’
There was a big glass window to my right giving me a view of the skyline of Chicago at what had to be around midday.
Looking around some more, I saw a door that leads out of the room and one that leads into a bathroom. I also see some of my mom’s things strewn about the room as well as a couple blankets and pillows laid out on a couch near the window.
Quickly, I turned to my mom and frantically asked, “Mom, what happened? Are dad and the kids okay?”
She nodded her head at me, “Everyone’s okay, Alex…”
Before she could continue, a couple nurses quickly walked in and began checking my vitals and asking basic questions.
“Do you know who you are?”
“Alex Taylor”
“Do you know where you are?”
“Evidently, a hospital.” She set a hawk like gaze on me warning me to not get sarcastic. “Sorry…I’ve just remembered some really bad things” I muttered while looking away from her face.
Her eyes immediately soften and she says, “I forgot that you were a victim that day. You’re very lucky to be alive…Just cooperate and we’ll have you out of here as soon as possible…Just wait one second. We have to get that catheter out of you so we can test your motor functions.
My eyes opened wide and filled with fear, “What do you mean? What catheter!?”
Thirty seconds later it was over and the pain was only tingling a little.
“Are you ready to try and walk for us, Alex?” One of the nurses asked me.
I scowl at her and the other nurse tells me to try and walk to my mother and back. I swing my feet over the edge of the bed and place my feet on the ground. ‘Walk? I was fighting for my life yesterday. I think I can walk just fine’ was all I thought as I transferred most of my weight to my legs and fell over onto the ground. The nurses helped me stand up and steady myself.
“Why do I feel so weak? I was running around just fine yesterday.” I asked my mom and the nurses.
My mom slowly walked up to me with tears in her eyes, “Alex, that was nearly four weeks ago. You’ve been unconscious in bed for twenty-six days. I left the family and travelled by myself up here because we’re short on money because of the move and…” as she continued talking her voice gradually faded out.
‘Four weeks?’ I thought in disbelief. ‘I can’t have been asleep for almost four weeks.’ Then I thought back to how hard I hit that wall and touched my chest. ‘Maybe my injuries really were that severe…’
Mom’s voice came back into focus, “…you okay?” She was looking at me worriedly.
“Yeah, mom. I’m fine, I was just…thinking.” I responded and then on a whim asked her, “When we get out of here can you tell me what happened? I just want to focus on recovering right now and then I’ll turn my attention to everything else.”
She nodded and told me that we could talk about it whenever I was ready to hear it.
………………..
Three days had passed since then and although I was still a little weak, I was physically cleared to go home and was walking out of the hospital with my mom.
“School’s been let out early and you’ll make up the lost time in the summer. Your dad already bought the plane tickets for us and we should be at the new house by tonight. I’m so excited for you to be home! I’m sure your little brothers and sister are going to be excited to see you again since you’ve been at school for so long…Alex, what’s wrong?” She caught me gazing off into the distance with a faraway look in my eyes.
“Oh, nothing mom. I’m fine. Ummm I was just wondering about…clothes and stuff. Like where’s my luggage and stuff.” I couldn’t tell her that I was once again reliving that night in my head. It had happened multiple times since I’d awoken, but I was slowly getting over the trauma and had less thoughts about it as time progressed. Now it only happened once every day and even I was surprised by my lack of crazy.
“Oh…Well since there was no damage to your room they let me go up there and get all your things. I already packed them up and sent them off through UPS. They should already have gotten to the house.” Stepping into the taxi that my mom had prepared for us, the driver set course for O’Hare airport.